Became the Patron of Villains

Just as Seollang, amid the awe of the Divine blood, came to a realization no one else knew about—

far away—

“Oh—”

—a man was watching Seollang and Alon, who had dealt with the Descended One, with admiration.

“Wow— so they really won in the end?”

“Hm.”

Compared to the cheerful-looking man with long purple hair, the woman with a tattoo on the right side of her face was staring at Seollang as if she had no interest at all.

At that, one of the imperial princes who had remained silent and merely watched until now, Nataman—no, Black Eye—smiled as though the corners of his mouth might split.

“See? I told you. I said they’d win.”

“For someone who was so sure, didn’t you still come all the way here anyway?”

At the woman’s remark, Black Eye shook his head as if she didn’t understand anything and said,

“Well, obviously, it’s because I wanted to witness Alon’s growth with my own eyes.”

“...At the castle it’s Alon, here it’s Alon, over there it’s Alon. You’re completely obsessed with Alon.”

“Of course.”

“Don’t you get tired of it?”

“Is that even a question? In the first place, the reason I saved you and brought you along was because of Alon.”

“...Ah, right. You said you were going to match yourself to Alon exactly, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. Because I want to become exactly like him.”

“......”

Looking at Black Eye, who was genuinely enjoying himself, the woman made a baffled expression.

She had accepted the proposal even after hearing that goal from the start, but no matter how she looked at it, he still seemed insane in all kinds of ways.

So for a moment she looked at Black Eye with an expression that said she was already tired of him.

Then the woman quietly turned her gaze toward Alon and Seollang.

“......”

Something subtle filled her eyes.

“......Hmm.”

To be blunt, the woman could not understand why Black Eye was paying such extraordinary attention to them—no, to Alon.

Of course, that did not mean Alon and Seollang were weak.

They were strong.

And among them, the law of Alon’s that Black Eye cared about was extremely interesting.

But that was all.

No matter how she thought about it, that alone did not seem sufficient as the reason Black Eye was so fixated on Alon.

To begin with, the Black Eye she knew was not the kind of being who would care about something like that.

He was—

“......”

The woman, who had gotten that far in her thoughts, soon forcibly cut them off.

Because she belatedly realized there was no point in thinking about it any further.

She turned her gaze away.

Black Eye, still wearing that cheerful smile, came into view.

“But isn’t this a little dangerous?”

“Hm? What is?”

“You want that guy to stay alive to the very end in the first place, don’t you?”

“That’s right?”

“But for that, doesn’t it feel like you’re leaving him too free to fend for himself?”

The woman sincerely thought so.

It was a natural thought.

Alon was strong.

That did not mean his life would always be safe.

In the first place, in this world, far more monsters stronger than him would descend in the future.

“So you think that?”

At Black Eye’s voice, suddenly cutting in, the woman asked back,

“Yes?”

“I asked if you really think that.”

“...Well, yes? Honestly, doesn’t it look dangerous?”

At that, Black Eye stared at her for a moment.

“Mm— well... sure. I guess it makes sense that you wouldn’t know yet, considering you haven’t been saved for very long.”

As if he understood her, he nodded to himself over and over while muttering.

Soon he let out a laugh and pointed upward with his finger.

“?”

It was a gesture whose meaning she couldn’t understand.

Just as the woman made a puzzled expression—

“Look up.”

Black Eye spoke with a snickering face.

“Up?”

The woman looked up.

And what she saw was black clouds.

Other than that, far off in the sky, the beastkin had split the clouds and revealed the sun, but that was all.

Nothing particularly unusual was visible, so she had no choice but to voice her confusion.

“If I told you any more than this, wouldn’t that be a little lame?”

Black Eye said it with a grin, as if he was enjoying the situation.

Just as the woman’s confusion deepened even further—

“...Huh?”

She came to a realization.

That these pitch-black clouds were made.

“...How?”

That was admiration toward those black clouds—and admiration toward Black Eye as well.

Even she, someone specialized in analyzing things, had thought the black clouds were ordinary clouds.

Which meant the made clouds were so perfect that they were indistinguishable from normal ones.

And yet he had seen through them from the very beginning.

The fact that they were made.

Because of that, she let out her admiration for a moment, but soon felt doubt toward the black clouds themselves.

The black clouds were spread across a vast area.

As if they were covering this entire region.

But literally, the black clouds were only covering this region, and upon checking belatedly, she realized they held no effect whatsoever.

But that, too, only lasted for a moment.

“...Huh?”

Frowning as she stared at the black clouds, she let out a sound of realization without meaning to.

She had understood it.

“Do you get it now?”

Black Eye’s voice reached her.

Just as he said.

Only now had she realized it.

The black clouds had no meaning from the beginning.

They were merely a smokescreen made to hide that thing.

“...Ha.”

Without realizing it, the woman let out a hollow laugh.

What came into view in the eyes that had pierced through the black clouds was not the sky.

It was not blueness, nor sunlight.

Above those black clouds—

────────────────Wooooooooong

a giant body was looking down upon the earth.

Emitting green light from its eyes,

from beyond the sky.

Only a vague outline of an unseen shadow revealed,

quietly.

“-!”

And that was not all.

On the opposite side of that giant body, in that place where darkness should not exist because it was still broad daylight, a red moon had risen.

After confirming even that, the woman stared blankly at the sky with a shocked face.

At that reaction, Black Eye snickered as though he found it amusing, then jerked his chin toward another place.

“Shocking, isn’t it? In your weakened state, it’s beyond something you could deal with.”

The woman did not answer.

But as if Black Eye had never expected an answer to begin with—

“But that’s not all.”

he looked into the distance.

Far away, in the place even farther opposite from where Alon and Seollang were.

“Look over there. The loyal hound came too, didn’t it?”

Black Eye, staring straight at the woman with pentagram eyes, let out a smile full of rapture.

“Ah— as expected, you’re the best, Alon.”

Then, murmuring that as if enraptured, he turned around just like that.

“Hm? Where are you going?”

At that, the man who had also been looking at the woman with pentagram eyes alongside Black Eye snapped back to himself and asked.

“We’re leaving now.”

“Just like that?”

“Yeah. We confirmed that Alon is safe.”

“...You tried to act like that wasn’t it, but in the end, you really did come here to check whether Alon was safe.”

“Ah, did you catch me? Anyway—”

Black Eye turned his characteristically ruined gaze and looked at Alon once.

“Let’s go, prisoners.”

Soon, with a deep smile, he turned away.

The hem of the black coat he wore—similar to the clothes Alon had on—fluttered once.

And then they disappeared from that place.

As if no one had been there from the very beginning.

####

In the end, the battle between the punitive force and Astarotte ended in victory for the punitive force.

Seollang had defeated the Descended One, and since Astarotte had been devoured by the Descended One, it no longer existed.

But despite the victory, there were no Divine blood who could rejoice purely.

The damage the Divine blood had suffered was simply too great for that.

Even Alon himself could not easily be happy right then.

The reason was that Seollang, who had dealt with the Descended One, collapsed immediately afterward.

Alon took care of the fallen Seollang and headed straight for the carriage.

“...For now, I don’t think it’s a major problem.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I can’t say I’m an expert, but after looking over her overall, there’s plenty of muscle damage and plenty of physical injuries, but nothing severe enough to threaten her life.”

Penia added that her right arm had been serious, but she had already treated it in advance.

Alon let out a deep sigh and leaned against the carriage.

Then he looked at Seollang with a somewhat strange expression.

The look Seollang had given him just before collapsing came back to mind.

‘...She definitely looked surprised, didn’t she?’

She had stared at Alon with her eyes wide open as if something had startled her, then collapsed.

More precisely—

‘That was definitely...’

He had sensed longing in that gaze, and just as Alon was starting to wonder—

“Alon.”

“Why?”

“...Are you alright?”

At Penia’s question, Evan hurriedly added,

“? Did you perhaps suffer some kind of injury we couldn’t see?”

Evan checked Alon up and down rather hastily.

At that fuss, Penia let out a sigh and explained.

“That’s not what I mean. I’m talking about his law.”

“...Law?”

“Yes, because Alon’s law also—”

Penia got that far, then glanced at Alon once before looking out the window.

What she saw were the Divine blood now slowly moving toward this place from far away.

Even though she had already put up several layers of shielding barriers, she was still being cautious about information leaking, and Alon answered her.

“It’s fine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I didn’t suffer any damage. But—”

Alon’s law was simple.

By placing a “restriction,” he received a greater “price” in return.

But even if he placed a restriction, that was only Alon’s law—it was not the risk he bore for using the law itself.

And the restriction Alon suffered when using that law was losing his power.

That was right.

Once Alon used his law a single time, he became an ordinary human who lost all of his power for about half a day.

That was the restriction of the law Alon possessed.

Of course, if Alon placed the law on himself, he could offset the restriction itself through the merit generated by that law, but when he used the law on another person like this, he became temporarily defenseless.

“—it is a little worrying.”

When Alon turned his gaze and looked out the window, Penia let out a quiet sigh as if she understood what he meant.

Now that Seollang had fainted, and now that Alon had weakened from using his law, if the Divine blood started running wild, there was no way to stop them.

Of course, among the surviving Divine blood, there did seem to be many who belonged to Starlight Root, but even that did not give Alon much comfort.

Speaking coldly, in this battle Alon had not shown as much power as they thought he had.

Alon was aware that the reason Starlight Root followed him came from a certain misunderstanding.

And he also knew that this was only possible because that misunderstanding had inflated their image of his strength several times over.

But in the current situation?

In truth, it would not be wrong to say that all of Alon’s real means had now been exposed.

Because he had not shown anything especially meaningful in this battle.

Which meant that at this point, the Divine blood might very well run wild, so he spent a moment thinking over it—

“U-um, Alon? The Divine blood are gathering around the carriage.”

“...I’ll go out.”

At the words that the Divine blood were gathering around the carriage, Alon headed outside while turning the situation over in his mind and trying to figure out how to break through it.

When Alon stepped out of the carriage, the sight of the gathered Divine blood came into view.

Not only the Divine blood of Starlight Root, but Divine blood from every other affiliation had gathered as well.

‘...Do I have no choice but to sell Seollang out, then.’

And so, at the very moment Alon was seriously considering whether he should lie and say, ‘Seollang just woke up’—

[Please—accept me into Starlight Root as well!]

Alon saw a Divine blood suddenly step forward, bow its body, and speak.

“?”

The sudden ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) development made Alon question it.

But before he could even question it—

[Please, accept me too!]

[I’ll devote myself to you—!]

[I will follow the Star Eater to the very end!]

The Divine blood began one after another to bow their heads before Alon.

And Alon—

“......??”

behind his blank expression, could only stand there bewildered.

...This isn’t how this was supposed to go? That thought passed through Alon’s mind.