Chapter 253 Scheme to Divide
Chapter 253 Scheme to Divide
The Red-Light District.
Jiha moved immediately.
Alex would learn of Heinrich's death by the afternoon. Jiha intended to finish everything before then.
He climbed a crumbling three-story building and found Iroha seated, smoking a long bamboo pipe.
She didn't even glance at him.
"You asked to see me?"
"......."
Iroha took a moment, then rapped the floor with her pipe.
"If you want information from me, come in person from now on. Don't send your underlings."
"Uben is my right hand."
"Information lives and dies by secrecy."
It was plain that Iroha was displeased Jiha hadn't come himself.
"Is this information for my ears only?"
"It's inconvenient, but more than that, it's offensive. Do you take me too lightly?"
"That's a new complaint."
"When it comes to me, you handle things yourself. Surely I can ask for that much?"
Iroha spoke coolly.
She was still an outside contractor.
Jiha did intend to bring her under his command, but Iroha had demanded a formal process, and he hadn't gone through with it yet.
"Fine, I'll remember that."
It was true. Jiha had been treating her a bit carelessly, assuming he'd take her as a subordinate soon enough.
Iroha was raising an objection to that treatment.
It seemed like a minor thing, but it was exactly the kind of issue that surfaced during a merger.
'Right, a merger...'
Iroha had secretly reigned over the Red-Light District for centuries, collecting information.
The people acting as her limbs scraped together all kinds of intelligence from everywhere.
This one-eyed Gray Elf was the head of an information network, a boss with subordinates.
Before long, Jiha planned to fully absorb Iroha and her intelligence group. A request for proper treatment and respect during that process was understandable.
Iroha spoke coolly.
"Thanks to that, I couldn't even speak properly about Ouroboros."
"You knew?"
"How could I not?"
She knew about Alex's identity and the organization called Ouroboros.
Under Jiha's gaze, Iroha explained.
"At first, I suspected you were an Ouroboros agent as well. That's why I deliberately met you in person and took my time to confirm."
"...I see."
Iroha's decision to break her seclusion and meet Jiha back then had been a move with layers of calculation behind it.
'That makes sense...'
Looking at cases like Heinrich or Quority, Ouroboros possessed the methods to make a person powerful overnight.
"A human bastard from another world who couldn't even fight properly in the Summoning War suddenly starts using Mana, goes on a winning streak, and expands his power in Waris. It's only natural to suspect Ouroboros backing."
"When I saw Alex's hostility, I thought it might be an internal power struggle, but it wasn't."
Iroha set down her pipe.
Jiha thought for a moment before speaking.
"That tea you served Enril back then... was it related to Bugra?"
"......."
"You did it to test me, didn't you?"
The day Jiha and Enril first made contact with Iroha, there had been something suspicious in the tea she served.
Iroha nodded slowly.
"It wasn't Bugra. I was merely confirming whether a drug could work secretly even on a Unique. And I wanted to see your reaction."
"And did you enjoy yourself?"
At that time Jiha had been with Enril in Iroha's bathroom.
They were even.
A sudden smile touched Iroha's lips.
"Yes, I did. At least you didn't use a woman and throw her away. It also confirmed you had no ties to Ouroboros."
"Are all those bastards eunuchs?"
"In Ouroboros, if you don't break a high-ranking woman, it's considered insubordination. You would've been punished long ago."
Ouroboros was trying to use Uniques as test subjects by infiltrating its agents close to them.
Kamain to Asira, Lungtao to Narsha, Heinrich to Barjet.
Kamain must have been by Asira's side and then recruited by her. Lungtao had once belonged to Ouroboros but turned his back on them.
'Lungtao gathering escort guards wasn't just about blindly overturning Warsland. He was anticipating a fight with Ouroboros. That's why he tried to pull me in.'
Jiha organized his thoughts as he spoke.
"So, what about the other two?"
Blue Seal and Purple Liberation couldn't be entirely ignorant of Ouroboros.
Iroha shook her head.
"They aren't paying much attention. They're just starting to catch on now, but they're mistaking it for the other side's schemes."
"Idiots."
"No, for those with power, the truth of the matter isn't what's important."
Iroha stated it plainly.
"Do you think Warsland is ruled fairly and justly? Any baseless claim becomes the truth if those in power wish it. Point at the sun and call it the moon, and from that moment, it's the moon."
"Survival of the fittest."
Iroha nodded.
"Those who know the truth are few, but even those who do seem to think this is a good chance to wipe it all out together. They're abetting it to some degree. The same goes for your movements."
Iroha laid out the trends in the information trade.
"Both factions are watching the Investigative Committee's emergence, but haven't acted directly yet because they each think it's the other's scheme. In Blue Seal's case, the conflict between Cheonho and the Queen makes matters even more complicated. The political situation right now is thin ice. You never know when it'll crack and you'll fall through."
"......."
Jiha was actually profiting heavily from this.
The greatest advantage, above all, was that it was buying him time.
"Additionally, those who know of Ouroboros think you're their puppet. Some want to let you stir up bigger trouble so they can use it as a pretext for war."
"We think alike on that one..."
Iroha shook her head.
"The situation is steeped in darkness. You, Ouroboros, Blue Seal, and Purple Liberation are each holding cards and running a gambling table, but no one can clearly see anyone else's hand. Hell, it's unclear how many players are even at the table."
"Don't you know?"
At Jiha's question, Iroha denied it.
"Even I only became certain very recently that you aren't Ouroboros. And I was exercising utmost caution."
"There truly isn't a single soul you can trust."
"That's the way of the world."
Iroha smiled coldly.
"Even knowing this, do you still want to be at the table?"
Under Jiha's gaze, Iroha added a comment.
"You could drop your cards and walk away about now. There are plenty who'd pay a high price to buy the force you've built. If you dislike Ouroboros, Blue or Purple, whichever you prefer, would offer you a high position. Your forces, and on top of that, a monopoly on Waris, which you wanted so badly... it's simply too tempting."
"Don't test me."
His voice sharpened.
"I'm going to smash every single player at the table and sweep up all the winnings. That won't change."
"I simply had to ask."
Iroha remained unfazed.
"No gambler holding a good hand would ever fold. You're one, and so am I."
Meaning Iroha was also gambling, and she was betting on Jiha.
Iroha began her explanation.
"Ouroboros is a secret society that has been scheming and gathering power for hundreds of years, ever since the Thousand-Year War ended. They aim to completely destroy the current order and create a world they rule themselves."
"I couldn't agree more."
Jiha grinned.
Jiha, Ouroboros, Blue Seal, Purple Liberation... they were all thinking the same thing.
Nothing but smashing all the others to pieces and devouring everything themselves.
"Not bad. I just gained a smokescreen."
If people mistook Jiha's faction for Ouroboros, it could be useful in many ways, even for more overt actions.
"That's the general shape of things, but Purple is a bit more proactive. You know Pairan Amaut became a Unique, right?"
"Was that even possible?"
"They're putting on a suitable public display, but the truth of it is highly confidential information."
Iroha spoke coolly.
"What measures the worth of a life in Warsland is power, and power is Mana. It's accepted wisdom that you're born with Mana. You can become stronger, but the powerless don't suddenly gain power. If you're born a Normal Grade, you stay a Normal Grade for life."
"Ouroboros shatters that wisdom..."
Iroha shook her head.
"It's not just Ouroboros. Blue and Purple tried to shatter it too. Because if they succeeded, they'd leap far ahead of the other side."
"So that side was having an arms race."
Jiha had previously assumed there was no arms race because he saw they didn't use conscription, but he was wrong.
Blue Seal and Purple Liberation were secretly competing against each other.
They were researching how to give Mana to those who lacked it.
If countless Normal Grades could be turned into Rare Grades?
They could crush the opposition.
"But that research is profoundly unethical. Survival of the fittest, even the Ranking System couldn't cover for how horrific it was... so both sides conducted it in secret."
Because it was essentially human experimentation.
You only had to look at what Ouroboros was doing.
Even Quority clearly had side effects.
'In the end, all three of them were chummily pursuing mad research. There's a high chance my vampiric Mana is tangled up in this as well.'
He had assumed the Demon God and Ouroboros were linked, but it could be another party.
Iroha returned to the original topic.
"Yogwi are a rare species, and too little is known about them. Ordinary species are insular, but they still form societies. Even witches roam, but they hold regular gatherings and have a code of conduct. But Yogwi barely have a concept of kinship and have almost no interaction with each other. That's why, even though they're a peculiar species and she's an adult, they say she's become a Unique..."
"Did Pairan undergo Purple's experiments too?"
"I don't know the exact nature of the experiments. But hasn't one Unique been conspicuously absent lately?"
At Iroha's words, Jiha let out a scoffing laugh.
So it connects like this?
"Does the period when Gashiel Remaker's activities became unclear overlap with Pairan's emergence as a Unique?"
"A curious coincidence."
"What else do you know?"
"Only that it's suspicious. Purple's Legend has merely given official recognition to the birth of a new Unique, and is staying silent on all questions."
Iroha lightly waved her pipe.
"Suddenly, a woman who was clearly Blue Seal's Super Rare is declared a Unique. The top brass of each species are all wondering whether it's a trait of the Yogwi or the result of some intentional experiment. Ah, the leadership of the powerful species do know that both factions are conducting secret experiments."
"The Uniques didn't seem to know?"
It was unlikely the Uniques he had tamed would have hidden this from him.
"They are powerful, but most were born after the Thousand-Year War, so they aren't part of the leadership. They represent their species, but they are not queens. In a sense, it wouldn't be wrong to call them mighty figureheads."
"......."
Leticia was the strongest among the elves, but it was the Elf Council that actually governed them, wasn't it?
Other species varied in degree, but this was a secret that even the Uniques tamed by Jiha hadn't known.
Iroha wrapped up the discussion.
"That's roughly what I needed to say. If something urgent comes up, I'll contact you again, or you can come find me yourself."
"......."
It was a request to treat her with more weight.
After all, Iroha was proposing to bring her long-cultivated organization under Jiha's command.
"See you next time."
Jiha turned away.
His next task was set.
Pairan Amaut, the Yogwi who had abruptly become a Unique and revealed herself to the world.
Cutting open her belly would untangle everything.