Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 581: The Thing Called the Karma Seat (2)
Previously on Became the Patron of Villains...
“......So, in short, that means the sage’s words were a lie.”
“Beyond a lie, it is impossible.”
Nodding her head, Heinkel looked at the tree of formulas she had created.
“But perhaps the part about seeing the future was real.”
“......That part is not a lie?”
“Rather than that, it is difficult to call it a lie......”
Heinkel spoke with a strange expression.
“This formula is perfectly tailored to you.”
“I know.”
“It is not something you can describe so casually. In a certain sense, it is almost a little perverse.”
“......To that extent?”
At Alon’s bewildered words, Heinkel nodded.
“Yes. To explain it simply, it is something like this. Hmm— what would be a good example......”
Heinkel stroked her chin as though thinking of an example, then soon continued.
“Let us say you are building an extremely massive castle.”
“A massive castle?”
“Yes. A ve-ry massive castle. Imagine building a giant castle that would take around ten years to construct, and imagine building it entirely by yourself.”
Alon nodded, and she continued speaking.
“Anyway, let us say you spent ten years building the castle. It was quite a plausible castle. It has everything you want, and hmm— as a ‘castle,’ its functions are incredibly perfect.”
“Yes.”
“But there is exactly one problem.”
“......A problem?”
“Yes, a problem. Something truly insignificant and trivial— yes, let us say you only realized afterward that in a part of the castle that is not properly visible, specifically in the foundation, you stacked a brick backward when it should originally have been placed forward. Now then, here is the question.”
Heinkel continued speaking.
“The castle functions perfectly fine even as it is. Every function you want and the castle’s capabilities are outstanding. However, if you want to place that brick in the correct direction, you would need to rebuild the castle from the beginning.”
“......From the beginning?”
“Yes, comple-tely from the beginning. If that were the case, would you remove the brick?”
At Heinkel’s words, Alon thought for a moment before speaking.
“......If it were me, I do not think I would remove it.”
“Right? That is the natural answer. Independent systems tend to have many things like that. Since they are ultimately created by individuals, they are original, but they inevitably contain gaps. But—”
“......The system and formulas I explained just now have no gaps whatsoever?”
“Yes, exactly that. Even the issues that the creator of the system itself would never touch were all corrected before being taught to you. For your sake.”
“......For my sake?”
“Yes. In the first place, this system is one that only you can use. A system truly ‘tailored’ to you.”
Heinkel stared directly at Alon and spoke.
“You are not going to the past again, are you?”
“......Again?”
“Yes. I mean, are you going to the past and doing something with that sage you met or not?”
Honestly, unless that sage already knew you from the past, this makes no sense at all— Heinkel added that, and Alon recalled the sage’s face.
The one with ash-gray hair.
The woman whose face practically forced him to think of Yutia.
But only briefly.
“However, did you not say an artifact enters the center of my system?”
“Well, I did.”
“What exactly is that artifact?”
“Hm? I do not know either.”
At the sight of Heinkel tilting her head, Alon momentarily became flustered.
“No— since you said an artifact that could be made in the future was placed there, I thought you knew something about it—”
“Ah— that? I can roughly predict that much. If you read the system, you can approximately tell how it operates.”
Heinkel placed a finger against her chin with an “Hmm—” before continuing.
“It looked like something specialized for large-scale magic.”
“......Large-scale magic?”
“Yes. This is only a guess, but perhaps something that maximizes the efficiency of Reverse Heavens?”
“If you say maximizes—?”
“It is simple. It accelerates the generation of magic power.”
“......Uh, would that not be dangerous?”
Penia, who had been listening from the side, interrupted.
Certainly, her words were correct.
Alon already knew how to utilize Reverse Heavens, but fundamentally, the Reverse Heavens formula itself was extremely dangerous.
If he failed to withstand the overflowing magic power, his body would simply explode.
......Of course, there had recently been times when he used enough magic power to completely digest Reverse Heavens, but in those cases, his physical body itself had failed to endure it.
“I think so as well.”
“Well, even so, I do not really know. I merely traced the performance possessed by this ‘future artifact’ and made a prediction. Anyway—”
Heinkel answered.
“That sage who taught you the system, even if ultimately on your side, is still suspicious.”
She shrugged her shoulders at Alon.
And after a short while—
“Now then, I think I have finished everything I can explain regarding the system you showed me, so from this point onward, may we speak a little about the Mage Tower?”
“The Mage Tower?”
“Yes. Ah, I will say this just in case, but the magic you need to learn amounts to around five spells anyway.”
Muttering that interpretation apparently became harder the higher the hierarchy rose, Heinkel spoke, and Alon nodded.
“......So the magic I must learn and the Mage Tower matter are separate issues.”
“That’s right. But before I explain, could you look over there for a moment?”
“......Over there?”
Following Heinkel’s words, Alon turned his gaze and saw the giant gate of the old library.
No— more precisely.
“......It is transparent?”
The gate was becoming semi-transparent.
And outside that semi-transparent gate—
“......What exactly are all those people doing over there?”
“What else? They are trying somehow to catch your eye and obtain even one opportunity to receive a blessing.”
There were so many mages camping outside the gate that it was practically impossible to properly see the elevator to the old library.
And not only that—
“Move aside! We already decided it would be my turn first!”
“What nonsense! Me! I am first!!”
“What kind of bullshit is that!? It is me! I won the previous fight first in the first place!”
“Sh-shut the hell up, you lunatics! It is me!”
—they were fighting over the order of who would get to speak to Alon first and give him a gift.
“......Ah, for reference, I used magic, so they cannot see this side from over there.”
“......”
“Anyway, looking at the situation, you understand roughly, right? Of course, I have been organizing things as best I can, but things are currently like this. So I thought it would be nice if you could somehow sort this out yourself.”
At Heinkel’s words, Alon had no choice but to nod slightly.
####
After Alon left, Palantia was still being operated with tremendous vitality even at the present time.
That was because the state of Palantia was changing day by day.
In one area, elves who had never before revealed themselves to the human world brought the World Tree and decorated part of the territory.
In another place, a colosseum.
Elsewhere, eastern-style buildings were being erected.
And in yet another area, yokai had begun settling down.
At the center of that place, which was now practically transforming from human territory into a multi-racial territory—
or rather, inside Alon’s estate, which could be considered the center of the former domain—
“Hmmm—”
One woman.
No, Rine was walking through the estate.
Originally, Rine Grof should not have been here.
Yesterday, when everyone officially left Palantia saying they each had matters to attend to in order to fill the territory, she had likewise been one of those who said she had business elsewhere and departed.
Yet why was she, who had definitely said she was heading toward Lartania yesterday, here?
The reason was simple.
Tap—
Rine habitually fiddled with the orb inside her clothing.
The very orb that previously contained Blackie’s magic power instead of Alon’s, the orb Rine had thoroughly dissected, was inside her pocket.
Swoosh—
Rine took out the orb.
What could now be seen was no longer an orb containing Blackie’s magic power, but one containing Alon’s magic power.
“......”
Smiling while looking at the orb, Rine recalled three days ago.
This orb had been obtained without anyone noticing during the brief moment of greeting Alon, when Blackie, who would immediately interfere with obtaining Alon’s magic power, had merged together with Basiliora.
Of course, someone might find it difficult to understand her actions.
After all, unless one used the True Mages’ magic, the orb could not see favorability in the first place.
However, despite that, the reason Rine had deliberately returned to Palantia like this was because she had found a method.
A method to confirm Alon’s favorability even without using the True Mages’ magic.
Of course, it was not that she had become capable of using magic.
Rather, what she had become capable of doing was reproducing, through her own method, the phenomenon Penia had caused through magic.
In the end, as long as the ‘phenomenon’ itself could somehow be reproduced, nothing else mattered.
Anyway, because of that, Rine was currently heading toward the office in search of the second ingredient needed to reproduce the phenomenon: Alon’s hair.
“Hm-hmm—”
A hum briefly escaped from Rine’s lips for no particular reason.
Upon arriving at the office, she unnecessarily cleared her throat and grabbed the doorknob, then subtly looked around.
Before coming here, she had repeatedly confirmed that no one else was currently inside the estate. However, even so, she believed there was no such thing as being too cautious.
Thus, after checking her surroundings several times, Rine carefully opened the office door and stepped inside.
And soon, upon naturally seeing the empty office—
“......”
Rine glanced around once, then silently began searching for strands of Alon’s fallen hair.
In truth, if she used the golden crown, she could find it quickly, but because she knew doing so would inevitably leave traces of herself behind, she quietly shut the office door and sat down on the floor, thoroughly searching the office.
And how much time passed like that?
“......”
Rine made a hollow expression.
Because there was not a single strand of hair anywhere.
Her brow furrowed as though she could not understand it, but only briefly.
“Hoo—”
Rine calmly let out a sigh.
Calm down, I still have not searched Godfather’s seat yet, she thought, and immediately began searching beneath Alon’s desk this time.
She searched the front of the desk.
She searched the side of the desk.
She searched the back of the desk.
And then—
“......Why is there nothing......”
Along with that anxious mutter, she raised her gaze toward the inside beneath the desk.
And then she saw it.
“......”
“......”
Hiding her presence so completely it might as well have vanished entirely, Seollang was crouching inside the desk and staring at Rine.
......With a strand of black hair grasped in her hand.
“......”
“......”
An awkward silence flowed between the crouching one and the crawling one.......
