I escaped from the headache-inducing spot and headed straight for Carisia.
“Boss, we’re in big trouble. Lampades wants our company’s trade secrets.”
“Could you explain in a bit more detail?”
For some reason, Carisia was already massaging her temples. There really wasn’t much more to explain.
“Lampades brought Knemon at my request. But instead of a monetary reward, he wants to know what he’s planning to do with Knemon.”
The moment I heard that he was summoned to obtain a list of the Mage Towers hiding ancient relics, it seemed likely that Lampades would have a very bad preconceived notion about our company.
Carisia slowly nodded. She seemed to understand Lampades’ feelings.
“How did you explain about Mr. Knemon to Lampades?”
“Lampades knows that Knemon and I are friends. I just explained that I don’t know how we became distant.”
I felt a bit embarrassed, as if I were digging up my dark past, but I told Carisia how I ended up growing distant from Knemon.
Carisia tilted her head at my explanation that it was probably because I used half of a relic without discussing it.
“What effect did the relic have for you to give up the rest so readily?”
“It’s nothing special. Just a high-performance bomb, you could say. When I tested its performance, it wasn’t as great as I thought.”
Carisia’s gaze suddenly felt cold. I could sense an emotion like, ‘Do you really think of me as a bomb user after that?’
I hurriedly started to make excuses.
“I understand what you’re thinking, but what I asked from that relic wasn’t for greater firepower or anything like that.”
“Then what was it?”
“Precision, I guess. Hmm.”
It felt strange. The more I spoke, the more I felt like I was sinking into quicksand.
“First, I should explain how the relic works. When someone bursts a bubble, it interferes with and destroys the being that they are seeing through the bubble.”
“That means the ‘being seen’ is the target.”
Carisia’s gaze was directed at my face, more precisely, at my eyes. It seemed as if she was trying to pierce through my eyelids to see my blue irises.
“Yes. Just as you guess, I was curious about how my eyes would interact with the relic’s mechanism.”
I had my eyes wide open when I burst the Bubble of Silence.
What that meant was that at that moment, all the information and history of the world was reflected in my sight.
I hoped that the Bubble of Silence could interfere with even abstract realms like ‘history’ or ‘the past.’
…But that wasn’t the case.
My range of perception widened, and I ended up causing a large-scale destruction around that area.
The damage even reached the dimensional walls that aren’t normally visible, and for a moment, the extra-dimensional realm surged.
However, I couldn’t achieve the performance I desired.
I was looking at the ruins I had just come out of through that bubble.
Specifically, I was focusing on the information about the ‘facilities destroyed by explorers.’
If the Bubble of Silence could interfere with the past, and thereby erase the ‘destruction by explorers’, then the facilities of the ruins would be restored to their original state.
It would change the current time by erasing what had ‘happened’ in the past.
When I first grasped the performance of the Bubble of Silence, I thought, ‘After all that hardship, is what I found just a peculiar eraser?’ and despaired, but then I came up with this idea and felt hope rise again.
If it was possible to silence the past, I could have deleted the fact that ‘I fell into this world’ while looking at myself and returned.
Since I couldn’t express my thoughts from that time as they were, I vaguely muddled the facts.
“For example, if I could erase things like scars or incurable diseases, think of the endless possibilities!”
“It’s impossible to ‘see’ history with a general view. It’s something only your eyes can do.”
“Yes. That’s why I kept using that relic while adjusting the performance of my eyes to see if I could interfere with the past.”
I shrugged my shoulders towards Carisia. The Bubble of Silence could only erase tangible beings, meaning that it could only interfere with those who had mana or physical forces using specific means, while it was of no use against abstract concepts like ‘the past.’
“That’s still a pity. It could be quite useful when fighting the Ten Towers… Ah.”
Carisia let out a small exclamation. She was probably thinking about the Ten Commandments.
“Yes. The Ten Commandments are already stepping into the realm of Ascension. Ascension is the area that transcends the material world. I’ve never actually experimented with it, but pouring the remaining solution of the Bubble into the Ten Commandments will probably be of no use.”
The same would go for the tower masters connected to the Ten Commandments or the elders below them.
While I wouldn’t say there was no chance for elders who came out of the tower, it should be meaningless in the realms governed by the Ten Commandments.
“It’s incredible, yet absurd. What kind of a Mage King…”
Carisia was probably thinking about the words I had said. About the Mage King who would come in three years.
“Haha. Our goal isn’t to defeat the Mage King, but to bring about the fall of the White Light, right? That makes things much simpler, doesn’t it?”
I swallowed the words that were about to leap out of my throat.
You, who made the Mage King experience ‘failure’, are also quite terrifying as well. After all, you successfully destroyed the Ten Commandments of White Light.
From inferring that you actually broke the Ten Commandments, it was clear that the original Carisia, the nameless Mage, had reached the realm of Ascension.
As for the current Carisia, I wasn’t so sure.
While I didn’t see her original relentless obsession or cruelty, she often displayed strange creativity or adaptability instead.
‘Well, it’s not like a person’s essence has changed; she must have the potential to destroy the Ten Commandments.’
“So, boss, what should we say to Lampades?”
*
Carisia guessed the misunderstanding that Lampades and Knemon were experiencing.
‘It seems like Orthes has some evil scheme behind calling Knemon here again.’
It would be best to keep the plan for the Artificial Ten Commandments a secret as much as possible. With the Ten Towers aligning with Argyrion and the cults to prepare a major purge, this dramatic plan of creating the Ten Commandments using relics would undoubtedly be prone to being leaked.
‘But if I leave everything to Orthes, I don’t know what kind of misunderstanding he might have. It’s quite troublesome.’
After pondering for a moment, Carisia finally made a decision.
“I’ll explain to them, so bring them to the President’s Office. You can either stand there without saying anything or just leave.”
“Really? I’m good at explaining too.”
Memories of the past flickered through Carisia’s mind.
He is good at explaining, but it’s just that he’s good at making the listener misunderstand. And his misunderstandings are far from ordinary.
Even now, Kine is probably confused about whether to take Orthes as ‘a villain who uses souls’ or ‘Phoibos’ prophet.’
The ability to instill such directly opposite misconceptions is a truly extraordinary talent of Orthes.
‘Whether that extraordinary talent is a good kind of extraordinary is another matter.’
“…Just let me handle it, so bring them here.”
Orthes, who had some pride in his presentation skills, left the room with a slightly gloomy expression.
*
“The boss has allowed the meeting.”
‘So the private matter was a lie after all.’
Orthes had previously told Knemon it would be a ‘personal matter, so it wouldn’t be interesting.’
But in reality, it was a matter serious enough that he had to seek permission from the boss.
Even if Orthes and the boss had a ‘personal’ relationship, if both heads of Hydra Corporation were involved, it was no longer just a personal affair.
Lampades and Knemon both followed Orthes out with a curious tension.
Step, step. The footsteps echoed like discord in the dark corridor.
Creeeak, the door opened.
“Come in.”
“…Who are you?”
A question with an unsteady tone. It was Knemon. Orthes’ smile seemed to deepen slightly.
“The boss has ordered it. Only the two of you may enter. I will guard the outside.”
Orthes’ unwavering loyalty towards the boss was something both Lampades and Knemon couldn’t comprehend. Each time they saw it, it felt like having their minds sanded down with a direct plane.
As soon as the two entered the President’s Office, the door closed silently behind them.
Through the massive glass window, the dim sky of Etna City reflected. Against the hazy heavens, Carisia was watching them.
“Please, take a seat.”
An unreasonable command.
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