Chapter 199 - Sloth and Thunder (1)

Shtalian stared blankly at Duke Merkillan.

“A god of the nonhuman peoples...?”

“Yes.”

“What does that mean?”

As Shtalian V questioned him in utter bewilderment, Duke Merkillan calmly recounted everything that had happened, beginning with Kurak’s behavior at the Pallatio estate, then describing the elves who had appeared on their journey back to Ashtalon, and finally relaying the entire exchange between those elves and Kurak.

“...”

Shtalian V remained silent for a long while before finally speaking.

“So, Duke, you are saying that Marquis Pallatio truly is a god of the nonhuman peoples?”

“... Judging by what I have seen so far, yes.”

“And Kurak knelt before him?”

“Yes.”

“... That is rather hard to believe.”

When he had first brought Kurak here under a secret contract, Shtalian had had an opportunity to witness his power. The man possessed strength beyond all reason—so absurd that Shtalian had wondered whether he might be a god.

‘Someone like that knelt before him?’

That meant—

‘Marquis Pallatio must be an even greater being. But why would someone like that...?’

Still, no answer came. No matter how much he thought about it, he could not even begin to guess why Marquis Pallatio was concealing his identity and posing as a mere noble.

But that lasted only a moment.

“Whew.”

Shtalian V decided to stop dwelling on why the man hid his identity—or whether the person posing as Marquis Pallatio was even the real marquis.

Instead...

“Duke Merkillan.”

“Yes.”

“I understand that you are somewhat acquainted with Marquis Pallatio.”

“That... is true.”

“... Could you find out what Marquis Pallatio likes?”

“What he likes, Your Majesty?”

“Yes. More precisely, what he needs at this very moment.”

He had decided to draw the man here—to the Kingdom of Ashtalon.

“Could you look into that for me?”

####

One week after Marquis Pallatio’s departure.

[“... You’re doing well.”]

“Oh, you’re too kind!”

Even after the magic symposium ended, Penia remained at the magic tower, continuing her training with Heinkel. Despite being put through a grueling day of practice, she showed not a trace of fatigue. Her eyes sparkled with an expression that said, ‘This is so much fun! It’s always thrilling!’

Heinkel could only marvel at her.

[“Good. Now we’ll move on to seventy-two circles. Add link upon link between the magic circles. The key is a straight line. Arrange the circles so that a straight line passes through the magic of all seventy-two.”]

“Yes! I’ll get right on it!”

Watching Penia respond enthusiastically and immediately begin practicing each new assignment, Heinkel felt an involuntary swell of pride. She had not particularly noticed it before, but lately Penia Kraisinne reminded her of her younger self—the girl whose first response to any new magic had been not ‘This is hard,’ but ‘I want to know more!’

Naturally, she had grown much fonder of Penia. Well, aside from that initial lie, the girl embodied Heinkel’s ideal of a mage.

And Penia was a genius—a genius who made even Heinkel nod in approval without realizing it. That made teaching her all the more enjoyable. Teach her one thing, and she understood ten; teach her ten, and she grasped a hundred.

‘Her personality is a little eccentric, but a mage ought to have at least one rough edge.’

Yes, yes. Quite right.

As Heinkel nodded to herself and watched Penia begin forming magic circles, she suddenly recalled what had happened a few days earlier. More precisely, what had happened when she looked at the brooch on Alon’s chest.

“...”

Her face stiffened involuntarily. Her heart pounded furiously. Though she was a spirit, merely remembering that moment made her blood run cold and her heart hammer.

It was a vivid sensation she had not felt in so very long. No, a sensation she had thought she could never feel again.

‘That magic back then really was—no, that place was—’

Heinkel repeated the verification she had already performed dozens of times. In truth, she already knew what magic the Abyss—that girl—had used. Indeed, the girl herself had expressed a little admiration that Heinkel had recognized it.

Yet the reason Heinkel kept revisiting that moment now was that she simply could not make sense of it.

‘I don’t... understand.’

It was not the kind of power the girl could use in her current state. It was an ability that could not be manifested.

‘That was definitely, back then—’

No, to be precise, even if it could be manifested again someday, it was not something that should be manifested now.

And so Heinkel pondered for a long while, lost in questions with no answers.

‘... What on earth is that thing doing? How can she exist without losing her power? Why—’

‘Why is that being following Marquis Pallatio?’

####

Meanwhile, Alon had reached the Ronovelli jungle.

“My lord.”

“Go ahead.”

“About Varnos, which you asked me to investigate—strangely enough, there’s no information.”

“No information?”

“Yes. The Information Guild said they don’t know anything about the place either. Their entire information network in the surrounding area has been cut off. But they say something definitely seems to have happened.”

“I see.”

“Should I look into it further?”

“No, that will do.”

The information Evan had brought was enough for Alon to realize that the events in Varnos were connected to the advance of the Four Great Factions he knew.

‘This was how it happened when the Hungry Ghost first appeared in the game, too.’

The Four Great Factions, which only appeared midway through the game, had already emerged. Now certain of that, Alon began to ponder.

‘What happens in this case? Will the other factions appear as well?’

As far as Alon knew, the appearance of the Four Great Factions ushered in a period of tremendous chaos for the allied kingdoms. Each faction’s strength far surpassed the allied kingdoms’ current power. Once they began rampaging in earnest, kingdoms fell in the blink of an eye.

‘In the game, powerful people join the allied kingdoms around the midpoint, so things somehow get brought under control unless a Sin destroys a country.’

Unfortunately, in Psychedelia terms, they were still in the early game. The powerful figures who could balance the scales against the Four Great Factions had yet to appear. In other words, if the factions began rampaging now, he had no idea what would happen to any kingdom except Ashtalon, which had Kurak on its side.

‘The only saving grace is that the other factions haven’t appeared yet.’

But his pondering was short-lived.

“My lord, there’s something else I need to tell you.”

Alon turned at Evan’s call.

“What else has happened?”

“I heard this while asking about Varnos. Do you remember that rumor from Ronovelli?”

“A rumor...? Ah, you mean the one about black mana spreading?”

“Yes, that one.”

“Is there more information?”

“There is, but it isn’t good news.”

“What is it?”

After a brief hesitation, Evan continued with an uneasy expression.

“They say there’s been a massacre.”

“... A massacre?”

“Yes. But the strange thing is, it wasn’t caused by any single entity.”

“What does that mean?”

At Alon’s question, Evan relayed the rumor in detail.

“So, people killed one another?”

“Yes. From what I heard, it was incredibly bizarre. They were perfectly clearheaded, yet they took up weapons and fought and killed each other. Most of the mercenaries and explorers in the jungle died as a result.”

Alon frowned inwardly. As he listened, a thought had come to him unbidden.

“... In other words, their minds were fine, but their bodies moved as though possessed?”

“Yes. One mercenary who managed to survive said, ‘It felt like I’d become a puppet.’”

“A puppet?”

“Do you have some idea what it might be?”

Alon did not answer, but Evan was right: he did have an idea. No, he could hardly fail to recognize it. He had heard the story Evan had just told him time and again while playing Psychedelia.

‘The Sin of Sloth.’

It was precisely the rumor that spread when the Sin of Sloth manifested.

In short, from Alon’s perspective, it was the worst possible rumor.

Fortunately, he was maintaining his composure fairly well.

‘... There’s no way a Sin has manifested already. If it had, the world couldn’t possibly be this peaceful. Everything would have gone to shit.’

He knew very well how quickly the world went to shit when a Sin was born. But what was happening now? A terrible massacre had occurred, yet there was still no news of a Sin awakening. Nor had similar incidents spread to the surrounding area.

That meant this was not the work of a Sin, which would roam about slaughtering humanity as soon as it awakened.

In that case, one possibility came to mind—

‘An apostle...!’

An apostle. An apostle of a Sin.

Specifically, it seemed that the Apostle of Sloth was in Ronovelli.

“... Evan.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s reach the principality as quickly as possible.”

“Understood.”

There was no time to waste.

####

Exactly one day later, Alon arrived in the capital of the Principality of Luxible.

And the first thing he saw was...

“... It’s big.”

“Yes.”

“Really big.”

“I agree.”

“... Isn’t that practically as big as the statue Deus gave you?”

It was an enormous statue erected in the heart of Luxible: Kalanon, Receiver of Lightning.

... A statue that was, essentially, a depiction of Alon from behind. It was not quite as large as the one at the Pallatio estate, but it was still immense enough to make him thoroughly embarrassed.

After gazing at it, Alon headed toward the royal palace, pretending it did not bother him.

“I’ve been waiting for your arrival, my lord.”

“Sircal.”

Sircal greeted him the moment he entered the palace. She bowed respectfully.

“Please, allow me to escort you.”

She led him farther inside, and soon...

“... My lord.”

“What?”

“... I’m a little scared.”

Evan quietly caught hold of Alon’s clothes. Alon could not bring himself to shake off his hand, since he could not help sharing the sentiment to some extent.

‘No, this is a bit—’

Everywhere Alon went, all the Thunder Serpent tribespeople working there began prostrating themselves. They pressed themselves so flat against the floor that it was rather uncomfortable to watch.

Of course, as a noble, he had never been treated poorly, but this was his first experience of such extravagant deference. His bewilderment at the somewhat overwhelming sight soon gave way to a question.

‘... Wait, didn’t they come out here as allies? Why does it seem there are no Luxible soldiers, only tribespeople?’

Before he could properly consider it, however, Alon encountered another mysterious object.

“... What is this?”

“Ah, this is our tribe’s sacred tablet. We brought it here when we joined forces with Luxible.”

It was a huge stone tablet inscribed with letters, a little too rustic for the royal palace but possessed of an uncanny mystique that more than outweighed its rough appearance.

As Alon examined it, he suddenly read the inscription.

‘The day I first came into being—?’

At that instant, the space around him changed in a sudden rush. Before he knew it, he was standing somewhere else.

He had not even felt himself enter anywhere. His surroundings had simply changed in the blink of an eye. He had certainly been in the kingdom at first, but this was an entirely different space.

If he had to describe it, it was a place surrounded by a dreamlike night sky embroidered with a dark blue Milky Way.

And in its center stood a blue-haired girl. She gazed at Alon with eyes the same blue as her hair, looking distinctly displeased.

“...?”

For some reason, Alon felt a sense of déjà vu. Though he had certainly never met the girl before him, he felt as though he had seen her once somewhere.

As he searched his memories for the source of that familiarity—

‘Ah.’

He realized where he had seen her.

She was...

‘The Thunder Serpent NPC...?’

She was the NPC who appeared when players began the Thunder Serpent quest to defeat Basiliora, then disappeared once the quest was complete.

The moment he recognized her...

“Give it back.”

“...?”

“Give me back my divine stature!!”

The girl’s voice rang in Alon’s ears, brimming with indignation.