I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 111 - Truth.. (1)
Chapter 111 – Truth…? (1)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The banquet that began that night was better than Alon had imagined.
First of all, the banquet itself, spread between the ruins and the giant trees beneath the Milky Way, had an atmosphere all its own.
And secondly, the food was delicious.
And thirdly, the food was delicious…!
‘…It is good.’
He lowered his gaze in surprise to the meat he had been eating.
Unlike ordinary meat, it was savory and carried even a faint sweetness, something almost like crab flesh, and to Alon’s surprise it suited his palate extremely well.
“Wow. This is good.”
Evan exclaimed beside him as if agreeing perfectly with that thought.
“It is.”
When Alon nodded, a woman who until then had been enjoying the banquet with two daughters in her arms laughed and said.
“Oh my, hearing our tribe’s hero say that is an honor. I made that dish myself.”
“Is that so? It is truly excellent.”
“That is only because the ingredients are good.”
“What is this made from?”
“Stormbee.”
In that instant, Alon stopped chewing without meaning to.
“Storm… bee?”
“Yes.”
“That stormbee…?”
“Yes. That stormbee.”
At the confirmation, Alon suddenly wanted to spit out the food in his mouth.
Because in this jungle, a stormbee was the name given to an insect that looked very much like an enormous cockroach.
“I see.”
“Oh my, are you not eating any more?”
“…I may have overdone it slightly.”
Alon carefully set down the stormbee meat he was holding and looked to the side.
Evan, meanwhile, had buried his face in the food as though he meant to consume every last piece of stormbee meat at the banquet.
For a moment Alon wondered whether he should say something.
Then he chose silence.
Once again, he learned a truth of life.
There were indeed times when it was better not to know.
After a while, when the heaviness in his stomach had calmed, Alon sat near the ruins and looked up at the night sky.
The Milky Way spread across the darkness was beautiful.
It almost seemed more brilliant than the moonlight shining down upon the earth.
Then.
“…Marquis Palladio.”
“Hm?”
At the voice, he turned his head and saw that Reinhardt, apparently recovered enough to move properly now, was slowly approaching.
…He too was chewing stormbee meat as though it were delicious.
“Is it good?”
“Ah, this? Yes. Very good. It is a taste I have never once known in the kingdom.”
Well, of course he had never tasted it there.
No, if he had, that might have been an even greater problem.
“Um… may I ask you something?”
“What is it?”
After scratching at his head and remaining silent for a while, Reinhardt finally spoke.
“Do you happen to know anything about the Hundred Ghosts?”
“The Hundred Ghosts? You mean the northern territory?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I know of it.”
Alon answered lightly.
“Only know of it? You do not have any connection to it?”
“A connection? Regrettably, this is my first time coming to the jungle.”
At Alon’s words, Reinhardt wore an expression that seemed to say, As I thought, and nodded.
“I see.”
“What is this about?”
“Nothing. I merely made a slight mistake.”
With that, Reinhardt turned as if he had nothing more to say.
Alon found the sight of him walking off after saying only what he wanted to say a little odd, but it fit Reinhardt’s personality too perfectly for him to dwell on it.
So he only nodded expressionlessly for a moment.
Then his gaze slid, almost against his will, to the stormbee meat Reinhardt had begun chewing again as he walked away.
…Alon was not squeamish by nature, but for some reason, even looking at it now felt faintly uncomfortable.
A little later.
When enough time had passed for his queasy stomach to settle and he returned to the banquet in search of other food, Alon noticed a crowd of people gathered around one spot and walked over.
“Yes. The marquis did not retreat even a single step before that giant god. Rather, he ascended before the creature itself and drove a spear into its head.”
“Oooooh…”
And there, he realized that Deus, wearing an expression even more solemn than usual, was recounting the battle with Receiver Basiliora to a circle of Thunder Serpent tribespeople.
“Marquis Palladio looked down upon the fallen god, no, beast, with emotionless eyes. Without the slightest trace of feeling, as though such a thing were only natural.”
“Oooooh.”
Each sentence from Deus drew admiration from the tribespeople.
Watching them, Alon felt oddly embarrassed.
It was not that he disliked being praised.
But his face was not thick enough to stand there and listen to his own tale being told like some heroic legend before a gathered crowd.
Of course, he had no intention of interrupting a story everyone was listening to so intently, so he was just about to move away.
Then.
“At that point, as he looked upon the serpent coiled around the altar, Marquis Palladio brought forth a white radiance into the gray sky. And in that moment…”
“…?”
Alon began to feel that the tale, which ought to have stayed grounded in actual events, was drifting in a rather different direction.
It was you who blocked Basiliora, he wanted to correct.
But only for a moment.
“The way he stood then was…”
Deus continued, no longer merely grandiose, but now sounding as though he were proclaiming some sacred scripture.
At that point, Alon found he could only look at him suspiciously.
If Deus had been speaking plainly about what happened, that would have been one thing.
But instead, he sounded like a man exaggerating the deeds of a close friend to the utmost possible degree.
At moments, Alon even felt as though he were being teased.
‘…Is he actually doing this on purpose?’
…It was a night beneath the shining Milky Way.
####
The next day.
Alon decided to leave the Thunder Serpent tribe.
From the moment Deus and Reinhardt’s physical conditions had both returned to normal, there was no longer any reason to remain here.
So.
“I look forward to meeting the honored guest again.”
“And I will look forward to it as well.”
Alon offered his farewells to the politely bowing chieftain of the Thunder Serpents.
Then.
“If you ever need help, please be sure to call me.”
“Very well.”
“I will come help too. I promise.”
“Thank you.”
After answering Swift Sirkal and her younger sister as well, Alon immediately started moving.
Having departed early in the morning, Alon’s party reached the camp before noon.
Then, after taking only a meal there, they kept traveling and were able to reach the territory before evening had fully fallen.
“Wow. So this is what civilized air feels like.”
Evan made a great fuss.
And, beside him, Alon wore a satisfied expression as well.
Though this was still a region bordering the jungle, the quality of the humidity itself felt different.
In the jungle, his clothes clung to him unpleasantly even when he did nothing.
Here, it was not that bad.
No matter how accustomed he had grown to that murderous dampness and humidity, he could never actually come to like it.
‘I should avoid the jungle unless absolutely necessary from now on.’
That night, Alon was able to rest and enjoy a warm, proper sleep for the first time in a while.
The next day.
“Then it seems we part ways here.”
“Yes.”
At the front of Kaslot, Alon and Deus exchanged their farewells.
From there, Alon needed to go east toward the Kingdom of Asteria.
Deus, by contrast, had to return west toward Caliburn.
“Then let us meet again next time.”
Alon offered the light farewell.
At that, Deus bowed his head as well, then suddenly asked.
“Marquis.”
“What is it?”
“Have I… grown stronger?”
It was an abrupt question.
Alon hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
“Yes. Anyone would think so. You are steadily growing stronger.”
To be honest, Deus was already strong enough that one might suspect he had reached the level of a Grand Swordmaster.
“Is that so. That is a relief.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
A quiet smile had appeared on Deus’s face before Alon even noticed.
As he looked at that smile, the first smile Deus had shown him in a way like this.
‘What exactly is such a relief?’
That question crossed Alon’s mind.
Soon after, he exchanged his final farewell with Deus and parted from him at Kaslot.
“Then now we head for Theria?”
“Yes. If it were up to me, I would rather return to the marquisate, but I should report first. And…”
And there is something I need to hear as well, he murmured, as the face of Critenia Siyan rose in his mind.
The carriage began to roll toward Theria.
####
At the same time Alon was heading toward Theria.
Inside the tent of the central temple of the Thunder Serpent tribe.
“What is it, Chieftain?”
Swift Sirkal, called into the tent by Ashgul the Wise, asked the question.
“Sirkal.”
“Yes, Chieftain.”
“Can you recall and repeat once more the words the honored guest spoke?”
At the chieftain’s request, Sirkal nodded.
“He said, ‘I, veiled beneath the low sky, will come to you. You who greet the dawn, receive me gladly,’ just as I told you before. But why bring it up again now?”
The chieftain, who had been looking over a scroll, raised his eyes.
“Sirkal. As you know, our Thunder Serpent tribe teaches a poetic key to its benefactors. So that, at any time, the honored guest may receive aid from us.”
“Yes. Of course I know that. And depending on the favor received, the incantation taught differs, and the poetic key placed in front of it differs as well so that leaks can be prevented.”
At Sirkal’s answer, the chieftain nodded.
“Yes. What most of our tribe knows is only the tail end, ‘You who greet the dawn, receive me gladly.’ The poetic key taught to the benefactor is written only on this scroll.”
Ashgul handed the scroll to Sirkal.
“Look.”
“What? But I…”
“You are ready to become chieftain and to fulfill the restriction. So do not worry.”
“Ah…”
Letting out a low breath of surprise, Sirkal accepted the scroll.
“Check the phrase the honored guest recited.”
At the chieftain’s urging, she carefully unfolded it.
She slowly examined from the bottom upward the record that only the chieftain of the Thunder Serpents was allowed to read.
Then.
“!”
The moment she reached the very first line of the scroll, she involuntarily held her breath.
Because it was not only the poetic key spoken by the honored guest that was written there.
There was also a name carved beside that key.
“Kalanon the Lightning Receiver…?”
The words she murmured were a title she knew extremely well.
No, there was no way she would not know it.
Kalanon the Lightning Receiver had been the first guardian god to protect the Thunder Serpent tribe.
So Sirkal immediately raised her head.
“Chieftain, then does that mean he…?”
“Yes.”
“…But to think that he is a god simply because of one poetic key…”
Sirkal raised the question hesitantly.
Ashgul let out a soft, old-man’s laugh.
“Yes. You are correct. No matter how much we alter the poetic keys, it is not impossible for one to leak.”
“Then why…?”
“Because that poetic key is one that no one but him could possibly know.”
“…Why?”
“Think carefully, Sirkal. Think on the story of Kalanon that you have heard since long ago. The tale handed down from ancient times through the sacred stone tablet as indisputable truth.”
The sacred stone tablet.
Recalling that holy relic from ancient times which carved the Thunder Serpent narrative into itself every ten years without anyone writing upon it, Sirkal thought blankly for a moment.
Then.
“…Ah.”
A low gasp escaped her.
The Kalanon the Lightning Receiver recorded in the sacred stone tablet had met his end protecting the Thunder Serpent tribe from the black ones.
And in gratitude for the incomparable grace they had received from that god, the Thunder Serpent tribe had left behind the first poetic key as a vow.
Immediately after that, Kalanon had truly closed his eyes.
Which meant.
“…The first poetic key, known only to Kalanon… no, only to him, could never possibly have leaked…?”
“Yes. The chieftains, who alone possess the right to see this scroll, are bound by restrictions that absolutely prevent them from leaking the poetic keys. Which means that the only being who could know that phrase…”
Aside from himself.
“…Is no one.”
At the quiet voice of the chieftain.
Sirkal stood there wordlessly, her mouth hanging open.