WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Slit-Eyed Henchman of the Evil Boss ◈
Chapter 106
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Calling In a Favor (1)
When Knemon and Lampades stepped out the door, Ortes greeted them, his face still wearing that same suspicious look.
"So, did that resolve your curiosity?"
Of course their curiosity had been resolved. It was just that, in the empty space curiosity left behind, anxiety had begun to grow.
Neither of them had the energy left to answer Ortes's smirking grin. They just nodded once and trudged off toward the quarters they'd been assigned.
It was Knemon who spoke first.
"Did you find out?"
"Find out what?"
"That guy who came in partway through. The one they called an employee."
"...Probably Kaicel."
'You're not even surprised?' Knemon found himself puzzled by how calm, almost unbothered, Lampades's reaction seemed. It wasn't that Lampades lacked nerve, no one without nerve could have worked the front lines as a fixer in the first place, but there was no way he could have predicted a situation like this, either.
What Lampades was actually thinking was this: 'At this point, I genuinely don't understand any of it anymore.'
As far as he could tell, Karisia hadn't seemed like the same breed of person as Ortes, not at first.
'...Was what I saw back then just an act?'
And what about today? Ortes had bowed his head before her, and the deep, deliberate scheming she let show through, subtly, seemed profound enough to swallow the whole world.
The power to call a Magic Tower Master who'd lived in seclusion for decades a mere employee.
The label "mere employee" carried layers of implication. Confidence, that even someone like Kaicel was no different from any ordinary mage in her presence.
A declaration that even if they said they'd seen Kaicel here, word of it would never reach the wider world. Whether that was thanks to the information-warfare skill that had kept Hydra Corp hidden from the Ten Towers' eyes all this time, or a plain threat that she could simply have the two of them dealt with before they ever got the chance to talk, he couldn't tell.
'Probably both, if he had to guess.'
While Lampades reeled in confusion at finally glimpsing Karisia's true nature, Knemon noticed that something inside him had, if only a little, grown calmer.
Up until now, he'd lived like something being hunted.
No one had actually been chasing him, but he'd spent his days on edge, terrified that Ortes might bare his fangs from beyond the shadows at any moment.
Even after he'd finally mustered the courage to return home, that anxiety never went away.
Beyond that window, in the darkness of the alley, maybe even inside the walls. He never knew when or where Ortes might show up to collect payment for the artifact.
That long-standing anxiety had finally been severed now, dragged along by Ortes and forced face-to-face with the great evil (巨惡) he served.
Now that the very thing he'd feared most had actually come true, there was nothing left to be afraid of. It was a strange kind of relief, one born out of resignation.
'Come to think of it, this is basically a pyramid scheme.'
He'd followed Lampades to meet Ortes, then followed Ortes to meet Karisia. It felt exactly like climbing toward the top of a pyramid.
"You're really going to tell him?"
"And you're planning to just keep following Ortes's orders?"
They walked on, feeling a strange bond in having survived brushes with death together as two former fixers. They might be on the road to hell, but at least they weren't walking it alone.
* * *
Around the same time Lampades and Knemon were commiserating over their misfortune together, Ortes had been called before Karisia.
"Ortes."
"Yes, President."
"Where were you, and what were you doing?"
"Pardon?"
Karisia caught a strand of her hair and began twisting it around her finger. It was a habit of hers, one that came out whenever she had plenty to say but couldn't quite get it in order.
"See, you said you'd stand guard outside the office and never even came in, and then Kaicel just barges in out of nowhere. None of this would've happened if you'd stayed put the whole time."
Ortes let out a groan. In the brief moment he'd stepped away because of a sudden call!
"It was seriously hard covering for you, you know."
"How did you cover for it?"
"I just said he was an employee of our company."
"With respect, President. Neither Lampades nor Knemon has particularly bad eyesight."
Karisia shrugged.
"If I say he isn't Kaicel, what exactly are they going to do about it?"
"Oh, President...!"
Karisia hadn't just thoughtlessly bulldozed her way through with "employee" as an excuse. It was a logical conclusion, she knew that if she simply insisted he was an employee, neither Knemon nor Lampades would have any grounds to object, and she'd pushed the claim through on exactly that basis.
Sometimes sheer strength is persuasive enough by itself. Isn't persuasive force (力) its own kind of force, too?
Ortes pressed a hand to his forehead.
It was true the blunder had happened because he'd stepped away, but couldn't someone with Karisia's mind have come up with a slightly more proper solution?
"Talk like that and our company starts sounding like some secret organization plotting to overthrow the world. It's essentially the same as a line like, 'He was the weakest of us,' isn't it?"
"What are you even talking about? We are a secret organization plotting to overthrow the world, aren't we?"
"...Ah."
Now that she mentioned it, that was true. Hydra Corp's founding purpose, after all, had been the destruction of the White Light. Ortes hurriedly changed the subject.
"We should start considering when to reveal the company's true purpose to the directors as well."
"I think it'd be best to announce it together, once the artificial Ten Commandments are complete."
"The trouble is, there's no way to know exactly when that will be finished, as things stand."
Karisia, who'd been nodding along to what Ortes said, suddenly looked up.
"So. What was it that pulled you away, anyway?"
"It was a message from the Order of the Divine Name. On top of thanking me for what happened last time, they were fishing to find out exactly how I managed to bring down an elder."
Karisia stroked her chin. It was true, aside from Karisia herself, the Order of the Divine Name was the only group that knew Ortes was the one who'd taken down a Ten Towers elder.
"Reaching out like this, does it mean they need you for something again? Still, you're an outsider to them. I can't help but think they're leaning on you a little too much."
Karisia didn't press him for more about the Order of the Divine Name's message. If support was needed, Ortes would report it on his own.
And if not, he'd probably handle it like magic as always, and afterward complain, "What a tiring day it's been," with his usual exaggeration.
A vision Karisia had glimpsed back during the Tallo incident flitted across her mind. Ten Towers elders, plural, setting out to capture Ortes.
Even Ortes winning a fierce battle against multiple elders without a scratch was close to impossible. Karisia pulled out a crystal she'd been keeping tucked in her clothes, one linked to Phoibos, and tossed it to him.
"President?"
"Take it with you if you go anywhere. We can't have you getting caught up in something dangerous again, like last time."
Ortes shook his head and placed the crystal back into Karisia's palm.
"There isn't even a set date to meet with the Order of the Divine Name yet."
As Karisia reluctantly tucked the crystal away again, Ortes gave a small shrug.
"So, what did you end up telling those friends of yours?"
"Pretty much the truth. Though I said most of it was my idea. You're just some poor sales rep who had no choice but to call in favors from old friends because of an eccentric boss's orders."
Ortes let out a quiet murmur of admiration. He hadn't expected Karisia to show that kind of generosity, taking on a bad reputation on her subordinate's behalf.
"Oh, come to think of it, I forgot to work out what to give Knemon in return. Once the job gets underway, ask him about it, would you?"
Ortes nodded.
Which was the reason Knemon found himself face to face with Ortes the moment he opened his room door the next morning.
* * *
"Waaugh?!"
"Ha ha, no need to be so startled."
Ortes flashed what he thought was a friendly smile and laid on the small talk.
"By the way, you really do live on a regular schedule. Waking up this early, at the exact same hour you used to as a fixer."
"What brings you here?"
"Ha ha, so we've become the kind of people who only see each other when there's business to attend to."
Knemon fell silent. What was Ortes getting at, bringing up their old friendship now? Was it some kind of reproach for having run away?
"But well, it's true I came here on business today. Could you spare me a little of your time?"
Knemon looked Ortes in the face once, then nodded. He'd already realized there was no point refusing at this stage.
Walking down Hydra Corp's corridors, they arrived at the employee cafeteria. It was a setting Ortes had arranged because he felt it would be a shame for the first proper conversation with an old friend he hadn't seen in ages to be nothing but dry talk of compensation.
Knemon, still not sure what was going on, went ahead and got himself a tray.
"Please, eat while you listen."
Just as Knemon was starting to genuinely wonder if he'd been called here for nothing more than a meal, Ortes finally spoke.
"Our president really is a remarkably fair person."
"Fair, is she?"
"Yes. I appealed to old ties to bring you in, Knemon, but this is work all the same, isn't it? So the president told me that whatever compensation you want, she'll do her best to meet the terms."
"Compensation, huh..."
If your plan actually comes to pass, there won't be any money or anything else left over anyway, Knemon thought, swallowing the words down.
"There's nothing in particular I want, though."
"Oh, come now, don't say that. Have you ever known me to lie?"
A scene from the past suddenly surfaced in Knemon's mind. The Apex Magic Tower's gang, who had ruthlessly trampled his own Magic Tower into the ground.
'If the world's going to be turned upside down anyway, wouldn't it be fine to indulge one personal grudge of my own along the way?'
With a feeling close to resignation, Knemon opened his mouth.
"There's a Magic Tower I want to see utterly finished."
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