I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 146 - Toward Colony (3)
Chapter 146 – Toward Colony (3)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“Ahem.”
After clearing his throat, Alon moved directly to the point for Perion’s sake.
Perion was making it painfully obvious how burdened he felt by this meeting.
“To be blunt, I need Lumiel’s Oath.”
“…Lumiel’s Oath?”
Until a moment ago, Perion had looked cowed.
Now he looked plainly startled.
That reaction was natural.
Lumiel’s Oath was one of the thirty-two secret treasures of the elves.
And while disguised as a human, Perion had never once shown that treasure to anyone.
In other words, from Perion’s point of view, Alon’s words could mean only one thing.
The marquis knew what he really was.
“Let us clear the room for a moment. Rine, sorry, but could you step outside for a little while?”
“Of course.”
Rine bowed her head and immediately left the room.
Alon also waited until the mercenaries who had accompanied Perion withdrew.
Only after confirming that did he speak again.
“Now that there are no outsiders left, let us discuss this properly.”
“…I do not understand what you mean.”
“There is no need to deny it so desperately.”
“…”
When one is negotiating rather than threatening, pressing the other side too hard is usually not a very good choice.
Even so, there were two reasons Alon was willing to do it here.
The first was simple.
Unless he began this way, it would take far too long to obtain Lumiel’s Oath.
If he approached it the way a player in the game would have, he would need to remain in Lartania for at least a year.
The second was that even under this pressure, he was certain Perion would accept the proposal.
Alon looked at Perion again.
Now that Rine was gone, Perion’s face had become serious.
“Of course, I do not intend to demand Lumiel’s Oath without compensation.”
“…Who exactly are you?”
The question came in a guarded voice.
Alon replied flatly.
“I do not think who I am matters all that much in the current situation. What matters is only what each of us has to give the other.”
“…”
“One thing I can promise clearly is that I have no intention of exposing your identity to others.”
After a long moment of thought, Perion finally nodded.
“…Then I will hear what you have to say.”
At that, Alon presented the terms without hesitation.
“If you give me Lumiel’s Oath, I will tell you the location of the item you are searching for.”
“…The item I am searching for?”
“The Blessing of Lagierni.”
“!”
Perion’s eyes widened.
His body jerked before he could control it.
Seeing that reaction, Alon felt a little puzzled inwardly.
Of course, simply hearing the name Blessing of Lagierni was enough to shock him.
As far as the original setup went, no one except Perion and his queen should have known he was searching for it.
Even so, the reaction still felt a little stronger than Alon had expected.
Then again, even in the game, Perion had spoken of it as something precious beyond comparison.
In any case, in the original story, Perion wandered in search of the Blessing of Lagierni and ultimately gave up and returned home.
The reason Alon knew where the difficult treasure was hidden was simple.
It was in the secret room on the forty-second floor.
It was the item one always obtained there while grinding the labyrinth in the game.
Of course, as a player, Alon had never once actually handed that blessing over to Perion.
No matter how quickly one reached the labyrinth and started the relevant quest, Perion would inevitably leave Lartania by the time the player was clearing the fortieth floor and above.
Yes. I know it is precious.
Alon calmly watched Perion’s hands tremble.
Then he continued.
“…If I tell you where it is, that should count as fair compensation. What do you think?”
“You are saying that you know where the blessing is?”
“Yes. If you accept the negotiation, I will tell you the location.”
“…You are asking me to believe that without any proof?”
“Please answer one thing first. If I tell you where the blessing is, will you accept the deal?”
A short silence fell.
Then Perion nodded.
“…If the information proves true, then I will.”
As expected, the negotiation had succeeded.
Alon smiled inwardly.
“The easternmost end of the forty-second floor. There is only a single path, so it should be easy to find. Once you reach the dead end, search for a switch.”
“A switch… at the dead end?”
“Yes. The Blessing of Lagierni you seek should be there. I will receive Lumiel’s Oath after that.”
For a while, Perion’s face clearly showed that he could not fully understand what he had just heard.
“…Even if your information turns out to be true, did it never occur to you that I might simply obtain the item and run?”
That was a natural question.
So Alon answered easily.
“It does not occur to me that you would violate one of the laws of the Pagade: faithfulness to your word.”
“…How do you know what Pagade is?”
“Who can say?”
Perion looked shocked once again.
Alon had answered ambiguously on purpose.
In truth, there was nothing mysterious about it. He was merely repeating something Perion himself had once explained in the game.
Alon briefly considered whether to frame it more gently, perhaps in terms of trust.
But he had seen more than once in the original story how much pride Perion took in being Pagade, so he deliberately chose this line instead.
In other words, he had effectively told Perion not to bother trying anything foolish.
Though even without that, Perion had never really seemed like the sort to break a promise.
Had he not nearly died once in the original story because he insisted on keeping one?
As Alon remembered that episode, another thought occurred to him.
Why is he this shocked?
If I know even the hidden treasure, the Blessing of Lagierni, then knowing of Pagade should not be that strange either.
“…I think I will need about a week to verify this.”
At those words, Alon rose from his seat.
“I will wait.”
With that, he turned away.
A little later…
“Did things conclude well?”
“They did. But Rine…”
“What is it, Godfather?”
“I am asking only just in case. I heard that only you remain among the senior councilors…”
Although Alon let the end of the sentence trail off, Rine answered easily.
“Yes.”
“Was it perhaps… you… who did that on purpose?”
“No. I did not do it.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. Why would I bother doing something like that?”
Rine smiled brightly.
Is she saying she knows what is happening but did not do it herself, or that she does not know at all from the beginning?
Alon thought about asking more.
But he kept quiet.
Instead, he only concluded that perhaps he ought to pay a little more attention to Rine from here on.
####
About five days after meeting Perion…
“…Thank you.”
“So you found it.”
“Yes. I was able to find the Blessing of Lagierni.”
Alon met Perion again, earlier than he had expected.
This time, Perion bowed a little more politely than before.
“Thank you very much.”
He bent deeply at the waist, as though wanting to convey his gratitude sincerely.
Then he took a ring out from his clothes and handed it to Alon.
It looked as if it had been woven out of a plant stem.
And yet it did not look fragile in the slightest.
The moment Alon saw it, he recognized it as Lumiel’s Oath.
He accepted the ring and offered his thanks.
Then Perion carefully asked,
“…May I ask you one thing?”
“What is it?”
After a moment of hesitation, Perion looked steadily at Alon.
“…How did you know where the Blessing of Lagierni was hidden?”
There was curiosity in his voice.
And doubt as well.
Alon fell silent for a moment.
Then he lowered his eyes to Perion’s hand.
In that hand was the dagger, the Blessing of Lagierni.
“That is…”
I cannot very well say it is because I saw it there countless times in a game.
Because of that, Alon had no choice but to answer like this.
“Leave it to your imagination.”
“Imagination?”
“Yes.”
“…Understood.”
Without pressing the point any further, Perion bowed his head.
After exchanging a final light farewell with him, Alon stepped outside.
Hm… Come to think of it, I do not think Perion has ever bowed to anyone.
For a moment, Alon found himself thinking that there had been a law among the Pagade forbidding them from bowing to anyone other than their queen.
Then he shook it off.
The Blessing of Lagierni must really be that precious.
He settled on that casual conclusion.
Then, after putting the ring away, he began preparing to leave, satisfied.
He no longer had anything left to do in Lartania.
[Kuahahahahaha. All the money in this world belongs to me.]
“That is seriously irritating.”
[I do not care about that. Hand over the money. Five thousand five hundred gold.]
The moment he returned to Merd, Alon informed Evan and Basiliora, who had spent more than three days crying and laughing over fake money in a board game from Psychedelia, that he would be leaving soon.
Then…
“Godfather.”
He turned toward Rine when she called him.
“What is it?”
“If you are going to Colony, may I come with you?”
“…Do you have business there?”
“Yes. I have something I need to confirm there anyway.”
Alon thought for a moment.
Then nodded.
There were two reasons he was going to Colony.
One was that he intended to visit the ruins and meet the dragonkin.
But there was another matter as well.
There is also a monstrosity in the desert that I need to prepare for in advance. If I can get Rine’s help then, I should.
That was the other reason.
The monstrosity-subjugation plan.
If Rine came along, she would certainly be useful.
“If you are all right with it, then come with us.”
“Then I will prepare.”
And two hours later…
Alon and his party left Lartania and headed toward Colony.
####
At that same time…
Perion, the elf currently disguised as a mercenary, stared silently at the Blessing of Lagierni in his hand.
“…”
Ordinarily, his mood should have been overwhelmingly joyful right now.
The Blessing of Lagierni was the very item he had sought after even after leaving the world of the elves.
More than that, to an elf…
And especially to a Pagade…
It was an item of extraordinary importance.
And yet his expression remained stiff.
The reason was Marquis Palladio.
Just what exactly is that man?
Perion recalled the marquis.
The man who had informed him of the blessing’s location with such an indifferent face.
There was not just one strange thing about him.
There were many.
First of all, the fact that Marquis Palladio even knew of Pagade was itself strange.
Pagade was a secret organization born through the bloodline rites of the elves, created solely to protect the World Tree.
The only ones who knew that organization’s name were the highest-ranking nobles among the elves, those of high-elf rank or above, the members of Pagade itself, and the queen.
There should have been no way for that name to leak outside.
Most of those high-ranking nobles never left the World Tree in the first place, and Pagade itself remained below the roots, guarding them underground.
And above all, even those few elves were bound by a restriction that prevented them from speaking the name Pagade with their own mouths.
In other words, it was a word that should never have been able to come out through anyone.
Except for one being.
Only Altaima, the primordial elf who created that organization in the first place, could speak the name Pagade freely.
The primordial elf and guardian of the World Tree, the one who wielded the Blessing of Lagierni as a weapon.
Only he.
And that was not the only strange thing.
The place the marquis described was one created by elves.
The reason Perion was able to recognize that was simple.
The space itself had been built from spirit arts and elven magic circles.
No, to be more exact, it had been built with the same type of magic circles used in the Pagade hideouts.
Because of that, when Perion arrived there, he was able to check who had entered that room.
Those magic circles preserved the mana of anyone who entered the space and kept it recorded as a kind of visitor log until the circle itself collapsed.
And there, Perion confirmed it.
No one had been in that room except him.
And then…
[May it reach my younger sibling safely.]
There was a sentence written beside the dagger, in a language that only Pagade could read.
It was written as if it were a message intended specifically for him.
“…”
In other words, Marquis Palladio knew that Perion was an elf.
He knew that he was a member of Pagade.
And he also knew that the Blessing of Lagierni was inside that room, despite never seeming to have entered it himself.
No matter how one thought about it, that was impossible.
It would only become possible if the primordial elf who had died in the war against the black things had somehow returned alive.
Faced with a situation he could not measure at all, Perion ultimately chose not to decide anything yet.
“…For now, I need to report this.”
And so he resolved to report everything.
To the one who watched over all elves.
And at the same time, the being closest to the World Tree.
To the great queen.