I Became the Patron of Villains

15. The Blue Tower (1)

In the Kingdom of Asteria, there are three major shadow families.

One is the Duke of Altia in the north.

Another is the Count of Zenonia in the west.

And the Count of Palatio in the east.

These three families originally divided the underworld of the Kingdom of Asteria into three parts.

By the time the original story begins, these families have grown to the point where they can subtly manipulate the Kingdom of Asteria from the shadows.

In the case of the Count of Palatio, the organization disbanded after Leo was assassinated, so it has long since fallen from its position as a shadow family.

Therefore, the only shadow families currently existing in the Kingdom of Asteria are the Duke of Altia and the Count of Zenonia.

…In fact, the alliance between the two didn’t seem like a big deal at first glance.

“Is that true?”

“When have I ever lied to you, Count?”

“…That’s true.”

“Of course, since the agreement was made in the underworld, it may not be apparent on the surface, but it seems certain that they have formed an alliance.”

“…”

The reason Alon was making such a fuss was because he roughly knew the situation of the shadow families at the beginning of the original story.

When the protagonist came to the Kingdom of Asteria, the three shadow families had immense power, but they couldn’t handle it properly purely because of the checks and balances from other families.

But now, with the Count of Palatio out of the picture…

If the Count of Zenonia and the Duke of Altia were to unite, there would be no one in the Kingdom of Asteria to stop them.

In other words, if time passed like this, the two shadow families could control the kingdom as they pleased.

‘Hmm.’

Thinking this far, Alon wondered how things had come to this point, and suddenly recalled what he had said to the Lady of Zenonia a few months ago.

‘No way…’

Alon thought that the shadow alliance, which should never have blossomed in the Kingdom of Asteria, might have bloomed because of what he had said back then, but he soon shook his head.

Even if he didn’t understand the personality of the Duke of Altia, he knew the personality of the Lady of Zenonia, Kalia, all too well.

She was the type who couldn’t stand being on the same level as or below others, no matter what.

To rise to the top, he would not hesitate to commit any cruel act, embodying the very image of a villain drawn from a picture.

“Hmm…”

Thinking up to that point, Alon felt a sense of relief.

Considering the personality of Zenonia Kalia, he realized that the alliance could only be temporary.

“Evan.”

“Yes.”

“Bring me some stationery in a bit.”

“Stationery?”

“Yes.”

Knowing that there is no such thing as a 100% certainty in life, he decided to make at least minimal preparations.

“By the way, Count. You asked me last time if there were any rumors about Seolang, so I looked into it. It seems that some rumors have been spreading recently.”

“Really?”

At Evan’s words, Alon turned his head.

“What kind of rumors?”

“I heard that he has been very active in the colony recently. They even gave him the nickname ‘Golden Flash.'”

“Golden Flash…”

With a brief impression that he had heard the name somewhere before, Alon sighed in relief.

Of course, he had thought that Seolang would never die a meaningless death, but he was still worried, so he included a question about Seolang in the letter he sent to Utia.

“I’m glad to hear he’s doing well.”

“Indeed. In that place, a warrior can be treated better than a noble if they gain enough fame.”

“If you’re strong enough, you can even stand on equal footing with the king.”

Leaving a brief impression, Alon soon received the stationery that Evan handed over and spoke.

“Oh, and I plan to visit the Magic Tower in about a week.”

“The Magic Tower?”

“Yes. It might take a while.”

“Isn’t it just two weeks at most?”

At Evan’s puzzled question, Alon shook his head.

“It will probably take about a month.”

“A month? As far as I know, the Green Magic Tower is only about a week away from the Count’s estate.”

“I’m not going to the Green Magic Tower, but the Blue Magic Tower.”

“……It might take some time to get there, but is there a specific reason we need to go to the Blue Tower? Isn’t the Blue Tower located between Caliban and the Labyrinth City?”

As Evan mentioned, unlike the Green Tower, the Blue Tower required more than three weeks of travel from here.

“I have business at the Blue Tower.”

Alon replied simply, ending the conversation as he continued writing his letter.

Seeing this, Evan, realizing he wouldn’t get any more answers, clicked his tongue and said, “Then I’ll make the preparations.”

“Please do.”

Evan bowed lightly and left.

For a while, Alon wrote a letter to Lady Zenonia in silence, and after sealing it, he let out a light sigh.

‘If I go to the Blue Tower, I’ll have to live in a carriage for three weeks. It’s going to be tough.’

Alon grumbled inwardly about the obvious fatigue, but he had a reason for going to the Blue Tower despite the hardship.

‘It’s necessary for my magic.’

There was an item there that could support his half-baked talent, which only allowed him to properly explore magic once a day.

As he thought about it, Alon suddenly remembered the Labyrinth City next to the Blue Tower.

‘The Labyrinth City…’

The Labyrinth City, Lartania.

In the center of that beautifully named city, there was an endlessly descending labyrinth.

It was one of the few places in Psychedelia where you could grind for experience and items without progressing the story.

As the name suggests, the deeper you went into the labyrinth, the more experience and treasures you could obtain.

However, no one who played Psychedelia had ever reached the end of the labyrinth.

You could level up without progressing the story, but every five layers, you had to come out, and that took a day.

Even if the story didn’t progress, time still passed.

So, if a player focused on exploring the labyrinth and neglected the story, they would eventually come out to find a world in chaos.

To avoid that, you had to progress the story while exploring the labyrinth.

Naturally, by the time you reached around the 70th layer of the labyrinth, the game would end.

Therefore, no one had ever reached the end of Psychedelia’s labyrinth.

‘…Someone said they used cheats to get to the 150th layer, but there were more layers after that…’

As Alon recalled a vaguely remembered post from a now-forgotten community, he soon shifted his thoughts to Rine.

‘Is she doing well?’

The reason Alon sent Rine to Lartania was not to make her a labyrinth explorer.

To raise her as a magical appraiser.

Thanks to the countless relics and artifacts discovered in the labyrinth almost daily, the profession of appraiser is highly regarded there.

A truly professional and certified job that can identify the detailed abilities of the appraised items.

Moreover, if one becomes a magical appraiser, a profession certified by Lartania, they can live a wealthy life without worrying about money. That’s why Alon sent her to Lartania.

Her talent, “The Eternal Library,” like other sins she possessed, was inclined towards that field.

‘Well, with the gift, she can appraise more comfortably…’

Alon continued his thoughts with a peculiar expression.

‘Come to think of it, didn’t I give Rine too small a gift?’

Unlike what he gave to the other five sins, what Alon gave to Rine was merely an item specialized for equipment appraisal, making him feel slightly embarrassed now.

‘If it seems a bit lacking later, I’ll have to provide more support.’

Thinking that there was nothing he could do about what had already passed, Alon shrugged his shoulders.

It was a leisurely day.

The labyrinth city of Lartania.

In the southern district of that place, which operates independently without any national governance and has an overwhelmingly large number of explorers and mercenaries compared to other countries, there is an appraisal shop called “Merde.”

The shop, run by a magical appraiser who hides their identity, was not originally in a very favorable condition.

No matter how highly regarded appraisers are in the labyrinth city, there are numerous appraisal shops in the center where the labyrinth is located.

In other words, there was no reason for people to visit Merde in the southern district.

However, despite that, countless customers visit daily.

Even the types of customers were unusual.

Most of them were A-rank or higher explorers who ventured deep into the labyrinth, and among Merde’s customers were nobles from other countries and-

“The appraisal is complete, my lord.”

“Oh, how is this relic?”

“It’s a device that continuously creates flames by infusing it with magic.”

-the lord of Lartania as well.

“I’m always so pleased to receive your help.”

The lord, who received the relic from the masked woman, glanced down.

Seeing the black eye engraving on the bottom of the relic, he spoke with a broad smile.

“Oh, was it a relic that could be engraved?”

“Yes.”

“How is the engraving ability?”

“The efficiency has improved overwhelmingly. I think even a handful will keep the flame going for an hour.”

“That’s really amazing. I’m always indebted to you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

With the masked woman’s light response to the masked man’s words, the lord disappeared from sight with a delighted expression.

Soon, after the lord left, the office became silent, and she took off the mask with a crescent moon drawn on it.

“Phew-”

The woman who took off the mask—no, Rine—lightly sighed and looked at the engraving in the lord’s hand through the window.

That engraving was the reason why the shop called Merde in the southern district was making more money than any other appraiser.

Rine could not only appraise relics from the upper echelons but also engrave certain relics to further enhance their abilities.

However, this was not Rine’s ability.

Her ability was merely to accurately identify and appraise the true nature of relics through the ‘Library’ or to identify specific relics that could be engraved.

The ability to engrave itself was thanks to the gift of the Great Moon.

“……”

When Rine slightly turned her gaze and opened the door next to the office, a golden eyeball surrounded by a blue halo was operating in the small room.

[248/500]

Looking at the window floating above the halo, Rine suddenly recalled the first time she discovered this as a gift from the Great Moon.

At first, like other heroes, Rine did not understand why the Great Moon sent her to the labyrinth city to become an appraiser.

Knowing that he was a figure from the forgotten era of outer gods, she guessed it was to deal with the ‘black things,’ but she still didn’t understand.

At least, having the ‘Library,’ she knew how powerful the ‘black things’ were, and she couldn’t find any connection between killing them and becoming an appraiser.

But as soon as she discovered the gift from the Great Moon, she had to change her mind.

The gift the Great Moon gave her was the ‘Eye of the Tracker,’ an item that could appraise relics containing a certain amount of magic.

However, having the Library, she recognized it immediately.

This Eye of the Tracker was by no means ordinary.

She unlocked the layers of seals on the item that didn’t even exist in her ‘Library,’ and only then did the Eye of the Tracker, which was just a round sphere, reveal its true form and open one ability.

That was ‘engraving.’

Engraving was the ability to engrave certain relics from the upper echelons to enhance their abilities.

But amusingly, the first engraving the Eye of the Tracker opened was not an ‘ability.’

Rather, it was more of a…

‘…252 sacrifices remaining…’

It was close to a means of offering a ‘sacrifice.’

Certainly, when the engraving was embedded, the artifact’s abilities would increase, but she knew. She knew that in exchange for embedding the ‘engraving’ in the artifact, the golden eye absorbed something unknown even to her.

Each time, the ‘eye’ was fundamentally changing.

‘My task is to make this bloom.’

When she first realized this, Rine had two realizations.

One was that only she could make this eye bloom.

The eye reacted to artifacts with specific patterns that came from the upper echelons, and if it was brought an artifact that did not match, the accumulated power would instead drain away.

And the other realization was that this eye would have enough power to stand against the ‘black things.’

Therefore, Rine watched the eye gradually bloom each time she absorbed an artifact, following the will of the great moon.

‘Everything is to kill the ‘black wolf.”

With such murmurs, Rine gently touched the golden eye floating in the air.

‘And, according to His will.’

A small, inexplicable fanaticism gleamed in Rine’s eyes.

About three weeks later.

As he had told Evan, Alon arrived at the Blue Tower by carriage. Originally, he was scheduled to meet the Tower Master, but unfortunately, the Tower Master was absent, so he could only meet the Deputy Tower Master.

…Yes, that was the case.

“Come on, quickly state your business and leave. I’m busy.”

“…”

At the devastating treatment, Alon wore a dizzy expression.