I Became the Patron of Villains

Chapter 154

154. The Road to Return (1)

The day after Seolgak attacked the colony.

The colony was in turmoil, almost as if it had just been bombed.

Although Seolang killed Seolgak and Line stopped the Scorpion, the damage was still considerable.

First, the walls were blown away.

The buildings along the path where the Scorpion moved were also destroyed and turned into ruins, and the area around the guild where Seolang was located was also devastated by Seolgak.

Moreover, more than 50% of the royal castle within the inner fortress of the colony collapsed due to the Scorpion, so naturally, the atmosphere within the castle was not good.

In such a situation.

“…First of all, I must express my gratitude, Marquis Palatio. We have received your help once again.”

“No, it was not me, but Seolang who did most of the work.”

Alon was meeting with Carmaxes III.

“Likewise, I must also thank you, Line Groff. Thank you very much.”

“No, I only acted because my godfather was there.”

“…? Godfather? Are you referring to Marquis Palatio?”

“Yes.”

Carmaxes’ gaze turned back to Alon.

“…Wasn’t Marquis Palatio with Seolang?”

“When that monster starts rampaging, the Marquis would be uncomfortable.”

“…….”

Rine smiled.

Karmakses, feeling a sense of déjà vu, did not respond.

He just let out a deep sigh, as if realizing, ‘Ah, she’s one of those types too.’

It was the fourth sigh he had let out since meeting Alon.

After a while, he calmed his breath and soon parted his lips.

“I’m sorry, as you know, the situation is quite troublesome.”

“……I understand.”

Alon understood the feelings of Karmakses III.

For the king of the colony, this incident was purely a disaster.

A disaster like a natural calamity, with no one to blame for the situation.

As a result, the financial damage to the royal castle from this incident would be astronomical, even if only the cost of restoring the castle was considered.

Of course, there were ways to avoid other costs besides restoring the castle, but they were not good options.

In other words, his head must be aching terribly.

……He would have to urgently plug the budget from now until the end of the year, even if it meant changing the national administration plan set at the beginning of the year.

Alon silently offered a short condolence to the man bearing such a heavy responsibility.

Soon, he left the temporary audience room and headed towards the center of the collapsed royal castle.

“Marquis.”

“Yes?”

“But, is it okay to retrieve the corpses like this?”

Evan, who was walking behind, asked.

Despite being within the combat radius of Seolgak and Seollang yesterday, Evan had no injuries, not even a scratch.

As Alon stared at his pristine appearance, Evan looked puzzled.

“……? Why are you staring at me like that?”

“No, it’s just amazing that you don’t have a single scratch.”

“……Should I have been injured……?”

“Not necessarily.”

Of course, Alon knew why Evan was so unscathed.

‘Did he say he broke the window and escaped as soon as he heard the loud noise outside?’

Alon once again marveled at Evan’s unhesitating judgment and belatedly answered his question.

“In fact, I don’t know about other kingdoms, but in Colony, it’s customary to give all the credit to the one who handles the monster. So, it’s possible.”

“Is that so?”

“Probably.”

Although he didn’t know exactly what customs existed, it wasn’t wrong since it was mentioned a few times in the game Colony.

Anyway, Alon, who was able to obtain ownership of the Scorpion through Line, soon arrived at the place where the Scorpion’s corpse remained.

“…Wow, I saw it last time too, but it’s really ridiculously big.”

“Indeed.”

They faced the huge corpse of the Scorpion that filled most of the garden.

…A corpse with its head half-crushed.

“…Line.”

“Yes, Godfather.”

“Did you handle it in one blow?”

“Um- to be precise, it wasn’t just one blow, Godfather. Its outer shell was tougher than I thought.”

Line added that it seemed to have endured about three times.

Alon looked at the Scorpion again.

‘…Should I say this thing endured well, or should I say Line caught it well.’

In fact, Alon was very surprised when he heard the news that Line had caught the Scorpion yesterday.

Because catching this monstrosity was never an easy task.

Although it was smaller in overall size than Rikrakamu, the poison emitted from the Scorpion’s pincers was so acidic that it could melt any weapon.

Especially the dozens of poisonous stingers fired from its tail, even a single hit meant instant death.

Just the act of shooting numerous stingers itself had tremendous killing power, and even if one endured that attack, it was dangerous the moment the deadly poison touched them.

In other words, the Scorpion was, in some sense, a more difficult boss to catch than Rikrakamu.

The reason he thought that the Scorpion might have endured her attack well was because of what happened last night.

When Alon, bewildered, asked, ‘Did you really handle the Scorpion?’, Line summoned Pluto out of nowhere.

‘…If it endured three blows from that, then this monstrosity is rather amazing.’

Imagining Pluto’s huge fist slamming into the ground for a moment.

“Impressive, it’s not an easy one to catch.”

Alon praised Line once again.

“It’s nothing. It’s the power you gave me, Godfather. Embarrassingly, I haven’t mastered the proper usage yet. And summoning it three times is my limit.”

“…That’s what you call not mastering the proper usage?”

“Yes. Right now, I only know the summoning trigger words and some basic usage.”

“…So, if you were to use it ‘properly’ later, could you summon the weapon itself…?”

“Maybe?”

Listening to the explanation, Alon felt a strange sense of envy.

…It was a bit cool.

“Hmm-hmm-“

Alon took a deep breath, composed himself, and asked.

“…Can I really take this corpse?”

“Do as you wish, godfather. It’s of no use to me.”

Leaving a brief thanks to Rine, who readily agreed, he moved closer to the monstrosity.

[Kyuu?]

As he got close enough to touch the corpse, Kkamangi, who had escaped from Seolang’s grasp, revealed its face.

Unlike when playing with Seolang, Kkamangi looked at the monstrosity’s corpse with eyes full of anticipation and then glanced at Alon.

It was different from the last time when it absorbed the monstrosity without permission.

As if waiting for permission, Kkamangi tilted its head while looking at Alon, making him think that Kkamangi might be getting smarter.

‘…If Kkamangi absorbs the corpse, will it also absorb the artifact of sin?’

In fact, the artifact of sin was something Alon didn’t need to obtain himself as long as it didn’t fall into the hands of the five great sins.

Anyway, Alon nodded slightly while looking at Kkamangi.

Sssssss-!

Kkamangi immediately jumped in front of the monstrosity and began to absorb it.

The corpse turned to powder and was sucked in an instant.

“Huh?”

Evan, witnessing this for the first time, was surprised, and Rine, who found it interesting, was only momentarily intrigued.

Kkamangi, who devoured the monstrosity faster than when it absorbed Rikrakmur, climbed back onto Alon’s shoulder, rubbing its head with a satisfied purr.

‘The artifact is not absorbed.’

Where the Scorpion’s corpse had been, a grayish armor remained.

He succeeded in obtaining the artifact of pride.

####

A few days after retrieving the artifact.

After confirming that Seolang had recovered to some extent, Alon began preparing to leave the colony.

All the necessary tasks were already completed, and they were planning to visit the colony again in two months anyway.

“I should have pretended to be in more pain-“

While Alon and his party were preparing to leave, Seolang, who was drooping her tail, grumbled. Alon gently admonished her.

“We plan to visit again in two months.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

As Alon nodded, Seolang, who quickly regained her smile, stood right in front of him.

“Master! Do that for me!”

Eyes filled with great anticipation.

Looking down at her childlike face, Alon now quite naturally pressed both of her ears gently.

“♩-♬”

Seolang hummed a tune, seemingly in a good mood.

Since the Seolgak incident, Seolang had been asking for this action instead of having her head patted, and Alon complied without a word.

A conversation they had a few days ago crossed his mind.

‘Seolang.’

‘Hmm? Why, Master?’

‘…Why do you keep asking me to cover your ears?’

‘Hmm- you know? It feels like I can sense your heart.’

‘…Heart?’

‘Just like I cherish you, I feel that you cherish me too- that kind of heart.’

‘Is that so.’

‘Yes.’

Cherish, cherish.

“…?”

As Alon quietly recalled his conversation with Seolang, he suddenly became aware of the sensation on his own ears.

From noble mtl dot com

…Seolang was struggling to lift her hands to cover both of Alon’s ears.

“What are you doing?”

“Hmm- I wanted you to feel it too?”

“…That I cherish you?”

“Yes, do you feel it?”

Alon let out a small laugh at Seolang’s playful smile.

“……What are those two doing?”

“…….”

The action continued until Evan, who looked at Alon as if he couldn’t believe it, and a somewhat sulky Rine appeared.

And then.

“Master! See you in two months!”

“Sure.”

With Seolang’s bright farewell, Alon left the colony.

####

The second office of the Marquis of Palatio – in other words, the space that was practically used as Fenia’s laboratory – was fundamentally very noisy.

Every day, terrifying screams of various kinds filled the air.

The screams of a violent woman and the sorrowful cries of a man – no, the sound of weeping.

Thus, among the servants, the second office had earned the not-so-funny nickname of ‘the room of death’.

─────……

Today, however, it was very quiet.

There wasn’t even the sound of something clattering or being tightened inside.

Really, it was so quiet that everyone was taken aback.

Of course, Fenia did have a visitor.

But for Fenia Crysinne to be this quiet?

She always maintained the same attitude, whether she had visitors or not.

The servants of the Marquis’ household glanced curiously at the room of death from afar.

Inside the room, instead of the usual one woman and one man, the Crysinne siblings, there were –