I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 135 - Border Zone (3)
Chapter 135 – Border Zone (3)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Alon knew nothing about the Golden Dragon Rainisius.
To begin with, it would have been stranger if he had.
In Psychedelia, dragons were a race that had already vanished in the forgotten age of the gods.
So after staring blankly at that enormous body for a moment, Alon slowly let out a breath.
Then he answered calmly.
“…I came here through Duke Komalon’s introduction.”
[Komalon?]
The huge reptilian eye filled with doubt.
Then Rainisius gave a low exclamation.
[Ah.]
[Ah, I see.]
[That half-finished mage from before?]
[Yes.]
[I know him.]
[I remember him.]
Rainisius nodded several times.
Then he spoke again.
[Then is he doing well?]
Alon hesitated.
He had to think for a moment about how to answer.
But Rainisius seemed to arrive at the answer first.
[Well.]
[Since he could not come here himself, it seems he eventually died without accomplishing his obsession.]
“You knew what he was planning?”
[His plan included me.]
[It was a foolish idea.]
[But if one were to blindly pursue only the goal of preventing those things from rising again, it was also an efficient and clever idea in its own way.]
“…Included you?”
At Alon’s question, Rainisius lowered his head to the ground.
A heavy thud echoed through the cavern.
[Yes.]
[He intended to leave only a very small number of humans alive.]
[Then he meant to use my dragon heart to create a barrier so that those few survivors could prosper once more.]
Use a dragon heart.
Alon fell silent for a moment.
Then he continued.
“…Then that is no different from saying Duke Komalon intended to kill you.”
[Well, you could interpret it that way.]
“And hearing that does not trouble you?”
How could he be so calm?
That was what Alon could not understand.
[Why would it?]
Rainisius answered with an unbothered gaze.
[From the moment I was sealed here, I was already little different from the dead.]
[In truth, it is only thanks to my dragon heart that I still remain alive.]
“Because of those spears?”
Alon gestured toward the gigantic black spears lodged in the dragon’s body.
They were so immense that they looked as if only giants from myth could have wielded them.
Rainisius nodded.
[They are Spears of Extinction.]
[My dearest friend drove them into me with his own hands while claiming he was saving my life.]
“…Were you betrayed?”
[No.]
[Of course not.]
[I do not know how it sounds to you, but I mean exactly what I say.]
[These Spears of Extinction were driven into me by my closest friend in order to save me.]
[In order to hide me away.]
“…A story from the forgotten age of the gods?”
[Yes.]
“May I hear it?”
[There is nothing difficult about that.]
Rainisius fell silent for a short while.
It looked as though he was arranging the past in his mind.
Then his voice began recounting it.
[It is not a long story.]
[We went with the mages to kill them.]
[And we failed.]
[Most dragons died there.]
[The same was true of the mages.]
[In the end, they succeeded only in pushing those things back beneath the roots once more.]
[They did not kill them.]
[And the price of even that half success was the annihilation of most of the mages.]
A half success bought with countless sacrifices.
[Ordinarily, I too should have died there.]
[I would have, had my friend not sealed me with a spear before I died.]
[The spear my friend drove into me twisted the laws themselves and moved me out of the Abyss, where movement magic could not be used, into this dark place.]
[In other words, within that Abyss, he chose sealing as the means by which to save me.]
Because the magic of mages could twist laws even within the Abyss.
Rainisius looked at the spear lodged in his body with a faintly nostalgic expression.
Then, wearing a languid face, he murmured,
[Well, because of that I did survive.]
[But I lost everything.]
[This Spear of Extinction seals every ability possessed by the one imprisoned by it.]
“…Then that means…”
[It means that my eyes, which once could see through this world, have been sealed.]
[My language, which could twist laws through words, has also been sealed.]
[Everything included in those things has been sealed as well.]
[And sealed forever.]
[The artifact I used to summon you was merely something I made before I was sealed.]
All I have left is this great body.
Rainisius muttered it almost lazily.
Only then did Alon understand.
That relaxed demeanor.
That detached calm toward his own death.
And even the way he seemed to find nothing especially strange in anything.
He had given up.
At first Alon had thought Rainisius was simply easygoing.
But that was not it.
He looked again at the dragon’s body.
The golden eye was still there.
But it had lost its vivid brilliance.
Likewise, the golden scales no longer revealed themselves clearly in the darkness.
Instead, they seemed to sink into it.
Even the mana that should have been felt from him was far too faint.
“…Is there no way to release the seal?”
[There is none.]
[Unless my dead friend returns, destroying these spears would be impossible.]
Rainisius answered with certainty.
A brief silence fell.
Then…
[You are kind.]
“…What?”
[You pity me, do you not?]
[But there is no need.]
[I have already accepted this situation.]
[So now let us speak properly.]
[Tell me why you came here.]
Rainisius’s gaze settled squarely on Alon.
####
The silence did not last long.
Soon Alon asked the first question he needed answered.
“Duke Komalon said there is not much time left before ‘those things’ rise again.”
“Is that true?”
[It is true.]
[As I said before, they were only sealed.]
Alon let out a low breath.
He had already suspected as much back when he fought Duke Komalon.
Even so, hearing it confirmed made his chest feel tight.
But there was one more fact he had to verify.
So he continued without hesitation.
“…As far as I know, for them to come into this world, they need bodies through which to descend.”
[That too is correct.]
“Are those bodies already fixed by fate?”
Rainisius answered firmly.
[Not at all.]
[The bodies they descend into are created by their apostles in the first place.]
“…Apostles?”
[Yes.]
[In many cases, they mentally ruin people with high talent so that those people become suitable vessels for descent.]
Alon quietly frowned.
The existence called apostles had never appeared in the game.
Were they at least mentioned somewhere?
While trying to recover that vague memory, Alon let out another breath.
If Rainisius was correct, then the Five Great Sins truly would descend.
But the children Alon had been raising until now would not necessarily become the Five Great Sins.
That fact alone eased his mind.
Ten years ago, he had begun helping them only lightly.
At first, he had intended merely to reform them a little.
But before he even realized it, his relationship with them had grown much deeper than that.
In any case, if the Five Great Sins really are going to rise, then what I need to do from this point on is clear.
As he thought of the thing in the north beyond the border, another doubt surfaced.
So he asked Rainisius another question.
More exactly, he wanted to resolve a doubt about something he had already known.
“Before meeting you, I once encountered a dragonkin in a ruin.”
[Dragonkin?]
“In truth, I cannot be certain it really was dragonkin. Only the appearance resembled one.”
“In any case, that being did not seem to know when those things would rise.”
He meant the dragonkin he had met before in the Colony ruins.
Rainisius thought for a moment and answered.
[I do not know whom you met, but I think it is possible that he truly would not know.]
“Why?”
[Because when the mages and dragons went to fight the final battle, most of the gods had already either been annihilated or sealed after having their power or names taken.]
“…Then if they were annihilated or sealed early on, they might not know?”
[No.]
[None of them would know.]
[The mages and dragons who knew that truth all died in exchange for sealing them.]
[The only ones who know it for certain would be me and Duke Komalon, who survived that time.]
“I see.”
Alon nodded.
Then he finished organizing his thoughts.
“…Duke Komalon said that if I came to you, I might receive help concerning magic.”
[Help?]
[Well, if it were the old me before I was sealed, perhaps.]
[As I am now, advice is the best I can offer.]
“Then do you happen to know anything about Unity of Shade?”
[What?]
The atmosphere changed at once.
Alon himself was taken aback.
[How do you know that?]
“…What exactly are you referring to?”
[I am referring to Unity of Shade.]
“Is it that important?”
[Of course it is.]
[That is the sentence of my dearest friend, Kailas.]
“…What?”
A familiar name had come from the dragon’s mouth.
Alon could only stare and ask again.
At that moment…
[Squeak?]
Kkamangi, who had been sleeping in Alon’s coat pocket just moments before, sprang out with a strange cry.
[A dragon?]
[No… a Death Shadow Dragon?]
Rainisius cried out in genuine surprise.
A short while later, after hearing the whole story of how Alon had obtained the dragon egg and how he had come to use multiple sentences, Rainisius finally spoke after long consideration.
[…Then in the end, what you wish to ask is how to use Unity of Shade, correct?]
“Correct.”
[I will tell you.]
“Truly?”
[In exchange, I too have one condition.]
“…A condition?”
[Yes.]
[It will not be a bad condition for you either, so long as you can truly grow stronger and accomplish it.]
Rainisius smiled broadly.
[Because you will gain the qualification to be called master by this body.]
Then he asked Alon directly.
[Well then, mage.]
[Will you accept my proposal?]
In his once dead eyes, a new hope had already begun to burn.