WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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◈ I Became the Slit-Eyed Henchman of the Evil Boss

Chapter 14

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Pressure Interview (1)

The intruder spoke casually of secrets he had devoted his entire life to researching.

Kaicel concentrated mana into his artificial eye to uncover the man's identity. The observation results from his right eye rose, separate from the visual information sent to his brain from his biological left eye.

In his left eye, he could still see the blurred features of a human face.

But in his right artificial eye, powered by mana, only something like a human shadow was reflected, its form impossible to grasp.

Biological eyes possess countless blind spots. Compared to a meticulously designed mechanical eye, they are inferior and imperfect.

But why? Why could the mechanical eye not capture that figure?

There was no way to explain such a bizarre phenomenon.

Tap. The figure took a step closer.

"'How'? That's an odd thing to say."

Clump. Kaicel took a step back.

"Simon Magus attempted ascension, did he not? A procedure to ascend to the heavenly seat where the gods reside.

What is so strange about concluding that someone who is trying to rise to the ranks of the gods, that they possesses divinity?"

"Because they concealed it!!"

Kaicel shouted out convulsively. Everything the figure said was a secret the Ten Towers had been hiding.

"They hid the fact that the destination of magic that drove out the gods was ultimately the birth of another god! Who are you? Where did you come from!"

"Honestly, that level of secret is almost too trivial to even call a secret."

The intruder murmured that if the Ten Towers really wanted to hide it, they would have changed the term 'ascension' from the start.

“Let’s talk practically. Up to a certain point, quantitative expansion would have been equivalent to qualitative improvement.”

Correct. The more he absorbed the vital energy of Mount Etna, the more precise and powerful the magic he could wield using the mana of the artificial Ten Commandments became.

"But there is a limit. A stage comes where the level of magic no longer rises, even if the mana quantity increases. You've likely been stuck at this stage for quite some time."

From the left, he could see the grin spreading across the man's face. In his right eye, he saw reality cut away and replaced by a human-shaped darkness.

"I am, of course, aware of your failure. But I commend the fierce effort you poured into reaching that failure."

"Who are you! Where did you come from! Are you an assassin sent by the Ten Towers?!"

No. The Ten Towers are not an organization idle enough to pay attention to a failure like this. They are already busy enough racing toward ascension while keeping the other towers in check.

But who else besides the Ten Towers could produce such an unfathomable being?

"Oh my. Didn't I introduce myself earlier?"

The Lernian Magic Tower? No. There's no way a magic tower of that level would have such a being.

Come to think of it, he said 'the closest' was the Lernian.

Something from the Lernian Magic Tower? No. The Lernian Magic Tower's vessel is not large enough to contain such an unfathomable being.

Kaicel straightened his trembling body and stared at the figure. He needed to reintegrate the vision from his left eye and the observations from his right.

No matter how much he observed the man with his right eye, it was clear he could learn nothing. To overcome his fear, he had to return his vision to normal.

Clap.

At that moment. The figure clapped.

A motion with no hostility, but enough to shake his concentration.

"Pardon me. You seemed unable to focus."

'Did he detect the magic working only inside my body?'

That figure wanted Kaicel to observe him with his right eye. He could not fathom the reason.

"It seems there's been a misunderstanding, so let me reintroduce myself. I am Ortes, from Hydra Corporation."

"Hydra Corporation?"

The thing calling itself Ortes shrugged.

"It should be in this month's information prepared by the Pithos Magic Tower's automatic data collection program. Something along the lines of a rising magic tower that annihilated the Lernian school and took their place."

"Are you the president?"

The grin visible only in his left eye deepened.

"President? That can't be. I don't even get treated as an executive at Hydra Corporation. System-wise, I'm probably just a regular employee."

Unbelievable. In his extreme confusion, Kaicel fumbled for the purpose of the man's approach.

"Is it because of the artificial Ten Commandments...? You came looking for me because of that 'failure' you yourself acknowledged?"

"It was a failure until now. But it will be different if you work with us."

Stomp. Before the unhesitatingly approaching shadow, Kaicel had no choice but to retreat.

Thud. His heel told him there was nowhere left to retreat. Kaicel realized he had backed all the way to the control device of the artificial Ten Commandments.

"So this is the Ten Commandments. Compared to the real Ten Commandments, the integration rate is insufficient, making it somewhat bloated in size, but the mana compression rate is incomparable even to ordinary magic stones."

Ortes's hand reached past him and touched the control device. Kaicel's right eye witnessed the scene.

───!

And then, a resonance too primal to be expressed in words filled the mountain. Flowing through the mountain, a primordial pulse that at last shook the entire city.

Flames rose wherever the cry seeped in, heat surging upward. The heart of Mount Etna, which had been cooling, beat once more.

Kaicel knew what it was.

"An echo...!"

The echo Typhoeus had left in this world. The thing Kaicel had spent his whole life searching for.

The legendary great monster called the father of all beasts. The king of monsters and a god. Mount Etna was the last place recording the deeds of Typhoeus, one of the gods now gone.

This was why Kaicel had attempted to create the artificial Ten Commandments by gathering the heat of Etna City.

If the Ten Commandments are the powers left to the world by the Ascendants, that is, humans who have attained divinity.

Then perhaps he could gather the remnants the gods had left in the world and assemble them to create something similar?

But what Kaicel had not anticipated was time.

Even the Mage King's ascension was in what was already called ancient times. The era of the vanished gods had passed through so much time that even records had faded.

Kaicel had severely underestimated the power of time, which takes all things.

No matter how much volcanic heat of Mount Etna he gathered, it was uncertain whether he could even find a fragment of the divinity of Typhoeus, who had walked that era.

In the midst of mounting frustration, just as Kaicel was about to admit his failure-

Ortes performed a miracle.

Kaicel's right eye clearly replayed what had just happened. Ortes's hand. The hand that had only appeared as a black shadow in his right eye. the very moment it touched the control device of the artificial Ten Commandments.

Something that surged from the shadow enveloped the artificial Ten Commandments.

Inside the artificial Ten Commandments, which had accepted something, the lingering scent of divinity squirmed. This man called Ortes had summoned the echo of divinity back into the world across the vast gulf of time.

"Wh-who are you?"

Kaicel asked, having fallen to his knees without realizing it. Though he was a giant, his eye level was still above Ortes even while kneeling.

But Kaicel did not feel as though he was 'looking down' at Ortes. Unless Ortes was observing him.

"What kind of person are you, that you reveal my hidden dwelling and cause the ancient divinity to answer your call?"

A smiling silence. Every passing second, beads of sweat grew on Kaicel's forehead.

"I am-"

Ortes broke the silence, which had felt like an eternity.

"A member of Hydra Corporation."

That could not be an answer. Kaicel tried to retort.

"The answers you seek are within us."

Why did Ortes know the secrets of the Ten Towers?

Why did his touch activate the artificial Ten Commandments?

Before the heretic who had left the Ten Towers, there was one extending his hand, saying he would reveal the answers to all questions.

"Do not be afraid. The one I serve uses even the small to achieve great things. For you, who have already rescued such a grand failure, how great a success will she bestow upon you?"

Kaicel took the hand offered to him.

***

I don't know. What is this. I'm scared.

From the very start of the conversation, I felt something had gone terribly wrong, so I decided to act like a suspicious, mysterious faction and pressured Kaicel so he couldn't strike first.

Throwing out the setting details from the original one by one to corner Kaicel, that part went well enough.

Watching the giant uncle's expression shift from bewilderment to shock, and from shock to fear, did sting a little, but if we could resolve things with words instead of fighting, wasn't that a good thing?

In fact, in the original where the White Nameless used the artificial Ten Commandments as a bomb outright, Kaicel never even appeared. The White Nameless probably killed him horribly.

Recruit one competent mage while at least reducing the chances of Karisia following in the White Nameless's footsteps. A perfect plan.

I meant to end the pressure interview atmosphere at an appropriate point, touch the invention a bit, compliment it, and then use some slick line like 'Our company has prepared these benefits for you' to make a recruitment pitch.

Then, the strange phenomenon that occurred the moment I touched the Ten Commandments. For the life of me, I had no idea what caused it.

'Was it because of that mysterious state this body was in?'

I had hypotheses, but not a single piece of solid evidence.

Kaicel was staring at me with both eyes shining brightly, practically ready to prostrate himself.

With my back against the wall, there was only one thing I could choose:

Shove everything onto Karisia.

With her abilities, she could easily meet the expectations of a giant uncle who'd been researching in a volcanic basement room and got depressed.

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