Became the Patron of Villains

After a little time had passed.

Once Alon left the demonstration room, only then could Alon finally have something like a real conversation with Sharan, who had been making insane dog noises.

“......So you mean—you want to learn primal magic?”

“Th-that’s right?”

Sharan subtly watching for a reaction.

A look far too shabby to be called the Green Mage Tower master.

“......Wow.”

When Alon turned at the natural exclamation from the side, Penia was there with a genuinely shocked expression.

“What is it?”

“Ah, n-no—”

Penia realized belatedly that Penia had let something slip and tried to close their mouth, but then, as if it couldn’t be helped because it had already been noticed, Penia let out a sigh and whispered subtly near Alon’s ear.

“You remember what I told you last time, right? That Sharan is incredibly arrogant.”

“......Yeah.”

“It’s just—well. You know? So it’s fascinating.”

After speaking quietly, too softly for the tower master to hear, Penia pretended nothing had happened.

Just how bad were those antics supposed to be......?

Alon suddenly found it even more curious and looked at Sharan again.

Because in the game, Sharan wasn’t like that.

But—

“......Should I bark again?”

“I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”

“I’m confident I can do better this time.”

......Do better at that for what, exactly?

Clamping down on the urge to get dumbfounded, Alon looked at Sharan again and immediately understood what Penia meant.

‘At the very least, not someone with a normal way of thinking.’

Right as Alon was revising the evaluation of Sharan—

Selaim, who had been beside them the whole time, spoke to Penia.

“Well—if we’re talking personalities, aren’t you more famous than the Green Mage Tower master?”

Alon’s head snapped straight toward Penia.

Penia bared teeth with a “grrk—” and stared Selaim down.

“......Master. Please shut up.”

“Last time it was ‘please be quiet,’ and now you’ve gotten even more feral.”

“Master is evolving me.”

“I only spoke facts.”

“Excuse me, Master, is this time to share facts with each other? If so, may I share some ‘facts’ I also know?”

“......Let’s say I lost.”

Even if Selaim’s mouth was smiling, the eyes weren’t, and at Penia’s pressure, Selaim subtly averted the gaze.

Alon recalled the past of Penia, which Alon had forgotten for a while.

“Well—”

It really had been something.

While that mutter slipped out without thinking, Alon realized Penia was looking with only the eyes rolling around, and cleared the throat with a “ahem,” then naturally moved the gaze back to Sharan.

For some reason, Sharan felt like: ‘I’m ready to bark anytime.’

‘......What do I do.’

Honestly, even if Alon took Sharan as a disciple, there was no real benefit for Alon.

To begin with, the “primal magic” Sharan wanted wasn’t even something Alon could teach.

So Alon fell into brief thought over Sharan’s request, then—

“......Mm.”

—finished thinking and spoke to Sharan.

“First, I don’t think I can teach you the magic you want, Tower Master.”

“......If I bark harder, will that do it?”

“.......”

Why does this connect like that?

Sharan looked like someone with more loose screws than Alon had expected.

“It’s not that—it’s because what I used has parts that are extremely difficult to teach.”

“Ah—”

“......Do you understand?”

“Should I bark more?”

......This is the Green Mage Tower master?

“Master—”

“What is it?”

“......Green Mage Tower master, you look like your intelligence is a bit low.”

“It’s always like that. Usually that one is very smart. It’s just—when something catches that one’s attention, it gets like that......”

As Selaim said that, Selaim twirled an index finger beside the head, and Penia went “Ah—” and nodded like Penia understood.

......It’s all audible. Isn’t that rude?

Alon gave a pointless cough and continued the conversation.

“......That’s not it. Teaching you is difficult, but if you want to research that magic, I can help you with that part.”

“Research......?”

“Yes. First we’d need to talk a bit. I’m saying this only if research alone is enough for you—”

“Please.”

Sharan answered immediately, without even a sliver of hesitation.

Alon nodded, then immediately used the level transfer device and headed to Heinkel.

[You’re here?]

“Yes.”

[I watched this demonstration well. I never imagined hand seals would affect it like that. Do you have any sense of what the principle is?]

“Not really—”

[Then how did you find the right seal?]

“I’d already found various hand seals before, so I tried matching them one by one.”

Hmmm— Heinkel trailed off, about to sink into thought, and in that moment, without missing the timing, Alon spoke.

“Heinkel, I have a proposal I’d like to make.”

[......? A proposal?]

“Yes. It’s about the Green Mage Tower master.”

And Alon offered Heinkel a single proposal.

[You’re asking how about bringing the Green Mage Tower master into the research?]

“Yes. I heard there’s going to be a lot of simple computation. If so, wouldn’t it be better to have more manpower?”

That was why Alon wanted to bring the Green Mage Tower master into the research.

Because in tier magic, most of the process of extracting information required countless simple computations.

The more people there were, the faster the information could be calculated.

‘At the level of the Green Mage Tower master, that should be enough help—’

[Hmm—]

After thinking, Heinkel nodded. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

[Well—helping the research doesn’t really matter, but then why didn’t you just bring the tower master?]

“......Weren’t you trying to avoid running into mages as much as possible?”

Up to now, Alon also knew Heinkel had been moving in secret to avoid drawing mages’ eyes.

But Heinkel merely gave a light shrug.

[Well, yeah, but—since it’s not some random nobody, there’s no need to worry that much.]

Above all, Heinkel started to say “because it’s a precious slave to help the research...... no, a mage,” then hurriedly fixed the ending.

Pretending not to notice that slip, Alon nodded.

Right after receiving permission from Heinkel.

Alon went back to Heinkel again, bringing along Selaim as well—Selaim had quickly expressed, belatedly, the desire to participate in the research too, so as not to miss the chance.

“Wow.......”

“I-is that really the Cup of the Beginning......?”

“I knew the rumor you were in the mage tower, but I never thought I’d get to see you directly like this—!”

The two were filled with admiration.

As if forgetting that they themselves were tower masters, both stared at Heinkel like meeting a hero they’d admired since childhood.

[Hoohoohoo—]

Seeing Heinkel strike an exaggerated pose like, ‘See? This is how great I am—,’ Alon looked at Penia.

‘Penia was like that too.’

With that thought, Alon watched the mages for a moment.

Then Heinkel and the two mages began talking.

“Heinkel—if it wouldn’t be rude, could I dare to ask you about the past?”

[What is it? Ask—]

“It’s that—didn’t you create the mana compression process?”

[Hmm—so you know that?]

“Of course I have to know. Isn’t it thanks to you that modern mages can shorten casting time and realize magic?”

[Oh—so you know that even connects that far?]

“Haha—since I’m a tower master in the current generation—”

Sharan continued a bit sheepishly, and beside Sharan, Selaim nodded again and again.

Watching them, Alon called Penia.

“Penia.”

“What is it, Marquis?”

“Did you know about that?”

“Ah—‘mana compression process’?”

“Yeah.”

The mana compression process.

If you tried to explain it properly step by step, it was a theory with an extremely high difficulty.

Simplified, it referred to the process of forming mana arrays on paper instead of in midair—and Alon knew it too.

Because if you didn’t know this, you couldn’t really learn magic properly.

“Hearing that it relates to casting time is new to me.”

“Mm—at the root, it was made for the convenience of realization, but even just adding mana to the array itself in the shape you want speeds up casting time. The Marquis is probably using it too.”

“......Me?”

“Yes. You know this basic setup you use when you cast Light magic? That originally doesn’t exist.”

“......Really?”

“Yes, so when we simplify Light magic, this process drops out.”

“......Oh.”

Alon looked at Heinkel anew.

“More «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» impressive than I thought.”

“......More than you thought......?”

“Yeah.”

“......What kind of image did you have of Heinkel in your head, Marquis......?”

At Penia’s question, Alon thought for a moment, then—

“......A ghost who’s good at magic, floating around because the ghost wants to look tall......?”

Alon answered quietly.

“.......”

It didn’t take long at all for Penia’s expression to go cold.

A little while after that.

Three mages talked on and on for nearly hours without resting, about theory Alon didn’t even fully understand.

Beside them, right as Alon was thinking, ‘Ah, with them here, magic interpretation will definitely speed up,’

Heinkel had already come up next to Alon.

[How long are you staying?]

“Like before, about a week.”

[Hm. This time I can tell you a bit more, at least. While analyzing the second tier this time, I found something interesting.]

“That’s good news. Ah, and there’s also something I want to discuss about the magic I demonstrated earlier.”

[The magic you demonstrated?]

After confirming Heinkel’s interest, Alon conveyed the question Alon had felt while realizing the magic again.

[......You completed it, but it feels like there’s another way to use it?]

“Yes.”

Hmmm. Heinkel, thinking, muttered something alone.

A brief silence.

And then—

“!”

Heinkel spoke with an expression like an exclamation mark had popped up over the head, as if something had just been recalled.

[This is only a hypothesis, but—want to hear it?]

Not long after—

[......If that’s the case, then what do you think?]

At that—

“......I’ll have to try it.”

Alon nodded over and over.

Kalannon, the Lightning Receiver.

No—Kalannon, now active as the mascot of Kalannon the Lightning Receiver, had been living quite happily lately.

There were two big reasons.

One was that, thanks to Alon’s hint, even if only limited, Kalannon was receiving reverence from those in the Divine Land.

The other was that, recently, faith had been recovering really fast.

Of course, compared to when Kalannon existed as the Lightning Receiver long ago, the recovering faith was pitifully lacking, but even so, Kalannon still felt satisfied.

No matter how small it was, it was far more than when Kalannon struggled to stack up faith bit by bit inside Alon.

......Of course, Kalannon did think it would be nice to gain faith like in the prime.

But when Kalannon remembered those times of being squeezed dry while anxiously fearing that existence might vanish at any moment, even now felt luxurious.

So Kalannon, living contentedly in the Divine Land while receiving reverence from knights and mercenaries—

“......So you’re saying we should preach even to ordinary villagers outside?”

“Yes, Brother. There have to be believers who will follow him too.”

“......I know that, but—Marquis Palatio didn’t command us to go that far.”

Kalannon was currently listening to the conversation between Sili and Deus.

“Still, I think it’s something the Marquis would want.”

“......Hmmm, but it isn’t something the Marquis instructed. I think we shouldn’t move on our own—”

Deus answered as a loyal subordinate.

However, Kalannon knew Deus was already drumming and fiddling with things the Marquis hadn’t ordered.

Because Kalannon had directly heard, roughly, why Alon had made a Divine Land like this.

‘Hmmm—should I tell them?’

Until now, Kalannon had simply taken the form of a mascot, but recently, as Kalannon’s mascot, Kalannon had gathered enough faith to at least convey words.

‘......If this gets any bigger, that person will be troubled too.’

And so, Kalannon—who knew Marquis Palatio’s personality at least roughly—was about to stop the siblings who were trying to run like a runaway train.

“But isn’t it too much of a shame? If we bring in the people in nearby villages, his faith will fill up even more.”

“......You mean we’d be able to help the Marquis a lot?”

“Yes, of course.”

Stop—

Kalannon stopped the faith that had been about to be used.

“But the villages around here are only small villages, aren’t they, Sili? With just that many people, it doesn’t seem like much faith would gather.”

“If you limit it to only the nearby villages, yes.”

“......Then what do you mean?”

“Of course, that side is only laying the groundwork, Brother.”

Kalannon’s ears perked up.

“If we give a few villages small help along with preaching, naturally, faith for him will spread on its own.”

“......Just from that?”

“Yes.”

Deus looked like Deus couldn’t believe it.

But Sili smiled.

“To us it’s small, but to them, it won’t be ‘just that much.’”

Sili answered purely.

Listening quietly, Kalannon ended up thinking without meaning to.

Back to when Kalannon was the Lightning Receiver itself.

In truth, at this point in time, it was impossible for Kalannon to regain the old power.

But if faith stacked faster here?

......If, really, like Sili said, it became possible to gather faith from humans in earnest?

Thump-thump—

Kalannon’s heart raced.

Before Kalannon knew it, Kalannon was picturing the self from “six hundred years ago, with all underfoot.”

If more faith than now steadily accumulated—

Even if it was as a mascot, regaining the power from the prime was entirely possible.

So—

“......But Brother is right too. For us to do things the Marquis didn’t command, just on our own—”

Right as Sili muttered regretfully.

[No.]

Kalannon used divine power.

“!”

“!”

Sili and Deus looked at Kalannon with startled faces.

[Don’t be surprised. I’m his—guardian.]

After reassuring them, Kalannon hesitated, lips working for a moment.

Was it right for Kalannon, who knew Marquis Palatio’s real intentions, to say something like this?—that conscientious thought blocked the mouth.

But at that moment.

Kalannon, recalling the self from the prime once again—

[-He wants faith to gather even more.]

Instead of stopping the runaway train, Kalannon decided to climb aboard.

“Is that... really true?”

[Yes.]

“If the Marquis wants it......!”

......And then the train started really running.

[‘I, I don’t know anymore......!!’]

With the steering wheel and brakes smashed, so fast that no one could get off anymore.