WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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

Chapter 78

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Countermeasure Meeting (1)

"What is this....?"

A file titled 『List of Magic Towers Affiliated with the Argyrion Coalition』, posted anonymously to the Ether Network. The data inside faithfully reflected its title.

A list of the many Magic Towers that had secretly made contact with Argyrion. Even at a glance, it looked like it topped a hundred.

And every single one was a mid-tier or higher Magic Tower I'd at least had occasion to hear of. Most were listed towers, and there were even Apex Magic Towers among them.

'Would that many Magic Towers really have joined hands with Argyrion?'

No. Not unless these were towers Argyrion had merely 'attempted' to contact. There was no way this many Magic Towers had actually colluded with Argyrion.

If Argyrion could really form a coalition of Magic Towers at that scale, it would have moved a little more boldly.

A different choice than what it was doing now, recruiting insiders within Blasphemia and preparing a terror statement. It could instead have hidden its identity as the Eroded completely, and applied for the Decalogue Succession War as the head of a Magic Tower coalition.

With that scale of force behind it, entering the Decalogue Succession War and actually winning a Commandment wouldn't even be an idle fantasy.

If every Magic Tower on the list responded faithfully, it could probably go toe-to-toe with about one of the Ten Towers.

Even after winning, there would be disputes within the coalition over how to divide up the Commandment's authority, but that kind of problem was secondary.

If Argyrion's real objective was, like every other Eroded, to expand its connection point to the extradimensional, then dividing up authority was meaningless to begin with. It was never going to hand out rewards anyway.

Publicly, it could promise anything at all in a contract, and the moment it got its hands on a Commandment, all it had to do was use that incomprehensible power to bring down the World Wall.

A single decisive battle that, if won, would fulfill the entire purpose of its existence as one of the Eroded. And even in defeat, since it was a 'coalition' of Magic Towers, the responsibility could be spread across the other towers, minimizing its own losses.

'The very fact that it hadn't taken this route is itself proof that Argyrion's ability to recruit has real limits.'

So then, what on earth was this list made for?

For one thing, the exposed list came with evidence, clumsy as it was. Evidence with large portions blacked out, almost as if deliberately meant to stoke greater suspicion. The kind of loosely stitched-together allegations that were all the harder to refute precisely because they were so threadbare.

That kind of evidence existed for every single tower on the list. Whoever held this much evidence, spread this wide, all at once, could only be Argyrion.

The leaker's identity was Argyrion.

Then what could Argyrion possibly gain by throwing magical society into chaos?

'Argos will mobilize on a large scale to audit the Magic Towers. It'll coordinate with Blasphemia too, to track down Argyrion's trail. Which means, relatively speaking, fewer hands will be free to actually hunt Argyrion down.'

Was it really willing to throw away every one of its potential collaborators just to buy a moment's time?

If so, that was an ominous sign. I had no way of guessing what it planned to finish with time bought at that kind of cost.

Something about the current situation was plainly off.

"I suppose I need to call a countermeasure meeting."

Even holding a meeting, I couldn't just blurt out every fact to the directors without thinking it through.

As it stood, the 'Divinity Investigation' already skirted the edge of legality just by using divinity at all. The directors had only accepted it on the pretext that it wasn't worship of the vanished gods themselves, just a use of their power.

At the level of merely using divinity, no one would call you an anti-magic reactionary. You might draw some wary looks among mages, but if it counted as part of magical research, well, what could anyone say?

There were even occasional cases of lightning-attribute Magic Towers keeping a relic of Aigio, god of the heavens and thunder, as a secret weapon.

But go any further than that, and the story changes.

Research that tried to graft divine power onto magic had quietly existed all along.

Attempts to steal wisdom from the Ten Towers, sure, those could happen.

Ambitions to become one of the Ten Towers, of course, those could be harbored too.

But the destruction of the Ten Commandments, a purpose that amounted to rebellion against the very system of magical society, only a vanishingly small number of mages could ever accept that.

"...Telling the directors everything right now would be premature."

Right now, the directors held real value as a force that could be shown both in reorganizing Etna City and in projecting power outward. It was already hard enough filling the gap Dimedes had left behind; there was no need to force a choice between the Ten Towers and Hydra right now and bleed even more manpower.

Someday the directors really would have to make that choice. But not right now.

I began preparing the meeting under the title 'Regarding the Sudden Change in Circumstances Surrounding the Divinity Investigation.'

Right after I talked with Niobe, I'd already sent a message to the Order of the Divine Name too, warning them that Blasphemia was growing suspicious of the current situation and that they should be careful....

I hadn't expected things to shift this fast. I'd need to talk with them again, later.

* * *

A few days before Hydra Corp's meeting began, the Order of the Divine Name was holding a council of its own.

Demos was the first to arrive at the empty round table. The agenda for this meeting was the news that the one known as Outis, or L13, had warned them of not long ago.

'Blasphemia has detected the temple excavation. Scale back activity for the time being.'

Even in the middle of fighting Argyrion, did they still have the spare capacity to keep watch on the Order of the Divine Name's own activities?

He knew it was only possible because of the near-limitless support Blasphemia drew through the Ten Towers, but from the position of standing against them, it was still an ability that left him thoroughly sick of thinking about.

Of course, Demos's guess and the reality were quite different.

Hydra Corp, carrying out its Divinity Investigation in the shadow of the Order of the Divine Name.

And Salmosia, who suspected Hydra Corp's movements to be Argos sabotage.

And, last of all, Ortes.

No one yet had noticed the hidden hand quietly coordinating information between Blasphemia and the Order of the Divine Name.

The next to appear at the round table after Demos was Hwiakin. Once the number of priests seated one after another passed six, Demos spoke.

"What is the Pope doing? Still no intention of using his own authority for the order's sake?"

Demos spat the words out with an edge. A question aimed squarely at Hwiakin, the Pope's close confidant. Hwiakin nodded slowly.

"The Pope is already exercising his authority for the order's sake. He's refining the great plan."

"The great plan, the great plan. Isn't that great plan a betrayal of the heavenly ones? I'm about ready to be sick, watching him scrape together past glories while preparing a betrayal."

"It isn't betrayal. It's independence."

Across the round table, Demos and Hwiakin's eyes met and clashed. The rivalry between Demos, young and conservative in his faith, and Hwiakin, old and radical, was nothing new.

"...Don't think the reason we're gathering sacred relics is mere obsession with past glory. The Pope sees things on a far grander, broader scale."

Hwiakin added this almost like an excuse, and Urania picked up right after him.

"Haven't you heard anything more from that guy who says he doesn't like me? When I reached out, all I got was 'Wait for the right time. I'll find a new way soon.'"

"Same here. All I've heard is that he'll make an opening for us soon. But no matter how capable he is, there's a limit to what a lone agent can pull off. I still think our order needs to take a more active hand-"

Bang!

A tumbling, clattering racket rang out, followed by the sound of footsteps sprinting down the corridor. The boy who came rushing in, gasping for breath, was Prodito.

A priest of Piraeos, god of gatekeepers and messengers. From the most nameless backwater to Elysion itself, he could open doors connecting to every corner of the world.

It was also Prodito who granted the members of the Order of the Divine Name the sacred invocation that opened a portal to the round table.

Because of that, Prodito was the type who either arrived first at meetings like this or, if he had no interest, didn't show up at all. For him to appear in the middle like this was a rare thing indeed.

"Now that's a rare sight, you showing up late. At this rate you'll make the messenger god's priesthood weep for shame."

"Ha.... ha. What a hurtful thing to say. I brought you the newest news faster than anyone could."

Even while panting for breath, Prodito gave a wink. Watching him try so hard to fake composure, Urania let out a small burst of laughter.

"What news was worth being late to a meeting for?"

"Come on, I keep telling you, I'm not late. You're going to want to change the whole meeting agenda, old man Hwiakin."

Thump. Prodito tossed a mana proxy down onto the middle of the round table. A few priests bristled at the sight of a magic tool brought into the Order's holy site, but even they had no room left to care about that once they'd read the projected hologram.

The one most shaken of all was, of course, Hwiakin. This was a branch of the future that hadn't existed in the vision he'd glimpsed.

"What in the...?"

"Demos, my man. That 'Mr. No-Name' you brought in said he'd make us an opening, didn't he? Looks like this might be it."

Countless Magic Towers, their secret dealings with Argyrion exposed. Magical society, as reflected across the Ether Network, was caught up in unprecedented chaos.

"How, exactly?"

The voice muttering blankly belonged to Hwiakin. How could something like this even be possible? That a list of tower dealings, surely one of Argyrion's own secrets, could be leaked this easily?

In just a few days?

'Could it be that Phoibos has truly chosen him?'

Demos, too, had fallen into confusion, no less than Hwiakin.

Say Blasphemia, tracking Argyrion desperately, had managed to identify every Magic Tower that showed signs of dealing with them.

Could a single lowly agent even access something like that?

'Just how high up within Blasphemia does Outis actually stand...?'

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