I Became the Patron of Villains (Novel) - Chapter 82 - Nod (2)

Chapter 82 – Nod (2)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Following the broad road, Alon soon realized he had arrived at Siphra’s eastern shore and looked around.

Unlike the town where he had first disembarked, the eastern beach was extremely quiet.

What he could see was only sand, sea, and a distant cliff. There was nothing else.

So I really did arrive….

Recalling the man who had suddenly changed his attitude and kindly told him the way a little earlier, Alon made a strange face.

Then, after walking along the shore only a short while.

He took out the necklace engraved with the black tree emblem that the dragonkin in Colony had given him.

Because he had never imagined that a species he had never even seen in Psychedelia would simply be standing openly at the shore.

So, holding the necklace in his hand, he kept walking across the empty stretch of sand until he neared the rocky path leading around the cliff.

“Hm?”

And found a woman already looking at him from that rocky path.

No.

She was not a woman.

A mermaid.

After confirming that though her upper body was human, her lower body was streamlined like a fish’s, Alon approached her.

“…Who are you, and why do you have that necklace?”

The mermaid, beautiful in appearance, asked in a voice openly full of wariness.

Thinking that her voice was as beautiful as her appearance, Alon answered.

“…I came here by the dragonkin’s introduction.”

“By the dragonkin?”

“I heard that if I brought this object here, I would be able to look into the truth.”

As he said that and showed her the necklace in his hand, she repeatedly murmured the word dragonkin and seemed to think for a moment before asking.

“…Do you mean the dragonkin with the long tail?”

“The tail…? Hm. I suppose it was fairly long.”

“How long?”

“…Long enough to make a question mark with it?”

Though he answered while wearing the expression of Why is she asking that, the answer apparently satisfied her.

The mermaid, who had been openly guarded before, relaxed visibly and spoke.

“…Then you really do seem to be a guest. Since you came to me, I assume you want to look inside.”

“I do.”

“Come this way.”

When Alon nodded, the mermaid at once climbed down the rocks and threw herself into the sea.

Woom-

Soon, she created before him a huge sphere like a drop of water.

A sphere glowing orange under the light of sunset.

“Get inside.”

At the mermaid’s words, Alon hesitated briefly, then entered the sphere.

And the moment he did, layers of magic settled over it one after another as though wrapping around it.

“Then we will depart now.”

And the mermaid began pulling the sphere carrying Alon down below the sea.

In an instant they passed through the orange sea dyed with sunset and went toward the dark center.

And deeper.

Though she had not even exchanged names with him, she descended calmly into the Deep Sea as though this situation inspired no fear in her at all.

But Alon, on the other hand, felt a strange chill as the scenery around him grew blacker and blacker until nothing could be seen.

Because it felt as though he were floating in endless emptiness.

And so he felt strange unease and discomfort for only a short while.

“…?”

At some point, he saw a single streak of light appear in the emptiness.

And the moment he recognized that fact, a soft green glow like an aurora spread through the empty Deep Sea and swallowed up his anxiety.

At that beautiful sight, Alon let out a low exclamation without meaning to.

The farther the mermaid pulled the sphere downward, the clearer that green aurora became in Alon’s eyes.

And after some more time had passed.

“We have arrived.”

Alon found himself at a cave.

“This place is….”

As the sphere dissolved and he stepped into the cave, Alon looked around with great interest.

From the outside it looked like nothing special.

But the very fact that a person could stand there and breathe normally at the bottom of the sea was fascinating.

“Follow me.”

At the mermaid’s voice, Alon turned his head from looking around.

And soon showed a surprised expression.

Because on the lower body that until just now had been streamlined like a fish, two legs had grown.

Aside from the gills near her ears, she now looked almost no different from a human.

Seeing Alon’s surprise, she looked puzzled for a moment, then.

“It is only possible within this sanctuary.”

Smiled slightly, as though she had realized why he was surprised.

Then she led him farther inside the cave.

And after how far had they gone.

By Alon’s sense, after about ten minutes.

He reached a vast hollow.

“…Oh.”

He let out an involuntary sound of admiration.

Though nothing existed there except the central altar, the cave ceiling showed a sky.

Yes. A sky.

Even though a sky could not possibly be seen in the Deep Sea, the ceiling of that vast hollow reflected a star-filled night sky.

Alon stood staring blankly upward, letting out an exclamation he had not even voiced at the sight of the aurora earlier.

Then.

“…Does it look beautiful to you?”

Suddenly, the voice of the mermaid who had been guiding him reached him.

“It does.”

At Alon’s nod, her expression became strangely bitter.

No, it was a little different from bitterness.

Sorrow.

By the time Alon realized the true nature of that feeling.

“I see. Then for now… yes.”

She muttered so quietly that even Alon could not fully hear it, then continued the conversation.

“This is the actual sky you have always seen.”

“…Before we came in here, the sun had still been up.”

“It took time to descend. It is not too early an hour for the stars to have risen. In any case-”

The mermaid changed the subject.

“Welcome to the Sanctuary of Observation. I am the Observer. I assume you came here because you wish to see the truth?”

“That is right. I heard that if I came here, I would be able to see the truth.”

“You made a wise choice.”

“…Did I?”

“Yes. Once you see the truth, you too will understand everything.”

With those words, she moved to the altar and soon returned holding a mirror, which she held out to Alon.

“This is…?”

“Look into it. What you sought will be visible there.”

At her words, Alon took the mirror and looked inside.

He only saw his own expressionless face reflected there, and just as he felt puzzled.

“!”

He felt something deeply strange.

After a sensation as though the whole world were being sucked into the mirror, Alon realized that in an instant his gaze, which had been looking into the mirror, had changed.

The original god had its throne stolen.

And he heard a voice.

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Hidan was an operative working for Blue Moon.

And after the Moons had gone out to carry out the Great Moon’s commands, he was the man temporarily in charge of Blue Moon’s covert activities.

He had now come to an Asterian territory called Mulman.

Mulman was a domain more deeply affected by the underworld than most, one poorly controlled by its nobles.

There was only one reason he had come here.

He had obtained information that the leading Asterian nobles who had been moving in secret to frame the Great Moon would gather in this place.

By the order of the Violet Moon, in other words Deus Macalian, he had come here to determine who those were who were trying to frame the Great Moon.

And he had arrived a little earlier than the time the ringleaders were supposed to gather so that he could make preparations to hide his body in advance.

“…”

That was, if not for the bloodstains visible the instant he reached the basement entrance.

Seeing blood dripping out of the building itself, he realized this place had already been attacked and opened the door.

Drip. Drip.

A terrible scene spread before Hidan.

“…”

There were corpses everywhere.

A corpse whose face looked as though it had been scraped away by something.

A corpse cut in half.

A corpse with missing limbs, dead with eyes still wide in fear.

…And many other corpses grim enough to make one frown lay strewn about, filling the room with dread.

Even in such a situation, however, Hidan’s mind did not panic.

Who was it? A traitor? The Black Light cultists? The Root? No. They would have no reason to do this. Then the Shadows? …No. The Shadows would never leave evidence this openly.

Rather, even in this situation, he was deducing who might have done this.

Crunch-!

But at the sound from above, he moved immediately and headed up to the next floor.

And what Hidan witnessed upon reaching the second floor was.

Five men who looked unmistakably like Asterian nobles, seated around a great round table, each dead with his neck twisted twice around.

And one person standing in the middle of the table and looking at him.

“Hm?”

A man with black hair and blue eyes stared directly at Hidan in the silent room where only moonlight had settled.

He held no weapon of any kind.

Looking at his waist as well, there was no weapon.

No matter where Hidan looked, it was the same.

And yet Hidan understood instinctively.

That the man before him had created this terrible scene.

“…”

Hidan unconsciously tried to suppress his heart, which was pounding madly, and took on a tense expression.

The other man took no action.

And yet Hidan realized that the being before him was grotesquely strong.

There was no clear proof or evidence.

It was only that the black-haired, blue-eyed being before him made that fact known instinctively, and Hidan naturally understood it in the same way.

Still, he could not simply accept it quietly, so he grasped the sword at his waist.

And in that instant.

“Ah-”

The man, who had worn a blank expression, smiled.

A smile so innocent it did not suit the man who had created this scene at all.

And with it, the suffocating pressure vanished instantly.

So Hidan was left bewildered.

Then.

Thud. Step step.

The man climbed down from the table and began walking toward him.

At that sight, Hidan immediately tried to draw his sword.

Tap.

But the man had already stepped close and pressed down on the end of the hilt he was trying to pull.

Clack.

Hidan did not even have time to be shocked that the sword, though he was applying force, slid back into the sheath far too smoothly.

“I have already finished what I came to do, so you may go now. Though, if I say one thing.”

The man glanced over Hidan.

Tap tap.

Then patted him on the shoulder.

“Next time, do your supporting properly.”

And at last, with that same innocent smile.

“This is a rather sensitive issue.”

With those words, he disappeared outside the building.

“…”

Left alone there, Hidan could do nothing but stare blankly for a long while at the door through which the man had departed.