Became the Patron of Villains Chapter 448: Return (4)

[...Did you marry a dragon?]

At the golden dragon Reinysius’s question, Alon was left speechless.

He swallowed down his bewildernt and barely managed to ask back,

"What did you just say?"

[...Exactly what I said?]

Reinysius looked more puzzled by why Alon found it strange.

"...Huh?"

"When in the world...?"

At the sudden turn of events no one had seen coming, Penia and Evan, who had been listening from behind, each blurted out a fragnt in shock.

Alon let out a deep sigh.

"Forgive , but I can’t make heads or tails of this. I’d like you to explain it from the beginning, slowly."

At that, Reinysius made a dubious face, then for so reason subtly drew its body back.

Like it was avoiding sothing.

While Alon was still wondering about that, Reinysius spoke.

[There is nothing particularly special about it. Our dragon race, once it finds a mate, basically leaves its scent on the other.]

"...Its scent?"

[Yes. To make it clear to the other dragons.]

Leaving its scent on purpose.

"So dragon marriages must be held rather quietly."

[Not so.]

"...Hm?"

[Most of dragonkind attends a dragon wedding, but... why would you think that?]

"If you go so far as to leave a scent, I assud it was to make it known to others."

At that perfectly reasonable inference, Reinysius nodded.

[Well, it is not that. As I said, when dragons marry, the whole race gathers to celebrate. Even so, there is a reason they still leave their scent. Sotis... troubleso things happen.]

With a sowhat strange expression, it continued.

[As you know, dragons are beings blessed by magic power, and the polymorph dragons use is extrely precise. So precise that even dragons cannot recognize one another.]

"I see."

[And roughly a thousand years ago, it beca popular among dragons to polymorph into humans and amuse themselves.]

"...?"

And then Reinysius fell silent.

Alon felt puzzled, but—

"Ah...!"

As if she had realized sothing, Penia let out a dying gasp.

And soon after, Alon’s thoughts reached the answer too.

"...No way."

[Yes. A little unintentional adultery... And so that custom ca into being.]

As if it did not want to expose any more of its race’s dirty laundry, Reinysius cut its explanation short.

Alon understood that for a mont, but soon returned to the real issue.

"...Putting your words together, are you saying there is a dragon’s scent still left on my body?"

[Yes. Especially around your waist. Quite a lot of it.]

Even as Alon looked down at his waist, he tilted his head.

That was only natural, because recently he had not t any dragons at—

"Ah."

That far into the thought, Alon let out a sigh before he knew it.

Co to think of it, there had been one more dragon Alon had t besides Reinysius.

"...You’re talking about Arculainysis... right?"

At Penia’s question, clearly having thought of the sa one, Alon nodded and looked again at his waist.

Because she, who had done nothing but cry, had always wrapped her tail around his waist.

Having roughly grasped the source of the scent, Alon lightly drew in a breath to sll it, but—

[Scent is not sothing you can detect that way.]

"I see."

[And...]

Reinysius looked at Alon with a dubious expression.

[There is sothing I would very much like to say.]

"What is it...?"

[A dragon’s life is not the sa as a human’s.]

"? I know that."

[What...?]

Reinysius looked startled by Alon’s response.

For so reason, its eyes filled with even more contempt.

[...You know that?]

"Well, at least that the length of their lives is different."

[Yes, it is different. No matter what, even if a dragon has lived thirty years, by human standards it is still only a child. In other words, an immature individual.]

"That’s true."

[...And you married one anyway? An immature dragon?]

When Alon answered imdiately, Reinysius asked again as if it could not believe what it was hearing.

"Hk—"

"...Lord Alon?"

[Hk.]

[Kyuu?]

At that, Evan and Penia were startled in turn, and so were Basiliora and Blackie.

No, why are you two reacting like that too...!? was what he wanted to say, but—

[I already knew True Mages had unusual tastes, but to think you would do such a thing while knowing that—]

"Excuse , but I’d like you to throw out that grotesque assumption that I ever married a dragon before we continue...??"

Even hearing Reinysius’s direct condemnation, Alon squeezed his eyes shut.

Thirty minutes later.

"I keep saying it, over and over, but I did not marry a dragon."

[...I see.]

After painstakingly explaining his relationship with Arculainysis, Alon finally managed to escape the dragon’s suspicion.

"...Whew..."

He had not even brought up the real issue yet, but the fatigue already crashing over him made his head spin.

As Reinysius watched Alon sigh, it finally—

[Then did you co here... to keep your promise?]

—jerked its chin toward Blackie.

"...Do you think I’ve gathered enough strength to keep it?"

[Did you co here without even knowing that?]

"I also had sothing I wanted to ask while I was at it. Including how much stronger Blackie would need to beco to keep that promise."

Reinysius looked silently at Blackie.

[From what I can see, your Shadow Dragon is already at a level sufficient to free from the seal.]

"...Really?"

[It is not yet an adult... but strangely enough, it possesses power beyond that.]

When Alon looked at Blackie on his shoulder, it tilted its head adorably and went, "Kyuu?"

"Blackie, if you would."

When he spoke to it, the creature nodded as though it understood exactly what he ant, then moved toward Reinysius.

Soon, as Blackie climbed onto the dragon, black smoke began pouring from its body.

And then—

Fwoooosh—!!

The black smoke instantly covered Reinysius’s body.

At the sa ti, the dark spear that had been lodged in the golden dragon until just monts ago slowly turned into black smoke and scattered.

Fwoosh—!

A change began to occur in Reinysius, who until now had been waiting for the day of death with no hope at all.

Fwoooosh—!

The scales that had emitted only a dull brown light took on a fierce golden radiance, and the hollow brown eyes filled with brilliant gold.

Kwagagagagagagagagak—!

Along with it, an imnse wave of magic power, enough to make one’s skin crawl, ran wild through the entire space.

And at the final mont—

■■■■■—!!!

A burst of noise erupted, and Alon witnessed it.

[...Ah, it has been a long ti.]

The true form of the golden dragon, wrapped in brilliant gold.

And that was not the end.

With the return of the golden dragon, the overwhelming magic power that spread out in every direction instantly took the shape of chains, linking Alon and Reinysius together.

Before Alon even had ti to be startled by the unforeseen turn—

[You have kept your promise to , so it is only right that I keep my promise to you.]

At Reinysius’s voice, dozens more layers of chains were created and began linking Reinysius and Alon together.

And at last, when they fused once more into a single chain so massive it could never be severed—

[I, Reinysius, in accordance with the great covenant, shall serve the being before as my master until the mont he is consud and disappears into magic power.]

Reinysius’s words rang out through the cavern.

And as the chains that had ford all surged toward Alon at once—

[Take good care of from now on.]

Alon had obtained a golden dragon.

####

Alon gave the golden dragon a rough explanation of everything that had happened until now.

[...So to summarize, you are saying the Shadow Dragon beca able to absorb and use the power of these things called Divine blood?]

At the conclusion Reinysius had drawn, Alon nodded.

The dragon then thought for a mont before speaking.

[Even I would have difficulty properly grasping exactly what happened.]

"...Is that so?"

[However, there are a few things that co to mind. So if you give a little ti, I will investigate.]

After Alon nodded, he asked,

"Then what do you plan to do now?"

[?]

"Yes."

[What is there to do? You have beco my master, so I intend to follow you. Is there so problem with that?]

The mont Reinysius asked that, it quickly seed to realize sothing on its own and nodded.

"I see. If I walk around in my true form, it may be inconvenient for both of us."

Soon it began gathering magic power into its body.

At the sa ti, Reinysius’s form gradually began to shrink.

After so ti passed—

"...Shit."

Evan’s curse ca from behind him.

A completely out-of-nowhere curse.

But Alon did not bother objecting.

Because he understood.

He understood exactly why Evan had let out such foul language.

"Isn’t that humanity’s enemy?"

A violent mutter, as if the whole thing were unfair.

Alon found himself nodding before he realized it.

Because the face Reinysius had after polymorphing into a human was, in truth, so absurdly handso it could have slapped even that handso elf across the face.

"Ahh—O heavens, why did heaven create , and then also create Elivan and the golden dragon?"

"? That’s complete bullshit."

At Evan’s wail, Penia imdiately went expressionless, then looked at the golden dragon with a strange little frown.

"...Honestly, I’m more offended because he’s too handso."

For so reason, that made sense too.

"Ah."

By then, apparently having finished the polymorph, Reinysius spoke.

With a low voice unlike the one it had possessed as a dragon, Reinysius checked its voice several tis, then said to Alon’s group, who were all staring at it with vacant expressions,

"This reaction really does not change even after a thousand years."

"Wow, what an unbelievably punchable asshole..."

Watching the handso man shrug in a calm, matter-of-fact way, Penia muttered quietly.

Anyway, after that brief commotion, Alon left the great cavern together with Reinysius.

Two more months passed after that.

Once they had left the wasteland behind, the group stopped nowhere else and headed straight for Palantia.

And when Alon arrived in {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Palantia—

"...Evan."

"Yes."

"What is that?"

At the sight that greeted them the mont they entered, he asked the question.

Likewise rendered speechless by the spectacle before him, Evan—

"Uh..."

—continued blankly for a mont before saying,

"...The Demon King’s castle...?"

That was all he could co up with.

A gigantic floating island hanging in the sky over Palantia.

There was no other expression that could describe it.

'...What happened in the last half year...?'

Confusion settled into the mind of Alon, who had finally returned ho after so long.