WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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Chapter 240

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I could not help hesitating at the unexpected statement. I quietly looked at Orgot. He was staring at the guard stationed outside the room with a deeply troubled expression.

“Those people, you mean Mookgeumgo?”

I lowered my voice and asked carefully. Orgot sighed and nodded.

“If the only problem were puppets stopping, I would not have called you here, Mr. Evron. I called both of you because there is a more important issue.”

“A more important issue?”

“Yes. I wanted to let you know that they have been making suspicious moves lately.”

Orgot’s serious attitude naturally weighed heavily on me as well. It had already been about two and a half years since we began working together. During that time, we had gotten to know each other.

The Orgot I had come to understand was a typical Trading Company employee. A mage sensitive to profit, eager to rise higher, and unwilling to miss an opportunity when one came along.

That was also the sort of person I had often seen among the People’s Council. Even Jegang, who had now been driven out of the Trading Company, had been like that.

Their backgrounds played a large role in why they shared those traits. I glanced at Orgot. Like me, he was a wandering mage with no backing whatsoever.

The People’s Council could be called a gathering of mages who had entered the Trading Company without any connections. They had banded together to somehow survive within that den.

Perhaps that was why Orgot had always shown us considerable respect. We were clearly a major opportunity for him. As long as we pursued the same interests, he had no reason to betray me.

Even aside from that, Orgot was an excellent partner. Like someone who had entered the Trading Company, he was highly capable, and his cautious nature had also been a great help to us.

No matter what happened, Orgot did not readily ask us for help. He first tried to solve matters with his own abilities, only asking for our cooperation once he determined it was beyond his reach.

Over the time we had spent together, I had learned well enough that Orgot was cautious enough to avoid even voicing speculation. For someone like him to be this certain meant there had to be a clear sign.

“Please take a look at this.”

Orgot placed a small shard of ice on the table. It looked similar to the ice scattered throughout the city. Yet I could sense a faint trace of magical power from it.

I picked up the piece he handed me and examined it closely. I could faintly sense the magic contained within.

“It’s recording magic.”

“Yes. It was also in this reception room.”

Orgot clicked his tongue softly. I turned the ice shard over in my hand.

Many people came to this workshop to purchase puppets, but others also came to discuss private matters related to the Trading Company, as we did.

This reception room had been prepared for such people. That made maintaining its security especially important. The things discussed here could not be allowed to leak outside.

Yet finding this shard of ice here practically meant someone was trying to eavesdrop on our conversations. Orgot could not have installed it himself.

When I glanced at him, he pointed to the ceiling.

“The one you are holding is a copy I made. The real one is attached up there. I concealed it with illusion magic, so it cannot record the conversation we are having now. It will contain the information I fed it instead.”

Where Orgot pointed, there was a cluster-of-light magic circle illuminating the room. I narrowed my eyes and examined it. Nothing seemed unusual at first glance.

But when I filled my eyes with magical power and looked deeper into the magic circle, I sensed something slightly foreign. It was a trace like a tiny fragment, cleverly hidden among the various spells contained in the circle.

I silently looked down at the shard of ice in my hand. The trace had a form very similar to this. I could not help clicking my tongue as well.

A building’s magic was always thoroughly managed. Yet something like this had been hidden here. The trace was so faint that no one would have noticed it without inspecting the place this thoroughly.

“Magic like this had been inscribed not just here, but throughout the shop. It was hidden so secretly that even I failed to notice it.”

Orgot crossed his arms with a displeased expression. I handed the shard back to him and spoke.

“Then how did you discover it?”

Orgot was a mage of the fourth floor. His realm was not particularly high, so it could not have been easy for him to find this. At my question, Orgot glanced at the Mookgeumgo person outside and shook his head.

“I left the shop because of the banquet last week, but I forgot something and returned midway through. Then I happened to see that person behaving suspiciously. I investigated afterward and found this magic.”

The banquet. He meant the banquet celebrating Hongryeong’s induction. I remembered seeing him there as well. I had wondered where he had gone when he disappeared midway through the banquet.

So this was what had happened.

I frowned slightly and looked at Isabella. I wondered whether the same problem might have occurred at our workshop. She lightly shook her head.

[We have not found any magic at our workshop. We inspected it three times, so there should be no problem.]

“I see...”

I rubbed my chin.

It was fortunate that this magic had not been planted in my workshop, but it was also difficult to understand.

Orgot and I were practically one body. I continuously refined the magic that would be inscribed into their puppets, while they shared their system with us.

This massive cooperative structure had been greatly beneficial to both sides. If the people who installed the recording magic were targeting Orgot, then naturally they would have needed to target us as well.

Yet we could not find a single trace. That was strange in itself.

But now was not the time to dwell on that. I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the person outside.

Like Elmeshi at our workshop, that person had been assigned by Ailey. If they had hidden this magic, it could mean this was Ailey’s will.

That was a serious matter. If Ailey was targeting Orgot, it would be difficult for us to defy her.

“Have you perhaps done anything to offend Lady Ailey?”

“Of course not. What courage would I have to do that?”

Orgot shook his head in alarm. His deep sense of injustice came through clearly. I nodded as well.

In truth, I also thought that possibility was unlikely. If Ailey wanted to remove Orgot, she would have no need to act so secretly. The People’s Council was connected to Hongryeong. All she needed to do was say a word to him.

Then those secret movements had another purpose. They were probably aiming at something bigger than Orgot alone.

I tapped the table as I fell into thought, then frowned.

“Isabella, may I look through the documents again?”

I held out my hand to Isabella. She handed me the documents related to the puppets. I stared closely at each sheet of paper and counted the numbers written within.

Before long, I could not help clicking my tongue.

I thought I knew what they were after.

I glanced at Isabella. She gave a small nod. It seemed she had also realized why the puppets were breaking down.

Whoever was tampering with the puppets knew a great deal about them. Otherwise, they could not have interfered with them so flawlessly.

And there were only a handful of people who knew the puppets that well. Me, who had designed the magic directly, and those who made the puppets. The puppeteers of this city.

That was why I had briefly suspected them when I first examined the documents. But that suspicion quickly vanished. They had no reason to act.

They shared the profits with the People’s Council. There was no reason for them to deliberately damage the puppets. The more puppets broke, the more they lost as well.

But what if someone were willing to bear those losses for them?

For example, what if a massive organization such as Mookgeumgo, the organization that ruled this city, was behind it?

We had swallowed up territory quite successfully. We also paid a portion of those profits to the city. It was a considerable amount of points.

But it was only a small portion of the total. Under the agreement, we only had to pay around ten percent.

Looking at it that way, perhaps we had seemed like an attractive prize to Mookgeumgo.

That was only natural. After all, the puppets were made by the city’s puppeteers, while the Arcana General Trading Company merely distributed them.

Such simple distribution could easily be handled without the Trading Company. Mookgeumgo had more than enough ability to manage it.

Then they would naturally need to lay the groundwork to drive out the Trading Company. And the method they had chosen was this, sabotage directed at the puppets.

This was also exploiting a gap in the agreement we had established before.

The agreement had been made solely in pursuit of profit. Accordingly, we needed to provide sufficient profit to Mookgeumgo and the puppeteer association, the parties to the agreement.

But what would happen if the Trading Company failed to produce results that satisfied them? What if strange incidents such as puppets breaking down continued occurring, and they could not even resolve them?

Naturally, the existing promises would need to be adjusted. They might even seek to break the agreement.

Would not what they wanted be to remove the Trading Company and divide the profits among themselves?

I could not help frowning slightly.

Was this the gift Hwaryeong had intended to give Hongryeong?

Even if the territory we had built was quite tempting, Mookgeumgo alone would naturally feel burdened by interfering with it. This meant encroaching on the Trading Company’s territory.

But what if a deal had been made in advance? If they had agreed to hand over something greater in exchange for swallowing this place, there would surely be no conflict between the Trading Company and Mookgeumgo.

Perhaps such a deal had been in place for quite some time. Ever since the moment I chose the People’s Council over Hwaryeong.

From Hwaryeong’s perspective, there was nothing to lose. She could eliminate Hongryeong, her rival, while gaining a great profit.

The same was true for me.

I glanced at Orgot. Hwaryeong’s hand was reaching only toward the Trading Company, or rather, the People’s Council and Hongryeong. From that perspective, even if the agreement broke apart, I would not suffer much.

No matter who occupied the territory, they would need my help to make puppets. In the first place, I had returned the profits gained from their puppets to the puppeteer association, so it did not matter much to me.

Furthermore, they would need my agreement to break the agreement, so they would likely want to share their profits with us as well.

Was that why they had not planted magic in my workshop?

Mookgeumgo had clearly decided to target only them.

I rubbed my forehead as I thought of Hwaryeong. Looking at this perfectly arranged process, it almost felt as if she were speaking to me.

Would I help Hongryeong in this crisis?

Or would I quietly return to her side?

That was the choice she was asking me to make.

It was a very clean piece of work, just like Hwaryeong.

After thinking for a moment, I looked at Orgot and spoke.

“I will go meet Lady Ailey.”

I did not know how this had been arranged, but one thing was certain.

Ailey, who had brought about the agreement, would not have agreed to this.

Ailey had chosen Hongryeong in the Zhu family’s power struggle. She surely would not have done anything that would cause Hongryeong to suffer losses.

The reason Orgot had called me here through Isabella was probably to ask me to meet her.

Orgot nodded with a stiff expression.

“Then I will manage the workshop as usual. ...I will place my trust in you, Mr. Evron.”

I nodded as well.

Orgot had likely realized how the situation was unfolding. But he could not act carelessly.

If Orgot made any major moves, they would realize that he had noticed them. Then, rather than continuing to act secretly as they were now, they would become much more proactive.

It would surely become difficult for us to understand their actions.

So Orgot needed to behave as if he had noticed nothing. That way, they would not make any larger moves.

Perhaps frustrated by his inability to act himself, Orgot repeatedly sighed. I was likely the only one he could trust.

It was not unusual for Isabella and me to visit this place, so they would surely not become too suspicious.

I had built a relationship with Orgot over the years, so I needed to help him understand the situation for now.

I slowly left the reception room.

The Mookgeumgo person waiting outside glanced at me, but I did not show any reaction as I leisurely passed by.

They would probably check the recording magic once we had all left.

Now that I had heard the story, I could sense something suspicious in their gaze.

Then how could I move without drawing attention? If I hurried to find Ailey, they would surely find that suspicious.

I walked slowly as I considered the problem.

But the problem was quickly resolved.

I did not need to find Ailey because she came to find me instead.

I blinked when I saw Ailey arrive at the villa where we were staying on that dark night.

Ailey leisurely drank from a wineglass. And beside her was Hongryeong, covered from head to toe as he had been when he visited me before.

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