WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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

Chapter 30

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Tomb Raiding and Excavation (1)

Q. What is the correct answer for a rank-and-file employee when the President suggests going on a business trip together?

1. Did I not hear that correctly?

2. It is an honor for my family.

3. There's no need to use a butcher's knife to catch a chicken.

4. Actually, I've been preparing to resign since yesterday.

…Not a single proper answer comes to mind.

For a moment, my mind felt bleached. Why of all things?

If I were in a position where I could command people with the flick of a finger like Karisia, I would have spent my whole life holed up in a back room doing nothing. As expected, competent and capable superiors clearly have a knack for bewildering their subordinates.

"Shouldn't you be directing the fortification work of Etna City?"

It was one of the reasons I had dragged in even Kaicel and Geryones to put on this war play. With the excuse of the three Magic Towers' war, it wouldn't be strange even if we redeveloped the entire city.

Karisia wanted Etna City to have sufficient defensive power not just for the current war play, but for a real war against the White Light Magic Tower.

"At this point, everyone's tasks have already been decided."

"If an unexpected accident or some contingency occurs, your Excellency's decisive judgment will be needed."

"An organization that can't make proper decisions just because its top manager steps away for a bit can't be called a proper organization. I intend to use this as an opportunity to evaluate the flexibility of their coping abilities."

Karisia's resolve was firm. I pressed my temples.

"If that is what you wish, I suppose I have no choice. Here is the place I've marked as the next business trip destination."

I pointed to a location on the map. In Blasphemia's annotations, it was marked as something like 'One of the ruins of a vanished god. No divine power reaction. Detailed original purpose unknown,' but I knew its true nature.

"A ruin of unknown details. You used to enjoy adventures."

"Not at all. I value safety and stability above all. There is simply a reason I must go to this place. In truth, that location is not a place of unknown details, either."

***

Ortes opened his mouth in a confident tone, as he always did before Karisia.

"That place is the temple of the god known in modern language as Phoibos Proopsios, the 'Radiant Prophet.'"

It was a name in Karisia's memory. Not even needing the information implanted by the White Light Magic Tower, it was a divine name that frequently appeared in old tales as well.

The one who gazes down upon the earth from the highest heavens, seeing far. The god of prophecy.

"That place likely still holds a sacred relic of that god. I'm not certain, but it probably has the function of prophesying the future and warning of approaching danger."

Though he spoke of uncertainty, his tone carried deep conviction. Karisia often felt, at times like this, that even she did not fully understand Ortes.

Karisia thought of Blasphemia. Ortes's deep enmity with Blasphemia was also, at the same time, a deep enmity between Karisia and Blasphemia.

That is, as much as Ortes knew Blasphemia's secrets, Karisia also knew Blasphemia's secrets.

'They divided superstition followers into three tiers….'

Lay believers, priests, cult leaders. That was the universal classification of superstition followers.

However, in theory, there were several more positions. The pope, the leader of leaders who received the allegiance of all cults.

Or those bearing the blood of the gods, whom even cult leaders dared not treat lightly. Demigods.

As far as Karisia knew, Ortes was a human who understood the gods and their sacred relics more deeply than anyone in this world.

And Ortes's 'eyes' were a product of mystery that even the wisdom of the White Light implanted into Karisia could not easily fathom.

If even the wisdom inherited from the Ten Commandments could not grasp the essence of a power, then the possibilities for its identity were limited.

The very fact of not knowing became a clue.

Several hypotheses rose in Karisia's mind, then soon subsided.

'Well, it's not important.'

Rather than what Ortes's identity was, the fact that he was now by her side was far more important.

***

'Thank you, protagonist…!'

Naturally, the ruins of Phoibos and its relic that I had confidently pointed out were items that appeared in the original work as well.

I recognized it upon seeing the gray temple shaped like Petra, an ancient ruin carved from sandstone on Earth.

An ancient relic the resurrected protagonist recalled while worrying about the pursuers the Ten Towers would send. It was a relic he went to retrieve, thinking, 'Ah, there was something like that among the temples I personally crushed in my days as the Mage King.'

Originally, it was an object that operated on divine power, rejecting the mana of the mages who toppled the age of the gods. On the spot, he improvised a modification, and it was also a novelistic device to showcase the protagonist's competence.

'As soon as he regained a bit of mana, he started wearing alarm or prophecy magic around, so he only used it as a warning device a couple of times at most….'

If I were someone who wanted the world to go 'according to the original,' I wouldn't have touched items like this.

But my goal is to change the ruined future of the original and live in quiet comfort. I feel no shame in embezzling the protagonist's tools.

No, wait.

Come to think of it, it's because of that guy that Karisia dies and the world falls apart.

'Cancel the gratitude.'

***

An email was sent to the Directors of Hydra Corp. It was a link to a messenger for a video conference. The announced content was simple.

That Karisia would accompany Ortes on his business trip.

Arabel could tell from beyond the screen that Ortes's expression was subtly twisted.

Whether it was joy at accompanying Karisia, or guilt from having caused the President trouble due to his own lack of ability, she couldn't quite read.

'With that guy's disposition, it could be both.'

"Divinity…."

After finishing the brief video conference, closer to a notification than a meeting, Arabel thought about the goal Hydra Corp pursued.

'If Ortes really was a secret inspector of Blasphemia….'

If the foundation of the information that found Kaicel's hideout, hidden for decades, was Blasphemia's capability, then many questions would be resolved.

Blasphemia had already located the whereabouts of Kaicel, the heretic of the Ten Towers, but judged that the artificial Ten Commandments could not be completed and thus did not bother eliminating him.

However, for some reason, Ortes knew that Kaicel truly had the potential to complete the artificial Commandments and found his hideout based on that information.

That was probably the extent of the connection.

At the same time, a new question arose.

'Assuming ascension is the process of becoming a god, as Kaicel said, did the Ten Towers already know they could challenge ascension through divine power?'

If so, why have they been persecuting the cults all this time, calling them superstition followers? Is there a reason they cannot tolerate other methods of ascension?

Amid the chain of questions, they converged on one.

"What the hell is that bastard Ortes…."

If it weren't for that branch chief's death-cry-like email about a secret inspector, she wouldn't have had to rack her brains this much.

Arabel glared at the now-dark screen.

***

One of the reasons I had accepted Karisia's accompaniment rather readily was my judgment that this task itself wouldn't be that difficult.

It was a relic the protagonist obtained very early in the original work. If the acquisition difficulty had been high, he would have gone looking for it after growing a bit more.

Blasphemia's report also added confidence to my suspicions.

An evaluation that it was just an ordinary ruin with no investigative value. Unless there was a special method to gain the ruin's recognition, like the protagonist's intrusion, this ruin was just an old pile of stones.

Since Blasphemia didn't know such information, I figured they just poked at the stones a bit and decided there was no need to investigate what the place originally was.

'They definitely wrote that report sloppily because they were cold.'

Damn it. The temple of Phoibos-what's-his-name was on top of a snowy mountain.

Even if it's common for the natural environment to become abnormally distorted due to extradimensional mana, still. On a mountain not even that high, this kind of cold?

Those Blasphemia bastards definitely went home thinking, 'Ah, it's cold, let's just investigate up to here and go back.'

This wasn't just ordinary cold. The way it seeped into the gaps in one's skin felt like the malice of some transcendent being.

Should I call it magical bitter cold?

"Are you cold?"

"More than I expected. How strange. The radiant divinity of Phoibos is closer to the sun, not a god of snow or winter."

It seemed this bitter cold felt like 'slightly chilly' to Karisia. Maybe because she had so much mana.

So it feels even colder to someone without mana. Some ill-tempered bastard definitely cast some bizarre magic.

"Well, at least the mountain itself isn't very high. I see the ruins over there."

In the distance, stone pillars engraved with ancient myths began to come into view.

***

The ruins Ortes had mentioned began to catch Karisia's eye as well.

An architectural structure carved entirely out of a cliff at the mountain's peak. A granite-gray door was sculpted across the entire cliff. The shadows cast within the doorway seemed to hold an ancient mystery.

Its appearance was a rather magnificent sight even for Karisia, who was accustomed to the skyscrapers of this era. However, as she drew closer, the scars left by snow and rain became visible.

Parts of the myths that would have been intricately carved were blurred and worn, making their original forms difficult to discern, and the floor that would have been smoothly polished was pitted and uneven in many places.

The traces of erosion from long exposure to snow and rain were evident. Looking again, the darkness filling the ruin now felt less mysterious and more melancholic.

Into the long-forsaken darkness, Ortes took a step.

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