Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 571: Strange Territory (9)

At Seollang’s words, Alon froze briefly.

But only briefly.

With a light shake of his head, he restarted the thoughts that had momentarily halted.

“......Are you serious?”

“Mm? There’s no reason it wouldn’t work, right, Master?”

“......No, even so, Colony is still an independent nation.”

A statement so reasonable it bordered on obvious.

However, Seollang merely made a thoughtful “Hmm—” expression before speaking.

“But if it weren’t for you and me, Master, that country would’ve already been destroyed, right? Besides, the current Colony is kind of a mess in a lot of ways.”

“.......”

At those words, Alon could not even bring himself to argue.

If they had failed to stop the Divine blood, Colony truly would have fallen.

And Seollang’s assessment was not exactly wrong either.

‘They said things had become dangerous lately, didn’t they.’

Alon recalled what Nangwon had told him previously about Colony’s situation.

The reconstruction itself had supposedly gone well.

The problem was that the astronomical costs of rebuilding were still crushing Colony exactly as they were.

‘I heard it had reached a level they couldn’t possibly manage.......’

Alon quickly regained his composure and firmly shook his head.

“Even so, no.”

“Ehh—”

Seollang let out a disappointed groan.

Watching her, Alon spoke.

Ever since Astarotte, Seollang had strangely begun showing moments where she seemed childlike, yet adult-like whenever she became serious.

“Let’s just build the colosseum.”

“Mm! Got it!”

The moment Alon gave permission, Seollang struck a spirited fighting pose with an “Ajaaat—!”

Seeing her grinning happily, Alon soon turned to the next page.

“Historia?”

“Mm, God.”

“......You’re planning to bring the Eastern Kingdom here?”

“Mm.”

Historia calmly nodded.

Alon fell silent for a moment.

“......Historia?”

“Mm.”

“You’re not secretly the hidden king of the Eastern Kingdom or something, are you?”

“No.”

“Then how exactly are you planning to accomplish this?”

At that, Historia tilted her head before slowly raising her right hand.

“.......”

The sword held in that hand.

That alone was enough for Alon to understand her answer.

“You absolutely cannot do that.”

“I can’t?”

“That’s right.”

“Then what should I do?”

“You negotiate.”

Alon answered.

Historia made a quiet “Hmm—” expression.

Like Alon, she was not the type whose expressions showed clearly, so it merely looked like she was silently stroking her chin with a blank face.

After some silence—

“Alright.”

Historia slowly nodded.

Alon wondered whether “negotiation” was really something that required such deep thought, but quickly decided not to dwell on it.

Because he had a feeling that if he asked further, the conversation would become far more disturbing.

Next, Alon decided to go over the points that needed revising in the proposals submitted by Rine and Ryang-a.

......Their proposals were not exactly normal either, but compared to the others, they were at least somewhat less shocking.

And so, his discussions with them ended relatively lightly.

Alon skipped over Yutia’s proposal since she was not present here and looked toward the final person.

“Hmm—”

Arculainysis sat there with an incredibly smug expression, as though her proposal contained absolutely no problems whatsoever.

Unlike yesterday, when Yutia had been around, she somehow seemed to have regained her former confidence.

“Ar.”

“Speak, you—!”

She began to say “you,” then subtly rolled her eyes toward Seollang and Rine before finishing her sentence.

Watching that, Alon reread her proposal.

“......What exactly do you mean by designating the Kingdom of Palantia as the Empire’s capital?”

“It means exactly what it says! We shall merge the Empire and Palantia! Ah! Of course, you shall be the king!”

“......What about the other princes and princesses?”

“Hmm—”

Arculainysis wore an expression that clearly said 'Why should I care about that?'

For a moment, Alon was left speechless because her reaction resembled Seollang’s earlier response far too closely.

Then he spoke firmly.

“No.”

“Why......?”

Arculainysis’s eyes widened as though she had genuinely never imagined she would be rejected.

But honestly, that reaction was only natural.

Nangwon was handling the paperwork now, but before that, Alon had personally managed every single matter himself.

Alon knew exactly how difficult governing a nation—

no, even just managing a territory—

truly was.

And he also knew that if he stepped away even slightly, the office would instantly become buried beneath mountains of paperwork.

He knew just how many times greater the suffering became in order to process all of it.

And now he was supposed to govern the Empire too?

‘......Absolutely not.’

Palantia’s territory was absurdly vast.

He could confidently say it was larger than the capitals of most kingdoms.

But the Empire?

Naturally, it was even larger than Palantia.

To begin with, the Empire possessed more land than the entire Allied Kingdoms combined.

And he was supposed to manage all of that personally?

The mere thought made him dizzy.

“Anyway, merging is absolutely out of the question.”

Alon rejected the idea firmly.

Right after that—

after reaching a compromise with Arculainysis where, instead of merging the Empire, they would establish an Imperial branch within Palantia’s legal framework—

“Of course, if you don’t want to do it, then you don’t have to. Speak freely.”

Alon finally revealed the compensation he had originally intended to offer them.

Then, deciding to give the children time to think, he returned to the office once more.

““.......””

Silence soon filled the reception room.

Was it because they were considering Alon’s proposal?

No.

In truth, everyone gathered here had already intended to accept Alon’s proposal from the very beginning.

There had never been any hesitation about that.

And yet, the reason they still sat there silently watching each other was simple.

There were six people here who had received territories from Alon.

Of course, receiving territories itself was wonderful.

Everyone present knew that if only one person had received land, there would almost certainly have been endless interference.

But the problem was that this had now become a competition.

“.......”

“.......”

“.......”

Of course, competition had never been Alon’s intention.

Everyone here knew that Alon had not divided the territories with that meaning in mind.

But even so, despite fully understanding that—

a single thought had already begun taking shape inside everyone’s heads.

They had to make the territory they received better than the others present here.

And so, after a prolonged silence—

“Mm— I think I’ll be going now. I suddenly have things to do.”

Magrina stood up first.

“Me too!”

“This great one as well!”

And the moment she rose, the others immediately stood as though they had been waiting for it.

By the time barely twenty seconds had passed—

not a single person remained in the reception room.

####

Just as expected, the children including Magrina instantly scattered away claiming they had preparations to make, and only then did Alon finally gain a bit of breathing room.

“Still haven’t found it?”

“That’s right.”

He was currently speaking with Reinysius.

“As I told you before, these things take time. Whether it’s finding Evan or locating the owner of this item you handed over.”

As Reinysius lightly lifted the belt, Alon nodded in understanding.

“Feels like I rushed you unfairly. My apologies.”

“No. From your perspective, it’s an important matter. However, I think it would be better for you to have at least some patience.”

“......The patience you’re talking about isn’t based on a dragon’s lifespan, is it?”

“I calculated it based properly on human standards, so don’t worry. More importantly—”

At Alon’s words, Reinysius let out a small chuckle before lowering his gaze toward the stack of papers in his hands.

“—this is fascinating.”

What he held were the detailed notes Alon had begun writing regarding his new magical system.

Originally, they should have discussed it sooner, but events had kept occurring one after another, and only now had Alon finally begun organizing the magic system in earnest.

Of course, the system itself had already been fully completed.

However, there was still no real combat data regarding the operation of the system using phrases.

“Is it?”

“Yes. Normally, no one creates a system like this. It’s truly built solely for you.”

“That was the entire point.”

At Alon’s words, Reinysius stared silently at the papers before replying.

“Well, I was already fully aware of that, but this goes a little too far.”

“Too far?”

“Yes.”

“In what sense? Or is there some kind of problem?”

“No, not that. What I mean by ‘too far’ is the system’s independence.”

“......Independence?”

Reinysius nodded.

“As I said before, there’s nothing strange about creating an independent system. Even ordinary mages who have not reached higher realms construct systems that are independent in their own ways. However, your system takes that far too far.”

“......Does it?”

“Yes. Quite literally, you designed it so no one except ‘Palatio Alon’ can use it. Did you not realize that? From the very first structure, this system was built under the premise that Reverse Heavens would be used. No—”

Reinysius paused briefly as though choosing his words before continuing.

“It would be more accurate to say it was built in such a way that Reverse Heavens must be used.”

“Is that important?”

“Not important exactly. Fascinating.”

“Fascinating?”

“Yes.”

He looked directly at Alon.

“......You said a sage capable of seeing the future helped you create this system?”

“That’s right.”

“What I can say with certainty is this—even if someone could see the future and repeatedly provide guidance, it would still be impossible to create this.”

“Impossible?”

“Yes. You may not realize it because you’re merely using and understanding the system, but there are far too many variables that need to be considered here. Creating something like this merely by briefly seeing a future one month ahead is impossible. To even assist in creating a system of this level—”

Reinysius fell silent before continuing.

“They would either need to have personally used this system themselves, or they would need to have spent an absurd amount of time with you. And they would also need greater magical talent than you.”

“......To that extent?”

“Yes. And beyond that, there are parts of this system even I cannot understand.”

“Parts you can’t understand?”

“Look here.”

Reinysius showed Alon a section of the system he had written.

“This is the operating formula that combines divine power, magic, and phrases within Reverse Heavens.”

“That’s not the part I failed to understand. Look carefully. This section appears complete, but it was designed to allow something else to be inserted.”

“......Inserted?”

“Yes. There’s another formula hidden here.”

Reinysius continued.

“This formula was not created accidentally through an error. If you attempt to remove it, the surrounding formulas collapse as well. In other words, the person who created this system alongside you intentionally designed it this way. So that ‘something’ could later be inserted here.”

Though what exactly that ‘something’ was remained unknown.

Murmuring that quietly, Reinysius continued speaking.

“However, perhaps I fail to understand this because I am a dragon. We do not use magic in a systematic manner like humans do. It would be best to seek the opinion of another mage here.”

At Reinysius’s words, a certain person crossed Alon’s mind.

‘Looks like I’ll need to visit the Mage Tower.’

As Alon thought of Heinkel, another person from his memories soon surfaced as well.

The sage who had spent an entire month constructing this system alongside him.

......The one who had casually accomplished what Reinysius claimed was impossible.

Perhaps—

“More importantly, are you alright?”

“......?”

Lost in thought, Alon abruptly snapped back at Reinysius’s following question.

“What are you referring to?”

“The Karma Throne. According to you, there should only be around two months left now.”

“.......”

At those words, Alon let out a habitual sigh.

Naturally, he had never forgotten about the Karma Throne.

No, it was closer to saying he couldn’t forget it.

After all, Alon had personally met the Karma Throne of War.

And because of that—

“I was actually planning to finish my current work and then head over to discuss that matter anyway.”

That was how Alon answered.

####

Two weeks passed after Alon’s conversation with Reinysius.

During that time, there were two major things Alon focused on.

The first was properly finishing the territory’s affairs.

And the second was researching the magical system.

As a result, while the magic system still required work, most of the territory’s matters had been cleanly resolved thanks to Nangwon’s assistance.

[Kyuuu—]

“.......”

Opening his eyes that morning, Alon thought that he should probably head to either the Mage Tower or Rosario sometime today or tomorrow.

Then, in order to ventilate the dark room, he opened the curtains.

And what greeted him was an overwhelming sea of green.

As though announcing that spring had now fully arrived, the moment Alon drew open the curtains, he saw a tree.

A tree so enormous it completely filled the view outside the window.

......Wait, filled the entire view?

“??”

Alon stared blankly ahead.

The tree was still there.

““.......””

Lowering his gaze slightly, he could see the maids working within the territory below.

Every single one of them wore expressions that clearly screamed 'What the hell is that?'

Watching them, Alon slowly raised his gaze once more.

The tree was still there.

Not just any ordinary tree.

A gigantic one.

An extremely gigantic.......

......No, an even more absurdly gigantic one.

“......The World Tree?”

A tree that somehow looked suspiciously like the World Tree.

......For some reason, Alon suddenly felt dizzy.