I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 33 - Me, the Leader

Chapter 33 – Me, the Leader…?

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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(1)

At dawn on the same day Alon received the letter saying Yutia had become a cardinal,

Blue Moon’s regular meeting began.

Blue Moon’s meetings were basically held once every six months, and since the distance made meeting in person difficult, they usually talked through crystal orbs.

…Even so, just because they met once every half year did not mean the meetings were long.

Up to now, the meetings done through the crystal orb Rine made had almost never gone over ten minutes, and even that time was mostly taken up by Yutia, who led the meeting, or Seollang, who threw out innocent comments.

In other words, aside from those two, the others hardly spoke at all except to say yes, no, or offer a short opinion.

Of course, Radan and Rine also sometimes exchanged small pieces of daily life and ended up with a little share of the conversation.

But Deus, more often than not, said absolutely nothing during the meetings.

That was partly because he truly had little to say, but also because he was taciturn by nature.

That was why nobody expected it.

That with one innocent line from Seollang,

“Ah, I heard from rumors that the Great Moon went there.

What was he like in person?”

a meeting that usually averaged less than ten minutes would stretch past thirty.

…At that point, the five future Great Sins taking part in the meeting had still been wearing fairly interested expressions.

That was not simply because Deus had begun praising the Great Moon.

It was because they were all thinking the same thing.

Can Deus really talk this much?

But.

[At that time, the Great Moon stood before the Outer God, Ultultus.

When everyone had fallen into despair and fear, and even the Vice Tower Master of the Blue Tower had been blinded by terror, he walked out as if it were nothing and challenged the Outer God to a duel.

Thinking back, it seems the Great Moon had already been preparing his magic from that moment.

But that is not actually the important part.

When the Outer God saw the Great Moon-]

Once Deus’s speech passed thirty minutes and headed toward an hour, a new emotion slowly began to grow in their hearts.

Embarrassment.

…Because none of them had expected the story to continue for a full hour.

[And then when the Great Moon left-]

[Wait, this story is getting way too lon-]

That was why Rine tried to cut Deus off.

But,

[Just listen to this one part.

We’re talking about the Great Moon, aren’t we?

Now then, where was I?

Right, with Ultultus-]

already fully immersed in speaking of the Great Moon, Deus simply turned the story back to an even earlier point and kept going.

Rine and Seollang turned, with pleading expressions visible even through the mana-projected image, to look at Yutia.

She was the only one left who could properly stop Deus.

But,

[As expected, the Great Moon truly is different.]

even Yutia seemed pleased with Deus’s story, her eyes shining as she nodded in satisfaction.

[[…]]

At that point, they realized that the story was not going to end easily.

And just as they expected,

[Ahem…

I seem to have spoken too long.]

Deus’s story only ended another hour and thirty minutes later.

[[…]]

And with that, one lesson was carved deeply into the minds of Rine, Radan, and Seollang.

Never ask Deus about the Great Moon.

That day’s meeting ended there.

…It was late dawn by then.

* * *

The next day.

“Count, it really does seem that Yutia became a cardinal.”

“…Really?”

“Yes.

Even the information guild says Yutia became one of the eight cardinals of the Holy Kingdom of Rosaria.”

Hearing Evan’s voice, Alon muttered while a crowd of question marks rose in his head.

“Evan.”

“Yes, Count.”

“…A cardinal is an extremely high rank in the Holy Kingdom, isn’t it?”

“It is.

Just like I said before, a cardinal is basically the rank right under the pope.

And it’s also a position that can declare an Out Call.”

“By Out Call, you mean…?”

“Simply put, she has become one of the people who can legally declare a holy war.

There are all sorts of restrictions on it, of course.”

At Evan’s words, Alon let out an ah of realization, then fell silent for a moment before speaking again.

“Evan.”

“Yes.”

“A cardinal isn’t something one can become easily, right?”

“…Are you seriously asking that?”

Evan looked at Alon with the expression of a man asking what sort of nonsense he was saying.

Alon answered,

“Just in case.”

“…Of course it isn’t easy.

Leaving aside saints, who are chosen directly by god, there are only eight of them in that entire Holy Kingdom.

How could it possibly be easy?”

Even as Alon nodded, the question in his mind only grew.

How on earth did she do it?

Of course, it had been Alon who sent Yutia to the Holy Kingdom after realizing she had the talent of a devout believer.

But he had never imagined she would become a cardinal of the Holy Kingdom in less than two years.

He knew perfectly well that cardinal was not a position one could reach with devout faith alone.

Because of that, Alon was full of doubts about Yutia’s current situation, but before long he cast the thought aside.

In truth, if one thought about it coldly, Yutia becoming successful in the Holy Kingdom was not any kind of loss to Alon.

No, if anything, it might be very good news.

Do I finally have a proper backer now?

There was already a rumor beginning to spread within Caliburn that Count Palladio was the benefactor of one of its Master Knights, Deus.

But that and this were very different things.

With Deus, he had not even been able to exchange a proper letter, and even when they met, if they exchanged one line of speech in a day, that counted as a great deal of communication.

With Yutia, on the other hand, he exchanged letters regularly once a month, and if something happened, asking her for a favor would come naturally.

There was a huge difference there.

So although Alon remained expressionless on the outside, inwardly he felt very pleased and nodded several times.

Maybe some useful crumbs might finally fall my way.

He allowed himself a small hope.

* * *

About a week after that.

Just as he had planned, once he returned to the estate, Alon was living a peaceful daily life.

When morning came, he woke up late and ate toast.

For dinner, he ate steak.

A life like that offered him the most valuable happiness of all.

Leisure.

That did not mean he had spent the whole week doing absolutely nothing and thinking about nothing.

…In truth, if it were up to him, Alon would have liked to stop even thinking.

But now that he knew a being like an Outer God had descended once already, he could not simply rest and eat forever.

If one Outer God had descended, then other Outer Gods could descend as well.

In other words, stopping the Five Great Sins had created a situation where Outer Gods might start appearing instead.

Even so, Alon accepted that situation rather calmly.

He had gone through hell, but part of him still thought it was not the worst outcome.

If this was the butterfly effect caused by saving the future Great Sins, then compared to changing nothing and allowing all five Great Sins to descend and ruin the kingdoms, having Outer Gods appear instead was dozens of times better.

And with that thought in mind, Alon turned his attention toward the knowledge he had gathered while resting.

He had looked into what could be learned about the black one, the blue one, Wondrous Calamity, the hand seals, and the forgotten great gods.

But,

“None of it?”

“None.

At least as far as Wondrous Calamity and the black one and blue one go, they say they know absolutely nothing.”

At Evan’s answer, Alon nodded inwardly.

As expected.

If I want real answers, I probably need Colony.

That had been his thought from the start.

In the game, you simply reached Colony and entered the forgotten city.

There had been no need to think about how that location was actually discovered.

But in reality, if there was anywhere the traces of forgotten gods and old mysteries would surface, it was much more likely to be around Colony.

That meant there was no reason to linger any longer.

And that was why Alon soon made up his mind to head for Colony.

He was already organizing his travel preparations when something else began to happen.

The first gift arrived.

A noble Alon barely knew had sent over a golden goblet.

Inside the accompanying letter was not much beyond a short introduction and a series of embarrassingly direct lines praising Deus and, by extension, praising Alon as Deus’s benefactor.

Alon tilted his head in confusion.

Of course, even in the game, whenever one of Caliburn’s Master Knights appeared, people in every country seemed to cheer for them.

Thinking of those exaggerated scenes from when Reinhardt temporarily accompanied the protagonist during a quest, Alon nodded to himself.

Well, I suppose one or two people like this could exist.

With that thought, and feeling rather satisfied, he took the golden goblet.

It was not as though House Palladio lacked money, but the more wealth one had, the better.

In his previous life, Alon had experienced more than enough times how much more comfortable life became depending on how many gold coins remained in reserve.

Private funds.

Although his expression stayed blank, inwardly he was smiling with satisfaction as he looked at the golden cup.

And the next day,

“Count.”

“What is it?”

“Another gift came.

This time there are two of them.”

“…Two?”

Once again, Alon received gifts from a noble he did not really know.

This time, two artifacts as valuable as the golden goblet from the day before.

“Wow, this is an artifact from the deeper layers of the labyrinth.

It must have cost a fortune.”

Evan exclaimed as he looked at the item in Alon’s hand.

And Alon, despite the outwardly blank face, was smiling very broadly on the inside.

Is this… networking?

Looking at the letter paper, filled with praise for Deus and praise for himself as Deus’s benefactor, he examined the artifacts with pleased eyes.

In an instant, enough value had fallen into his hands to make his already comfortable life even more comfortable.

The old bitterness he had once felt over Deus never contacting him was long gone from Alon’s mind.

Deus… you really are a dutiful son.

At this point, that was what Deus had become to him.

“Count, at this rate we could even replace the carriage with a magitech one.

Since you’ll need to ride something appropriate for the Grand Council Hall in a few months anyway, why not change it now?”

“…That may not be a bad idea.”

Evan and Alon spoke with satisfied smiles while holding the artifact.

But that only lasted for a moment.

The next day,

“Another gift, my lord!”

“Oh.”

The day after that,

“A gift!”

“Oh.”

Three days later,

“Count, another gift.”

“Hm.”

Another week later,

“Count, another gift.”

“…Hm?”

…And then, exactly one month after it had begun,

“Count, another gift… has arrived??”

“…???”

At that point, Alon began to think that something was turning strange.