Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 542: System (7)

Silence instantly settled over the room at Alon’s words.

But Alon looked at Sia with an unchanged expression, and Sia, who had been staring back at him with a somewhat dazed look—

“Mm—so what you are saying, Lord Alon, is that you think I am this person named Yutia?”

—soon responded like that.

“Am I wrong?”

Even as Alon asked back, inwardly, he was half convinced that she was Yutia.

It was possible for appearances to be the same.

If she was some distant ancestor of Yutia’s, then it would not be an impossible story.

But a person’s private habits could not resemble someone else’s as well, so Alon stared at her with his own measure of certainty.

“Mm—”

As for her, she put her index finger to her lips as though organizing her thoughts, then lightly threw her gaze into the air.

“It feels a little strange to say this, but I think your prediction is wrong, Lord Alon.”

“Wrong?”

“Yes. I am not that person named Yutia.”

She smiled brightly.

“.......”

Alon closed his mouth.

In truth, he had expected that if he spoke this far, she would show some other reaction one way or another, but Sia denied that she was Yutia with far too much simplicity.

“You really are not?”

“Yes, truly.”

At Sia’s confirmation, Alon unconsciously brought his face close to hers and stared at her intently.

“—”

Even then, Sia still maintained her smiling face.

“......Hm.”

......Honestly, if she denied it even after he went this far, stopping was the right thing to do.

But—

‘No......? I really think she is.’

No matter how he thought about it, Alon felt that the Sia before his eyes was Yutia.

Of course, compared to Yutia’s silver hair, hers was closer to ash gray, but aside from that, she was no different from Yutia at all.

“......Really?”

Alon asked once more.

At that, Sia tilted her head slightly to one side and smiled—

“Yes, I am not?”

—and gave the same answer with the same unchanging smile.

So Alon, who had been about to say something more—

“Understood. I asked something rather pointless.”

—eventually took one step back.

In truth, if he followed his own feelings, he wanted to press her a little further.

But it would be strange to keep questioning her when she had already denied it this much, and even if Sia really was Yutia, if she was not revealing her identity to him, he thought there must be some reason of her own.

Of course, Alon could not guess what that reason might be.

In any case, once Alon stopped pressing her, Sia, who had been quietly looking at him until a moment ago, abruptly whispered softly.

“But Lord Alon, it seems you think of this person named Yutia as very precious?”

“......All of a sudden?”

“Mm—it feels closer to a reasonable inference. Usually, to remember someone’s habits the way you described, you would have to observe that person very closely, wouldn’t you?”

And for a very long time, in great detail.

Sia added.

“I think that much is something one could know to a degree if one had known someone’s face for a long time.”

“How could that be? No matter how long you have known someone, unless you think of that person as especially dear, you cannot know them in that much detail, can you? Yes, for example—”

She lightly denied Alon’s words, then lowered her head slightly as though she found this situation amusing—

“—love, perhaps?”

—and tossed the word out with an even deeper smile.

“......Love?”

“Yes, love. Perhaps you may be in love with Lady Yutia, Lord Alon?”

“......Does it become that?”

“As I said, if she were not an important person, you would not pay that much attention to her.”

Soon, Sia raised her head as though she had realized something.

“Ah, let us stop here for today. It is late.”

Alon shifted his gaze toward the window.

The sun was slowly setting in the red world.

“......Let us.”

“Yes, then I will see you again tomorrow?”

Sia gave a small farewell and turned around.

Alon quietly watched her.

......For some reason, the corner of her mouth seemed to be trembling.

Only after she left did Alon finally realize one fact.

‘I was going to ask how she knew so much about Divine power and the magic of the True Mages too.’

One of the reasons Alon had assumed Sia was Yutia was because her appearance and habits were too similar.

But the more important basis was that she knew far more about magic and Divine power than Alon had expected.

Because of that, he had thought she might possibly have come from the future.

And after seeing Sia’s appearance and habits, he had judged that she was Yutia.

‘Of course, she did say she knew because she heard explanations from the Alon inside her foresight.’

Sia’s words seemed reasonable at first glance.

If she was relaying the story exactly as she had heard it from the Alon inside her foresight, then there would be nothing that strange about it.

But the things Sia had told Alon were so clear that saying she had simply heard and repeated them felt inaccurate.

‘What is it......’

Alon’s suspicion deepened.

####

The capital of Palantia.

Inside that place, where a massive royal castle had now mostly been built and boasted a majestic presence just from looking at it—

“Hmm—”

Alexion was stroking his chin with a report in hand.

Recently, strange things had been happening in and around the Allied Kingdoms.

Of course, the Allied Kingdoms had always been a place that never had a peaceful day.

Even more so after Divine blood fell.

But even taking that into account, the recent incidents had no choice but to draw Alexion’s attention.

Because—

“Five small and medium-sized nations were all overthrown in not even a few weeks...... and each nation was overthrown in only a single day.......”

—the scale was quite unusual.

“As expected, does it seem somewhat strange to you as well, Lord Alexion?”

At the secretary’s words, Alexion nodded too.

The Allied Kingdoms were an organization formed by the union of large kingdoms and small kingdoms, and the kingdoms that had now fallen were mostly small and medium-sized kingdoms that could not take part in the Allied Kingdoms’ council.

But even so, that did not mean a small or medium-sized kingdom was so small that it could fall overnight.

Fundamentally, even the smallest Luxible Duchy possessed at least several territories.

In other words, physically, it was impossible.

‘......Of course, if Divine blood is involved, then it would be possible.’

Alexion soon shook his head.

Just as he had thought, if Divine blood was involved, it would not be especially difficult for a small or medium-sized kingdom to fall overnight.

However, even knowing that, the reason Alexion thought this was not the work of Divine blood was one thing.

The first was the state of the fallen kingdoms.

‘The people were not massacred.’

Of course, at present, there were Divine blood who protected the Allied Kingdoms, but fundamentally, Divine blood never left humans alive.

But the small and medium-sized kingdoms that had been attacked now?

Their capitals had not been destroyed.

No—rather, in some places, the entire capital had been smashed apart, but in others, only the royal castle had collapsed.

In other words, this was behavior entirely unrelated to what His Majesty had told him about Divine blood—turning people into some special state and extracting faith from them.

On top of that, there was one more reason Alexion was seriously thinking over these destructions.

‘......Only the kingdoms I had been watching were all smashed.’

The fact that all five kingdoms destroyed this time were kingdoms Alexion had been secretly investigating.

He had not separately told Alon about it yet.

No, strictly speaking, it would be right to say he could not.

Because Alexion had sensed something suspicious after hearing stories from merchants when Alon had gone to the Empire.

And above all, at first, he had not thought it was anything especially unusual.

It was simply that quite a few incidents of merchant groups disappearing had occurred in the five kingdoms.

Aside from that, he had felt something strange about the fact that they were purchasing very large amounts of special goods, continuously, even while ignoring market prices, and so he had begun an investigation.

The problem was that after he felt that suspicion and, half out of curiosity and half out of interest, arranged for an information guild connected to His Majesty to gather information, he obtained information that each kingdom might be connected to Divine blood who were not on their side.

And so.

“......No way.”

Around the time Alexion was inferring something—

Knock, knock—

A small knocking sound rang out.

A very calm sound.

And the moment Alexion felt puzzled by it, the one who opened the door and came in was—

“It has been a while, Lord Alexion.”

“......Lady Rine?”

It was Rine.

Alexion was flustered at the sight of her visiting his office without any prior notice, but only for a moment.

“Leave us.”

“Ah, yes!”

After quickly grasping the situation, he sent the secretary out.

The secretary went outside while looking bewildered.

“I am sorry. I came without sending any notice. Still, I happened to be passing by on my way, so I had no choice but to stop in.”

At Rine’s voice that soon followed, Alexion hurriedly shook his head.

“Oh, my—no, not at all.”

“I am glad you say that.”

A faint smile settled around Rine’s lips.

Alexion likewise smiled back and quietly brought up the main point.

“But what brings you all the way here......?”

From Alexion’s position, he could not guess why she had come here.

As far as he knew, Rine had gone to the Empire together with Alon.

‘Did His Majesty perhaps have something he needed to order separately?’

Because of that, his thoughts naturally flowed in that direction.

Rine looked at Alexion, who was tilting his head, and with the same smiling expression—

“Two more places will fall from now on.”

—said it calmly.

At those words, Alexion, who had been about to express his question—

“!”

—closed the mouth he had been about to open.

Because he had realized.

What she was trying to say.

What she was talking about.

“Mm—I do not think I need to explain any more than this. Am I right?”

You have already investigated to some extent, haven’t you? Rine added with a smile.

At that, Alexion—

“......Why are you telling me this?”

—carefully asked Rine.

Of course, it was true that he was investigating this incident.

But even so, in the end, there should have been no information he could obtain.

In other words, if she did not deliberately open her mouth, Alexion may have been able to reach some part of this truth, but he would not have reached a clear conclusion.

Then—

“Because I would like you to keep quiet about it to Godfather.”

Rine brought a finger to her lips—

“......To His Majesty?”

“Yes. We are moving for Godfather’s sake, but Godfather has a tender heart, you see.”

Calmly.

“He would be hurt by us doing something like this too.”

She whispered.

“To the point that he would even be hurt by those idiots trying to stab him in the back. So—”

Rine looked at Alexion and asked once more.

With a gentle smile.

“Please, just a little?”

But Alexion—

“Ah, understood......”

—felt a strange madness in that smile.