After wrapping up matters at the Pluto Temple, Ortes was on his way back. Carisia had already analyzed the core of Adusiam.
‘Carisia’s analysis revealed that this golem—codename Adusiam—sends distress signals to two entities.’
One is the Ten Towers, and the other to affiliates of the Wizard King who are akin to the golem.
Ortes suspected that the ‘affiliates of the Wizard King’ might be Argeyirion.
The easiest way to confirm this would be to tamper with Adusiam’s internal circuits and send out another distress signal.
But this was not an option for Ortes. He needed to continue hosting guests from Hydra Corp in Etna City. If Argeyirion were to invade Etna City based on a false signal, it could unnecessarily attract the attention of the Ten Towers.
Moreover, such an experiment couldn’t be conducted in some secluded place. Even if Argeyirion received the ‘distress signal’ and responded the first time, whether they would believe and respond again upon receiving a second or third signal was uncertain.
‘If the attack on the Pluto Temple was due to this signal, we can only use it a couple more times at most.’
They would likely assume their distress signal has been compromised after the complete loss of forces deployed to the Pluto Temple.
In fact, by the point of total annihilation, the signal system was probably already exposed, and there’s a high chance they now consider any future signals as traps.
However, I believed that Argeyirion might fall for this bait once or twice.
Their previous triumph in what they deemed a trap at the Pluto Temple—a successful assassination of one of the Ten Towers’ elders—was too impressive.
To them, it must have seemed like a heroic feat.
Generally, traps are considered d*ath zones, but paradoxically, they’re also places where enemy forces concentrate.
This implies that defeating the trap could dismantle the enemy’s overall plan.
From Argeyirion’s perspective, having defeated an elder of the Ten Towers, they may judge it advantageous to deliberately fall into a trap once or twice to crush the Ten Towers’ schemes and gain the upper hand.
Both Argeyirion and the Ten Towers likely understand that to decisively defeat Argeyirion’s special operations team, they’d need to commit at least one elder. But deploying such a high-level resource isn’t something done lightly.
At best—though the term “best” is relative when compared to an elder—the usual limit would be a cordon formed by combat mages from Panoptes.
And Argeyirion wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to take down seasoned veterans from Panoptes.
This is why I predicted they’d fall for the trap once or twice. Argeyirion might overestimate their capabilities after defeating an elder of the Ten Towers, but the situation won’t truly play out in their favor.
They might even lose to Panoptes.
A single setback or defeat might be tolerable. However, if Argeyirion has its wits about them, after two consecutive unexpected outcomes, they’ll likely realize their strength has been overestimated.
From then on, they probably won’t intentionally fall into traps unless they’ve prepared something extraordinary.
Of course, Argeyirion might not show up at all. Even with the achievement of defeating an elder of the Ten Towers, if another elder is lying in ambush, there’s no guarantee of victory.
Above all, there’s still no definitive proof that Argeyirion came due to the distress signal sent by the Wizard King’s affiliates. There’s always the possibility that all these hypotheses could be discarded.
If that happens, the person most inconvenienced will naturally be me.
If Argeyirion doesn’t appear, how will I link Amimone Magic Tower to them?
Naturally, I had prepared a contingency plan.
I relayed the distress signal sent by Adusiam to the Wizard King’s affiliates under the name of L13, informing Salmoisa that it was suspected to be a communication signal used by Argeyirion.
Now, it doesn’t matter whether Argeyirion really shows up or not.
If Blasphemia acts on the fact that the signal originated from Amimone Magic Tower, that will suffice.
“Still, I can’t entrust such an important task to someone else.”
I haven’t fully gotten over Demedes’ ridiculous demise during his business trip. Considering the possibility that Argeyirion might actually appear, I remain the optimal choice for handling the situation on-site.
“If only Kine’s magical prowess would rapidly improve…”
It’s an unreasonable expectation to place on someone who hasn’t even been with Hydra Corp for a year, but I shook off my musings and approached Carisia.
Surely, I should report my travel plans, right?
Ortes didn’t even bring an itinerary; he simply declared, “I’m off.”
His attitude could almost seem heartless.
Carisia made no additional comments on Ortes’ plan.
“Shouldn’t you take the crystal?”
She merely gave him a worried reminder. Ortes shook his head.
“In normal situations, I would take it. But this trip is aimed at uncovering Amimone Magic Tower’s alleged crimes of hiding sacred relics or colluding with Argeyirion.”
The phrase “uncovering” rather than fabricating or falsely accusing was Ortes’ own form of humor.
“But if I get inspected and the crystal is identified as a sacred relic, wouldn’t that be inconvenient? They might even treat me as a traitor to the Ten Towers.”
In typical circumstances, Carisia would have insisted he take it, citing the last Daro incident as an example, but this excuse was understandable.
“You’re the kind of person who commits real treason far beyond fabricated charges like hiding sacred relics.”
It was a sarcastic remark born out of annoyance.
“This time, I’m going as a Blasphemia inspector. I should dress accordingly, don’t you think?”
Ortes dismissed Carisia’s irritation with a calm smile and added:
“It might be useful to persuade any real Argeyirion collaborators within Amimone Magic Tower, but the probability of that is practically zero.”
Upon hearing this, Carisia thought:
“…Perhaps a real collaborator might actually appear.”
Through years of experience, Carisia knew that most of Ortes’ schemes were carried out with evidence prepared to avoid exposure until the very end.
Most of this critical evidence was fabricated by piecing together situations appropriately, but sometimes these fabrications spurred genuine responses.
What Carisia couldn’t be sure of was whether Ortes had pre-planned a bait operation to lure out real conspirators using fakes.
Judging by reasonable and common-sense standards, such meticulous scenario inducement would be impossible without prior preparation.
‘Sometimes he does have his loose ends, though.’
In truth, Ortes preferred to resolve situations through improvisation using force when things went awry.
That kind of refined deception wasn’t suited to his nature.
‘This time, the start of pushing Amimone Magic Tower into a corner was surprisingly precise, but it seems more like the result of unconscious actions rather than careful planning. It would be great if he decided to use that brilliant mind properly.’
Carisia’s evaluation of Ortes was surprisingly similar to Ortes’ evaluation of her.
The plan to modify Adusiam into an alarm for the Wizard King’s return, which I commissioned from Carisia, yielded meaningful results. First, we adjusted the magic core circuit to enable turning the power on and off. Second, we gained control over whether the ‘distress signal’ was sent while powered on.
The final feature was a magic supply control device, intended to prepare for when the Wizard King returned and higher functions were unlocked.
The plan was that if an emergency shutdown command failed due to a higher authority’s presence, the power source itself would be removed to halt activity.
‘Although we haven’t decided on the most crucial aspect yet, so we can’t use it as an alarm just yet…’
To use this properly as an alarm, it needs to remain in a state capable of communicating with the Wizard King. In other words, as soon as the Wizard King appears, the location of Adusiam would be immediately known.
We haven’t found a suitable place to store Adusiam’s core yet. We need somewhere distant from Etna City, where Hydra Corp is located, but where we can instantly monitor the core’s status. Unless our company opens a branch, achieving this condition seems difficult.
Upon arriving in Algus City, where Amimone Magic Tower is located, I discreetly contacted Blasphemia.
Actually, ever since a sacred relic was discovered near Amimone Magic Tower, Blasphemia had requested my support. As a contingency against Argeyirion launching a surprise attack to aid Amimone Magic Tower.
I replied that I’d gladly assist per Salmoisa’s request and was able to communicate with the field agent immediately upon arriving in Algus City.
Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—the field agent responsible for Algus City was someone I knew.
“Huh, Senior?”
“Niobe. Long time no see!”
*
