Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 576: Development (5)

Five days after that.

Well, if one counted the days that had passed, it had actually only been around three.

BOOM—! KRAAAASH—!

“...What is it today?”

“Uh... It seems to be people arriving from the Eastern Nation.”

“The Eastern Nation, already?”

“Yes. Last time I heard from Historia, apparently the lizardmen helped them partway through the journey?”

“...Are they doing alright over there?”

“They said nothing serious has happened.”

“So the Divine blood haven’t attacked them.”

Separate from all that, Palantia was growing at an unbelievable speed.

And to what extent?

“By the way.”

“Yes, Lord Alon.”

“Doesn’t it feel like the scenery outside the window changes every single day?”

“Uh... I suppose it does?”

To the point where the view outside Alon’s office literally changed day by day.

“......”

Alon quietly turned his gaze toward the scenery outside the office.

To be honest, the familiar sights themselves had not changed.

At a glance, the inner fortress was still visible, and farther away stood the auction house that had once been the largest building in Palantia. Beside it stood a statue of Alon that somehow vaguely reminded him of a certain supreme leader.

‘...Why does it feel like the head’s turned slightly to the side...?’

Now that he looked at it, the statue did seem a little different somehow, but Alon quickly stopped caring.

What mattered to him now was not the statue, but Palantia’s overall landscape.

Yes, looking at it broadly, nothing major had changed.

The left side of the scenery was now blocked by the World Tree, and in the distance a colosseum that somehow resembled part of the desert had been constructed.

Beside that, for some reason, a castle even larger than this mansion was being built, while directly behind the mansion, Eastern-style architecture also appeared to be under construction.

...And for some reason, Palantia’s population now included strangely kind elves, Golden Mane Tribe beastkin, and Eastern beastkin in addition to humans.

...The yokai who had been playing around in Divine Land while following Ryang-a also seemed to be gathering in even larger numbers.

Anyway, rather than “changing,” the more accurate description of Palantia lately was that it was “undergoing upheaval” or “constantly expanding.”

“But more importantly, Lord Alon.”

“Hm?”

“Doesn’t it feel like the World Tree is secretly growing toward this direction?”

Penia’s words.

At that, Alon looked outside once more.

“Hmm......”

Seeing how the World Tree blocked noticeably more of the view than before, Alon made a strange expression.

He knew World Trees grew quickly, but... was it really supposed to be to this extent?

Thinking that he should ask Magrina about it later, Alon then recalled something else.

‘...If even the half-demons move in here, things will become incredible in all sorts of ways.’

The half-demons were still only preparing to migrate and had not actually arrived yet.

And while he was briefly thinking that—

“Hmm...?”

“What’s wrong?”

A sudden question crossed Alon’s mind, and he spoke.

“Come to think of it, what exactly is Rine doing?”

“Uh... I’m not sure? Now that I think about it, she did arrive here, but she hasn’t really done anything with the territory assigned to her.”

Penia answered.

Alon thought for a moment, then simply shrugged.

Because Rine was not someone he particularly worried about.

“......”

Though somehow, the fact that he did not need to worry about her made him feel oddly worried anyway.

After briefly feeling that contradiction, Alon opened his mouth.

“Penia, start preparing.”

“Preparing?”

“I think I’ll need to head out soon.”

“Ah, you mean the Mage Tower and Rosario you mentioned before?”

“Yes.”

Truthfully, even now it already felt slightly late, but there was nothing he could do about it.

He still had mountains of delayed work to deal with.

More than anything, however, confirming Evan’s situation was currently the more important matter.

“Then when are you planning to leave?”

At Penia’s question, Alon thought briefly before answering.

“We’ll depart in two days. I’ve already finished all the work anyway.”

“Understood. Then I’ll prepare everything.”

At Alon’s reply, Penia nodded as though she had expected that answer.

####

That night, after Alon announced he would leave the territory in two days.

Very deep into the night, to the point that even the servants of the mansion had already fallen asleep.

Someone was descending the underground staircase beneath the annex beside the Palatio mansion—

No.

It was Penia Crysinne.

Creeeak—

Even though the stairs were not old, they still groaned noisily as she descended underground. She quietly opened the basement door and stepped inside.

And there—

“Oh my, you’re here?”

“We’ve been waiting, you know?”

“Me too.”

“I thought my neck was going to fall off from waiting!”

—even at such a late hour, Rine, Seollang, and the others were still awake, waiting for Penia instead of sleeping.

At their words, Penia awkwardly cleared her throat.

“...I arrived exactly at the agreed time though.”

Quietly shutting the door behind her, Penia walked toward the round table where everyone had gathered.

“Anyway, none of us failed to ‘collect’ it, right?”

“As if that would happen. We all took turns doing it, didn’t we?”

Arculainysis shot back.

And she was right.

They had indeed taken turns collecting the magic power.

However, the reason Penia still asked that question was—

“I know that. I watched it happen myself.”

“Then why ask?”

“...You really think I’m asking because I don’t know? All of you deliberately delayed opening them just to stay beside Lord Alon a little longer!”

—because of a very minor issue that had occurred during the magic collection process they had all agreed to cooperate on.

“Ahem. One really shouldn’t do such things.”

The moment those words came out, Magrina casually turned her gaze away as though absolutely nothing had happened.

“You’re the worst one here!”

Penia shouted toward Magrina.

“That’s right! The worst!”

“You were practically glued to him—!”

“I almost cut the entire floor apart right there.”

“I agree!”

Everyone except Rine immediately voiced agreement, but Magrina merely let out a soft laugh.

“Hah— Though I may have started it, none of you are really in a position to say that.”

“What did we do!?”

“Ar, you deliberately sat on Brother’s lap for two entire hours under the excuse of studying painting together!?”

“Th-that was because we were genuinely studying—”

“If you were studying, was there really any need to sit there? And at your age too!”

“B-but by dragon standards, I’m still young!”

“You’re still over twenty!”

“......”

Apparently unable to argue back, Arculainysis began rolling her eyes around.

Watching them, Penia eventually let out a sigh.

“Everyone, stop it. We didn’t gather here tonight to fight.”

Penia’s words.

But only briefly.

“Ahem—”

Seollang, who had remained quiet until now, spoke with a slightly awkward expression.

“But there’s a little problem.”

“...? A problem?”

In front of the confused Penia, Seollang slowly held something out.

It was the orb containing the magic power they had collected from Alon.

The problem, however, was—

“...Huh?”

When Penia had stored the magic orbs here before, she had clearly separated them individually so they could identify whose favorability each orb represented...

But now, they were all mixed together.

“...Uh, why are they like this? Didn’t we store them separately in small boxes?”

“Ahem... Well... somehow......”

Seollang quietly averted her eyes.

No one actually said it out loud, but Penia instantly realized this had happened because of Seollang and let out a deep sigh.

“This is troublesome. Now we can’t tell which one belongs to whom......”

“I-is there no way to fix it?”

At Seollang’s question, Penia scratched her head.

“It’s not impossible. If I twist the structure of the magic and open the orbs, then by using each person’s hair, we should at least be able to identify the owner of each orb.”

“That’s a relief—”

Seollang sighed in visible relief, while beside her, Ryang-a let out a thoughtful hum.

“So in other words, the favorability values will appear before we know whose is whose.”

“Exactly.”

“Hm— This sounds fun.”

“Hmph. I see. Though even then, I’ll obviously recognize mine immediately.”

Arculainysis declared proudly.

“Recognize it immediately? How?”

“Because naturally, the highest favorability value will be mine!”

Arculainysis announced confidently.

Naturally, everyone else immediately snorted as though that idea was ridiculous.

“Ahem. It’s late already, so let’s begin immediately.”

As she said that, Penia placed the orb Seollang had brought onto the center of the round table.

At the same time, she slowly closed her eyes.

And then—

Wooooong—!

Blue magic power began flowing out from Penia’s body.

Magic power far stronger than before, yet still subtle enough that no one elsewhere in the mansion would notice it, quietly wrapped itself around the orb.

And as they watched the magic flow inward together with the murmured spell phrases escaping Penia’s lips, every woman who had been joking moments earlier gradually grew tense.

“......”

Gulp—

Even Arculainysis, who had proudly declared moments ago that her favorability value would definitely be the highest.

And after some time passed—

“Imprint.”

The moment Penia whispered the final spell phrase, brilliant white light exploded from the orb at the center of the table.

A radiance bright enough to illuminate the entire underground chamber.

Yet despite that blinding light, the women all widened their eyes and stared directly at the orb.

And when the light finally faded—

“Eh......?”

Arculainysis let out a stunned sound.

And then—

““......””

Heavy silence swallowed the women.

Because the magic had failed to activate properly?

No.

The magic had activated perfectly.

More than perfectly, in fact. The numbers were so clear they could see them distinctly.

And yet the reason the women’s reactions became so strange was—

because of the numbers written on the orb.

Numbers that were absurdly—

10

12

8

0

24

72

42

—low.

“Uh......”

“Isn’t this wrong somehow......?”

Ryang-a pointed at the orb with an awkward smile.

But Penia answered with a serious expression.

“That’s impossible. The magic succeeded.”

“......Then?”

“......These are Lord Alon’s favorability values toward us.”

The moment Penia stated that firmly, the atmosphere froze solid.

Because they understood.

72 was fine.

No, honestly, it was good.

42 was... devastatingly low, but still acceptable.

24 was also......

...Yes, even 24, while heartbreakingly sad, could perhaps still be considered not terrible.

But 12?

10?

...Forget 10, what about 8...??

...And if the 0—not even an 8, but a 0—was theirs???

“......Hk.”

Someone sounded as though their breathing had suddenly stopped.

Yet nobody there asked what was wrong.

...Because although none of them said it aloud, every single woman there was thinking the exact same thing.

But at the same time, they all knew.

Now that it had already begun, they could no longer stop.

And so—

the time had come to open the Pandora’s box that never should have been opened.

“...Shall we begin?”