Ch.33Chimera Hunt (1)

“Boss.”

With a light knock, the door opened silently. It wasn’t just unlocked—it seemed it hadn’t been properly closed to begin with.

There probably wasn’t anyone besides me who would come looking for Carisia in her private bedroom rather than her office, but wasn’t this a serious lack of security awareness?

I considered saying something but decided against it. She surely knew what she was doing.

Actually, it’s not Carisia I should worry about, but any potential intruders. Anyone who crosses someone whose specialty is death beams would be finished in an instant.

“Come in─”

As I stood waiting in front of the open door, a languid voice drifted out.

“Wasn’t it your principle that you didn’t want private meetings with the boss outside of work hours?”

A mischievous joke delivered with a slight smile.

…It was a joke, right?

“As our perceptive boss correctly stated. I need to go on another business trip, so I came to report.”

“Huh?”

Carisia’s expression was filled with disbelief. She must be wondering if I’d eaten something strange to volunteer for another assignment right after returning from a trip.

The other directors might not know me well, but Carisia would certainly understand my natural inclination to avoid work whenever possible.

“What’s the matter?”

Her voice had turned strangely curt.

“All the beast tamers who accompanied Director Dimedes have gone silent. Director Noiro and I will assess and handle the situation.”

“That’s more serious than I expected.”

Carisia rested her chin on her right hand. She was probably thinking that someone of Dimedes’ caliber wasn’t worth the trouble of saving.

“Dimedes’ death itself isn’t a major problem, but it would make it difficult to meet the requirements for passing the IPO review documents.”

See? Just as I thought.

From Carisia’s perspective, Dimedes wasn’t particularly valuable. Considering the Chimeras’ appetite for humans, he was more of a nuisance.

A few civilians from the border city being eaten by Chimeras wouldn’t attract the Ten Towers’ attention, but there’s always that slim possibility. This kind of self-destruction might actually be beneficial.

If anything, I was surprised she even cared about the IPO review I had proposed.

“Take this with you.”

Carisia tossed something shiny toward me. It was Phoibos’ sacred crystal that I had handed over to her on my way back to Etna City.

“…I gave this to you to use, Boss.”

“I’ll be holed up in Etna City working on urban redevelopment plans for a while, so what danger would I face? You take it.”

I accepted the crystal with a slight feeling of unease. I really felt that Carisia should have some means of protection.

But with the boss’s will being so firm, as an employee, I had no choice. The crystal, slightly smaller than my palm, seemed too large to fit comfortably in my pocket.

‘So…’

I recalled the explanation from the original work. The crystal could be shrunk or enlarged according to the user’s will. The smaller it became, the more limited its prophetic range, but the easier the interpretations. Conversely, the larger it grew, the more complex the prophecies became, but it could read further into the future, right?

Any danger to me would likely be a direct attack. It would be better to shrink it for carrying.

As I concentrated on Phoibos’ crystal, sure enough, it reduced in size. Now it was small enough to fit in the corner of my pocket without looking awkward.

“Finish up and come back as quickly as possible.”

That was the extent of Carisia’s farewell.

I bowed at the waist and left the room.

***

“I heard you infiltrated a Ten Towers subcontractor during your last trip. How did you manage that?”

Noiro asked inside the magitech train departing from Etna City.

The relationship between Blasphemia and the Ten Towers was far too complex to simply call it a “subcontractor,” but Arabel, who had received Carisia’s order to “explain since you extracted the information,” had no time for detailed explanations.

Even directors, unless they had a special background like Divius, would find it difficult to know about the secret organization Blasphemia, so someone would need to explain…

Arabel was racking her brain contemplating the message from Branch Manager Charlotte stating that “Ortes is Blasphemia’s secret inspector.”

The message that Ortes had requested to be sent while escaping from Charlotte’s branch accelerated her anxiety. The unspecified address of the message recipient was surely that of a Blasphemia higher-up.

The order to “explain about Blasphemia” might even be Carisia’s attempt to determine if Arabel had figured out Ortes’s identity.

One wrong word could lead to unimaginable consequences.

After much deliberation, Arabel decided that “what matters is the content of information, not its source” and explained about Blasphemia in the vaguest terms possible.

The only person who could guess exactly what Ortes had been doing and where was Divius, who had once been part of Blasphemia.

Therefore, most of Hydra Company’s directors considered Blasphemia as some kind of information guild with excellent security. They couldn’t imagine it was a combat group whose members were all battle mages who had undergone special physical modifications.

Nevertheless, the name Ten Towers carried weight.

With infiltration and tracking skills good enough to penetrate an organization connected to the Ten Towers alone, there must be something worth learning as a hunter.

Noiro expected some secret method, perhaps a special magic for disguise or tracking.

Though difficult for hunters to use, there were also means of controlling internal organization members through mental manipulation magic.

What extraordinary means had the boss’s confidant used to deceive the ears of the Ten Towers and burrow into their shadows?

“There was no special method. I sweet-talked someone who knew the entrance and walked in through the front door.”

“The front door!”

“Yes. There was a bit of commotion when I left, but I didn’t leave any traces.”

Indeed, his skills matched his arrogance. Entering through the front door meant he could use disguise techniques so sophisticated that even the organization’s members couldn’t notice.

The commotion during the escape made sense too. Judging by his comment about “leaving no traces,” he must have sabotaged the organization’s database that recorded things like CCTV footage.

“Impressive. I suppose this is what it takes to be the boss’s confidant…”

Noiro murmured in admiration.

‘What’s this? Is this old man also aiming for a higher position?’

Ortes was bewildered by such ominous ambition. Even after experiencing Carisia’s people management skills, he still wanted to get closer?

‘First Divius, now him. Why are these directors so eager for more work?’

Usually, it’s better for those in high positions to be appropriately lazy so their subordinates can be comfortable.

***

Beast Tamer Dimedes had headed to a wasteland full of strange rock formations.

The Stone Plains—a place where magic stones were found but not economically viable to mine, and most importantly, lacking a magic tower to supervise the region, attracting fugitives.

It was quite a distance from the nearest magitech train station, requiring a long walk after disembarking. After getting off at the station, Ortes entrusted the tracking of any traces left by Dimedes and his group to Noiro.

Naturally, Ortes had never been formally trained in tracking techniques. His principle was to leave work to experts when experts were available.

‘A person skilled enough to infiltrate an information organization through the front door without anyone noticing must be proficient in tracking. Yet he assigns this task to me?’

It couldn’t be a generous offer to share accomplishments. Noiro easily understood Ortes’s intention.

‘He wants to test my abilities. I can imagine what will happen if I fall short of his standards.’

…Or so he thought.

‘Perhaps Dimedes’s failure has led to a reconsideration of the directors’ usefulness. I must do my best.’

Noiro took out reagents to track the magical beasts controlled by Dimedes. He loaded the reagents into his gauntlet’s input port and entered commands.

When people think of magical computation assistance devices, they often imagine cybernetic enchantware that requires cutting and implanting into the body. But there were various types of magical computation assistants, or mana proxies.

What Noiro used was a proxy gauntlet linked to augmented reality displayed on his gas mask. Components from the magical beasts’ saliva or fur that reacted to tracking magic appeared on the display inside his mask.

“As you’ve probably noticed, it’s this way. It’s fortunate that Dimedes wasn’t thorough in managing his beasts. There are still many traces left.”

***

I have no idea what he’s talking about.

I followed behind Noiro, who was providing various explanations like a guide.

“Hmm. There are signs they lingered around this area for a while. Probably because of the butcher shop. The beasts seem to have been somewhat hungry. But they didn’t run wild here. They headed straight out of the city.”

“That matches the report so far, right?”

During our train ride, I had skimmed through the reports Dimedes had submitted. His first day’s report clearly stated that they had set out to find the Bacchus cult immediately upon arrival.

Noiro spoke somewhat hastily.

“No matter how strange Dimedes might be, he wouldn’t lie in reports to the boss. All directors maintain at least that level of loyalty.”

***

“I would never doubt the directors’ loyalty.”

Phew. Noiro breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t expected to be tested on such a fundamental level.

In the current situation where Ortes might be considering dismissing the entire board of directors due to Dimedes’s single mistake, it was best to clear up any unnecessary misunderstandings quickly.

“However.”

Noiro’s nerves tensed.

“This incident is quite beyond common sense.”

A director and all his close associates going missing while trying to catch some drug dealers—it was indeed beyond common sense.

Noiro cursed Dimedes. He had never liked him much, but to think that guy might cost him his position too.

He needed to find the corpse as quickly as possible and present it to Ortes.

“The beasts’ traces lead to those rocky fields as reported. Let’s move right away.”

Ortes nodded readily, apparently pleased with his swift action.

Noiro decided that when they returned, he would boast to the other directors that they still had their positions thanks to him.

***

Damn it. I should have bought something to eat when we got off at the station.

I lamented my lack of preparation for not bringing a lunch box.

Noiro was too enthusiastic about the work to suggest stopping for a meal. All I could do was follow along with a smile.