"A pleasure to meet you. Would you mind cleaning this up for me?"
I took a few steps back so the flowing blood wouldn't touch my feet. It was clear he had learned magic that dealt with blood. Seeing me, Pars let out a hearty laugh and snapped his fingers.
"Ah, don't worry. You deserve to be treated well."
Sssrrk...
The blood that had been moving as if alive instantly seeped into the floor and vanished.
"Such a tasteless ritual of stabbing and cutting doesn't suit you. If done right, you could even create a Great System."
"I don't understand a single word you're saying."
I engaged him in conversation to draw his attention. Fortunately, it seemed he hadn't noticed.
"This is what I mean."
With a malicious laugh, two mummies walked out from behind Pars. Drool dripped from the corners of their mouths, and fresh blood dripped from their hands. It was to be expected.
Facing that guy meant fighting all the mummies. I could only hope the professors were putting up a good fight.
"Escort him well. Don't you dare kill him."
"Krrrrk."
Watching the mummies slowly approach, I sighed and spoke. I needed a little time.
"Uh, just a moment. Did you say the group you belong to is the Red Lotus?"
"Hmm? Ah. Yes. Although it's more of an employer-employee relationship."
"It's nothing much, I was just wondering if I could hear why those Red Lotus people kidnapped us. It's fine if you don't want to answer, no pressure. I'm just curious."
A polite, business-like question. Pars tilted his head, then gave a wide smile.
"Wow, the more I look at this brat, the more I like him. Sure, why not. Little squirts like you fall easily."
"... Fall?"
"Yes. The world you created hates you. It's a kind of self-torment. We're in the business of creating such fallen ones."
I narrowed my eyes in shock. What he said was an all too familiar truth. So, he's saying those Red Lotus bastards are artificially creating people like me. ...
Why?
"I don't really know the reason myself. Like I said, I'm just an employee. Anyway, I answered your question, so you should answer mine. Is there anything you're afraid of?"
"Of course."
"Tell this old man. A world isn't created so easily, you know. You have to go through the most horrifying experiences you can imagine, over and over again. I'll make it as quick as possible for you."
"Hmm..."
Along with Pars's sadistic gaze, a mummy came within reach and roughly grabbed my arm as I was pondering. Even as I felt a pain so intense it felt like my arm would break, I answered honestly.
"First, what I fear most is drowning. Dying while unable to breathe after falling into water is the scariest."
"Oho, what a good boy, telling me so honestly."
"Yes. I still experience it a few times these days, and it's truly horrifying every time."
"...?"
"Next is being crushed to death. Having my whole body pulverized is also very scary."
"I see. That one might be a bit difficult. I don't have the right equipment for it."
"Really? Freezing to death is scary too. Dying slowly from the cold in the middle of nowhere is quite terrifying, isn't it?"
"... Oho."
"Being eaten alive by unknown monsters is scary, and it's also scary to die in agony while still being alive through it all. There's nothing I'm not afraid of."
Pars looked at me as if I were some crazy bastard.
"Hey, you foolish little brat. It's good for me, but are you sure it's okay to tell me everything like that? These are all things that are going to happen to you."
"That's right. But they're things that will happen on their own, even if you don't do them."
"... What?"
The signal came. My Tide Sense had confirmed Elysia waving her hand from the floor directly below.
Perfect timing.
I looked Pars straight in the eye and answered.
"Well then, shall we experience being crushed to death first?"
"!"
Kggwa-gwang!
With a tremendous roar, the ceiling collapsed. Pars looked up with a shocked expression, but— this time, there was no time to respond.
Kggwa-gwang, Krrr-rung!!
Only after the continuous roar had stopped did a child poke their head out of a cell. And looking at the wrecked hallway, the child muttered to themselves.
"He really got crushed..."
The children, who had been holding their breath and watching Jern and Pars's conversation, stared blankly at the collapsed passage.
"... Will he be okay? He must have fallen all the way to the third basement floor..."
"Idiot, you think he'd have a problem? We just did as he told us."
"True..."
The children could no longer easily accept the idea that Jern was in danger. Of course, they had seen more powerful mages. But for someone his age to achieve so much?
It was a talent that inspired no jealousy. His calm demeanor, always choosing the right answer without a hint of panic in the same situation, was more than just reliable; it gave the illusion of omnipotence.
"He knew exactly which pillar to break to make which part collapse, right?"
"And he never fell for a single trap..."
As most of them began to speak formally to him, one child muttered their true thoughts.
"... He's like a real mage."
Only then did the children understand what their teacher had meant. Is shooting fire or water from one's hands really magic? Perhaps true magic is to freely command the realm of the incomprehensible.
"... Let's go!"
Before their silent realization could even finish, Elysia shouted.
"We have to get out of here quickly, our parents must be waiting for us!"
"Ah, right. Let's go!"
"Ugh, I can't stand this dampness anymore..."
Shaken to their senses by Elysia's shout, the children started leaving the underground prison one by one. Elysia was about to follow them, but she took one last look at the massive hole where rubble was still falling. Unlike the other children, she knew the truth.
That the boy who had just fallen to the bottom was, in fact, an ordinary one-circle mage, not particularly outstanding compared to them. That the boy Hyuins had mistaken for the Crown Prince was a natural body who had become a janitor just to eavesdrop on the classes they took for granted and even found boring.
"Just wait a little longer!"
But Elysia knew something more important than all that. 'I'll come rescue you soon!' A debt must be repaid.
The currents still push me around these days. When I awakened my magic... or rather, when I realized I had fallen into the Deep Sea, my first worry was the sort of thing like, 'What if I fall after soaring into the sky like this'— Thanks to that, I've trained enough to be certain of one thing.
Drowning, freezing, being crushed, and whatever you call it, being eaten by fish. Among these, death from falling does not exist.
"Huuu..."
I pushed through the pile of rubble and got up. My body was a little dusty, but I had no external or internal injuries. I dusted myself off as I stood.
I was roughly on the third basement floor, and above me was the large hole we had fallen through. It was thanks to having the children create cracks in advance. I would have liked to get their help, but their mental state was the problem.
I didn't think the kids could stay sane against a guy like that.
"... Little boy."
A monster like that won't be defeated by a simple trick like this. From between the dim lanterns, a blood-soaked Pars emerged from the rocks with an annoyed expression. Literally spewed out.
For a moment, the man was in a liquefied state. He soon returned to human form, however. He sat perched on a pile of rubble, perfectly fine, and looked down at me with a deep sigh.
"I'm starting to get scared of you. At such a young age, why are you using such fucked-up methods? It's frightening."
Right, I'm sure magic like that could exist. The world of magic is vast, and there is still much I don't know. But the blood that embroiders this sea is different.
"By any chance, have you also fallen?"
"Uh, yeah. That's why the Red Lotus got a hold of me."
Pars waved his hand, splattering blood. I quickly dodged, but it was meaningless. -Pwak!
"Ugh...!"
From the fallen drop of blood, a long spear shot out and stabbed precisely toward me. If I hadn't pushed my body away with wind at the last second, my thigh would have been pierced through. Still, a chunk of flesh was torn off, and blood streamed down.
I immediately counterattacked.
"Slash!"
The wind magic I had honed for weeks sliced cleanly through Pars's lower abdomen.
"... You're a truly strange one."
Pars didn't dodge. He didn't defend. He just silently took the hit and bled.
It was a fatal wound that would have killed a normal human instantly, but he seemed unfazed. So my hypothesis about hitting the spine—is that a bust too? But I bought some time while he regenerated.
Dripping blood, I ran and turned a corner in the prison.
"I've been feeling this for a while, but you have no childishness in you at all."
But Pars also seemed to know the prison's layout well, as he pursued me leisurely without any sense of urgency. Of course, it was soon a dead end. I tore a piece of my clothing and tied it tightly around my thigh as I answered.
"What would change if I wailed and begged for my life?"
"No, it's that your way of thinking itself is fucking unpleasant."
"That's too bad. I'll try to be less unpleasant."
How about this. I had gathered lanterns beforehand, scraped out all the oil inside, and made a small oil canister. The moment Pars turned the corner, I lit it and threw it.
Fwhoosh~!
The fire flared up in an instant.
"What should I say, you're just like my old self."
It was extinguished in an instant. His blood supply is practically infinite. He's at the level where he can just spew blood to put out a fire.
Every attempt comes with a price.
Pwak!
Spears made of blood flew at me. I hurriedly used the currents to pull nearby rocks to block them, but I couldn't block everything.
"Keok...!"
This time, it was my left arm. I dragged myself to the end of the path and wrapped my hand with a piece of cloth as well. My arm trembled from the unimaginable pain.
When the hell is that damn adrenaline going to kick in?
"... That statement is also sufficiently unpleasant."
"It's a compliment. Well, unlike you, I fell on my own."
"On your own? Not because of the Red Lotus?"
"The Red Lotus had nothing to do with it. I was a natural body, born in the countryside."
Step, step.
I looked at the blocked, dirty green stone wall and let out a small sigh. I poured all my remaining pills into my mouth, chewed them to make them work faster, and swallowed.
"Of course, I didn't even know I was a mage. Divine fever? I thought it was the flu. After suffering for a day, I went right back to cleaning pig shit, and I still got beaten for it. My father, you see, he used me as a substitute for a slave."
"Should I cry for you?"
"No need for that. If you look at it as a father-son relationship, it was the worst, but if you thought of it as a master-slave relationship, it wasn't so bad. The problem was, after my mother irresponsibly ran away, he'd come home drunk and beat only me, maybe because there was no one else to hit."
Even if he hadn't told me, I could tell from his behavior that he was self-taught in manners, but Pars seemed to be explaining it more to himself than to me. He stopped a few meters away and looked down at me with a satisfied expression.
"Once, while he was strangling me, I took a piece of a broken bottle and stabbed him in the neck, just like this. He collapsed without a word."
"What a happy family."
"I know, right. But my father lived for quite a while. He struggled and struggled, not dying for hours. It was fascinating, so I just watched him from my bed, wondering when it would end..."
Pars waved his hand, splattering drops of blood everywhere. The wall became a dizzying red. It meant a spear could shoot out from anywhere at any time, which also meant my death.
Or perhaps, torture beyond death.
"Around sunrise, he finally died after all the blood had drained from his body. What lesson can we learn from this?"
"Umm, that corporal punishment is not the right solution?"
"That's right too, but what I learned was different."
Pars lowered his voice as if telling a secret no one knew.
"In this world... in truth, there are no humans."
"That's bullshit. Then what are you and I?"
"Blood."
"?"
"People die when all their blood drains out, right?"
"Yes. Usually, that's the case."
"In the end, the body is just a container for blood. The heart transports blood, the vessels hold it, and the lungs infuse it with oxygen. In the end, blood is the essence. You, me, we're all just trapped. In this shitty thing called a body."
Pars's hand was instantly crushed into a lump of blood clots. But the flowing blood took the shape of a hand again. Pars watched the disgusting sight with proud eyes, as if looking at a truth of the world he had uncovered.
"This is the essence. You and I are both just lumps of blood. The only difference is whether you accept it or not."
"Hmm..."
Wasn't conviction said to be one of the qualities of a mage? He certainly seemed to have it. But... what is this?
I stroked my chin and asked a question.
"Is that all?"
"What?"
Pars tilted his head as if to ask what I was talking about.
"I'm asking, 'The people of this world are all made of blood, this is your enlightenment, and you're trapped in a heart-realm formed from it'—is that what you're saying?"
"... That's right. But you know quite a bit. Did you hear about it somewhere?"
I met the slightly bewildered Pars's gaze. Personally, I couldn't understand.
"Is that really all?"
"That's all. What, you have some kind of fantasy about the heart-realm? Good for you, because that's what's about to happen..."
"No, I was just surprised that it was much less impressive than I thought."
"?"
My world is the Deep Sea. And the Deep Sea is still slowly searching for me. Every time I breathe, I can faintly feel something other than air entering me.
Every time I walk, I sometimes feel a slight resistance as if I'm in water. My vision is dark, and my body is cold despite it being summer. Everywhere, no matter where I look, is the Deep Sea.
A world from which I can never escape hates me. And yet— "People are merely blood. Is something like that your world?"
"What..."
"A pathetic little world created by killing one person. You don't even know what pressure is, and the so-called 'hatred of the world' is nothing more than the fear of not being able to return to human form after becoming blood, right?"
"..."
Is this a world? ... Can this even be called a world? A world built on an enlightenment that 'the essence of a human is a lump of blood,' which, in a way, isn't that far removed from reality.
"It's kind of... hmm, small."
It wasn't meant as mockery. It was closer to finding it curious. There was even a hint of envy mixed in.
"... Aha, I see."
The receiving end, however, seemed to take it differently. The frivolous smile that had been on Pars's face all this time had vanished.
"Then let's see what kind of magnificent world you'll open up. I'll watch from the side."
I replied lightly to his hate-filled tone.
"There's no need for that. I'll show you right now."
"-?"
I took a deep breath. - And raised the water pressure to the maximum I could handle.
"Keo, keuak...!?"
"Kkeuk..."
The pressure lasted only for an instant. Both I, who was prepared, and Pars, who was not, collapsed to the floor.
"Ah, Aack....!!!"
It felt like being tied down and slowly crushed by a hydraulic press. The air in my lungs was automatically forced out. Forget breathing; I couldn't even move a single finger joint.
"You, this, what...!"
Pars stared at me with a flustered face, then his expression turned to one of sudden realization as he saw his arm beginning to crumple.
"Th-this, already...?!"
I couldn't even answer. Even with the same water pressure, the strain felt by a child's body and an adult's body is different. Not that I was unscathed.
Pars's body gradually collapsed and turned into blood. But he looked at the wavering blood and somehow managed to laugh.
"... Uh, eugh, khaha, you son of a bitch...! Shit....! This is ridiculous, one of the Three Calamities the Red Lotus bastards were going nuts trying to create was made naturally...? The way of the world, keuhak..."
A gaze full of desire scanned me. From the surrounding drops of blood, spears began to emerge, little by little.
"K-heu, my luck is good, my luck is good...!"
It was on a different level from when he produced them in his normal state, but they were definitely being aimed at my neck. Kneeling on the floor, I could do nothing but watch the scene unfold. I couldn't move a single finger.
All I could do was wait.
"With this, I don't need the rest...! I will..."
"You, son of a... bitch..."
I squeezed my lungs, somehow forcing out the words.
"S-so... fucking slow... you bastard...."
"Heh, it's enough to pierce your neck..."
"Not you..."
"?"
A look of confusion appeared on Pars's face, and— Kwajik! His shoulder was gouged out.
"... Huh?"
Pars looked at his own shoulder with a face that understood nothing. There was a large, circular scar there, as if something had taken a bite out of him. Of course, just seeing it wasn't enough to understand immediately. ..
The fact that he was being eaten.
"No, this, what the."
I was lucky. To be precise, our affinities were compatible. Blood is something that mixes.
It wasn't for nothing that I bled all over the place while running away. He had stepped in all of my blood on his way here, and in the process of turning into blood just now, it all mixed together. I made my blood, which was now on Pars's body, aware.
The deep sea fish recognize that this is blood. So, if I just mix in my scent, a delicacy to them— [~!!!!!!~~~~~] "Ah, no..."
This happens.
Kwajik, kwajik, crunch! Pars struggled to escape somehow. But it was a meaningless action.
I had no intention of releasing the water pressure until I confirmed he was neutralized. The still-invisible deep sea fish gathered around Pars, making bizarre laughing sounds.
Ah.
There is one thing I can make out. An endless appetite and sharp teeth.
"No... You fucking bastard...!"
Kwajik, kwajik, kwajik. It was a sight that would make an unknowing person scream in terror. Pars's body disappears bit by bit, into thin air.
To me, who can see, I can confirm just how horrifying the event unfolding is. All sorts of deep sea fish are swarming him, tearing him apart, screaming 'just one bite, just one bite'.
"... You. You crazy son of a bitch."
Not much time passed. Pars, now only a head with a bite taken out of it, looked at me with a look of pure resignation and muttered.
"... Just what kind of world do you live in..."
At a loss for words, I could only leave a meaningless reply.
"... I wonder."
Kwajik