Became the Patron of Villains

After Kalannon finished speaking,

Alon, who had been thinking for a long while, finally opened his mouth.

“I understand the general idea.”

“Do you? That’s a relief.”

“There is one thing I want to ask, though.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“I understand well enough how a god can be created. But doesn’t a god’s power only grow stronger when ‘faith’ accumulates?”

He did not know why.

In any case, thanks to his evolved divine power, it had become possible for Alon to create gods.

That much, he was fine with.

But even if he could create gods, whether those gods could actually be useful in reality was a different matter.

Fundamentally, one reason gods were strong was their own unique abilities, but in the end, the essence of it all was faith.

To begin with, a god’s abilities and the strength of that power came from faith.

In other words, no matter how they gained the ability and became a god, if they had little faith, they would not become all that strong.

“Mmm, that part is true.”

Kalannon nodded.

Because Alon’s question was reasonable.

However.

“But—! I already thought about that part too!”

“...Did you?”

“Of course!”

Kalannon wore a slightly sly smile, then raised one hand again and shaped divine power.

Soon, she formed a human-shaped figure on the other side.

“All right, then I’ll explain from here.”

She drew Alon’s focus.

“First, you pick one Apostle you like and give them divine power.”

Just as she said, a small piece of divine power split off from the planet and slipped into the human-shaped figure.

“That way, after receiving the grace of our greatness, they gain the power of a god.”

Then it began to shine.

“And then the person who became a god through our grace would feel gratitude toward us, right?”

“...Well, yes.”

“And because of that gratitude, faith flows back /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ to us. Then—”

A thin thread sprang out from the human-shaped figure.

That thread stuck into the divine power, and from the divine power, which had grown just a little, she split off a bit more and put it back into the human-shaped figure.

“And then you pass back about 80% of the faith they offered through belief. Infinite power achieved!”

Kalannon nodded firmly with a look that said it was flawless.

When Alon blanked out for a moment, she asked,

“Huh? Is there a part you don’t understand? I thought I explained it at a level even a cat could understand.”

“...No, it’s not that I didn’t understand.”

“Then is there a problem?”

“Not exactly. If anything, it’s perfect. But—”

After thinking for a moment, he asked,

“Why only give back 80%? Couldn’t you just return all the faith you received?”

A simple, rational point.

If he returned 100% of the faith instead of 80%, they would grow much faster, so when Alon asked—

“Oh, come on—”

Kalannon shook her head like he had no idea what he was talking about.

“—we’re not digging in the dirt to make a living either. You’ve got to leave something for yourself.”

That was what she said.

At the sight of Kalannon looking at him like, Come on, this isn’t your first time, why are you acting like such an amateur, Alon felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

“...Kalannon.”

“Yes?”

“Do you talk to Sili often, by any chance?”

“Mmm—no? Not often, maybe once or twice...? But why?”

Kalannon tilted her head.

Alon fell silent.

‘...Has Kalannon been assimilated by Sili, or has Sili been assimilated by Kalannon...?’

That was what he was thinking.

####

“I understand the overall framework, but it looks like I’ll need some preparation.”

“That’s true, right? You’ll probably need to relearn how to draw out divine power right away, and more than anything, you’ll need to automate it.”

“...Automate?”

“Yes. Unless you’re planning to constantly check it every single day and scatter divine power around by hand. Wouldn’t it be better to set it up in advance so that when faith naturally comes in, about 20% gets recovered and the rest gets distributed?”

At that, Alon let out a brief sound of admiration.

“Oh.”

Then he nodded.

“That is a good idea.”

“Right?”

“How do you do that?”

“How would I know?”

“?”

Silence briefly wrapped around the two of them.

“...Why don’t you know?”

“Uh... Well, I’m really weak when it comes to this kind of thing...?”

“You were the one who suggested it.”

“That’s true, but how should I put it... Mmm... Think of it as me giving you creativity?”

Kalannon wore a face that plainly said, Other than that, no clue?

For just a moment, Alon looked at her with the heart of an engineer staring at a designer who had proposed a Bluetooth shower that wasn’t even connected to plumbing and yet somehow expected water to come out.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Yep.”

With that, he left.

“Nya—”

When he returned to reality, Kalannon was rubbing her face against Alon’s hand while swaying her head from side to side.

Alon did not stop it and simply stood there blankly.

Then—

[Kyuu?]

“Nya?”

Smack—!

Blackie suddenly burst out from his chest and landed a full kitty punch right on Kalannon’s head.

“Nyaaaang!?”

Kalannon bolted away in a panic, and Blackie stubbornly chased after it.

Alon watched the two of them for a moment, then let out a sigh and tried to rest for a bit, but—

“Lord Alon!”

A very flustered-looking Evan suddenly rushed in.

“What is it?”

“Outside...! It’s a little strange to explain...!”

“...Something strange?”

“F-first, please come outside quickly...!”

Though puzzled, Alon rose from his seat and headed outside the tent.

The moment he stepped out, what he saw was—

“......”

the Divine Land’s soldiers.

Soldiers gripping their weapons with tense expressions.

Among them stood Historia, Ryang-a, and Sili, all with hostile looks on their faces, and in the middle of them all...

something strange.

What it wore was a pitch-black, ink-dark cloak.

The next thing visible was a bull-shaped skull with massive horns growing from it, and blue ghostly light shining from within it.

And then—

“Greetings, Palatio Alon, King of Palantia.”

That unknown thing had been showing leisure even in the middle of the tense standoff, but the moment it confirmed Alon’s presence, it politely bowed its head in greeting.

“...Who are you?”

Preparing for any possible development, Alon spoke while forming hand seals inside his pocket.

However, the skull mask maintained its polite manner and pulled something from its pitch-black cloak.

“There is no need for such concern. I did not come here to fight.”

It courteously passed that thing over to Alon.

Naturally, it floated up into the air and headed toward him.

Alon caught it without difficulty.

‘...A letter?’

He realized what it was.

“O King of Palantia, who belongs to the Allied Kingdoms, the time has come for you to uphold the ancient contract of the continent.”

“What...?”

And with that—

“Then I shall take my leave.”

After leaving that final greeting behind, the skull mask vanished from the spot in an instant.

Because of the skull mask’s sudden disappearance, murmurs began spreading through the crowd.

Alon opened the letter he had been handed without hesitation.

And—

----

The ancient covenant hereby summons you, two months from now, to the Central Tower located at the heart of the continent. You who shine upon your respective thrones shall answer this call and gather at the appointed place.

This is an order that cannot be defied, and a sacred duty for the sake of the continent. Should any who receive this decree disobey and fail to attend, that one shall be deemed a traitor to the covenant, stripped of the abilities granted through participation, and cast out.

----

“!”

The hand holding the letter trembled for a moment.

He could not help but be shocked.

Because what was written in the letter was about the ‘contract of seeking the Way.’

However, that was not the only reason Alon was surprised.

The fact that the contract of seeking the Way was truly being carried out told Alon something else as well.

The contract of seeking the Way had been something that came from Siyan’s inference...

and if this was really being carried out, then—

‘...Second round.’

It meant the odds that this world was truly in its second round had grown even higher.

“......”

The countless thoughts he had previously put off came flooding back into Alon’s mind like a waterfall.

If it was the second round.

If this really was the second round—

If this was a repeated life—

Those assumptions mixed together chaotically,

and one by one, the puzzle pieces that had never fit together began filling in.

But only for a moment.

Alon forcibly shut down the thoughts pouring over him like a waterfall.

At the very least, this was not the time to get lost in contemplation.

It was not as though there was some conclusion he did not particularly want to infer, either.

...Probably.

####

Right after the situation was settled—

“...So, are you thinking of going?”

At Penia’s question, Alon, who had been thinking for quite a while, nodded.

“I’m planning to go for now, but is there something bothering you?”

“No, not really. It’s just— a little fascinating.”

When Penia muttered that she had heard of it but never thought it actually existed, Evan, standing beside her, asked,

“But where is this Central Tower on the continent? We need to know that before we can even talk about going there.”

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about that. I think the letter itself is the guide.”

“...The letter is the guide?”

“Yes. If you tear up the letter, it’ll probably lead the way naturally.”

“Oh—”

Evan sounded impressed, and Penia looked down at the letter.

Watching them, Alon closed his eyes for a moment.

Ever since the contract of seeking the Way had arrived, all kinds of thoughts had been constantly surging through his head.

Of course, he had already thought before that Siyan’s words probably weren’t entirely wrong, but now that inference had moved one step closer to the truth.

However—

“Mmm—well, if it’s two months from now, then we do have time. What are you planning to do?”

At Penia’s voice, breaking his train of thought, Alon naturally pushed those matters aside again.

No matter how important they were, they were not what was important ‘right now.’

“If we assume the Central Tower is really at the center of the continent, how long would it take?”

“Mmm—if we travel normally, about a month... and a little more than that, I think.”

“...Then we have about two weeks left?”

“Do you have something to do?”

At Penia’s question, Alon nodded.

“There’s something I need to experiment with.”

“An experiment?”

“Yes.”

Alon told her about his conversation with Kalannon.

Penia listened in silence for a long while, looking very surprised, then—

“...So your goal is to create a magic circle that automates the process?”

—soon arrived at that conclusion.

Alon shook his head.

“Hm? Is it not?”

“No, that’s right. But— there’s one more thing I want to test.”

“Mmm?”

Seeing Penia’s questioning expression, Alon thought.

In truth, the very first thing he had felt when Kalannon told him he could create gods was confusion.

And then, when Kalannon proposed a practical method,

he had suddenly thought of Babiloia.

The nation created by that one who had wanted to become a god,

a country that had existed even before the forgotten age of the past.

...The True Mages.

As far as Alon knew, any citizen belonging to Babiloia could become a True Mage.

The one who defined the laws had been a god, but using them had been permitted to anyone.

In other words, the Divine blood that created Babiloia had taken a form very different from what existed now,

and even if it was very different from what Alon was imagining, in the end, it had been able to plant the possibility called a ‘seed’ into everyone who believed in it.

And according to what the Blue-Eared One had said,

Alon, too, was ‘Divine blood.’

If that was true.

If it really was true—

‘There’s no reason I couldn’t do it too.’

It meant Alon might be able to do it as well.

Not granting power one person at a time, but inevitably planting a ‘seed’ into all those who believed in him.

“......”

A small resolve settled into Alon’s eyes.