I Became the Narrow-Eyed Henchman of the Evil Boss – Chapter 174

Chapter 174: Ten Commandments Frontline (1)

15 minutes since the declaration of the White Light Tower succession war.

White Light Tower suspected that Hydra Corporation’s declaration of the succession war had been instigated by another of the Ten Magic Towers. So did the other Nine Towers. It was the only logical explanation.

Each of the Nine Towers hoped another would step forward to pull the strings behind Hydra Corporation, forming an alliance to check White Light Tower’s dominance. A cooperative effort to halt their runaway supremacy.

But no such covert dealings occurred between the Towers. Was each one planning to face White Light Tower alone?

Perhaps. After all, this succession war wasn’t about launching an all-out war against White Light Tower. It was merely a warning—an exercise to send a message. There was no need to involve the other Towers.

At least, that’s what they thought.

Then came the moment no one expected: one after another, the succession war was declared against all the Magic Towers, catching each Tower off guard. Before any of them could even make sense of the situation, chaos erupted. War had begun.

The first wave of combatants wasn’t made up of mages. Nor were they priests. According to Orthes’ plan, they were to be held back as a trump card for the war’s most pivotal moments.

Instead, the vanguard Orthes unleashed in the “Ten Commandments Revolution” was…

“Haah… Damn brat. Tasking an old man like me with something this insane…”

…knights.

Mages who dared to trespass into the domain of another Magic Tower would find it almost impossible to control their magic. And yet, in order to claim the Ten Commandments, one had to breach the very heart of their enemy’s domain. That was why the Towers held an unassailable advantage in succession wars.

But for knights?

Knights didn’t use magic. They wielded aura. Though they weren’t completely immune to the influence of the Ten Commandments’ magical dominance, it didn’t impose any fatal penalties on them.

Furthermore, no mage ever anticipated a coordinated assault by knights. That’s because knights had long been rendered obsolete by magic. They were relics of a bygone era, their defeat by magic so absolute that they’d become history’s losers.

Their legacy, aura techniques, had been reduced to nothing more than combat protocols programmed into the circuits of golems. The once-proud “knightly orders” no longer existed in any recognizable form.

So when seasoned warriors, masters of aura, suddenly threw themselves into close combat, the battlefield descended into pandemonium. The attackers’ identity was impossible to discern.

The elders overseeing Yellow Thunder Tower, filling in for their tower lord who could barely stay awake for a few hours each day, were horrified.

Even ether-based long-distance communication through the network wasn’t functioning properly. The only means of maintaining remote communication was by manually transmitting electrical signals into the opposing devices—something only their most skilled operators could manage.

“Is this the Black Dark Tower’s doing? Have they unearthed some ancient knights’ crypt?!”

“Do those look like Death Knights to you? No, they’re alive! They’ve hired mercenaries—agents who clean up dimensional erosion zones, and in bulk!”

“Mercenaries? What kind of organization could possibly hire this many of those thugs? Only another Tower could afford something like this!”

A heated debate broke out among Yellow Thunder’s elders. And at some point, one of them recalled a similar situation from the past—a Tower employing mercenaries on a smaller scale.

White Light Tower.

They remembered the clandestine request to hunt down the “White Light Tower Monster,” an effort that White Light Tower had contributed significantly to creating. Though the request hadn’t been officially issued under White Light Tower’s name, the connection was obvious in hindsight.

However, the current scale of this operation was vastly different. Back then, White Light Tower had hired perhaps five mercenaries at most. Now, there were well over a hundred mercenaries assaulting the battlefield.

That said, the Magic Towers historically had no reason to associate with mercenaries. The Towers wielded overwhelming power in their own right, and when additional forces were needed, they could simply mobilize affiliated dark towers under their jurisdiction.

White Light Tower only resorted to hiring mercenaries to avoid exposing its involvement. They could have easily attempted to kill the White Light Tower Monster through more conventional means.

Of course, that mission had ultimately failed.

The details of this incident were only revealed later during the investigation into White Light Tower’s involvement in the disappearance of Blasphemia’s vice-commander.

Since then, White Light Tower hadn’t made any further known attempts to work with mercenaries. After all, the White Light Tower Monster had been dealt with by that time.

But it was a fact that White Light Tower had once established a channel to hire mercenaries. Among the Ten Towers, White Light Tower was the only one to have set up such a line of contact for recruiting mercenaries on this scale.

“So, White Light Tower assumes we’re the ones behind this assault? What reason would they have for thinking that? Have they all lost their minds?!”

“No, think carefully. Even if White Light Tower did organize this force, isn’t this still strange? The succession war began less than thirty minutes ago. Are you telling me they’ve mobilized a force of this size in that short time? It’s ridiculous!”

Of course it was. But this was the Ten Towers.

The elders of the Towers, who understood their peers’ capabilities better than anyone, found their speculation only growing more confused.

And this confusion was exactly what Orthes had planned for.

***

The battle against Yellow Thunder Tower held a unique position in Orthes’ strategy. It stood out, even in the backup plans.

The other units in the Ten Commandments Frontline were ordered to retreat immediately if the assault on White Light Tower failed. But not the Lampades unit.

Lampades recalled Orthes’ words.

“Under no circumstances can Yellow Thunder Tower be left standing.”

“Why?”

“Yellow Thunder is the weakest. Though its lord remains, the elders on the frontlines are only there because the lord is in no condition to act. Remember the ‘insurance’ plan I mentioned earlier? It’s still active.”

“You’re saying Lampades will become the fallback refuge if things go south?”

Orthes nodded. The only safe haven from White Light Tower’s fury after their inevitable retaliation would be another Magic Tower with equivalent authority.

If the fight against White Light Tower ended in failure, Orthes planned to hide Carisia within Lampades Tower.

“The second reason is this: If defeating White Light Tower is the first condition for victory, then subduing Yellow Thunder is the second.”

Orthes pointed to Lampades’ radio interference technology.

“With the Ten Commandments’ power boosting your jamming capabilities, you’ll gain the ability to control the entire Ten Commandments Frontline’s communications. You understand how massive a tactical advantage that is, don’t you?”

Orthes then introduced Lampades to an elderly man who had been waiting nearby.

“…Hector?”

“Oh? You know me?”

“Of course. You’re a legend in our line of work. A man who solved countless requests with just a single blade…”

Lampades glanced at Orthes and immediately made the connection. He understood why they were friends.

“Old man Hector is actually a key figure in an anti-Tower faction. He’s more moderate than Kynemon, the revolutionary, but…”

“What?”

“Oh, never mind that. What’s important is that the fighters Hector leads are all seasoned mercenaries. A band of soldiers suspiciously skilled in aura combat, led by a former mercenary. What do you think Yellow Thunder will make of that?”

Lampades answered hesitantly, wanting to avoid the chaos of this situation altogether.

“They’d assume the mercenaries are exploiting the chaos of the magical society to challenge the Towers’ power structure.”

“That’s the logical conclusion. But since you and I are close…”

“What?”

“Oh, nothing. I just meant that despite not meeting in years, we’re still connected.”

“…Fine. And?”

“And, well, it just so happens that the mercenary you were close with had a history with White Light Tower. That alone gives enough room for the elders to speculate on other scenarios.”

Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of new information, Lampades felt his mind spinning.

“In any case,” Orthes concluded, “this chaos will delay their decision-making. That much is certain.”

Even if it didn’t, Orthes added, the sudden attack by a “mercenary” faction would leave them scrambling for answers.

“In this confusion, we have a chance to do something decisive. Lampades, you and Hector have a critical role to play.”

Lampades looked toward Hector, who simply grinned mischievously, his strange shirt wrinkling as he adjusted his stance. It was as if he already knew the plan.

“What exactly is this role?”

“Assassination.”

“Assassination? Of whom?”

“Who else? The lord of Yellow Thunder Tower.”

The enchantware monitoring Lampades’ vitals blared a warning as his blood pressure spiked.

“That’s—”

“Oh, don’t worry. If infiltration is the issue, I’ve already brought in an expert.”

Orthes gestured toward empty air.

A golden door materialized from nothing. As it opened, a young boy stepped through. Orthes turned to Lampades with a calm smile.

“This is Proditor. To put it simply, he’s one of the most dangerous among the twelve priests of the old gods.”

Lampades closed his eyes.