I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 28 - Isn't This a Bit Much (4)
Chapter 28 – Isn’t This a Bit Much? (4)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Three days after acquiring the `Ring of Madness` and immediately beginning preparations to leave for the north, the expedition finally set out.
The knights and soldiers had completed their arrangements, and the moment everything was in order, the force departed.
Only a few hours after they had left.
“Deus Makalian.”
A man came to see Deus.
He had blue hair, a vertical scar across his face, and the bearing of someone used to command.
It was Fiola, one of Caliburn’s Master Knights and the Fourth Sword.
“I hear you laid hands on my disciple.”
His face was cold, but the anger in his eyes was plain.
Deus answered without emotion.
“Your disciple behaved rudely toward my benefactor.”
“Ha. You think that justifies beating another man’s disciple senseless?”
“Do you think it doesn’t?”
Fiola frowned.
The fury on his face and the mana spilling from him instantly dominated the area, drawing cold sweat from the surrounding knights.
But Deus met that killing intent head-on without changing expression.
“Be grateful I didn’t kill him, Fiola.”
The violet mana pouring from him turned even more ominous as he pressed back.
The atmosphere became so sharp that the first man to draw a sword might have triggered a massacre.
Then Fiola clicked his tongue and turned away first.
Before leaving, he looked past Deus toward Count Palladio behind him.
“Do not think this is over.”
Then he returned to his resting troops.
Watching him go, Alon flexed his tingling hand unconsciously.
Master Knights really are monsters.
The pressure Fiola had released with nothing but emotional disturbance had been enough to make it hard to breathe.
Beside him, Evan muttered through cold sweat:
“Damn. He’s a complete monster.”
Alon turned his gaze to Deus.
Even from this far away, Fiola’s mana was enough to make the whole body tingle. Yet Deus had received it head-on and remained expressionless.
Alon knew, of course, that Deus was a Master Knight.
Still, it felt strangely new to see him like this after watching him act so deferentially toward Alon lately.
Then again, he seems rude to everyone except me.
He remembered the rumors he had heard a few days earlier, along with Deus telling Evan to keep quiet because he was an old man, and nodded to himself.
Saving the sister really was the right move.
At first, Alon had not understood why Deus listened to him so completely.
Now he could at least guess.
To be honest, there was hardly any need to guess. Watching how Deus treated Shili answered the question by itself.
At this rate, if I ever run into trouble as a count and call for him, he might really come running.
The thought made him grin slightly behind his usual blank face.
Even so, not even Alon believed Deus would go quite that far. So he only shrugged and returned to the carriage.
The northern expedition continued.
* * *
Two weeks and three days later, the expeditionary force arrived at the first forward outpost beyond the border between Caliburn and the north.
There, they received three pieces of news.
The first was that Delman, the Third Sword, who had vanished after news arrived that an eastern outpost had fallen and an Outer God had appeared, was dead.
The second was that Kiryana, the Second Sword, who had set out earlier than the others and had been operating from the western forward base, had been gravely wounded while fighting the Outer God.
And the third.
“…The dead?”
The Outer God was approaching the outpost with an army of the dead.
“Yes. The Outer God is reanimating slain soldiers and knights and dragging them along.”
At the messenger’s report, Fiola let out a deep sigh.
“Troublesome.”
Deus, who had been listening beside him, chose silence.
If the report was true, the situation was already tilted against Caliburn.
The meeting chamber fell still.
Neither the Master Knights nor the nobles commanding soldiers dared speak carelessly.
Eventually, one noble cautiously offered an opinion.
“…Should we withdraw for the moment?”
That broke the silence, and instantly a flood of opinions followed.
“Nonsense. Do you mean we should turn our backs on the barbarians and run?”
“That’s not what I said. I said we should wait for better circumstances. The Second Sword is badly injured, Reinhardt has not returned from seclusion, and the odds are against us.”
“And in this condition, with so many wounded, you think we can outrun the barbarians advancing on the outpost?”
The chamber dissolved into uproar.
But the nobles’ arguments ultimately mattered less than they appeared to.
The heads of the expedition were the two Master Knights.
Eventually the nobles turned toward Fiola and Deus.
Fiola rose.
“…I will consider it. We will reconvene shortly. For now, everyone should step out and clear their heads.”
Deus also stood and left the tent without a word.
Outside, the land looked as gray as ever.
But to eyes that had risen to the level of a Master Knight and could perceive mana in its actual form, the world looked different.
It was a crimson snowfield.
At least, that was what Deus saw.
A terrifying world where blood-red mana ate at the sky, beautiful and revolting all at once, enough to oppress anyone who perceived it.
He stood there in silence, looking out over it.
Then he glanced once at Fiola, who was surely seeing the same thing, and turned his gaze elsewhere.
There sat Alon.
The Great Moon himself.
Faced with that ominous world, Alon’s eyes showed no emotion at all. He simply sat by a fire and ate roasted sweet potatoes.
Whereas Deus only had to glance up to have his gaze seized by the red sky, Alon did not look toward it even once.
Instead, while eating, he kept murmuring to himself.
“Refraction. Compression. Single Point. Death…”
He sounded like someone reviewing something he had seen many times before.
Watching him, Deus felt his curiosity rise again about the reason the Great Moon had come north and what exactly he intended to do here.
Of course, he had already guessed that the purpose was to deal with the Outer God.
Still, that did not answer everything.
From Deus’s point of view, the Great Moon did not seem especially strong. Not now, and not in the past.
Maybe he simply can’t see what we see.
Deus glanced up toward the red sky again.
The scene visible to those who had opened their eyes to a higher realm was enough to twist anyone’s expression.
If Alon simply could not see it, then his calm behavior was easier to understand.
Just then:
“Oh, for God’s sake, get off me already!”
A sharp shout cut through the camp.
Deus turned and saw a knight arguing with a mage.
“Please, just once more. You know the situation is dire!”
“I know that. But I’ve already done everything I can. And I have to leave!”
“Please, just one more…”
“I said no, you idiots!”
The mage was shrill and furious.
The knights were clinging to her anyway.
From the armor they wore, Deus recognized them as members of Silver Shadow, the order serving Kiryana, the Second Sword.
And the person they were pleading with.
Penia, Vice Tower Master of the Blue Tower.
“I’m already here against my will because of research, and I still have work to do. Why are you being so pathetic about this?”
“People’s lives come first!”
“And I told you, I’ve already treated what can be treated. I’m not refusing because I don’t want to help. There’s simply nothing left I can do!”
Watching the hysterical outburst from the so-called prodigy of the magical world, the once-in-a-generation genius who had reached the sixth circle at an absurdly young age, Deus finally understood why she was here.
There was a facility at the northern outposts where Blue Tower mages cooperated with Caliburn’s forces to study barbarian rituals.
Vice Tower Master. Strong, then.
As he reflected on that and the power radiating from her.
“In any case, stop asking and just watch! I have to go, so move!”
Penia shoved irritably past the knights.
Then she saw Deus standing in her path and frowned.
“What are y…”
She stopped mid-sentence.
“…Looking at?”
Deus frowned in puzzlement at the blank look on her face.
Then he realized she was not staring at him.
She was staring at someone behind him.
“Wh-why…?”
The confusion in her voice was unmistakable.
Then fear began to bloom in her eyes.
It was the face of someone who had just seen something that should not exist.
Even her body was trembling.
Deus followed her gaze.
And there stood Alon, who had been chewing sweet potatoes a moment earlier, now looking at the expressions on both Penia and Deus with open confusion.
A short while later.
“It’s been a while, Vice Tower Master.”
“Y-yes. Good day…!”
“Have you been well?”
“V-very well…!”
The sight was surreal.
The same Penia who had been shrieking hysterically moments ago now stood shrunk down like a stray cat abandoned on the roadside, head lowered and voice shaking.
Deus stared blankly.
Was I simply ignorant?
And quietly, he engaged in a bit of self-reflection.