Chapter 128 - Are You a Heretic? (3)

Late at night, outside Merkillan's territory.

Though weeks had passed, traces of the fierce battle still scarred the land. Cutting through the blue moonlight, “it” appeared, draped in a black burial shroud.

As before, he quietly surveyed the unguarded outer walls, then turned his gaze and walked calmly onward.

TAP, TAP

His strides were neither long nor short, his pace neither fast nor slow.

Its first destination was where Basiliora had fought the artificial Outer Gods. Next came the spot where Marquis Pallatio had stood. Finally, it stopped where Duke Comalon had been.

"..."

The place where Duke Comalon had closed his eyes as he lay there, then turned to dust and vanished.

Staring intently at that patch of ground, it displayed a succession of expressions unlike the smile it had worn until now. Its face went blank, then it gave a small laugh. A faint shadow crossed its features before its mouth twisted grotesquely.

Then:

"So this was as far as the half-baked Magus could go."

It murmured the words, which might or might not have been a lament, and looked ahead.

"Well, perhaps it doesn't matter. Someone new has caught my interest. I'll just watch this one, too."

It turned toward the darkness.

"To see whether he truly has w҈̢̗͔̙̥̦̇̓͠h҈̡͚͈̗҇͌̈́̍̔ả̶̡͈̦̲̱̤̊̉͞ṫ̷̡͇͓̯̥͌̃̄̕̚ it takes."

The strange language scattered on the wind and vanished. No one remained there.

####

With everything over, Alon was on his way back to House Pallatio.

He gazed out the carriage window at the arrival of winter, his expression relaxed.

... Strictly speaking, the cleanup wasn't finished, but that wasn't his concern.

"My lord."

"What is it?"

"You've been lost in thought a lot lately."

Evan, who had come into the carriage while they camped, posed the question. Alon shrugged.

"I have a lot to think about."

"Do you?"

"Yes."

Until now, he had been busy concentrating on recovering, only to be summoned straight to Tern. Only now could he consider what he needed to do.

'Duke Comalon, the black things, the border, magic... Should investigating those things come first?'

No, more precisely, he needed to look into Duke Comalon's statement that “those things are coming up.”

Putting together all the information he currently possessed, Alon believed the “things” Comalon had mentioned were the Five Great Sins.

"Hmm."

This was a fairly important matter to Alon. He had made all sorts of efforts to prevent the Five Great Sins from descending upon this world.

... Honestly, he hadn't exactly worked himself to death over it. Still, to prevent their awakening, he had ensured the children destined to become the Five Great Sins were well fed and well raised, so they could grow up normally.

'I did raise them well... didn't I?'

Recalling the Sins he had met so far made him a little uneasy, but he soon calmed himself and resumed his train of thought.

What mattered to Alon now was that the Five Great Sins might appear after all, despite his belief that raising the children properly had prevented that possibility.

'Honestly, something doesn't quite add up.'

He did have some doubts about whether such a thing could happen. The Five Great Sins descended because the villains who served as their vessels had turned to darkness.

According to the game information Alon knew, most of the children, including Yutia, had grown up perfectly fine without turning evil. It should have been safe to assume that the chance of the Five Great Sins appearing had effectively disappeared.

Even so, Alon couldn't dismiss Duke Comalon's words. Having glimpsed a few hidden fragments of this world, he knew it didn't simply operate according to the game's established setting.

"..."

He recalled their conversation. He couldn't tell whether the words Comalon had calmly spoken after letting out a dry laugh were true or false.

Yet however he looked at it, Comalon hadn't seemed to be lying then.

His eyes.

They hadn't been the eyes of a madman believing his own delusions, but of someone confronting an endlessly bleak reality.

That was why...

'... Did he say south of the border?'

He recalled Comalon's words again.

South of the border.

It was, quite literally, the boundary between the allied kingdoms, where Psychedelia took place, and the Empire, where Calypsophobia was set. Alon had already intended to visit it at some point.

'... And if the Five Great Sins descend, I'll have to go there, no matter what.'

Thinking of the wasteland the players called the Badlands, he went over Comalon's words once more.

'... The truth lies south of the border, huh.'

With that inward sigh, he made his decision.

'I'll head out as soon as I've recovered.'

Anything concerning the Five Great Sins was immensely important. Besides, he had grown a little curious about Duke Comalon himself.

'... Then I'll recover first. By the time I've been to the border and back, the full two years should be up... I can go to Coloni then and ask about the spell formula Comalon mentioned.'

With that, he finished sorting out his thoughts.

"My lord."

"What?"

"Would you like a sweet potato?"

"Yes."

As Alon ate the sweet potato Evan handed him, a familiar routine, he noticed pure white snowflakes falling beyond the carriage window.

"Oh. It's snowing."

"So it is."

He chewed his sweet potato as he watched the first snowfall.

... Perhaps it was the snow, but the sweet potato tasted better than usual.

Time passed, and roughly two weeks later, Alon arrived at House Pallatio.

The next day, his eyes widened as Evan, who had checked on the territory, gave him a brief report.

"... All this treasure came from Merkillan?"

"Yes."

"All of it?"

"Yes, all of it."

Before him stood more than five carriages loaded with treasure, which he hadn't noticed upon arriving yesterday.

Looking dazed, Alon approached and opened one of them.

CLATTER!

Gold, silver, and jewels poured out the instant he opened it. Coins turned the white snow golden in a matter of moments.

"Wow."

Watching beside him, Evan let out an involuntary gasp. Alon was no less astonished. His naturally unreadable expression kept him outwardly calm, but he was currently very surprised.

'Wait, this is... rather a lot, isn't it?'

It wasn't as though Alon had never received gifts like this before. Karmakses III had given him such gifts in Coloni, and he had received similar rewards in the Holy Kingdom of Rosario.

But those had essentially all been valuable objects. He had never received so many gold coins.

'How much is this worth? No, why go this far?'

He thought, his mouth hanging open, unable to understand it.

Of course, he was the hero who had saved Merkillan's territory. And yes, without him, the territory would have been wiped out.

Still, wasn't this a little exces—

'... Philian really knows how to repay a favor, now that I think about it.'

He decided to accept the gold with heartfelt gratitude.

The more money, the better: that was simply how the world worked. And wasn't graciously accepting a gift a virtue?

'Well, Merkillan is wealthy to begin with.'

Knowing their circumstances, Alon decided to accept the gift without qualms.

"My lord."

"What is it?"

"If it's not too much to ask, could you give me just one gold coin?"

"I'll make an exception and allow it."

After gifting Evan a gold coin, Alon gazed at the carriages full of gold for a while, humming inwardly.

He had been hungry, with his fingers and toes tingling from mana poisoning. Now, somehow, he felt healthy.

A smile came to him unbidden.

Such was the first day after Alon's return to his estate.

####

Around that time, in the office at Merkillan's estate.

"I wonder if the gift arrived safely."

"Yes, it should have."

"That's a relief."

As Philian nodded, his secretary Kulan spoke up.

"But, young mas—no, Your Grace, are you sure this is all right?"

"What is?"

"The gift. Sending that much money when we need to rebuild the territory immediately..."

The secretary murmured worriedly. His point was valid, but Philian firmly shook his head.

"If Marquis Pallatio hadn't stopped Duke Comalon, Merkillan would have been destroyed. You and I wouldn't be sitting here together, Kulan."

"... That's true."

"Besides, favors must be properly repaid. Even without that money, we still have more than enough to deal with this crisis, don't we?"

"That is also true, but there could still be unforeseen circumstances."

"Kulan."

"Yes."

"There's no need for calculations when repaying a debt of gratitude. If we can repay it now, we simply do so. I'm sure Father would have done the same."

His words were firm. Kulan remained silent for a while before saying,

"I spoke out of turn."

He bowed in apology, then left to attend to his work.

Once Kulan was gone, Philian let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair.

"This is exhausting."

His face was relaxed now, unlike his stern expression moments earlier. In truth, his entire manner with Kulan had been an act.

'I don't want to do this.'

Honestly, Philian wanted to quit this performance as soon as possible. The reason he kept it up was his younger brother, Merkillan Gillan.

Initially, Philian had intended to pass the dukedom to him. Despite his disastrous social skills, he was fairly good at assessing himself objectively, and readily recognized that he wasn't suited to leading the territory.

He had been about to hand the position straight over to his brother, but...

'... We need someone at the center until the territory stabilizes, huh.'

After hearing his brother out, he had decided to take on the heir's role until the territory was stable.

Even someone as oblivious as him understood that, immediately after the artificial Outer Gods' attack, the territory was in poor shape in ways other than its finances.

["If you still wish to pass the dukedom to me once everything in the territory has been settled, I will succeed you then, Brother."]

Recalling Gillan's words, Philian gazed out the window.

Then a thought suddenly came to him.

'Ah, I want to learn magic.'

Until now, he hadn't been particularly interested in magic.

Why?

Simply because the subject didn't interest him, and because he had been so obsessed with the sword that nothing else even registered.

Lately, however, Philian had developed a tremendous interest in magic.

All because of Marquis Pallatio.

"..."

Philian closed his eyes.

The instant he did, he saw Marquis Pallatio summoning the god that had dealt with the artificial Outer Gods. Then, the marquis stopping the meteor shower in the sky.

Finally, the dazzling, utterly dazzling line that had formed at Marquis Pallatio's fingertips.

"Wow."

Recalling that moment, Philian exclaimed in admiration yet again.

It was already his twenty-third such exclamation today.

Lately, he spent his days replaying Marquis Pallatio's magic in his mind and marveling at it. He thought about it almost all day, yet never tired of it.

More than that, whenever he pictured the marquis now, he felt as though he were returning to the innocent child he had been when he first picked up a sword.

That was how deeply Philian had come to admire Marquis Pallatio.

No, admiration wasn't the half of it. Lately, he had even begun looking for first-tier magic books. He wanted to try learning magic.

And through that, he wanted to become like Marquis Pallatio himself.

Of course, he wasn't really a child. Philian knew that if he achieved greatness as a Swordmaster, he could become as strong as the marquis. He had the talent for it.

But that wasn't what he wanted.

It wasn't simply to “grow stronger.”

Philian just wanted to be like the marquis.

Like the marquis casting magic in that ashen world.

"..."

Of course, Philian knew well that it wouldn't be easy. The marquis's magical skill was on an entirely different level from that of the mages he had known. Above all, the two eyes attached behind the marquis convinced him that the man was an extraordinarily powerful mage.

Nevertheless, Philian still wanted to achieve greatness as a mage, despite fully anticipating how difficult that path would be, and fearing he might never reach its end.

That was why, despite having reached the rank of Swordmaster, he had lately begun learning magic.

"... I hope I have a talent for magic, too."

As he murmured that wish...

"Ah."

A thought suddenly occurred to him.

'... Should I put up a statue?'

It truly was a spur-of-the-moment thought, born of how deeply he admired Marquis Pallatio.

And yet...

"... Maybe that's not a bad idea?"

After all, it was true that Merkillan continued to exist because Marquis Pallatio had saved it. Philian hummed thoughtfully and nodded without realizing it.

In that brief moment, a conclusion that was neither particularly reasonable nor logical formed in his mind.

'Well, surely this much is fine before I hand the position over to my brother...?'

He rose from his seat, his decision made.

Exactly one month later, a statue of Marquis Pallatio casting magic was erected in Merkillan's central square.

Before long, the news reached Alon, who was still suffering from mana poisoning.

"... A statue of me?"

"Yes."

"... Why would they put up a statue of me in Merkillan...?"

"Well, I don't know either...?"

"..."

Alon could only fall speechless. Most nobles who heard the news were equally bewildered.

Even if the marquis had saved the territory, erecting a statue seemed a little excessive.

But those were merely the standards of other nobles.

"... A statue?"

"Yes."

"... Hmm."

Deus Makalian, one of Callivan's foremost swords, murmured with genuine envy,

"... I'm jealous."

"Pardon...?"

"Perhaps I should put one up, too..."

"Pardon...???"

... Watching Deus grow strange whenever the marquis came up, the deputy commander was once again at a loss for words.