WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Slit-Eyed Henchman of the Evil Boss ◈
Chapter 100
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An Unexpected Visit (5)
"What do you mean?"
"It means that if you make your mark somewhere other than here, then depending on the circumstances, they might consider taking you on as a tower's disciple."
"So there's another way in, one that doesn't go through the standard elite track via Museion?"
"Even the Ten Towers have their limits. Not in a Tower Master's magical ability, but in things like the tower's overall processing capacity. The Ten Towers are already very busy as it is, and I intend to keep them even busier."
'Is Ortes already thinking up some other way to use me? Is building a friendship with Astrape part of that too?'
Kyne's face was troubled with thought. I just shrugged. Honestly, from where I stood, having Kyne and Astrape grow close mattered less as a way to weaken the Ten Towers, and more as a way to recruit the Mage King's future companions ahead of time.
Since I couldn't tell her that outright, I fed her one plausible-sounding reason after another. If Kyne ended up seizing the Spartoi just like in the original work and shouting "I have control!", that would work out great for me.
But that was just a bonus. Simply keeping her from ending up beside the Mage King was, on its own, practically enough to call my plan a success.
Sure, it'd be nice if she got into the Ten Towers and fed me information from the inside, but that wasn't nearly as easy as it sounded.
There were only so many ways to get into the Ten Towers without a Museion diploma. Rack up years of service at Panoptes and earn a promotion, for one.
Or achieve some magical feat impressive enough to catch the Ten Towers' eye, publish some special invention or a paper that overturned the field's paradigm.
Or pull off some kind of combat achievement, resolving an extradimensional erosion zone, say. Given the current situation, even single-handedly taking down an Argyrion executive might do it.
But achievements like these were far too difficult for a mere child to pull off. I'd just have to be satisfied that, as long as she wasn't standing at the Mage King's side, she wouldn't be attacking Hydra Corp either.
I pressed an employee-welfare ice cream bar into Kyne's hand, her head no doubt spinning, and headed out. Now that I'd left the job to Lampades, he should be able to find Knemon within one to three months.
'The things I need to do right now...'
Modify the extradimensional radar Lampades brought over into a relic detector for the Divinity Investigation.
That one I'd handed off to old man Bertrand and Geryones, who hadn't had much work these days.
Actually go out and use the relic detector to conduct the Divinity Investigation.
...Bad timing for that one. With the Ten Towers glaring daggers right now, it was hardly the moment to charge ahead with the Divinity Investigation.
Was I really supposed to just sit around doing nothing until Knemon turned up?
Was it really fine to do absolutely nothing?
* * *
Ortes felt bored at having nothing to do, though he'd never have admitted it himself.
Even reading closely through Hydra Corp's Ether Space work logs for no real reason came from that same restlessness.
"There's really nothing to do..."
Ortes muttered bitterly under his breath. To think there was nothing here inside his own company for him to do.
Was he supposed to just waste the next several months, until he could meet Knemon, like this?
'No. Not exactly a waste. There's no telling when Blasphemia or the Order of the Divine Name might come asking for cooperation. If anything, call it standby duty.'
Just then, a flash went off in Ortes's mind.
'The Order of the Divine Name? Blasphemia?'
...Outside contractors!
'There's just nothing to do inside Hydra Corp, that's all.'
He'd been thinking about it all wrong.
'My identity comes in more than one flavor.'
Just counting the organizations Ortes himself was tangled up with, there were three: Hydra Corp, the Order of the Divine Name, and Blasphemia.
Of those, the only one he actually pledged loyalty to was Hydra Corp, or more precisely, Karisia, but that didn't mean there was any rule against taking on work from the other two!
He'd carry out all sorts of "outside work," in ways that ended up serving Hydra Corp's interests. Ortes began dreaming up creative troublemaking schemes he could pull off under his L13 identity.
"Blasphemia already asked me to find an Argyrion spy hiding inside Argos, after all."
Argyrion had gotten there first, flooding Ether Space with propaganda and fabrications, things like lists of Magic Towers supposedly backing them, so there'd been no chance to actually put it to use. But Ortes still had the list of suspected spies inside Argos that Blasphemia's Audit Office Head, Salmosia, had given him.
Now that Argos and Blasphemia were operating together under the name Panoptes, it was a bomb that would go off even bigger.
Ortes let out a low laugh.
'Right. I can't just go on relying entirely on my friend's abilities. The decent thing to do is get an environment set up where I can properly focus on work, before Knemon gets here.'
There were people who happened to witness the moment his smile deepened.
Low-level staff dispatched from one of the Directors' organizations to Hydra Corp to handle clerical work.
They hadn't dared refuse when the Divinity Investigation Office Head suddenly stormed into their office demanding to see the work records.
In the dim room, Ortes, some unidentifiable holographic footage floating before him, smiling with his eyes...
...no matter how charitably you tried to look at it, was simply unsettling, and frightening.
The employees trembled at this unseasonable ill omen.
'A month or so should be plenty of time to lay whatever groundwork I need.'
Before Knemon arrived, he'd draw Panoptes's attention elsewhere and build an environment where reclaiming the sacred relic would be easier.
And once Knemon arrived, based on whatever information he brought with him, they would steal, no. Reclaim, the ancient sacred relic.
Smiling, Ortes began pulling up records on each and every name on the list Salmosia had given him.
* * *
Lampades moved fast.
'The official schedule only calls for a demonstration of the extradimensional radar.'
The first day, rest, since there'd be travel fatigue. The second day, the technical demonstration and delivery of the prototype.
After that, he'd just stay on to fix whatever errors came up while the product was actually put to use.
And if it was really just repairs, that was well within reach of any of the other mages at his tower too, not something only Lampades himself could do.
Lampades trusted his people's ability completely, and put his focus into tracking down Knemon instead.
He had to find Knemon within the next ten days if he wanted any guarantee of his tower's safety.
His mind was tangled with all sorts of things, but Lampades tried hard not to lose his composure. He'd told his own tower's people he'd be away for a few days on business, so they probably wouldn't worry too much.
'I quietly asked around among my old contacts from my fixer days, but there's no active fixer matching Knemon's description. I'd have to guess he's had his face changed, or given up fixer work entirely.'
He was probably more likely to have quit being a fixer altogether. He'd have gone into hiding to avoid Ortes, after all.
'There are too many risk factors to just trust the saying that it's darkest under the lamp and keep living as a fixer with a new face. Sounds like he made an enemy of Ortes. Maybe I should start the search from his hometown first...'
* * *
"By the way, Ortes. Just how many friends have you not introduced me to?"
This came after Ortes had brought up that "a new friend would be useful to Hydra Corp's business." First it had been Lampades, developer of the extradimensional radar, and now yet another friend turning out useful for his own purposes.
Just what kind of friends did he have, that this many absurd coincidences kept stacking up?
'Are they even really his friends, though...'
Karisia recalled how Lampades, the person Ortes called a "friend," had actually behaved like the lead gazelle standing before a lion. Terrified, plainly afraid, yet acting as if he'd offer himself up as a sacrifice to protect the herd.
"Ha. My circle of friends isn't especially wide, to be honest. Counting Lampades, there are about three."
"Lampades is a Magic Tower Master. Who are the other two?"
"The one who seems likely to be useful to our work right now is Knemon. He was sort of a revolutionary, someone who dreamed of reforming society."
"A revolutionary."
Karisia could think of any number of grim possibilities that single word might conjure up. Come to think of it, wasn't she herself the type who opposed the Ten Towers system in the first place?
Push it one step further from reform, and out came the apocalypticist who believed the world had to end once before anything else. Karisia trusted Ortes with a great many things, but his judgment in relationships wasn't one of them.
Her hand drifted naturally to her temple.
"He asked me to change the world together with him, but I was too busy just scraping by to make ends meet, so I treated him rather coldly. If I run into him again, I mean to apologize."
If Lampades, whom Ortes considered just an ordinary friend, had turned out like that, then what kind of reaction could Knemon possibly show upon reuniting with the very person he'd supposedly "treated coldly"?
Reading the doubt written all over Karisia's face, Ortes waved a hand and added.
"I never went so far as telling him he could show up anytime, the way Lampades did... But if I reach out to him, I doubt he'll give me the cold shoulder."
His reunion with Lampades had left Ortes with a certain insight.
'There aren't many fixers or mercenaries worth trusting, but my friends' characters are worth betting on!'
Even granting he had calculating motives, how many mages out there would actually throw themselves into danger just to save some tower's newbie? Ortes realized his eye for picking friends had been spot on.
'That guy had a pretty good personality too. Obviously he'd turn me down if it meant fighting the Ten Towers, but something simple, like hunting down an artifact, he'd take on.'
* * *
"Ah, it's the Faceless Ortes's messenger!!"
Knemon spat the words out, his face draining of color in shock.
Lampades's face crumpled at hearing such a baseless slander.
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