I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 14 - Job Hunting (4)

Chapter 14 – Job Hunting (4)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Lady Xenonia.

No.

More accurately, Kallia Xenonia, who had already turned her father into a puppet years ago and was effectively ruling the county herself.

She had come to House Palladio for two main reasons.

The first was to confirm Alon’s intentions.

Or rather, Count Palladio’s intentions now that he had already become the count.

He clearly held a card that could deal a devastating blow to House Xenonia.

And yet he had not used it.

The relationship between House Xenonia and House Palladio was not exactly warm, but Kallia knew one thing for certain.

The essence of the count was the same as hers.

He was the same sort.

Which meant he was not the sort of person who would leave a usable card idle out of cheap pity or softhearted sentiment.

That was why she came.

To confirm what he intended.

The second reason was to verify the strength of the organization the rumors said Count Palladio controlled from the shadows.

Of course, Kallia knew she could not fully understand the strength of a hidden organization simply by meeting him.

Even so, she did believe she had a way to glimpse part of it.

Mage Biankel.

Once, inside the Towers, he had been praised by scholars for presenting a new theory on the magic of the forgotten age.

But his magical experiments had been too inhuman.

So he had been expelled.

Even after exile, however, he still stood at the fifth circle.

A mage strong enough to destroy a company of soldiers alone with ease.

Kallia had brought him with her because she had formed an alliance with him in exchange for supporting his experiments.

If she brought a sensory mage who had reached the brink of the fifth circle, she thought he would easily be able to judge the rough level of the people protecting Count Palladio.

The guards themselves would not tell her everything.

But if she saw the caliber of those guarding him, she would at least be able to glimpse a fragment of the organization behind him.

That had been the reason she brought Biankel.

“…”

Yet now, seated in House Palladio’s reception room, Biankel still had not managed to properly close his mouth.

Kallia looked at him sideways and felt genuine surprise.

As far as she knew, he was not the sort of man to show such a sloppy expression in front of others.

Biankel’s face was always arrogant.

He never lowered his speech for anyone.

Not even for her, the one supporting him.

Kallia understood why.

Even if he had been expelled from the Tower, he had still reached the brink of the fifth circle.

That alone gave a certain logic and legitimacy to his manner.

And yet his face now was deeply strange.

He was still colored by shock.

And, from time to time, she could even sense fear on him, something she had never seen before.

‘Why…?’

As she watched Biankel, Kallia felt both puzzled and unsettled.

She had never seen him show such open fear toward anything.

‘If he is reacting like this… then was the spell he showed earlier really an Origin?’

That thought lingered only briefly.

The moment she remembered the current situation, she turned her gaze back to Alon and met his eyes.

They were the same as before.

The same indifferent gaze, so numb it seemed to assign no value at all to this situation, slowly passed over Biankel and Kallia.

Silence.

“Forgive me, Count Palladio. I behaved rudely.”

Kallia broke the silence first.

Though publicly she was still only Lady Xenonia, she addressed him with proper courtesy and apologized for going to the training ground.

Even if it had been a mistake, peering into another house’s training ground was still a clear breach of manners.

At her words, Alon paused for a moment and then replied,

“I won’t go so far as to blame you for it.”

“Thank you.”

“Normally, the next thing I should ask is why you came to the count’s house. But before that, let me make one thing clear.”

“Please.”

At Kallia’s answer, Alon spoke without hesitation.

“What I used was not an Origin. It seems the mage you brought misunderstood.”

“Is that so?”

“It is. My skill in magic is not particularly exceptional. If I had to assign a level to it… about the second circle.”

“…”

Naturally, Kallia did not believe him.

Even someone like her, who was not deeply versed in magic, could tell that what she had seen from Alon was anything but ordinary.

When she glanced sideways at Biankel, she was startled again.

His face had grown even worse than before.

Yet separate from how bad he looked, he seemed to have understood the meaning hidden inside Alon’s words.

The meaning that what he had seen here was something on which he should quietly keep his mouth shut.

“It seems… I saw incorrectly.”

“…!”

Biankel forced the words out with difficulty.

And not in his usual casual speech either.

He used honorifics.

Kallia had never once heard that in the five years she had known him.

“Good. You look fairly capable, so I assumed you would understand. That spell has no real utility anyway. Now then, since the misunderstanding seems cleared up… what brought you here?”

With no delay, Alon moved the conversation forward.

At the sudden shift, Kallia barely had time to regain her bearings before answering.

“There is no special reason. I merely had business nearby and, since I happened to think of you, decided to pay a brief visit.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

After a moment’s thought, Alon said,

“Unfortunately, I have a great deal of work, so I won’t be able to talk long.”

“That’s all right. I only stopped by briefly. I merely wished to greet you.”

“If you need someone to talk to, perhaps you might try visiting Duke Altia.”

“…Duke Altia?”

“Yes. I think the two of you would get along rather well.”

“If you say so… then I shall visit the duke.”

At Alon’s blank-faced suggestion, Lady Xenonia smiled and gave her answer.

…But inside her mouth had gone dry.

* * *

“House Xenonia… that’s that western disaster-family. Why did they come here?”

Alon heard Evan’s voice as he watched Lady Xenonia’s carriage gradually recede into the distance.

“How should I know?”

“You really don’t?”

Evan looked baffled.

This time, however, Alon truly had nothing to say.

He had no idea why Kallia had come either.

‘I made things troublesome just by showing a spell.’

Thinking of the Xenonia mage who had mistaken his magic for an Origin, Alon frowned inwardly.

‘As long as a rumor doesn’t spread that I use Origin, it should be fine.’

Rumors in this world had more power than they seemed to at first glance.

If a rumor spread that Alon used Origin, a kind of magic only the greatest mages could wield, it might sound beneficial on the surface.

In practice, it would become troublesome.

This was a dark-fantasy world where it was not hard to find lunatics who could not rest until they had challenged the strong.

‘…Well, that is unless you have solid backing.’

Without such backing, a strange rumor like that would do more than cause inconvenience.

It could invite absurdly strong people to start trouble with him for no reason.

In fact, Alon could think of eight names immediately.

If the rumor spread that he was a mage capable of Origin, at least eight powerful people might come looking for him.

That was why he had tried to stop the rumor before it spread.

‘…I assume she understood?’

As he recalled the mage nodding as if he understood after Alon clarified the misunderstanding once more before sending them off.

Alon let his thoughts continue uneasily.

‘Why do these people keep taking an interest in me at all?’

To Alon, Kallia was not merely someone he lacked interest in.

She was someone he wanted to avoid being entangled with if at all possible.

If he grew close to her, the chances of getting tied to the underworld would naturally rise.

‘…I did point her toward Duke Altia.’

He knew Lady Xenonia would not truly go to the duke because of his suggestion.

Even so, the reason he had mentioned Duke Altia was simple.

It was another way of sending meaning.

That he had no wish to build a relationship with her.

‘In short, stop coming to me.’

By the time he finally cut off his thoughts about Kallia.

Inside the carriage heading away.

“…Was the magic Count Palladio used really an Origin?”

Kallia asked the question.

“…”

Unlike usual, Biankel did not answer immediately.

Just as Kallia was about to speak again.

“It was not an Origin.”

Biankel finally opened his mouth.

“…Not an Origin? Then what about the way you reacted earlier…?”

At Kallia’s confused question, he drew a breath as though trying to steady his mind.

“Origin is the destination of all mages. It is like a canvas. It is a canvas upon which one may draw a unique law, granted only to those who have established magic itself as principle.”

“…”

“An unchanging canvas. One draws one’s own picture on that absolute thing. A unique arrangement and realization formula formed from it. That is what we call an Origin. But…”

He swallowed once.

“Count Palladio’s magic was different.”

“…How so?”

“It was not painting a picture on the canvas. To be precise, what his magic was doing was closer to tearing the canvas itself.”

Kallia looked at him without understanding.

So Biankel continued.

“In simple terms, he was twisting laws that ought to remain absolute. I only saw his spell for an instant, but I was using Observing Eye at your request. I saw it clearly.”

Biankel muttered.

“He fixed lightning that should never have stopped. He twisted the law behind it and caused the manifested spell to collapse, only for it to realize itself again in perfect condition. A miracle that should not exist. And behind it…”

He stopped there.

At that moment, what he had seen before Count Palladio came back into his mind.

At the same time the impossible spell had manifested.

Something that appeared in the sight only those with overwhelming talent, or those who had reached the sixth circle, could obtain.

The eyes that allowed one to see through the world itself.

What he had seen there.

“…”

It had been an eye.

A black pupil dark as pitch.

Its lids ringed with two crimson circles.

It had appeared exactly when the count used magic.

And the moment the magic vanished, that existence too disappeared without a trace.

Remembering it, Biankel could no longer fully suppress the fear filling his eyes.

If what he knew was correct, then what appeared when the count used magic was surely something related to the forgotten great god.

“…Kh.”

Biankel forcibly cut the thought off there, even using mana to stop himself from thinking further.

He had sought ancient knowledge long enough to understand how dangerous it was to infer too much about such things.

So instead.

“I will give you one warning.”

“…”

“Never oppose him. Never make Count Palladio your enemy.”

“What are you…”

“That is all the advice I can give.”

Biankel closed his mouth after that.

Lady Xenonia did the same.

As Kallia remembered Alon, who had stared at her without expression, she naturally let out a breath.

“Ha…”

Because through Biankel’s words she realized it.

That trying to grasp Count Palladio’s true intentions was meaningless from the start.

And at the same time.

‘If you need someone to talk to, perhaps you should visit Duke Altia.’

‘…Duke Altia?’

‘Yes. I think the two of you would get along very well.’

She realized she had already become one of his chess pieces.

Silence lingered in the carriage for a long while on the way back.

And then, about five months later.

Alon, who had by then grown quite accustomed to countly work and was now handling it skillfully, heard:

“…Ah, Count. Did you hear?”

“What?”

“House Xenonia and House Altia have formed an alliance.”

“…What?”

At that moment, Alon realized that danger had arrived for the Kingdom of Asteria.