Endless shantytowns stretched out in front of the marquisate.
At the sight, Alon seriously wondered just what on earth Sili had done.
That thought lasted only a moment.
After passing countless shantytowns and arriving before the castle gate, Alon gazed at the line that seemed to have no end and muttered,
“.......Was my territory always this popular?”
“It’s true that it was popular. To begin with, because of the auction house, it was a mandatory route for merchants. However—”
Evan also looked at the long, drawn-out line and spoke as if slightly fed up.
“There have definitely never been this many before.”
“I think so too.”
“What on earth did Sili do—no, what did she do for there to be this many people?”
Evan shuddered, seemingly sharing the same thought as Alon.
“I was wondering something similar as well.”
At Penia’s added comment, Alon casually looked around.
“For some reason, it feels like I’ve become an evil lord.”
“All of a sudden?”
“Well, you know. Inside the walls it’s all splendid, but outside the walls there are all these shabby tents.”
“Hmm.”
Evan alternated his gaze between the shantytowns and the inside of the walls, then pointed at Alon’s statue.
“When you look closely, I don’t really get that impression, but somehow, when I look at that, I kind of get what you mean, Marquis.”
“Hmm.”
Alon also looked at his own statue.
Seeing that definitely made the feeling stronger.
Could there be some kind of magical power in that pose?
While Alon was spacing out with such thoughts,
After easily passing through the numerous lines and entering deeper into the territory, Alon—
“Oh, you’ve arrived, Marquis...”
“......Alexion, are you alright?”
“I am alive…. at least..............”
He encountered Alexion, who was handling work in an extremely exhausted state.
From him, Alon heard a rough explanation of the current situation.
“So people were already slowly gathering, but starting a month ago it increased explosively. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes.”
“......And the reason?”
“Honestly, I don’t know the details myself. Recently, rumors related to the Marquis’s statue have been spreading.”
“Rumors about the statue.......”
“Rumors like, if the Marquis’s statue is there, a kind divine-blood will protect you............ things like that are going around.”
“And those rumors had that much of an effect............?”
At Alon’s question, Alexion answered immediately.
“Of course, the rumor itself probably didn’t have an enormous impact. It’s only been spreading for a few weeks............. well, it likely served as a trigger to draw in more people.”
“Aren’t people trusting rumors way too easily......?”
“Divine-blood monsters can easily erase an entire country, can’t they?”
“That’s.”
When Alon briefly agreed, thinking that was true, Alexion continued.
“And as I mentioned, the reason people are gathering now is likely not the rumor, but the Saint.”
“......By Saint, you mean Sili?”
“Yes.”
“As expected...............”
“You had anticipated it.”
At Alexion’s words, Evan and Penia nodded as well.
“What did Sili do, exactly............?”
“I don’t know the details either, but judging by the results, it seems she gathered the refugees of Ashtalon.”
“The refugees of Ashtalon?”
“Well, since it fell, it might be possible.............”
As Penia nodded yet tilted her head, Alon also felt doubt.
'Is that............ even possible..............?'
Strictly speaking, only the Ashtalon royal family had been wiped out.
The territory of Ashtalon itself, by some stroke of fortune, remained intact even in a world where divine-blood crawled forth.
In other words, while the king was gone, the nobles who held each territory were perfectly fine.
Alon hadn’t paid much attention to it, but he knew that other nations were busily making under-the-table moves to take in Ashtalon’s nobles.
Even if Ashtalon had fallen, it wasn’t a situation where refugees would come flocking here.
“......How did she gather them?”
Given that, a natural question escaped Alon’s lips.
Alexion hesitated briefly, then answered.
“Th-that is, from what I know, some rather sinister rumors spread within Ashtalon.”
“Sinister rumors......?”
“Yes. For example, that a divine-blood would soon descend upon Ashtalon, or that someone saw an anomalous entity emerge from the mountains.................”
“......With just rumors like that?”
“And then, shortly after, divine-blood actually appeared in Colony, Caliban, and a small southern kingdom called Rogatan.”
“Ah.”
“And at that point, rumors about the Marquis spread everywhere.”
“What kind?”
“That you are a living sage-god.”
After hearing the explanation up to that point, Alon could roughly grasp how Sili had drawn in Ashtalon’s refugees, yet there was still a question left unresolved.
“I can more or less understand it................ but even so, is it really possible for this many refugees to gather because of that?”
Alexion nodded, as if agreeing that it was a perfectly reasonable doubt.
Then, after subtly checking the surroundings, he quietly leaned forward.
“W-well, I also thought that part was strange, so I looked into it.”
Evan and Penia naturally leaned in as well to hear him.
And then.
“?”
“It seems that several villages in Ashtalon were secretly destroyed.”
“Gasp.”
“Gasp.”
At the following words,
Alon, Penia, and Evan all made stunned expressions.
“Don’t tell me?”
Evan asked in shock,
And Penia, Alon, and Alexion cautiously exchanged glances.
“Wait.”
Alon cut in first.
“No matter what, I don’t think Sili would go that far.”
A rational counterargument.
Evan and Penia were about to agree—
“Umm...... Even if it were Sili...”
“That’s true. To that extent............... to that extent.”
“Could she do it......?”
The four looked at one another’s faces.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single person who could confidently say that Sili wouldn’t have done it.
And just as complicated feelings about Sili brushed past Alon—
“Ah, there you are!”
Alon turned his gaze at the sudden voice from behind.
“Sili?”
There she was, Sili, wearing the same smile as always.
“I had some business at the marquisate anyway, and when I heard you’d arrived, I came right over!”
After cheerfully greeting Alon’s group, she said,
“But why do you all look like that?”
Seeing the group naturally step back from her by a pace, she tilted her head in confusion.
***
Right after Sili arrived.
After hearing the rough outline of the suspicions(?) from Alexion, Sili—
“Egh...... No matter how hard I try to do my assigned work, isn’t it a bit much to think I’d go that far......?”
She puffed out her lips as if incredulous.
“Right? I knew it.”
“I believed in you!”
“I felt the same.”
“......”
“It doesn’t look like that at all, though.”
Sili let out a sigh.
“First of all, let me say this. That wasn’t my intention. The Marquis hates that sort of thing, so why would I do it?”
“......Is that so?”
“Of course. I’m a Saint, you know.”
Declaring confidently that she naturally didn’t do things she disliked, Sili made Evan let out a huff of a sigh.
“Then the villages being destroyed was purely a coincidence.”
“Ah, that part was me.”
“?”
“?”
“?”
Sili Sili, what are you talking about?
All four wore the exact same expression.
“Th-that...... Didn’t you say you didn’t do it?”
“That’s right? I’ve never harmed people.”
“But the villages...?”
When Evan asked in confusion, Sili smiled.
“Ah~ those were empty villages.”
“Empty villages?”
“Yes, they were empty. You don’t need to worry about ‘what if someone was still living there?’ I checked multiple times.”
“Were there empty villages......?”
“As you know, when the Ashtalon capital was destroyed, the larger villages didn’t flee because of their property, but some small places with no assets abandoned their villages and ran. I got rid of those.”
“......Then other people would already know they were empty villages, wouldn’t they?”
“Well, people nearby do.”
“That’s true.”
“But people who aren’t nearby don’t know, right?”
“......Ah.”
Evan seemed to immediately understand Sili’s words.
Penia and Alexion did as well.
Naturally, Alon understood too.
And so.
“Anyway, don’t worry. There wasn’t a single person who suffered any harm!”
Watching Sili speak so cheerfully,
'Is this.... that chaotic good or whatever kind of disposition...............??’
Alon could only think blankly.
***
“Let’s rest today, and starting tomorrow, I think it’d be good to properly discuss what to do.”
“Understood.”
As Alon finished his conversation with Alexion after confirming that the citizens of the newly constructed kingdom had flowed in through a peaceful(?) method,
“Ah, could you take a look at this?”
Alon showed Alexion the ‘Foot That Runs Through the Past.’
“This is......?”
“It’s an artifact, but something seems to have gone wrong. Do you know how to fix it?”
Alexion took the Foot That Runs Through the Past and turned it around, examining it briefly.
Uwoong—
Soon, he formed a thin mana conduit at his fingertips and began tinkering with the artifact on the spot.
After a little time passed.
“It’s done.”
“Huh? Already finished?”
“Yes. It seems one of the artifact’s circuits malfunctioned and trapped mana, so I recalibrated it.”
“Impressive.”
“It’s not that impressive. The truly impressive ones are the people who make artifacts. Fixing them is just a matter of adjusting circuits.”
Nodding at Alexion’s words, Alon took back the artifact.
Then, immediately upon returning to his office, he used it.
And then.
[It’s been a while.]
Alon came face to face with Kylrus, standing in a gray space with his characteristic cool expression.
“Yeah.”
After nodding, Alon looked around the gray-tinted world, different from the abyss last time.
“......It’s changed.”
[Did something happen?]
At that question, Alon briefly explained what had happened so far.
[After dealing with a divine-blood, it became like this, huh.]
“Yeah.”
[So, did you come to confirm that?]
Soon, he brought up the main point.
“That’s part of it, but the real reason I came today is because of Blackie.”
[Blackie? ...............Ah, you’re talking about that Shadow Dragon.]
“Yeah.”
[What’s the problem?]
“......I’m just asking in case, but can a Shadow Dragon absorb others and transform?”
[Transform?]
“Yeah.”
As Alon spoke, perhaps realizing the conversation concerned him, Blackie popped out from Alon’s chest with a pop.
Kylrus, wearing his usual uninterested expression, picked up Blackie from his chest.
Screeeech~!
Blackie stretched out, then stuck back together.
Looking at Blackie like that, Kylrus said calmly,
“I don’t see any particular difference?”
“Blackie?”
Alon spoke to Blackie.
Then, from behind Blackie’s back, spider-like legs began to emerge.
“After eating the corpses of divine-blood, it gained the ability to change like this, but I don’t know much about Shadow Dragons.... So I thought you might know.”
Soon, Blackie’s face changed into the appearance of the Poison Swallower.
Watching the process, Alon suddenly realized that Kylrus had been silent for a long time and lifted his gaze.
“Kylrus?”
In the silence, Alon called his name.
And then—
“Kyaaaah!!”
Thud—!
Letting out a girlish scream, Kylrus hurled Blackie far away and collapsed on the spot, convulsing with foam at his mouth.
“Wh-what?”
Alon’s bewildered mutter echoed.
[·· Meow?]
Blackie, who had been thrown, let out a wronged cry.
