Chapter 320 : Ryanga (2)

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 moment 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 mercenaries 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 someone really be this happy working for free?

That thought crossed her mind for only a moment.

“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 someone 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 came clean now, the realization that it was all a misunderstanding might lead to cold stares, and that was not something 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 come 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.

Meanwhile, Basiliora looked refreshed, as if enjoying the humidity now that he was back in his homeland(?), gazing around leisurely.

“Marquis.”

“What is it?”

“I just thought of this now that we’ve come this far, but... didn’t we forget something?”

“Forget something?”

“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 came back to him.

“We completely forgot him.”

“Well, he looked pretty happy last time, so maybe it’s not a bad thing after all.”

“That’s true.”

As Alon recalled Blue Ghost’s blissful expression the last time 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 memory was a bit fuzzy now, he still remembered 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 some time, 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 meet 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 came 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 times.

And in this forest, there were a great many mutants.

To use a gaming metaphor, 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 game 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 times.

Naturally, Alon knew very well who that mysterious savior was.

“...Marquis.”

“What is it?”

“That was Ryanga, wasn’t it?”

“Looks like it.”

“You mean 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 some comic book world.

It made no sense not to recognize someone 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 same thing.

Still, it seemed 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 meet someone with beautiful white hair~?”

She said shamelessly and disappeared again.

“What was that...?”

“We should probably just play along.”

At Penia’s suggestion, Alon nodded and resumed walking.

***

Marti.

He was currently a soldier of the Divine Land formed by Marquis Palatio.

But in truth, he was a member 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 assignments.

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 something big.

He certainly had the power to do so.

That’s why Marti took part in the mission with extreme 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 time 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 mercenaries and knights had come 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 something was off.

Knights and mercenaries 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 mercenaries 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 someone was deliberately controlling the rumors spreading across the Allied Kingdom.

And if that someone 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 meant public support was useless to him at the moment.

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 become 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 extreme.

‘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 moment—

“Why do my ears itch so much these days?”

“Maybe someone’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.