I Became the Patron of Villains

142. Exploration (2)

After a full day of contemplation, Alon decided to return to the Marquis’ house first.

After all, he could visit Lartania on the way to the colony after stopping by the Marquis’ house.

“Are you leaving, sir?”

“Yes.”

Yutia, who seemed to have been waiting for this moment, approached as soon as Alon prepared to leave.

Alon lightly answered and then asked back.

“Is the Holy Kingdom not leaving yet?”

“No, even though we dealt with that abomination, additional measures are needed for the collapsed walls.”

Alon nodded as he looked at the temporarily repaired walls beyond her.

“Ah, sir.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Could you give me the item you brought out last time?”

“…The item I brought out last time-“

“The one you took from inside Rikrakhamur. Is it possible?”

Alon paused for a moment at Yutia’s continued request.

“…I could hand it over, but what do you plan to use it for?”

“To purify it.”

“Purify?”

“Yes. Since it came from inside the abomination, it might look fine on the outside, but it seems best to go to the cathedral and perform a purification ritual.”

Yutia pondered for a moment and then added.

“If you don’t particularly want to do it now, you don’t have to, but please make sure to visit the Holy Kingdom later and perform the purification ritual. Such items can be dangerous even if they seem harmless.”

Raising her index finger like a teacher, Yutia added, “Such things can affect the mental state of the person holding them.”

Seeing this, Alon realized why she wanted the item and felt a small sense of relief.

Even if others didn’t know, he did.

Originally, she was destined to become one of the five great sins in the future.

‘Well, there’s no need to be too tense about it.’

The relics of the five great sins only function when they are inside the abomination’s body—in other words, they only exhibit their full power when the abominations continue to guard them.

In other words, the moment Alon took it out of Rikrakhamur’s body, the relic lost its value as a relic.

“Evan.”

“Yes.”

“Take that out for me.”

Evan immediately went into the carriage and began rummaging for something.

“Uh, Marquis? This is it, but… hasn’t the color changed since last time?”

“Hasn’t it been changing slightly since last time?”

“But it hasn’t changed this drastically, has it?”

Soon, Evan handed something over.

It was an object that had turned pitch black, not red.

Alon recalled a scene from an old game.

The moment when the player, with perfect timing, removed the object from the abomination before the sin of pride could react.

‘…It looks completely powerless.’

Alon stared at the colorless object for a moment before handing it over to Yutia.

“Here it is.”

“Thank you, teacher. I’ll take it to the Holy Kingdom, perform the purification ritual, and return it right away.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Yutia smiled the brightest smile in the world.

And then.

“…Marquis.”

“Yes, Saint.”

“I will definitely protect you.”

“…What?”

Yuman, who had approached unnoticed, nodded with a face of firm resolve as if possessed by a divine spirit.

Alon took a step back discreetly and closed his mouth.

‘It’s nice that he’s thinking of me, but…’

Feeling increasingly burdened, he hurried away.

####

About a week after leaving the border.

“I win, snakehead!”

[You b*stard! You used tricks!]

“Tricks? No, it’s just that your head is lacking!”

As the evening grew a bit chilly, Alon and his companions gathered around the campfire they had lit for the night.

Alon cooled a hot sweet potato and pushed it into his mouth, watching Evan and the little snake engage in their nightly contest, which had become a familiar routine.

Then, he suddenly looked up.

“……”

He stared blankly at the stars.

‘……Do they look beautiful to you?’

The observer’s voice echoed in his ears.

For some reason, whenever he looked at the stars recently, her story would pass through his mind like a fleeting thought.

Munch, munch-

But he quickly ended his reverie by pushing the rest of the sweet potato into his mouth and thought about what he had to do next.

‘The poem—Elivan will handle it somehow, so I don’t need to worry about that. Now, the first thing I need to do is deal with the abominations holding the other artifacts, and for that, I need to enhance my magic……’

He recalled the words of the Gold Dragon, Lainisius.

More precisely, the mention of magic he had heard from him before escaping that place after receiving his proposal.

‘Unfortunately, I don’t know much about the magic of wizards. The little I do know is that their magic is based on something called… what was it? The physical world? Yes, that’s it.’

‘If there’s any useful information about wizard magic, it’s one thing.’

‘It’s the seal. I don’t know exactly how it works, but I’ve heard from a comrade about magic enhancement through the layering of seals. Honestly, I didn’t listen very carefully, so I don’t remember well, but if you know the seals in detail, you can layer their effects and abilities.’

That’s all I know, the Gold Dragon had said, ending the conversation.

‘……The seal.’

From noble mtl dot com

In fact, while capturing Rikrakmur this time, Alon thought he needed to delve deeper into magic.

For Rikrakmur, he had been able to plan using various gimmicks he had seen while playing the game, but many of the other abominations lacked such gimmicks.

In other words, there would be more situations in the future where he couldn’t devise an overwhelming strategy using such advantages.

Therefore, Alon needed to explore magic itself, not just rely on his own manifestation, to prepare spells that could handle more situations.

The first task was the seal.

He had never properly touched it before.

While he was pondering this.

“Marquis.”

“Yes?”

Evan handed him another sweet potato.

The argument disguised as a game with Basiliora seemed to have ended, as he wore a very refreshed expression.

“Thank you.”

“Not at all.”

[Give it to me too!]

“There is no food for the loser!”

[aaah, don’t talk nonsense, human!! There’s no way I would lose to a mere human!!]

Basiliora, sobbing while breakdancing on the ground.

“So.”

“Yes?”

“What game was it this time?”

Seeing Basiliora so broken, Alon calmly asked Evan, who was biting into a corn.

“Marbles.”

“…Marbles?”

“Yes.”

“…The one where you hit and take marbles?”

“Yes.”

Alon looked down at Basiliora.

[I! This body! To a mere human!! To a mere human!!!!!!!]

‘…Just because he lost a game of marbles…?’

Such a reaction.

It seemed Alon could somewhat understand why Evan and Basiliora enjoyed the game so much.

Once again, Alon absentmindedly tried to shove a sweet potato into his mouth-

[Kyuu?]

He offered the sweet potato he was eating to Kkamang, who had climbed onto his shoulder before he knew it.

Nom nom nom-

Kkamang bit into it as if it had been waiting for it.

Seeing Kkamang smile cutely as if it was delicious, Alon thought anew.

‘…At least it doesn’t grow a mouth on its stomach like last time.’

He had been quite surprised when a mouth suddenly appeared on its stomach before.

[Kyaaa-!!! Ah, wait- wait wait! Stop, I said stop!!]

Kkamang, seemingly displeased with Basiliora’s incessant screaming, poked him a few times with its front paw.

[It’s sorrowful, so sorrowful…]

As Basiliora shriveled up, the day had completely faded away.

……It was a cool night.

A few weeks passed like that.

Alon arrived at the Marquisate of Palatio after nearly two months.

The Marquisate seemed to have changed a lot in the meantime.

As such, there was a lot of work piled up for Alon to do, and he even heard that Radan had come and gone.

However, he couldn’t hear all the details.

No, he couldn’t listen.

And for good reason.

“I’m sooorryyy-!!!”

Bang!

“…….”

As soon as he arrived at the Marquisate, he had to meet Penia, who was kneeling and banging her head towards him.

####

The office was piled high with documents.

Alon felt a strange sensation.

In front of him, Penia Crysinne was sitting uneasily.

As if she had done something she really shouldn’t have, she couldn’t keep her eyes still and her body twisted this way and that.

“……Did you come alone?”

“N-no……. I came with…… my younger sibling…….”

As her voice diminished, Penia’s head lowered as well.

Alon, feeling like a delinquent from his school days, spoke first.

“……So, I’d like to hear what you did wrong.”

“Ah. Th-that- um-”

Penia cautiously looked up at Alon.

But soon, unable to meet his eyes properly, she lowered her head again.

Alon felt a strange sense of injustice, as if he were the bully.

……No matter how he looked at it, Penia seemed like the victim.

Just as he began to feel a peculiar sense of unfairness.

“So, you see…….”

Penia stammered as she began to speak, and after listening to her story for a while, Alon said,

“This is how it happened.”

“……Indeed.”

He could understand why she had confessed.

“……To summarize what you said, Heinkel thought you and I were in a certain kind of relationship, and if you just asked, he would teach you magic. So, you pretended to be in that kind of relationship at the Magic Tower… Is that it?”

“That’s… right. He kept wandering around in a spirit form…”

“So, you learned magic, but it was only a matter of time before you got caught, so you came to confess.”

“Th-that’s correct…”

Penia nodded, watching Alon’s reaction.

‘So that’s why it happened.’

Only then did Alon understand why the rumors hadn’t died down easily. At the same time, he pondered as he watched the anxious Penia.

‘So, what should I do now?’

In fact, he didn’t really want to do anything to Penia.

It was annoying, but it hadn’t actually caused any harm to Alon.

As he pondered, he soon seemed to come up with something. He smiled slightly to himself and then spoke.

“Alright, let’s do it this way.”

“Yes?”

“Your goal is to learn magic from Heinkel, right?”

“Well, I don’t have to learn it, but if I do, I think it would be really good, happy, and joyful… Yes, yes…”

Penia’s voice trailed off uncertainly.

Alon leaned back in his chair and suggested,

“Then how about this? Instead of maintaining such uncomfortable rumors, I’ll go and meet Heinkel myself. Wouldn’t that be more convenient for both of us?”

“What? Really…!?”

“Yes.”

Penia’s eyes widened in surprise.

Her eyes sparkled with a childlike innocence, a look unimaginable from someone with such a ruined personality.

Eventually, she said,

“Yes, yes, if you do that, it would be really great for me…! The rumors are a bit uncomfortable…”

She nodded with a very happy expression.

“……”

Alon felt strangely uneasy.

Of course, the rumors were uncomfortable, but seeing him so happy made me feel like there was something wrong with me, and I didn’t feel very good about it.

“However, I have a request in return.”

But he soon got to the point, having gathered his emotions.

“What request… might that be?”

In response to Fenia’s question, he smiled and stated his purpose.

“I’d like some help with magical research.”

“Magical research?”

“Yes, it might be a bit unfamiliar, but can you do it?”

The timing is just right.

‘It will be a great help to the research.’

Fenia Crysinne is a person of broken character.

However, her magical skills were undeniably real, and it was clear that she was steadily moving from the 7th rank to the 8th rank even at this point.

“If it’s really something like that… I’ll do it…!”

Fenia also agreed vehemently.

Both thought they had achieved a satisfactory result.

But Fenia didn’t know.

That what awaited her was… the ‘endless grind in the abyss’ called research…

She realized this fact a week later.

####

At that time, Hidan was at Deus’s mansion in Caliburn to deliver a story related to this poem.

However, the topic he opened with was not about that.

No, it couldn’t be.

The reason was.

“…Lord Jawol.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“That is…”

It was because of the huge statue standing in the middle of the garden, visible from Deus’s window.

That too. Similar to the one in the Merkiland territory… no, in fact, the exact same statue.

When Hidan looked at Deus, Deus had an infinitely serious expression.

“`

“……So, you see.”

“Yes.”

“……I went to the Merkiland estate and met Philian.”

“Yes.”

“He is a very good friend. We talked about him for a really long time, almost three days straight.”

“Is that so.”

“Yes.”

“……But does that story have anything to do with that statue?”

At Hidan’s point, Deus averted his gaze slightly.

“……Philian said he would give me the statue as a gift.”

“Didn’t you buy it instead of receiving it as a gift?”

“……It felt a bit wrong to just take it.”

“……For something like that, I heard you spent a considerable amount of money.”

“That-“

Deus mumbled several times before finally opening his mouth.

“……It was to secure plausibility.”

“Plausibility, you say?”

“……Yutia said we needed plausibility. To form some kind of territorial alliance with the Merkiland estate-“

“But you don’t have any territory.”

With just one word from Hidan, Deus’s plausibility, no, his logic was shattered miserably.

“Anyway, that’s how it is.”

“……I see.”

“Yes.”

Hidan thought.

Ah, nonsense.

“……I will report to the Red Moon.”

To that.

“Can’t you just not report it?”

“It will leak out soon anyway……”

“If you report it, it will take three months, and if you don’t, it will take six months.”

“`

Looking at Deus, who wore a childlike expression as if he could keep his precious toy for three more months.

“……”

Hidan quietly closed his mouth.