WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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

Chapter 68

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Business? Meeting (1)

The Divinity Investigation had effectively ground to a halt since Dimedes's sudden, violent death.

That was because Ortes had been moving alone on the actual search for sacred relics, granting no one else his approval to join.

The cooperation Ortes, conducting the Divinity Investigation on his own, requested from the directors was limited to work that used force but had nothing to do with sacred relics, things like capturing magically wanted fugitives to satisfy the listing review's documentation requirements.

Except, that is, for the task entrusted to the Alraune half-spirit, Meconion.

Meconion drew a long pull from her pipe. The breath she exhaled glowed green. Behind her, Ortes's gaze rested on her back.

'No, wait. Is he keeping his eyes shut?'

"That's it."

At the center of Meconion's underground grotto stood a skylight, cleverly designed to gather the light from the surface into a single point. Meconion's drug den was, by nature, damp and dim, but this one spot was the exception.

In the place where the light converged stood a single tree.

A tree that had sprouted from a grape seed taken from the Bacchus cult's meeting hall.

Meconion herself was interested in the wine the cult of pleasure produced, while Ortes was interested in the symbolism behind Bacchus's grapevine.

For that reason, Meconion's cooperation with the Divinity Investigation Office was, alone among the directors' organizations, being carried out through non-violent means. Growing a grapevine.

"Growing the seeds one by one, they kept dying too easily. So I combined them into one and grew it that way."

"Is that even possible? It brings the Green Wood's magic to mind."

"Less magic, more a racial trait, really. I extracted the life force from each seed individually and gathered it all into one place."

Born of Alraune blood, Meconion had an exceptional gift for handling plants. Until now, that ability had mostly been used to rapidly grow narcotic plants, but in truth, her power didn't discriminate by species.

Ortes reached out and touched a cluster of grapes that had only just begun to ripen. His hand moved with considerable care.

"No matter how fast I grow those, they're not ready to harvest yet. What do you need them for?"

"It'd be nice if we could brew wine with them...."

Ortes's answer felt almost like something he'd murmured to himself.

'He needs wine? Is he planning to invite someone?' Meconion tried to think of anyone Ortes might actually 'invite.'

The only candidate who came to mind right away was Lampades, the Magic Tower Master he'd apparently met in Elysion. But whether Ortes was the type to prepare a gift and lower himself for someone like that was another question.

Ortes, who had been calmly studying the grapevine, finally stated what he needed.

"To bring the grapes up to full quality, you'll need to thin them, cutting back the berries and the small branches, won't you? Could you set aside the byproducts from that thinning process for me?"

"Huh? The grapes that haven't even ripened properly?"

"I have a use for them, you see."

* * *

When I asked Meconion to have the grapevine thinned out by tomorrow, she shot back asking what I was even talking about, but I wasn't fooled.

Meconion's drug den felt less like an organized outfit and more like a gathering of addicts, sure, but anyone able to keep addicts like that under her thumb had to have some real charisma and leadership in her own right.

With the authority of a Hydra Corp director behind her too, thinning out one grapevine and vacuum-packing the byproducts would be simple enough.

I caught some faint grumbling about how her other underlings only knew how to shoot up and snort drugs, not grow anything, but I had places to be and no time to listen.

The place I headed next was, of course, Karisia's office. Before heading out on a business trip, I had to let my boss know.

"You smell like grapes?"

Karisia's question, asked while she studied me quietly. I nodded.

"I went to check on the grapevine I entrusted to Director Meconion."

"You went to check on work before you even saw me?"

Karisia's jokes really are hard to follow. I answered her smile with one of my own and went on.

"There was a good reason for it."

"A reason. If you need Bacchus's grapevine, the Order of the Divine Name?"

"Yes. They say they want to see me. In person, face to face."

Karisia's expression hardened as she listened to the report.

"They're being more forceful about this than I expected. If you want the prophet of Phoibos card to pass as real, you'll need a sacred relic."

"Even without a relic, I am confident I can take care of myself. In fact, it might be better not to show one at all."

The Phoibos relic I'd unearthed had come from a shrine sealed personally by the Mage King. The seal had been so perfect that even Blasphemia never grasped that the relic existed there, and the whole place had simply been forgotten, but if anyone ever traced the relic's origin, the interrogation that followed would inevitably ask just how, exactly, I'd broken through the Mage King's own seal to get it.

Since I can't handle mana at all, they'd naturally realize I had to have had help.

If Karisia's involvement ever came to light, my whole plan would fall apart. Karisia is White Light Tower's finest masterpiece. Whether or not she hates White Light has nothing to do with it, her very existence alone would be more than enough to draw the Order of the Divine Name's wrath.

It was simpler just to keep the relic hidden and claim, 'This, too, is an act guided by revelation.'

Karisia's expression turned pouty. A kind of hurt feeling. I hurried to continue.

"Please trust me on this, President. To the Order of the Divine Name, I need to remain a mystery. The more information gets out about which relic gives me my revelations, the less mystique I'll have."

"Can you really go alone, with nothing at all, and fool the whole order? Wouldn't it be better to bring Kyne along instead?"

"Kyne is not much of an actress. She'd have to treat me like the genuine prophet of Phoibos, and I doubt she could put on a performance convincing enough that the Order's priests wouldn't sense something off."

"I don't think so."

Karisia was just being contrary for no reason. I let her little grumble slide.

"I have made at least the minimum preparations. The grapevine Meconion's growing is part of that."

Bacchus's grapevine.

A harvest that would serve as proof that I'd foreseen the Bacchus cult's destruction and salvaged its legacy.

* * *

Karisia approved Ortes's travel plan. The Order of the Divine Name's invitation came with a time limit attached.

Their order's gatherings were held in secret to avoid Blasphemia's notice, and disbanded quickly.

Argyrion's chaos had loosened Blasphemia's surveillance net somewhat, true, but the Order of the Divine Name still had every reason to stay wary of Blasphemia. Inviting Ortes and waiting around for him was, in itself, an unusual thing for them to do.

Ortes was to make contact with Enyalios's bishop sometime today, then head on to the Order's meeting place.

Karisia tapped the table for no real reason. Sending him off alone left her feeling uneasy.

She understood, but still.

Wasn't he taking on far too much by himself, after all? Karisia, feeling a quiet ache of concern, headed for the Magic Tower's training room.

Kyne was waiting there, there to learn the basics of magic and how to control her esper power from Karisia.

That Kyne was a survivor of the Bacchus cult was well known among the directors, thanks to Neiro having accompanied Ortes there. But the fact that Kyne possessed divine power was known only to Ortes and Karisia.

Even using an artifact touched by divinity sat at the edge of legality under the order the Ten Towers upheld, practically illegal by itself. A priest openly wielding divine power was, by ordinary standards, someone who couldn't be tolerated at all.

That might have been fine back at the start, when they'd assumed Kyne's divine power would gradually fade. But now that it only kept growing stronger, training her to hide it efficiently had become essential.

Divine power and mana both fell, broadly, under the umbrella of esper power. Karisia, who knew how to masterfully control her own immense mana, had a few ideas about how to conceal the divine power Kyne carried too.

They spent a long while working through it, masking the divine power with dark mana, or adapting the mana-suppression methods combat mages used to work on divine power instead. Then, out of nowhere, Kyne spoke up.

"Wait. Where'd that guy go?"

Strangely enough, Ortes had a knack for noticing the instant Kyne's divine-power disguise slipped. So he usually stuck around during training sessions like this.

Today, though, he was nowhere to be seen.

'He got back from a business trip yesterday, didn't he. Is he taking today off because he's tired? Guess even that guy has a human side.'

"He's at the Order of the Divine Name."

"...That man, he actually got called in by the Order of the Divine Name. To play the prophet of Phoibos? Can he really pull off a disguise like that?"

Karisia answered, her tone full of conviction.

"No one, whoever they are, could ever suspect Ortes's true identity. But."

"But?"

"But he's bound to come back having caused some kind of trouble, I think."

Kyne looked up at Karisia. There was something like resignation mixed into Karisia's golden eyes.

* * *

Damn it.

"Speak! You who falsely claim the title of prophet! What is the greatest calamity soon to befall this world?!"

"Say 'the Ten Towers are a pack of bastards.'"

"Can you do a love fortune reading for me?"

Why the hell is this place such a shitshow.

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