Ch.111Storm Brewing in Amimone (2)

On the way back after wrapping up the business at the Great Temple of Pluto, Carisia had analyzed Adusiam’s core.

‘According to Carisia’s analysis, this golem… codename Adusiam, sends distress signals to two recipients.’

One was the Ten Towers, and the other was to the Demon King’s minions, entities of the same kind as the golem.

Ortes suspected that this “Demon King’s minion” might be Argyrion.

The easiest way to prove this would be to tamper with Adusiam’s internal circuits to make it send another distress signal.

But for Ortes, this wasn’t an option. He needed to host guests at Hydra Company for the time being, and if Argyrion were to invade Etna City—however unlikely—it would draw unnecessary attention from the Ten Towers.

Yet this wasn’t something he could experiment with in some remote location either. If Argyrion had indeed responded to the “distress signal,” there was no guarantee they would believe and respond to a second or third signal.

‘If they invaded the Great Temple of Pluto because of this signal, then I can probably use this signal only once or twice more at most.’

The Ten Towers would assume their distress signal had been compromised.

In fact, with the annihilation of the forces deployed to the Great Temple of Pluto, the signal system was already compromised, and they would likely consider any future signals to be traps.

But I thought Argyrion would fall for this signal-based lure once or twice.

From their perspective, the “trap” at the Great Temple of Pluto had yielded excellent results.

The killing of a Ten Towers Elder. How heroic an achievement this must seem to Argyrion.

Generally, traps lead to death, but paradoxically, traps are also places where enemy forces concentrate.

Meaning that the moment you crush a trap, you can demolish the enemy’s overall plan.

From Argyrion’s perspective, having defeated a top-tier enemy like a Ten Towers Elder, they would likely judge that deliberately falling into a trap once or twice to crush the Ten Towers’ schemes would turn the tide in their favor.

Both Argyrion and the Ten Towers would recognize that to decisively defeat Argyrion’s special operations unit, they would need to deploy at least one Elder. But such high-level personnel cannot be mobilized carelessly.

At best—though “at best” hardly suits such entities, but compared to Elders, “at best” is appropriate—the typical limit would be an encirclement of combat mages from the Panoptes.

And Argyrion wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to take down Panoptes veterans.

This is why I predicted “once or twice.” Argyrion would overestimate their combat power after defeating a Ten Towers Elder, but in reality, the battle situation wouldn’t be as favorable as they predicted.

They might even be pushed back and defeated in battle against the Panoptes.

They could accept one difficult battle, or even one defeat. But if Argyrion has any sense, the moment they face unexpected results twice in a row, they’ll likely realize their power has been overestimated.

From then on, they wouldn’t deliberately walk into traps. Unless they had prepared some groundbreaking move.

Of course, Argyrion might not show up at all. Even with the achievement of defeating a Ten Towers Elder, there’s no guarantee of victory if another Elder is waiting in ambush.

Above all, there was still no definitive proof that Argyrion had been drawn by the distress signal sent to the Demon King’s minions. I couldn’t rule out the possibility that all these hypotheses might be discarded.

If that happens, I would be the one most troubled.

If Argyrion doesn’t show up, how would I link the Amimone Magic Tower to Argyrion?

Of course, I had prepared a detour.

Under the name of L13, I had forwarded the distress signal that Adusiam sent to the Demon King’s minions to Salmosia, noting that “it is presumed to be a communication signal used by Argyrion.”

Now it doesn’t matter whether Argyrion actually shows up or not.

As long as the signal was transmitted from the Amimone Magic Tower, Blasphemia would take action.

“Still, I can’t let someone else handle such an important task.”

I still hadn’t fully gotten over the absurdity of Dimedes dying on a business trip. If I consider the need for on-site response should Argyrion actually appear, I’m clearly the optimal choice.

“It would be nice if Kine’s magical skills improved rapidly.”

That’s probably too much to expect from a child who hasn’t even been with Hydra Company for a year. I shook off these idle thoughts and headed toward Carisia.

I should at least report my travel plans.

***

Ortes didn’t even bring a travel plan document; he simply declared, “I’ll be going.” It seemed almost cold-hearted.

Carisia made no comment on Ortes’s plan.

“Why don’t you take the crystal with you?”

She only left a concerned suggestion. Ortes shook his head.

“I would take it in most situations, but this time I’m going to ‘uncover’ the Amimone Magic Tower’s ‘charges of hiding sacred artifacts’ or ‘collusion with Argyrion.'”

His choice of words—”uncover” rather than “fabricate” or “frame”—was Ortes’s own brand of humor.

“But if by chance I get searched and the crystal is revealed to be a sacred artifact, how troublesome would that be? I might even be labeled a Ten Towers traitor.”

It was an excuse that even Carisia had to accept, though she had been planning to insist he take it, citing the previous Talos attack as an example.

“You’re someone who would commit a much more proper rebellion than some hastily concocted charge of hiding sacred artifacts.”

It was a comment thrown out of spite.

“This time I’m going as a Blasphemia inspector. I should dress the part, shouldn’t I?”

Ortes brushed off Carisia’s pettiness with an easy smile. He added:

“It might be useful for persuading a real Argyrion collaborator in the Amimone Magic Tower, but the chances of that are practically zero.”

Hearing Ortes’s words, Carisia thought:

‘…There really might be a collaborator.’

From long experience, Carisia knew that most of Ortes’s deceptions were backed by evidence that wouldn’t be exposed as false until the deception was complete.

Most of that damning evidence was the product of fabrication, skillfully pieced together to fit the situation, but sometimes such fabrications would provoke the real thing to emerge.

What even Carisia couldn’t be certain of was whether Ortes had planned in advance to use the fake as bait to catch the real thing. The more rationally and sensibly one examined the circumstances, the more it seemed impossible to orchestrate such meticulous situations without prior preparation.

‘That person has his careless moments, though.’

In reality, Ortes preferred to resolve situations through improvised use of force when things went awry.

He didn’t have the personality suited for such elaborate deceptions.

‘The opening move to corner the Amimone Magic Tower this time was truly sophisticated, but it’s probably the result of unconscious actions rather than proper planning. It would be nice if he deliberately used that good brain of his.’

Carisia’s assessment of Ortes was remarkably similar to Ortes’s assessment of her.

***

The plan to modify Adusiam into an alarm system for the Demon King’s resurrection, with Carisia’s help, had yielded meaningful results. First, they had modified the magic core’s circuits to allow turning the power on and off. Second, they could control whether the “distress signal” was transmitted when powered on.

The final function was a magic supply control device. This was a feature designed for when the Demon King returned and higher functions were unlocked.

If the emergency command to shut down didn’t work due to the appearance of a higher authority holder, they would remove the power source itself to stop its activity.

‘I still can’t use it as an alarm because I haven’t decided on the most important thing…’

To use this properly as an alarm, it needs to be kept in a state where “communication with the Demon King is possible.” In other words, as soon as the Demon King appears, he could locate where Adusiam is.

I haven’t found a place to store Adusiam’s core yet. I need a location that’s distant from Etna City where Hydra Company is located, but where I can immediately monitor the core’s status. That’s a difficult condition to meet unless our company establishes a branch office.

Upon arriving in Algoth City, where the Amimone Magic Tower is located, I secretly contacted Blasphemia.

In fact, Blasphemia had requested my support from the moment sacred artifacts were discovered near the Amimone Magic Tower. They wanted me as a military force in case Argyrion launched a surprise attack to support the Amimone Magic Tower. I replied that I would gladly fulfill Salmosia’s request, and as soon as I arrived in Algoth City, I was able to contact the field agent.

For better or worse, the field agent in charge of Algoth City was someone I knew.

“Oh, senior?”

“Miss Niobe. It’s been a while!”