I Became the Patron of Villains

9. Misunderstanding (4)

Kalia, the eldest daughter of the Zenonia estate, who had just arrived at the estate and reached the Count’s office, suddenly recalled the man she had thought of several times.

Alon Palatio, who had recently killed all the brothers of the Count’s family and obtained the position of heir.

‘……Famous, huh.’

Kalia recalled the look in the man’s eyes as he looked at her.

Eyes that seemed to peer into the abyss beyond the north, indifferent to everything, making her shiver every time she thought about them.

Through those eyes, Kalia realized.

That he was the same kind as her.

In fact, if it had only been that, Kalia would have stopped caring about him after he rejected her proposal.

Rejecting the proposal meant that he could not be an ally from the beginning, which in turn meant that he was an enemy.

But the reason Kalia’s curiosity persisted was because of what he had said.

“Famous… huh.”

The Zenonia Count’s family is famous.

Even though they do not engage in politics, the financial power and strength of the Zenonia Count’s family are strong enough to change the current situation of the kingdom at least once.

However, in the end, that fame belonged to the individual Count of Zenonia, not to Kalia.

Nevertheless, Alon spoke.

So clearly, referring to her.

In a situation where there were far more nobles who did not know her face, having only attended the ball twice.

Famous.

Not the Count of Zenonia, but herself.

…Of course, Alon had only said those words, recalling her fame as the mastermind when the original story began, without much thought.

To her, those words were incredibly important.

“…Interesting.”

Kalia turned her gaze to the count sitting in the office.

The count was just silently processing documents.

With his head bowed, as if she didn’t exist, silently.

Click- click-

As she moved her steps towards the count, his gaze naturally turned upwards.

Eyes as red as hers looked at Kalia.

Even without speaking, anyone could see that the count was brimming with life.

-Snap!

Until Kalia snapped her fingers once.

As soon as the snapping sound was heard, the light drained from the count’s eyes.

The eyes that had been so bright just a moment ago became dull and vacant like an idiot’s, and his tightly closed mouth slightly opened, drooling.

The count, who was clearly not in a normal state.

Kalia muttered as she looked at ‘it’.

“How did he know? Surely no one would know.”

She recalled Alon, who had babbled as if he knew the secret that had never been discovered since she turned his father into an idiot, with a face full of curiosity.

‘Or did he just take a stab in the dark?’

With such suspicion, when she was about to leave the office where she had been acting for the past five years.

“Ka, Kalia.”

“What’s the matter?”

“In your room, there’s a, a corpse…!!”

At the sudden sound, she moved towards the room.

And then.

“Ha…”

She could see it.

The informant she had attached to Alon about two weeks ago, with his neck twisted twice, eyes wide open, dead in a miserable state.

“…It seems he didn’t divulge the secret, seeing that the seal didn’t activate.”

The following testimony of the knight.

‘The informant didn’t divulge the secret, yet they brought the informant to my room…’

Kalia thought to herself.

“Ha……”

Feeling the doubt turn into an undeniable certainty.

“……This, I seem to have been caught in a big weakness as soon as we met?”

She murmured with a smile.

Evan frowned as he looked at the golems emitting a vivid red light in the already darkened night.

His eyes, which had been living as a mercenary for over 15 years since childhood, moved busily to find the weaknesses of the golems, but he couldn’t hide his anxiety.

He was confident in his own skills, but precisely because of that, he was more wary of the unknown things in front of him.

He had experienced countless times how much danger the unknown could contain without any information.

Moreover, he had someone to protect at the moment.

It was truly the worst situation to face an enemy whose characteristics were unknown.

Furthermore, the number of enemies seemed to easily exceed twenty, so Evan, who was pondering how to overcome this situation, heard a voice.

“I’ll do it.”

“……What?”

At the sudden voice, he answered with a dazed expression and saw Alon walking out in front of him.

Alon maintained an indifferent expression, just like when they entered the labyrinth.

Evan felt anew that Alon was incredibly strange and mysterious.

He was genuinely amazed at how his master could maintain such an expression even in this situation.

At least in Evan’s judgment, the current situation was quite a crisis.

There were more than twenty humanoid golems that needed to be dealt with, and each of them was clearly formidable in combat power.

However, even in such a situation, Alon stepped forward, saying he would handle them.

“…….”

And to be honest about his feelings in this situation, Evan did not think that Alon could handle the golems in front of him.

Of course, Evan knew that Alon was an extraordinary person and that he had a talent for magic.

He was a proper wizard who had reached the second rank through self-study without a teacher.

However, unfortunately, that was only impressive by general standards, and that impressiveness did not apply in this situation.

It was true that he was a talented wizard who had reached the second rank at an early age through self-study, but with just the second rank, it would be difficult to handle even one golem in front of him.

Kugug-!

As soon as his thoughts ended, the golems, which had been silent and motionless as if assessing the enemy, all started to rush towards Alon.

And then.

“I impose the restriction.”

Alon’s voice echoed as if delivering a verdict.

As Alon murmured the incantation, the world came to a halt.

His vision turned black and white, and the movements of the golems charging at him slowed down as if captured by a high-speed camera.

And then.

[Fragment that inherits the great will of Niacula, speak the two restrictions you can impose.]

A majestic voice that shook the entire space reverberated in his head.

A voice that could be male, female, child, or elderly.

Hearing it, Alon broke into a cold sweat.

‘It’s different from the game, after all.’

The artifact he obtained from the Labyrinth of Whispers, the Restriction, was an artifact that imposed restrictions on the user in exchange for a corresponding reward.

When he used the item, numerous choices appeared before him.

A notification window to choose which restriction to impose and what reward to obtain.

But to remind him that this was stark reality, what appeared before him was not a notification window, but a voice.

A voice that, just by hearing it, made his mind dizzy, his heart race, and created a bizarre anxiety that felt like it would burst at any moment.

With a sigh, Alon forcibly steadied his trembling heart and voiced the restriction he had originally thought of.

“First.”

[Speak.]

“I impose the absolute use of Babylonian hand signs in the use of magic.”

[What do you seek to gain from this?]

“The power to twist the laws of the world a bit more.”

[Granted.]

“And the other.”

[Speak.]

“I impose the limited use of the great Babylonian phrases in the use of magic.”

[What do you seek to gain from this?]

“My desire is the same.”

[…….]

Alon’s words were met with a moment of silence.

The golem’s foot, which had been moving sluggishly, lifted into the air and then touched the ground again.

Alon wondered if he had done something wrong.

[Accepted.]

A solemn voice echoed from the sky, dispelling his worries with words of affirmation.

[Human who remembers the sigils and mysteries of the forgotten great god. I express my gratitude to you who carries on the will.]

These words were conveyed to Alon.

“?”

Alon made a puzzled expression.

Although his face remained outwardly expressionless, his eyes were filled with questions.

‘Carrying on the will? What does that mean?’

Of course, Alon had no idea what that meant.

The reason he had chosen the sigils and phrases of Babylon as a restriction was simple.

In the game, choosing those two options granted the highest magical attack power.

He had chosen this restriction so many times that he naturally memorized the sigils and phrases of Babylon.

Of course, he wasn’t a genius, so he didn’t remember all the sigils and phrases he had seen in the game, but he didn’t feel burdened by it.

Alon knew where the sigils and phrases of Babylon were written.

So, although he was puzzled by the voice from the sky, it was only for a moment.

[I will always be watching. You who carry on the will.]

As the world, which had turned black and white, slowly returned to its original state, Alon realized that the world had returned to normal.

He raised his hand to check the restriction, looking at the golems running from afar.

At the same time, the magic power that began to activate in Alon’s body started to gather at his fingertips, traveling through his heart.

The magic power gathered at his fingertips was weak.

Even though he had gathered all the magic power in his body, the sphere of lightning that should have shone brilliantly according to the book’s description, emitted a light as faint as the dawn of an old man about to die.

However, Alon neither felt depressed nor surprised by it.

He had already painfully realized that this was the limit of Alon, the third son of the Count of Palatio.

However.

“Refraction (屈折).”

The moment such words came out of his mouth, matching the phrase he was performing.

“Rebound (反撥).”

A small sphere, becoming a line, scattered chaotically.

“Blue Light.”

With a crackling sound, the small sphere began to emit a blue light, transforming into hundreds, thousands of lines, creating a non-linear light source that crackled from the sphere.

A light source emitting a blue light that looked chillingly cold in the light of dawn.

At the same time, Alon formed a hand sign.

The thumb covered the middle finger.

A posture as if flicking a forehead.

But by flipping his hand, Alon created a posture resembling the Buddha’s Dharma Wheel Seal, and as he looked at the golem that had reached him.

“Diffraction Line.”

He declared the final phrase.

When the blue light momentarily drove away the darkness.

Snap-!

With a flick of his fingers, a flash was fired.

Ssst-!

No sound was heard.

The only sound was the low whistling wind after the flash was fired, and the only visible thing was the golems that looked as if time had stopped after the brilliant light illuminated the canyon.

And then.

Crash- Crackle!

More than dozens of golems collapsed powerlessly into piles of stones without any resistance.

Just moments ago, Evan, who had been rushing to fend off the golems attacking Alon, stood there with his mouth agape,

“This is insane…”

He muttered.