Chapter 335 : Perplexity (1)

After the nebula fell and the blinding white light devoured everything, the soldiers found themselves in a world that had returned to normal.

“...Whoa.”

“This is…”

They were witnessing a massive crater.

No, it felt more like a giant lake had suddenly dried up.

The sight before their eyes was just that surreal.

“What the hell is this—”

“Is something like this even possible?”

Of course, the mages weren’t much different in their reactions.

“This is… a magic cast by a human?”

“Ooh…”

“This is the prototype of primordial magic—”

Celaime, Parkline, and even Sharan, who had been preparing an unused plan atop the fortress wall, muttered absentmindedly, awe filling their eyes.

While everyone around was gasping in admiration, Alon—

“Are you okay, brother?”

“I’m fine.”

Let out a dry sigh and clutched his chest.

‘To think it would be this much.’

Of course, he had poured in all the reversed mana he could, so he had expected it to be powerful.

But to think it would be so destructive that even he would be swept away by his own magic.

‘If it weren’t for Radan, it could’ve been dangerous.’

So the moment the spell was cast and fell to the ground, he expressed his gratitude to Radan, who had, as if waiting, approached him to shield him from the magic.

“Thanks. That could’ve ended badly.”

“Hey— it’s nothing to fuss about, brother.”

Radan replied with a cheerful smile.

“By the way, do you know what happened to the others?”

“Oh, you mean Seolrang and the Hero? Seolrang got out fast, so she should be fine. And the Hero—well, nothing to worry about.”

Even as Radan mumbled while stroking his chin, already muttering to himself, Alon turned his gaze toward the thick mana he sensed nearby.

There, leaning against a half-shattered 'Ram’s Skull,'

was Sloth, collapsed.

Sloth was not in a normal state.

Perhaps due to a failed monstrous transformation, the lower half of his body was missing, and the Ram’s Skull that had acted as the catalyst was nearly destroyed.

In other words, he had suffered damage so severe he could no longer fight.

“So this is how it ends.”

Sloth’s murmuring drifted through the air.

His eyes had returned to how they once were.

The same jaded gaze from the moment he first appeared,

instilling fear in everyone.

Even now, standing before death, it was the same.

A sin, yet different from the others.

No—Alon observed this sin, so unlike the one in his memories,

and suddenly opened his mouth.

“May I ask you something?”

Sloth didn’t answer.

He only stared in silence.

But Alon asked anyway.

“What did you mean… when you said you wanted to protect something?”

Sloth had definitely said that when he first appeared.

That he wanted to protect something.

And that had stuck with Alon ever since.

The sins he knew— the sins he had seen thus far— were exactly as he remembered them.

They appeared to feed on humanity’s despair.

They moved to bring about human destruction.

They existed not to protect anything but to bring harm.

But such a being— A sin that cyclically brought ruin to the world for reasons even it might not fully know—

What could it possibly want to protect?

Sloth, who had silently been watching Alon after the question, suddenly answered.

“You all.”

“…What?”

Alon’s expression broke for a moment.

He couldn’t comprehend it.

His brow furrowed deeply as he asked again, but Sloth, who had already begun to crumble into ash, said, “What I wanted to protect—”

And with those final words,

“—was humanity.”

He vanished completely.

And Alon, staring at the place where even the ashes had disappeared,

“…What?”

Could only furrow his brows even more.

But only for a moment.

He couldn’t stay lost in his own confusion.

“Brother.”

“…Ah, Radan?”

“Yeah, sorry to interrupt your thinking, but I think it’s time to say goodbye.”

“Ah—”

Radan’s words brought Alon back to his senses.

If they lingered any longer, the Beast of Possibility would soon be released.

And then the Radan before him would return to his original state.

“!”

Just as Alon was about to ask a question that had suddenly come to mind—

“Nope, brother.”

As if he already knew what Alon was going to ask, Radan grinned.

“Remember the butterfly effect?”

“…Yeah.”

“I think this is just about the right amount of help I can give. Ah—if only I could use relics, I could’ve shown off a bit more.”

Watching Radan mutter to himself, Alon spoke.

“…I feel like this much is safe to ask, though.”

“What is it? Gotta be cautious, brother.”

“Are you… from the future?”

“The future, huh. Well—”

Radan thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Strictly speaking, yeah.”

“So we know each other too, huh… No point in asking more, then.”

“Obviously. Oh—”

As Radan nodded, he suddenly remembered something and handed something to Alon.

“Brother. When I go back to normal, can you give this to me?”

“…What is it?”

“Mmm—you’ll know when you give it to me.”

What he handed over was a blue gem.

“Didn’t you say you couldn’t speak about things because of the butterfly effect?”

“Oh, what I gave you now is from a slightly different thread.”

As Alon wondered what he meant by that, Radan pressed the gem firmly into his hand.

“Please. The me of this time is kinda useless, you see.”

With that, he raised his hand slightly in a farewell gesture.

“Well, I’m off now. Still got some things to say to Seolrang and the Hero.”

“…The Hero?”

“Yeah, the Hero… Oh, right, he’s called Eliban here, isn’t he?”

“For someone worried about butterfly effects, you sure are letting a lot slip.”

“Ahh—well, this much should be okay, right?”

Radan shrugged and was about to turn away, but then paused.

“Oh, right. I had one more thing to say.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah.”

He approached Alon again and…

Pat

…placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Brother, believe in your own choices. You’ve never once made the wrong call.”

He said it with determination.

“What do you mean—”

Alon was about to ask in response to the sudden seriousness—

“But now it’s really the end! Not much time left! Bye, brother!”

Radan then flashed his cheerful smile again and vanished.

For a long moment, Alon could only blankly stare at the empty air where Radan had disappeared.

***

In conclusion, Alon achieved victory in his battle against the Sin of Sloth.

With the defeat of the Sin of Sloth, the Black Territory vanished as if it had never existed, and all related incidents were brought to an end.

Even though Alon had taken care of Sloth, the situation in the Kingdom of Ashtalon was far from good.

Due to the black territory scattered by the Sin of Sloth, more than half of the kingdom had vanished.

Of course, the castle and territories remained, but it was meaningless.

Territories hold no value without people to inhabit them.

And the crisis of Ashtalon was something Alon could feel personally.

The reason for that was the “Empire.”

Originally, Psychedelia, which dealt with the story of the “Allied Kingdom,” and Calipsophobia, which dealt with the “Empire,” were unrelated within the game.

Except for one situation.

That was when the survival of the Allied Kingdom was in jeopardy.

At that point, the Empire would always invade the Allied Kingdom as part of the game’s system.

And once the Empire began its invasion, the Allied Kingdom would collapse almost instantly.

Alon was mildly concerned about that aspect.

‘They never actually got destroyed in the game, so I shouldn’t worry too much…’

Still, he couldn’t easily ignore a setting or background he already knew from the original game.

‘But right now, something else is more important.’

Alon shifted his thoughts back to what the Sin had said earlier.

‘Tried to protect… humanity, huh.’

Even after the situation had somewhat settled, he kept thinking about it.

But he still couldn’t understand what Sloth meant.

And that was only natural.

The sins had always existed to kill humans, and Sloth himself had tried to bring about the world’s destruction.

So why had he said something like that?

‘Well, maybe that was just Sloth’s personal belief, not a shared opinion among all the sins… but even that feels off.’

Tsk

Alon clicked his tongue, lost in thought for who knows how long.

“Marquis.”

“Evan.”

“So this is where you were? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

Evan approached Alon, who had been watching some guests lightly raising a toast at the ball after the crisis had passed.

“Was someone looking for me?”

“There were quite a few people, but that’s not why I came. It’s just that you disappeared all of a sudden, and you don’t look too well.”

“I just had something to think about.”

“Isn’t that what beds are for?”

“Well, that’s true.”

Alon replied absently as he looked down toward the lower floor.

“Ooooh—this mighty beast is the very one that took care of those meat blobs earlier—”

[Ahem~!!]

“Ooooh~!”

Surrounded by mages and clearly enjoying the attention, Basiliora proudly lifted her head.

[Meow…]

Meanwhile, Blackie, lying on another table eating food, looked at it with utter disdain.

Still, even Blackie was being fawned over by mages and puffing up with pride.

Finally, Alon confirmed that a crowd of nobles had gathered around Eliban and spoke.

“They seem to be having fun.”

“I really can’t stand Basiliora. It’s been like that for almost two hours. It must be starving for attention.”

Evan clicked his tongue in disgust.

“Well, it was a god, after all.”

“Do all gods crave attention that badly…?”

“Well—”

Just as Alon was about to answer not all of them, he suddenly remembered Kalannon.

The white cat playing in the Divine Land, doing anything she could to recover her divine power.

“It’s a matter of survival, after all.”

“…But that thing’s not even a god anymore. It’s just a pet, right? Not needed.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

Alon nodded, and Evan let out a deep sigh.

Then Alon, as if remembering something, asked,

“Evan, have you heard anything about the Jewel of the Closed-Eyed One?”

“Ah, not yet.”

“Really?”

“Yes. But they said they’ve found a clue, so they asked for a little more time.”

After checking on the progress,

“Let’s head down.”

Leaving behind the unresolved questions, they began walking toward their lodging.

“Excuse me, are you Marquis Palatio?”

“…Yes, and you are?”

On the staircase down, they encountered a mage.

He wore a red robe and appeared to be significantly older than Alon.

He suddenly bowed deeply.

Then—

“I’m Gunan Croatz, a professor at the Red Tower.”

“Ah, I see—”

“Well, I’m pretty good at simple computation, and I contributed quite a bit to one of the Red Tower’s theses, ‘Atia’s Intermediate Paradox.’”

“I… see.”

“I also developed a spell called ‘Atius Core,’ which is based entirely on basic calculations, and it—”

He launched into an enthusiastic self-introduction.

“…?”

“…?”

Alon, bewildered, looked to Evan.

But—

“…??”

Evan also tilted his head, clearly just as confused.

“Ahem, I suppose I’ve rambled too long. Anyway, that’s that.”

And with that, the professor from the Red Tower disappeared.

‘What was that about?’

Still flustered and full of new questions, Alon continued heading toward his assigned room.

“Ah, Marquis Palatio! There you are~!”

“…And you are?”

“Ah, my apologies. I’m Uyarne Palbin, a full professor from the Blue Tower.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Ahem, just to introduce myself—have you perhaps heard of the papers ‘Kreuz’s Reverse Calculations’ or ‘Zalman’s General Operations’ in the field of basic computation?”

“…??”

And so began another natural-sounding, but random, self-introduction from a mage.

“Hello! Marquis! I’m from the Violet Tower—”

“I’m from the Blue Tower!”

During his walk, Alon was subjected to two more rounds of “basic calculation” bragging from different mages.

He was utterly perplexed by the situation and finally made it back to his room.

The next day—

“Good morning, Marquis! I’m from the Red Tower—”

“I’m from the Green Tower—”

“…??”

As soon as he woke up, mages started pouring into his room without invitation.

Another day of the same self-introduction parade began, and Alon started to feel something was off.

Then, about two hours later—

“Greetings, Marquis! Interviewee Number 19! I’m a mage from the Green Tower named Torin! I’m really confident in my basic calculations! If you choose me—!”

At some point, mages began yelling out interview numbers—numbers even Alon didn’t know— and were passionately promoting themselves like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“…??”

With his fingers laced together, Alon could only sit there, his mind filled with confusion.