Became the Patron of Villains Novel MTL - Chapter 243

Chapter 243

 

Magrina Fildagreen.

As a high elf, whose bloodline was considered the purest even among her kind, she was painfully aware of the hatred directed at her by her fellow elves.

She couldn’t possibly be oblivious to it.

From a certain moment—no, starting from the day the curse unleashed by the black beings mysteriously bypassed Magrina—it took very little time for the world, which had previously been so kind, to become poisoned with malice.

The blight placed upon the elves during their conflict with the black beings, which robbed them of their pre-destined lifespans, instantly snatched away many cherished things.

Aged, wise scholars who had amassed knowledge over countless years.

Mighty combatants.

Mages whose power surpassed all others.

Irreplaceable loved ones.

For some, it took absolutely everything.

A few individuals did not harbor animosity toward Magrina.

Yet, they constituted a minuscule fraction—and her father.

All the other elves showed her nothing but deep-seated enmity.

At that time, she was merely a 15-year-old elf.

She wasn’t particularly skilled in arcane arts.

Beyond the formal title of princess, she was simply a child utterly ignorant of the world’s ways.

Even so, the elves made no effort to conceal their resentment.

Even those who had never once encountered her.

Even those who had only caught a single glimpse.

Even the very people who served her.

As though frenziedly searching for a release for their anguish.

They twisted faulty logic into justification and targeted Magrina as if it were the most natural course of action.

They falsely accused her of betraying the elves to ensure her own prolonged life.

They circulated preposterous, unfounded gossip.

The only anchor that allowed her to endure such an outrageous situation was her father.

Her father, who consistently held her in a warm embrace.

However, even his affection couldn’t entirely alleviate her profound solitude.

That was why.

She intentionally went outside the royal palace—a place she should absolutely avoid, especially while in human guise.

Miraculously returning from a place she was certain she would die in, back to the capital of the Allied Forces, she found a companion on her journey.

Ella.

An elf near her age, and the shared experience of escaping that living nightmare made their connection easy.

Ella dispelled the loneliness Magrina had carried all this time, as if it had never existed.

Magrina found herself hopelessly drawn to that sweet sensation she hadn’t experienced in such a long time.

A small, comforting warmth she had genuinely never received from anyone other than her father.

It was far too precious to her.

And so—

“Look, it’s her! I told you I saw her shift into a human!”

“Gah—!”

—It had culminated in this.

Her bracelet was snatched away, exposing her true form.

Even as her breath struggled to enter her lungs, Magrina fixed her gaze upon the elf who was currently throttling her.

“Die—just perish—!”

The frantic elf shrieked in uncontrolled rage.

As if completely ready to end her life in that very moment, he constricted her throat with all his might.

And standing right beside him—

Ella, who had always beamed at her until recently, was now looking down.

Not with a smile, but with a face contorted by intense fury.

She wasn’t the sole one.

Most of the elves present were screaming for Magrina’s death.

As though they truly believed that her demise would bring them happiness.

“Ha—”

Magrina let out a hollow, unintentional chuckle.

Her throat tightened progressively, but at some point, she ceased all struggle.

She had survived this type of encounter many times before.

Once by a warrior who had lost his master.

Once by a soldier whose parents had perished.

And once by a maid who had lost a loved one.

Every one of them had once offered her a smile, and now they sought to destroy her.

Her field of vision began to blur indistinctly.

She could have resisted, but Magrina calmly allowed the strength to drain from her body.

Although she had feigned composure, she had already reached her breaking point.

Even if her father tried to protect her—

She was still much too young to bear the weight of malicious eyes glaring at her from every direction.

‘If only I had been affected by the curse too…………?’

To others, it was undeniably a blight.

A terrifying doom they desperately sought to evade.

But Magrina had longed for that curse.

Then perhaps, she wouldn’t have been forced to endure this.

……………Then she wouldn’t be slowly dying under this painful, different kind of curse.

Magrina started to feel her senses vanishing one after the other.

The sensations that had driven her to agony slowly faded into dimness.

And then—

“Kaagh—!”

Involuntarily, she gasped and snapped her eyes open as air violently rushed back into her lungs.

“Huff, huff~!”

The ringing sound in her ears vanished, and the world returned to its normal state.

The numbness departed from her body, and her vision was once again flooded with color.

And the last thing she saw was—

“……”

A tremendously familiar back.

Magrina had been pushed to the very edge of death.

But Ashur and his soldiers rushed in, instantly quelling the chaos, and Alon safely brought her back to the kingdom.

“Thank you, my lord…………. I am indebted to you yet again.”

“It was nothing.”

Immediately upon their arrival in the kingdom, Magrina bowed deeply before Alon.

She was clearly struggling to appear unharmed, but her ears were drooped low, and her eyes were heavy with sadness.

Seeing her in that state, Alon felt a painful constriction in his chest.

Kalanda had given him a warning beforehand…

But truthfully, he hadn’t anticipated the animosity to be this severe.

Only after listening to Ashur’s full account did Alon begin to grasp the rationale behind the elves’ irrational conduct.

‘The Day of Lamentation……..’

A massive catastrophe where countless elves were afflicted by the curse, their lifespans cut short, and their bodies consumed by decay.

As he recalled the ominous name they had given that fateful day—

“Magrina—!”

From a distance, Kalanda, having cast aside all pretense of royal dignity, came sprinting toward them.

“Truly, truly, thank you.”

He bowed deeply in profound gratitude and gently escorted Magrina away.

As Alon watched their figures retreat, the image from the recent incident flashed through his mind once more.

‘…Something doesn’t sit right.’

An instinctive feeling.

Just as Kalanda had stated, many people disregard the truth and choose to believe only what suits their desires.

But even with that in mind—

The hostility he had witnessed in the eyes of those elves seemed to exceed mere irrationality.

‘I need to investigate this.’

He remained standing there for a long time, staring at the patch of shadow where Magrina had just been.

Following this, Alon, accompanied by Ashur, made his way to where Rine was located.

“This is the place.”

“……”

They arrived before an enormous edifice.

In contrast to the other luxuriously adorned structures, this one was built with a stark, angular design.

Upon entering, they saw Rine standing tall and still in the center of a darkened square room.

Beside her, Penia was observing the situation with rapt attention.

“Ah, Marquis—”

“Penia, how is everything proceeding?”

“Hmm, nothing significant has shifted yet. She seems to be in a state of deep observation, though.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Penia nodded emphatically while her gaze shifted back and forth between her book and Rine.

“She’s reading with intense focus.”

“Naturally! If we were back in our world, just utilizing this correctly would be enough to earn official certification from the academy—w-well, that’s important, but! I was really hoping it might assist with your magic research, Marquis—”

Penia smiled slyly, her eyes narrowing like a cat’s.

Watching her, Alon thought to himself.

‘When we go back, huh.’

Of course, Alon’s highest priority was also to return to his original timeline.

But unlike Penia, he had an urgent matter he needed to address immediately upon their return.

…….

Agu had already been eliminated in the preceding battle.

However, as far as Alon was aware, killing a single physical manifestation was insufficient to truly end Agu.

‘To annihilate Agu—or more accurately, the Agus—completely, we must destroy the soul stone located in the Underworld.’

In Psychedelia, after the player successfully defeats Agu, there is no genuine requirement to enter the Underworld.

Depending on the specific story route, one of the Four Great Powers would invariably intervene and resolve the issue at the appropriate time.

But regrettably, this was not Psychedelia, and they couldn’t count on any such external intervention.

‘Once I return, I won’t be able to rest—I’ll have to head straight for the Underworld.’

He recalled the location of the Underworld from the game’s lore and firmly imprinted it into his memory once more.

Among the Four Great Powers, the Agu (Hungry Ghosts) were celebrating.

Unsurprisingly, their joy stemmed from the death of the dominant leader who had ruled over them.

Agu are inherently born to submit to the strongest of their kind.

Born with enormous potential, they inevitably fall under the authority of a leader who gains strength by consuming many of his own.

Therefore, the leader’s demise signified a new opportunity.

They cheered as if a sworn enemy had fallen—and instantly commenced battling and devouring one another.

A new paramount leader had to be chosen.

No one was concerned with how or by what means the previous leader had met his end.

In the shadow world, the Agu relentlessly consumed each other—slaying and being slain.

Naturally, no matter how much they were ripped apart or consumed, they never truly vanished.

They were simply absorbed.

The weaker by the stronger.

And those stronger by even mightier ones.

Over and over again, consuming and being consumed until only one remained.

‘It’ was resurrected.

The newly elevated leader, ‘It,’ just like its predecessor, stripped the other Agu of their sentience, leaving them with pure instinct.

Furthermore, the force of avarice left behind by the former leader made it even more formidable than the last.

Naming itself Mansang, it swore to become vastly superior to the foolish former leader.

……And all of this had transpired only the day before.

“Graaaaaaah!!!”

Mansang let out a terrifying shriek, looking up at the entity before him.

His entire form shook uncontrollably.

Even though he had forged a body far superior to the previous leader’s.

Even though he could wield greed with greater effectiveness.

He could not overpower the being standing in front of him.

No, it wasn’t a matter of being unable to win.

That thing—

Was not something meant to be overcome.

It was something utterly inexplicable.

It was incoherence itself.

“Ughhhh—”

Mansang tried to drag his completely shattered body in the opposite direction and flee.

But toward him, a solitary girl walked with an unhurried pace.

Her countenance was expressionless.

There was no trace of emotion.

No sign of any feeling whatsoever.

She simply advanced forward, entirely undisturbed.

“?”

Mansang questioned her, despite the searing agony.

He looked at her with eyes filled with confusion, unable to process why this was happening.

To his trembling inquiry—

“…Why.”

The girl who had been steadily approaching Mansang—

“I knew you would re-emerge.”

Ana—

“I knew it………… but nonetheless…”

Yutia Bludia,

“I was just… angry, you know.”

She whispered softly.

Still paralyzed with fear, Mansang couldn’t grasp what Yutia was saying and frowned in confusion.

“Even if you destroy me, nothing will change! Even if I am wiped out, the Agu will simply be born again! We—we are endless, countless! No matter how many times you eliminate us, we will keep reappearing!”

A frantic, desperate cry erupted from his shaking figure.

But.

“I know.”

“……What?”

“I said, I know.”

Yutia murmured quietly to herself.

“It’s just, you know—mm.”

Calmly.

“It’s merely my method of letting off steam.”

She raised her index finger.

“A straightforward, emotional release.”

And she looked at Mansang.

With eyes that were endlessly red.