I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 59 - King of Hungry Ghosts (4)

Chapter 59 – King of Hungry Ghosts (4)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The moment Alon implemented Frost Crystal Painted Halberd, he understood the effect of the spell.

Its radius was only around ten meters, not something that could ever be called wide.

But the effect of that space was the conversion of law itself.

A rule so natural that water flows from high to low simply did not apply within that space.

And that was because the law of Frost Crystal Painted Halberd was this.

Everything inside that space froze.

No matter what it was, it would be subjected to that inevitable law according to the will of the one who had implemented the magic.

However, the magic Alon had brought forth did not even last a full six seconds before it vanished.

From the beginning, that space had been a kind of magic not yet permitted to him, whether in mana or in knowledge.

But even with a mere six seconds of implementation, Alon achieved what he wanted.

“……”

Feeling a thin stream of blood leak from his mouth, he looked ahead.

There stood the Outer God.

Kailas, his whole body frozen blue and crumbling apart in pieces.

“Ha… What a weak and shabby body.”

His body was not normal.

Both of his arms had already been shattered, and even his legs were crumbling away.

“Well, that one got me.”

But despite that state, he was smiling.

As though the stern expression from moments ago had been a lie, he grinned broadly as he looked at Alon.

“If I had fully descended and been in a state where I could use magic properly, I could have easily blocked that pathetic implementation of yours. But.”

He spoke as if it were regrettable.

And then.

“Hypotheticals mean nothing.”

At Alon’s reply, Kailas, who had been about to say something else, stopped.

“A correct answer, little creature. No.”

A small laugh escaped him.

“Mage. This is my defeat.”

With those final words, he crumbled completely and disappeared from that place, leaving behind only the clothes he had been wearing.

And then.

“Hoo.”

Among the mercenaries who were staring blankly at Count Palladio, the man who with a human body had handled an Outer God and still breathed out white mist into the lingering cold.

An emotion none of them could hide began to spread.

* * *

Immediately after Kailas vanished.

The mercenaries, who had been looking at Alon with eyes full of reverence, only briefly let out cheers of survival before moving all at once to clean up the situation.

And Alon collapsed unconscious exactly as he was.

The next day.

When Alon woke after falling as though the power had been switched off, he heard one piece of news that was not bad.

Myaon and Argonia were alive.

In Myaon’s case, she had coughed up blood, but after taking a potion she was injured only badly enough that she could still move around to some extent.

The problem was Argonia.

He had taken the Outer God’s magic head-on. Although he was still alive thanks to a half-dragon’s tough body and peculiar regenerative power, he was in truth little more than a half-dead wreck.

It was practically impossible to take him out of the labyrinth in that state.

Of course, Alon was no more capable of walking out of the labyrinth than Argonia was.

“Hoo….”

Trying to steady his trembling breath, Alon looked at his left arm.

His whole left arm had turned bluish, as if it had suffered frostbite.

Judging by appearance alone, it looked like something that ought to be amputated.

But it was not just his arm.

His left arm was worse than the rest, but places all over his body had already turned bluish, as though bruised in blue.

Fortunately, however, this was not frostbite but a symptom of mana intoxication.

I cannot put any strength into it at all.

Seeing the arm remain utterly still, as though it had no sensation whatsoever, Alon let out a small sigh and lay back down on the crude cot.

He had already expected this possibility many times over when he started gulping down all the mana potions he could get his hands on.

At least it ended at this level.

Among the effects of mana intoxication that could occur when too many mana potions were consumed, this sort of mana-nerve paralysis was one of the less terrible outcomes.

It would take time, but it would heal naturally in the end.

But if he had suffered something like a mana sinkhole that permanently damaged the mana hall, or cardiac mana sclerosis where mana rushed into the heart and hardened it, he could have died on the spot.

“Hoo.”

By the time Alon let out a breath of gratitude for still being alive.

“Are you all right, Godfather?”

The makeshift tent curtain was pulled aside, and Rine walked in with her usual blunt expression.

“I’m only having a rough time because of the intoxication symptoms.”

“That’s a relief.”

After that answer, a somewhat long silence followed.

Alon shifted his gaze slightly and looked at Rine.

She still wore the same blunt expression, but Alon could sense a trace of awkwardness in it.

Up until now she was blunt, but we could still talk naturally. Why is she like this today?

Today she seemed unwilling to lead the conversation at all, and just as Alon was wondering whether he should speak first.

“Godfather.”

Rine opened her mouth first.

“What is it?”

“If it’s not rude, may I ask you just one thing?”

“Ask without burdening yourself.”

At that, she seemed to hesitate for a moment.

“…Why did you save me?”

She asked the question.

“Why?”

“Yes. Why did you save me?”

“……Why are you asking that all of a sudden?”

“Because in that situation, I wasn’t all that useful.”

At Rine’s words, Alon looked at her.

She was still blunt, but in her eyes there was a clear question anyone could see.

As though what Alon had done made no sense to her whatsoever.

At that, Alon suddenly remembered that Seollang had asked him a similar question as well, and for some reason he began to feel wronged.

No, what exactly do I look like to them? Do I have the face of a textbook villain? Why does every single one of them think I raised them so I could exploit them somehow?

Of course he had saved them with the intention of preventing the Five Great Sins from taking root, but even so Alon had never once thought he needed to get something from them in return.

At most, he had only vaguely hoped that a little gravy might come his way, or that on his birthday he might receive a slightly, very slightly, more elaborate gift.

That was all.

So, forcing his body upright and sitting on the flimsy bed, Alon spoke with the same sense of injustice he had felt before.

“Rine.”

“Yes, Godfather.”

“I don’t know how you think of me, but I did not take you in so I could use you.”

“…Is that so?”

Seeing her fumble out that answer, he let the thought pass through his mind that she really had been thinking that, and continued.

“I think of all of you as family.”

“Family…?”

“Yes. Family that helps one another when things are hard. Our relationship is not bound together by profit or necessity. So there is no great meaning behind why I saved you. I simply.”

He let out a breath and went on.

“Saved you because that was the natural thing to do. Just as you saved me.”

“Ah.”

At Alon’s words, Rine’s eyes widened slightly.

Because she was blunt by nature, the change did not show much, but seeing her eyes widen even a little, Alon judged that his sincerity must have reached her to some degree.

“Remember this, Rine. We are not in a one-sided relationship. If you really want to do something one-sided for me, then just remember my birthday or something.”

After finishing those words, which held a slight selfish motive, he looked at Rine.

She stared blankly at Alon’s face for a while and kept silent.

Then, for the first time, a small smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.

“…All right, Godfather.”

“Then that is enough.”

Only then did Alon feel as though at least some of his sincerity had gotten through, and he gave a small nod.

After that, he talked with Rine for a while longer. Once she left, he looked at the place where she had been, then soon closed his eyes.

He had been awake for barely an hour, but his not-yet-recovered body seemed to be craving sleep.

About five days passed after that.

On the fifth floor, where neither night nor day existed and only a blue sky remained, Alon had finally recovered enough to move around.

“…Can you move?”

“To some extent.”

“…Impressive.”

Together with Argonia, who thanks to monstrous recuperative power had also become able to move again, Alon started climbing up through the floors to leave the labyrinth.

And after two more days of making their way upward through the dark abyss.

“We’re here!”

Hearing Argonia’s unusually emotional cry, they were finally able to reach the outside of the labyrinth.

* * *

Three days after returning to the labyrinth city of Lartania.

Alon could not go out because he was recuperating, but praise and rumors about the extermination force that had handled the Outer God continued spreading all across Lartania, and by the time those rumors had begun to seep beyond the city.

After finishing a sufficient rest in Merd, the building Rine owned, Alon checked that his mana intoxication symptoms had markedly improved and immediately prepared to leave.

In truth, he would have liked to enjoy a little more rest before moving, but if he stayed in Merd too long it would obviously become an imposition.

So, while having a final meal with Rine before returning with Evan.

“Godfather.”

“What is it?”

“When is your birthday?”

Looking at Rine as she asked about his birthday, Alon thought for a moment before answering.

“My birthday… September 25th.”

“September 25th… Yes, understood.”

That ended the conversation, and with it their last lunch ended as well.

“Then when the chance comes, let us meet again.”

“Yes, Godfather. I’ll see you again.”

“Right.”

After exchanging their final farewells, he boarded the carriage and left for the county estate once more.

“Count.”

“What is it?”

“You’ll be looking forward to next year, won’t you?”

“Looking forward to it? Ah, my birthday?”

“Yes.”

“Not that much. I receive plenty anyway.”

“Come on. That kind of formal gift people exchange out of politeness isn’t the same as something from the children.”

“…Even so, I am not expecting that much.”

That was what Alon said.

But unlike those words, in truth he was already expecting a little.

In fact, he had started expecting something the moment Rine asked him about his birthday.

Wine? No, Rine handles artifacts, so maybe she’d give me some useful artifact. Still, that would be a little expensive, so she’d probably compromise somewhere reasonable.

So, thinking about the gift that would arrive one year from now, Alon quietly nurtured his anticipation behind a blank expression.

Meanwhile.

Right after Alon left.

Rine went back inside Merd, sat in her office, and stared fixedly at Alon’s carriage moving off in the distance.

A gift… A gift for the one who acknowledged me as family.

Then she turned her gaze and looked at one place.

Only a single building entered her sight.

The place where Lucimore Greystone, the lord of this labyrinth city of Lartania, lived.

The castle that only Lartania’s lord could inhabit.

There is one.

A smile formed at the corner of Rine’s mouth.