I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 105 - It Works (2)

Chapter 105 – It Works? (2)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Selaim Mikardo, Blue Tower Master and an eighth-circle mage capable of using Origin, could not understand the current situation.

‘He opened it? How in the world?’

He closed and opened his eyes.

The scene before him did not change.

Marquis Palladio was entering through the gate that Selaim had spent two whole years painstakingly opening, and he had done it in less than thirty seconds.

After standing there blankly for a moment, Selaim recovered himself belatedly and tried to call out to the marquis.

But Alon had apparently already passed the first checkpoint and gone inside, because he was nowhere to be seen.

So Selaim hurried forward, examined the remains of the first gate, and was shocked once more.

To ordinary people it looked no different from a wall.

But Selaim, who had already reached that level, knew.

He knew exactly how complex the method of opening that gate was.

He knew it was a door that required someone like an eighth-circle mage to invest time in order to open it.

And on top of that.

‘…The method of opening it is exactly the same as mine.’

Even the method by which the gate had been opened was exactly the same as the one he himself had discovered only after a full year of agonizing work.

‘…What is this?’

That only left Selaim Mikardo with even more questions.

He looked once more into the inside of the gate Alon had entered.

He had certainly been interested in Marquis Palladio.

Palladio was the man admired by Penia, his arrogant disciple.

And he knew that Palladio used primitive magic no modern mage used anymore.

Even so, after actually meeting Marquis Palladio, it was true that some of that interest had cooled.

Of course, just as there is no smoke without fire, the rumors surrounding the marquis and Penia’s behavior clearly indicated that there was something about him.

Yet the Marquis Palladio Selaim had actually seen did not seem particularly outstanding in magical accomplishment.

‘Too little mana, and in magical attainment, at best the entrance to the fourth circle. On top of that, his eyes are not opened. Even if I give him generous credit for using primitive magic, he is below average.’

Indeed, the many shortcomings visible to Selaim’s eyes were enough to make Alon seem like a junior far inferior to himself.

In all honesty, he had even found himself wondering what in the world Penia had seen in this man to feel fear toward him.

But that thought lasted only a moment.

Selaim followed Alon to the second gate.

And before long, Selaim found himself standing in front of the second gate, still unopened even by him, while the marquis stood there as well.

Alon stood before the second gate, thinking carefully about something.

Selaim considered speaking to him.

But then decided to remain silent and watch first to see what the marquis would do.

“…”

Selaim had never once opened the second gate.

To be honest, there were times he wondered whether it was even possible to open it at all.

Like the first gate, it looked outwardly like nothing special.

Yet to Selaim’s opened eyes, what was visible was thousands of overlapping magic circles dense enough to induce dizziness.

Those thousands of circles, each different enough that they were difficult to grasp individually, were tangled together into a complexity that even Selaim had still not fully understood.

Even so, his outstanding mind had already inferred the decisive method for opening this gate.

‘…To find the magic circle among the thousands that serves as the key.’

And yet the reason Selaim had still been unable to pass through the next gate was that he had not found that key circle.

If one compared it to a real door, the second gate standing in front of them was like a locked door covered in tens of thousands of keyholes.

And even if one tried to activate and check the magic circles one by one, doing so required deciphering and undoing each of the thousands of differently twisted circles individually.

It was almost beyond the realm of possibility.

No, even if it were possible, it would take decades.

As Selaim reminded himself of that fact and felt a little gloomy.

Alon.

‘…Why is he being so aware of me?’

Was conscious of Selaim standing behind him.

Of course, there was no real reason for Alon to be mindful of Selaim.

It would not be bad to build a relationship with the Blue Tower Master.

But it was merely not bad. It would not be something that transformed Alon’s life in any major way.

The real reason Alon was being mindful right now was the strange expectancy in Selaim Mikardo’s eyes.

When Alon had carelessly opened the first gate a moment before, Selaim had stood there with his mouth hanging open in complete disbelief.

Now he had come right up nearby.

And he was looking at Alon with the eyes of a child, watching exactly how he would open the door.

‘…Did he say it took him one year just to open the first door?’

Alon did not think Selaim Mikardo was foolish.

If anything, he thought he was a monster.

As far as Alon knew, the two doors guarding the Hermit’s Hideaway were, by setting, unsolvable even when twelve ordinary seventh-circle mages put their heads together for half a year.

So the fact that Selaim Mikardo, even as an eighth-circle mage, had opened the first gate alone was enough to show what an absurd monster he was.

And precisely because he knew that, Alon felt burdened by Selaim Mikardo’s expectant gaze.

The reason Alon could open the gates of the Hermit’s Hideaway was very simple.

He purely knew the correct answers.

‘The core of the first gate is mana interference. If you twist the mana that is maintained in a straight line into a half-ring shape, it opens. As for the second gate, the key is the fifth magic circle along the upward diagonal from the far-right vertex.’

So all he needed to do was feed mana into it.

Yet because of the blatant expectation behind him, he found it hard to move comfortably.

If Alon simply poured mana in and opened the door in a very simple manner, Selaim would realize one thing.

That the year he had spent studying it had all been wasted effort.

“Hm.”

Of course, from Alon’s point of view, there was no real need to concern himself with Selaim Mikardo’s feelings.

But as someone who also studied magic, he knew that sense of futility all too well.

‘…Should I at least use magic?’

Just as he decided to give Selaim a kindly lie.

‘As expected, is the second gate too difficult after all?’

Selaim, seeing Marquis Palladio glance back once, unconsciously tried to erase the expectation from his own eyes.

And at that moment.

“Whew.”

The marquis, who had been silent until now, let out a small sigh and formed a hand seal.

At that, Selaim looked at the marquis with curiosity.

He already knew that the marquis used primitive magic.

But this was the first time he would see that primitive magic implemented in actual practice.

So he observed Alon’s spellcasting with interest.

Then.

When Alon muttered something in a voice so low it was almost inaudible, Selaim saw a tiny sphere manifest in the hand where Alon’s thumb and index finger were joined.

And at the same time, he felt it.

“?”

At the instinctive sense of danger, Selaim Mikardo immediately frowned, drew up his mana, and began preparing a spell.

It was a reaction so fast it was nearly pure instinct.

But then.

“!”

What entered Selaim Mikardo’s sight just as he was about to release the spell he had already completed.

Was two eyes.

Behind Alon.

Selaim’s thought process stopped.

No.

More precisely, he himself stopped it.

Because the moment he recognized that.

No, the instant he truly saw it with both eyes, he understood what future lay one step ahead if he continued understanding it.

Death.

The one thing he had failed to control was his own eyes.

Having surpassed the seventh circle and reached the eighth, he now possessed eyes that could perceive nearly anything just by seeing it.

Those eyes, unlike Selaim’s will, began instinctively perceiving it.

At that instant.

Selaim felt the earth around him grow dark.

Then.

What entered his vision the moment he understood was.

A round circle.

A circle like an abyss that looked as though it could swallow him in.

The next thing he saw was a pale pupil floating in that darkness.

And the last thing he saw.

“-Kgh.”

Was a gigantic eye.

An eye so vast that he looked like no more than an insignificant creature.

That thing.

Was looking at Selaim.

‘I am going to die.’

The instant Selaim thought that blankly.

Rumble.

A tremendous sound rang in his ears.

“!”

He suddenly came back to himself and looked forward.

There, the second gate, which had not opened for him no matter what he did for a whole year, was grinding open with that heavy sound.

And beyond the opening gate, Marquis Palladio was looking at him.

With an indifferent face that showed no emotion at all.

“…Ha.”

The instant he confirmed that, Selaim Mikardo let out a hollow laugh without meaning to.

‘He really was hiding his true strength. So that is what it was…!’

In less than a single second, merely from seeing that much, his mana had already gone chaotic and the hand with which he had formed his spell was trembling.

Yet even so, he could not stop smiling.

Even though death had approached right up to his face, he could not stop smiling.

Because his curiosity was stimulating him.

The same curiosity that had pulled him up into the position of Blue Tower Master, and into the eighth circle itself.

It was being stirred by the magical knowledge that Marquis Palladio, who surely hid power even greater than that, must possess.

And so Selaim smiled.

Watching him, Alon.

‘…No, he is that pleased?’

While using the spell, Alon had thought, He is still an eighth-circle mage. There is no way Selaim Mikardo would be fooled by a showy trick like this.

Yet contrary to expectation, Selaim was smiling far too brightly.

And Alon could only stare blankly.

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After passing through the second gate, Alon was finally able to enter the Hermit’s Hideaway and see its interior.

There was not much to look at inside.

If one had to describe it, it was like the interior of an ordinary fantasy-style house set within a dark cave.

But he had not come all this way merely to look around.

So without hesitation, Alon headed to the desk set to one side of the hideaway.

There he found what he wanted.

‘Found it.’

Unlike the black bracelet he had obtained before, this time he tucked away a white bracelet, the White Hand of the Wanderer, and smiled for a moment.

Then.

“?”

He belatedly noticed that there was a single sheet of parchment lying on the desk, written in ancient language.

He lowered his gaze and read it.

‘To the half-broken mage who refused compromise to the end and did not forget the incantation, I leave my remains…?’

Seeing that text, Alon paused for a moment.

That was because he had seen a very similar sentence before when he obtained the Shadow Dragon egg.

“Hm…”

After staring at the phrase for a while, Alon shrugged and put the parchment back down.

Then, when he turned around.

Selaim Mikardo was still standing there with a bright smile on his face.

…Looking at that somewhat burdensome smile, Alon said.

“I have taken everything I needed, so if there is something you want, Tower Master, please take it.”

If there had been books related to magic, he would have taken them.

But he did not see even one thing of that sort, so there was nothing else he wanted to bring.

“Is that so? Then I will gratefully take something as well.”

“Please do.”

While Alon finished speaking and looked around in case there was anything else worth taking.

“…Hm.”

Selaim walked to the desk where Alon had been standing and picked up the parchment that Alon had clearly read.

‘Ancient language.’

Realizing that the writing on the parchment was ancient language he himself could not read, he quietly put it away.

Under ordinary circumstances he would have asked.

But because the marquis had shown it to him, Selaim felt he could understand Alon’s intent without difficulty.

‘He is probably telling me to keep silent.’

In other words, assuming that even if he asked Marquis Palladio he would not receive an answer, Selaim decided to take the parchment to the Red Tower Master.

Because he knew that the Red Tower Master was skilled at interpreting ancient language.

“Whew.”

Quite apart from the content of the parchment, Selaim wanted to speak with Marquis Palladio about magic.

His curiosity was not the sort of thing that would disappear just because someone told him to restrain it.

Therefore.

‘…I need to become a little closer to him.’

As Selaim thought about how to do that.

‘Right. There is Penia.’

He remembered Penia.

At last understanding why that overbearing disciple of his had set her heart on Marquis Palladio, Selaim began forming a plan.

‘Would it not be easier to become close to him if, rather than total strangers, he were my disciple’s husband?’

With motives so muddled that even he himself could not tell whether Penia came first or his curiosity did.

‘I will make sure to support it.’

Burning with resolve, he looked toward Marquis Palladio.

At that.

‘…I have a bad feeling about this.’

Watching Selaim’s smile grow even stranger, Alon felt a vague unease for no clear reason.

…It felt like something strange was going to happen.