I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 158 - Why Are You So Strong (2)

Chapter 158 – Why Are You So Strong? (2)

===================

Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

On some unidentified stretch of ground stood a temple.

In that landscape, heavy with strangeness, sat three figures whose faces were hidden beneath dark robes.

One asked in surprise whether Pride had really died.

Another clicked its tongue and called Pride a fool.

Everything had its proper timing.

The third figure remained silent.

They were apostles of the Five Great Sins, the same kind of beings as the apostle of Pride.

The apostle of Greed spoke again, resting its chin on one hand with open contempt.

It said the whole thing was almost funny.

Pride had received power from that being and still gotten killed by people outside.

The apostle of Sloth clicked its tongue in agreement.

Pride had simply become arrogant.

It had barely been a little more than ten years since it received that power, it could not even use it properly yet, and still its confidence had reached the sky.

Greed giggled and admitted that perhaps such arrogance suited an apostle of Pride.

Even so, it still found one part strange.

Pride had been the weakest among them.

But it was still surprising that someone outside had managed to kill it.

The subject naturally shifted to the one who had killed Pride.

Sloth nodded and said that it too found that unexpected.

Then added, with obvious laziness, that no matter what, the killer still would not be able to beat Sloth.

Greed agreed easily enough.

Then it turned toward Wrath.

The barrier had already been lifted.

They could leave now.

So what was Wrath planning to do?

Wrath only responded with a short question.

What did Greed mean?

Greed clarified.

It meant exactly what it sounded like.

Now that the barrier was gone and they were free to go outside, what would Wrath do?

Wrath answered that it was still thinking.

Greed asked why there was even a reason to think about it.

All one had to do was go and retrieve what needed retrieving.

Wrath said nothing.

Greed took the silence as refusal and shrugged.

If everyone else was going to do as they pleased, then Greed would start moving too.

There was no reason to remain in this place now that the barrier had fallen.

It needed to go out, check the condition of the seeds, and manage them properly.

Besides.

Its body was starting to itch from the wait.

With a grin, Greed rose from its place.

Then it told the others it would see them outside whenever they eventually came.

With that, it simply left.

Sloth watched Greed go and then stood as well.

It said it would leave too.

Wrath asked if Sloth was also going out.

Sloth answered that it was still thinking.

More precisely, it intended to judge by watching Greed.

Greed would likely clear away any troublesome people who might interfere with the others.

And Sloth preferred to wait until then rather than bother dealing with them itself.

With that, Sloth also disappeared.

Left alone in the quiet temple, Wrath remained seated and stared for a long time at the place where the other two had vanished.

####

Back at House Palladio, inside the office.

Elivan greeted Alon brightly, correcting himself halfway through from Count to Marquis.

Alon looked at the youth before him and thought, not for the first time, that the boy had changed beyond recognition.

When they first met, it would have been more accurate to call him a boy than a young man.

Now he looked exactly like the Elivan from the game.

No matter how one looked at it, he really did give off the atmosphere of the original protagonist now.

Alon even found himself thinking that there had been a reason the game always treated Elivan as a beautiful boy.

The reason that thought had even occurred to him was the people standing behind Elivan.

Two women and one man.

Yan.

Bina.

Ralph.

A mage, a thief, and a warrior.

Seeing them, Alon remembered how Elivan had recruited his early companions in the original story.

Yan had been a Blue Tower mage whom Elivan first met after leaving his village.

She joined him during a merchant caravan episode after he helped her gather magical materials.

Bina, who joined after her, entered the story in the following town as a standard pickpocket character.

Though it sounded a little ridiculous, she was supposed to be a very promising thief.

Her reason for joining Elivan was also flimsy.

He had simply caught her stealing and let her go.

So despite Psychedelia’s fairly solid story, the early reasons most of Elivan’s companions joined him were, aside from Ralph, surprisingly weak.

That was why the community used to joke that Elivan was secretly an absurd alpha male.

Alon looked past him and took in the group again.

Apparently the joke had not been a joke.

Yan and Bina were both looking at Elivan with obvious interest.

For a moment Alon felt the unfairness of the world.

Then he cleared his throat and got to the point.

Why had Elivan come?

Elivan answered that he needed the Marquis’s help.

He remembered Alon once saying that if he ever needed help, he should ask.

So he came.

And if it was a burden, he would withdraw.

Alon shook his head immediately.

He really had said that.

And even if Elivan had not asked, Alon had planned to help him anyway.

Elivan was growing quickly, and there were still many things that needed to be done around him.

So Alon asked what sort of help he needed.

A gate.

There was a gate they needed to deal with, but Elivan judged that it might be difficult for his party alone.

Would it be possible to receive help?

As Alon listened to the good-natured smile in Elivan’s voice, a doubt rose in him.

If this was the gate that should occur at this point in the story, then it was also the one Alon himself had been planning to visit.

And Elivan’s party should have been fully capable of dealing with it.

After thinking for a moment, Alon remembered the original setup.

In the story, this gate had originally been considered dangerous enough that Elivan intended to request support from Asteria.

That support simply failed to arrive because of an unexpected circumstance.

So the structure made sense.

Originally he had only been meant to ask a nearby territory for help.

This time he had come to Alon because they already knew each other.

That worked out well enough.

So Alon agreed to accompany him directly.

Elivan was visibly surprised.

He had only meant to ask whether a small number of soldiers could be loaned out.

Instead, the Marquis himself agreed to go.

Alon answered that he had already said he would help in the first place, and since there was no reason to drag things out, they would leave the very next day.

He showed Elivan’s group to rooms where they could stay for the night.

After they left, Evan approached with a face that suggested a new realization.

Was that really the same boy from years ago, the one the Marquis used to quietly take care of?

When Alon confirmed it, Evan stared in disbelief and muttered that the world was absurdly unfair.

Alon had to admit he felt much the same.

The boy really was excessively handsome.

Evan agreed at once.

Then Basiliora sneered that Evan’s face suited his personality perfectly.

Evan snapped back, asking what the snake had just said.

Their bickering continued until Evan suddenly remembered something.

Wasn’t Elivan a chosen one?

Alon answered that yes, he was.

He himself had nearly forgotten that setting.

A chosen one was the title given to the person meant to close the gate phenomena erupting throughout the world, something like a hero in another type of story.

Elivan had first received that role when he closed the great gate that appeared in his village during the tutorial after receiving Sironia’s blessing.

At this point, the five great kingdoms would probably already have recognized him in practice.

That thought led Alon to another memory.

Perhaps Yutia’s visit to his territory a month ago had been connected to that, and she had gone to Tern for the appointment of the chosen one.

Then Evan asked the natural next question.

Had Alon known in advance that Elivan would become the chosen one?

For a moment Alon wondered how he should answer.

Then Evan waved the question away himself.

There was no need to respond.

By now, it was no longer unusual for the Marquis to do things Evan could not understand.

And even if something suspicious happened, that did not mean the Marquis himself would suddenly become someone else.

He had grown used to it.

Hearing that easy acceptance, whether it was trust or indifference, Alon felt unexpectedly moved.

So he quietly decided Evan’s salary would be raised.

And Evan, just as moved, lit up immediately.

####

Around the same time, Elivan’s party, who had secured lodgings thanks to Alon, threw themselves onto the beds the moment they entered the room.

Bina shouted that it was incredibly comfortable.

Ralph groaned that it had been ages since he slept on a proper bed.

The two of them rubbed themselves into the soft bedding in delight.

Only Yan remained displeased.

She asked Elivan whether he really had to come to Marquis Palladio.

Elivan answered simply that they needed support.

But Yan’s frown did not fade.

If they did this, then they would also have to share the rewards coming from the gate with the Marquis.

That was the real reason she was unhappy.

Elivan’s party had already entered gates around three times and returned with rewards, so Yan already knew how high the value of gate rewards could be.

And to a mage, those rewards were especially sweet.

Elivan smiled in his usual easy way and told her not to think so harshly.

What if something unexpected happened?

The request had clearly said this one would be dangerous.

Wouldn’t it be better to be safe?

Yan still looked dissatisfied.

Elivan scratched his head awkwardly.

He was never very good at talking back to others, and Yan knew that.

So she continued to grumble.

Then she went one step further.

She admitted that she did not really like Marquis Palladio either.

He was expressionless.

Impossible to read.

She expected Elivan to smile awkwardly at that too.

Instead.

She saw him smiling.

But not in the same way as before.

His mouth was smiling.

His eyes were not.

A chill ran up her spine.

Then Elivan called her name in a low voice.

Before she even realized it, he was standing in front of her with a hand on her shoulder.

He leaned close enough that his bright face filled her vision.

And with shadowed blue eyes, he quietly asked whether speaking of the Marquis that way was really a good idea.

It was still undeniably Elivan.

And yet the strange fear lurking in those blue eyes made Yan swallow hard.

She apologized.

Said she had been selfish.

Elivan squeezed her shoulder once and then smiled with his eyes again.

It was all right.

But next time she should be more careful.

He stepped back wearing a radiant smile that only made his beautiful face stand out more.

Even so, Yan felt a peculiar fear she could not shake.

####

The next day, Alon and Elivan’s party set out together for the gate.