Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 563: Strange Territory (1)

For the past several days, Alon had remained active within Divine Land.

There were three major reasons.

The first was to identify areas where Divine Land could be improved.

Of course, even now, Divine Land was growing extremely well on its own.

According to Sili, the number of people arriving in Divine Land had never decreased even once since the day Divine Land was first established.

Alon also understood that Divine Land was not truly a place requiring major improvements.

One could tell that simply by observing the divine power continuously accumulating within him at this very moment.

Even so, the reason Alon continued searching for flaws was because of something Sili had said.

‘......Even people with sufficient faith fail to awaken?’

‘Yes. Of course, there still aren’t many cases yet, but the number of people failing to awaken has definitely been increasing. The reason is— I’m not sure. Blackie seems to be doing everything properly though—’

‘Could it simply be insufficient faith?’

‘Mmm— I don’t think so. For example, if we assume the maximum level of faith is 10, and people only awaken once they send faith above 8 points, then even the people failing to awaken right now are all sending faith above 8.’

Recalling Sili’s words, Alon stroked his chin.

......Truthfully, from one perspective, people who simply offered faith without awakening were actually slightly more beneficial to Alon.

Because once someone awakened power, a portion of the faith would naturally be returned to them.

In other words, from the perspective of simply receiving faith, it was technically more profitable this way.

Even so, the reason Alon wanted to resolve the issue was because Divine Land was not merely a district built to harvest faith.

To Alon, Divine Land was something akin to a fortress.

The final fortress prepared for the day when even his own hands would eventually become insufficient no matter how strong he grew.

That was why Alon had no intention of turning Divine Land into a place that only collected faith, and thus had been investigating the matter seriously this entire time, but—

‘As expected, this isn’t easy.’

Unfortunately, he had failed to obtain any particularly meaningful clues.

Of course, the time spent in Divine Land had not been meaningless, since he had continued receiving additional reports along the way.

Separately from that, he had also received the rather {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} complicated report that the tremendous financial power recently flowing into Divine Land was apparently due to the four elixirs he had inherited.......

......In any case, that was the first reason he remained in Divine Land.

The second reason concerned Alon’s system.

Because of what happened right before returning to this world, he had continuously postponed the matter, but currently, Alon was reconstructing his own system.

No, strictly speaking, that process itself had already ended long ago, and now he was going through the stage of properly correcting and refining the system.

Of course, even after completing the system, he would not immediately be able to use it. Since it had originally been constructed under the assumption that he possessed no language of True Mages, unforeseen variables had emerged as well.

Thus, he was spending time reworking the system again with Kylrus’s help.

At the current point in time, Kylrus was the only person capable of properly teaching Alon about the magic of True Mages.

And lastly, the third reason Alon remained in Divine Land was—

[Hmm, is that...... a human?]

“A human......?”

[......If I’m being generous, maybe half-human?]

“Does that thing look half-human to you?”

[Uh—]

—because of Alon’s manifestation.

At present, Alon’s manifestation took the form of a gigantic eyeball.

Not merely a floating eyeball either, but one surrounded by black tentacles and a halo of shattered strings of text that continuously broke apart and reassembled themselves.

And naturally, Alon had no intention of maintaining such a manifestation permanently, which was why he had been spending time showing his face throughout Divine Land in an effort to establish a better image.

......Though due to various matters he had not wandered around for very long.

In any case, after several days of effort, Alon was currently speaking with Kalannon inside the world of Imagery while checking the actual state of his manifestation.

[......A half-octopus......?]

At Kalannon’s latest evaluation, Alon lowered his head and sighed deeply.

“This isn’t easy......”

[W-well— I think this might be because those Divine blood friends of yours tend to believe in you this way—]

“There are far more people on this side though.”

[This might sound unethical if we divide it like this, but...... I think their side is somewhat higher quality-wise.......]

At Kalannon’s words, Alon stared ahead with an empty expression.

There, his manifested body revealed itself.

‘No, can that even be called a body......?’

It was still a gigantic eyeball.

The only difference now was that a massive shadow-like body had formed around the eye.

A form consisting solely of an upper body suspended like a shadow, without legs or even a head.

......Aside from that, the rest remained no different from before.

No.

No.

“How many layers does that halo even have now? And why are there even more tentacles......?”

[I’m not sure either, but one thing’s definite. Compared to before, it looks even more...... how should I put it.......]

“You can be honest.”

[......Like a god of calamity.]

At Kalannon’s words, Alon let out a sigh.

“I definitely left statues behind for the Divine blood.......”

As Alon seriously considered whether he should personally go back and speak with them again, Kalannon made a thoughtful expression before speaking.

[Well, isn’t it still kind of good......?]

“Why?”

[If you manifested like that, even those Karma Throne guys would probably hesitate a little.......]

Kalannon’s words.

......Alon could not deny them.

####

While Alon remained in Divine Land handling his own matters—

Inside the office building that still remained brightly lit late into the night due to Nangwon’s terrifying document-processing speed—

“.......”

Alexion was still handling paperwork.

And then—

“Hello?”

Hearing a beautiful voice from ahead of him, Alexion naturally raised his gaze.

Standing there was an elf.

An elf smiling brightly at Alexion.

From a human perspective, elves were incredibly rare beings.

Naturally so.

Elves did not leave the forest to begin with.

And yet, despite that—

“Ah, yes. Good evening.”

Alexion calmly nodded upon seeing the elf.

“......?”

At that, the elf—

No, Magrina—

briefly wore a bewildered expression.

Of course, this was not Magrina’s first time appearing before Alexion.

She had already shown herself several times in the past.

Even so, Alexion’s response remained strange.

‘......Why isn’t he surprised?’

Of course, she did not find it strange that he was unsurprised by the appearance of an elf.

What felt strange to her was Alexion’s behavior itself.

It was currently very late at night.

And Magrina had arrived without giving Alexion any prior notice whatsoever.

Naturally, this was partially to maintain secrecy.

And yet despite an uninvited guest appearing in the middle of the night, Alexion remained calm.

As though he had already known in advance that she would come.

Thus, while wondering about it—

“Ahem—”

Magrina dispelled the awkwardness slightly by clearing her throat before speaking.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, indeed. It’s been a while.”

Alexion answered with a smile.

At that, Magrina wore a slightly strange expression before opening her mouth—

“The reason I came here today is—”

“I already know. It’s probably because of this proposal, correct?”

—but failed to finish speaking.

Before she could even say anything, Alexion had already lifted the proposal she secretly inserted through the merchant company she operated in secret, as though he had predicted her actions in advance.

And that was not all.

Thunk—

Alexion deliberately stamped the proposal right in front of Magrina before immediately extending it toward her.

“Please take it.”

“......Excuse me?”

“Wasn’t this what you came here for?”

......Truthfully, this was exactly the outcome Magrina had wanted most.

She already knew that approval authority for this autonomous district proposal belonged not to her older brother, but to Nangwon, who was also her close friend.

In other words, persuading Alexion and getting the proposal sent upward was certainly a decent option.

But an even better option would have been obtaining official approval herself first before going directly to persuade Nangwon.

Of course, someone might ask why she did not simply meet Nangwon from the beginning instead of involving Alexion at all.

But that would have been a terrible move.

The Nangwon she knew fundamentally handled public affairs according to strict principles and procedures.

Especially if the matter involved her older brother.

Meaning that at this stage, obtaining Alexion’s “approval” was an absolutely necessary process if she wanted to avoid giving Nangwon unnecessary reasons to object later.

“That’s true, but......”

Even so, Magrina had never imagined things would proceed this smoothly, so she looked at him in confusion.

“......You handled everything as though you already knew something.”

At Magrina’s words, Alexion chuckled softly.

A smile that somehow resembled someone who had already grasped every truth in the world.

And just as Magrina’s confusion deepened further—

“It became impossible not to know.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Yes. This is already the seventh time.”

“......Seventh?”

“Yes.”

Alexion nodded while laughing as though he had transcended worldly suffering itself, causing Magrina to stare blankly with parted lips.

‘......How?’

It felt ridiculous to even say it, but Magrina’s information network concerning Palantia was extraordinarily fast.

To the point that almost anything her older brother said would reach her ears within a single day.

In other words, the moment Magrina heard “that news,” she immediately headed for Palantia without wasting even a moment.

And yet she was apparently already the seventh person to arrive, leaving her stunned.

Then—

“!”

—she abruptly came back to her senses.

If she was only seventh in line, then she was already far too late.

Thus—

“Ahem— thank you for informing me......! But I suddenly have urgent business, so I’ll be going now—!”

Magrina vanished immediately before Alexion could even finish exchanging farewells with her.

And afterward, staring blankly at the spot where she disappeared, Alexion muttered absentmindedly:

“......I should probably retire before the succession war begins.”

And around that same time—

[Hmm— so Palantia is distributing rights to develop sections of its ‘territory’ districts?]

“Yes. Based on the preliminary investigation, that appears to be the case.”

[Then there’s no helping it—]

The guardian dragon of the Empire, who was listening to the report from Imperial Prince Contanias—

[......If he refuses to come after making a promise—]

—Arculainysis wore a distinctly sulky expression.

[Then this body will simply have to go personally.]

So she muttered.