I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 78 - The Pirate King of Laxas (5)

Chapter 78 – The Pirate King of Laxas (5)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The sixth island, the last island of the Seven Isles and the territory of Sea Wolf, the only pirate crew Radan had not yet conquered.

In the giant wooden fortress standing at the center of that island.

“…So you think we were attacked?”

A man was frowning deeply.

He was a man with a long vertical scar on his face and a jeweled prosthetic arm attached to his right arm.

He was Tertogan, the leader of the Sea Wolf pirate crew, the man nicknamed the Ruiner for turning one of Laxas’s territories into a wasteland.

“Yes, well… seeing that we have had no contact at all, we can only assume that…”

A male sailor stood before him, watching his mood nervously.

Tertogan immediately frowned harder and spoke.

“Then who attacked them?”

“…Most likely that bastard Radan.”

“Tsk-”

How long had Tertogan been silent after the sailor’s report.

“Hey.”

“Y-yes…?”

“Come here.”

“What do you mean, come there…?”

“I said come closer.”

At the sight of Tertogan crooking a finger with the hand wearing the prosthetic, the sailor looked uneasy, but soon walked toward him slowly as though he had no choice.

The next moment.

Burst!

The sailor’s head exploded.

The office was turned into a bloody mess in an instant.

With a thud, the body of the sailor whose head had vanished dropped to the floor.

“You fucking-”

Bang! Crunch! Crack!

But as though that still was not enough, Tertogan grabbed the headless corpse by the collar and began punching it over and over.

Everything above the lower jaw was crushed flat.

A hole was punched where the heart had been.

The right arm tore off like a toy.

Bang-!!

Then, as though even that was not enough, he slammed the motionless corpse into the floor and trampled it.

Only after huffing several more times did he leave behind the corpse lying on the ground with its waist bent backward grotesquely and sit down.

Afterward, the tightly shut office door opened and another man entered.

“Boss.”

“Take this corpse away.”

At Tertogan’s words, the man nodded briefly, then tilted his head toward it, and sailors began dragging out the bizarrely wrecked corpse.

“…How much more do we need?”

“According to that man, we still need at least another fifteen hundred people’s worth.”

“Tsk. We have already offered over twenty thousand bodies by now. They still need that much?”

“Yeah.”

“No, then it will be too late. That bastard Radan will push in before long…!”

As Tertogan muttered with a frown, the man who had entered the room, his vice-captain Zelinka, hesitated briefly and then spoke.

“Boss, should it not still be fine anyway? We have them, do we not? If we fight at sea, can’t we win?”

At Zelinka’s words, Tertogan rose and walked to the office window.

The wooden fortress spread out below him in a single view.

And the corpse that had just died from Tertogan venting his rage.

Crunch-crunch. Crack-.

Was being eaten by inhuman monsters.

Seen from a distance, their overall shape was not that different from humans.

But unlike human skin, theirs was made of green scales.

Their faces resembled sea fish.

Above all, their pupils were simply pitch-black, containing nothing at all.

It was as though that alone showed that they were beings fundamentally different from humans, not merely in appearance.

“…”

Hundreds of merfolk clung to a single corpse like starving demons, their mouths stained dark red with blood.

Looking at them, Tertogan thought.

They are certainly strong.

He knew well that the merfolk were strong.

On land, perhaps not. But if the battlefield were limited to the sea, he was confident that the merfolk alone could certainly hold back even Radan’s massive army without difficulty.

But the problem was Radan himself.

That great pirate who had united six isles and the master of the White Moon.

That bastard is a monster.

Tertogan frowned without realizing it and recalled that day.

Back when Radan still controlled only a single island.

The moment when the pirates of the six islands gathered together, decided to kill him, and divide up the first island afterward.

The terrible memory of him moving freely underwater, tearing apart captains blessed by the sea with his bare hands, and sinking dozens of ships by himself.

It is still not enough.

That was why Tertogan instinctively understood that even this battle would not be won with the merfolk alone.

And at the same time, a certain voice flashed through his mind.

The voice of the man who had suddenly come to him when he had been waiting only for the day Radan would kill him, the man who had told him a way to kill Radan.

Do you not want power?

The words of the man who had said he would give him not only the power to kill Radan, but power enough to rise above him and become ruler of the world.

Offer human flesh to the merfolk. Keep offering it, again and again. If souls gather and divine favor is won, you shall become a god.

Tertogan picked up the object the man had handed over along with those words.

It was an object dimly glowing blue-green, with teeth sticking out in all directions.

As he looked at it, the moment the merfolk finished devouring the corpse, green souls began to flow straight into the object.

“…”

Tertogan watched that in silence for a while, then spoke to Zelinka.

“How many did you say, at minimum?”

“At least fifteen hundred.”

And at that.

Do you not want power?

Remembering once again the words of the man in the black stellar cloak, Tertogan.

“…There may be a way.”

Murmured that, then stared silently at the fortress for some time.

“A way.”

By then, in the eyes turned outside, there lingered the thinnest thread of madness.

Green madness.

####

For Alon, Appraiser Alexion was not someone he wanted to meet unless relics forced the issue.

First, because Appraiser Alexion’s personality was atrocious enough to stir killing intent.

Second, because he played financier to underworld groups in the red-light district of Laxas, making him very difficult even to meet.

In other words, he was both difficult to find and stressful to deal with once found, so Alon had braced himself when he came here.

He had braced himself, but.

Clang! Roll roll roll.

“S-s-sorry…!!!”

Watching Alexion, who dropped Heinkel’s ring and the small blade Alon had handed over for appraisal, then scrambled to pick up the Contract Token of the Blindfolded with shaking hands, Alon made a strange face.

The appearance was certainly the same as the illustration from the game.

But the behavior was completely different.

Of course, Alon knew very well why his behavior had changed so much.

What exactly did he do?

Alon shifted his gaze slightly and looked at Radan.

Radan was simply watching peacefully, an innocent smile resting at the corners of his mouth.

Watching Alexion, who at last managed to sit down and begin appraising the relics Alon had handed over while still trembling violently.

He definitely said he had brought him politely.

Judging by Alexion’s reaction, though, it did not seem that way at all, so Alon wore a strange expression for a while.

“I-it is done…!”

“…Already?”

Alon was surprised at Alexion, who had finished appraising the relics in less than ten minutes.

Because as far as he knew, it should ordinarily take at least two hours.

“Y-yes, yes…!”

At Alon’s words, Alexion bobbed his head several times, then handed the two relics back to him.

It is real?

As soon as he took them, Alon realized that appraisal of the relics was indeed complete, exactly as Alexion said.

Because relics that had been a deep gray when he handed them over had now changed into vivid colors anyone could see clearly.

The ring Heinkel had given him had changed from gray to red.

And the relic he had obtained from Colony’s treasury now showed a clear deep black light.

“You are fast.”

“You did not do a sloppy job, did you?”

“N-no. Absolutely not!”

At Radan’s words, Alexion reacted in horrified panic.

Watching the pitiful man, whose hands were even trembling, Alon said.

“…The appraisal is definitely complete.”

“Is that so, big brother?”

“Yes. Send him back.”

At Alon’s words.

Radan nodded.

“Hey. Take him away.”

Again he spoke only a single sentence.

And as though they had been waiting, pirates entered and began taking Alexion away.

“Thank you! Thank you so much! Thank you for sparing me!”

Alexion spoke over and over with tears in his eyes and an intensely moved expression, apparently overjoyed that he could finally leave.

It was the sort of violent reaction one might show after escaping alive from hell.

“Big brother, it is really all done, right?”

“…Yes. Thanks to you, there is no longer any need to go to Laxas.”

“That is a relief then, big brother.”

As Radan laughed and sat across from him, Alon asked.

“But did you really bring him here politely?”

“Of course. I brought him very politely. He was probably just scared because of my reputation.”

His reputation is certainly bad enough that it could perhaps be just that… maybe…?

At Radan’s answer, Alon thought for a moment, then decided to accept it for now by himself and asked the next question that came to mind.

“But how did you find Alexion in a single day? He should have been hidden away so tightly that unless you drowned the whole underworld, he would have been hard to find.”

“Ah, them?”

“So you did meet them.”

“Well, I met them. But I did not really talk to them…”

“…? If you did not talk to them, then how did you find him?”

“…”

“…You really did bring him here politely, right?”

“Alexion was brought politely, big brother.”

At Alon’s question, Radan was silent for a moment, then answered with a grin.

At that, Alon instinctively realized how Radan had brought Alexion here.

He really has not become one of the Great Sins already… right?

And resolved that, personally, he would need to give extra care to Radan alone.

####

Around the time Alon was thinking that while looking at Radan in the isles.

In a manor in southern Maon, in the small duchy of Drua that bordered Caliburn to the south.

There stood the headquarters of an organization called Pigule, a group that had colluded with the small duchy, used Drua as its base, and expanded through prostitution and drugs made from human flesh.

That is, until just a moment ago.

“S-s-spare me. Please spare me…!”

Darte, boss of Pigule, a man who had processed thousands of humans into narcotics without shedding a single tear.

Now had eyes overflowing with fear and tears.

“I-I only did what I was told. Please spare-!!”

He struggled desperately to survive.

But.

Crunch!

In the next instant, violet threads twisted his whole body grotesquely, and he met death vomiting blood.

The one who silently looked at the corpse collapsed on the floor then turned toward the window overlooking the manor.

There, corpses were strewn everywhere.

Corpses split in two.

Corpses embedded into the walls of the manor.

Corpses dead with fear still fixed in their open eyes.

Corpses, corpses, corpses.

And more corpses.

Yet the violet-eyed man, no, Deus, looked at that sight without the slightest emotional disturbance.

“Did you find out?”

He soon spoke into the empty room.

And a man appeared behind him.

“Hidan.”

At Deus’s murmur, Hidan bowed his head slightly.

“As first reported, it seems this place was not the true headquarters behind the orders.”

“And above them?”

“Yuna is gathering information, but because the command system was designed from the start to avoid exposure, it is taking time to sort out.”

“…I see.”

“Even so, we were able to learn the identities of the nobles who commissioned this.”

“Who?”

“Nobles of Asteria.”

After those words, Deus was silent for a while.

“Hidan, thanks to you, it is always convenient to obtain information.”

“It is nothing. If it is for the Great Moon. Yuna thinks the same. All of Blue Moon does.”

“Is that so.”

Deus continued.

“What are the names of the nobles?”

“Including Count Bartez and Count Briel, it seems there are about two more.”

“…”

“What do you intend to do? …In my opinion, if we kill only the first two ringleaders, it should be enough of an example that they will never attempt something like this again.”

“Kill them all.”

Without even a hair’s breadth of hesitation.

“I am not gentle enough to leave alive those who tried to harm the Great Moon.”

His violet eyes shining.

“So I will kill them all. Not a single one left out. Every last one.”

He muttered in a chilling voice.

“All for the Great Moon.”

“All for the Great Moon.”

And with those words finished, the two who had declared the destruction of Pigule vanished from that place.

And another organization was buried in history.