I Became the Patron of Villains

150. Assault (1)

Alon had a blank expression.

He closed and opened his eyes twice, wondering if it was a mistake, but the man in front of him was still looking at Alon with a cheerful smile and a gaze full of admiration.

“…Prince Karsem, is that you?”

“Yes? Ah- yes, that’s right, hahaha- I’ve changed a bit.”

Alon barely managed to close his mouth, which was about to open wide at the sight of Karsem scratching his head awkwardly.

Seollang seemed uninterested, but Evan, who was unsure, couldn’t hide his surprise and opened his mouth wide.

Even if a person changes, this was too much.

Alon recalled the Karsem of half a year ago and the Karsem who was awkwardly smiling now.

What was Karsem like back then? Honestly, he was nothing more or less than a walking pig.

The clothes he wore were about to burst, and his face was always full of irritation and inferiority.

Was that all?

His personality was also arrogant, more fitting the term troublemaker than anything else.

But what about the Karsem now?

The fat that was about to form a triple chin?

It was gone.

No, it had just disappeared.

The eyes that were filled with irritation and inferiority?

They were very clean. So clean that they even looked kind.

Moreover, for some reason, he seemed to have grown significantly taller.

“…You’ve changed a lot.”

“Yes. It’s all thanks to my brother- no, the Marquis!”

“Is that so.”

“Yes…!”

Alon’s mind was still not working well.

No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t grasp the man’s transformation.

‘…This is almost like a scene from a web novel.’

Unconsciously, I recalled the web novels I used to enjoy.

Roughly, the protagonist, who was an ordinary person, gets possessed by a gluttonous prince or noble. After diligently losing weight, he becomes a handsome man and receives applause from the servants.

Honestly, I didn’t quite understand it back then.

No matter how much weight you lose, the face and body shape remain.

However, Alon now personally felt the emotions of the servants who clapped enthusiastically in the novel.

‘…This is, understandable.’

As he was thinking that.

“Please have a seat, my father will be here soon.”

“I will do so.”

Following Karsem’s suggestion, Alon and his party naturally took their seats, and shortly after, Karmakses III arrived.

Alon, who came to his senses late, began to enjoy the banquet.

However, the atmosphere was a bit burdensome.

“It’s amazing that you’ve already reached the first rank.”

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“No, it’s all thanks to the teachings of the Marquis.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes!”

…The reason being, Karsem praised Alon throughout the banquet.

“…He always talks about the Marquis.”

“Indeed.”

“If it weren’t for the Marquis, I would still be living a mediocre life… Therefore, I am always grateful!”

Quite a lot, actually.

“No, I didn’t do much. It was the prince who achieved it himself. There’s no need to give me the credit.”

“No! As I said, if it weren’t for the Marquis, I would still be in that state!”

Excessively.

Alon felt his hand, hidden under the table, involuntarily curl up at Karsem’s passionate gaze.

…Karsem seemed to be genuinely sincere.

The next day, after the purely cringe-worthy banquet for Alon.

“Marquis.”

“Why so?”

“I found out that the evaluation of the real Karsem seems to have changed a lot.”

“Is it that much?”

“Yes, I didn’t know, but it’s said to be better than the 1st prince?”

At Evan’s report, Alon asked with a curious expression behind his indifferent face.

“Really, is it that much?”

“Yes. Because of that, they say the atmosphere inside the palace has become a bit strange.”

“…Isn’t Karmakses managing it separately?”

“I heard that even the king is silent.”

Even the king is silent?

Only then did Alon let out a low exclamation, “Ah.”

‘So that’s why Karan looked at me with those eyes.’

He recalled Karan’s gaze from before.

A memory of being bewildered because the gaze was not very friendly, even though it was their first meeting.

If the atmosphere inside the kingdom had indeed become strange, it made sense.

The fact that Karmakses III does not control the current palace atmosphere was tantamount to tacitly allowing a battle for the throne.

‘…From the king’s standpoint, it’s not an incomprehensible decision.’

The 1st prince, Karan, was better than the 2nd prince. But that didn’t mean he was a good candidate to be a king.

It was only relatively better.

In such a situation, with the 2nd prince showing better qualities than the 1st prince over time, it was natural for the king’s heart to waver.

Karmakses III was a father, but he was also a king, and he thought more as a ‘king’ than as a father.

‘…The curious thing is, how is it possible for a power struggle between the 1st prince, whose succession was confirmed early, and the 2nd prince, who started to be recognized later, to happen now… Well, there’s no need to worry about that from this side.’

Anyway, after combining all the situations, he could understand the current events overall.

‘…Karan thinks Karsem has changed because of me.’

Of course, from Alon’s perspective, it was a bit embarrassing.

He hadn’t done anything special to Karsem.

“Marquis, what do you plan to do now?”

Evan asked just in time.

Alon answered immediately.

“I’ve finished all my business in the colony, so I plan to finish the remaining tasks and return.”

“Tasks? Ah, the monstrosity you mentioned last time?”

“Okay.”

“Am I waiting here again?”

“Yes… You seem to be in a good mood?”

“Oh, no way.”

Anyone could see that Evan’s face was saying, “Oh, yes, lucky! No need to suffer.”

Alon felt strangely annoyed.

…He thought about just taking him along, but only for a moment.

He sighed lightly and pushed the thought aside.

In fact, this time, they were not going to end the monster in the desert, but merely for preliminary work.

Alon thought of the desert monster, ‘Scorpion.’

‘I wish I could deal with it while I’m here.’

But unfortunately, that wish was hard to fulfill.

For now, they didn’t know the location of the Scorpion.

Unlike the monster Rikrakkamur, whose location was clearly specified, the Scorpion was only known to be somewhere in this vast desert, with no special landmarks.

Even in the game, it took time to figure out the location of the ‘Scorpion.’

You had to spend about three months doing preliminary work, attacking the temple that showed the way, to be able to go after the Scorpion.

Of course, you could wander around the vast desert without going through the temple, searching for the Scorpion’s location.

But why didn’t everyone do that?

Because finding the Scorpion’s cave was like finding a needle in the desert.

Moreover, there were also ‘Scorpion Soldiers.’

The soldiers guarding the monster’s cave.

This was the second reason why Alon was only doing preliminary work now.

They were called Scorpion Soldiers, but if you played as a wizard, they were tougher opponents than the Scorpion.

The Scorpion Soldiers made of sand numbered in the hundreds, and even if you killed them, they endlessly revived. In terms of game levels, each one was an expert-level nuisance.

Moreover, their weapons were all coated with poison, so if you allowed even one attack, it was a fatal blow.

However, there was a strategy where these troublesome Scorpion Soldiers would all turn to sand and disappear if you followed the landmarks from the temple.

“We will move tomorrow.”

Alon made his decision.

“I will be waiting-“

“……”

Looking once again at the strangely annoying Evan, I thought.

……Should I just take him with me?

####

At that moment.

Somewhere in the vast desert, the Scorpion’s cave.

No, it was too spacious to be called a cave, and the scorpion soldiers, who should have only awakened when an intruder appeared, were already up.

However, they did not move.

No, to be precise, it was more accurate to say they couldn’t move.

The hundreds of soldiers who had awakened to stop the intruder now entering.

Crackle-! Crackle-crackle!

All of them, skewered like kebabs by black lightning, were trembling, neither dead nor alive.

And among those scorpion soldiers, a Langin with silver-gray hair swam slowly.

An extremely ordinary, extremely leisurely stride.

As he walked leisurely through the hundreds of scorpion soldiers and reached the center of the cave.

Rustle-rustle-!

Once again, soldiers began to awaken from below the cave.

And that wasn’t all.

■■■■■■■-!!!

In an instant, a force many times larger than the one at the entrance of the cave appeared from the sand and surrounded the man.

Soon, the roar of the Scorpion, which had been sleeping in the cave, began to be heard.

But there was no sense of crisis on the intruder’s face.

“Ho-”

Rather, the man let out an exclamation as if he found it amusing.

Crackle-!

He wrapped his body in black lightning.

The next moment.

Swoosh-!

His figure disappeared.

And when the man appeared once again.

The scorpion soldiers were no longer present around him.

Instead, what appeared before the man was.

■■■■■■■───

A monstrosity.

A scorpion, Scorpirion, harboring the relics of the five great sins within its body, having lived for nearly a thousand years.

However, the man, even at the sight of the scorpion drooling as it looked at him, wore a rather cheerful smile.

“Well, fine. It was regrettable that the seeds didn’t germinate as well as I had hoped when I came up to the surface-”

He lightly placed his finger on its head.

“You can help with that.”

At the moment when black lightning flowed from his hand.

■■■■■■■■■■!!!!

Scorpirion thrashed about madly.

The color of the monstrosity, which had been a brownish hue, began to gradually change.

To a deep, abyssal black.

Watching this scene, the man-

“Well then, shall we go greet him?”

No, the apostle of ‘Pride’ turned his gaze towards the colony.

“And while we’re at it, let’s meet my brother too.”

With a deep smile.

####

The next day.

Alon began to prepare to move for the preliminary work as scheduled, but he felt a bit more at ease.

There would be battles, but thanks to Seolang and Rine agreeing to help him.

‘……Rine said she would stop by the royal palace for a moment, so let’s depart when she returns.’

Therefore.

Alon chatted leisurely with Seolang, who was hugging the limp Kamangi.

Until a sudden, massive noise erupted.

A huge roar, heard from afar but clear to everyone’s ears.

Alon instinctively stood up and looked out the window.

He couldn’t hide his astonishment at the sight that unfolded before his eyes.

“`

“……Scorpion?”

A gigantic monstrosity was breaking through the colony’s walls and squeezing its way in.

And then.

“……Oh, Oppa?”

Alon heard Seolang’s voice, murmuring in disbelief, near his ear.