NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42
It was a rare, priceless moment of rest. Right after the meeting, a few Directors requested allocations for the Divine Investigation tasks. But as the Head of the Divine Investigation Office, I didn’t approve any of those tasks.
It was a manpower issue.
To prevent something unexpected from happening like with Dimedes, a combination of at least two Directors or one Director plus me was necessary…
Two Directors are going on a business trip?
Etna City still has a lot of maintenance to do. I can’t recklessly remove high-ranking individuals like Directors.
Neither Neuro nor Dimedes had any problems if pulled from Etna City since their main jobs were close to combat. However, if Bertrand or Arabella were absent for a few days, it would be a significant hit.
“Even that delinquent Cretone was currently the king of construction sites…”
He probably got all worked up since he couldn’t engage in gang activities and was prohibited from human trafficking. But I had no intention of letting him loose.
If he got involved in slave trading again and attracted attention from external forces, it would cause complications. Hydra Corporation must remain below the surface until the protagonist arrives and clashes with the Ten Towers.
The druggie Meconion didn’t have any immediate tasks inside the city, but from the start, he was a poor choice for sending outside.
‘It’s not that his combat prowess is strong; it’s just that he’s the type who commands followers.’
To minimize the impact of losing a Director, ultimately it would be best for me to handle the Divine Investigation alone. Accompanying one Director like this time would be the second-best option.
I wanted to push the Divine Investigation fieldwork onto the other Directors no matter what. I brought a sheet of paper and started scribbling based on what came to mind.
“A combat capability deployment scheme for the Director according to the risk assessment of Blasphemia’s ruins? Writing stuff like this right after the meeting?”
Gasp.
“Boss?”
“The door wasn’t closed, so I just came in.”
Waving her hand and saying “Hello,” Carisia was just being her usual self. Well, her usual self in front of me.
She had temporarily put aside her nicely tailored suit jacket and combat gloves for casual wear.
“This is an invasion of privacy. You can’t just barge in during my off duty time.”
Carisia chuckled softly.
“Then should I chase the boss away?”
I sighed and organized the papers I had been hastily scribbling on. Carisia wouldn’t come to see me without a specific reason.
Last time, she had barged in out of nowhere, fell asleep while listening to reports on the Directors’ activities, but she must have had a splendid reason for doing so.
“What brings you here?”
Carisia seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking.
“About that girl Kine. She needs to erase or hide her Divine Power before entering Meseion, right?”
“Yes. If she has lost her faith, her Divine Power won’t recharge, so it’s better to use up her remaining Divine Power to erase it.”
*
Meanwhile, Kine was praying to Bacchus. Though he was the God who couldn’t save her family from betrayal, she had no other being to pray to besides Bacchus.
She knew the names of other gods. However, the god she and her family had always believed in was Bacchus.
It wasn’t a prayer for herself, so she could only seek Bacchus.
“Please protect our family’s souls from that beast, and ensure my will doesn’t falter…”
Since her reunions and farewells were held hostage, Kine couldn’t resist the one-eyed man. But if he tried to use her as a tool for his wicked schemes, she would never forget the guilt of that wrongdoing.
She prayed and prayed, wishing her will wouldn’t be fully corrupted by that one-eyed man’s evil.
*
“I have a bit of a different thought…”
Orthes expressed doubts about Carisia’s murmur. Carisia shook her head and replied that it was nothing.
‘Did she really say that thoughtlessly? Goodness.’
No matter how you looked at it, she seemed like a skilled villain using family for threats. Sometimes, when Carisia showed her naivety to an absurd degree, I would wonder if it was an act or genuine.
“To pass the Meseion transfer exam, magic skills will be important. But among the Directors, there isn’t anyone particularly suitable as a teacher, right?”
“Yes. If we expand the range to include individuals outside the company, Geryon or Kaicle would be suitable for teaching the basics.”
“I can teach the basics. I have some free time nowadays.”
“Directly from the boss?”
Orthes, stroking his chin, nodded. Excluding her position as the final decision-maker of Hydra Corporation, Carisia was definitely the best candidate for magic education.
After all, her skills were the best in Etna City. The issue was her responsibilities as a boss, but when she said “I have free time,” she really meant it.
Confirming Orthes’s acquiescence, Carisia brushed off her clothes and stood up.
“About the Divine Investigation work…”
“Yes.”
“If the Directors are too useful in Etna City to be dispatched, we can at least call a troubleshooter or mercenaries. If we draft a plan, I’ll execute the budget immediately.”
What would we do with saving money? Carisia said with a slight smile.
*
I want to save money!
…But I couldn’t say that, even if a blade fell on my neck. Carisia shoots beams, after all.
My goal is to save money and enjoy a luxurious retirement.
After Carisia left, I reread the pile of papers I had been working on. It was clear that sending mercenaries or troubleshooters instead of Directors could save time and manpower.
“The problem is security.”
I need to be able to trust the mercenaries. Based on my experiences in the troubleshooter industry, usually, whether they were troubleshooters or mercenaries, there weren’t many trustworthy ones.
Having been in the troubleshooter industry most of my time since opening my eyes to this world until meeting Carisia, my experience isn’t short.
However, it’s not normal to experience so many betrayals that I can’t even count them on both hands.
Everyone, from employers to comrades, betrayed me equally. When I heard “Before you betray me, I’ll betray you first!” it truly left me dumbfounded.
The request when I met Carisia was betrayed by the employer too.
Perhaps I looked like an easy mark to backstab due to my lack of reputation. Most of my troubleshooter career was filled with requests in high-risk areas adjacent to extra-dimensional zones and rural backwaters, so I never had a chance to gain fame.
‘…I have no good memories, so let’s just focus on work.’
The usual criteria for distinguishing between troubleshooters and mercenaries is scale. If it’s one-person self-employment, they are troubleshooters; if they belong to a mercenary company and move organizationally, they are mercenaries.
As ancient mercenary groups grew into the form of mercenary companies, dominating the market, the meaning of “mercenary” itself mutated to refer to the companies and their affiliates.
In that context, the term “troubleshooter” emerged to call upon mercenaries of individual scales similar to the past independent mercenaries.
In fact, there are also hints that troubleshooters emphasized the term “troubleshooter” saying, “We are different from ordinary mercenaries!”
Upon examining the past experiences of troubleshooters, most of them were independent mercenaries who hated paying the commission fees taken by mercenary companies.
I recalled the list of troubleshooters and mercenary companies I memorized during my active troubleshooter days.
The first filtering criterion was trust. The next was skill. One by one, names were crossed out.
Searching the remaining names through the Ether Network. In this industry, it’s quite common for a business owner who was operating until just a day ago to die and close down.
As I erased names and erasing still…
‘Nothing is left?’
Damn. Those damn mercenary companies. They really fell through from the perspective of reliability. There’s only one thing to do.
“If I go find that guy who said he’d set up a Mage Tower, he should treat me well.”
On the list of recent applications for establishing a Mage Tower, there was the name of that individual. Lampades Tower.
He was the only comrade from requests where all the others had betrayed me. His character… no, his elf nature seemed to exceed the industry average.
I’ll have to ask if he has any mage to dispatch.
For about the next month, there wouldn’t be any work from the Divine Investigation Office. Until then, I’ll just take a break.
‘That’s enough for today!’
I collapsed onto the bed. Maybe I had too many business trips lately; sleep instantly overcame me.
“Hey! Head of the Divine Investigation Office! Hey!”
…where did it go?
What woke me from a blissful, thoughtless sleep was Divius’s communication. I had asked him to take care of Dimedes and Sikton’s autopsies.
“What’s going on?”
“That Sikton fellow’s head had something strange in it! Come quickly and take a look!”
Ha ha, damn.
I clicked my tongue and changed my clothes. They weren’t going to leave me alone, huh?
*
Divius looked at Dimedes’s corpse and thought.
“I’ve often felt like I want to go there because of the similar names. He died well.”
About five minutes after sending the news, the sound of Orthes’s footsteps echoed in Divius’s surgery room.
“What came out?”
As usual, a gentle smile was on his face. It was unclear if he always maintained that expression even after waking up, or if he hadn’t slept at all while waiting.
Divius thought it was probably the latter. Orthes’s character wouldn’t allow him to rest while leaving danger factors related to either Hydra Corporation or Carisia unattended.
‘Phew. Thank goodness. It was right to contact him even though it was dawn.’
If it’s Orthes, no matter how sleepy he is, he’d surely prioritize matters related to Hydra Corporation or even Carisia!
Divius guided Orthes toward Sikton’s skull.
‘Why the heck am I watching a human anatomy exhibit at dawn…’
Waking up from sleep, Orthes felt the throbbing in his head.