Receiving awkward praise like, ‘We believed in you! You're the village hero!’ Alon headed toward the southern gate where the Ronovelli jungle lay.
The mont he arrived, even the explorers there showered him with admiration.
One guide even offered to lead him to the expedition camp free of charge.
And at that point, he began to faintly realize why all this was happening.
“You’re truly amazing, Marquis. How were you able to gather rcenaries and knights like that and sweep away the shadows over the Allied Kingdom? I’m just in awe.”
“...Is that so?”
“Yes! Life has really gotten easier these days, thanks to you, Marquis!”
“That’s good to hear...”
Alon replied awkwardly to the sincerely admiring explorer, chuckling.
Then Evan, walking beside him, spoke quietly.
“Is that... really true?”
“Do you really need to ask that to know?”
“Well, I just asked just in case.”
“You were the one who sent the official notice...”
“Oh.”
Evan let out a low exclamation.
Penia, who had been following behind, furrowed her brows repeatedly as if trying to understand, then finally spoke.
“So it’s like this, right? The Marquis put up the official notice without much thought, just to accept subjects, but people misunderstood it in their own way and now it’s turned into all this?”
“Exactly.”
“...Seriously?”
“Not a single error.”
“And now it’s turned into this?”
“Why in the world did that kind of rumor spread...”
As Alon muttered blankly, Penia glanced sideways at the explorer.
Even though he was clearly working for free, he wore a wide smile, seemingly overjoyed just to be helping Marquis Palatio.
Can soone really be this happy working for free?
That thought crossed her mind for only a mont.
“Well, isn’t it still a good thing? Even if it’s twisted, a good rumor is better than a bad one, right?”
At her words, Alon nodded.
Indeed, she was right.
A good rumor wouldn’t harm his image.
However—
“With soone like the Marquis around, the Allied Kingdom still has hope. Hahahaha!”
He felt a sting of guilt.
Mostly in his conscience.
‘Why did such a ridiculous rumor even start?’
Despite continuing to wonder about it—
He had no intention of confessing the truth to the explorer who was cheerfully chatting away.
He had already received cheers and applause back in Caselot, and if he ca clean now, the realization that it was all a misunderstanding might lead to cold stares, and that was not sothing he wanted to deal with.
So, instead of correcting the false rumor, Alon chose to stay silent.
Thanks to that, he was able to reach the explorer camp comfortably by late evening that day.
And—
“Marquis Palatio has arrived!”
“Why would the Marquis co here?”
“No way—!”
Even after arriving at the camp, Alon once again heard, ‘You’re the village hero!’ and couldn’t bear to lift his head.
‘If I really had that kind of intention, I’d probably be embarrassed right now.’
That strange thought passed through Alon’s mind the next day.
‘Yeah, I really don’t like it here.’
He inhaled the incredibly humid air deep into his lungs.
Blackie shook his body repeatedly as if to rid himself of the moisture, clearly hating it.
anwhile, Basiliora looked refreshed, as if enjoying the humidity now that he was back in his holand(?), gazing around leisurely.
“Marquis.”
“What is it?”
“I just thought of this now that we’ve co this far, but... didn’t we forget sothing?”
“Forget sothing?”
“Yes.”
“What would that be?”
“Blue Ghost. Weren’t we supposed to bring him with us?”
“Oh.”
Alon let out a soft exclamation as the long-forgotten presence ca back to him.
“We completely forgot him.”
“Well, he looked pretty happy last ti, so maybe it’s not a bad thing after all.”
“That’s true.”
As Alon recalled Blue Ghost’s blissful expression the last ti he saw him—
Penia, who had been listening quietly, suddenly asked.
“Without that Blue Ghost, how are we supposed to reach where Ryanga is?”
“Huh, that’s a good point.”
Evan quickly agreed.
But Alon—
“Don’t worry about that.”
—answered nonchalantly.
Though his mory was a bit fuzzy now, he still rembered where the Queen of the Hundred Ghosts had been.
‘Well, we just need to go to the deepest part of the forest anyway.’
With that thought—
“Let’s get moving. It’ll probably take so ti, so we should pick up the pace.”
They soon made preparations.
And headed toward the forest where Ryanga awaited.
***
While hurrying through the forest, Alon overlooked two important facts.
The first was that the place where Ryanga—the Queen of the Hundred Ghosts—resided was farther than expected.
But that part was manageable.
Since he already knew where she was, it wouldn’t take too long as long as they didn’t get lost.
The real problem lay in the other fact.
Which was the path Alon had to take in order to et Ryanga…
There are truly countless mutants scattered throughout the forest.
Of course, at this point, mutants weren’t a major threat to Alon.
He had the power to deal with most mutant swarms with little difficulty.
However, the problem was endurance.
Alon could handle the mutants.
Even if they ca in droves, as long as he didn’t stir up the ones nearby, he could wipe them out.
The catch was that he could only do this a limited number of tis.
And in this forest, there were a great many mutants.
To use a gaming taphor, you’d run into a mutant every five steps.
That’s why, when he first encountered a mutant in the forest—
Alon briefly regretted not offering a "tribute" like in the ga system.
Until a mysterious figure suddenly appeared and smashed the head of the mutant attacking him.
A girl with a long white ponytail down to her waist and a goblin mask on her face crushed the mutant and then disappeared.
And maybe a few minutes after that—
When another mutant appeared, the girl reappeared, smashed another mutant’s head, and vanished again.
That repeated about five tis.
Naturally, Alon knew very well who that mysterious savior was.
“...Marquis.”
“What is it?”
“That was Ryanga, wasn’t it?”
“Looks like it.”
“You an that girl who saved you before, right?”
“Yeah.”
Of course, Penia had also easily figured out that it was Ryanga.
It would have been strange not to notice.
This wasn’t so comic book world.
It made no sense not to recognize soone just because they were wearing an ordinary mask instead of an artifact.
So—
When she defeated yet another mutant—
“Ryanga.”
Alon called out to her as she tried to disappear again.
“H-hyaggh—”
Ryanga made a strange sound.
As if she never expected to be found out, her limbs froze stiff, giving Alon a strange feeling.
“...I-I’m not Ryanga, you know?”
‘It’s Ryanga.’
‘That’s definitely her.’
‘It’s that girl.’
Seeing her deny it without even bothering to disguise her voice, the group all thought the sa thing.
Still, it seed she was determined to conceal her identity.
“Ahem, ahem. If you pass through this forest and head toward that hill over there, maybe you’ll et soone with beautiful white hair~?”
She said shalessly and disappeared again.
“What was that...?”
“We should probably just play along.”
At Penia’s suggestion, Alon nodded and resud walking.
***
Marti.
He was currently a soldier of the Divine Land ford by Marquis Palatio.
But in truth, he was a mber of Caliban’s intelligence unit, sent to spy after hearing that the Marquis was forming a Divine Land.
Of course, he wasn’t doing anything special.
His role was purely to gather information—no other assignnts.
After all, infiltrating the Marquis’s Divine Land itself was already a high-risk mission.
Still, the reason his superior had gone through the trouble of embedding him was—
Because there was a chance Marquis Palatio might actually try to pull sothing big.
He certainly had the power to do so.
That’s why Marti took part in the mission with extre caution.
At first, Marti thought maybe he and his superior had overestimated things.
Sure, things were intense when Deus first began training the soldiers—
But aside from that, nothing really suspicious happened.
Granted, as ti passed, the once-carefree knights all started to wear very solemn expressions after one-on-one talks with Deus—
But that was about it.
Even when the Marquis gathered soldiers and knights under the pretense of welcoming new subjects, Marti didn’t think much of it.
The rcenaries and knights had co after hearing twisted rumors—
And quickly realized the Marquis hadn’t actually said any of that.
But after Karla—no, the saint who served the Marquis—entered Divine Land—
Marti began to sense sothing was off.
Knights and rcenaries who had gathered due to a misunderstanding, and who should have dispersed, instead began to settle down one by one thanks to the saint.
And with that, the Divine Land truly began to grow.
That wasn’t all.
The world was already abuzz with distorted rumors.
Then, when the Divine Land’s rcenaries and knights wiped out the local bandits—
Praises for the Marquis began to echo everywhere.
Marti started to think maybe this whole situation had been orchestrated.
Because rumors usually don’t spread this positively.
Even if the Marquis did the right thing, gossip always distorts the truth.
But this?
It was as if soone was deliberately controlling the rumors spreading across the Allied Kingdom.
And if that soone truly was controlling it—
Then it could only be Marquis Palatio.
Marti did find it strange.
The Marquis already had everything.
Sure, public favor isn’t a bad thing, but to go so far as to spend a fortune managing it?
No way.
No matter what anyone said, he was still just a Marquis of the Kingdom of Asteria.
Which ant public support was useless to him at the mont.
As Marti pondered what the Marquis’s motive could be—
A terrifying theory began to form in his mind.
A truly frightening hypothesis.
But once that theory took shape, the Marquis’s actions all made sense.
Why he created this large Divine Land and gathered soldiers and knights.
Why he used false rumors to attract them.
Why he used the saint to settle them and form an army.
Why he spent so much money manipulating public opinion.
“Marquis Palatio plans to beco a god himself…!”
He arrived at a conclusion he believed was practically fact and felt chills run down his spine.
He had always found the Marquis suspicious, but never imagined it would be this extre.
‘I have to report this quickly!’
Marti gripped his magic orb tightly, waiting for nightfall so he could report the “truth” he had uncovered.
And at that exact mont—
“Why do my ears itch so much these days?”
“Maybe soone’s bad-mouthing you, Marquis?”
“Can’t say I’ve lived a life deserving of that kind of hate, though.”
Alon muttered as he rubbed his itching ear and continued walking through the forest.
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