I Became the Servant of the Blind Wicked Woman

To read over 260 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02

Something was off.

Halto, the leader of Argyrion, furrowed his brow. Blasphemia's pursuit was far faster than anticipated. The chaos caused by the Silver Thread Hosts shouldn't have been contained so quickly.

At times, Blasphemia even ambushed Argyrion agents before they could disperse the Silver Thread.

If Halto hadn't felt the unsettling dissonance in these events, he wouldn't have been chosen as an agent for the Golden Desert Operation.

"Nastion."

A shadow rippled at Halto's feet. The extended shadow slowly rose and stood on two legs, forming a human shape devoid of features—a figure of pure darkness.

"Do we have a traitor among us?"

The shadow without a mouth spoke. Strangely, its voice reverberated evenly from all directions.

"Our comrades stand tall even in the shadows. They are all worthy of upholding the cause."

If that were true, then the current situation made even less sense. If this wasn't the work of a Blasphemia plant, how could information have leaked so easily?

Halto carefully reviewed the methods he used to gather information during his time with Blasphemia. However, no method existed that was so thorough as to leave no trace yet still obtain information.

"…No, there is one."

The predictive computation of the future by the Commandments was a high-level method only usable by the Ten Towers. Even if Blasphemia, which was merely a puppet organization under the Ten Towers, requested its use, it would be hard-pressed to get approval for future prediction.

The Commandments themselves were so powerful that they acted as variables in predicting the future, requiring the use of more than half of them simultaneously for accurate predictions. Such use was a rare privilege, employed only after secret meetings and intricate negotiations among the elders of the Ten Towers.

However, Blasphemia had other means of peering into the future, even without the Commandments.

"The Prophet in the Basement…"

Blasphemia was well aware of the dangers posed by followers of superstition and sought to eliminate them. However, they did not deny their usefulness either.

Particularly useful were the prophets, such as the priests of Phoibos.

Prophets who made deals with Blasphemia, either to save loved ones or escape pursuit, met a grim fate.

The 'Prophet in the Basement,' created by connecting the brains of these prophets in parallel, was one of the mysterious tools Blasphemia had devised.

"…Wasn't the Prophet in the Basement deactivated after the birth of the White Light Monster?"

Nastion interjected. The White Light Monster, the bastard child of the Commandments, was a massive variable that disrupted future predictions just like the Commandments.

Prophecies from prophets weren't so much predictions as they were visions, glimpses of future moments without any logical or causal connection.

But the Prophet in the Basement, a crude imitation made from the corpses of prophets, was closer to prediction. By excluding the Commandments, which formed countless future branching points, from its calculations from the start, it could operate, albeit with lower accuracy.

However, the White Light Monster had dealt a fatal blow to the Prophet in the Basement. It was a variable beyond the limits of its calculations.

No matter how many times they tried to reactivate it and interpret the output, only a blue light would flicker.

"Perhaps they've created a new Prophet in the Basement that excludes the White Light Monster, just as the original one excluded the Commandments?"

"The number of superstitious followers has dwindled due to continuous hunting. It would be difficult to gather the materials necessary to maintain the Prophet in the Basement, let alone create a new one."

"Our former superiors might have compromised with reality and decided to use the relics of the superstitious. The important thing is that they've started using non-magical means to track us."

Nastion couldn't dismiss the idea. If there were no traitor, then the only explanation for Blasphemia's ability to track Argyrion's every move was the involvement of non-magical methods.

"What should we do?"

"There were limits to how long the Silver Thread terror could blind the eyes of the Ten Towers. It's regrettable that what was supposed to buy us half a year of time has been cut short to less than three months…"

Halto's thoughts grew more complex. The first priority was to interfere with the prophecies. The second was to destroy the reactivated Prophet in the Basement.

There were two ways to disrupt prophecies. One was to engage in a battle of wits, using Argyrion's own prophets to read the future, or to complicate the future that needed to be read.

"What about the magic towers we've been dealing with?"

"Since the annihilation of the Torres faction, most of them have become hesitant. Some are showing signs of gradually cutting ties or seeking judicial deals."

"We'll have to make use of them."

Halto gazed out the window.

A massive magic circle, drawn with the mana accumulated through the Silver Thread, was being etched. A gateway to the extra-dimension.

It would still take more time for the portal to be completed.

"For the cause and for the truth."

***

Blasphemia and the Divine Cult had formed an alliance against Argyrion, using me as their linchpin.

In reality, they both considered me a spy working for their respective sides, so the term "alliance" wasn't quite accurate.

『Director Neuro, please head to the ruins of Elimon. Director Divius, proceed to the ruins of Pyrrios.』

And Hydra Corporation was using the distraction of these two forces fighting Argyrion to push forward with our Divine Investigation.

Most of the sites we investigated didn't yield any notable relics. There's always a reason Blasphemia left them untouched. However, by scouring the entire temple for artifact fragments or, at the very least, taking the altars, Kaicle could extract divine power.

The Artificial Commandments were gradually but steadily accumulating divine power.

『Please contact me if you find anything unusual. I'll coordinate with the nearest Blasphemia agents.』

After giving instructions to the directors involved in the investigation, I began moving independently. The last message I received from Niobe had been a request for a meeting.

I had turned down several previous requests under the pretense of being busy tracking Argyrion. At the same time, I'd passed along the information given by the Divine Cult to Niobe, letting her use it freely. This was to provoke a clash between Blasphemia and Argyrion.

It seemed Niobe had put the information I provided to good use. Her emails had been filled with reports of Argyrion agents being captured or killed. The operations had been successful.

Given that tracking Argyrion was Blasphemia's top priority, Niobe, who kept delivering scoops, must have earned several promotions by now.

If she had reported the information I provided as her own achievement, she might even have secured elite status with the authority to conduct independent operations.

Now, Niobe was insistent that we meet, saying it was finally time. The meeting place was a Blasphemia safehouse located near an area where Argyrion was expected to appear, according to the information I had provided.

I was reluctant to meet her, considering the risk, but continually refusing would also raise suspicion. So, I prepared myself thoroughly and headed to the designated location.

***

For a while, the agent known as L13 had been the hottest topic within Blasphemia.

The first incident was the discovery of Argyrion's trace, leading to the exposure of Branch Manager Nardanit's embezzlement.

Then came the Elysion terror attack, where Argyrion boldly revealed its name.

Even on Crete Island, where the Torres Magic Tower had committed treason, the name L13 came up.

This was thanks to Orthes, who had left instructions before disappearing from the scene, telling the captured Torres Tower members and mercenaries, "If you're questioned by the Ten Towers, just say the name L13."

Blasphemia was left in a state of confusion after reviewing the testimonies. How could an agent who had long since gone silent still be operating so actively?

Was this perhaps a fictional identity created by Argyrion to spread misinformation?

These doubts were quashed by the Auditor General, Salmosia.

Niobe had faithfully carried out Orthes's directive to "not trust the existing reporting system and report any crucial information directly to the Auditor General or L13."

Instead of disguising the information she received from L13 as her own evidence-gathering or deductions, she decided to pass it all to the Auditor General.

As a result, Salmosia, who held enormous trust in the agent L13, dismissed any internal skepticism within Blasphemia.

Given this atmosphere, Blasphemia had begun to roughly piece together L13's identity. If the agent belonged to the Auditor General's office and was unknown, it could only be a secret inspector.

How L13 managed to track Argyrion was still shrouded in mystery, but everyone knew better than to pry into the 'secrets' of a secret inspector.

Niobe, now elevated to a role akin to L13's exclusive operator thanks to Salmosia, wanted to meet her most capable agent personally.

And so…

"The reports you provided through Niobe were well received. I understand the need to be cautious of end-timers colluding with Argyrion within the Ten Towers, but don't you think it's time you returned home every once in a while?"

"It's an honor to see you again, Auditor General."

Orthes was now face-to-face with Salmosia.

To read over 260 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02