Wizard of the Abyss – Ch. 216

Wizard of the Abyss

[Extra Novels]

Chapter 216 - Rakshasa (2)

No matter that this was Dercia’s workshop…

...A human head sitting neatly on top of a desk was still a rather grotesque sight.

"For the record, I don’t know anything. This is just a waste of time.”

Especially if it was talking.

Aksha remained calmer than expected, but whether he cared or not, Dercia neatly placed a set of large needles beside him—needles that clearly weren’t meant for any kind of acupuncture.

"It has been quite some time since I last heard the name Rakshasa. I didn't expect the organization to still exist.”

"You know them?”

"Yes. They were an assassin group back then as well, but they engaged in rather peculiar activities, so they left an impression. They once attempted to kidnap members of my kind.”

"...What?"

They tried to kidnap elves. The moment I heard that, I couldn’t help but frown.

Back when I didn’t know any better, I might have assumed it was to turn them into slaves because of their looks. But now I knew that every elf, including Dercia, was a monster capable of wiping out entire nations alone.

No matter how skilled they were, they were still just human. This wasn’t something they should even attempt. 

As I looked at him with that thought, Aksha snorted and rolled his eyes.

"How many centuries ago was that? They probably got themselves into trouble while researching mages.”

"What do you mean ‘researching mages?’ Why would you even do that?”

"Well, it’d be nice if we could use magic too, don’t you think?”

"Why would an assassin group need magic?”

"Pay him no mind. They’ve always been like this.”

Dercia calmly picked up a needle, pressed it against Aksha’s scalp, then glanced at me.

"Please turn your head away for a moment.”

"...I was planning to anyway.”

"U-um, I’m not entirely sure, but doesn’t the Empire have regulations regarding prisoners? Something like Article 13, Clause 4, prohibiting excessive torture?”

"I see. I wasn’t aware of that. If you have nothing further to add, I’ll proceed.”

The moment I turned my head, I heard the sound of bone being crushed.

-Crunch, splat, crrrrrrrack…

Even after releasing my Tide Sense, the sounds couldn’t be shut out. After about 5 minutes, the torture, or rather something close to a medical procedure, came to an end. Dercia let out a quiet sigh as she removed her gloves.

Aksha now wore a vacant expression, drool trailing from his mouth. There were no visible external wounds, but blood continued to seep from his ears.

I did my best not to look at the gloves soaked in blood as I asked,

"What exactly did you do?”

"For some reason, the Rakshasa are an assassin organization obsessed solely with becoming stronger. As such, the restrictions placed on them are quite severe. If he had attempted to reveal detailed information, his head would have exploded.”

"Aha. So you removed that restriction.”

"No? Why would I do that? I simply adjusted it so that the restriction activates if he refuses to answer our questions.”

"..."

After some time, Aksha regained his senses, clenched his teeth, and spoke.

"I’ll say it again. I really don’t know anything. Scarlet Abyss or whatever…I’m just a low-level grunt.”

"That is the truth.”

It was a rather uncomfortable truth.

A mere grunt capable of kidnapping an imperial princess. If these people were connected to Scarlet Abyss, things were going to get very troublesome. As I frowned, Aksha clicked his tongue and muttered,

“Well, I did take on a job that was a bit extreme. I was also told to hunt down any Scarlet Abyss-affiliated Fallen I came across while I was at it.”

"Hunt? So you’re not actually working with them?”

"Well…we’re connected, I guess? Sort of…? We’ve been kidnapping their Fallen and modifying them into something more useful.”

"So not cooperation.”

"Yeah, our goals don’t really align. We’re assassins, after all. If everyone ends up dead, that would be a pretty big problem for us.”

Aksha grinned at that, then glanced between me and Dercia before making a proposal.

"If anything, shouldn’t we be the ones working together? Hm?”

"What kind of nonsense cooperation would that be?”

"Come on now. It’s not like this is your first time. Fallen, you know—if you run them through a bit of modification, you can borrow their abilities without bearing their burdens. Well, it’s not completely without a price, but with a bit more experimentation, who knows?”

He let the words linger, smiling faintly.

"There’s just one problem. The number of Scarlet Abyss Fallen we’ve captured so far isn’t even in the double digits. But you, you’ve taken down one of their executives, right? You must have a rough idea where their base is.”

"So you want us to supply you with materials.”

Even in this situation, he was trying to strike a deal. He really was something else. Not that I had any intention of accepting.

"You catch on quick. Of course, we’d help too. You get to hunt Scarlet Abyss more easily, and we get access to the abilities of the Fallen. That’s what you call a win-win, right?”

"No. I’m not really interested, so shut up for a bit.”

"Hmm, fine. But you’re not…planning to keep me like this forever, are you?”

"We can’t let you go, and it would be a waste to kill you. For now, you’ll be spending a few years inside a drawer.”

"W-wait! Now that I think about it, I might remember something.”

Just before being shoved into the drawer, Aksha hurriedly spoke up as he dangled there.

"We do need a lot of Fallen for our research…but it’s not like we just need weak ones, you know?”

"So?”

"It’s really driving us crazy, you know? We have no clue where Scarlet Abyss is either. But there’s one target. Just one. Someone whose location we do know.”

"... A target?”

"A Fallen not part of Scarlet Abyss—but one strong enough to rival them. Someone the Empire values highly.”

Aksha raised the corner of his lips as he looked at me.

"You’re Jern Aspandil, right?”

"..."

"I’ve got connections with a few nobles, you see. A Fallen who took down a Scarlet Abyss executive—and judging by how easily you crushed me, it has to be you.”

"Let me guess. Rakshasa is targeting me?”

"Exactly. Even right now. They’re probably trying to make contact with you soon—”

-Crack!

Before he could finish, the glass container holding his head shattered, splattering blood.

Startled, I turned to see Dercia glaring into the jar with an extremely displeased expression, then muttered, her teeth clenched.

"There’s no need to hear any more. We’d only get dragged into it.”

"Um, hmm. Right."

"I will investigate the rest myself from within. Leave this matter to me. And…you said you’ve come to understand the world of Absolute Frost?”

"Ah, yes."

It was an obvious attempt to change the subject, but judging by Dercia’s mood, it didn’t seem wise to press further, so I just went along with it.

"If it’s something visible like this, I can freeze most things."

I turned a few encyclopedias on the desk into solid blocks of ice.

Dercia crossed her arms and nodded.

"Hm, and besides that?”

"I think I understand what you're asking. I tried experimenting a bit in the carriage on the way back with Linmel, but…it doesn’t seem like I can use anything quite that absurd.”

Cognitive delay.

I had no idea how to replicate that monstrous ability that could turn anyone who merely existed close to me into something like a thinking corpse.

However—

"This much is possible. May I borrow a book?”

Taking a book from Dercia, I flipped from the first page to the last in one smooth motion.

It was a thick book, but it took me less than four seconds.

"I’ve read it. Go ahead and ask me something.”

"What does the first sentence on page 359 begin with?”

"Let’s see…Um…”

I strained my memory and managed to recall it.

"Something about the connection between high-ranking magic and memory…is that right?”

"...Revolving Lantern phenomenon.”

Without opening the book, Dercia nodded in clear surprise.

"You read and memorized everything in that short span of time?”

"Not exactly. I just looked at it again.”

In that fleeting instant, less than 0.001 second, when each page entered my field of vision.

It remained as fragments in my memory. There was no usable information at first, but if I tried to recall it, it would surface.

Quite literally like a Revolving Lantern, except I could access it whenever I wanted.

"This pairs really well with my Tide Sense.”

Even using it with just my eyesight was quite powerful, but with Tide Sense, it was something else entirely.

If used properly, it could compensate for its biggest flaw. The human limitation of being overwhelmed when taking in too many sensations at once.

"And I can do this too. Just a moment.”

I dipped into the Abyssal Sea, froze a random deep-sea creature, and stored it within my Water Partition.

I couldn’t freeze anything too large—but something small, like a jellyfish, was perfectly manageable.

Returning to reality, I placed the fist-sized jellyfish on the desk.

"Now I can bring things out of the Abyssal Sea when I want. I might even be able to retrieve something useful…”

I thought back to Elisia, whose eyes had lit up at the sight of the deep-sea pearl.

Even in a world filled with death, there might be things worth using.

Just as I was about to follow that line of thought, Dercia casually melted the ice and picked up the wiggling jellyfish.

"Hmm."

"Ah, you might not want to touch that with your bare hands.”

"It’s not poisonous. However…”

Trailing off, she examined it for a moment, then gave a small shrug.

"I’ll look into this myself.”

"Thank you. But do we really not need to worry about what that guy just said?”

I pointed to the blood-soaked glass container and asked.

If what Aksha said was true, then Rakshasa was targeting me. Even if he was just a grunt, someone with that level of combat ability wasn’t something we could just ignore.

"For now, refrain from leaving the capital for a few days.”

"What? Why?”

"There are a few ways to make contact with them. It shouldn’t take long, but there’s something that’s slightly bothering me.”

"What do you mean?”

"...There’s no guarantee it’s still the case. It was a long time ago.”

Dercia shrugged, looking somewhat uneasy.

"At the time, my kin, who had sworn to never return to the outside world, were living in seclusion deep within a forest. Naturally, it was a place unknown to humans. So Rakshasa attempted to set fire to every forest on the continent.”

"...Excuse me?"

"By the time nearly half of all living forests had burned, we had no choice but to step in and eliminate them. They are a rather peculiar bunch.”

To me, Dercia casually calling that peculiar was far stranger.

"In any case, given the kind of people they are, it would be wise to be careful.”

"I’ll keep that in mind.”

Dercia likely meant they were that heinous and dangerous, but…

'If people like that are researching the Fallen…’

Those obsessed with a single goal often achieved results.

If anything, it piqued my interest.

* * *

While Dercia was handling Rakshasa, there was something I decided to try in the meantime.

A massive backyard at Aletus’ estate, large enough to raise livestock.

"Hmm. Jern. I don’t think they like it very much.”

That something was finding a use for the Abyssal Sea.

"Really? Can you maybe bring something like a lion?”

"Wait, I’ll ask my father!”

As I watched Elisia run off, I continued pulling out deep-sea creatures. At that moment, a foaming horse lashed out violently with its hind legs, trying to kill me.

-Neeeeigh!

"...Sorry."

The most promising use of the Abyssal Sea was consuming its creatures to acquire similar physical traits.

I thought if used properly, it might be possible to create truly absurd creatures. With that in mind, I had been catching deep-sea creatures, processing them, and feeding them to livestock.

Unfortunately, the results so far were quite disappointing. The deep-sea creatures seemed to be nothing more than foul-tasting food. No matter how I prepared them, the horse, cows, dogs, chickens, and even cats showed open hostility toward me.

'Is this a failure?'

With what I thought was the most possible method now looking useless, I let out a sigh and reached into my pocket.

Inside were high-quality pearls I had collected whenever I came across shells in the Abyssal Sea. According to Elisia, they were extremely rare.

But in the end, they were just expensive jewels. Something that could only be exchanged for money.

Getting nothing beyond that was, frankly, quite disappointing.

Was there really nothing useful to bring back from the Abyssal Sea?

As I was thinking that, I heard footsteps from behind me.

“Ah, Elisia…”

I was about to say that we didn’t need the lion anymore, but when I turned, I titled my head. It unexpectedly wasn’t her.

To my surprise, Carose was running toward me, scanning the surroundings with a tense expression, breathing heavily, and then locked her eyes on me, gritting her teeth as she charged forward.

"Carose?”

"So you were here. I’ve been looking everywhere for you…”

"?"

"You didn’t hear anything from Her Highness?”

"Ah, no.”

"Haah…”

Letting out a deep sigh, she spoke as if she had no choice.

"There’s been an incident within the Waxed Wings Unit. Normally, this wouldn’t be something that would require summoning you, but given the circumstances…”

"What kind of situation are we talking about?”

After some hesitation, she muttered through clenched teeth.

"Some members of the Waxed Wings Unit have been found dead. They were attacked by an unknown assailant.”

"I see."

As the acting vice-commander, it was something I needed to know.

Still, I couldn’t understand why she had rushed here so urgently. Tilting my head slightly, I waited for her to continue.

"One of the victims barely survived and gave a statement.”

"What did they say?”

"They said the attacker asked for the location of the Waxed Wings’ vice-commander…in other words, they were looking for you.”

Hm.

It seemed like Dercia was a step too late.

As I frowned, Carose let out a quiet sigh and added,

"We’re still investigating who they are. But it’s certain they’re no ordinary group, so please be careful for the time being.”

"No need to investigate. It’s Rakshasa."

"? Wait, Jern, how do you know about—wait, Rakshasa?!”

Seeing Carose’s expression twist strangely, I let out a faint, bitter smile.

It seemed like Rakshasa was far more eager to meet me than I had expected.

I fell into thought for a moment. My current position, Aksha’s abilities, the means at my disposal, the unknown means of my enemy, and so on.

I reached a conclusion quite quickly.

"It might be worth meeting them.”

There was no reason to refuse.

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