I Became the Slit-Eyed Henchman of the Evil Boss - Chapter 8

WeTried Translations

Translator: Botanica

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

Chapter 8

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A Feast of Empty Words (2)

The Purpose of the Hydra Corporation.

Although this was the first time Ortes himself had spoken of it, it was a topic that had already come up several times among the Directors.

Why had a mage as powerful as Karisia come to Etna City?

Once a powerful city, it was now nothing more than a decaying frontier.

To unify the city and accumulate wealth?

Absolutely ridiculous.

Karisia had the skill to instantly defeat two of the existing Magic Tower Masters of Etna City. Even without going through the trouble of unifying the underworld and organizing it into a new corporation, there were plenty of ways to amass wealth.

The same went for fame.

For a mage as powerful as her, it was possible that even the Apex Magic Towers, let alone some ordinary Magic Tower, might propose recruiting her.

‘Then again, you never know.’

Arabel considered the possibility that such a powerful mage hadn’t ‘come’ to the city, but had been ‘driven out.’

The possibility that she had been pushed out of a power struggle within a Magic Tower and had chosen Etna City as a place to hide and reorganize her forces.

But this hypothesis also had its problems. For a mage of Karisia’s level, who even had a trusted subordinate like Ortes, to have been defeated and forced to flee.

The number of Magic Towers where a fight of that caliber could take place was extremely limited.

Ignoring Arabel’s gaze, filled with unease, Ortes’s speech continued.

“We will become a new king.”

A king (王).

It was not the king who rules a hereditary nation by bloodline. A world where not only the kings who once commanded the world, but even the gods who were said to have blessed the royal bloodline, have disappeared.

Long ago, the governing structure had already been reorganized around the Ten Commandments and the Magic Towers.

The Apex Magic Towers, the privileged class of Magic Towers. Among them, only ten could be called ‘kings.’

The ten Magic Towers that possessed the Ten Commandments, the legacy of the Mage King.

They needed no cumbersome names like Lernian or Toress. Simple names composed only of mana color and attribute proved their history.

Because all Magic Towers that used magic of that attribute were their subordinates.

The tradition of the ten towers, said to have been directly granted the Ten Commandments by the Mage King, was passed down in the form of poetry and song.

The White Light (白光) that began all.

The Yellow Thunder (黃雷) that divided heaven and earth.

The Red Flame (赤焰) that gathered heat.

The Pale Ice (蒼氷) that bound cold.

The Jade Wind (翡風) that mixed all things.

The Blue Water (靑水) that pooled in the ocean.

The Purple Earth (紫土) that shaped the land.

The Green Wood (綠木) that sprouted life.

The Silver Iron (銀鐵) that sharpened blades,

The Black Darkness (黑暗) that declared the end.

A declaration of becoming a new king. Karisia’s light magic. The Directors all recalled the eldest of the ten towers, the Magic Tower of White Light.

‘Most of the Magic Tower Masters of the ten towers carry the bloodline passed down from the Mage King’s disciples. Could Karisia be an illegitimate child of the current White Light Magic Tower Master?’

In the long history of magic, changes in the owner of the Ten Commandments were extremely rare, but they did exist. Battles over the Ten Commandments were often compared to the struggle between a king and an autocrat, or a succession ceremony.

‘If a new autorat challenging the throne has appeared, and that person is my president….’

Just as Arabel was pondering what instructions to give her information broker contacts, a declaration that exceeded the Directors expectations followed.

“Of course. I’m not trying to tell some boring story about seizing the Ten Commandments.”

This time, Karisia definitely smiled. The Directors who witnessed that flawless smile felt a chilling sensation as if a cold wave had enveloped them.

“I believe you would know, Geryones. The Magic Tower Master of the Pithos Magic Tower. Kaicel, that is.”

The direction of the conversation returned to the captured Geryones. He felt both absurdity and fear at the same time.

The most powerful of the three Magic Towers of Etna City. An urban legend about the Pithos Magic Tower’s secret weapon.

“Is there still someone left who believes in that superstitious rumor? That story is already decades old.”

Among the eight bosses with deep roots in Etna City, few fully understood what Geryones was talking about.

Arabel, who collected any city rumors as part of her profession. And.

“‥‥‥.”

The only one was the old dwarf Bertrand, a native who had lived in Etna City for a very long time and was also the guild master of the Miners Guild.

They noticed Ortes’s gaze sweeping over them for a moment. It was clear that Ortes was not so foolish as to fail at something as simple as directing his gaze.

‘A warning, or a suggestion.’

A warning not to act rashly, or a suggestion to say everything they knew. He ensnared people with every single gesture. Arabel upgraded her assessment of Ortes from a suspicious individual to a vicious bastard.

“And if it’s not a rumor?”

“Ha!”

Geryones sneered, momentarily forgetting his own situation as a prisoner. The weight of his arm, now half as light, reminded him of reality, but although the sneer faded, his skepticism did not diminish.

“Old man Bertrand. You would know, wouldn’t you? The reason Etna City is declining.”

The dwarf stroked his beard. No exceptionally powerful mages or irreplaceable specialty products. Or a frontier isolated from the mages paradise, Elysion….

Many reasons could be given, but from the standpoint of someone who had lived in this city digging the earth for over a hundred years, there was only one reason Etna City was waning.

“Mount Etna is cooling.”

The cooling of the volcano that had been the lifeline of Etna City. Originally, the miners of Etna City made their living by mining fire-attributed mana stones formed by accumulating the volcanic energy.

But now, as the output of mana stones decreased, the volcano was also cooling down.

“The Pithos Magic Tower did something to Mount Etna. They stole the volcano’s essence to prepare a special magic. There were only rumors, but according to our Miners Guild’s investigation, there was no magical device installed outside the volcano at all.”

“Kaicel is trying to condense the mana of Mount Etna to create a new Ten Commandments!”

Geryones shouted as if on a stage. Then his expression turned bitter.

“I too was once captivated by that rumor and turned this city upside down. Kaicel, was he ever an ordinary figure? He was an iconic figure, once a formal disciple of Red Flame before being scouted by Silver Iron….”

Geryones carefully looked at Karisia. Without showing any reaction to Geryones’s stare, Karisia’s gaze was directed at Ortes.

“He’s also a monstrous mage who alone went to the greatest Magic Tower in Etna City and seized its dominion. Just like your president.”

As if recalling the memory of being defeated by Karisia, Geryones lowered his head. But soon he lifted it again. It was a confidence he could show because it was a conviction he had gained by personally running around.

“But this is certain. There is no such thing as an artificial Ten Commandments in the Pithos Magic Tower.”

“No. From the very beginning.”

“That bastard Kaicel isn’t even in this city.”

The Pithos Magic Tower was currently being operated unmanned.

The greatest Magic Tower in Etna City had its master absent.

***

Now. This is as expected.

Bertrand, who had worked as a miner in the Mount Etna mines for nearly his entire life, and Geryones, who had been in a power struggle with the Pithos Magic Tower.

These two were the opposing role, claiming that the Pithos Magic Tower’s artificial Ten Commandments did not exist.

But I knew that the ‘Pithos Magic Tower’s Ten Commandments’ did exist.

To be precise, it wasn’t really worthy of being called the Ten Commandments.

How should I put it.

A Ten Commandments aspirant? A Ten Commandments candidate? Ten Commandments (Scheduled for Promotion)?

The two prominent characteristics of the Ten Commandments are immense mana and latent memories. By merely knocking on the door of the Ten Commandments, a mage’s maximum mana increases and they realize magic they have never even heard of.

The Magic Tower Masters of the ten towers directly connected to the Ten Commandments wield nearly infinite mana and can use the Mage King’s spells.

The Pithos Magic Tower’s, Kaicel’s, Ten Commandments was not like that. Because the spells that could be imprinted were limited by the limits of Kaicel’s own knowledge.

However, thanks to embezzling the mana of Mount Etna for a long time, although not infinite like the real Ten Commandments, a vast amount of mana had accumulated that could be considered inexhaustible by ordinary standards.

Of course, I knew this because The White Nameless used it in the original work, 'The Mage King Who Returned in 2077'.

How did The White Nameless use these Ten Commandments?

‘She just blew it the hell up, didn’t she?’

Used as an explosive to completely vaporize Etna City. It was insufficient to compare to a nuclear bomb, and its power could only be described as an antimatter bomb.

It was a trap prepared to kill the protagonist when their conflict reached its peak.

When this plan, which even used the Hydra Corporation’s headquarters as bait, ultimately failed, The White Nameless directly risked her life and confronted the protagonist.

In other words. If I can make this be used for something other than a bomb, I can eliminate one reason for Karisia to die like in the original.

I smiled at the Directors and spoke.

“No. Kaicel is in Etna.”

***

It was Arabel who sensed something off in Ortes’s words.

“Etna? Not Etna City?”

As if waiting for those words, Ortes opened his mouth.

“Yes. Kaicel is inside Mount Etna.”

“But….”

Bertrand didn’t know what to call Ortes. He had never been given any official position in the Hydra Corporation.

Yet it was self-evident that he was the second-in-command of the Hydra Corporation.

“You may call me by name.”