WeTried Translations
Translator: Botanica
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Slit-Eyed Henchman of the Evil Boss
Chapter 3
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Founding Ceremony and Business Plan (3)
Arabel desperately feigned a natural smile.
‘Where on earth did that information leak?’
Of course, her inner thoughts were different.
Arabel herself was the head of this city’s intelligence guild, and outwardly known as an ordinary human with no peculiarities, in other words, no racial weaknesses.
Only a very few among the intelligence guild members knew that her real body was over 70% replaced with magical prosthetics.
She did not manage her organization carelessly. From the start, she had placed surveillance on the executives within her organization who might know of her abilities.
Naturally, neither Karisia nor Ortes had shown any signs of contacting Arabel’s organization members recently.
Ortes, with a grinning face, looked at a document whose contents were unreadable.
If you didn’t focus intently, he gave a faint impression as if he would vanish right before your eyes, which made him all the more eerie.
‘Surely he didn’t infiltrate my base using stealth magic? I thought there was no mage in this city better at stealth than me...!’
Still smiling, Ortes continued speaking with an innocent air.
“If there is anything wrong among what I am about to say, please correct me. After all, when it comes to personal information, confirming it with the person themselves seems most accurate.”
It was unmistakably a threat.
Arabel could already guess what her fate would be if she said anything contrary to the truth.
“Captured by the Lernian school, injection of the Arachnid race’s queen genes.”
A secret she had hidden even more carefully than her magical prosthetics. A secret that only she herself should know, it has spilled from his lips just now.
Terrible memories rose.
In this city, the trampling of the poor who could not properly wield mana was an everyday occurrence, but what awaited Arabel was a particularly unique misfortune.
“After the school’s experiments, you had the irreversibly changed parts excised and replaced with prosthetic bodies.”
The building where Hydra Corporation was now located was once a Magic Tower used by those called the Lernian school.
The three Magic Towers in Etna City were each occupied by different schools. The Lernian school was the weakest in terms of power among the three, but at the same time, the most brutal.
There were two main ways for the Magic Tower Core, the tower’s power source to charge mana. By collecting surplus mana from the atmosphere, or having the tower’s members manually infuse mana into the core.
In high-ranking Magic Towers capable of accessing the Ten Commandments, mana support through the Ten Commandments occurred, but the Lernian Magic Tower was not that advanced.
For the concentration of surplus mana in the atmosphere to increase, the area first needed to be filled with beings possessing mana.
In this world, being poor meant being a human with low mana. And most of the Lernian school’s sphere of influence was the slums.
Thus, the Lernian school was a weak Magic Tower with little mana, however so those under their dominion were also weak, meaning they could wield power brutally.
Arabel was also one of those caught in the grip of that power.
“You process the amputated mutant tumors into familiars and use them. And you also handle drones on the side, don’t you?”
At each word from Ortes, scenes of the past flashed through Arabel’s mind. The mages of the Lernian school who had created her.
The ability to control ‘blood kin’ gained from the spider queen genes, and the hacking ability through her prosthetic-modified limbs and specially enhanced brain.
Modifications for infiltrating the Ether Space, a semi-realistic space created by the bizarre fusion of mana and electromagnetics.
She was once an intelligence tool for the Lernian school, which had tyrannized this area.
“Your unique magic is shrinking, isn’t it? There must be restrictions, like it only works on inanimate objects or only on things connected to you by mana. You don’t need to tell me.”
Arabel met Ortes’s hazy eyes.
Years had passed since she escaped, faking her death as if she had been counterattacked while hacking another school’s Magic Tower. By now, her data should have been disposed of long ago.
Both as a means of destroying evidence to avoid detection by other schools, and because preserving her data was meaningless since she was a unique success case with no reproducibility.
Yet how in the world did that man find out all this information?
A saying from an unknown person came to mind: ‘The unknown is the greatest fear.’
As Arabel, barely managing to stay silent without revealing her bewilderment, looked at him, Ortes spoke with a faint smile.
“What a relief. It seems there is no incorrect information.”
‘So it wasn’t information he collected personally. Or was it a bluff?’
Arabel struggled to find clues from Ortes’s sentences.
At the very least, one thing she could be certain of: if there had been any mistake in that information, the informant would have vanished forever.
***
“What a relief. It seems there is no incorrect information.”
When I had written down the novel’s plot of the past, I had also summarized the abilities and deeds of those Karisia commanded in the novel as a side note.
I tried questioning Arabel, who seemed closest to the novel’s description and relatively high in loyalty among the eight Directors. Fortunately, it seemed my memory wasn’t that bad.
Then, what I needed to do next became increasingly clear.
“I have, something to ask….”
As I was pondering the next interview candidate, Arabel opened her mouth. Why is she using honorifics with me?
Maybe to Karisia, but not to me.
“Director. Please don’t do that.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“That. I don’t have a proper rank in Hydra Corporation.”
That Karisia girl, coming from a noble family, is fussy about this top-down command structure.
The incident three days ago, when I called her ‘Employer’ out of habit after she became President and she fired a death beam, proves it.
“At best, I’m just the President’s secretary. If you were to speak down to me, that would be fine, but you’re not in a position to use honorifics with me.”
If Karisia had seen this scene, she might have said something about workplace hierarchy.
I bet if she’d been born on Earth, she’d be strict about maintaining respect levels.
Upon hearing my words, Arabel’s expression twisted oddly for a moment before returning to normal. I don’t think I said anything strange.
“I understand. I’ll stop using formal honorifics like ‘please do’ then.”
As Arabel bowed her head, red hair spilled beneath the black veil.
A black dress reminiscent of mourning clothes, a black veil, and red hair. It reminded me of a venomous spider with a red dot on its black body.
Honestly, though, Spider-Man came to mind first.
I had been forgetting modern culture these past few years, but after realizing this world was a novel, I started thinking about things from my original world.
Ha, I never got to see that animated movie sequel with a bunch of spiderman characters gathered together. I wonder if it’s out by now.
“The honorifics I use now aren’t for any particular reason, it’s just a habit. Whether to other Directors or to you. It’s the same speech. If I use casual speech, too many people get weirdly clingy.”
Was it because of the silence that followed while I was thinking? Arabel seemed to think I was still bothered by the continued honorifics and gave an explanation.
I thought about opening with something like ‘It’s not that I don’t like being spoken to politely, but our President…’ and telling her about Karisia’s temper, but I stopped.
If Arabel reported what she heard directly to Karisia, the aftermath would be very difficult.
Instead.
“Oh. Nice to meet you. Same here.”
I decided to build comradship with a work colleague I’d be seeing for a long time.
***
“I use honorifics because I don’t want to invite unnecessary hostility from others, but people look at me suspiciously. It’s sad.”
‘That’s because you look suspicious, you idiot…!’
Arabel forced down the shout rising in her throat.
She had suspected it when he showed that bizarre loyalty by refusing to use honorifics to anyone except Karisia, but Ortes’s mental state was not normal.
Even when he was right in front of you, if you didn’t focus, he seemed to vanish from sight with that faint presence. If someone like that spoke to you, it was only natural to find it suspicious whether he used honorifics or casual speech.
Even the corners of his mouth, which would have left a good impression on an ordinary person, when combined with that suspicious first impression, were naturally taken as an uneasy smile that hinted at unpredictable actions.
And considering what that man had done since coming to Etna City, ‘suspicious’ was not a prejudice but close to fact.
When Karisia had been pacifying the underworld with light, wasn’t it Ortes who supported the killings like a shadow?
After the long-winded talk about honorifics, suspiciousness, and injustice, Ortes let out a soft “Ah.”
“Ah, I apologize. I’ve been keeping a very busy person for too long. Could you call in the next person?”
Ortes naturally gave orders to Arabel.
It was proof that Ortes himself naturally perceived his position as higher than that of Hydra’s eight Directors.
Thus, he implicitly showed Arabel who the second-in-command of Hydra Corporation was.
‘And yet he dislikes being spoken to politely, is that because he thinks it might infringe on Karisia’s authority? At this rate, it’s almost comparable to the fanaticism of those cults that worship the long-lost ancient gods….’
“Who shall I bring in?”
“Well.”
Ortes stroked his chin. His eyes, which had been nearly closed, suddenly sharpened. It seemed as if a blue flame flickered within the pupils faintly visible beneath his eyelids.
“Cryton. Please bring in Director Cryton.”
But the next moment, the eerie ghostly aura was gone. All that remained was a suspiciously presence-less smiling man.
Arabel bowed her head and turned her back.
“Ah.”
Ortes’s voice came from behind her.
“If I also go on a business trip following the President, I’ll entrust you with supervision during that time.”
An order to monitor the other Directors. Understanding why she had been chosen as the first interview subject, Arabel could only comply without objection.
‘Both the first and second in command leaving right after the founding. Is this a loyalty test?’
Pondering at this inopportune timing, Arabel exited the door.
***
Cryton was a giant.
Not simply meaning he was born with a strong physique. He was a living weapon, pumped full of all sorts of enhancement drugs from various Magic Towers including the Lernian Magic Tower, and had survived it unscathed.
His modified artificial eyes were so precise they could observe human cells, and his body, flowing with troll blood, would have severed arms reattach firmly within seconds if the cut ends were pressed together.
His entire skeleton had long been replaced with reinforced alloy. Cryton, called the human butcher of Etna City.
“What, do you mean…?”
“Cut off your dealings with the Toress School.”
‘I’m certain I never told anyone about that!’
“To be more precise: end the contract where you selectively supply slaves to the Toress School in exchange for brainwashing Magic Imprinting Drives.”
He was facing an incomprehensible unknown.
***
Come to think of it, it’s because of you that our company got targeted by the protagonist.
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