I Became the Narrow-Eyed Henchman of the Evil Boss

The human-faced birds flapping in the sky were originally the beasts of Dimedes’s gang. But now, they were subjugated to the old man who ruled Dimedes, surrendering their eyes and ears.

“‥‥‥!”

The old man in the purple robe vividly observed the scene of the chimeras being torn apart through the eyes of the human-faced birds.

He thought from the moment the inspector wielding the High-Frequency Blade began massacring the beasts. A half-wit that feasts on human brains should not be connected to an organization.

If Dimedes held the title of director, logically, someone stronger than him would be the boss. Yet that inspector never acted without coordinating with the archer next to him.

A rare attitude toward the ultimate decision-maker. The likelihood of him being the boss is low.

Even now, he volunteered for a dangerous task, provoking Dimedes, the strongest opponent, while dealing with the other chimeras.

The archer merely caught one surviving chimera and stood back, watching.

It was confirmed.

There could be a boss who takes the lead on the most dangerous tasks. But there can’t be a subordinate who watches their boss work.

That inspector is at least not the highest authority of Hydra Corporation.

‘So that archer is the boss, and the inspector is the director? Is he on the same level as Dimedes?’

The more he thought, the harder it was to accept. How could the two hold the same rank?

‘What if that idiot chimera is delusional enough to think he’s a director?’

He stopped his thoughts leading him to futile imagination. What mattered now wasn’t that.

He couldn’t obtain the inspector’s bloodline even with thirty-one chimeras. There couldn’t be a better sacrifice suitable for the conclusion of the ritual.

‘It can’t be helped. If I recruit more disciples, it won’t be possible to maintain the ritual.’

He gave up on using that as a sacrifice. He would complete the ritual with the remaining blood and flesh.

‘Those two might interfere with the ritual, so it’s better to wait until I can return.’

It was a given that the archer and inspector would realize the existence of the mastermind behind Dimedes’s corpse. But they were few in number.

Should they fight an enemy capable of controlling dozens of chimeras and beasts with just the two of them, or should they better prepare and come back?

In a situation where he couldn’t even know where the opponent was hiding or what tricks they had left, it made sense to retreat for a moment and regroup.

“And by that time, the ritual will already be completed.”

Even if the two intruders left for just half a day, the ritual could be completed.

Even if he were to examine the memories of the chimera captured with mental magic, it would be meaningless. Their brains had been cleaned out beforehand.

No matter how brilliant a mage was, they couldn’t analyze the magic placed on a chimera to find him.

Since he didn’t use magic power to control the chimeras, it wasn’t magic at all.

How could one analyze magic that didn’t even exist?

It was the moment the old man smiled leisurely.

“Hmm?”

Orthes began to stride forward.

*

“Wait. Where are you going?”

“I’m off to catch the culprit.”

It felt like an abrupt line from a mystery novel, cutting straight to revealing the culprit’s name. How on earth did he find out the culprit’s location?

‘Did he do something to the chimera?’

Neuro looked at the chimera trapped in the cage. No, he hadn’t seen Orthes spray anything on it or cast any magic.

After all, not much time had passed since the capture of the chimera. At most, it had been about five minutes.

During that time, all Orthes did was briefly gaze at the chimera.

‘Can he really locate an invisible mage just by staring?’

For a moment, suspicion arose; however, Neuro decided to quietly agree with Orthes.

‘What would happen even if I said I didn’t want to go?’

Around 99 out of 100 chances, he would hear, “Are you out of your mind to leave an unstable factor that might threaten the boss unattended?”

The remaining one possibility was the cold declaration of a purge: “You’ve outlived your usefulness, Neuro the former director.”

Had Orthes known, he would have been shocked, saying, “Do you think I’m the type to take down anyone who disrupts the boss’s mood?”

However, sending Dimedes to the afterlife, Orthes’s cold farewell had shocked Neuro.

On the other hand, Orthes focused on the line of mana connected to the chimera.

‘Interesting.’

Not magic power, but mana.

Usually, when people refer to mana, they mean a general term for “the materials needed to exercise supernatural abilities.” It encompasses magic power or fighting spirit as a category.

At the same time, mana, aside from being a categorical term, had another meaning. It specifically referred to the pure form of supernatural material that hadn’t been processed.

In the dictionary, it might be defined as “unrefined supernatural energy that hasn’t been regulated by a mage,” but Orthes thought the world’s dictionaries were too one-sided in favor of mages.

‘Not just mages, but mercenaries use mana to refine their fighting spirit, you know.’

In other words, it’s very rare to use unprocessed mana itself.

‘Could divine power be the ability to handle pure mana itself?’

Orthes recalled the residual memories of the ancient priest he’d met in the last temple of Phoibos. There was definitely a different, alien power felt from him, different from magic power or fighting spirit.

While he was toying with the relic in his pocket, Orthes shook his head.

‘No. Divine power is also something different from mana. What on earth resembles magic so much?’

After a deep thought, Orthes came to a decision.

‘First, let’s go catch them and think later.’

*

Neuro’s gas mask’s augmented reality display kept ringing warnings. The components in the air were apparently suspicious.

‘Mages who deal with plants spread poison spores… Is it that kind of area control magic?’

Uh-oh!

Come to think of it, didn’t the head of the Divine Investigation Office lack a gas mask or a mask?

“Orthes!”

Neuro ran towards Orthes in horror, to confirm signs of poisoning.

“Hmm? An attack?”

However, Orthes wore his usual unblemished smile. There were no signs of poisoning like difficulty breathing or redness at all.

“…There’s poison floating in the air.”

Neuro felt somewhat embarrassed.

“Thank you! It seems we came at the right time.”

Poison was released, and it turned out they had come at the right time? Neuro carefully interpreted Orthes’s words.

“Got it! In a mage’s base, there are traps laid to prevent intrusions. Was capturing the chimera a way to find the area with the strongest scent like tracking dogs?”

If that was the case, it made sense that Orthes would effortlessly find the enemy’s hiding place just by observing the chimera’s face.

That he had skillfully modified the chimera meant he had profound knowledge in life-based magic of the wood or earth attributes. The countermeasures used by such individuals are usually of the poison variety.

However, the beasts sometimes used poisonous herbs as food or collected poison elements for defense. The enemy mage likely employed the poisonous herbs they possessed as feed for the chimera for efficiency’s sake.

An injured chimera used its hunting instincts to locate the enemy’s hideout!

Neuro admired that keen insight.

‘What on earth did he deduce?’

Orthes fell into a doubt: ‘That old man isn’t a fraud, is he?’

*

‘How…!’

They arrived at the core of the ritual without a moment’s hesitation. It was slightly off from the center of the magic circle, where the magic power usually concentrates, located more toward the east.

The detection devices set around the hideout transmitted the voices from the ground.

“Hmm? There are traces of camouflage under that rock. It looks like a passage that people frequently use.”

“Indeed. You’ve got the flair of a hunter.”

“Flair? What do you mean by that?”

“Oops, I’m sorry. Your suit looked so good when you entered the meeting room that I almost forgot you’re a hunter.”

While monitoring the movements through the eyes of the human-faced birds, he had wondered if they could really track it down to here.

It was a spine-chilling degree of intuition.

The old man recalled the believers tied in the room for the burnt offerings. Should he use a portion of the sacrifice to confront those two?

No. Considering the power he had shown against the chimera, it’d be hard to overwhelm even with the full sacrifice.

“If that much is dead, there wouldn’t be enough blood to offer to the god.”

Muttering in a dark voice, the old man raised his grapevine staff and headed to the center of the altar.

There was no choice. Though not fully prepared, and part of the essence was damaged, he had to conduct the ritual right away.

Fortunately, a barrier had been set up, so it would take considerable time to come inside. He just needed to complete the ritual in a simplified manner and open the door.

“O mighty Bacchus, reborn Bacchus. I offer you blood to be transformed into the wine of immortality that promises your rebirth…”

As long as the sacrifice was sufficient, if he filled in his lacking abilities──

“What are you doing?”

A sudden voice rang out.

The old man reflexively raised his divine power. The granted authority from the god of pleasure and wine blossomed. A sticky sweetness mixed with floral fragrance wafted through the space.

It was a saint prayer imitating the scent of sacred wine. A dizzying aroma that would make anyone who smelled it faint, even if just for a moment.

However, Orthes remained unshaken.

“You’re in a purple robe. You seem to be quite a high-ranking member of the Bacchus cult. Isn’t that a color usually reserved for bishops?”

Questioning his own voice clearly thrown forth. The trembling bishop of the Bacchus cult, Sikton, was startled.

For someone to know so much about the cult, they must either be a believer themselves or…

“You bastard! Disciple of the Ten Towers! Did you come all this way?!”

Only those who had butchered their comrades like Blasphemia knew it.

“I see now why you were much stronger than those halfwit chimeras. You were part of the Ten Towers…”

*

With resentful murmurs glaring at me.

If I hadn’t managed to escape, I should’ve set Neuro in position above to relay the news to Carisia. That would’ve been the right call.

That fellow seemed to have a rich imagination in bizarre directions. If I had listened to him, he would have inflated my actions with some kind of weird fantasy again.

‘What I feel here is divine power.’

Indeed, until I interfered, the energy flowing through the magic circle had been divine power. It was somewhat different from what I felt at the temple of Phoibos, perhaps due to the different deities.

‘What was the technique that dealt entirely with mana?’

“Calm down, elder.”

I drew out the relic of Phoibos from my pocket. It was to reassure the bishop of Bacchus and create an opening to extract information.

“I am not Blasphemia. Would a sacred profaner such as I keep the relic of Phoibos Proopsios so carefully?”

The crystal on my hand glimmered. The elderly bishop, witnessing the radiance, gaped.

“The relic of the god Phoibos! You must be the true prophet who sees the truth, which is why the illusion barrier didn’t work!”

Initially shocked, the bishop’s expression shifted entirely. He looked even fiercer than when he mistakenly took me for Blasphemia.

“Then the Pope sent you. It’s obvious why he chose a priest of Phoibos capable of seeing through Bacchus’s charms…!”

A wave of astonishment washed over me.

Certainly, there was surprise in discovering that everyone I met recently had been committing acts of treachery against their organizations.

However, the greater portion of that astonishment was the question that went beyond that.

‘Was the Pope real?’

It wasn’t just some fictitious setting of Blasphemia?

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