Ch.3Founding Ceremony and Business Plan (3)

Arabelle desperately put on a natural smile.

‘Where and how did this information leak?’

Of course, her true feelings were different.

Arabelle herself was the head of the city’s information broker guild, and publicly known as an ordinary human with no peculiarities—in other words, no racial weaknesses.

Only a select few within the information broker guild knew that she had replaced more than 70% of her real body with magical prosthetics.

She doesn’t manage her organization carelessly. From the beginning, she had placed surveillance on executives who might know about her abilities among those belonging to her organization.

Naturally, neither Carisia nor Ortes had shown any signs of contact with Arabelle’s operatives recently.

Ortes looked at documents with indecipherable writing, a faint smile on his face.

He gave such a faint impression that he might disappear from sight at any moment if one didn’t focus on him, which made him all the more eerie.

‘Could he have infiltrated my headquarters using concealment magic? I thought there was no mage better at concealment than me in this city…!’

Still smiling, Ortes continued speaking nonchalantly.

“Please correct me if anything I say from now on is wrong. I think it’s most accurate to confirm personal information with the person themselves.”

It was unmistakably a threat.

Arabelle could only imagine what would happen to her if she reported anything contrary to the facts.

“Captured by the Lernian School and injected with the Arachnid Queen’s genes.”

From his mouth flowed a secret even more carefully hidden than her magical prosthetics—a secret only she should know.

Terrible memories surfaced.

While the poor who couldn’t properly wield magic being trampled upon was practically an everyday occurrence in this city, what awaited Arabelle was a uniquely unfortunate fate among them.

“After the school’s experiments, irreversibly changed parts were excised and replaced with prosthetics.”

The building where Hydra Company was now located used to be a magic tower used by those called the Lernian School.

The three magic towers in Etna City were each occupied by different schools. The Lernian School was the weakest of the three in terms of power, but simultaneously the most brutal.

There were mainly two ways for a magic tower core, the power source of a magic tower, to charge magic: collecting excess magic from the atmosphere or having tower members manually infuse magic into the core.

While high-level towers connected to the Ten Realms received magical assistance from them, the Lernian Tower wasn’t that exceptional.

For the concentration of excess magic in the atmosphere to increase, the surrounding area needed to be filled with beings possessing magic.

In this world, being poor was practically synonymous with being a human with little magical power. And most of the Lernian School’s sphere of influence consisted of slums.

Thus, the Lernian School had a weak tower with little magical power, but they could wield their power tyrannically because those under their control were also weak.

Arabelle was one of those caught in the grip of that power.

“You process the excised mutant tumors into familiars. And you also handle drones on the side, don’t you?”

With each of Ortes’s words, scenes from the past flashed through Arabelle’s mind. The mages of the Lernian School who created her.

The ability to control her “kin” gained through the Arachnid Queen’s genes, and hacking abilities through limbs modified with prosthetics and a specially enhanced brain.

Modifications made to invade the Ether Space, a semi-realistic space created by the bizarre fusion of magic and electromagnetism.

She was once an espionage tool for the Lernian School, which had once acted as the tyrant of this area.

“Your unique magic is shrinking, isn’t it? There might be limitations, like it only works on inanimate objects or things connected to you by magic, but you don’t need to tell me.”

Arabelle met Ortes’s hazy eyes.

It had been years since she escaped by faking her death in a counter-attack while hacking another school’s tower. By now, the records about her should have been long disposed of.

This was both for destroying evidence to avoid detection by other schools and because Arabelle herself was a special success case without reproducibility, making the preservation of records meaningless.

But how on earth did this person discover all this information?

She recalled an aphorism left by some nameless person: the unknown is the greatest fear.

Ortes, who had been watching Arabelle as she barely maintained her composure in silence, spoke with a faint smile.

“That’s a relief. It seems there’s no incorrect information.”

‘So it wasn’t directly collected information. Or was it deception?’

Arabelle struggled to find clues from Ortes’s sentences.

At least one thing she could be certain of was that if there had been any mistakes in that information, the informant would have disappeared forever.

***

“That’s a relief. It seems there’s no incorrect information.”

When I wrote down stories from novels in the past, I also organized the abilities and actions of those under Carisia’s command.

I tried questioning Arabelle, who seemed closest to her description in the novel and relatively loyal among the eight directors, and fortunately, it seems my memory isn’t too bad.

Then what I need to do next becomes increasingly clear.

“I have… something to ask.”

As I was considering who to interview next, Arabelle spoke up. Why is she using honorifics with me?

It would make sense with Carisia, but…

“Director, please don’t do that.”

“What do you mean?”

“That. I don’t have a proper position at Hydra Company.”

Since Carisia comes from a noble family, she’s picky about this hierarchical structure.

The death glare she gave three days ago when I called her “employer” out of habit after she became CEO proves this.

“At best, I’m just the CEO’s secretary. You shouldn’t be using honorifics with someone of my rank; you should be speaking down to me.”

If Carisia had seen this scene, she would have said something about workplace hierarchy.

If she had been born on Earth, she probably would have been strict about proper speech levels.

Arabelle’s expression twisted strangely after hearing my words, then returned to normal. I didn’t say anything strange.

“I understand. I’ll stop using such formal honorifics.”

As Arabelle bowed her head, her red hair fell beneath her black veil.

The black dress and veil reminiscent of mourning clothes, along with the red hair. It brings to mind a venomous spider with a black body and red spots.

To be honest, Spider-Man came to mind first.

I had forgotten about modern culture for the past few years, but since realizing I’m in a novel world, things from my original world have been coming back to me.

Ah, I never got to see that animated film with multiple spider people, the third one. I wonder if it’s been released by now.

“The honorifics I’m using now aren’t with any other intention; it’s just a habit. I speak the same way to other directors and to you. When I speak casually, many people tend to get strangely attached.”

Perhaps because of the silence that continued while I was lost in thought, Arabelle seemed to think I was still bothered by her continued use of honorifics and offered an explanation.

I thought about starting with “It’s not that I don’t want honorifics, but our CEO—” to explain Carisia’s temperament, but I refrained.

If Arabelle were to report exactly what she heard to Carisia, dealing with the aftermath would be extremely difficult.

Instead:

“Oh, nice to meet you. I’m the same way.”

I decided to build rapport with a workplace colleague I’ll be seeing for a long time.

***

“I use honorifics because I don’t want to create unnecessary hostility, but people still look at me suspiciously. It’s sad.”

‘That’s because you look suspicious…!’

Arabelle forcibly swallowed the cry that rose to her throat.

She had suspected it from the moment he showed an unusual level of loyalty by saying not to use honorifics with anyone but Carisia, but Ortes’s mental state was not normal.

A faint presence that seemed like it would disappear from view if you didn’t focus on it even when right in front of you. It was only natural to find such a person suspicious, regardless of how they spoke.

Even the corners of his mouth, which would normally leave a good impression when smiling, combined with his suspicious first impression to create an unsettling smile that made one wonder what he might do.

And considering what he had done since coming to Etna City, being suspicious was closer to fact than prejudice.

Wasn’t Ortes the confidant who assisted in killings like a shadow while Carisia purged the underworld with light?

After his long-winded speech about honorifics, suspicion, and grievances ended, Ortes let out a quiet groan, “Ah.”

“Ah, I apologize for this. I’ve been keeping a busy person for too long. Would you please call in the next person?”

Ortes naturally giving orders to Arabelle.

It was evidence that Ortes himself naturally perceived his position as higher than the eight directors of Hydra Company.

He was implicitly showing Arabelle who was second-in-command at Hydra Company.

‘And yet his reluctance to receive honorifics is because he thinks it might infringe on Carisia’s authority? This level of fanaticism could rival the cults that worship the vanished old gods…’

“Who should I bring in?”

“Let’s see.”

Ortes stroked his chin. His eyes, which had been close to mere lines, suddenly sharpened. The blue pupils faintly visible beneath his eyelids seemed to burn with blue flames.

“Kriton. Please call Director Kriton.”

But the next moment, the eerie aura was gone. All that remained was a suspiciously presence-less man with a smiling face.

Arabelle bowed her head and turned around.

“Ah.”

Ortes’s voice came from behind her.

“If I should go on a business trip following the CEO, I would appreciate your supervision during that time.”

An order to monitor the other directors. Understanding why she had been selected as the first interviewee, Arabelle could only acquiesce without resistance.

‘Both the first and second in command leaving right after establishment. Is this a loyalty test?’

Arabelle left the room, pondering this curious timing.

***

Kriton was a giant.

This didn’t simply mean he was born with a robust physique. He was practically a living weapon who had been injected with modification drugs from various magic towers, including the Lernian Tower, and survived unscathed.

His modified artificial eyes were precise enough to observe human cells, and his flesh, flowing with troll blood, could firmly reattach a torn arm within seconds if held in place.

His entire skeleton had long been replaced with reinforced alloys. Kriton, known as the human butcher of Etna City…

“What are you…?”

“Cut off your dealings with the Torres School.”

‘I’m certain I’ve never told anyone about this!’

“Let me be more specific. End your contract of selecting and supplying slaves to the Torres School in exchange for brainwashing magic inscription drives.”

He was facing an incomprehensible unknown.

***

“Come to think of it, our company got on the protagonist’s bad side because of you.”