I Became the Servant of the Blind Wicked Woman

To read over 200 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02

You crazy bastard.

I carefully recalled the thoughts of the man I observed while Sikton was babbling. Normally, with my eyes perpetually narrowed, opening them slightly only reveals a bit more of my pupils.

I didn't fully open my eyes, fearing it might seem suspicious, so I couldn't read the information in his deep subconscious. But even the memories that surfaced in his conscious mind were enough to understand the situation roughly.

He was a fanatic who believed, without a shadow of a doubt, that he would reach Bacchus's Garden.

The process he used to prepare the ritual was absurd.

Originally, Sikton was a confidant of the leader of the Bacchus Cult.

When the Divine Cult's meeting concluded with the resolution to "become independent from the gods," it was Sikton who first shared the news with the leader.

While pretending to comply with the Divine Cult's will on the surface, Sikton prepared for betrayal.

Bacchus is the god of pleasure and revelry. Holding a grand festival before the meeting was a tradition.

Sikton poisoned all the cult members' drinks in time for the festival.

The poison he used wasn't a neurotoxin or bacterial poison, so he remained unaffected by drinking the same poison.

The poison Sikton used was a magical nanomachine—a cluster of micro-spirits created by dividing a single spirit into hundreds of thousands or even millions of tiny parts.

When the festival ended and the cult was preparing for the meeting, Sikton commanded the micro-spirits.

Sikton put the entire cult into a vegetative state and used the divine power in their bodies and other lives to perform the ritual.

The place where the Bacchus Cult held their grand meetings was this very cave.

'What a ridiculous man.'

I had never directly faced or heard the voice of any gods in this world.

Would a god praise a believer who sacrificed their followers without hesitation?

For now, the situation was under control. I should call Neuro, who is waiting above, to help search the cave.

As a professional hunter, he would be good at finding traces of hidden safes or similar things.

At least, better than me.

***

Neuro followed Orthes's lead and descended into the deep cave. The cave wasn't luxurious, but it showed signs of careful preparation. The smoothly carved floor and walls reflected the devotion of the Bacchus followers.

'Orthes said he confronted the enemy leader here.'

Entering a stone chamber on one side of the cave, he indeed found the corpse of an old man with his head and body separated.

The violet robe soaked in red blood slowly changed from dark purple to a deep maroon.

Neuro carefully examined the body of the Bacchus Cult bishop.

'…Nothing?'

There were no defensive wounds, the usual sign of a struggle or resistance.

Swallowing hard, Neuro flipped the bishop's fallen head.

The severed head had a smiling expression. A smile similar to the one Orthes always wore.

Seeing the smile on the decapitated head, Neuro's heart pounded.

How could this be?

A mind-influencing spell?

'If he knew mind-control magic, he would have brainwashed Geryon instantly rather than suppressing him with authority and force. It's unlikely to be mind-control magic.'

Then how could someone make their enemy smile as they were beheaded?

Neuro considered analyzing the bishop's body further but decided against it. The fact that Orthes entrusted this scene to him meant there was a significant level of trust.

And that 'trust' likely included the expectation that Neuro knew what to report and what to ignore, what to see and what to overlook.

Neuro reflected on himself as a hunter. Until now, he had compared Orthes to a beast.

The most incomprehensible beast he knew and the president who led that beast.

But reconsidering now, Orthes wasn't a beast. Neuro believed he could hunt any beast given enough time and resources.

Wyverns, rulers of the sky; death worms of the desert; swarms of man-eating mosquitoes mutated by magic stones. Neuro enjoyed reversing the roles and hunting these formidable creatures that had claimed the lives of many hunters.

Orthes was too strange to be compared to any real beast. More like a monster from legend….

'Ah.'

Indeed, so that's why he was named Hydra. The multi-headed serpent from myth with deadly venom, defeated by a hero.

If Carisia was the Hydra's immortal head, Orthes was the Hydra's venomous fangs.

There was nothing much to gain from the bishop's body. The grapevine staff held some sort of power different from magic, but it was weak.

"It's not strong enough to be called a relic. Maybe it's blessed by the priests."

I decided to take it anyway. Even a small amount of divine power is better than none.

Starting with Sikton's ritual chamber, Neuro inspected the rooms one by one, eventually placing his hand near the ear of his gas mask.

"Divine Investigation Office Head. This is Neuro. I've found something that needs verification."

He was communicating.

Neuro had discovered a room where dozens of people were arranged in a grotesque manner.

These were the members of the Bacchus Cult whom Sikton had put into a vegetative state.

***

"What should we do with these bodies?"

"Hah…."

A sigh escaped. Strictly speaking, they weren't bodies. The nanomachines…. No, the micro-spirits had simply made their brains vegetative.

Since their hearts were still beating, they were technically alive. Alive.

"They've been attacked by a cluster of micro-spirits."

"What? Spirit poison? If they had even minor enchantware, or if they knew how to handle any supernatural abilities, the spirit poison wouldn't have been able to function…."

I made a gesture of clasping my hands in prayer. These people had nothing to do with enchantware or anything like that.

"…I see. Superstitious followers using divine power would be detected by the Ten Towers. Their way of living, minimizing their supernatural energy fields, would be ingrained in them. Spirit poison would be effective."

"If their brains are damaged, there's little chance of recovery, right?"

"I've rarely used spirit poison in my hunts…. But it's probably impossible. They're unusable."

Cough!

From a corner of the room came the sound of someone coughing.

Neuro immediately drew his bow and aimed. A girl, trembling and barely crawling, came into view.

"I'll kill you. Kill…"

***

The girl looked up at the two figures through her blurred vision. One wore a gas mask, and the other was someone who seemed so imposing that she felt unworthy of even raising her head.

A blue light seemed to flicker briefly.

"This is interesting. I thought they were all in a vegetative state."

He knelt down, lowering himself. He met her eyes. The blue light shone faintly from within his eyelids, appearing as a thin blue line.

His mouth was smiling, but it was impossible to tell if the thin line of his eyes was also smiling.

As the masked figure tried to say something, the man raised his index finger with a 'shh' gesture, demanding silence. The masked figure stepped back.

The smiling man spoke.

"Do you remember what happened?"

"Sikton, Sikton…"

"Yes. Bishop Sikton betrayed the Bacchus Cult. What is your name?"

"Kine."

"Kine."

The smiling man stroked his chin.

"Unfortunately, your family cannot return. Sikton's poison has penetrated too deeply. Did you ever have enchantware implanted in your body?"

Kine did not answer. The dazed feeling caused by pain was now being replaced by a growing wariness towards the stranger.

"Look at your right hand. It doesn't seem to fit quite right."

Despite her silence, the masked figure quickly noticed the prosthetic on Kine's right hand.

The cult members usually refused to implant enchantware touched by wicked mages.

But when young Kine's right hand had to be amputated due to an unknown infection, they weren't so cruel as to deny her an enchantware replacement.

Due to financial constraints, they bought the cheapest enchantware available, even if it meant implanting a left-hand component on her right-hand stump.

Thus, Kine, the youngest and only member with enchantware among the attendees at the Bacchus Cult's grand meeting, was created.

"Alright, Kine. Who did you want to kill?"

Again, Kine didn't respond. She wasn't sure what relationship these two had with Sikton, who had killed everyone.

They were all such kind people. Grandfather Thales. Grandmother Agave. Uncle Pentos….

"Is it this person?"

The smiling man placed a severed head in front of Kine. The strange smiling face was unmistakably Sikton's.

Seeing the severed head, Kine understood the situation.

Sikton must have made a deal with Blasphemia to eliminate the elders of the cult. In exchange for wiping out the Bacchus Cult, he would gain wealth and power.

He attempted to kill everyone in the cult and then smugly claimed his promised rewards, only to be discarded.

"You. You're all from Blasphemia──!!"

The girl, filled with rage, eventually lost consciousness.

***

"What… is your intention?"

I shrugged. Neuro was asking why I spared the girl named Kine.

Because I had seen her before.

A girl with mismatched prosthetics, ending up with two left hands.

In the original work.

"She has talent."

"Talent?"

If left alone, she would become an ally of the Mage King.

"Have you heard of corporate scholarships?"

Now she's our pawn.

To read over 200 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02