Ch.165Exposing the Truth (2)

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Niobe was impatiently tapping her foot. According to the training she had received as a Blasphemia agent, such displays of emotion should have been under strict control.

A psychological technique of deliberately showing vulnerability to create a false impression on negotiation targets. It was an essential method for Blasphemia agents who needed to infiltrate and carry out missions among heretical cult followers.

Despite her rapid promotions, Niobe certainly remembered the various paralinguistic and nonverbal communication techniques she had learned before field deployment. In fact, because of her rapid advancement, she had reviewed them even more thoroughly to avoid criticism from others.

But the agitation Niobe was showing now wasn’t calculated acting. It was raw, unfiltered emotion.

‘Senior…’

Her former colleague, who had been ruthless enough to purge her own comrades without mercy when missions demanded it, might now “betray Blasphemia, and by extension, the Ten Towers.” What information could Senior L13 possibly have discovered?

A corner of her mind kept raising suspicions that her senior might have been recruited by Argyrion. But Niobe dismissed these doubts.

The biological disaster of Argyrion that had infected the Amimon Magic Tower in Algoth City—wasn’t it Senior L13 who had dealt with it?

Composing herself, Niobe looked around. This was a city on the outskirts of magical society, far from Elysion. It naturally had a resident magic tower, but it was a very ordinary place that hadn’t produced any noteworthy achievements known to society.

The coordinates her senior had sent led to an ordinary café. If anything was unusual, it was the abundance of private rooms, suggesting it catered to those who enjoyed a quiet atmosphere. Niobe had been waiting for about ten minutes in a room reserved under her senior’s alias.

“I apologize for keeping you waiting.”

“Senior.”

Without even the sound of the door opening, her senior appeared. She sat down, but given the gravity of the matter, it was difficult to broach the subject. In the end, it was her senior who spoke first.

“I heard a sacred relic was excavated near here?”

“Yeah. That was my official reason for coming here. When I checked, it wasn’t much. It might have been powerful long ago, but it seems to have decayed over time.”

“Haha, that’s fortunate. I’ve prepared something for you. Since you’re in a high position yourself, unless you have a special inspector role like mine, there would be people who’d find it suspicious if you wandered around just anywhere.”

“You prepared something…”

Doesn’t that mean she’s personally using sacred relics without turning them over to Blasphemia? Of course, Blasphemia does authorize the use of sacred relics for loyal and exceptional agents, but there’s a fundamental difference between authorized use and unauthorized appropriation.

“When chasing Argyrion, you often discover such empty shell fragments of sacred relics. Usually, I can’t retrieve them as I need to travel light, but they come in handy at times like this.”

A moment of silence.

“…What did you want to talk about?”

L13’s smile deepened. However, to Niobe, it seemed less like a smile of genuine joy and more like an expression meant to gloss over something difficult to say.

“Where should I begin? Well, since we worked together in Algoth City, let’s start with that place.”

Algoth City. Niobe had received help from L13 twice there. First, against the traitors of the Amimon Magic Tower and their alliance with Argyrion, which caused extra-dimensional contamination. Second, against the biological disaster sent by Argyrion to destroy everything.

In all those moments, Niobe had always been looking at L13’s back. She never thought her achievements had been stolen. She only felt guilt and self-reproach that her senior had shouldered the storms and dangers that she herself should have faced.

Niobe lowered her head. It wasn’t good conversational etiquette, but right now, she couldn’t look her senior in the eyes. If she made eye contact while listening to words of treason, however irrational, she might be persuaded.

‘…No. Can I even see them with those narrow eyes?’

“After subduing the head of the Amimon Magic Tower, I developed questions. To be precise, I had questions from the beginning. It’s just that the doubts I had been ignoring due to other pressing matters grew too large to ignore.”

“What kind of questions?”

“‘Why?’ is the question.”

For a moment, her senior paused. Niobe slowly raised her head.

“Why did they cooperate with Argyrion? What reason could people who had risen to the respectable position of Argos investigators possibly have for joining hands with traitors? These fundamental questions.”

“Motivation, you might call it.” Her senior’s voice trailed off.

“Originally, I intended to bury it. I was too busy to dwell on motives at the time. Fighting against old acquaintances was harder than expected, and just managing the situation was difficult enough. But the Amimon Magic Tower incident was different.”

The traitors from the Amimon Magic Tower were the first confirmed traitors from a Governing Magic Tower. While previous traitors had reasons to feel marginalized in magical society, Governing Towers were different.

The “Governing” in Governing Magic Tower signifies the apex of society. They are at the top.

A place with nowhere higher to climb. If there were those above the Governing Towers…

“That would only be the Ten Towers.”

“Are you saying they used Argyrion for the succession battle?”

“No. The Amimon Magic Tower has always prioritized self-preservation. If they were to instigate rebellion, simple desire for position wouldn’t be enough.”

For an instant, blue irises seemed to flash beneath the eyelids. The gleam was so momentary that Niobe couldn’t be certain of what she saw.

“Argyrion cried out for truth and justice. Taking that as a starting point, I looked into whether there might be something hidden in the history of the Ten Towers.”

“And this is the result.”

What her senior showed looked like hastily scribbled notes. True to the small size of the notepad, there wasn’t a long text written on it.

Just one very short sentence.

But its weight was unimaginably heavy. Heavy enough to shake the entire history of magical society.

The Mage King was murdered.

***

“What is this…!”

Shh. Ortes placed his index finger over his lips. Niobe intuitively understood the meaning of the gesture.

And why Ortes had brought this text as a handwritten note rather than storing it on a magical device. This was text that should never be recorded.

As if confirming Niobe’s suspicion, Ortes burned the note.

Her breathing became labored. Though Niobe had already intuited the answer, she opened her mouth to ask.

“By whom?”

“Why, those above Blasphemia, of course. The owners of the most powerful artifacts in this world.”

“Evidence?”

“None at present. Argyrion likely has it. I’ve merely managed to find some testimony. But it’s certain that Argyrion possesses something to substantiate this claim, or at least something convincing enough to give the traitors certainty.”

It was content that made even mages from Governing Towers naturally join Argyrion’s cause. It rendered meaningless the fundamental authority of the Ten Towers—their symbolic status as the legitimate magical lineage descended from the Mage King.

The moment this information became public, the Ten Towers would transform from successors of the ten disciples into accomplices to murder.

“All the betrayals make sense now. The long history of magical society has been perpetuated entirely by the initial betrayal and those who condoned it.”

Confused, Niobe closed her eyes. She didn’t know what to say. That the Ten Towers, to which she had pledged her loyalty, were actually the betrayers who had broken trust.

Even more chilling was the fact that the members of the Ten Towers had changed over time. Through centuries, no one had revealed the truth. They had only admired a blood-stained history in silence.

The absolute power of the Ten Commandments and the authority it brought. None of the successors had rejected it.

“…So what do you want to do, Senior? Join Argyrion?”

“Of course not. They may have a just cause, but they’ve already gone too far.”

“Then what? After knowing this… fact, do you intend to continue living as before? I can’t do that. I believed the Ten Towers were the guiding light of our society…!”

Niobe bit her lip. The suspicion that everything she had done might have only extended a history of injustice was corroding her pride in Blasphemia.

What answer would her senior give? How would this person fight against this terrible truth? Even while knowing it revealed her own weakness, Niobe was hoping for an answer from her senior, who had been the very model of Blasphemia.

“That’s precisely right. The Ten Towers are the guiding light of mage society.”

“Huh?”

“If the guiding light isn’t right, then we fix it, Niobe.”

Revolution—do you like it?