Chapter 200 – Sloth and Thunder (2)

“Give me back my Gyeok!!”

‘I am truly being treated unfairly!’
With a face that looked as if it contained all the resentment in the world.

Alon swallowed his internal fluster and asked.

“What does that mean?”

“Do not pretend you do not know, you took all my Gyeok!”

“…I took all your Gyeok?”

The girl made an even more resentful expression at Alon’s reaction.

‘What on earth does this mean?’

Alon first thought calmly.

Why the girl before him was telling him to return her Gyeok.

Then.

“Ah.”

Alon let out a low exclamation.

Thunder Snake Quest.

NPC.

The one who always appeared.

The girl.

His thoughts led from one to another in a long chain…

In the end, he reached a single conclusion.

“…Kalanon?”

An uncertain but most reasonable inference at this point.

At that name.

“Why are you pretending not to know when you clearly do!?”

The girl… no, Kalanon, clenched her two fists and shouted again.

Alon realized that his inference was correct.

However, what he still could not understand was.

“That I stole your Gyeok?”

The part about him stealing the Gyeok of Kalanon, the Receiver of Thunder.

Alon could not agree with that part.

Because until now, not even once.

Far from trying to steal someone else’s Gyeok.

He had never even tried to become a god of his own will.

But at Alon’s counter-question.

“Huh?”

Kalanon placed both hands on her waist as if it were absurd and shouted.

“It is not just a matter of stealing! You have turned me into a complete old person in the back room!”

“I did?”

“Yes! You! Do you not see this!?”

Kalanon spread her hand wide toward the air.

Then, in the space that was clearly a night sky with a flowing galaxy.

Familiar statues began to appear like bamboo shoots after rain.

“Here is you, there is you, at that end too… and at that other end… and here as well!!”

They were all statues erected by the Thunder Snake tribe.

The girl, who showed them while huffing.

“It is not me, it is all you! Because of you! All the faith that should have come to me is being stolen!”

She spat out her resentment.

Alon roughly understood the situation.

“Well, I roughly understand. But even though it is funny to say this… I have not particularly acted to steal your Gyeok.”

“Does that even make sense?”

“I also think it does not make sense, but…”

“Then you are saying that the believers who offered faith to me are worshipping you for no reason? Why on earth is the faith that should have come to me going to you!”

Kalanon glared with eyes full of distrust, as if telling him to stop making excuses.

But Alon was confident.

“I am sorry to say this, but I am innocent.”

Truly.

“I have never once said or done anything to encourage such a situation…”

Never…?

“…”

Alon stopped speaking.

Because a single assumption suddenly flashed through his mind.

Since it was something he had naturally moved past.

A fact he had forgotten without paying much attention until now.

‘Could it be because of that passage?’

Alon had never once mentioned that he himself was Kalanon, the Receiver of Thunder.

Nor had he taken such actions.

In addition to that.

He had not done anything that would make him suspected of being Kalanon, the Receiver of Thunder.

Yes, until he realized that the girl before him was Kalanon.

He had clearly thought he was innocent.

[I, who was hidden under the low sky, will come to find you, so you who welcome the dawn, welcome me with joy.]

Alon recalled.

the passage he had spat out in front of the Thunder Snake tribe.

That was precisely.

The passage the girl had spoken of, which led him to be treated as a benefactor by the Thunder Snake tribe.

Using it that one single time.

It was clear that it had caused Alon himself to be misunderstood as Kalanon.

“Ah.”

Only then did the pieces of the puzzle of misunderstanding, which he could not understand until now, begin to fit together one by one.

Probability was established one by one.

The scattered questions were gradually resolved…

“You did, right?”

However.

“See! You did, right!?”

From the girl Kalanon, who was stomping her feet in resentment.

“…”

Alon could not help but slightly turn his gaze away.

####

Alon used that passage.

He did not know exactly through what process the faith came to be gathered.

But the conclusion was the same anyway.

That he was ‘suddenly misunderstood’ as Kalanon and had taken away the Gyeok that should have gone to her.

That was the conclusion of this story.

“…”

“…”

Alon looked at the girl.

The girl also glared… no, looked at Alon.

His conscience pricked sharply at her resentful eyes.

He cleared his throat with a cough for no reason and apologized.

“…It was not my intention, but I am sorry.”

A simple apology.

To that, Kalanon spoke with her resentful voice from before.

“Give it…”

She tried to say something, but.

“Ah?”

“?”

Soon her pupils dilated, and she shut her mouth.

“…Excuse me?”

“…”

“Is something… wrong?”

Kalanon remained frozen as if a playing screen had been paused.

While Alon tilted his head at this.

“…A-Ah, no.”

Kalanon answered awkwardly, as if a rusted machine were moving with a creak.

Then, wiping away her resentful expression, she forced the corners of her mouth up.

“No, I am the one who is sorry… Thinking about it, I do not think I am in a position to say anything to you.”

“…Suddenly?”

And she even offered an apology?

Alon was flustered by her sudden change in attitude.

But she, with her awkward smile fixed, continued her words.

“Yes… Since I would not have been able to help my subjects anyway, and, well… then I would have naturally been forgotten.”

Alon could understand the meaning of the girl’s words without much difficulty.

In the game, the Kalanon NPC appeared not in the beginning, but once the game had progressed quite a bit.

‘In reality, they were eventually saved using Eliban.’

After organizing his thoughts, Alon brought up the main point.

“So, what do you want me to do? If you want me to return the Gyeok…”

“No, no, no, no.”

Before his words could even finish.

Kalanon began to shake her head violently.

“Absolutely not. Absolutely, not that. Yes, yes, of course…”

“…Did you not ask to have the Gyeok returned at first?”

“I did, but… thinking about it, I think it would be impossible to get it back.”

“Why?”

Kalanon, who finally stopped shaking her head, folded her two hands awkwardly.

“Regardless of my resentment, the faith is already heading toward you. Do you not know the basic principles of how Gyeok works?”

“You mean that if faith is accumulated, one can become a god?”

“That is right. And since you are already receiving faith as Kalanon, the Receiver of Thunder, there is no way for me to get the faith back.”

“Can I not just go and tell them directly?”

“No matter how much you say you are not Kalanon, that belief will not be easily broken. Fundamentally, faith uses belief as a passage and a symbol as a destination to produce its result.”

The girl stopped her words for a moment and added.

“Even if you correct them and say you are not Kalanon and turn the faith back to me, my Gyeok would already be greatly weakened.”

“Why is that?”

“Unless it is a case of changing the object of belief very slowly over a very long period, if the object is suddenly changed, faith does not gather easily.”

Kalanon, after thinking for a moment, gave an example.

“Would you believe it if I said I am the Primordial God?”

“…I would not be able to believe it easily.”

“It is like that. Faith is accumulated through absolute belief, but if the object is changed, the belief itself cannot help but weaken. Additionally, I do not have the power to manifest myself right now.”

“…”

“In other words, it means there is not a single way for me to regain the faith from you.”

Her voice scattered somewhat lonely.

“…Then what happens to you?”

“A forgotten god is annihilated.”

“But are you not the real Kalanon?”

“I told you, did I not? There is no such thing as a real Kalanon. A god is, in the end, an existence created by the subjects. Unless they are beings like the Primordial Gods…”

“It means they are determined by the people who believe.”

“That is right.”

Alon felt awkward for no reason behind his expressionless face.

Though it was not intentional.

Regardless, because he had obtained Kalanon’s Gyeok, the real Kalanon was placed in danger of being annihilated.

And through the conversation with the girl.

He also realized why he could use the Gyeok of the Primordial Elf just by being ‘misunderstood’.

Around the time he gained such a realization and felt awkwardness on the other hand.

“So, could you perhaps do me a favor?”

“A favor?”

Kalanon asked carefully.

“Yes. Actually, my annihilation is a natural thing like a law, but still, I do not want to be annihilated. Could you help me a bit?”

“Do you know a way not to be annihilated?”

“Surprisingly, it is not that difficult. Rather, it is a story that will be helpful to you too.”

“…What is the method?”

“You just have to learn how to handle Kalanon’s Gyeok from me.”

As the girl said, it was a method that was not complex.

“Will you be maintained with just that?”

“Mhm… that is right. To be precise, more ‘work’ needs to be done, but if you become able to handle Kalanon’s power fully, annihilation can be avoided. I have my own way.”

“It is a proposal that I have no particular reason to refuse.”

It was certainly so.

Rather, it was a direction helpful to him.

As Alon was nodding his head, Kalanon clapped her hands.

“Then, please find the symbol.”

“…Symbol? Wait, was that thing in the kingdom not the symbol earlier?”

“That is just a stone monument in which Kalanon’s power is dissolved. The real symbol is in another place.”

At those words, the moment Alon was about to ask something.

Kugugugugu!

“!?”

Suddenly the world began to collapse as if it were increasingly warping.

When the flustered Alon looked at Kalanon, the girl also hurriedly opened her mouth, but…

“E-Alon? I beg of you. Uh… you must come before the symbol within a week.”

“A week?”

“Yes, there is a strange fellow near the symbol right now, but I beg of you.”

“I will try.”

“Do not just try, you must… do… it…”

In the end, before her words could even finish.

“Ah.”

“…Is something the matter?”

“No, it is nothing.”

Alon had returned to his original place.

To the palace he had walked into.

Turning his gaze to check the surroundings.

He let out a quiet sigh.

“First, let’s go.”

####

Arriving at the audience chamber, Alon faced the King of Luxivble.

“…”

King Familo-no of Luxivble, who was looking down at Alon while exuding a royal dignity that went beyond the name of a Grand Duchy.

And by his side.

There was a very familiar face.

‘Jenira?’

Jenira, the younger sister of the swift Shircal and the one who had come to find Alon during the previous ball.

She was standing by King Familo-no’s side like a strategist.

While staring blankly at that sight for a moment.

Alon soon moved his body and approached Familo-no.

“Are you Marquis Palatio?”

A deep voice fell.

At this, Alon bowed his head in a familiar way and offered a polite greeting…

Clatter!

…He could not.

“?”

Raising his head again.

Familo-no was looking at Jenira with a flustered face.

To be precise, at the shattered wine bottle fragments held in her hand.

“I am sorry. I broke the bottle by mistake.”

Jenira, who was holding the neck of the wine bottle in reverse like a weapon.

She apologized in a tone that did not sound sorry at all.

Drip… drip…

“???”

Like blood.

Red drops were falling little by little through the cracks of the broken wine bottle.

While Alon’s face was colored with wonder for a moment.

“Be careful.”

“Yes.”

“Ahem…”

Familo-no cleared his throat once more.

“Marquis Palatio… welcome to this place.”

He revealed his deep dignity.

Clatter!

“…”

Once again.

The wine bottle broke.

“Oh my, I am truly sorry. I keep making ‘mistakes’.”

‘Did she not just smash it against the wall a moment ago?’
He thought so, but.

Alon could not bring himself to say it out loud.

Because Jenira herself.

Was just staring intently at Familo-no while holding the broken wine bottle.

Just as Alon was about to tilt his head at that unknown situation.

“…Marquis Palatio, welcome to this place.”

Differently from before.

King Familo-no’s honorifics were heard.

And with that, looking at Jenira, who was nodding her head.

“…Ah.”

Alon, roughly how the situation of this kingdom was going.

He could deeply feel it.