I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 161 - Why Are You So Strong (5)
Chapter 161 – Why Are You So Strong? (5)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“Is that really true?”
At Magrina’s question.
Perion was startled.
Elven Queen Magrina was benevolent, and she smiled upon everyone as a wise ruler, but she did not openly display personal emotions before others.
That was the place of a king.
A being who had to protect the people and always stand at the front for the people.
A ruler could never show weakness.
That was why, in the hundreds of years since she took the throne, she had never once shown her subordinates any emotion other than benevolence and anger.
And yet now, the Magrina who had upheld that rule like iron for so long was, for the first time, revealing something besides joy and anger before her subordinates.
Confusion.
And hope.
“Please. Tell me.”
At Magrina’s urging, Filde broke her silence.
“First, let me say this once more, Your Majesty. What I am saying is only a guess.”
“Even so, you thought that Marquis Palladio might be the first elf. That he might be my elder brother.”
“I did.”
“Then tell me why.”
There was impatience in the way she urged her on.
Filde told her, one by one, what had happened at House Palladio.
How the two of them had used magic outside the Marquisate to observe the Marquis.
How she had secretly examined Marquis Palladio’s soul with her Spirit Eyes.
And finally, the black pupil she had seen at the end.
“…Hoo.”
After finishing the story, Filde took one breath and organized the core of it.
“To summarize, Marquis Palladio’s soul did not suit his body. Which means there is another person inside Marquis Palladio’s body.”
“…”
“As Your Majesty also knows, it makes no sense for a mere human to possess a soul of that golden color. Just as even a wise ruler does not become a god, and even a hero does not become divine.”
Filde looked Magrina straight in the eye.
“That is why I reached the conclusion that Marquis Palladio might be the first elf.”
“Then the reason my brother cannot return…”
“As I said, something bizarre is attached to the person we believe may be the first elf.”
Filde gave a small retching motion, as though even recalling that moment made her stomach churn, but quickly steadied herself.
“I could not confirm it to the very end, but in my judgment, they were entangled.”
“Entangled?”
“Yes. So complex and so disorderly that they could never be separated from each other. I suspect that may be why the first elf cannot come here.”
Magrina fell silent.
The corners of her eyes were trembling in a way no one had ever seen before.
Hope and confusion mixed together and began swallowing her pupils.
“Then…”
With her head lowered and her lip bitten between her teeth, she finally spoke.
“Could he not at least have told me?”
“…”
Her voice came out damp.
“That he had returned. That he was alive. Could he not at least have said that much?”
How long had she searched?
How long had she waited?
To that murmur, Filde gave her answer.
“That was the part I questioned as well. I believe it may be because of a restriction.”
“A restriction…?”
Filde nodded.
“This too is only a guess, but as Your Majesty knows, it is clearly abnormal for the soul of the dead to take over the body of the living. It is the sort of thing that should not happen in the first place. The soul of the dead twists human order itself.”
“Go on.”
“I think the first elf likely made a contract with that strange existence, one with a restriction attached to it. Their souls are entangled to that degree. And that restriction was probably the sort that forbids involvement with ties from a previous life.”
“Why would he accept such a restriction?”
This time, even Filde shook her head.
“That, I cannot guess. I am only inferring it from the fact that he seems to have delivered the blessing from a distance in order to avoid involving himself with this side as much as possible.”
“…”
“As I said, this is only my own speculation. I do not know what the truth is. Even so, the reason I am still saying this is…”
When Filde glanced at Perion, the man who had remained quiet until now stepped forward.
“Your Majesty, may I continue the rest?”
“Go on.”
“…Marquis Palladio uses sigils and sentence spells.”
“Then that means…”
“…That like the first elf, he is a magus. And after personally investigating him, I concluded that he has accomplished things no mere human could ever achieve.”
Perion paused briefly, then continued.
“He has already dealt with two Outer Gods in the past, resolved many artificial Outer Gods, and recently even handled a monstrosity. A mere human did all of that.”
“…”
“That is why we suspect he may be the first elf.”
Perion finished, but the queen remained silent.
Her heart was beating violently.
Memories from centuries ago resurfaced in her mind.
Memories she could never lose.
There is no one else.
You have to do it.
You must lead the elves well.
Please.
And above those words floated the face of her elder brother, who had smiled and patted her head even though he already sensed his death approaching.
After a long silence, Magrina finally spoke.
“…Perion.”
“Yes.”
“Make preparations.”
“…Your Majesty?”
“I have to meet him myself. I have to see whether he is real with my own eyes.”
She looked at Perion with eyes full of resolve.
####
In the end, thanks to Elivan’s help, Alon cleared Ironblood Fortress without suffering any damage.
“Is this what you needed?”
“It is.”
“Then I will give it to you.”
“Is that really fine?”
“Yes.”
And he obtained the item he wanted.
It felt almost too easy to take it, but there was no reason to refuse.
Alon accepted the object Elivan held out with a bright smile.
It was one of the objects obtained in Ironblood Fortress.
More precisely, it was an artifact pretending to be an object.
Foot that Runs Through the Past.
As Alon looked down at the object refined from dark steel in the shape of running feet touching the ground, he said to Elivan,
“…Thank you.”
“No, it is nothing. You came to help because of my request, after all. Is there anything else you need?”
Alon shook his head.
In the first place, aside from Foot that Runs Through the Past, there was nothing in Ironblood Fortress that he needed.
Most of what dropped here were warrior-type weapons.
And even the few mage-type items that appeared were not especially useful to Alon.
“No. This is enough.”
He carefully put away Foot that Runs Through the Past.
Soon, the open gate slowly began to disappear.
After watching that sight together, Alon’s group moved to the nearest territory, House Zenonia.
By the time they reached the Zenonia lands, the sun was already setting.
“Let us meet again another time.”
“Yes, understood. If I need help again, may I ask you?”
“Yes. As long as it is not too unreasonable, I will hear it.”
“Thank you.”
Elivan lowered his head deeply, then walked into the territory ahead of them with his companions.
“Marquis.”
“What is it?”
“I have felt something strange since earlier. May I say it?”
“Go ahead.”
Once the two of them were left alone, Evan spoke at once, as if he had been waiting for the chance.
“I thought about it some more. That Elivan fellow definitely came to ask for help because he thought it would be dangerous, right?”
“That is right.”
“But if he had skill to that extent hidden away, then it makes no sense that he came to ask you for help in the first place, does it?”
“It does not.”
To be honest, Alon had felt the same incongruity Evan had pointed out.
There was something subtly wrong in the front and back of Elivan’s story.
With questions hidden behind his expressionless face, Alon quietly looked toward the place where Elivan had disappeared.
What is it?
He opened up several possibilities in his mind.
Countless thoughts crossed his head.
Among them, he picked out only the ones that seemed at least plausible.
Three hypotheses remained.
Either Elivan had called him here for some purpose.
Or he had intended to harm him.
…Or else someone had asked him to do this.
But Alon soon shook his head.
First of all, it did not seem like Elivan had intended to harm him.
If that had been his goal from the start, he had plenty of chances before they entered the gate, and plenty of chances inside it as well.
…If anything, he was overprotective.
His conduct in Ironblood Fortress was not the conduct of someone acting with malice.
Then what remains is that he called me here for some purpose, or that someone asked him to… but.
Naturally, neither possibility gave Alon anything concrete to latch onto.
If he had suffered some kind of harm, he might have been able to infer something from that.
But instead of losing anything, he had simply obtained what he needed with ease.
That was why.
“…What is it?”
“Kkyu?”
As he stroked Kkamangi’s head, which had emerged before he noticed, Alon’s puzzlement only deepened.
####
“Elivan.”
“Hm? Why?”
“…Why did you hide it until now?”
At Yan’s hesitant voice, Elivan looked at her.
“Hm? Hide what?”
“…Your strength.”
“Ah.”
He scratched his cheek, looking a little troubled.
“Sorry. I did mean to tell you one day, but I thought it was still too early.”
He answered with a smile.
But Yan’s expression did not ease.
“…If you had that much power, couldn’t you have helped in the last situation, and the one before that too?”
Of course she would react that way.
Until now, Elivan’s party had crossed the line between life and death several times.
“Even when Ralph was about to die under the Giant Wood, and when I was almost having my soul devoured by the witch, you never once showed power like that, did you?”
She was not angry simply because Elivan had hidden his power.
He had possessed that much strength, and yet he had not used it even when his companions might die.
That meant that, for him, the deaths of his companions were not important enough to reveal that power.
“But Marquis Palladio…”
The furrow between Yan’s brows deepened.
In her eyes, the threat that had fallen on Marquis Palladio looked far safer than the mortal dangers the party had crossed until now.
And yet Elivan had stepped forward without hesitation and broken open his secret.
A secret he had hidden even when his companions’ lives were at stake.
But Elivan himself remained calm.
“…Yan, I know what you want to say.”
“Then…”
“But this could not be helped. How should I put it… this is more like a habit.”
“…A habit?”
“Yes. I am not lying. It really is a habit.”
With his serene blue eyes glowing quietly, Elivan stepped closer, placed a hand on her shoulder, and spoke.
“And when time passes, you will understand too.”
“…Understand what?”
“Why I did that.”
He pressed out every word deliberately.
“That person is very important.”
A deep fanaticism hung in his blue eyes.
“More important than anyone else.”
“…”
It was an evening with the Blue Moon hanging in the sky.
When Yan met those eyes, she could not help feeling a strange chill.