Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 556: A Flash (5)

“......”

Alon, having woken from sleep, blankly stared for a moment before turning his gaze toward the window outside.

Blazing sunlight poured down.

After spending some time like that, only a while later did Alon finally remember that he had fallen asleep earlier that dawn, after Penia had awakened. He rose from his seat and rubbed his face.

“I’m tired—”

A muttered remark, spoken even though he knew no one was there.

However—

“Have you awakened, Godfather?”

At the voice that followed immediately after, he looked slightly surprised as he turned his head to the side.

At the small desk beside the bed, Rine was already seated there, looking at Alon.

“Rine......?”

“Yes, Godfather. I apologize for entering without permission.”

Rine lightly lowered her head.

But Alon waved his hand.

“There’s no need. I think I was just absentminded for a moment and failed to notice.”

Then he let out a soft sigh.

“So, what is it?”

“I found it.”

“If you found it......”

“The biography of Palaon you mentioned, Godfather.”

“!”

Rine finally revealed the reason she had come.

“You found it......?”

“Yes.”

Rine calmly nodded.

At that, Alon remained seated on the bed.

“......Can you tell me what you found?”

He spoke quietly.

“Of course. I searched for it in the first place to deliver the information to you, Godfather. Though there’s far too much detail for me to explain everything, so I’ll only tell you the important parts.”

Rine nodded.

And the story began.

“Palaon became Emperor.”

“He became Emperor?”

“Yes. He became the founding Emperor of Ilanef.”

“......! If it’s Ilanef—”

“Yes.”

Rine gave another short nod.

“The nation that created the Five Great Sins, and the country that created the Pluto I handle.”

“......Evan really became the Emperor of Ilanef?”

The truth was so difficult to believe that Alon looked genuinely stunned.

At that reaction, Rine lightly shrugged.

“Of course, even so, it probably wasn’t Palaon himself who created the Five Great Sins or Pluto. He was only the founding Emperor, after all. The Sins and Pluto were made afterward.”

“Anyway,” Rine muttered before continuing.

“The Emperor of Ilanef, Palaon, was apparently called ‘Great Palaon,’ just as I told you before. According to the records, he completely defeated the black things that invaded over and over again, and even Al-Akulakka itself.”

“......Al-Akulakka was still alive?”

“That’s what the ancient texts said. Of course, ancient records aren’t always perfectly accurate and can become distorted, but considering how repeatedly Al-Akulakka was mentioned in them, it seems true that—even if he didn’t completely destroy it—he continuously fought against it and won.”

Without realizing it, Alon rubbed his face.

Because contradictory emotions were rising within him.

The guilt of ultimately failing to save Evan, who had been left alone in the past.

......And yet at the same time, relief that the Evan left behind alone had eventually become Emperor.

‘......Should I consider that fortunate?’

In some ways, it was fortunate.

Even after being surrounded by those black flesh masses at the time, Evan had somehow broken through them and become Emperor.

And that wasn’t all. The Emperor he became seemed to have been praised by countless people.

Viewed only that way, it looked like a happy ending.

But separate from that, he had still made a sacrifice.

Even if he had become Emperor, that fact did not change.

To send Alon and Penia back to their original world, Evan had willingly remained behind in the past.

Throwing everything he had into it.

“......Did Evan pass away surrounded by everyone’s blessings?”

That was why, before he knew it, Alon’s composed expression had already collapsed as he brushed back his face with a complicated look and asked that question.

“No.”

Rine answered firmly.

“No?”

“Yes.”

“......Didn’t Ilanef continue on for a very long time afterward?”

At Alon’s uneasy question, Rine nodded.

“As you said, Godfather, Ilanef did continue for a long time.”

“Then it wasn’t destroyed...... yet Evan met death some other way? For that to happen—”

As Alon seriously continued speaking, Rine added quietly,

“To be more precise, Palaon’s biography never records his death.”

“It doesn’t?”

“No. On the fourteenth year after becoming Emperor, he handed the imperial throne over to one of the retainers who followed him most faithfully, then suddenly disappeared.”

“......Disappeared? After passing the throne to someone else?”

“Palaon never married. It seems he had no descendants capable of inheriting the imperial throne.”

“Was there any information on where Palaon disappeared to?”

“I searched for that as well, but there was nothing at all. However—”

“However?”

At Alon’s gaze, Rine pressed her lips together for a moment before slowly replying.

“There was a record saying that, in the final village Palaon helped, one of the villagers asked him where he was going.”

“......And what did he answer?”

“‘I’ve finished what I needed to do. Now I’m going to meet an old friend.’”

“An... old friend?”

“Yes. He said he was going to meet an old friend he had served for a very long time, and whom he had not seen for many years.”

“......”

“That’s where the records about Palaon end, Godfather.”

Alon fell silent.

‘An old friend he had served for a long time......’

Instinctively, Alon realized that meant himself.

Someone else might insist he should think about it more carefully.

They might question whether Evan could have been referring to someone else.

But Alon was certain.

If Evan truly said those words—

Then the “old friend” in that sentence referred to Alon.

Even so, however, there was something he could not understand.

‘How was he planning to come meet me?’

As far as Alon knew, time travel required strange text.

And simply having the strange text phenomenon exist was not enough to travel through time.

It required a True Mage’s magic capable of distorting the strange text phenomenon.

And one also needed magical power capable of eroding the phenomenon itself.

But as far as Alon knew, Evan could not use magic.

“Rine, was there anything saying Palaon learned magic or was highly skilled at it?”

“No. From everything I’ve seen so far, there was nothing like that.”

Rine answered immediately.

Alon remained silent as he thought.

There wasn’t enough information.

That was the conclusion.

But even so—

For some reason, Alon felt a corner of his heart growing calmer.

Nothing had been confirmed yet.

There was still far too little information for Alon to properly judge Evan’s actions.

However, if what was written in those ancient texts was truly real—

Then—

“If it’s alright, could I ask you to investigate Palaon a little further?”

“Of course. If it’s your request, Godfather.”

“You always have my thanks.”

Rine accepted Alon’s request without hesitation.

And when he expressed his gratitude—

“It’s nothing. I wanted to help you too.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Rine gave a small smile.

“I just...... don’t really want to see you looking sad, Godfather.”

She quietly murmured.

......And for the first time in a while, warmth settled within Alon at that smile.

####

“Hoo—”

Letting out a small sigh, Reber walked through the palace with a weary expression.

Along the path ahead of him, knights standing neatly beside the countless pillars saluted him as though they had been waiting for his arrival.

Accepting their salutes as though already accustomed to them, Reber continued walking forward until he finally reached the end of the palace.

There, what came into view was an ordinary wooden door.

And precisely because of that, it looked even stranger.

For a door located at the end of such a splendid palace, it was absurdly plain.

But Reber, who had already passed through this wooden door hundreds of times, casually opened it.

And beyond it was the office hidden inside the grand palace.

Creeeak—

A heavy sound echoed the moment he stepped inside.

The office could be described as antique, but it was by no means luxurious.

“......”

The very first thing one noticed was the creaking wooden floor.

Then came the elegant old-fashioned cabinet, and the small table placed beside it.

On the table, where sunlight streamed in, sat a cat sculpture curled into itself as though basking in the warmth.

And if one opened the office door further, directly ahead atop the desk lay something shaped like a snake, stretched limply across it.

Above that sat piles upon piles of documents.

But Reber’s gaze was not directed there.

His eyes turned toward the right.

“......Your Majesty.”

“Mm......? Ah, Reber, you’re here?”

Ignoring the grand office desk that anyone would assume belonged to the ruler, Reber addressed Evan, who was seated instead at a desk tucked away in the far corner.

“......I brought the report.”

Reber held out the report.

Evan silently took the stack of papers and began reading through them.

Watching him as always, Reber—

“Your Majesty.”

“Mm? What is it?”

“......May I ask you something?”

Without realizing it, he asked the question.

“Hm? What is it?”

As Evan naturally asked back, Reber stared at him.

“......”

It had already been fourteen years since he first saw that face.

......And ten years since he first saw this office.

Fourteen years.

Long enough for the passage of time to carve traces into the world itself.

That face had not changed, yet compared to when they first met, there were unmistakable marks of time upon it.

The one thing that had not changed, perhaps, was the casual way he spoke despite becoming Emperor.

“......”

Reber slowly turned his gaze and looked around the familiar office again.

Truthfully, at first, things had been too chaotic for him to think much of it.

That was why, despite Evan turning his private office into something so bizarre over the course of ten years, Reber had never paid it much attention.

In fact, it had already become awkward to ask why the office looked like this after so long.

But why was it?

Today, it bothered him for some reason.

Why did the Emperor avoid the most prestigious seat and the grandest desk and chair, instead handling his work from the corner?

Why did he always leave meaningless piles of documents stacked up?

Why were there three desks in this tiny office?

He simply wanted to know.

“......Why is it, Your Majesty, that you always work over here? Instead of over there?”

Reber asked.

And—

At that question—

“Ah, that?”

As though it were nothing important, Evan flipped through the report.

And then, in an unbelievably calm voice—

“That’s not my seat.”

“......It’s not Your Majesty’s seat?”

“Yeah. That place is—”

He answered simply.

“My old friend’s seat.”

Like an Emperor who had already cut down hundreds of thousands of black flesh masses countless times before.

“......So sitting there feels a little wrong.”

......Yet also like a knight carrying a strange longing within him.

A lonely voice quietly echoed through the office.