I Became the Servant of the Blind Wicked Woman

To read over 260 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02

It wasn't a fight.

What Kore witnessed wasn't a fight. It wasn't even a hunt or a chase.

It was a mockery.

Utis finally brought Adoosiam down by using his own attacks against him. When one of Adoosiam's sonic bombs hit his left arm, silver metallic powder burst out like a shower of petals.

Every time a sonic bomb was deflected, another limb was pulverized. Utis mocked Adoosiam with words each time he shattered a part of his body.

Only after all of Adoosiam's limbs were gone did Utis take a step forward.

It was then that Kore realized Utis hadn't even moved from his spot while deflecting Adoosiam's attacks. From start to finish, Utis had been toying with Adoosiam.

As he slowly advanced, his voice was clear.

"Defective."

It was as if ice had been shoved directly into her spine, sending a chill through her. Kore couldn't understand what exactly he was referring to as "defective."

Her mind began to race.

Utis must have expected some kind of reaction from Adoosiam, and when it didn't happen, he judged Adoosiam as "defective" and proceeded to punish or dispose of him personally.

'What kind of reaction was he hoping for… obedience? From a golem?'

Utis had dashed straight down to the depths of the temple, without bothering to take any other relics. He was searching for something other than relics, and could it be that "something" was Adoosiam, the Mage King's golem?

Why did Utis think that the Mage King's creation would obey him? Kore instinctively took a step back.

She couldn't let Utis realize she had been there. He was far too dangerous to consider bringing in to challenge the Pope.

Just as Kore turned to flee.

"What are you doing there?"

Utis's words pierced the darkness like a blade, stabbing her in the back.

***

I blinked a few times. I had kept my eyes open for quite a while during the fight with Adoosiam. I had disassembled enough of his limbs that there was no longer a risk of a sudden attack.

Now, it was time to speak with the priestess who had appeared in the corridor when I was fighting Adoosiam.

Every time I tried to focus my vision on her, my head started to hurt. It was challenging to keep my attention on Adoosiam while suppressing the overwhelming flow of information that my eyes were detecting from her.

Given the amount of highly concentrated energy surrounding her, whether it was divine power or something else, she must be quite experienced in her craft. But why had she just watched?

"…"

I shifted my gaze from the flood of information and words filling my vision to focus on what I could see with my regular eyesight. It was one of the priestesses from the Synod of the Gods, whom I had seen at the earlier meeting.

"You could have helped instead of just watching, don't you think?"

"…You can see me, can't you?"

"Yes, isn't that obvious?"

As soon as I said it, I thought, "Oh."

Wasn't she supposed to be invisible?

I remembered my conversation with Demus. The twelfth priestess who had been present at the meeting. But Demus himself neither remembered nor acknowledged her presence.

A priestess of Pluto, perhaps? My thoughts began to get tangled.

***

Crunch. Utis took a step forward.

Kore tried to assess the situation calmly. She couldn't outrun him. Even if she tried to flee, she would soon be caught.

The priority was to safely get out of here.

"Hmm."

Utis rubbed his chin.

"For now, why don't we talk? The hallway isn't exactly the best place for a conversation, is it?"

Utis brushed off the debris from a nearby rock and sat down, appearing neither hostile nor overly familiar.

Cautiously, Kore stepped forward. It was clear that Utis had the upper hand. That much was undeniable.

"When did you realize I was hiding?"

"After the meeting? It's a bit ambiguous."

It was clearly a lie. If he hadn't noticed her presence during the meeting, he wouldn't have said it was "obvious."

"I find myself quite curious about you, the priestess of Pluto."

Kore suppressed her unease. He had a way of speaking as if he could see right through a person. Had she not met the Pope before, her anxiety might have been more apparent.

"Who says I'm a priestess of Pluto? I could be an Estia priestess; that would still place me in the same rank within the Synod."

"Come on now, let's keep this simple. Estia's sacred spells aren't exactly known for their stealth, are they? Even if they were, the illusions they create tend to show peaceful domestic scenes, not complete invisibility, correct?"

The question seemed almost leisurely. Kore found herself nodding despite herself.

"I could offer a couple more reasons. For one, we're in the deepest part of Pluto's temple. Only someone who is in tune with the temple and worships the deity it's dedicated to could navigate these corridors so adeptly."

'And what about you?' Kore wondered, the thought rising to her lips.

"I have a question for you."

*How does my soul appear to you?*

It was a question she couldn't begin to understand. When Kore didn't immediately respond, Utis tilted his head and asked again.

"Pluto is the god of death, isn't he? Doesn't that mean you can read the flow or history of souls with your sacred spells?"

It was true. But she couldn't properly read his soul.

'Is he aware that the Pope ordered me to examine his soul…?'

It was a masterful way to manipulate the conversation. Kore cautiously chose her words.

"Why are you curious? Are you afraid of death?"

"Who isn't afraid of death? But my curiosity about my soul leans more toward wondering where it came from."

"…You're curious about where your soul came from?"

It was a strange statement, as if he were implying that he didn't naturally belong in this world.

Memories of the past spun through Kore's mind like a whirlwind.

The prophecy of the Mage King's return.

His disappointment in Adoosiam for not obeying him.

His declaration that his soul might not have originated from this world.

Utis had said, "It's hard for someone who's never been to this temple to navigate so easily." But what if Utis had not been here for the first time?

The strange energy surrounding Utis that couldn't be identified as any known divine power or otherwise.

What if that energy was a fragment of a new divine power that had never existed in this world?

Could it be?

Could Utis himself…?

Before Kore could recover from the shock of her own deduction, Utis spoke again.

"I've always wanted to meet a priestess of Pluto. As someone who represented the Synod of the Gods, you must be one of the most powerful in Pluto's order."

Kore was at a crossroads. She had no idea what to say.

After some thought, she slowly opened her mouth.

"I can't see it. Your soul. There's no history, no nothing—just a continuous blue light."

This much was the truth.

"If I knew more about you, perhaps I could see more clearly. Like magic, sacred spells work better when the caster knows more about the target."

It was a gamble.

It was true that knowing more about the target generally increased the effectiveness of a spell, but whether that would apply to someone like Utis, who was beyond her comprehension, was uncertain.

Kore waited with bated breath for his response.

If Utis really was the person she feared he might be, the one whose existence was so terrible it could scarcely be uttered, there was only one appropriate response.

"Well, that's troubling. Hmm…"

There was a chance that he wouldn't let her live after hearing her answer.

But if she were to die, that would be when Pluto's power would manifest most strongly. Using all her divine power as a priestess, she might be able to leave a final message for the others in the Synod.

If Utis truly was who she feared, there was only one person who could stand against him—the Pope.

"It's strange to say this, but I haven't really done much. I've just struggled a bit in the adjacent zones of the extra-dimension."

"Your name, Utis, is a pseudonym, isn't it? What's your real name?"

"My real name?"

For a moment, Utis's faint smile seemed to evaporate into the air. But only for a moment. His characteristic smile soon returned to his face.

"Right now, I am merely an enemy of the Ten Towers."

"…You said you were the enemy of the Ten Towers."

Kore recalled Utis's testimony before Philoxenon's sacred spell.

'I believe what I testified.'

'A forgotten mage who destroyed the Synod of the Gods will return and bring calamity upon the world.'

'I didn't hear this prophecy from anyone; I witnessed it myself.'

…The testimony made it seem like Utis considered the forgotten mage an enemy. His overall strategy, which involved pitting the Ten Towers against the forgotten mage, also seemed to support this idea.

But that strategy was proposed to persuade them to eliminate Argyrion. Utis had said that if the Ten Towers and Argyrion fought and weakened each other, they wouldn't have the strength left to face the forgotten mage.

But couldn't it also be possible that a powerful Argyrion could join forces with the Ten Towers against the forgotten mage?

What if his real goal was to preemptively eliminate the possibility of such an alliance?

"The enemy of the Ten Towers… are you also the enemy of the forgotten mage…"

Utis's eyes gleamed.

At that moment, the Pluto's Great Temple trembled. Kore felt a searing pain as if the temple, with which she was in sync, was being pierced through her body.

"Kahk?!"

Kore hastily activated her spell to track intruders. She sensed familiar auras, the presence of her fellow priests. But they weren't alone.

A group with the ominous mana of the extra-dimension had stealthily infiltrated the temple. It was undoubtedly Argyrion.

But that wasn't all. There was a massive surge of magical power—a colossal supernatural aura that no ordinary mage could possess.

A mage from the Ten Towers had arrived.

Kore turned to look at Utis in disbelief. Had he been stalling her all this time, just waiting for this moment?

To prevent her from detecting the other intruders?

Utis was standing with his hands folded, watching her.

"What's the matter?"

Still smiling.

To read over 260 fully translated episodes, patreon.com/Denji02