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Sleep is over.
Instead of lying down next to Carisia, I decided to sit in a chair and organize my thoughts.
The barely audible soft breathing was pleasant enough to serve as working white noise.
"The directors, huh."
Until now, there was no need to deeply worry about the directors' actions. I had already dealt with Cretone's business, which made Hydra Corporation the target of the protagonist group.
However, now that an unheard-of department called the Divine Investigation Office has been established, and I am the sole member and head of that department, it's time to think differently.
'How can I work less?'
Ideally, the directors would mobilize their organizations to gather items related to divinity, and I would just compile and report on them. I could steal my salary without ever stepping out of the office.
'But do they have the ability to investigate such items?'
Among the personnel Hydra Corporation can mobilize, Kaicle is the closest to divinity.
His experience exploring ascension through two towers would be very useful. However, he's a key figure in the three kingdoms play about to unfold in Etna City and can't be easily sent out.
The same goes for Geryon. And Carisia?
If I asked the boss, 'Could you go on a business trip?' she'd probably respond with, 'Hahaha, you've gone mad.' It's better if I just do it.
Going with Carisia?
"That doesn't sound like a good idea…."
Going on a business trip with a superior is bearable.
Going on a business trip with a superior alone is awkward but part of the job.
But if that superior is the boss?
'That's not happening.'
I cross off Carisia's name along with Kaicle and Geryon. Bertrand is not suitable for such external trips.
Arabella's body is also not fit for the rugged outdoors. If I were to compare her to electronics, she's like a desktop that needs proper cooling facilities, not a portable laptop.
So that leaves the more unstable ones.
People like Meconion, a drug dealer, or Taros, a mutant often treated as a monster, are not suitable for outside exposure. That leaves three directors.
Divius, the expert in illegal body modifications, has a history of being on the run yet managed to escape to this area.
As he often handles 'aftercare' for his clients, he has notable survival skills and information-gathering abilities. I'll put him on hold for now.
Hunter Neuro and Beast Tamer Dimedes may seem similar, but there's a significant difference between them.
The beasts Dimedes raises are usually fed human flesh. His specialty is hunting humans. On the other hand, Neuro specializes in pest control, which is the common image associated with 'hunting.'
Although he occasionally hunts humans with bounties, most of his prey are magical beasts mutated by extrinsic magic. Most hunters in Etna City's hunting guild, which he represents, are like that.
A human with beasts that hunt humans and a human who hunts beasts. Their relationship is naturally antagonistic.
Considering social skills, Neuro seems the most suitable for outdoor activities, but most people who might possess relics would be humans. Thus, Dimedes is also a highly attractive choice.
'Maybe I should start with Meconion and then decide.'
According to Meconion herself, some of her clients mention the old gods.
The question is whether they are truly devout enough to possess relics or merely drug addicts invoking the gods' names.
In the end, I'd have to verify such details myself. Requesting cooperation from the directors and yielding no results would be a waste of time and manpower.
Today is a holiday, so Meconion should be at her lair.
I'll visit her and ask directly. Morning, after sunrise, should be an appropriate time.
Unlike Carisia, I am a person with a sense of time.
After carefully folding the scribbled paper and putting it away, there was nothing left to do. There were still about three hours until sunrise.
I might as well watch Carisia and pass the time.
***
Meconion took pride in her lair filled with colorful mists.
The abilities of a half-spirit, half-Alraune. Plants bloomed out of season, producing hybrids not found in nature.
Strange hybrid plants exuding opium sap and coca leaves. Not just narcotic substances from plants but also rare magical herbs.
The finely processed and subtly burned vapors colored the lair, granting the residents benevolent hallucinations.
A blissful natural paradise. Unlike instant synthetic drugs or neural implants' electronic drugs.
In her paradise, a shady intruder had entered.
"Smells nice."
"Care to take a puff?"
One of the flowers in Meconion's green hair withered and shriveled by itself. Its petals crumbled, and its leaves curled up, becoming a fully formed cigarette.
A sweet yet dizzying scent wafted. This cigarette made from a flower grown on Meconion's body was among the finest drugs she dealt in.
For a person without tolerance, just inhaling the scent would cause them to faint from the ecstasy.
Orthes simply smiled gently and waved his hand.
"No, thank you. Sorry to bring this up on a holiday, but I'm here for work."
"That's right. That's the kind of person you are."
A lazy reply. Meconion reviewed the information she had bought from Arabella.
'He appears sly and flexible, but deep down, he's a fanatic devoted to Carisia… was it?'
Having seen countless moths drawn to flames, Meconion knew well that human faith could sometimes be more dangerous than pleasure.
The cigarette made from her flower, Alraune Fin, was a bait to gauge him.
Humans who showed no reaction to Alraune Fin typically fell into three categories.
Those whose pleasure thresholds were so broken that even Alraune Fin couldn't stimulate them, the terminally ill.
Or powerful mages whose self-control over their bodies surpassed the flower's allure.
Lastly, those so deeply obsessed with something that they deemed pleasure trivial.
In simple terms, those whose minds were a bit cracked.
Orthes was obviously not the terminally ill first type. If he was the second type of mage, there should be at least some indication of expelling or purifying the poison through breath.
The faint smile he maintained since entering hinted at the third possibility.
There's no dealing with this type. There's no way to shake blind loyalty towards Carisia.
Target Carisia instead? Even if she could tempt Carisia, Orthes would likely decapitate her on the way.
'Indeed, I'm glad I didn't fight.'
There were plenty of addicts using Meconion's lair. Many would risk their lives for just one Alraune Fin she offered.
But when Orthes and Carisia overturned Etna City, rather than confronting them, Meconion chose to lie low and wait for the storm to pass.
It was luck. Organizations like Cretone's and Dimedes' beasts, which attacked first.
Above all, considering what happened to the Lernian Tower, resisting was the worst choice.
"I don't want to keep disturbing your holiday. Can you provide information about the followers of the old gods?"
"I had already started preparing after hearing about it in yesterday's meeting. Here, take it."
Meconion sighed with relief inwardly. Arabella's information had suggested that Orthes' way of handling people was just like the boss's, so she had prepared just in case.
Who would have thought he would actually storm in on a holiday to demand information? Should she consider it mercy that he gave her a night's notice?
"Oh. I thought it would take at least a couple of hours. You're quite fast."
His innocent-sounding praise was irritating.
'Or could it really be just a simple compliment for quick information processing?'
Usually, transactions like this are about keeping the client's secrets as if they were one's life. From that perspective, Orthes' 'surrender the information willingly' attitude from the meeting was close to a threat.
'Was that decision a test of loyalty to see if I'd resist or comply?'
The current compliment was about the choice of showing loyalty to Hydra Corporation rather than maintaining customer trust.
Realizing she had just escaped a life-threatening situation, she pretended to be casual and waved her hand leisurely.
It was a somewhat rude gesture towards the organization's second-in-command.
However, Orthes simply bowed his head once and quietly disappeared.
As expected, as long as work was done on time, he didn't care about anything but Carisia.
As he withdrew from the intentionally rude behavior to gauge his limits, Meconion drank some cold water to release her tension.
"Phew. Crazy boss fanatic…."
She grabbed handfuls of herbs and threw them into the incense burner.
The short confrontation had been tense. To regain her peace, she'd have to enjoy the scent for a few hours.
***
"…So. That's why you left your room on a holiday?"
The first words I heard upon returning home, impressed by Meconion's swift work.
It was Carisia's voice, who still hadn't left my room.
"Didn't you tell the boss to rest honoring the will of the Mage King this morning? Yet you─."
Carisia, what's the problem this time? Her gaze, carrying something akin to resentment, felt piercing.
"I'm preparing for the work starting the day after tomorrow. Before giving tasks to the directors, I need to at least verify the basics."
With a short sigh, Carisia leaned her face towards me.
"Looks like I'm not the one who needs to be told to rest."
I shrugged. She knows well who's keeping me from resting.
As I skimmed through the information on the USB, Carisia pulled a chair and sat behind me.
"So, do they really seem to believe in gods?"
"Looks like it. Considering they smoke drugs and tear people apart, they seem like followers of Bacchus."
Bacchus. The god of pleasure, revelry, and wine. The suspects were a traveling troupe regularly visiting Etna City.
Though called a troupe, they didn't perform ordinary circus shows. They specialized in extreme and bizarre performances, like illegal electronic drugs and android dismemberment shows.
"To see if they are genuine priests or just drug-addicted pranksters invoking old myths, I'll need to verify myself."
They visit Etna City every two months. The next scheduled visit is…
Coincidentally, next week.
To read over 200 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02