Chapter 146 - Toward Coloni (3)

"Ahem."

Alon cleared his throat and went straight to the point for Perion's sake, since the man was plainly uncomfortable being here.

"To be direct, I need Rumiel's Oath."

"... Rumiel's Oath, you say?"

Perion's previously cowed expression gave way to a look of mild surprise.

That reaction was only natural. Rumiel's Oath was one of the elves' thirty-two secret treasures, and he had never once shown it to anyone while disguised as a human. In other words, Perion could only conclude that Alon knew his true identity.

"Let's have everyone step out for a moment. Rine, I'm sorry, but would you give us some privacy?"

"Of course."

Rine immediately bowed her head and left the room.

After confirming that all the mercenaries who had accompanied Perion had withdrawn as well, Alon spoke again.

"Now that the outsiders have left, let's discuss this properly."

"... I'm not sure what you—"

"There's no need to try so hard to deny it."

"..."

When negotiating rather than threatening someone, putting pressure on the other party in any form was not a particularly good choice. Even so, Alon was applying somewhat unnecessary pressure for two reasons.

First, unless he opened this way, acquiring Rumiel's Oath would take an extremely long time. If he approached it like a player in the game, he would have to stay in Lartania for at least a year.

Second, he was certain Perion would accept his offer despite the pressure.

Alon looked at Perion, whose expression had grown serious—perhaps because Rine had left.

"Of course, I'm not asking for Rumiel's Oath without offering anything in return."

"... Who are you?"

His voice was wary. Alon answered calmly.

"I don't think you need to concern yourself too much with who I am right now. All that matters is that we're clear about what each of us will give and receive."

"..."

"One thing I can assure you of is that I won't go around selling information about your identity."

"... I'll hear you out."

After some deliberation, Perion slowly nodded. Alon laid out his terms without hesitation.

"If you give me Rumiel's Oath, I'll tell you where to find the item you're looking for."

"... The item I'm looking for?"

"Lagierni's Blessing."

"!"

Perion's eyes widened, and he involuntarily shifted in his seat.

"..."

Alon was a little puzzled by his reaction. Of course, the mere mention of Lagierni's Blessing could surprise him. Normally, no one but Perion and the queen should have known he was searching for it.

'Even taking that into account, his reaction is a little extreme. Well, he did say it was incredibly precious in the game. Maybe that's why.'

In any case, in the original game, Perion wandered in search of Lagierni's Blessing, only to give up and return home in the end.

The reason Alon knew where to find that elusive item was simple: the secret room on the forty-second floor. It could be obtained there, a place he always visited while grinding in the labyrinth.

Of course, he had never once given Perion the Blessing in the game. No matter how quickly the player reached the labyrinth and began the quest, Perion invariably left Lartania by the time they were tackling the fortieth floor or higher.

'Yes, I know it's precious...'

Alon quietly watched Perion, whose hands were now trembling, before continuing.

"... I think telling you where to find it would be sufficient payment. What do you think?"

"You're saying you know where that heirloom is?"

"Yes. If you agree to the deal, I'll tell you its location."

"... You expect me to believe that without any evidence?"

"Just make this one point clear. If I tell you where the Blessing is, will you agree to the deal?"

A brief silence followed. Then Perion nodded.

"... If the information is true, I will."

As expected, the negotiation was a success. Inwardly, Alon smiled in satisfaction.

"At the eastern end of the forty-second floor. There's only one path, so it should be easy to find. Follow it until you reach a dead end, then look for a switch."

"A switch...at the dead end?"

"Yes. You'll find the Lagierni's Blessing you're looking for there. I'll wait until afterward to receive Rumiel's Oath."

For a while, Perion looked utterly perplexed.

"... Even if your information is true, have you not considered that I might take the item and run?"

It was a natural question, and Alon had a ready answer.

"I don't think you would break faith, one of the laws of the Pagade."

"...! How do you know I'm a Pagade...?"

"Who knows?"

Perion was greatly startled once more. Alon deliberately remained vague. There was no mystery to how he knew; he had simply repeated something Perion himself had told him while he was playing the game.

He had considered simply saying he trusted him instead of couching it in such roundabout terms. But the game had repeatedly shown how fiercely proud Perion was of being a Pagade, so he had deliberately responded this way.

In short, it was as good as telling him not to try anything foolish.

'Well, judging by how he acted in the story, he isn't the type to break a promise even without that.'

Hadn't Perion nearly died keeping a promise to the protagonist?

As Alon recalled that episode, he found himself puzzled again.

'... Though I don't know why he's so surprised.'

If he knew about the hidden treasure, Lagierni's Blessing, surely knowing about the Pagade wasn't so strange?

"... I think I'll need about a week to verify this."

At Perion's words, Alon rose.

"I'll wait."

With that, he turned away.

A little later.

"Did your discussion go well?"

"Yes. But, Rine."

"What is it, Godfather?"

"I'm only asking just in case, but I heard you're the only high councilor left..."

Alon let his words trail off, but Rine answered readily.

"Yes."

"Did you perhaps...um...do that deliberately?"

"No? I didn't do it."

"... Really?"

"Yes. Why would I bother doing something like that myself?"

Rine smiled.

'... Does she mean she knows what's happening but didn't do it herself, or that she knows nothing about it at all?'

Alon considered asking further, then held his tongue. He only thought that he ought to pay a little more attention to Rine.

####

About five days after Alon's meeting with Perion.

"... Thank you."

"I take it you found it."

"Yes. I was able to find Lagierni's Blessing."

Alon met Perion again sooner than expected. Perion bowed his head a little more respectfully than before.

"Thank you very much."

As though wishing to convey his sincerity, Perion bowed deeply at the waist, then took a ring from inside his coat and handed it to Alon.

It looked as though it had been made from a plant's stem, yet it did not look flimsy in the slightest. Alon immediately recognized it as Rumiel's Oath and thanked him as he accepted it.

"Thank you."

"... May I ask you one question?"

Perion made the request cautiously.

"What is it?"

After a moment's hesitation, Perion gazed steadily at Alon.

"... How did you know where Lagierni's Blessing was?"

His voice held a mixture of suspicion and curiosity.

Alon remained silent for a moment, looking at Perion's hand. He was holding the dagger, Lagierni's Blessing.

"That's—"

He could hardly say it was because he had encountered it countless times in the game.

"I'll leave that to your imagination."

In the end, that was the only answer he could give.

"My imagination, you say?"

"Yes, I understand."

After exchanging a final, brief farewell with Perion, who bowed his head without questioning him further, Alon went outside.

'Hmm...? Come to think of it, I don't think Perion ever bowed to anyone.'

For a fleeting moment, he wondered whether the laws of the Pagade included a clause forbidding them from bowing their heads to anyone except the queen.

'I suppose Lagierni's Blessing must have been that important a relic.'

He dismissed the matter with that conclusion. Then he put away the ring and began preparing to leave, satisfied. Everything he needed to do in Lartania was finished.

["Bwahahahahaha! All the money in this world is mine!!!"]

"This is so fucking infuriating!!"

["I don't care! Just hand over the money!!! That's 5,500 gold coins!!"]

As soon as he returned to Merd, Alon told Basiliora and Evan they would be leaving soon. The pair had been obsessed with the Psychedelia version of a board game for more than three days already, laughing and crying over every bit of fake money.

"Godfather."

He turned to Rine as she called to him.

"What is it?"

"If you're going to Coloni, may I come with you?"

"... Do you have business there?"

"Yes. As it happens, there's something I need to check on."

Alon considered it briefly, then nodded. He had two reasons for going to Coloni. One was to visit the ruins and meet the dragonkin, but there was something else as well.

'... There's an abomination in the desert that I need to make preparations for, too. If I can get Rine's help with that, I should.'

His plan to deal with the abominations. Having Rine along would certainly help.

"If you're sure, let's go together."

"Then I'll get ready."

And so, two hours later, Alon's party left Lartania for Coloni.

####

At that same moment, Perion—the elf currently disguised as a mercenary who had given Alon Rumiel's Oath—silently lowered his gaze to Lagierni's Blessing in his hand.

"..."

By all rights, Perion should have been overjoyed. Lagierni's Blessing was the item he had ventured into the human world to seek. Above all, it was something immeasurably precious to elves, and to the Pagade in particular.

Yet his expression remained rigid, all because of Marquis Pallatio.

'... What in the world is that man?'

Perion recalled the marquis—the man who had told him where to find the Blessing with such an indifferent expression. There were far more than one or two strange things about him.

First, it was strange that Marquis Pallatio knew about the Pagade at all. Born through the elves' bloodline ritual, the Pagade was a secret society created solely to protect the World Tree.

The only people who knew its name were the highest-ranking nobles, high elves and above, the members of the Pagade, and the queen.

There was no reason for that name to have been divulged to outsiders. Most of those highest-ranking nobles never left the World Tree, while the Pagade remained underground to guard beneath its roots.

More importantly, even those few elves were all bound by restrictions that prevented them from speaking the name Pagade themselves. In other words, it was a word that should never have passed anyone's lips.

'... Except for one person.'

Only Altaima, the original founder of the group and the primordial elf, could personally speak the name Pagade without restriction.

The primordial elf and guardian of the World Tree, who had wielded Lagierni's Blessing as a weapon. He alone.

That was not the only strange thing.

'... The place the marquis told me about was created by elves.'

The reason Perion had recognized this was simple. The chamber itself had been constructed using spirit arts and the magic circles used by elves—no, more precisely, the very same magic circles used in the Pagade's hideout. Thanks to that, when he arrived, he could even check who had visited the place.

Those magic circles stored the mana of anyone who entered the chamber, preserving a record like a guestbook until the moment the circles collapsed.

There, Perion had confirmed that he was the only person ever to have visited that room.

And where the dagger had lain, he had found a sentence written in a language only the Pagade could understand, as though conveying a message to him:

["I hope this reaches my younger sibling safely."]

"..."

In other words, Marquis Pallatio knew that Perion was an elf and a member of the Pagade. He also knew that Lagierni's Blessing was inside that chamber without ever having entered it himself.

... No matter how he thought about it, that was impossible. Unless the primordial elf, who had lost his life fighting the black things, had returned from the dead.

It was utterly impossible.

Bewildered by a situation he could not begin to fathom, Perion withheld judgment.

"... I should report this first."

Instead, he decided to convey what had happened to the great queen, who watched over all elves and was, at the same time, the being closest to the World Tree.