Chapter 177: Those Who Noticed (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 177: Those Who Noticed (3)
“Then, I shall see you at the banquet.”
“Understood.”
After Alon gave his final greeting and departed.
“Whew—”
Karmakeses III let out a long sigh and clutched his chest. To think a King would feel such tension just from speaking with a single nobleman. Anyone hearing this would have scoffed at the absurdity, but the thought that Marquis Palatio might be a Living God had frozen his very blood.
…Of course, it was still uncertain whether the Marquis truly was a Living God.
Reaching that point in his thoughts, Karmakeses turned his gaze.
“So, what did you see?”
It was time to hear the truth from Teira, who had claimed he could recognize a Living God.
And.
“…Are you alright?”
Karmakeses III couldn't help but ask. Teira, who had shown little interest until the moment Marquis Palatio entered, now looked deathly pale, as if every ounce of energy had been drained from his body.
Seeing the King’s bewildered expression, Teira let out a ragged sigh and forced his lips to move.
“I am fine. It is just… I saw something quite unbelievable…”
“Something unbelievable?”
“Yes. It is something even I cannot fully comprehend.”
Something incomprehensible?
As Karmakeses III’s brow furrowed, Teira took several deep breaths to steady himself before finally speaking.
“…First, to give you the conclusion, it appears Marquis Palatio is indeed a Living God.”
A moment of silence followed.
Karmakeses’s voice came out cracked.
“Is that… the truth?”
“Yes. I saw it clearly with my own eyes. He possessed the same power I saw in the Living God back in the Lizardman lands. However, there was one peculiarity.”
“…A peculiarity?”
“There were four spheres.”
“…What exactly does that mean?”
Teira fell into calm contemplation for a moment before beginning to explain the situation.
A short while later.
“…So, if I understand you correctly, the Living God you saw in the Lizardman lands had only one sphere bound by chains, whereas Marquis Palatio had four such spheres?”
“Yes.”
“…And what does the number of spheres signify?”
Teira shook his head at the King’s question.
“I apologize, but it is difficult to give a definitive answer. In the end, I have only seen a Living God that one time…”
“…Then, what can you infer?”
“What I can infer is—”
Teira paused. His gaze met Karmakeses’s directly.
“The more spheres an entity has, the more powerful they are.”
“The more spheres, the stronger?”
“When I was in the Lizardman lands, I once saw the warrior said to be the strongest there. He had two spheres.”
Teira bowed his head, adding, “Of course, they were ordinary spheres like those seen in normal humans, not spheres bound by chains. My hypothesis could be wrong, but based on that, I believe the number of spheres represents one’s strength or talent.”
“…Strength or talent. Then, as you said, if Marquis Palatio possesses four spheres while the Living God you saw had only one…”
As the King’s murmur trailed off, the tension in the room escalated.
“…If my reasoning is correct, it means he might be even more powerful than the Living God I saw in the Lizardman lands.”
“…”
At this shocking revelation(?), Karmakeses III’s mouth slowly fell open.
* * *
Immediately after the audience with Karmakeses III.
‘…Why did he insist on meeting the moment I arrived?’
Alon found it strange that Karmakeses III had summoned him to the audience chamber just to set a schedule for the banquet. Usually, the King would have sent a messenger to coordinate the time rather than meeting in person like this.
Well, strictly speaking, it wasn't so much "coordinating" as it was a unilateral notification that the banquet would be held at a certain time and that he should attend.
Regardless, his questions about the sudden summons were short-lived.
Thump!
“Mentor!”
Seolrang made a boisterous appearance on the roof of the carriage. The moment Alon’s carriage arrived near the guild building, she had leaped straight from the building’s rooftop onto the carriage.
“I would have come up if you had just waited inside.”
“We can go up together!”
Seolrang thrust her face close to Alon’s, her eyes sparkling. Her ears twitched as she looked up at him expectantly.
Now used to this signal, Alon gently pressed down on Seolrang’s ears. She simply beamed at him without a word.
A small smile, one he didn't even realize he was making, escaped Alon’s lips as he patted her head. As they headed up into the building, Alon felt a sense of relief.
‘I was worried at first, but it seems fine.’
Around the time they reached the desert, Alon had realized something he’d forgotten due to the events in his Mental World. It was the fact that once they reached the Colony, he had to give an answer to Seolrang’s… proposal, which he had been putting off.
He had worried about how to handle it, but he soon regained his peace of mind. Even after arriving at the Colony, while Seolrang acted even more friendly than before, she hadn't breathed a word about that topic.
Though puzzled for a moment, Alon felt a sense of pride, thinking that Seolrang had finally learned to distinguish between feelings of "like" and "love." To anyone’s eyes, Seolrang’s change was the very picture of a child maturing mentally.
Once inside the guild, the two continued their catch-up. Then, Seolrang—who had been making Alon smile like a proud father—suddenly cast her gaze toward the window and paused.
“…Hm?”
She looked back at Alon with a bright smile.
“Oh, Mentor! I’ll be back in a bit!”
“Where are you going?”
“I just have some business at the Royal Castle!”
“Well, go ahead.”
“Yeah! I’ll be right back, Mentor!”
With a crackle of lightning, Seolrang dashed off into the distance. Alon watched her go with the eyes of a father watching his daughter head out to play.
“Marquis.”
Not long after, Alon turned his head at Evan’s call.
“What is it?”
“Ah, you know that thing you mentioned last time? I’ve brought the results.”
“The investigation is finished already?”
“Well, it’s been over a month since you mentioned it, so there was plenty of time.”
Alon unfolded the paper Evan handed him without hesitation.
“Hmm…”
“But Marquis.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you investigating this? Aren't these guys unrelated to us?”
It was a fair question. The list Alon had requested from Evan was a list of organizations and secret societies operating covertly within the United Kingdoms.
Before the start of the original story, these groups remained so hidden that even their locations were unknown. They were the organizations that would crawl out once the Five Great Sins began to appear, dragging the United Kingdoms into the abyss.
Since they hadn't properly made their debut yet, it was natural for Evan to be curious. In times like these—
“It’s, well… that.”
“Ah, that.”
“Yes, that.”
As always, Alon gave the same vague answer.
“Right… well, I figured you’d say something like that.”
Evan shrugged, having expected nothing more.
“Is that so?”
“Well, you do tend to do things that are hard to understand sometimes.”
“Are you not curious?”
“I am, but I assume there’s a reason you can’t talk about it, right?”
“Hmm.”
It’s not that I can’t talk about it, it’s that I’m not confident I can explain it, Alon thought to himself. Evan added, “Well, if it’s hard to explain, you don’t have to tell me. It’s not like hearing one or two things is going to change much anyway.”
“Is that so?”
“Right? It’s not like you’re the type to do anything weird just because you’re acting mysterious.”
Just as Alon was feeling a sense of pride at the strange trust Evan placed in him, Evan leaned in with a mischievous grin and whispered.
“Marquis.”
“Yes?”
“If my salary goes up again, I’m all for it.”
“You just ruined the moment.”
“Tsk. Maybe I should have waited a bit longer to say that.”
Evan’s face was full of good-natured laughter. With a final greeting, he left the room.
The room fell silent.
[Kyu—]
Alon stroked Blackie, who was exhausted after being relentlessly "adored" by Seolrang earlier, and organized his thoughts.
‘What I need to consider right now are the enemies who will shake the United Kingdoms—and the Apostles.’
The enemies who would shake the kingdom could simply be dealt with. Even if they hadn't revealed themselves yet, they were active beneath the surface, so he could handle them easily enough by buying information from the information guild.
The real problem was the Apostles.
‘I hoped it was just paranoia at first, but—’
The moment he confirmed that even Line was connected to an Apostle, Alon became certain. Every child he had saved so far had already been entangled with the Apostles in some way before he rescued them.
That meant the Apostles could appear before the other children as well, which left Alon in deep thought.
‘…It would be great if I could find out where the Apostles are.’
Unfortunately, that was impossible. Alon had realized through his last two battles and information gathering that he didn't even know who the Apostles were, and they didn't reveal themselves properly unless they were trying to "awaken a vessel."
In other words, there was no one around Alon—not even the information guild—who could pinpoint the Apostles' locations.
‘Then in the end, all I can do is counter them whenever they show up… Is there no other way?’
Alon’s deep sigh echoed quietly in the room.
* * *
That night.
After agonizing for a while without reaching a conclusion, Alon headed to the Royal Castle to attend the banquet as Karmakeses III had requested.
‘…I’ll attend the banquet today, meet Kailas, and then meet the Dragonkin right after to collect everything they promised.’
Passing through the now-familiar castle, Alon soon entered the banquet hall prepared by Karmakeses III. However, the moment he stepped inside, a question popped into his head.
Seolrang, who had left for the castle hours ago saying she had business, was nowhere to be seen.
‘Where did Seolrang go?’
Her seat was empty. Alon tilted his head in confusion but soon turned his gaze and bowed to Karmakeses III.
“I greet the King of Colony.”
It was his usual greeting. However.
“Ah, you’ve arrived, Marquis Palatio?”
Karmakeses III replied using extremely formal honorifics—a jarring shift he had heard once before. As Alon straightened his back, a faint trace of bewilderment, unnoticeable to others, flickered across his face.
“Please, have a seat.”
“…???”
It was the start of a night he couldn't understand at all.
* * *
On that same night, under the light of the blue moon.
Line stared blankly at the pitch-black street and found herself muttering the words Alon had said earlier that day.
“The past is, after all, just the past—.”
Muttering the words she had already repeated several times, she unconsciously let out a thin smile.
In truth, hearing those words hadn't brought a massive change to Line’s heart. She was still afraid of the past; it was still terrifying and horrific. No matter how Alon spoke to her, the "past" was nothing more than a memory she wished to forget.
Therefore, his words hadn't reached the deepest parts of her heart. The past was still tormenting her.
Yet, the reason Line could smile then was simple. It was because of Alon’s expression.
It was an expression he didn't even seem to realize he was making. But it was clear. His face wasn't its usual expressionless mask—
‘It was… a worried expression.’
Anyone could see the concern etched there. Concern for her.
To Line, that was incredibly precious.
…She was so happy that she wanted to protect it even more. She didn't want the yoke of the past to tarnish their current relationship.
That was why.
‘No, I don’t even need to tell you. You just have to choose. You’re smart, so you already know, don’t you? That there are far more hidden spaces in your library.’
Line recalled the voice of the Apostle of Greed once more. A voice she didn't even want to think about.
Yet, it was a voice that perhaps suggested a way forward.
“…”
A voice that spoke of a way to trample even the yoke of the past and move forward.
She stared at the blue moon for a long time. But her eyes, reflecting the blue light, shone with a vivid, deep azure glow.
* * *
On the outskirts, quite far from the Colony.
In a place where it seemed impossible to find anything—a place that was nothing but endless desert.
“Found you.”
“!?”
Draim the Elf, who had been tailing Marquis Palatio to protect him, was now being held helplessly by the neck.
“So it’s you?”
Seolrang, her hands crackling with golden lightning, looked at him.
“The one who’s been secretly peeking at Mentor.”
“Gah—!”
Draim stared at her with a look of pure horror.