Ch.125Payroll Settlement (2)

A gentle voice. However, the tension rose inversely proportional to the softness of the tone.

It’s not a bad thing that Carisia is looking for me.

If only I had responded to her request on time. I forced a smile and tried to brush off my employer’s reproach about being late.

“Haha. That’s just how things turned out.”

“How exactly?”

…I tried to brush it off.

“I’m pretty sure I said I’d leave early and return early this time. Yet I only came back after an entire city was engulfed in an extradimensional storm and the Tower Master of the Light Tower fell from power.”

Carisia’s lips were smiling, but there was no trace of humor in her tone.

“This is exactly why I told you to take Phoebus’s crystal.”

Words that could be either lamentation or reproach. I offered an appropriate excuse.

“But boss, the crystal wouldn’t have warned me of any particular danger…”

If Carisia had glimpsed something truly dangerous in the crystal—like the insane sight of two or more Ten Towers elders launching an attack, as I had seen at Pluto’s Grand Temple—I would have rushed back immediately, dropping everything else.

She did leave dozens of messages asking about my well-being, but the fact that she didn’t come in person confirmed this. Carisia wasn’t the type to easily hand over a high-efficiency asset like me to someone else.

Somehow, Carisia’s gaze grew even colder after hearing my words.

“Sacred artifacts aren’t omnipotent, are they?”

“Rest assured. I may not be a sacred artifact, but I am omnipotent.”

“…”

A stern silence descended between Carisia and me. It was meant to be a joke. Carisia soon sighed and beckoned with her finger. A gesture to come closer and sit down.

“So. You said you needed to see Knemon before me as soon as you arrived. What did you talk about?”

It was a declaration that she would let it slide for now. Strange. I haven’t done anything wrong, yet somehow I feel suffocated.

“I took care of the payment issue in advance. Due to some unexpected situations in Algoth City, I couldn’t prepare the perfect compensation that I needed to give him.”

***

Carisia listened slowly to Ortes’s explanation. How Argyrion had gone mad and launched an attack while causing an extradimensional storm, and how he had cleverly used that incident to frame Danao as Argyrion’s collaborator, then manipulated public opinion in Blasphemia and forged documents to secure a spot in the Amimoné Tower Master selection tournament.

“What particularly helped was that Danao personally gave Gorgoph control authority over the mana core. Even with testimonies obtained through dreams shown to other collaborators, it would have been difficult to completely deceive Blasphemia without such physical evidence.”

With her hands clasped and chin resting on them, Carisia thought.

Perhaps, if she just let Ortes work at the Ten Towers and ignored him for a month or two, the Ten Towers might collapse—a fanciful thought.

Of course, common sense dictated this was impossible. However, the narrow-eyed man sitting before her, secretly excited while pretending not to boast about his schemes, was one of the people furthest from the word “common sense.”

After quietly listening to Ortes’s boasting, Carisia finally spoke. She had been slowly processing the situation.

“So. What happened with Argyrion?”

There were several points that needed clarification. An extradimensional storm broke out, and Argyrion appeared. Carisia felt a very ominous premonition at this point.

“It’s true that Argyrion caused the extradimensional storm. It’s also true that they have the ability to move between contaminated zones using the storm. It seems that some entity that has infected them has revealed such magic.”

Beings from beyond dimensions are usually referred to as a singular “entity” for convenience, but they are not singular. Just as the gods of this world are not one, the extradimensional entities are also not a unified will or a single individual or vertical society, but rather many with their own intentions—that was the established theory.

Most extradimensional entities view this world as a kind of food. Therefore, rather than understanding individual humans or social cultures, most are beings that seek to break through dimensional walls and savor the world.

The indiscriminate destructive actions of the Infected also stemmed from these extradimensional entities’ tendencies. However, the extradimensional entity behind Argyrion seemed very, very different.

Carisia upgraded her assessment of Argyrion’s abilities. If they were receiving such direct “sponsorship” from an extradimensional entity in some way, she shouldn’t use their former abilities as a Blasphemia agent as a baseline.

Carisia’s magical capacity had changed significantly since the Golden Desert Operation. While the quantity and output of her mana remained the same, the depth of her magic had changed.

Created by the White Light Tower and immediately pursued after gaining self-awareness, she hadn’t had time to harness the magical knowledge latent within her. Therefore, the only attacks Carisia could perform were unsophisticated beam-type attacks that were directly proportional to the amount of mana invested.

Now, having shaken off Blasphemia’s pursuit with Ortes and having the leisure to focus inward, Carisia was embodying her inner knowledge one by one. Strange magic like the “die upon sight” spell she had tested in Elysion was also an application of such knowledge.

Among the people of this era, Carisia was the magician who knew the most about magic, excluding the Tower Masters of the Ten Towers. Perhaps even including them.

However, extradimensional phenomena were beyond even the wisdom within her.

Ortes. As he himself had stated, he was close to being omnipotent. However, as shown in Phoebus’s crystal’s prophecy, if he were to get caught up in truly extraordinary events, he too could be in danger.

Carisia was greatly disturbed by the fact that her Ortes could face such danger.

Tap. Tap. Carisia’s index finger began to drum on the table. Ortes, sitting directly across from her, began to feel like a candidate facing an interviewer.

“This won’t do.”

“What do you mean?”

“I need to step in now.”

The middle head of Hydra thought:

If you don’t know what someone might do, just kill them all beforehand.

***

Carisia’s declaration was chilling. I wasn’t sure what aspect of this situation had provoked her, but did this mean she would find it difficult to entrust more work to me?

If she had told me during normal times that I no longer needed to work, I would have welcomed it with open arms, but now the situation was quite significant.

A cold intuition that I might be laid off swept over me.

“Uh, boss. Isn’t it enough to have just me dealing with underlings and handling tedious tasks?”

“Every time you go on a business trip alone, unpredictable situations occur. Rather than worrying, I’ll accompany you from the start.”

I pondered Carisia’s words. They were a bit difficult to comprehend.

“So… you’re saying you’ll accompany me on business trips?”

Carisia nodded lightly.

“For the time being, yes.”

This was even more frightening than being laid off.

After briefly massaging the space between her eyebrows, Carisia casually posed a question.

“The Tower Master selection tournament that Knemon will participate in. You’re planning to help him, right?”

“Ah, yes. The compensation was for the Tower Master position, not just the candidate position.”

As Carisia snapped her fingers, several holographic images appeared on the desk. Upon closer inspection, they were articles summarizing the factions of Amimoné Tower.

“…Hmm.”

News that the vacant Tower Master position of the Light Tower would be succeeded by one of the faction members had spread rapidly. At the same time, forces trying to connect with one of the candidates, or manipulate a candidate behind the scenes to acquire Amimoné Tower’s vision, had also grown steeply.

“The compensation for Knemon wasn’t just your personal promise, but a promise at the Hydra company level. I believe I should also do my best to fulfill the payment.”

Carisia had separated the candidates other than Knemon according to several criteria. Most classifications were based on the size of the “backers” who had chosen the candidates.

I could sense Arabella’s overtime work in the neatly organized information format.

“The Ten Towers will also predict that competition between factions will essentially be determined by backers… or more elegantly put, investors. And Argyrion, 99 times out of 100, will be involved in the Tower Master selection tournament as an investor.”

“How can you be so certain?”

Carisia just stared at me blankly in response to my question. After a few seconds of silence, I finally realized her intention.

“Because of me?”

“Spriggo said so. Haltos was convinced that the situation in Algoth City was because of you.”

I nodded. Why does that Haltos guy make wild guesses without any evidence?

“Then he’s likely to judge that the Amimoné Tower Master selection tournament is also under your influence.”

“No, how could that be?”

This is pure speculation. While it’s true that I had some influence on this situation, making such a judgment without any clues to my existence was proof of insanity.

I tried so hard not to leave any traces, yet now I have to worry about being tracked by some paranoid person. How unfair.

Carisia crushed my indignation with a single sentence.

“I would think the same way.”