Can’t accept this.
‘No way. Is he really saying that when he’s the best at deceiving others?’
Kine couldn’t hold back her rising anger and huffed.
“So what? Is it also a lie that Argyrion planted Silver Threads in the Cult?”
“Ah. That part’s true. The Silver Threads came from Sikton’s brain. Didn’t you hear?”
That was the first I’d heard of it.
“Why are you just now telling me this?!”
“I’m sorry. I was too busy learning the control method for Divine Power and forgot to tell you when I was done.”
Orthes shrugged. He said he was sorry, but his attitude didn’t seem sorry at all. It was clear he’d been intentionally holding back information until now.
‘Maybe he thought I might rush in to take revenge, so he blocked the possibility of an emergency to control me since I was right next to him.’
Kine followed behind Orthes, still angry. It was obvious that if she dashed out to eliminate Argyrion right now, she’d get caught.
‘…The capsule with my family is with Hydra Corporation.’
Suddenly, melancholy surged up again.
*
‘Why is everyone suddenly looking at Carisia as if she’s some kind of goddess…?’
Returning to the listing review room, I was bewildered by the barrage of gazes aimed at Carisia.
Seeing the automaton and a corpse sprawled at the entrance, I could vaguely guess the situation.
The admission officer, who saw I had returned with Kine, kept bowing his head repeatedly. I waved back and approached Carisia directly.
The crowd was watching Carisia, but none dared to get close. The awe reflected in their gazes suggested they could guess the abilities she’d shown here.
Still, it was better to hear it straight from her.
“Boss, what happened?”
“You’re late, aren’t you?”
Right after I returned, I was met with such a friendly reproach. Boss really did have a strict sense of time.
I glanced around at the group I had sent to the listing review room earlier. Niobe and the admission officer knew nothing of my relationship with Carisia. So it wouldn’t occur to them to explain the situation to her for my sake.
Ah. Given that Niobe was a Blasphemia agent, she might know that Carisia is Orthes’s superior. But thinking of me disguised as Orthes, that made no sense.
But Lampades, you’re a bit different, aren’t you?
I turned my head toward Lampades. Just one word from him, ‘That guy’s a bit late because something came up,’ would do.
Upon catching my gaze, Lampades suddenly shook his head. What was he not doing?
Behind Lampades, I saw the other members of his Mage Tower comforting each other. They seemed worried about Astraphe, the youngest mage in the tower.
‘Ah, so he’s too busy caring for his crew to talk to Carisia, huh?’
If that’s the case, it can’t be helped. I nodded in understanding.
*
Lampades arrived at the listing review room, deep in thought. About Orthes.
‘Orthes surely said he was here as the secretary to Hydra Corporation.’
But how did the admission officer from Museion refer to him?
‘Emergency Rescue Team Leader. Moreover, that little mage didn’t deny it at all.’
Can someone attending a listing review also be the leader of an emergency rescue team?
If the rescue team was an existing position, it would somewhat make sense. But it’s an ’emergency’ rescue team. They were meant to be hastily assembled and dispatched after this terror occurred.
There’s no way they could be combined.
The shabby man, exuding serious fighting spirit, threw Lampades into deeper confusion. The word Blasphemia was shrouded in mystery.
It felt like I had vaguely heard it in a previous confidential commission. Could this be a clue to uncover Orthes’s true identity?
While lost in thought, Lampades suddenly noticed Orthes watching him. Not the other people who escaped from Museion with him, but only him.
The gaze directed at him clearly asked whether he had disclosed Orthes’s various identities and numerous faces to Carisia.
Lampades shook his head with all his might. It was a declaration that he hadn’t said anything.
In a state of extreme tension, Lampades noticed a slight change in Orthes’s gaze. It wasn’t about the atmosphere but a physical shift.
The direction of the glinting eyes beneath the eyelids had just slightly shifted.
Then that gaze turned to the members of his Mage Tower behind him.
Whether it hinted at the cost of blabbering or stemmed from greed for talents needed by Hydra Corporation, he couldn’t tell.
Finally, Orthes smiled and nodded.
Lampades gained some hope from that probing gaze.
‘Orthes is hiding his identity even from his boss. He must have decided it wasn’t the time to reveal his true self yet. Then there must be a significant difference between Hydra’s leadership and Orthes’ humanity…!’
*
Carisia was listening to Orthes’s hushed explanation, or to put it another way, his whisper.
She liked the voice whispering in her ear.
“I’ll explain the details once we return to Etna City. For now, please just know that we’ve acquired an effective countermeasure against the terror organization Argyrion.”
Upon hearing he was late, Orthes quickly reported what had happened while he was away.
‘Everyone else has arrived, but I still can’t see that one person. So I said that.’
In an extremely businesslike demeanor, Carisia shook her head slightly.
“So, what about your side, Boss?”
“One of Argyrion’s mages directly attacked and took us down. I never expected him to make it all the way to the review room, though.”
Orthes frowned, looking somewhat flustered. It was a subtle change that even Carisia, who was accustomed to his expressions, might not notice.
“Didn’t the Elimination give you a warning?”
“Right. The Elimination didn’t show any signs at all. I felt the Barrier shake and was prepared for it. I struck him down as soon as he broke in.”
Carisia briefly explained the battle dynamics. She isolated herself and Argyrion’s mage within the temporary barrier created by releasing magic power, then took him down with a Curse that kills what one sees.
“…A Curse that kills what one sees?”
“Ah. Due to its operating structure, it wouldn’t work on higher Eroders or stronger mages. The way to break through the Magic Field is also a problem, and if they can regenerate after burning the brain, it’d be pointless.”
At this point, Orthes realized the reason Phoibos’s Elimination hadn’t worked.
It warns of impending danger.
‘The Argyrion mage couldn’t even enter Carisia’s danger zone!’
How could a guy who was fighting well suddenly go poof after a look at Carisia be any threat or crisis? Orthes chuckled at the ridiculous magical capability.
“Looks like the situation will be resolved soon. Are we heading straight to Etna City?”
“Yes. They probably won’t show much interest in a single downed mage all the way from the Ten Towers. But just in case, let’s return swiftly.”
“Then I’ll tidy up some things here first.”
*
The first person I approached was Niobe. Surprisingly, she seemed well-suited to the role of an emergency rescue team member, skillfully administering magic ampules to those who had exhausted their magic power and performing first aid.
“Niobe.”
“Ah. Senior. What about that person?”
She gestured toward Kine, who was chatting with Carisia.
“Thank goodness… But what happened?”
Having seen the emergency treatment for the patients was mostly wrapped up, I handed Niobe a piece of paper. It contained instructions stating that I would incinerate it after familiarizing myself with the information, including what I needed to provide next.
Niobe looked at me with a stiff expression.
“Cheer up, Niobe. You should always have a bright face, no matter where you are.”
“Indeed. The fact that you always walk around smiling makes it hard to read your emotions…!”
It’s not like that. It just became a habit to approach others with a smiling face since I was paranoid about others judging me.
But there’s no need to correct her thinking of me as an exemplary senior agent.
I took out the next memo and quickly wrote down my deductions.
[There’s a Doomsday Cultist within the Ten Towers working with Argyrion.]
This was more fact than conjecture. After all, the fire mage I fought with Niobe had been from that group. Most of the rest were also close to the truth.
[Blasphemia is no exception. Remember Nardanit.]
[Be particularly careful during the Argyrion extermination operation. It may be a trap posing as an extermination operation.]
This included a deduction about finding a traitor, suggesting there might be more traitors.
[Do not trust the existing reporting system. If you discover a suspect within the traitors, please find an opportunity to directly inform the Auditor General or send it to the L13 email address.]
The final conclusion included measures to overcome the crisis.
But would it be easier for a mere agent to contact the Auditor General or a somewhat familiar senior agent?
Moreover, the Auditor General has multiple email addresses. Besides the one publicly known for public service tips, there’s an actual emergency account used in real emergencies.
The address I sent the report to after bringing down Nardanit through Arabella was that emergency contact account. In a situation like this, managing the emergency contact account would be a hassle, so it’s only natural that Niobe would neglect managing the public service tip account.
Niobe read all the messages and nodded.
With this, I had prepared all the countermeasures I could against Argyrion.
Niobe is a regular agent. While she wouldn’t get hold of confidential information, she would still be sufficient to understand the general behavioral patterns of Blasphemia.
If the Divine Cult goes after Argyrion, they would contact me, so I’d set up lines of communication with both the Divine Cult and Blasphemia.
‘If I leak information from both sides to each other, I could somewhat control their actions.’
In other words, a three-way division of power between Argyrion, Blasphemia, and the Divine Cult.
I deeply thanked the perfect model of all the contractors that made me visit my employer three times, the super sub, Zhuge Liang.
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