I Became the Patron of Villains

Chapter 177

177. Those Who Noticed. (3)

“Then, let’s meet at the banquet.”

“Understood.”

After Alon made his final farewell and left.

“Phew-”

Carmaxes III sighed and clutched his chest.

A king, nervous about conversing with a mere noble.

Anyone who heard would laugh it off as nonsense, but the thought that the Marquis of Palatio might be the Sage God froze him in place.

…Of course, it was still uncertain if the Marquis of Palatio was truly the Sage God.

Having thought that far, Carmaxes turned his gaze.

“So, how was it?”

It was time to hear the truth from Teira, who claimed to recognize the Sage God.

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And then.

“…Are you alright?”

Carmaxes III couldn’t help but ask.

Teira, who had shown no particular interest until the Marquis of Palatio entered, now looked pale as if all the energy had been drained from his body.

Seeing Carmaxes III’s bewildered expression, Teira sighed and struggled to speak.

“I’m fine. It’s just, I saw something… unbelievable…”

“Unbelievable?”

“Yes, something I can’t comprehend.”

Something incomprehensible?

As Carmaxes III’s brow furrowed, Teira took several deep breaths and then blurted out.

“…To conclude, it seems the Marquis of Palatio is indeed the Sage God.”

A moment of silence.

Carmaxes’s voice cracked as he spoke.

“Re-really?”

“Yes, I saw it with my own two eyes. When I went to the land of the Lizardmen, he possessed the same power that the Sage God had. But the peculiar thing is.”

“…The peculiar thing?”

“There were four orbs.”

“…What exactly does that mean?”

Teira calmly pondered for a moment before beginning to explain the situation to him.

A little while later.

“…So, according to you, the Sage God you saw in the land of the Lizardmen had one orb bound in chains, whereas Marquis Palatio had four such orbs?”

“Yes.”

“…What does the number of orbs signify?”

In response to Carmaxes III’s question, Teira shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but it’s difficult to give a precise answer to that. After all, I’ve only seen the Sage God once…”

“…Then what can you speculate?”

“What I can speculate is-“

Teira paused for a moment.

His gaze fixed firmly on Carmaxes.

“The more orbs there are, the stronger the being.”

“The more orbs there are?”

“When I was in the land of the Lizardmen, I once saw the strongest warrior there, and he had two orbs.”

Of course, they were not orbs bound in chains, but ordinary orbs that could be seen in normal humans- Teira added, bowing his head.

“Of course, my speculation could be wrong, but based on that, I think the number of orbs signifies strength or talent.”

“…Strength or talent. So, according to you, Marquis Palatio, who had four orbs compared to the one orb the Sage God had…”

The murmuring that scattered like mist heightened the tension within.

“…If my speculation is correct, it means he could be stronger than the Sage God you saw in the land of the Lizardmen.”

“…”

The shocking truth (?) that soon echoed caused Carmaxes III’s mouth to slowly open.

Immediately after the audience with Carmaxes III.

‘…Why did he want to meet as soon as I arrived?’

Alon felt something strange about Carmaxes III’s behavior of calling him to the audience chamber and scheduling a banquet.

Normally, he would have sent someone to coordinate the banquet time instead of meeting in this manner.

Of course, strictly speaking, it was more of a unilateral notification to come to the banquet rather than an invitation.

Anyway, the sudden manner of it left me puzzled for a moment.

Thud-!

“Master!”

Seollang appeared noisily on the roof of the carriage.

As soon as Alon’s carriage arrived near the guild building, Seollang jumped from the rooftop onto the carriage.

“If you wait in the building, I would have come up.”

“We can go up together!”

Seollang, with sparkling eyes, leaned his face close to Alon’s.

Then, perking up his ears, he looked up at Alon expectantly.

Familiar with the signal by now, Alon pressed Seollang’s ears firmly.

Seollang just smiled bashfully without saying a word.

Seeing that, Alon, who hadn’t even realized it himself, let out a small smile and patted Seollang’s head.

As he climbed the building, Alon felt relieved inside.

‘At first, I wondered what to do.’

By the time they reached the desert, Alon remembered something he had forgotten due to the mental world.

That was, when they went to the colony this time, he had to answer Seollang’s long-postponed proposal.

He had been worried about what to do, but soon found peace of mind.

The reason was that even after arriving at the colony, Seollang, although more affectionate than before, hadn’t mentioned it at all.

Though puzzled for a moment, Alon felt a sense of pride, thinking that Seollang might finally be able to distinguish between like and love.

Seollang’s change was evident to anyone; it was the very growth of a child maturing mentally.

Eventually, they entered the guild and continued their conversation.

Then, Seollang, who naturally brought out a fatherly smile, suddenly glanced towards the window and paused,

“…Hmm?”

He looked back at Alon and smiled brightly.

“Ah, Master! I’ll be right back!”

“Where are you going?”

“I have some business at the royal castle!”

“Well, go ahead.”

“Yes! I’ll be back soon, Master!”

Soon, with a crack! of lightning, Seolang dashed off into the distance.

Alon, who had the look of a father watching his daughter go out to play, turned his head at Evan’s call.

“Marquis.”

It wasn’t long before he turned his head at Evan’s call.

“What is it?”

“Oh, you know that thing you mentioned before? I got it.”

“Is the investigation already finished?”

“Well, it’s been a little over a month since you mentioned it, so I guess they had plenty of time.”

Alon unfolded the paper Evan handed over without hesitation.

“Hmm…”

“But Marquis.”

“Why?”

“Why are you investigating this? Aren’t they people who have nothing to do with us?”

It was certainly a bit curious.

The list Alon had asked Evan to get this time was a list of organizations or squads operating secretly within the United Kingdom.

Before the original story began, they were hiding so well that their locations were not even revealed, but when the five great sins started to crawl out one by one, they came out together and dragged the United Kingdom into the abyss.

In other words, at this point in time, they hadn’t properly appeared yet, so it was understandable that Evan was curious.

At times like this-

“This is, well- that.”

“That, huh.”

“Yeah, that.”

As always, he gave the same answer.

“Yeah… I kind of expected that answer.”

Evan shrugged as if he hadn’t expected much.

“Is that so?”

“Well, sometimes the Marquis does things he doesn’t quite understand.”

“Aren’t you curious?”

“I’m curious, but isn’t it something you can’t really talk about?”

“Hmm-“

Rather than being unable to talk about it, it was more that he wasn’t confident in explaining it, Alon thought to himself as Evan added.

“Well, if it’s hard to explain, you don’t have to tell me. It’s not like hearing one or two things will change anything.”

“Is that so?”

“Right? The Marquis isn’t the type to do something strange just because he doesn’t know something.”

Just as Alon was feeling a strange sense of pride from the words that conveyed a peculiar trust.

Evan slid in with a playful smile and whispered.

“Marquis.”

“Why?”

“If my salary goes up again, I would be very happy.”

“My admiration just shattered.”

“Oops- I guess I should have mentioned it a bit later.”

Evan’s face was full of a good-natured smile.

Soon, Evan greeted and left the room.

The room became quiet.

[Squeak-]

Alon, who had been exhausted from being adorably(?) harassed by Seolang until a moment ago, petted the tired Kkamangi and organized his thoughts.

‘What I need to think about now are the enemies who will shake the United Kingdom and- the Apostles.’

The enemies who will shake the United Kingdom, they can be dealt with.

Even if they haven’t shown themselves yet, since they are active behind the scenes, it won’t be difficult to deal with them if I buy information from the Information Guild.

But the real problem was the Apostles.

‘Honestly, I hoped it was just a groundless fear at first-‘

The moment he confirmed that even Rine was involved with the Apostles, Alon was somewhat convinced.

The children he had saved so far had all, in some way, already been entangled with the Apostles before he saved them.

That meant that the Apostles could appear in front of other children as well, which left Alon in a state of deep contemplation.

‘…It would be great if I could know where the Apostles are.’

Unfortunately, it was an impossible area.

From the beginning, Alon didn’t know who the Apostles were, and he had realized through the past two fights and information gathering that the Apostles don’t reveal themselves unless they are trying to awaken a ‘vessel.’

In other words, there was no one around Alon who could find out the location of the Apostles, whether it was the Information Guild or anywhere else.

‘So in the end, all I can do is fend them off whenever they come… Is there no way?’

Only Alon’s deep sigh quietly echoed in the room.

That night.

After pondering for a while without reaching any particular conclusion, Alon headed to the palace to enjoy the banquet as Karmakses III had suggested.

‘…Today, I’ll attend the banquet, meet Kailas, and then collect everything I was supposed to receive from the Yongin tribe right after.’

Passing through the now quite familiar palace, Alon soon entered the banquet hall prepared by Karmakses III.

However, the moment he stepped into the banquet hall, a question arose in Alon’s mind.

It was because Seolang, who had left a few hours earlier saying he had business at the palace, was nowhere to be seen.

‘Where did Seolang go?’

The empty seat of Seolang.

Alon tilted his head in confusion but soon turned his gaze and bowed to Karmakses III.

“I greet the king of Colony.”

The usual greeting.

However.

“Ah, you have arrived? Marquis Palatio.”

A very unfamiliar, yet once-heard honorific from Karmakses III reached his ears.

A faint hint of puzzlement appeared on Alon’s face as he straightened his back, something others wouldn’t notice.

“Please, have a seat.”

“…???”

…It was the beginning of a night that was utterly incomprehensible.

####

Similarly, under the blue moonlit night.

Rine, who was staring blankly at the street with not a single light, unconsciously muttered the words Alon had said earlier that day.

“The past is, after all, the past-.”

Muttering the words she had repeated several times already, she unknowingly smiled faintly.

In fact, hearing those words didn’t bring a significant change to Rine’s heart.

She was still afraid, scared, and horrified by the past.

No matter how much Alon had said those words, to her, the ‘past’ was just a memory she wanted to forget.

Therefore, his words didn’t deeply resonate with Rine’s heart.

The past was still tormenting Rine.

However, the only reason Rine could smile at that moment was because of one thing.

It was because of Alon’s expression.

A look that even he himself seemed unable to fully recognize.

But it was clear.

His face, not the usual expressionless one-

‘It was a worried expression.’

One that anyone could see was filled with concern.

Directed towards her.

For Line, that was an immensely joyful thing.

……So joyful that she didn’t want to lose it even more.

She didn’t want the current relationship to be tainted by the shackles of the past.

Therefore.

‘No, I don’t even need to tell you, you just have to choose. In fact, if you’re as smart as you are, you already know very well, don’t you? That your library has many hidden spaces.’

Line recalled the voice of the Apostle of Greed once again.

A voice she didn’t even want to think about.

But perhaps, it was the one that showed the way forward,

“……”

The voice that spoke of a way to move forward, even crushing the shackles of the past.

She was staring at the blue moon for a while.

But the eyes that held the blue light were, more than anything, emitting a clear and vivid blue light.

####

In the outskirts, quite far from the colony.

In a place where finding anything seemed impossible, just a vast desert.

“Found it.”

“!?”