WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
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◈ I Became the Slit-Eyed Henchman of the Evil Boss ◈
Chapter 103
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A Messenger from the Past (3)
Lampades was left stunned, listening to the story Knemon poured out like a confession.
'Ortes, you madman. As if the world weren't chaotic enough already, and now you mean to add a weapon of destruction like this to it?'
Ortes, who surely stood behind Argyrion's aggressive activity, was clearly the very person responsible for the great chaos now spreading through mage society.
God knew what means he'd used, but by having his own underlings bring down Elders of the Ten Towers, he'd cracked something fundamental, the trust placed in the Ten Towers system, the fear surrounding the Ten Towers' absolute power itself.
And if the Bubble of Erasure were added on top of a situation like that?
Lampades tried imagining the moment some Argyrion soldier used the Bubble of Erasure. Quietly blowing and popping a soap bubble on some ordinary city street, and a Magic Tower vanishes without a trace.
Since not even a trace of mana could be felt from it, mages wouldn't have the faintest idea what power had caused such destruction.
'Could that strange relic from another dimension actually harm the Ten Towers?'
Lampades turned the thought over again and again, and soon realized something: none of that mattered.
Even if it couldn't harm the Ten Towers themselves, simply toppling other Magic Towers would be enough to gather fear and awe together in one place. Whether it was the Ten Towers' grand magic or an extradimensional artifact, both alike lay beyond the comprehension of any ordinary Magic Tower.
An "incomprehensible power" that admitted no rival was the single most powerful authority the Ten Towers possessed. And now that same kind of authority was being handed to Argyrion.
"Authority through power" had once passed from the cults to the Mage King. It had been the symbolic event that announced the fall of the Mythic Age.
That same authority might now shift once more, from the Ten Towers to Argyrion.
It was a truly terrifying plan. Terrifying in the audacity and sheer scale of a scheme that shook the very structure of mage society, yes, but what was truly frightening was Ortes himself, the one who must have drafted it.
Right now, Lampades himself was the only being alive who could connect Argyrion to Ortes.
No one else in this world would ever know that Ortes existed, working in the shadows behind Argyrion's advance.
Even Lampades himself would never have known the connection between the two of them, if Ortes hadn't shown himself directly back in Elysion, so of course no one else in the world had so much as heard the name Ortes.
Lampades's eyes wavered as he looked at the Bubble of Erasure.
He had no idea what consequences would come of delivering this into Ortes's hands. It was a choice meant to protect the members of his own Magic Tower, but if the very society that Tower belonged to came crashing down, what use would any of that be?
Sensing Lampades's hesitation, Knemon spoke up.
"Ortes is a breed even fellow apocalypticists can't understand. Like something that came from a completely different world entirely. I don't know what he means to do with this artifact, but it's certainly nothing good for society."
"You, saying something like that? That's unexpected."
A question that carried the implication: weren't you an apocalypticist yourself, Knemon? Knemon nodded.
"I quit. I was scared of the future that faceless bastard would bring about."
"......"
Lampades's hesitation deepened. He pressed a hand to his forehead, wrestling with it, then let out a short "Ah" of realization.
"There was one more thing he asked me to pass along to you."
"Ortes did?"
"He said, 'I regret how things went before.'"
What could Ortes possibly intend by having a message like that passed along? Was it some kind of hint about what he meant to use the Bubble of Erasure for?
Lampades tried to read Ortes's intentions from Knemon's reaction. If the message carried any hint of how Ortes meant to use the bubble, Knemon would surely be able to work out the plan.
'If what Ortes means to do with the bubble is bring about the complete collapse of mage society...'
He would have to gamble.
In a world where order had collapsed, there was no guarantee his Tower's family would even survive, let alone any chance of them living happily.
"Was there nothing else he said?"
Knemon, who had gone silent for a moment, asked back. He'd accompanied Ortes on extradimensional expeditions for a long time, but this message was far too out of the blue. He needed to hear more context.
'The talk about payment, that's already settled.'
"Hmm. He only mentioned that he'd used too much of the Bubble of Erasure, so he gave you what was left as your full share. And that it was that split that put a rift between the two of you."
Only then could Knemon make out what Ortes had been implying.
'He's pinning the reason we split up entirely on the split over the bubble...?'
On top of that, he'd drawn a clear line, stating he had no further claim to the bubble at all. Knemon thought he understood what Ortes meant by it.
It meant burying the real reason Knemon had fled, his fear of Ortes's obsession with ever more powerful artifacts.
At the same time, it implied that Ortes placed no great importance on the bubble anymore. The reason Ortes was calling for Knemon now had to be that he'd finally found that "greater artifact" he hadn't managed to find back then.
An invitation to join him in a plan to overturn the world.
Knemon couldn't even imagine an artifact more dangerous than the Bubble of Erasure. Unless it was the Ten Commandments themselves, exceptional in every regard.
"Ha ha ha..."
A hollow laugh burst out of him. All this time, he'd fled clutching the Bubble of Erasure, terrified that Ortes might burn the world down with it.
But now Ortes was calling for him, claiming he'd found an artifact even greater than that one.
'Whether I accept this invitation or not, the world's going to be overturned either way, is that it?'
No matter how Knemon thrashed against it, Ortes's apocalyptic plan would move forward regardless. A deep shadow of resignation fell over Knemon.
"Let's go."
"What?"
"To that faceless one. I made the wrong choice the moment I showed him the extradimensional research records."
Knemon murmured it to himself, eyes closed. Even after Knemon had left, Ortes must have gone on endlessly exploring the extradimensional erosion zone, and somewhere along the way gotten his hands on something that could destroy the world.
'Facing that moment of ruin head-on is probably the least I owe, the one responsibility I have left.'
The only choice left to the very person who'd provided the spark for this great catastrophe: not looking away from his own mistake.
* * *
"I brought him."
"...?"
Even looking at Knemon's face, the one Lampades had brought with him, I couldn't make sense of the situation. No, wait, how had he brought him here this fast?
It hadn't even been a week since I first brought it up, had it?
Was there some fixer-industry group chat that excluded me? How had he brought him here so fast.
"Been a while."
"Yes. It has been a while, Knemon. Have you been well in the meantime?"
Bewildered or not, there was a job to do. I extended my hand, offering the greeting that had become second nature to me by now. Knemon, looking strangely worn out, took my hand and shook it.
"Ha ha. Lampades. I never expected you to take care of this so quickly. I don't know how to thank you enough."
"...I'm curious what it is you mean to have Knemon do. Care to tell me?"
"What?"
This was a reaction I hadn't expected. If it had been the kind of request where he asked me to hand over an artifact, or increase some technology investment, I would have gladly obliged.
What I'd meant to ask Knemon for was a list of Magic Towers likely to be secretly holding ancient-era sacred relics. Given the current climate, it was information that couldn't help but look like it would be used for black propaganda, or for incitement and fabrication.
Knemon himself had once been a revolutionary who openly declared, "I'll overturn this rotten society built on the mana gap!", so a request like this probably wouldn't strike him as particularly strange.
But could I really say something, in front of a self-made "Magic Tower Master" who'd risen up within that very "mana-gap society," that would sound like "Ha ha, I'm planning to dig up some dirt on other Magic Towers and use it for this and that"? Of course I couldn't.
Even if I tried to excuse it by saying I wasn't actually looking for blackmail material but for loot to steal, it would amount to the same thing either way.
There were things you could say to a friend and things you couldn't, depending on who the friend was, and no matter how I turned it over, this leaned firmly toward the can't-say category.
"Ha ha, it's a personal matter. You wouldn't find it particularly interesting even if you heard it."
I tried to steer the topic away with something suitably vague.
"No. I'm a party to this matter myself. Don't I have every right to hear it?"
But Lampades was firm.
My head throbbed. If this were purely a personal matter, I might have just closed my eyes and told him, but it was also tied to Hydra Corp's Divinity Investigation.
Which meant the details of what I meant to ask Knemon for also counted as the company's confidential information. Something like this, handed out carelessly...
Oh.
A business secret, was it?
"...This isn't something I'm authorized to decide on my own. Let me report to the president first, and I'll get back to you."
I sold out Karisia's title and made my escape from an awkward spot.
* * *
Both Lampades and Knemon couldn't help but be stunned by Ortes's reaction.
They already knew he was using Knemon as part of some enormous scheme. But Ortes, reporting to someone, taking orders from someone?
Unlike Knemon, who was simply astonished by the very fact that someone existed who commanded Ortes, Lampades, having actually met Karisia face to face himself, was able to hold a far more specific doubt.
'You're telling me she isn't simply a puppet propped up to divert public attention?'
At first, he'd assumed Karisia was Ortes's scapegoat.
Then he'd thought she might be some ambitious figure who knew Ortes's true nature and made use of him anyway.
And now...
'What in the world is she?'
A mystery no inference or hypothesis could explain. It felt as if an endlessly deep shadow had fallen across Karisia and Hydra Corp.
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