Chapter 456. Why are you doing that...? (4)
A day passed after Serdea Polanticia and Irene Polanticia swept through the place like a storm and left.
In the end, why had they come so far to this place?
Unable to resolve that doubt, Alon Palatio was conversing with Kylus.
“…Now you are actually quite useful.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. Beyond this, I have nothing else to teach you. Or rather, this is enough. It’s not like you specialize in handling spirit dragons anyway.”
“Hmm…”
Alon looked away. What he saw was still that destroyed world.
“Why that face?”
“Nothing… just that my gaze fell there for a moment.”
“Your gaze?”
Alon nodded.
“You said this place is your mental world, right?”
“Well, yes.”
“To be honest, I still don’t fully understand.”
Alon observed the empty world and then withdrew his gaze.
He wondered why his mental world took this form, but unfortunately, there was no way to know.
So he left that topic without regret in a corner of his mind.
After exchanging a few more words with Kylus, Alon said goodbye.
“Then, I’ll be going now.”
Kylus nodded as always, but…
“…Wait.”
Alon stopped.
“Why? Do you have something to tell me?”
Kylus looked at him in silence for a moment, and then slowly opened his mouth.
“What you said earlier…”
“Hmm?”
“It’s that…”
Kylus seemed to carefully select his words. But after a few seconds…
“Never mind.”
“Go.”
“Hey, didn’t you call me as if you wanted to say something?”
Kylus waved his hand as if saying it was done.
Alon was confused for a moment, but he shrugged and exited the “Path Traversing the Past.”
“You woke up.”
Upon opening his eyes, he saw Lainicius.
He was right there in front of him, as if he had been waiting for him.
Too close, even uncomfortably close.
“What are you doing?”
“Originally, I came to tell you something. But it seems something interesting is happening, so I was watching.”
“What thing?”
“Your mana moves in a peculiar way. Very different from usual.”
Lainicius finally pulled his face away from Alon's and looked at the “Path Traversing the Past.”
Alon exhaled with a slight startle.
Up to that moment he hadn’t thought about it, but he remembered that Kylus and Lainicius knew each other.
And not only that: they were quite close.
“What’s wrong?”
Lainicius tilted his head at Alon's reaction. The latter hesitated for a moment, then spoke.
“…It’s a bit late to say it, but I just came from meeting with Kylus.”
“Kylus?”
“Yes.”
Lainicius showed a bewildered expression. Then Alon explained to him what the Path Traversing the Past was.
When the explanations were finished, Lainicius asked while looking at the artifact:
“…With this artifact you meet Kylus?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“According to him, it uses a medium to summon the soul.”
But Lainicius frowned, puzzled.
“Alon. I need to ask you something. Is that okay?”
“Ask me whatever you want.”
“When you say ‘summon Kylus’, what do you mean?”
“Literally.”
“Summon… a dead soul?”
“A soul?”
“Yes.”
The conversation seemed strangely parallel, and Alon was bewildered for a moment, until he remembered that Lainicius had been exiled in the void for centuries.
“He said the only person he had seen was Duke Komalon…”
Remembering his background, Alon spoke:
“Didn’t Komalon tell you anything?”
“That rookie didn’t tell me anything useful. He told me many things… but none that were useful.”
It was then that Alon understood.
Lainicius didn’t understand this world as much as he thought.
More exactly: he didn’t know about the existence of the Outer Gods.
So he began to explain it to him.
“…Doesn’t it seem strange to you?”
“Which part?”
“The Outer Gods.”
“The Outer Gods?”
Alon looked at him in surprise. Lainicius nodded.
“Yes. According to what you say, the Outer Gods are forgotten gods, that is, gods from the time when I lived.”
“Correct.”
“But if they were killed by the Sins, how can they be alive again?”
“That…”
Alon was going to answer instinctively, but he stopped.
He had never questioned it.
For him, it was obvious. That’s how it was in Psychedelia, the game, and he never questioned the internal logic.
Only then did he snap out of the delusion…
It was like having learned to solve a math problem without knowing the theory behind it.
“This phenomenon is strange,” concluded Lainicius.
“As you know, gods exist thanks to faith. Their immortality comes from faith. Losing faith means disappearing. So gods who lost their faith and went extinct cannot return converted into Outer Gods. It is impossible.”
“Possibility that it’s the work of the Sins?”
Lainicius denied firmly.
“Impossible. Especially if I think about what you will tell me later.”
Having said that, he stared at the Path Traversing the Past.
“But, no matter what it is, it is not a bad situation for us.”
“How so?”
“It is only a hypothesis, but…”
And then Lainicius shared a possibility.
Alon opened his eyes wide.
“Is that possible?”
“It’s not certain. But if we manage to understand the principle, it could be. Although I will need to study… would you lend me this artifact for a while?”
Alon hesitated for a few seconds.
“…Alright.”
He accepted. It seemed necessary to him.
“By the way, you said you came to tell me something, didn’t you?”
Lainicius nodded.
“Ah, yes. About the magic circle and about Blackie.”
And they continued conversing for a long time.
The next day.
Alon left Palantia.
He would have liked to rest a little more, but he had heard that, due to the fragment fallen in Colony, Divine Bloods could appear at any moment.
“And I also must stop by the Central Tower…”
While he organized his itinerary and watched Blackie and Basiliora sleeping under the sun, Evan spoke to him.
“Alon-nim. Did yesterday's conversation end well?”
“Hmm?”
“With that unpleasant imbecile.”
Alon understood immediately that he was referring to Lainicius.
“…Well, rather than ending well, it was a report.”
“Is that so?”
Alon remembered his chat with Lainicius.
They talked about three topics:
About Blackie.
About the automation of divine energy.
About the fortress.
Blackie and the automation were being investigated.
But what worried him was the fortress.
“Do you plan to add small functions to the fortress?”
“Yes. The Tower Masters had interesting ideas.”
“Is that safe?”
“There won’t be mana problems.”
“I don’t mean that… but the exterior of the fortress.”
“Exterior? It will change a little, but not too much.”
“Sure?”
“…I guess.”
Remembering his hesitant answer, Alon shook his head.
“So, did you notify Penia?”
Evan nodded.
“Yes.”
“What for?”
“They are preparing something, according to her.”
“Preparing…?”
“Yes. She said the timing was perfect.”
Alon was even more confused.
The Central Tower should be bustling.
Especially because since the mages began to investigate Alon's “magic,” it had become chaos.
But now…
The Central Tower was terrifyingly silent.
Not because there were no mages.
There were mages. Lots of them.
So many that it seemed the first-floor experiment room was going to explode.
But even so, everyone kept silent.
Everyone was looking toward the center of the laboratory.
“Diffraction.”
The Vice Master of the Blue Tower was using Alon's magic.
And then—
Fwaaash!
A beam emerged from her hand, bursting toward the sky with a crack.
Then, Penia spoke with a proud voice:
“Alon will visit the Tower soon. And he will select the mages who will be able to work together with Palantia.”
With a radiant smile, she added:
“And they will obtain the ‘gift’ of being able to use Alon's magic.”
After publicly announcing Alon's magic, Penia became a superstar of the tower.
It was natural.
Demonstrating that someone else could use Palatio's magic was enough to turn anyone into an absolute celebrity.
That’s why—
“Ahem, Vice Master… did you know this is what they call the ‘Master's stolen technique’?”
“Vice Master! Long time no see! You haven’t forgotten me, have you?”
“Vice Master, hello. I think we greeted each other once…”
Penia enjoyed the torrent of adulation.
She had authority even before.
She was the Vice Master of the Blue Tower.
But now the difference was something else:
Before, they obeyed her only on the surface.
Behind her back, they insulted her with gusto.
Not now.
Now everyone bowed sincerely before her.
And Penia enjoyed it.
Until—
“Vice Master, can I ask something?”
“Ask.”
“What kind of relationship do you have with Alon?”
A newly entered rookie asked that.
Penia lowered her gaze for a moment.
She glanced at the mages watching her. Everyone awaited her answer.
The correct answer was:
“A cooperative relationship.”
Or “A hierarchical relationship.”
That was what she should say.
And even if she said it, nothing would change:
they would continue to adulate her.
But she…
She enjoyed being admired too much.
And she had a small hidden desire.
That's why, under so many gazes, Penia said:
“Ahem… my relationship with Alon? Well…”
In the end—
“I would say that… it is a somewhat special relationship.”
“Eh?!!”
She let it out.
Thinking naively:
“Bah, nothing big will happen.”
Not knowing the chaos that phrase would unleash.
