41-60 · 044
Part 2
Arc 1
Chapter 41: Conspiracy
In a distant foreign land across the sea, the top-floor executive office of a skyscraper lay wrapped in the silence of the dead of night, filled with cold, pale moonlight and the glow of countless floating holographic monitors.
The room’s occupant, an older man, sank deep into a high-end leather chair, letting the smoke from the cigar between his fingers curl through the air. On the monitor before his eyes were the final winning bid results of the ‘Master_Eye Official Auction’ held in Japan a few days prior.
Total winning bids: over ten trillion yen.
Of the three hundred Legendary Level and Mythic Level armaments listed, nearly ninety percent had been bought up through a ‘certain route’—namely, with funds mobilized by this man.
“With such blatant hoarding, I expected them to contact us… Did they fail to identify us? Or are they letting us twist in the wind?”
The man’s low, heavy murmur echoed in the room. His voice held a trace of irritation at not having things go his way, mixed with an even greater curiosity.
“My deepest apologies, Chairman.”
A secretary materialized from the shadows without a sound, bowing respectfully.
“The people running Master_Eye’s operation seem to have keener instincts than we anticipated. We distributed funds through dummy companies, shell corporations, and hundreds of accounts worldwide, but it’s possible they detected the unnatural buying spree… Or perhaps it simply failed to pique their interest.”
“…Or they judged us as ‘beneath notice.’”
The man narrowed his eyes, displeased, and swiped his finger across the holographic screen.
The image that appeared showed footage from the press conference in front of Shinjuku Dungeon. There stood Seira Jinguji, her arm around the shoulder of the ‘Master_Eye agent’ in the gas mask, her piercing gaze pinning down the media.
“There’s no doubt ‘that girl’ is on their side. The forces at Master_Eye’s disposal and the full extent of his technology remain unknown.”
The man rose from his chair and gazed through the thick bulletproof glass at the far end of the office. Beyond it stretched a vast underground research facility, steeped in an icy atmosphere no one could have imagined from the building’s exterior.
At the center of the dim facility stood a single enormous reinforced‑glass capsule, filled with a pale green culture solution.
Connected to countless life‑support devices, floating weakly in the liquid, was the figure of a young girl—barely ten years old, if that. Her skin was as white as a corpse, and the radiance that should have dwelled behind her closed eyelids showed no sign of awakening.
“…Still far short.”
The girl sleeping in the capsule was something this organization had created by pouring vast fortunes and the latest magical science into the project. Though repeated failures had finally produced something close to the intended form, something essential was still missing before it could match the genuine article.
“The substitute is still developing. I wanted to avoid forcing contact and displeasing them, but… we may need to accelerate the plan.”
The man snuffed out his cigar in the ashtray. His greed‑filled eyes fixed on the secretary.
“Above all, I’ve become curious. If the technology that restored those mythical weapons is genuine, it could be the final piece to achieve our organization’s long‑held aspiration.”
He tapped the terminal on his desk, displaying a single address. On it was the name of a new Japanese corporation: ‘Antique Eye, Inc.’
“Contact them directly. Enough of this tedious subterfuge. Use a direct encrypted line and send a message under my name.”
“Understood. …What content shall I use?”
The man smiled fearlessly and replied briefly.
“—‘To Master_Eye-dono. Regarding your company’s technology and your relationship with Seira Jinguji-shi, I wish to speak with you directly.’ …That will suffice. If they are as astute as I suspect, they will read between the lines.”
A short electronic tone signaling the message’s transmission sounded in the midnight office.
Desire, mystery, and the enormous hand reaching out from across the sea were about to encroach upon the peaceful daily life that Toru and the others had regained.