Ch.1Founding Ceremony and Business Plan (1)

Click, click. The sound of heels striking the floor echoed throughout.

It was the only sound occupying the silence-filled conference room. A woman in a black suit who naturally took the head seat as if it were her rightful place.

With her white hair flowing, she sat down and her gaze swept across the room.

Despite sitting at the same level as everyone else, there was an overwhelming pressure as if she were looking down from above. Those who met her gaze involuntarily trembled.

“Pleased to meet you all. My name is Carisia.”

Arabelle, looking at Carisia, thought to herself.

‘No. I’m not pleased at all.’

The mysterious witch who had suddenly appeared these past few months, shaking up the underworld and grinding several criminal organizations to dust.

Some ignorant commoners whispered that she was a “saint” when they saw the radiance of her light-attribute magic illuminating the darkness of the slums, but Arabelle knew her true nature.

Her magic attribute may be light, but that woman’s temperament is far more vicious than ours.

Could anyone still babble about her being a saint after watching humans evaporate into golden light before their eyes?

“Some of you I’m meeting for the first time today, others I’ve met before.”

Arabelle let Carisia’s words go in one ear and out the other as she lowered her gaze.

Though wrapped in polite expressions and honorifics, it was a predictable message when summarized.

‘This territory is mine. Don’t act up and submit to me, that’s what she’s saying.’

But there was no way to object. Those who had tried to oppose her had long since met a brilliantly dazzling death.

“They say an organization with multiple heads is bound to split apart. But we will be different.”

Including Arabelle, there were eight organizations that had chosen to submit to Carisia. Counting Carisia herself, there were nine heads in this room.

“Shall we borrow a name from ancient mythology? From now on, we will be known as Hydra.”

Arabelle bit her lip. The Hydra, a monstrous serpent with multiple heads. But those heads were not equal.

Among the heads, there was one special, immortal central head.

It was a metaphorical threat about the difference in status between Carisia and the other eight leaders.

“Now, officially. I declare that under the name of Hydra Corporation, our fates have become one.”

Arabelle bowed her head in humiliation and considered the possibility of assassination, but quickly dismissed the thought.

It was because of the man who had been standing silently behind Carisia the entire time.

Far from being intimidating, he was so faint that one would struggle to sense his presence without focusing—a man for whom the adjective “dim” was perfectly suited.

If Carisia was the central head of the Hydra, then that man was the poison the Hydra carried.

‘Ortes.’

Some called him Carisia’s bodyguard.

Others called him Carisia’s advisor.

Arabelle both denied and affirmed both descriptions.

Neither bodyguard nor advisor was sufficient to describe the man. In other words…

‘Her confidant.’

The one and only limb with whom the inscrutable Carisia shared her innermost thoughts.

Arabelle licked her lips as she signed the contract.

If one wanted to eliminate Carisia, they would first have to deal with him somehow.

***

I thought to myself.

‘I’m fucked.’

After living in this world as Ortes for over a decade, I finally realized my employer’s true identity.

And as a bonus, the true nature of this world.

Carisia was the antagonist, and this world was inside a novel.

Watching the scene that could be better described as a coronation than a CEO inauguration, I began calculating my escape.

***

“Employer.”

After all eight leaders who had crawled in to submit to Carisia had withdrawn, I whispered softly to her.

Her head tilted slightly in response.

“May I humbly request your permission to resign?”

A flash of white light grazed my nape. It was magic projected literally at the speed of light.

How vicious. I glanced at the wall where the light had hit. It was only slightly scorched, suggesting she hadn’t used the spell with full intent.

I’d thought her personality was quite twisted since the moment we first met, and it seemed that hadn’t changed at all.

She’s strangely oversensitive to any talk of leaving or going away.

“What’s the problem this time?”

“Let me ask the opposite. What problem is making you want to leave?”

A sweet smile. Someone seeing it for the first time might think it beautiful.

But I had been working under Carisia for years already. How many times had I genuinely been happy to see my boss smile?

“What more help could I possibly be to you, Employer? You’ve acquired all the organizations in this city, and those that haven’t submitted yet are insignificant. Now even without me—”

I couldn’t finish my sentence. Carisia was covering both her ears with her hands.

A blatant gesture saying “I won’t listen.” It was a childish display unimaginable from her usually cold demeanor.

I couldn’t help but sigh. I thought I’d done enough as a founding member, but it seemed Carisia still wanted to keep me around.

“Why are you really doing this?”

“Your form of address is wrong to begin with.”

Form of address, huh. When we first met, she didn’t even tell me her name, so I called her “Employer.” She never complained about it until now.

As I pondered, I recalled the people who had just left the room.

Ah.

Carisia was now officially a CEO. Even if Hydra Corporation was a semi-illegal business formed by gathering illegal operations from the city’s underworld, her title had changed nonetheless.

Given her originally high status, it was somewhat understandable that she would be sensitive about such forms of address.

“Yes, CEO.”

I whispered with confidence.

Carisia’s expression twisted upon hearing my words. Did I do something wrong? That shouldn’t be the case.

“Fine, you may go.”

Carisia’s hand waved gently. I knew better than anyone that a gentle gesture didn’t mean a gentle heart.

I bowed and left the room that would now become the CEO’s office.

What would I have to do now? I shifted my steps while trying to recall the vague memories of the original story.

***

Phew. Carisia sighed. Truly, he was an impossible person to figure out.

Do you even realize that my voice only softens when I’m with you? Blinking a couple of times, Carisia then fingered the fountain pen in her suit jacket pocket.

It was something Ortes had procured from somewhere. Her pale fingers stroked the body of the pen.

There was much to be done. The establishment of Hydra Corporation was merely the first step in her revenge against the family.

The nameless magic tower in the underworld that Carisia had cleared out. First, she would need to transfer the tower’s qualifications to her own name.

As she reviewed the documents to be submitted to the Mage Association, Carisia looked up at the door through which Ortes had left.

Despite their time together, the image of the man who had mockingly requested resignation lingered in her mind.

Carisia unconsciously voiced her inner complaint.

“…I told him to call me by my name.”

He still won’t call me that, even now.

***

Back in my room, I first checked my surroundings. In this world where the strange discipline of magitech had developed, money could buy items with technology comparable to or even surpassing the modern civilization I had lived in.

That meant I couldn’t ignore the risk of eavesdropping.

We had cleaned the entire building once when taking over from the organization that originally occupied it, but you never know.

One of the eight Hydra leaders summoned today might have planted items with eavesdropping magic to gather information.

‘Though they may not be skilled in magic themselves.’

There are people who sell pre-prepared spells for such individuals. I plugged a USB into the port on my gauntlet.

The proper term was “magic engraving drive,” but the word USB was much more familiar to me, who still remembered life on Earth.

With a crackling sound, green magical light swept through the surroundings. Several decorative items in the room, like potted plants and clocks, also turned green.

“My, everyone’s so quick.”

I found and destroyed the hidden listening devices within them. A skilled mage might be able to trace the magic back to its source, but I was no mage.

“I’ll overlook this incident today. Should this happen again, I’ll arrange for you to have a direct meeting with the CEO.”

One good thing about being under someone important:

You can trade on their name.

Having already been defeated once and signed a contract agreeing to the acquisition, they wouldn’t want to face Carisia one-on-one.

Now then, let’s organize the original story.

I picked up a pen.

***

Arabelle, who had been hiding silently in a corner of Ortes’s room, felt her composure shaken. She had used a state-of-the-art camouflage suit for optical stealth, along with her unique magic to suppress her presence.

Extreme concealment that could hide even the vibrations of air or carbon dioxide reactions that would naturally occur from a breathing organism.

It was magic that Arabelle had desperately honed to survive while gathering information in the crevices of the city’s underworld.

And he had seen through it effortlessly, saying he would “overlook it.” What overwhelming skill.

Ortes said he would give an “opportunity to meet with the CEO.” This meant that Carisia had warned in advance that the leaders would try to make contact with Ortes.

The plan to conspire with the CEO’s confidant was scrapped. Arabelle carefully reduced her body size even further and slipped through the gap in the door.

‘But surely, that warning wasn’t meant for those who installed the listening devices?’

Arabelle shook her head.

Ortes had only spoken after finding and destroying each listening device one by one. It was clearly directed at her, who had been hiding and waiting in the room.

Biting her lip, Arabelle accepted that she would have to submit to Carisia and Ortes’s authority for the time being.