I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 159 - Why Are You So Strong (3)

Chapter 159 – Why Are You So Strong? (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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A gate.

The next stage after a Time Gate.

It referred to a state where the distortion of dimensions had grown even greater than in a Time Gate.

Gates were divided into two forms, outer gates and inner gates, and the standard between them was the time since they had been formed.

If only a short time had passed since formation, it was an inner gate.

If a long time had passed, it was classified as an outer gate.

And depending on that difference in time, the degree of overload differed as well.

When a gate was still in the form of a recently formed inner gate, monsters could not come outside the gate.

In other words, if one simply entered and cleared it, the gate could be closed without any damage at all.

But if a gate was left untreated for a certain period of time, an overload phenomenon occurred, and monsters would pour out of the gate.

The races or monsters corresponding to that gate would spill out, define every living being on the continent as an enemy, and carry out slaughter until someone closed the gate.

…Come to think of it, I think one principality fell because of this, and depending on the route, even Ashtalon could fall.

As various pieces of information rose in his mind, Alon sighed quietly to himself.

…Looking at it this way, by the point the original story of Psychedelia begins, the world really does become a complete mess. The Five Great Sins, the Outer Gods, even the four great powers all get tangled together.

Even so, in the end, the Five Great Sins were still the most important factor.

Time Gates and gates were both said to occur because of the Five Great Sins, but what kind of structure was that?

Recalling the settings he had seen in the game, Alon thought about it for a moment, then shook his head.

He had no way to infer the relationship between gates and the Five Great Sins.

Well, even so, Elivan is the one who will deal with the gate.

Alon looked at the man before him.

Elivan, smiling the whole time as he talked with his companions, looked very easy to like.

In other words, he truly looked like a protagonist.

“Marquis? Was there something you wished to say…?”

“Ah.”

At some point Elivan had already turned his head toward him and met his eyes.

Hm. I was staring too obviously.

After a brief moment of thought, Alon decided he might as well ask what he had been curious about.

“There was something I was curious about. May I ask?”

“If it is something the Marquis wishes to say, then of course.”

Elivan even straightened his posture.

The overreaction made Alon inwardly flinch a little.

“There is no need to go that far.”

“No, it is fine. Please speak comfortably.”

“Hm.”

He really is polite.

Leaving that short impression to himself, Alon began his actual question.

“I heard that you became a chosen one. Is that true?”

“Yes, it is.”

“It may be a strange thing to ask, but what do you move for?”

It was pure curiosity on Alon’s part.

Basically, in Psychedelia, once the player became a chosen one, the player moved freely and selected the story.

Of course, there was the special mission given to the chosen one, deal with the gates, along with minimal guidelines, but most players did not follow that.

The guidelines were too thin, and as time went on, gate phenomena began occurring in multiple places at once, so in the end the player had to choose what to deal with.

That was why Alon was curious.

What did Elivan move for, and what standard did he use to choose among the available options?

“Hm.”

Elivan thought for a moment, then lifted the corners of his mouth.

“I have to move for that person.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I believe I have to move for that person, because I received that person’s blessing.”

Alon nodded without realizing it.

So he really does move according to the intended purpose of a chosen one. High devotion is a little surprising, though perhaps it is not that surprising after all.

Even without receiving Sironia’s blessing, Elivan’s talent was already absurd.

But it was also true that he became even stronger after receiving Sironia’s blessing, so Alon readily accepted it.

Should I use this chance to build some ties with Elivan’s other companions too?

He shifted his gaze to the people standing at Elivan’s side.

The three companions following him right now were all talented enough to become famous in this world later, so there was no harm in getting acquainted with future celebrities in advance.

The only problem was.

…Why is that one looking at me with that kind of wariness?

One of them, Yan, was looking at him with a strangely sharp gaze.

It was not obvious enough to be blatant, but Alon was already used to getting those sorts of looks whenever he attended balls, so he noticed immediately.

He had never even had a proper conversation with her.

It was one of those early summer days when the weather was slowly growing hot.

####

The Holy Kingdom of Rosaria, which served the goddess Sironia, had outwardly been flowing along without major trouble since the artificial Outer God incident.

But that was only the view from outside.

Inside Rosaria, there were in fact two deeply troubling developments underway.

The first was the pope’s seclusion.

Since the artificial Outer God appeared, the pope of the Holy Kingdom had not shown himself at all.

In other words, he had not emerged from the prayer chamber for over a year.

Since there had never been a pope in history who remained inside the prayer chamber for more than a year, the cardinals had gone many times to fetch him in person, but unfortunately every attempt failed.

Physically, it was impossible.

From the moment the artificial Outer God appeared until now, a golden barrier had remained around the prayer chamber where the pope was located.

Since the pope entered the chamber, no one had seen him.

But in truth, the second issue was even more problematic than the pope’s absence.

From the time of the artificial Outer God incident onward, the voice of the goddess Sironia could no longer be heard at all.

“Hoo.”

Inside the saint’s chamber.

Yuman let out a deep sigh as he looked at the statue of Sironia.

Whenever he prayed, the statue had always shone with a pure white light.

But now it was terribly still.

And it had been that way for over a year already.

Why…?

Anxiety and confusion colored Yuman’s face.

No matter how much he thought about it, he could not guess the reason he could no longer reach the goddess Sironia.

Did I commit some irreverence against the goddess? No. My divine power still moves properly.

Yuman looked at the golden divine power flowing from his fingertips.

His divine power had definitely not vanished.

If anything, it had grown denser than it had been a year ago.

And yet, even so, the goddess Sironia remained silent before his words.

And not only to him.

She did not answer anyone.

More than that, from the moment the goddess fell silent, no new people capable of handling divine power had appeared.

As though the goddess had withdrawn the blessing she bestowed upon believers.

Even before, there had been times when contact from the goddess had been cut off for half a year or more, but there had never been a case like this where no new clergy appeared at all.

…Did something happen to the goddess?

Repeating that concern yet again, Yuman left the saint’s chamber.

“Oh my, Saint. How are you?”

“…Cardinal Yutia.”

“Yes.”

He soon encountered Yutia.

Looking at her, still wearing that unreadable smile, Yuman asked,

“So. Did your meeting with the chosen one go well?”

“Yes.”

“Was he truly someone who received the blessing of the goddess Sironia?”

“Of course. Otherwise, why would I have acknowledged him?”

Yuman slowly spoke.

“…That is a lie.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Even though it is handled as top secret among the cardinals and has not spread outside, you know it yourself, do you not? At present, no one can hear Her words. And no one receives blessings any longer either.”

Despite Yuman’s logical point, the smile hanging at Yutia’s lips did not change.

Only her crescent-shaped eyes narrowed slightly.

“Who knows, Saint. Perhaps Sironia is caring only for the chosen one especially. Just as she does for you.”

“…You know very well that once even the saint’s chamber, the place closest to the goddess, was cut off, that is impossible.”

Yuman’s argument was perfectly sound.

Yutia did not answer.

She only kept staring at him with narrowed eyes, then said,

“Let us continue this conversation another time. Should you not be going into the meeting soon?”

“Are you avoiding an answer?”

“Of course not. Time has simply run short, so I am moving on.”

“…”

She passed by him.

Yuman watched her back with a guarded gaze for a long while, then quietly followed.

…Elivan, was it?

Thinking of the chosen one Yutia had selected, whether genuine or false.

####

About a week and several more days later, Alon arrived at the gate near House Altia in northern Asteria.

Duke Altia had asked him to stop by, so once the gate was cleared, he planned to visit.

And I should test this too.

After glancing once at Lumiel’s Oath, which he had obtained from his trade with Perion in Lartania, Alon turned his gaze toward the entrance of the gate as it shifted purple.

It is large.

He had seen it in the game, but the entrance to the gate was larger than he had expected.

…Was it originally this size?

It struck him as odd, but.

“Then let us go in.”

“Very well.”

Following Elivan, Alon began walking into the gate.

“Is it really fine to go in there?”

Evan looked uneasy.

Alon kept moving ahead without hesitation.

Evan, after a brief pause, shut his eyes tightly and pushed himself into the gate as well.

Then soon.

“Wow.”

He let out a deep note of admiration.

The scenery inside the gate looked incredibly impressive.

…It is impressive.

Even Alon admired it behind his expressionless face.

The atmosphere felt stranger and more dreamlike than he had expected.

The purple sky, one of the features of a gate.

And beneath it, a purple fortress layered one over another.

So this is Ironblood Fortress.

The moment he recalled the name of the gate.

Thunk.

Alon noticed that something had struck the ground not far away and looked in that direction.

“Wh, what is that?”

“…Living Armors.”

He had identified the Living Armors that were beginning to charge while standing with the fortress at their backs, intent on exterminating the intruders.

There were easily several hundred of them.

In the game, because the party was only around level ten at this point, the correct move was not to fight them but to flee at once through the side path and go straight into the fortress.

Alon smiled inwardly.

He knew Ironblood Fortress well enough that he had no need to run.

If we wipe out the ones here, there will not be many Living Armors inside the fortress itself. And Elivan’s party also needs to deal with these things to grow.

From Alon’s point of view, this was actually not a bad situation.

It was a chance to cast magic on enemies without worrying about mana consumption while testing the byproducts of the research he had pursued for the last two months.

So he formed a hand seal.

Creak, creak, creak.

Some of the Living Armors began drawing their bowstrings in response to him, but Alon did not grow impatient.

He already knew that Living Armors prioritized whoever looked about to attack them, and he already knew how slow they were.

Just as Alon leisurely prepared to recite a sentence spell.

Sst.

Elivan suddenly shot forward.

At a tremendous speed.

And then.

“Hup.”

Elivan reached the Living Armors that had drawn their bows, unsheathed the sword at his waist without hesitation, and swung.

Kwagagagagak.

Dozens of the Living Armors in front of him became lumps of scrap in an instant.

Utterly helplessly.

“Are you all right, Marquis?”

Seeing Elivan turn around at once and ask urgently.

“…Huh?”

Countless question marks rose over Alon’s head.

Above all.

…He was not level ten?

That one thought struck him especially hard.