Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 293 : Sin of Greed (4)

Magrina’s gaze fell upon Eliban.

Eliban met her eyes in return.

Neither of them uttered a single word.

The air was filled with nothing but a heavy stillness.

After an indeterminate amount of time had passed in that silence—

“To be honest, I didn’t think you’d recognize me,” Eliban remarked, finally breaking the quiet.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Even though not much time has passed from my perspective, quite a long period has gone by for you, hasn’t it?”

“I’d say it feels the same for both of us.”

“Well… I am human, after all.”

Magrina offered a faint, subtle smile in response to Eliban’s casual tone.

“After such a long existence, isn’t it a bit odd to still refer to yourself as a human?”

“A long existence… well, one could say that’s half true and half false.”

At his reply, the smile on Magrina’s face vanished instantly.

Conversely, Eliban maintained his composed expression as he continued.

“May I ask you a favor?”

“What kind of favor?”

The man, who had been perfectly calm until now, paused to take a breath.

“Please keep this matter a secret from the Marquis.”

Magrina fell into deep thought at his request.

There was a significant, lingering hesitation.

Yet, Eliban waited with patience, refraining from pushing her for an answer.

“Alright.”

Eventually, she gave her consent, her brief agreement contrasting with the long silence that preceded it.

“...That’s unexpected. I didn’t think Her Majesty would agree so easily.”

This time, Eliban’s voice carried a hint of genuine surprise.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Truthfully, I anticipated a much longer discussion. I also assumed we would both have to disclose more of what we’ve been concealing.”

“Concealing things?”

“Come now~ I admitted my side willingly. Don’t you intend to do the same?”

Seeing Magrina’s continued reactions, Eliban gave a short chuckle. “You consumed it, didn’t you? Baarma.”

The moment he spoke that name, Magrina’s expression froze completely.

“You are more perceptive than I thought. No one has realized it until now.”

“I am aware of many things. For instance, I know Her Majesty has progressed far beyond simply mastering the power of Baarma.”

“You truly do know a lot.”

“But do not worry. Just as you won’t reveal my true identity to the Marquis, I have no intention of exposing yours either. Let us keep this as our mutual secret.”

Eliban extended his pinky finger toward her.

Magrina watched him silently before finally speaking.

“Since we are here, let me say one more thing, Eliban.”

“What might that be, Your Majesty?”

“If you ever do anything to my brother—”

In that instant, the world bathed in pale blue moonlight underwent a sudden transformation.

The environment shifted into shades of crimson and violet.

These colors bled together in chaos, forging a bizarre, distorted world.

The moon hanging in the night sky turned a deep violet hue.

Krrrrk—

Grotesque shapes undulated across the sky where the Milky Way once resided.

It was a horrific sight that would strike terror into anyone.

At the center of this nightmare, Magrina unleashed a terrifying wave of magical energy.

“You should think very carefully about what might happen next.”

Her glowing red eyes pierced through her green irises, staring intensely at Eliban as she whispered.

Eliban remained quiet for a moment following her warning.

“Don’t worry. I would never harm the Marquis. In fact, isn’t that precisely why Your Majesty agreed to protect my secret in the first place?”

He answered without flinching.

He was correct.

The reason Magrina chose to hide Eliban’s secret—

Was her judgment that he would never pose a threat to Alon.

Eliban’s power was formidable.

Had he wished, he could have struck Alon down at any moment.

But he had not.

Furthermore, for reasons unknown, he had even returned Alon’s ring to her.

Still, she had prepared to use force just in case.

But Eliban did not waver at all.

Instead—

A clear, bright smile spread across his face.

“Once again, do not worry. I received the same thing Her Majesty did.”

“The same thing?”

“What did you receive from the Marquis?”

Magrina stayed silent.

There were countless things she had received from Alon.

He had saved her life more than once.

He had acted as her shield on multiple occasions.

Ultimately, he had even resolved her most pressing crisis.

And that was not all.

The list of what she had received from Alon was too long to recount.

He had granted her the strength to survive among her detestable kin.

He had paved the way for her to become the queen of her people.

He had given her—

He had—

He had—

Alon had.

He had given Magrina far too much to measure.

It was so much that it could not be easily summarized.

Thus, Magrina searched for a single word that could define everything Alon had done for her.

That word was—

“Hope.”

Within the depths of a void where nothing existed, he had provided the one thing she needed most.

“I feel the same way.”

As Magrina was lost in her memories of that time, a voice suddenly pulled her back to the present.

Eliban was still standing before her.

His blue eyes shone with a light that seemed eternal.

With a gentle smile, he said, “I was given hope, too.”

Eliban spoke clearly.

“A hope that felt like salvation.”

***

Eastern Greynifra.

Once a guardian of the World Tree’s roots, she was now a member of the Shadow Leaves serving the Queen since the purification—her name was Ramu.

Keeeeek~!

She watched the approaching swarm of goblins and orcs.

There were at least several dozen of them.

Despite being heavily outnumbered, Ramu showed no panic as she tightened her grip on her spear.

A short while later—

Only the corpses of the greenskins remained scattered around her.

Their bodies had been pierced with clinical precision at their vital points, all life extinguished.

However, Ramu’s expression was far from satisfied, despite the ease of her victory.

The reason was a strange phenomenon present on the greenskins' bodies.

These were no ordinary monsters.

They were significantly more aggressive and far more powerful than usual.

But what truly caught Ramu’s attention was—

“That...”

The ash-gray patches visible on their skin.

And it wasn't just any gray.

“Why is there ash powder?”

It was the same type of ash that had once plagued the area beneath the roots.

As ash began to drift from the corpses, Ramu turned and began walking toward the direction from which they had emerged.

As she traveled deeper into the forest—

“!”

She saw it.

The creature that the primordial elf had once defeated: the “Ash Rooter.”

And there wasn't just one.

“Four of them?!”

There were four.

She was frozen in shock for a moment.

Then, Ramu quickly turned to retreat toward Greynifra.

She needed to report this immediately.

However—

Unfortunately, Ramu was forced to stop after traveling only a short distance.

Because—

Krrrk—!

An incredible number of greenskins suddenly blocked her path, as if they had been lying in wait.

“!...”

Ramu grit her teeth in silence.

***

“The control is still shaky, but it should assist your spellcasting to some degree.”

“...Is that so?”

“But do not maintain it for too long. If you don’t want your brain to fry and kill you before you even realize it, deactivate it the moment you feel an overload.”

Alon listened intently to Kylrus, absorbing every part of the explanation.

“Understood.”

Alon nodded.

Kylrus gave him a skeptical look and added, “Just in case, let me be clear: do not attempt to complete it under any circumstances. In your current state, you wouldn't survive.”

He emphasized the warning once more.

“You certainly worry a lot. I have no desire to die either.”

“I’ve never seen someone who wants to live push their body so recklessly, though.”

At Kylrus’s comment, Alon went silent for a moment before changing the topic.

“So, is this training session over?”

“You could say that. You still require more practice, but from here on, it’s something you must handle yourself.”

As Alon drifted into thought, gently stroking the purring Kylrus on his shoulder—

“Come to think of it, there is something I should mention.”

“What is it?”

“You asked before, didn't you? About wanting to unify your powers.”

Alon let out a quiet breath as he remembered.

After the emergence of the Sin of Greed became a certainty, Alon had posed that very question to Kylrus.

“It’s not so much about merging them into one, but rather that everything feels too fragmented right now.”

Kylrus studied Alon for a moment before speaking.

“To be clear, I don’t know how to unify your powers. I’m a mage, not a deity.”

“I see~”

“However, I can at least explain how you can grow stronger.”

“Are you referring to the Dragon Spirit?”

“No, I’m already instructing you on that, am I not?”

“Then what?”

In response to Alon’s question, Kylrus tapped the side of his head.

“You are different from me. Even without inheriting a mental image, you can use the spells of other mages without difficulty.”

He continued his explanation.

Then suddenly—

“Tch.”

He clicked his tongue and went quiet.

“What’s the matter?”

Alon tilted his head, confused.

But Kylrus replied—

“It seems this isn’t the right time to tell you anything more.”

He muttered those words under his breath.

“We will finish this later. It looks like something urgent is happening outside.”

He extended a black shape toward Alon.

“?”

In the following instant—

Alon realized he had been ejected from that space, as if he had been killed and forced out of a journey through the past.

While he was still dazed, trying to process what had happened—

“My lord!”

Penia’s frantic cry echoed.

The moment he saw her, Alon’s eyes widened slightly.

Just before he had gone to see Kylrus, Penia had been happily lost in her books in the library.

“What happened?”

“It’s serious!”

She grabbed Alon, her face uncharacteristically grim.

Sensing that something was terribly wrong, Alon stood up immediately.

When he followed her to the walls of the cathedral in Fildagreen—

“...That’s—”

He was speechless.

And for good reason—standing before Alon was the very same “Ash Rooter” he had defeated once before.

But it wasn't just one, like the creature from beneath the roots—

“The Ash Rooter...?”

There were four of them.

Four Ash Rooters were closing in on Fildagreen, vomiting magma and transforming the lush forest into a roaring inferno.

Alon froze in place instinctively.

It wasn't because of the sheer power of the Ash Rooters.

With Alon and the current residents of Fildagreen working together, they could certainly drive them back.

The reason Alon was paralyzed—

Was the mere existence of the Ash Rooters themselves.

To Alon’s knowledge, they only appeared when the “Sin of Greed” manifested.

And if four of them had converged in one spot, it could only mean one thing—

“No way... the Sin of Greed...”

It pointed to a single, undeniable truth.

Alon had no choice but to accept it.

Right here, in this very location—

The Sin of Greed had been born.