Ch.12In Search of the Lost Kaicle (2)

Ortes suddenly appeared and made an absurd request.

Arabel didn’t respond with clichéd phrases like “What did you say?” Instead, she prepared a more formal retort.

“The Phytos factory has been hacked several times during the Artificial Ten Commandments incident. But the data in the factory is just the basic operating system for automatons. Nothing else noteworthy.”

“That’s exactly what’s important. The automaton operating system—it’s still being regularly updated, isn’t it?”

After searching through her auxiliary brain’s data, Arabel nodded. The automatons of Phytos Magic Tower were indeed receiving consistent updates.

“But that’s just mechanical work done by the tower’s artificial spirits. There are no secret messages from Kaicle hidden in there.”

Ortes merely shrugged his shoulders and smiled. She could sense he had no intention of backing down.

I’d like to see that smug smile properly crumple someday. Arabel swallowed her desire and began her work.

***

Ether Space. A parallel world created by accumulated magical residue. A semi-real place positioned somewhere between reality and unreality.

Ordinary mages access the Ether Space through meditation, projecting their spirit bodies, while some exceptional cases connect their brains directly to the Ether Space.

Arabel was one such case.

Directly connecting one’s physical body to the Ether Space allows for much freer use of magical power than accessing it through a spirit body, but it also greatly increases the risk of death.

Typically, mages who die with their brains fried while hacking another’s magic tower are those who attempted this direct connection method.

In cases of extremely advanced firewalls like those of the Ten Towers, they can destroy the physical body in reality through the spirit body. Fortunately, the Phytos Magic Tower’s firewall wasn’t at that level.

In the Ether Space, Arabel took the form of a complete spider queen. Spider-shaped drones made from her flesh infiltrated the physical servers of the Phytos Magic Tower to assist with the intrusion.

The moment four spider drones injected ethereal virus venom into the real-world servers, the Phytos Magic Tower activated its antivirus program.

That was precisely the moment Arabel had been waiting for.

Within the Ether Space, the antivirus program manifested as a wolf wreathed in flames. The virus injected by Arabel’s drones appeared as a swarm of thousands of spiders.

The flame wolf spewed fire from its entire body, burning the spiders. At the moment when the antivirus program’s resources were focused on incinerating the virus…

Arabel cast a spider web that captured the data stored in the Ether Space.

She read the data, copied it, and returned it to its place. It would take about 15 seconds for the antivirus program to incinerate all the viruses.

For Arabel, who had once risked her life in split-second timing while under the control of the Lernian Magic Tower, this was more than enough time.

***

What should I do? I’m getting nervous.

Every word from Arabel, who had fused with the Hyper Mechanic Spider, shook my expectations.

Well, I suppose others could have thought of what I came up with within 5 minutes of hearing Bertrand’s story.

If my conjectures turn out to be completely wrong, there’s nothing else I can do.

Ah, there is one thing.

Running to Carisia and begging her to find it for me. I don’t even want to think about dealing with the aftermath, but that would be better than complete failure.

While I was contemplating how to prostrate myself to earn Carisia’s pity, Arabel seemed to have finished her work and opened her eyes.

“You’re much faster than I expected.”

“The current Phytos Magic Tower has no mage directly controlling its firewall. That’s the limitation of an unmanned tower.”

Arabel shrugged and snapped her fingers. The cables connected to her spine detached one by one.

“But don’t think about taking over the Phytos Magic Tower through hacking. You’d need to hack the tower core itself.”

“Hacking a tower core connected to the glory of the Ten Commandments would be suicide. I’m well aware of that.”

I’m not like Carisia. I only give tasks that humans can handle. Arabel continued to disconnect her external computing device, either oblivious to or ignoring my aggrieved look.

After descending from the steel spider, Arabel tossed a USB drive toward me.

“Here. Apart from machine control programs for the unmanned factory, that’s all there is.”

Viewing information extracted from the Ether Space is a simple task for mages above a certain level.

For mages. Of course, I’m not a mage.

I’m not limited to just physical attacks thanks to various tricks like magic engraving drives, but at times like this, it does feel a bit disheartening.

“Could I borrow a viewing device? My workshop isn’t organized yet.”

“…You’re cautious. Of course.”

Why the sudden compliment? I don’t think she’s mocking me for not being able to use magic.

***

Arabel clicked her tongue at Ortes’s paranoid security consciousness. Did he think she had installed malicious code on the magic engraving drive she handed over?

It was a choice made considering the possibility of spyware being installed if viewed within the tower facilities. It was natural for him not to trust her, having only recently submitted to the name of Hydra Sara.

But Arabel felt somewhat wronged.

She had no intention of attempting to inject malicious code. From the day Ortes warned her, Arabel hadn’t even considered betrayal as an option.

She might have minor complaints like disliking his smirking face or finding the boss scary, but that was separate.

Her body, modified by the Lernian Magic Tower into an Ether Space-specific cyborg, was inefficient. Even with fully charged magical power, she needed an alternative power source after about 6 hours of external activity.

With Carisia able to cut off the magical power supplied to the area where the information broker association was located, and Ortes already knowing her identity, Arabel couldn’t afford to upset them.

‘The goal of becoming a new king seems too far-fetched, but…’

Arabel observed Ortes as he projected the compressed ethereal data from the magic engraving drive onto a hologram projector, a familiar sight.

Ordinary mages prefer to plug such data directly into connectors linked to their nervous system rather than using external tools like that.

It’s faster, more convenient, and allows for processing more information simultaneously. Any mage skilled enough to attempt malicious information attacks would have some ability to block harmful data.

Despite this, here was a person comfortable handling ethereal data through external devices. Several hypotheses formed in Arabel’s mind.

One: Fear of falling victim to particularly vicious malicious code.

Two: The habit of creating backup data.

Three: Not being a mage.

The first two could be extensions of professional paranoia. Mages who deal extensively with information would likely have seen corpses of those whose brains were corrupted by malicious code, attempting skin respiration before dying.

At the very least, they might lose days of memory before and after viewing certain code. Such experiences would naturally lead one to seek safer methods of information viewing through external devices.

‘As for the third possibility…’

Arabel frowned. Honestly, it was the least likely.

Nevertheless, considering all possibilities was professional diligence for someone dealing with information.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve never seen him use any real magic.’

He does inflict critical damage through basic magic via magic engraving drives. But that fighting style seems closer to a warrior or assassin’s methodology than a mage’s, doesn’t it?

‘Huh?’

Perhaps he really isn’t a mage. Even after thoroughly searching records of when Carisia and Ortes swept through Etna City’s underworld, there was no record of Ortes using powerful magic.

As Arabel carefully examined her hypothesis, she recalled one final issue.

That faint presence. That alone couldn’t be explained without magic being involved.

‘If it’s some kind of artifact imbued with that type of magic, it’s not impossible…’

What other abilities could produce miracles without being magic?

“Director?”

Arabel was pulled from her puzzle-solving by Ortes’s voice.

“Is there a problem with the data decompression? I built it with performance that shouldn’t reach processing limits under normal circumstances.”

“No. What are these seemingly useless files among the automaton model’s basic installation files?”

Arabel, reading through the code projected in hologram, slowly shook her head.

“They’re exactly what they seem. Useless dummy data. They’re pre-installed for operating system rollbacks or updates, but they don’t do anything during normal operation.”

“I see.”

Ortes began extracting only those dummy data files. Watching his busy hands, Arabel carefully observed the situation and posed a question.

“Are you uncertain?”

“Director, what are you suddenly talking about?”

“In the meeting, you so confidently stated that Kaicle is under the volcano. But now you’re moving cautiously, as if you know nothing.”

It was a question aimed at probing the nature of Ortes’s information network. Both previously and now, Ortes seemed intent on verifying information one more time.

This behavior pattern only emerges when one can’t trust the source of information. Depending on his answer, she could narrow down the candidates for the group from which Ortes obtains information.

“I’m 99 percent certain.”

Ortes answered simply, without any sign of deliberation.

‘This throws off all my predictions.’

“If the information is that certain, why such obsession with cross-verification?”

A statement cleverly poised at the boundary between question, provocation, and interrogation. Ortes’s expression remained perfectly calm.

“Normally, I would agree with you.”

***

“But this concerns the boss. Anything less than 100 percent is unacceptable.”

What strange things is he saying now? Maybe he’s like this because he hasn’t been properly scolded by Carisia yet.