Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 560: Identity (3)

“Mmm—”

Alon came back to his senses a bit late and shook his head.

For a moment, the memory of his conversation with Evan had surfaced, causing his thoughts to spiral, but in the end he arrived at the conclusion that realistically, it made no sense.

‘If my assumption is correct, then “Blue Moon” would ultimately mean the orphanage I sponsored.’

That was impossible.

The period when Blue Moon was active did overlap with the time Alon had been running the orphanage.

......And strangely enough, the nobles assassinated by Blue Moon had indeed donated suspiciously large sums to the orphanage beforehand.

But even so, it still made no sense.

Think about it.

As stated before, the time Blue Moon was active was when the orphanage was thriving.

And for Alon’s theory to be correct, the people of the orphanage would have to be the main force behind Blue Moon.

But the people in the orphanage back then?

Most of them were children.

Of course, Alon had judged that it would be difficult for Yutia to run the orphanage alone, so he had regularly donated funds to the Rosario temple and checked on the orphanage several times a month.

But fundamentally, the orphanage had contained nothing but children.

Which meant the members of Blue Moon would have been children.

And realistically, that was nearly impossible.

No matter how much potential they possessed to become Sins in the future.

‘Right. Impossible.’

Alon nodded while tracing the flaw in the logic—

‘......Is it impossible?’

—and unconsciously stopped thinking.

Once more, memories surfaced in his mind.

‘Lord Alon, they say Deus became a Master Knight in just one year?’

‘They say Seollang became a Baba Yaga?’

‘They say Radan became the Pirate King?’

‘They say Rine became a senior council member?’

‘They say Yutia became a cardinal?’

......The news he had heard from Evan.

Even those absurd stories he had heard only a few years after sending the children out into the world.

“Lord Alon? Are you alright?”

At that moment, Penia’s voice reached him.

“......I’m fine. Why?”

“No....... You looked deeply lost in thought.”

Looking at Penia tilting her head in confusion, Alon spoke with a strange feeling.

“I just had a rather strange thought.”

“A strange thought?”

“A strange thought?”

“Yes. Something like—”

That perhaps the ordinary life I thought I lived was actually the life of the boss of Blue Moon, the organization that slaughtered nobles.

That was what Alon wanted to say, but—

“No, never mind.”

He soon shook his head.

Because it still was not certainty.

......Not yet, at least.

‘Who should I ask?’

Watching Penia tilt her head without understanding, Alon thought to himself.

No matter what, he felt he should ask the children about this new question at least once.

The problem was deciding who to ask.

‘......Yutia probably wouldn’t tell me properly.’

Of course, it was not that Alon distrusted Yutia.

If anything, he trusted her greatly.

But when it came to matters like this, she tended to hide things strangely often.

Not by outright lying, but by simply not saying things or skillfully steering the conversation away.

......In any case, Alon doubted he would receive a clear answer, so after some thought, he decided to set the issue aside for now.

It was not as though he lacked time entirely. If he thought carefully and chose properly, he could ask eventually.

And more than anything—

Right now, the important thing was the mountain of paperwork.

Looking once more at the absurd number of documents threatening to burst apart the office, Alon pondered for a while before—

“There’s no helping it.”

“Hm?”

“I have an idea.”

—finally arriving at his own conclusion.

####

Finding someone to handle territorial paperwork was not easy.

Of course, it was not because intelligent people were scarce.

If anything, there were quite a lot of smart people.

Even under Alexion alone, there were dozens upon dozens of administrators working diligently, divided into departments.

The problem was not intelligence.

It was trust.

Yes, trust.

There were plenty of people in this world capable of handling work.

But people Alon could truly trust with it?

There were not many around him.

......Strictly speaking, among the people he trusted, there simply was not anyone free enough to devote themselves to this work.

And so, the choice Alon made was—

“Thank you for agreeing to help so readily.”

“The honor is mine, Brother.”

—to seek Nangwon’s assistance.

The leader of the largest information guild at present.

Someone Alon trusted, and someone whose subordinates allowed enough freedom to spare some time.

“But are you really sure this is alright? I hope I didn’t summon you despite you being busy.”

However, Nangwon shook his head as though telling him not to worry.

“No, Brother. As I said, I have plenty of time. My sister is there as well.”

“Then that’s a relief...... though there is another issue.”

“......An issue?”

Nangwon asked curiously.

At that, Alon glanced toward Penia and subtly nodded.

“I’ll open it.......”

Wearing a somewhat embarrassed expression, Penia opened the door.

And what appeared beyond it was a mountain of paperwork filling nearly half the office.

“......Oh.”

Even Nangwon looked slightly surprised and let out a quiet exclamation.

Alon spoke apologetically.

“......This is the situation.”

“That’s...... quite a lot of paperwork.......”

“Everything happened all at once.”

Nangwon slowly looked around the office.

“So all I need to do is process these documents, Brother?”

Alon awkwardly gave a small nod.

“Yes. And naturally, we’ll help as well.”

Alon was not shameless enough to dump every task entirely onto Nangwon.

However, after thinking briefly, Nangwon proposed something.

“If you grant me full authority, Brother, I’ll handle it alone.”

“......The paperwork?”

“Yes.”

“Nangwon, granting you authority would not be difficult.”

Alon meant that sincerely.

Nangwon had consistently helped him greatly until now.

But the reason Alon hesitated was—

“I just don’t think that’s realistically possible.”

—because the amount of paperwork was overwhelming.

Even at this very moment, Alexion had cautiously entered and dropped off another stack.

And that stack alone was enough work to keep Alon and Penia occupied for an entire hour.

“Don’t worry, Brother.”

Yet Nangwon merely smiled confidently.

“This much is easy.”

And with that—

Crackkk—!

Hands suddenly began emerging from the walls of the office.

White hands rapidly filled the room.

Then—

Shrrrkkkkkk—!!

“!!”

“!!!”

—the hands simultaneously grabbed the mountain-like piles of paperwork and began processing them.

It was truly a miraculous sight.

Alon and Penia stared blankly with their mouths open.

“Don’t worry about the paperwork. Each hand possesses the same intellect I do, so there’s no possibility they’ll process anything incorrectly.”

“Ha.......”

“This is...... the god of paperwork.......”

And with that added explanation eliminating even their remaining concerns—

Alon and Penia let out deep admiration.

Nangwon watched their reactions with satisfaction before suddenly growing slightly more serious.

“And honestly speaking, Brother, I’m much more concerned about what you mentioned earlier.”

“Mm......?”

Nangwon continued with an awkward yet worried expression.

“Yes, about creating a district for my people within your territory.”

“That’s true......?”

That was indeed true.

After all, it had been one of the conditions Alon offered when bringing Nangwon over.

Though rather than a condition, it had practically been closer to an excuse for a favor Alon had already intended to grant.

Nangwon and the demi-demons still lived in the wastelands neutral between the Empire and the Allied Kingdoms.

And so, with the territory now expanded to an absurd degree, Alon wanted to provide the demi-demons a proper place to live as well.

Especially since Nangwon, who had helped him all this time, was their leader.

But contrary to Alon’s expectations—

“Just in case, I should say this now, but you may consider that proposal withdrawn.”

Nangwon lowered his voice worriedly.

“I don’t want to cause you trouble, Brother.”

Anyone could hear the concern in his tone.

But Alon answered firmly.

“Don’t think that way.”

“Brother......?”

Of course, Alon understood what he meant.

Fundamentally, demi-demons were a persecuted race.

Starting with their heterochromatic eyes, many aspects of their appearance naturally provoked hostility from humans.

And accepting such demi-demons into Palantia?

Nangwon believed there was a high possibility it would damage Alon’s reputation.

However—

“There are ways around that.”

“Ways......?”

“Yes. And even if those methods fail, it doesn’t matter. They cannot continue living in the wastelands forever.”

Alon spoke sincerely because he did not want them discriminated against over nothing more than appearance.

Nangwon stared blankly for a moment.

Then—

“......Thank you, Brother.”

—with moved eyes, he nodded deeply.

####

Right afterward—

“......Autonomy?”

“Yes. I’ll leave the decisions to your judgment. And as I mentioned before, you may structure a certain district however you wish.”

Alon granted Nangwon authority over the paperwork he would now process, as well as autonomy over a specific district.

Aside from giving the demi-demons a place to live, Alon had originally intended to reward him separately as well.

In truth, Alon had planned to compensate others he might request help from in the future too.

But the moment he confirmed Nangwon could handle the paperwork alone, Alon had, in a sense, profited from the arrangement.

“So, sorry to trouble you, but I’m counting on you.”

Alon gave Nangwon a small nod.

“Brother......!”

Nangwon also nodded firmly, wearing a strangely determined expression, as though deeply moved.

Afterward, Alon headed toward Divine Land.

It did not take very long to get there.

Without Basiliora and Blackie it might have been different, but at this point there was no reason for the journey to be slow.

And so, after several hours, Alon arrived in Divine Land.

“......Oh.”

“It’s changed quite a bit.”

“It really has.”

From the sky atop Basiliora, they could see that Divine Land looked rather different from before.

And when they descended into Divine Land—

“Oh, you’re here?”

“......?”

—they encountered a woman.

A woman covered in strangely familiar tattoos, casually waving as though she knew Alon personally.

“......Who?”

“Hm? Ahhh— now that I think about it, that makes sense.”

—No.

“I’m me.”

“Me......?”

“Kylrus.”

“??????”

They were looking at Kylrus—

who had become a woman.