WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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

Chapter 71

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Business? Meeting (4)

"Oh. Don't tell me it's me?"

Urania asked again, playful as ever. But a joke carrying the power granted to her as a priest of Elimon wasn't truly a joke, it was closer in nature to temptation.

"No. It is not."

But Outis's answer to Urania showed no flicker of hesitation or emotion whatsoever. If anything, his earlier argument with Hwiakin had felt more earnest by comparison.

The scale tipped once more toward Outis's hair. The instant it stopped moving, the lightning scale flared with light, then scattered into glimmering motes and vanished.

Hwiakin brooded over what Outis had called his "one and only lie."

'He lies, of all things, on that particular question? And right when Philoxenon's sacred invocation makes it plain to everyone that it's a lie?'

The question of whether he had someone he liked was also, in a sense, a question of whether he could love another person at all. If Outis had been a being incapable of feeling attachment to anything in the world, the Order's priests' wariness toward him would have multiplied several times over.

But hadn't that whole back-and-forth, ridiculous to anyone watching, gone a long way toward diluting that wariness?

'If there's a calculated angle to this, it's probably right here....'

Had there really been a need to prove his own humanity in a way like that?

While Hwiakin puzzled over what Outis's intentions might be, Philoxenon withdrew his sacred invocation and spoke again.

"You were invited to this gathering of our Order of the Divine Name by Demos, representative of the Enyalios cult. You have proven your own ability and sincerity. Now speak what it is you wish to say."

* * *

Just as planned, not one of the priests managed to prove my prophecy false.

Though the way the scale had tipped at that question about whether I had someone I liked was still a bit of a puzzle.

'Well, if you're asking whether there's absolutely no one I think well of, as a person, not romantic feelings or anything in that vein, just an ordinary good impression between two human beings, then sure, that'd be a lie. Maybe that's the angle it got judged from?'

Setting the puzzle aside, what remained was half relief and half bitterness. The plan's success was gratifying, but the Mage King was still the problem.

'It might actually have made things easier for my future plans if what I'd said had turned out to be a lie.'

The moment Karisia's goal, the complete and safe destruction of the White Light, was accomplished, I planned to retire and live off doing nothing at all.

Assuming I managed to destroy the White Light by exploiting the chaos of a clash between the Ten Towers and the Mage King, the most dangerous variable was, unsurprisingly, the Mage King himself.

What if he found a way to ascend even with one of the Ten Commandments gone?

In the original work, the ending of Part 1, where the backlash from Karisia, the White Nameless, destroying the White Light spread extradimensional rifts across the entire world, had been utterly hopeless.

But there was no guarantee the outcome would be any different if the Mage King attempted an incomplete ascension. Ascension is, in the end, an act of advancing into the extradimensional, and the result is a hole punched through the world's wall.

As long as the Mage King wanted ascension, the possibility of an extradimensional flood would always remain open.

'It would've been nice if the butterfly effect of what I'd done had wiped out the possibility of the Mage King's resurrection entirely.'

But there was nothing to be done about that now. What mattered right now was figuring out how to make the most of this situation.

The reason I'd come here in the first place had certainly been to get the Order of the Divine Name to check Argyrion's growth. Judging by what Demos had said, if I left things be, the Order looked set to end up supporting Argyrion instead.

But now that I'd played the card of the Mage King's return, I needed to get more out of this than that. Let's choose my words carefully.

* * *

"Shall we return to the matter of Argyrion, then?"

Hwiakin couldn't understand Outis's attitude, tossing out a catastrophic prophecy like the Mage King's return and then moving on to talk about something so peripheral.

"Let's talk based only on the facts that have already come to light. The ten mages who hold the Ten Commandments...."

Ortes's thoughts grew complicated. Judging by everyone's attitude so far, it seemed even the Order of the Divine Name didn't know about the betrayal the Mage King's disciples had carried out.

"They stood at a level high enough to lend their hands to the ascension ritual. It's no exaggeration to call them the second-strongest mages in the world, after their own master. The wisdom accumulated across the generations since those first disciples has only made the Ten Commandments stronger still. The Ten Towers are the only force capable of standing against the Mage King."

"There's a problem with that story. Why would the Ten Towers fight the Mage King at all? Wouldn't it make more sense for them to worship him instead?"

A high, clear voice, the same one that had asked earlier about how to pass a Blasphemia interview. Ortes turned his head toward her. Her face was hidden beneath her robe, but her identity wasn't hard to guess.

'The bird perched on her shoulder is an owl. The owl is Glaupikos's symbol.'

Another war god's priest. This one served Glaupikos, goddess of strategy and tactics.

"In the future I witnessed, the Mage King sought to reclaim the Ten Commandments, his own authority, once more. Would the Ten Towers give up the Ten Commandments so easily?"

"The Ten Commandments?"

The priest of Glaupikos fell into thought. The future Phoibos revealed was sometimes so brilliant that even deep wisdom couldn't fully take its measure.

Why the Mage King would target the Ten Commandments wasn't something she could grasp right away. But assuming the prophecy was entirely true, and working from there...

A war between the Ten Towers and a Mage King after the Ten Commandments.

The Mage King's might was, in essence, the might of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were, after all, the Mage King's own wisdom. If all ten towers holding the Ten Commandments fought the Mage King at once, it certainly seemed like neither side would come away unscathed.

"This is exactly why I argue the Order of the Divine Name should reject Argyrion, as an organization. Let's suppose Argyrion grows its power enough to rise up as the Ten Towers' primary enemy."

The odds were low, but it wasn't impossible. The most vicious thing about the extradimensional was its contagious nature. Given enough time to repeat, over and over, the process of Argyrion cutting down the Ten Towers' forces and drawing them over to its own side, this was a future well within reach.

The likelihood of Argyrion's power expanding until it rivaled one of the Ten Towers outright was substantial.

"If the Mage King descends to reclaim the Ten Commandments while the Ten Towers are locked in a war with Argyrion, could the Ten Towers survive fighting on two fronts at once? When even all ten towers combined wouldn't be enough?"

The vicious part of the Mage King turning against the Ten Towers lay in exactly the same vein as the extradimensional threat.

If Argyrion grew its own strength by absorbing the mages it struck down as new members of the Eroded, then the Mage King, by seizing the Ten Commandments, would be able to wield an even greater authority still.

"Even if Argyrion's expansion went as smoothly as it possibly could, replacing one, maybe two of the Ten Towers would be its limit. But the Mage King could easily go toe to toe with all ten towers at once."

Hwiakin trembled.

That man was advising them to set the founder of the world of magic against the world of magic itself, and let them tear each other apart.

'I still can't fully trust the truth of this prophecy. And yet....'

The very scope of the idea was different. They had no choice but to admit it was an idea that would never even have occurred to them.

"If the Order truly wants a future, propping up something as small as Argyrion isn't the answer. What you should be aiming for is a collision of forces massive enough to shake the entire Magic Age itself."

Ortes could feel the mood shifting. He could sense the priests gradually beginning to lean in and listen to his words.

"What works in the Order of the Divine Name's favor right now is that Blasphemia is the department dedicated to handling Argyrion. Report on Argyrion actively, but mix in false information. It doesn't matter if eight out of every ten tips you give are lies."

"What's the point of something like that?"

"Doesn't Blasphemia's manpower have its limits too?"

Outis's counter-question carried a great deal of meaning. If every tip fed to Blasphemia were pure lies, they wouldn't be quick to act on them. But if truth was mixed in, Blasphemia couldn't afford to ignore it either.

An excess of tips meant an excess of labor. The more time and manpower Blasphemia spent responding to Argyrion, the weaker its surveillance net over the Order would inevitably become, by comparison.

Outis's gaze swept across the round table, the look of someone gauging whether they'd understood what he'd just implied. The priests held their breath, waiting for his next words.

Nodding as though satisfied, Outis spoke again.

"Then it's time for liberation. Time to reclaim the countless temples and sacred relics sealed away by the Mage King, and by the Ten Towers and Blasphemia besides."

Steadily whittling down Argyrion's strength to draw Blasphemia's attention away, and rebuilding a shattered past.

The Order of the Divine Name had only ever considered using Argyrion to simply "weaken the enemy's strength." But Outis had gone further, offering another method entirely: "strengthening their own side's strength" as well.

"You've likely heard this from Demos, but I'm well versed in Blasphemia's internal affairs. If you tell me the location of a sacred relic or temple you mean to unseal, I could even hand over information on the Blasphemia agents deployed nearby."

It was too perfect a proposal.

"Don't you want to reclaim ancient times?"

* * *

The one who'd first let me know the Order of the Divine Name truly existed. I think of Sikton, bishop of the Bacchus cult, who'd been plunged into delusions of grandeur after having silver thread injected into him.

Sikton had screamed, unmistakably, that "the Order of the Divine Name is trying to abandon the gods." How much truth his raving actually held, this question ought to reveal.

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