Chapter 145 - Toward Coloni (2)

“You can look forward to your gift.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“... Then I shall.”

“Please do.”

Watching Rine smile faintly, Evan leaned toward Alon and whispered.

“You must be pleased, my lord.”

“Why?”

“Weren’t you sulking last time because you didn’t get a birthday present?”

“... I did no such thing.”

Alon answered calmly.

... But Evan wasn’t wrong. Truthfully, he had been just a little disappointed.

'... If she hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have expected anything.'

Of course, he had no intention whatsoever of blaming Rine for having promised him a gift. A birthday present was up to the giver; it would be ridiculous for the person celebrating to demand one.

Just then, Rine spoke.

“So you were looking forward to it.”

“Pay him no mind. Evan is just talking.”

Rine chuckled softly.

“Don’t worry, Godfather. I’ll be sure to give you a gift this year.”

After that little exchange, Alon finally brought up his real reason for coming.

“Rine, I read your letter, but...do you know anything else about Death Shadow Dragons?”

Rine’s gaze shifted to Blackie, nestled against Alon’s chest inside his coat.

“That’s the Death Shadow Dragon, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm...”

After pondering for a moment, she began slowly.

“Actually, I did some more research after you asked about Death Shadow Dragons, Godfather. But there wasn’t much more information to be found in the places I can access.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

An odd expression crossed Alon’s face at her answer.

'I suspected as much when I received her letter, but Death Shadow Dragons must be more dangerous than I thought.'

The reason he had wanted to ask Rine about the Death Shadow Dragon ever since obtaining its egg was that he knew she had a Library inside her mind.

That Library contained most information, excluding “things that must not be known.”

To be precise, even information about “things that must not be known” existed in the Library in her mind. It was simply housed in the forbidden section, which, according to the setting, was sealed and inaccessible to Rine.

Of course, Alon knew how to open the forbidden section, but he had absolutely no intention of letting that happen.

Doing so required accepting the Five Great Sins.

While he recalled that fact, Rine added,

“Still, it’s not as though I found nothing at all.”

“Really?”

“Yes, though I’m not sure how useful it will be.”

She shared the rest of what she knew, and Alon listened in silence.

Some time later...

“That’s everything.”

“Hmm...”

Alon nodded without realizing it. As she had warned him, not all of it was useful. Still, he had learned two things.

“Once a Death Shadow Dragon has grown and fulfilled certain conditions...it becomes a god?”

“I don’t know the exact details either, but according to the information I found, unlike a Shadow Dragon, a Death Shadow Dragon can obtain divine stature if it overcomes its destructive urges and grows by consuming unclean things.”

First, Blackie could become a “god” if it grew up properly.

“... And Blackie is different from other Death Shadow Dragons?”

“Yes. I’ve only read about them, so I can’t know for certain, but Death Shadow Dragons normally can’t change from their original form. That remains true even after they regain their reason.”

“... So normally, it couldn’t take the form of a cat like this.”

“That’s right, Godfather.”

Second, Blackie was special.

Alon stared blankly down at Blackie.

[“Mew?”]

Blackie tilted its head, looking utterly harmless.

'... It doesn’t really feel that way.'

Of course, he had seen the forms Blackie took when attacking its opponents. But since it always looked like this around him, the idea of its “original form” simply felt unfamiliar.

After studying the black cat for a while, he suddenly recalled something.

'Then when it ate Rikrakhamur back then...could that have been part of this?'

He briefly remembered the scene, then felt a little relieved. If, as Rine said, Death Shadow Dragons merely consumed unclean things, that meant Blackie wasn’t being influenced by an abomination’s nature.

'It does seem a little different from an ordinary Death Shadow Dragon, though... Well, I’ll have to be satisfied with learning this much for now.'

Alon stroked Blackie’s head once, then turned to Rine.

“It must have been difficult to find that information. Thank you for telling me so much.”

“Not at all. You asked me to, Godfather.”

Rine smiled brightly.

Watching her, Alon cleared his throat. He had one more favor to ask.

“It feels rather shameless, but may I ask you for another favor?”

“Of course. What is it?”

Her agreement without the slightest hesitation encouraged him to go on.

“Could you arrange a meeting with Perion?”

“... By Perion, do you mean the commander of the Kaltz Mercenary Company, which settled in Lartania two years ago?”

“That’s right.”

“Why do you want to see him?”

Rine tilted her head curiously. Naturally, she might wonder. Alon and Perion had never had any connection before.

Nevertheless, Alon wanted to meet him because he possessed an item Alon needed.

Perion, commander of the Kaltz Mercenary Company.

He was a character players could meet after progressing through a fair number of quests in Psychedelia’s labyrinth city, Lartania. Outwardly, he pretended to be human, but he was actually an elf from the territories of the nonhuman races to the south.

'I’m sure...he came to Lartania to find something.'

Unfortunately, Alon remembered no more than that. As far as he knew, Perion clearly ranked among the powerful, but he remained one step removed from the player’s story.

'I think he became one of the main characters with the DLC.'

But Alon had never played the DLC. New content was welcome, but he had heard that adding it made the main game considerably less enjoyable.

In any case, that left his impression of Perion quite simple: someone who gave you an item you needed for a mage playthrough.

“I have something to negotiate with him.”

Originally, he had planned to meet Perion without asking Rine. But he had overlooked one thing: Perion wasn’t as easy to meet as he had expected.

As a player, he had encountered him naturally while resolving several major incidents in the labyrinth. Only after arriving in Lartania had he belatedly realized that, for a mercenary, Perion was unusually reluctant to meet people.

Rine, of course, answered readily, as though it were nothing.

“If you’d like, Godfather, I’ll arrange a meeting for tomorrow.”

“You can do that?”

“Of course. If that’s what you want.”

She smiled.

####

Meanwhile, outside the window of Rine’s shop, Merd, Yuna sat concealed on a tree branch, studying Alon’s face intently.

'Hmm... He really doesn’t look particularly special. Why are the Moons so fanatically devoted to him?'

Eventually, she even tilted her head a little.

It was pure coincidence that she was watching what was happening inside through the window overlooking Merd’s office. She had come to relay Yutia’s message to Rine. Their schedules had happened to overlap, allowing her to see Alon with Rine.

After secretly watching the two for a while, Yuna recalled what Alon had said earlier.

'... A birthday.'

A birthday.

The word had never stirred any particular emotion in her, yet now it felt strangely new. She had heard that the Great Moon, whom the Moons worshipped with such fanaticism, had been a little downcast over not receiving a birthday gift.

'... Of course, that was only what his guard said. The Great Moon himself showed no expression...'

She couldn’t tell whether it was true or merely a joke from the knight, who was exceptionally close to the Great Moon. After a moment’s thought, however, Yuna decided.

'... Should I tell the other Moons about this too? I have to visit them all anyway.'

She would tell the other officers that “the Great Moon seems to feel a little disappointed if his birthday goes uncelebrated.”

... A decision that might prove a little dangerous.

####

In Alon’s mind, Perion, commander of the Kaltz Mercenary Company, was a knight of strong convictions despite being a mercenary.

Perhaps because he was disguised as a mercenary, he looked outwardly like a knight who simply drifted through life. But no player actually thought of him that way.

Amusingly, he had only disguised his appearance, without bothering to make his behavior match. As a result, he came across quite openly as a man of remarkably unwavering convictions, and the players’ interpretation was not far off.

He was, in fact, a knight known among the elves as a “Pagade”—a rank considered slightly above Callivan’s Master Knights.

Knowing something of Perion’s circumstances, Alon intended to negotiate for the item he wanted.

'... Getting what Perion wants will mean going down into the labyrinth, so it’ll take a few days. Still, considering how useful this will be later, it’s worth the trip.'

He had finished his calculations and decided to spend those few days.

The next day, following Rine’s arrangements, he finally met Perion.

“... I’m Perion, of the Kaltz Mercenary Company.”

“I am Marquis Pallatio, a noble of the Kingdom of Asteria.”

“Ah, yes, well... I’ve heard a great deal about you.”

“Yes...”

But this was not the knight overflowing with conviction beneath a carelessly disguised exterior whom Alon knew so well.

“Well—”

“Yes, yes, of course—please go ahead.”

Instead, he found a thoroughly cowed man.

Even as they spoke, Perion kept surreptitiously glancing aside, then averting his eyes. Naturally, Alon turned to see where he was looking.

“Is something wrong, Godfather?”