Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 577: Development (6)
Previously on Became the Patron of Villains...
10.
12.
8.
0.
24.
72.
42.
At a glance, they looked like meaningless numbers lined up together.
But to the people gathered in the underground annex who understood what those numbers meant—
they were suffocating.
Only silence lingered for a while.
“F-first... could everyone give me a strand of hair?”
Penia looked around at the others as she spoke.
The women, all visibly tense, each snapped off a strand of their hair and handed it over.
Penia gathered the strands together.
“Whew......”
After letting out a sigh, she plucked out one of her own hairs as well.
Tick—
Penia’s hair fell with a small sound.
“I’ll start with Ryang-a’s first.”
And just as Penia placed the hair onto the round table and was about to activate the spell—
“W-wait.”
Ryang-a hurriedly called out.
“S-so... what exactly happens when the spell activates?”
At the anxiety in Ryang-a’s voice, Penia awkwardly cleared her throat.
“It’s simple. Once I use the spell, one of the orbs will emit light.”
“...And the glowing orb is originally mine... right?”
“That’s right.”
Penia nodded.
Ryang-a hesitated for a moment.
“O-okay.”
Then, like a general preparing for a final battle, she nodded firmly.
Soon after, Penia began casting the spell.
As spell phrases flowed from Penia’s lips, Ryang-a’s hair began resonating with a low hum.
Wooooong—!
Everyone’s attention focused on the table.
And at some point, the strand of Ryang-a’s hair lying carelessly on top of it slowly began swaying—
FWAASH—!
It began shining brightly.
And simultaneously—
“!”
One of the orbs started glowing.
The orb with the number 24 written on it.
“Eh?”
The expression of Ryang-a, who had been bracing herself moments earlier, cracked apart instantly.
““Ah......””
At the same time, quiet exclamations escaped the others.
It was impossible to tell whether they sounded sympathetic or relieved.
Ryang-a grabbed the orb with trembling hands.
“Th... this is mine?”
She asked Penia.
Her voice sounded strangely choked up.
“U-uh...... yes.”
Even though she was not the one who created the result, Penia somehow found it difficult to meet Ryang-a’s eyes and subtly looked away.
“R-really?”
“Yes......”
“The spell... didn’t go wrong or anything......?”
“This really... belongs to me?”
“...Yes.”
“There’s no mistake or anything......?”
Even though the repeated questioning was irritating enough that anyone might have snapped, Penia still answered sincerely while avoiding eye contact.
Ryang-a stared blankly at the orb.
“Ahaha—”
A hollow laugh escaped her lips.
THUD—!
Still clutching the orb, she collapsed backward onto the floor.
“......”
The women all made expressions that clearly said, Oh dear...
Watching Ryang-a blankly mutter I’m 24... I’m 24... over and over like her mind had shattered, Penia sighed.
“...I-I’ll continue......”
She quickly picked up the next strand of hair.
Its owner was—
“Hmm......”
“Hmm......”
Magrina.
The moment Penia picked up her hair, Magrina unconsciously clenched both hands tightly.
“Um—”
She opened her mouth as though she wanted to say something.
But—
“No... never mind.”
She closed it again.
Because although she was frightened, she also understood something.
In the end, it was only a difference in timing.
Once the box was opened, the result would still be the same.
And so, after letting out a slow breath, Magrina stared tensely at the table.
Once again, Penia’s quiet chanting echoed through the room.
“......”
And the orb lit up.
The orb marked with the number 10.
“......Ah.”
“Ah......”
Magrina’s sigh mixed together with the others’.
...For some reason, this time the sighs sounded less sympathetic and more relieved, but Magrina was in no state to notice that.
“......”
Silently, she picked up the orb.
“...This is wrong.”
She spoke firmly.
“...Pardon?”
“This is wrong, isn’t it?”
Magrina looked at Penia.
“No, I mean— every test run I did beforehand worked perfectly though?”
“That’s impossible. Look at this. It’s 10. Ten.”
“U-uh... I can see that......”
“Think about it rationally. There’s no way Brother’s favorability toward me would only be 10.”
Magrina still had not lost her smile.
However, her voice trembled noticeably at the end.
Seeing that, Penia could not say anything and merely looked at Magrina with pity.
“I refuse to believe this.”
Magrina dropped the orb she had been holding.
Tap—
“Hmhm— In the first place, assigning numerical values to someone’s feelings through magic is absurd.”
She sank down onto the floor and hugged her knees.
“In the first place, there’s no way Sister Penia could even use magic this advanced. Mm.”
“Hey!? That’s going too far!”
Penia shouted in disbelief at the sudden insult.
But only briefly.
Looking at the two who had already mentally collapsed after seeing their results, Penia shook her head helplessly.
“...I’ll continue.”
After sighing, she picked up Historia’s hair this time.
“......”
As always, Historia stared blankly at the strand of hair in Penia’s hand with her usual absent-minded expression.
But unlike her face, the sword hilt in her hand trembled slightly, making it obvious how nervous she truly was.
Wooooong—!
Penia began chanting again.
And once more, the orb lit up brightly.
“......”
The orb engraved with the number 12.
“......Ah......”
Another low sigh escaped the room.
But Historia herself simply stood there blankly staring at the glowing orb she had received.
Five seconds passed.
Then ten.
“......?”
Then thirty.
“...Um, Historia?”
Penia cautiously called out to her.
But Historia still said nothing and merely stared blankly at the orb.
Penia carefully waved her hand in front of Historia’s eyes.
“Hello......?”
Still no response.
Historia simply remained frozen in place, staring silently downward.
No matter how much Penia waved her hand, she did not move at all.
“...She died standing up......”
Penia declared solemnly.
####
Ryang-a collapsed completely.
Magrina sat hugging her knees while endlessly muttering to herself.
And Historia had apparently died while standing.
After witnessing all that—
““......””
—the remaining four survivors exchanged incredibly complicated expressions.
Naturally, because of the remaining orbs.
The favorability values still left were:
72
42
8
0
There were no more ambiguous numbers.
Which meant they had reached the point where it was a matter of survival or death.
...Although, technically speaking, far too many had already died anyway, but still......
“...Next.”
Penia gripped another strand of hair, her expression even more tense than before.
This time, it was Rine’s hair.
“......”
“......”
“......”
The atmosphere instantly fell silent.
Not because it was someone’s turn—
but because the upcoming results truly mattered now.
And so, everyone focused completely on Penia’s spell.
Wooooong—!
The spell activated once again, and an orb began glowing.
The one marked with the number 42.
“Ah......”
Another familiar sigh escaped.
Rine quietly picked up the orb.
“That’s... a relief......”
She murmured softly.
But soon after, she tilted her head slightly.
Of course, the number 42 was not exactly low.
Especially considering all the previous numbers had been below 30.
However, that was only in comparison.
If one simply looked at the number 42 itself, it still felt strangely low.
“......”
Expressionless, Rine stared down at the orb.
...Judging from the way the corners of her normally raised eyes had drooped downward, she seemed extremely dejected.
Unfortunately, however, the remaining three did not comfort her.
“Whew......”
“Haa......”
Instead, they simply stared at one another in overwhelming tension.
“...Next.”
Penia picked up the next strand of hair.
Arculainysis’s.
“H-huhuhuhuhu—”
The moment she saw the hair, Arculainysis crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and began laughing confidently.
At first glance she looked calm, but Penia could clearly see her eyelids constantly twitching as her instincts desperately tried to force them open.
Watching her internal struggle, Penia spoke.
“I’ll begin immediately.”
Without hesitation, she cast the spell.
And then—
the orb flashed.
“Eh?”
The orb with favorability 8.
“Eh?”
“Ah......”
“Eh??”
The truth had appeared in an instant, destroying her forced confident smile.
Arculainysis froze solid.
“EH?????”
As though she simply could not accept reality—
as though she could not believe it—
Arculainysis grabbed the orb.
“EH?????????”
She repeated the same word over and over while staring blankly at the orb with wide round eyes.
“A... absolutely not! Th-there’s no way......!”
She violently shook her head repeatedly.
But then—
something suddenly seemed to occur to her.
“R-right!!”
Arculainysis quickly turned the orb sideways.
“I-it’s infinity! My favorability is infinite!”
∞
She shouted proudly while turning the number into an infinity symbol.
...Though unfortunately, both her trembling voice and watery eyes looked moments away from tears.
Sadly for her, however, everyone except Rine had already mentally collapsed to varying degrees, so nobody had the energy left to respond.
And more importantly—
“......”
“......”
—the final two women, with only favorability 0 and favorability 72 remaining, were staring tensely at one another.
Meaning nobody had any attention left for Arculainysis.
“I-I’ll do the next one.”
The moment Penia picked up Seollang’s hair—
“W-wait!”
“...Yes?”
Penia paused at Seollang’s sudden shout.
“How about we do it together?”
“Together......?”
“Yeah, open both at once...! There are only two left anyway, right? And from what we saw earlier, the magic colors separate naturally too......!”
At Seollang’s proposal—
“...Alright.”
Penia gripped her own hair as well.
“Whew......”
She forcefully calmed her wildly pounding heart and activated the spell.
Wooooong—!
The strands of hair began glowing just like before.
And then—
yellow magic power,
and blue magic power,
split apart.
“Eh......?”
The yellow magic connected to the orb on the left.
The orb with favorability 0.
And then—
“......Eh?”
The blue magic connected to the orb on the right.
The orb with favorability 72.
“......”
The confidence vanished completely from Seollang’s eyes.
Like Historia before her, she stared blankly at the orb in disbelief.
Meanwhile, Penia—
“R-really?”
“T-this really?”
“Is this actually real!?”
—kept turning the orb around repeatedly as though unable to believe the situation herself.
Then—
“KYYYAAAAAAAAAAAH—!!”
Tears of joy burst from her eyes as she celebrated her overwhelming victory.
And thus—
“24...... 24...... 24...... My boss’s favorability toward me is 24......”
“Anyone can tell this is wrong. In the first place there’s no way this makes sense, right? Yes this definitely has to be some kind of manipulation by some weird person there’s absolutely no way—”
“.................................................................................................”
“ThisisinfiniteThisisinfiniteThisisinfiniteThisisinfiniteThisisinfiniteThisisinfiniteThisisinfiniteThisisinfiniteThisisinfi—”
—the four broken women.
And—
“Uh...... this is strange? Maybe the number just didn’t appear? Looking closely, it seems like magic power simply wasn’t inserted into it......”
Crack—!
“L-look! Look! Now that I see it properly, it was 90 all along! Right!?”
—the even more broken one insisting it was 90 after squeezing the orb hard enough to distort its shape.
And then—
“KYYYAAAAAAAAAAAH—!”
—the one genuinely crying tears of happiness.
Finally—
“......”
Unlike earlier, when she had merely looked dejected—
Rine now tilted her head as though she had sincerely realized something strange.
“Hmm......?”
And then—
“...Still, thank goodness....... 24 is better than 0......”
“......”
The moment Ryang-a attempted to comfort herself after realizing Seollang’s situation—
Seollang’s glass heart shattered.
...Crack—!
And then the next day.
Alon visited the reception room to say goodbye to everyone before departing for the Mage Tower.
““......””
“???”
Seeing everyone there with hollow eyes and utterly destroyed expressions—
And then—
“Teacher......”
“Seollang......?”
“I’ll do better......”
“?????”
Listening to Seollang mutter gloomily for some reason, Alon could only make an extremely bewildered expression.