Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 569: Strange Territory (7)
Previously on Became the Patron of Villains...
The commotion caused by the Divine Land elixirs lasted only briefly.
Alon first began organizing the situation.
......Though in the end, all that really meant was asking the children for understanding while explaining the circumstances.
In any case, after finishing the explanation that all effects would disappear within a day or two, Alon assigned rooms to the children.
Separate rooms had already previously been given to each floor, but they currently could not be used because full-scale interior construction had begun.
Anyway, after temporarily dispersing the children, Alon let out a small sigh.
“Alon, is something wrong?”
At that moment, a voice came from below him.
Lowering his gaze, he saw Yutia still clinging tightly to his side.
Unlike the others, who had gone to their rooms to rest, Yutia still remained attached to Alon.
Perhaps because Arculainysis and Historia were gone now—
unlike before, when she had worn a sulky expression, she now smiled brightly.
Watching her, Alon thought:
‘The Yutia from the first timeline.’
He recalled what Rine had said.
That the one with that innocent smile—so innocent it was hard to believe she was the same mature Yutia they knew—was the Yutia from the first timeline.
‘......What kind of relationship did we have?’
Alon quietly lowered his gaze toward Yutia’s hand tightly gripping his own.
The hand that had not let go even once since he entered this room.
‘So— perhaps we were lovers?’
Her voice suddenly crossed Alon’s mind.
The words Yutia had spoken back at the academy.
Of course, he could not recklessly determine whether they were true—
but separate from that, the Yutia of the first timeline seemed to hold far more affection for him than he had expected, which only deepened his curiosity.
“Hmmm—”
“?”
As he looked at Yutia, another question suddenly came to Alon’s mind.
It concerned her behavior.
After drinking the elixir, Historia and Arculainysis had both clearly looked flustered.
Naturally so.
The elixirs consumed by Historia, Arculainysis, and Yutia were ones that reverted mental age back to childhood.
In other words, they essentially forced the mind and memories back into a younger state.
Anyone who consumed such an elixir should have found the current situation deeply confusing.
It would practically feel like being dragged by force into some unfamiliar place.
Yet unlike the other two, Yutia showed no signs of confusion whatsoever.
She merely clung to him as though everything were perfectly normal, revealing no other emotion.
“What is it, Alon?”
“.......”
If the Yutia before him truly was the younger Yutia from the first timeline, then she should have felt extremely bewildered by this situation.
Alon did not know what he himself had been like during the first timeline, but from her perspective alone, there should have been countless unfamiliar things here.
‘......Hm, maybe not? If events progressed similarly in the first timeline too— no, even then, this is still basically a situation where she was suddenly dragged here. Being this calm still feels strange......?’
Alon tilted his head.
But there was no point thinking about it alone.
“......Yutia.”
“Mm? What is it?”
“Are you perhaps...... not confused?”
When Alon asked—
“About what?”
“......Hm?”
“What am I supposed to be confused about?”
Instead, a giant question mark practically appeared on Yutia’s face.
As Alon blanked out for a moment while looking at her—
“Ah.”
Yutia let out a low exclamation as though suddenly remembering something.
“Come to think of it, Alon.”
“......What is it?”
“Looks like there are a lot of people around here spying on you.”
“Mm?”
“I mean, they just look like information couriers or something.”
“.......”
For a brief moment, Alon thought, There were people like that here?
Then—
“Should I kill them all?”
The words were spoken so casually—
like she was asking Want a cupcake?
—that Alon froze even harder.
“......Kill them?”
“Yeah.”
“Uh.......”
As Alon hesitated, Yutia cautiously glanced at him before speaking.
“Ah, don’t worry. I won’t go all the way this time.”
“As expected.”
Hearing that, Alon nodded in relief.
However—
“Yeah, I won’t wipe out the entire kingdom they came from like last time. I’ll just deal with those people. You said I shouldn’t do that.”
“......Hm?”
A question mark appeared over Alon’s head.
“Hm? Why? Didn’t you say I shouldn’t destroy kingdoms?”
Yutia asked innocently.
And from that short exchange, an old thought resurfaced vividly in Alon’s mind.
‘She’s not already half-Sin...... right?’
Of course, now he knew the truth about the Sins and how the Apostles had used them like garbage.
But somehow, old instincts seemed to resurface.
And while he was thinking that—
“Mm......?”
Yutia suddenly tilted her head.
“Alon, wait a second? I need to go check something.”
“Mm? Go where—”
“There’s something I need to confirm!”
Shouting that, she immediately turned and vanished.
“??”
Yutia disappeared before Alon could even respond properly.
“Huu—”
And by the time Alon let out what was probably his fifth sigh of the day while scratching his head—
“Brother.”
“Ah, Nangwon.”
At some point, Nangwon had returned to the reception room.
“My apologies. Things have finally settled down.”
“Ah, you don’t need to worry about it, Brother. I’ve already grasped the rough situation.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Still, thankfully it’ll all return to normal in a day or two.”
“That’s true.”
Fortunately, since Nangwon had continued working, the delivery of the elixir to him had been delayed.
Swallowing a sigh internally, Alon asked:
“More importantly, is that the final document?”
“Yes. I selected only the best proposals among the ones we received, but I thought it would still be best for you to review them personally one final time.”
“As I said, you could handle this yourself.”
At that, Nangwon laughed awkwardly.
“Yes, honestly I would have liked to....... However...... well....... certain...... difficult situations...... ended up occurring.”
As Nangwon subtly looked away while dragging out his words, Alon quietly let out an “Ah.”
Because simply seeing the children gathered together allowed him to imagine exactly what had happened.
And so—
“......You’ve worked hard.”
“It’s nothing. Just hearing you say that is enough!”
The moment Alon offered words of comfort, Nangwon’s expression brightened immediately.
Listening to his voice, Alon calmly began reading through the proposals.
“......Hm.”
There were numerous proposals inside.
The first ones visible were the favorable-condition proposals Nangwon had personally arranged.
And after those—
“.......”
......for some reason, there were proposals that looked as though traces of intense battle remained upon them.
Burned edges.
Pages miraculously reattached after being torn to shreds.
For reasons unknown, the situation at the time could somehow be vividly imagined—
to the point where Alon felt he could identify who submitted each proposal without even reading them, simply by looking at the damage.
After staring at them for a moment, Alon thought briefly before speaking.
“Nangwon.”
“Yes, Brother.”
“Do you think...... this might be possible?”
And he began explaining the idea he had in mind.
####
Around the time Alon was speaking with Nangwon—
in the outer region of the Palantia territory—
“......You came.”
The childlike Rine muttered quietly.
Words spoken toward seemingly empty air.
Yet strangely enough—
“Hm—”
A response came.
And when Rine turned her gaze—
“Yutia.”
There stood Yutia looking toward Rine—
—or more precisely, looking toward the sky.
Nothing could be seen in the sky at first glance.
However, those who ‘could see’ were able to perceive it.
─────Goooooo
A giant god-like being gazing down upon Palantia from beyond the heavens.
“That thing. Are you controlling it?”
“That’s right.”
“If you’re going to call me out using something like this, be careful, okay? I didn’t do anything because Alon was nearby, but I probably would’ve smashed it apart otherwise. You know I’m sensitive about this kind of thing.”
“I know.”
“As long as you know. So? Why?”
Yutia casually answered before asking for the reason.
Watching her, Rine lightly frowned.
‘So it really wasn’t a lie.’
In truth, when Rine first saw Yutia’s behavior, she suspected Yutia might simply be acting in order to stay attached to Alon.
There were two reasons.
The first was because Rine believed a potion of this sort should not have affected Yutia in the first place.
According to Rine’s expectations, Yutia’s body fundamentally should have been incapable of being affected by ‘elixirs’ at all.
And the second reason was Yutia’s behavior itself.
She certainly resembled the Yutia from the first timeline—
yet even considering that, there were still differences.
However, now that Rine stood before Yutia at this moment, she had gained certainty.
‘......It really is the Yutia from the first timeline.’
The Yutia before her truly was the one from the first timeline.
The elixir’s effect had genuinely worked.
‘......The reason it worked is probably because the root of the elixir’s power itself comes from Alon’s power. If so, then the one who looped the world really was—’
Another puzzle piece that had never previously fit together finally clicked into place inside Rine’s mind.
Yet even as the pieces aligned, something still remained beyond her understanding.
Yutia’s behavior.
It was certainly similar to the first timeline—
yet also different.
And Rine knew exactly where that difference originated from.
“......Yutia. Do you remember Walpurgis?”
“Mm? Of course I remember it.”
Yutia nodded casually.
Rine continued questioning her.
“Then do you remember Twilight?”
“Uh, obviously.”
And again—
“What about Karantiman?”
“I remember.”
She continued asking.
“......Hey, what are you doing? Why are you asking all this?”
At the repeated questioning, Yutia eventually frowned.
Rine stared directly at her before finally speaking.
“......Yutia. Do you know something?”
“What?”
“Walpurgis, Twilight, Karantiman— none of those are things you should actually be able to remember in the first place.”
“......What?”
“I just made all of them up.”
“.......”
Toward Yutia, whose lips moved slightly as though trying to say something before falling silent—
“......Yutia, exactly how much did you ‘use’......?”
Rine asked with visible concern.
