Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 572: Development (1)

In truth, there had been three main reasons Alon initially decided to accept all of the children’s construction proposals.

The first was the elixir incident. Even if the children themselves did not seem to feel it strongly, they had still suffered damage one way or another, so it was partly meant as compensation for that.

The second was because the territory remaining under Alon had become absurdly large.

Palantia had expanded enormously through the joint efforts of the two tower masters.

It had grown so massive that even after Alon’s original territory had expanded further, it was still large enough to divide into sixths.

And naturally, Alon had absolutely no confidence in handling such an enormous territory by himself.

Even now, if Nangwon had not been there, Alon would probably still be drowning in tears of blood while processing nothing but the documents for District 2, where he had recently received new construction proposals.

That was why Alon had also harbored the shallow ulterior motive of conveniently filling the gigantic territory by distributing districts among the children while he was at it.

Expecting they would each handle things on their own, Alon had split the six existing districts in half and handed over one half from each district.

......Though in Nangwon’s case, it was not as though he had gone through such complicated reasoning for that one.

Anyway, the final reason was to create a source of income for the children in its own way.

It was not as though the children lacked money, but fundamentally, the more money one had, the easier it was to live happily, was it not?

Following that philosophy, it was closer to saying he had helped them earn money comfortably.

Managing territory was difficult, but it certainly made money.

And if it was Palantia’s territory, even more so.

Because of that, Alon had even been considering carving out territory for Deus and Radan as well.

In conclusion, Alon had handed over territory in order to satisfy both his own personal interests and the children’s benefit at the same time.

And naturally, while handing over the territories, Alon had prepared himself mentally in his own way.

After all, they all had strong personalities.

......And considering the proposals themselves had also been filled with bizarre ideas, he had expected the territories might end up being developed somewhat strangely.

Yes, he definitely had expected that—

“.......”

But honestly, Alon blankly thought that he had never imagined it would be to this extent.

For a brief moment, Alon and the maids merely stared speechlessly at the gigantic World Tree growing on one side of Palantia.

Then, after finally regaining his senses and hurriedly preparing himself, the very first thing Alon encountered upon stepping outside his room was—

“Ah, did you wake up, Brother?”

Magrina smiling brightly alongside a crowd of elves.

“......??”

Alon became bewildered.

It was not Magrina greeting him that surprised him.

The reason Alon was startled was the elves themselves.

An enormous number of elves following behind Magrina.

At least as far as he knew, elves disliked leaving the forest.

However, Alon quickly regained his composure and demanded an explanation regarding the World Tree outside.

“Magrina, what exactly is that outside......?”

At that, Magrina smiled as though it were nothing at all and answered.

“It’s a sapling from the World Tree.”

“......A sapling from the World Tree?”

Alon recalled the World Tree he had seen through the window earlier.

......Certainly, if he thought about it calmly, it had been smaller than an ordinary World Tree.

“......Yes, it’s a sapling.”

Thinking, 'Well, it is smaller......', Alon looked toward the World Tree visible through the window again.

Besides the elves standing behind Magrina, he could see other elves doing something around the World Tree as well.

“......That’s a sapling?”

Alon muttered as though he could not believe it.

However, Magrina nodded as though it were completely obvious.

“Yes.”

“.......”

......Certainly, considering the size of an actual World Tree, the idea that a World Tree sapling could be this large was somewhat believable.

To begin with, the size of a World Tree exceeded imagination itself.

‘Still, even so, bringing over a World Tree sapling is a little—’

Thinking that, Alon suddenly let out a quiet exclamation.

Come to think of it, he had only just now realized that they had originally settled on bringing over a World Tree sapling in the first place.

“Ah.......”

A low murmur escaped him.

Honestly speaking, the thought 'I didn’t think they would actually bring one' briefly crossed his mind, but—

“I see.”

......In the end, Alon could only quietly nod.

And then, when the next day arrived—

Opening the curtains once more to greet the morning sunlight, Alon saw—

“.......”

A building constructed behind the gigantic World Tree sapling.

No, more accurately—

BOOM—! KRAAAASH—!

—he saw a colosseum being constructed in real time.

Yes, quite literally a colosseum being built in real time.

“.......”

Alon stared blankly ahead.

And it was not only him.

Even the merchants in the outer district, along with the maids, were standing there with their mouths hanging open as they watched the colosseum being built.

Of course, someone might have found that strange.

Building a colosseum might be somewhat interesting, but the act itself was fundamentally tedious and not normally something that drew this much attention.

However, every single person there was staring blankly at the sight.

There were two reasons for that.

The first was because the colosseum was being built at terrifying speed in real time.

Specifically, an enormous sandstone mountain that had appeared overnight—

a mountain so gigantic that simply dropping half of it could easily destroy an entire territory—

was currently being carved apart in real time.

And the second reason was the manpower involved.

Yes.

Manpower.

KWAHHHHHH—!!

A single person—

was building the entire colosseum.

KWAANG—!

Every time Seollang moved, a massive section of the sandstone mountain broke away.

And alongside that, the structure gradually took shape.

As though sculpting, Seollang casually carved the gigantic sandstone mountain apart simply by sweeping an arm or dragging a leg.

Everyone watching her wore expressions filled with awe.

[Kyuuu......?]

Blackie, who had awakened at some point, also tilted its head while watching Seollang curiously.

Then—

“Waaah—! Master—!”

Even from that distance, somehow noticing him, Seollang spotted Alon standing on the balcony.

She stopped carving midway and waved both hands high in the air excitedly in greeting.

And at that—

swish—

the eyes of everyone who had been watching that absurd display of craftsmanship instantly turned toward Alon.

“.......”

Faced with the sudden concentration of attention, Alon felt embarrassed, but still gave a small wave in response.

And then the day after that.

At the point when Seollang’s sandstone colosseum carving was still ongoing—

“My beloved! I have arrived!”

Arculainysis came to visit.

Unlike before, when Yutia had been around, she radiated overwhelming energy and confidence.

However, Alon could not help feeling uneasy.

Ever since Magrina and Seollang had started displaying incomprehensible feats, Alon had begun feeling a similar sense of anxiety toward Arculainysis as well.

The kind of anxiety that suggested she might do something entirely beyond his imagination.

However, contrary to Alon’s worries, Arculainysis appeared without any particular preparations at all, leaving him confused for a moment.

Then—

“......Huh?”

Alon saw it.

Standing behind Arculainysis—

“I have brought someone capable of creating and governing the Imperial branch!”

“......A pleasure to meet you. I am Contanias, who will be managing the Imperial branch from now on.”

......The pitiful crown prince who had been demoted from Emperor of the Northern Empire into manager of the Imperial branch in an instant due to Arculainysis’s atrocity.

“......Ah.”

Alon let out a low murmur while slowly turning his gaze away from Contanias, whose hollow eyes were staring directly at him.

......For some reason, he could not bring himself to meet his eyes.

####

About one month later.

“Fuu—!”

Penia, having just departed Divine Land where construction was progressing in full swing, was now heading toward Palantia.

‘Once I cross that hill, I’ll be in Palantia—’

Perhaps because she was excited to see Alon again after so long, Penia walked along while humming lightly.

Originally, she would not have needed to travel on foot like this.

Alon had told her he would come pick her up if she simply said the word.

But somehow, making Alon move just to pick her up felt a little strange.

And above all, the distance between Divine Land and Palantia was not actually that far.

Not only that—

though Penia herself had no particular worries regarding safety, the road between Divine Land and Palantia was not only well maintained, but also extremely safe.

The reason was the knights stationed in Divine Land.

If bandits caused trouble for anyone traveling through the area, every nearby bandit group would be completely annihilated.

Thanks to that, while bandits might attack elsewhere, they absolutely never touched the road connecting Palantia and Divine Land, allowing Penia to travel quite comfortably.

And honestly, part of the reason her steps felt so light was anticipation.

Anticipation regarding the magic Kylrus—currently living in Divine Land in a female body—had taught her.

And anticipation regarding the romance advice Kylrus had passed down to her.

......Though admittedly, her expectations regarding the romance advice were somewhat lower.

Despite personally claiming that women had always flocked around naturally, most of what Kylrus explained had been rather vague and questionable.

Still, separately from that, the magic Kylrus had taught her to measure affection was more useful than she had expected.

Of course, it required some degree of preparation beforehand.

But even taking that into account, being able to see another person’s affection level was tremendously valuable.

......More precisely, the idea of being able to see affection levels in general was not particularly interesting to Penia.

To begin with, both in the past and now, she had never really been the type to care about how others viewed her.

In other words, what interested her was not the fact that affection levels could be seen.

It was only that she could confirm Alon’s affection level.

“Ahem—”

Thinking I should try it if I get the chance—

‘What if I use the magic and his affection level is way higher than I expected?’

‘No, what if it’s beyond just high, and Alon actually thinks of me that way?’

......At the same time, she imagined the possibility—

even though she knew it was unlikely—

that if such an impossible possibility somehow became reality, what exactly would she do?

“Unghuhu—”

Letting out a somehow unsettling laugh, Penia crossed the hill overlooking Palantia without hesitation.

And so, while humming lightly, she finally took in the sight of Palantia spread before her.

“......Hm?”

The humming abruptly stopped.

Because something strange immediately caught her eye.

“......Huh?”

Penia tilted her head to the side and let out a dazed sound.

The reason was—

“A tree?”

A tree.

Not just any tree, but a slightly large tree.

No. That was wrong.

“......Uuuhh???”

The tree looked far too enormous to be ordinary at a glance.

It was not large enough to completely cover the castle in the center, but from Penia’s position atop the hill, it appeared to cover nearly an entire section of Alon’s territory.

And so, after staring blankly at it—

“......Eh?”

She was not slow to guess its identity.

“......A W-World Tree?”

That it was a World Tree.

“????”

Just what in the world was happening now?

Inside Penia’s mind, a strangely familiar thought she always ended up having whenever she was near Alon drifted through once again.