Chapter 284 : Treatment (3)
Right after meeting Historia.
"I'm truly, truly sorry!"
Alon looked down at the male beastman groveling in front of him.
His earlier cynical attitude had completely vanished, replaced with a man practically prostrating himself.
"Wow, that's pathetic..."
Evan, standing nearby, muttered with a cold look in his eyes.
To be honest, Alon felt similarly.
This man, who had been no better than a villain just moments ago, now couldn't even lift his head.
Of course, it wasn't Alon's power that had brought him to this state.
"Ria."
"Yes, God."
Historia answered immediately when Alon called her name.
Her characteristically blank—or perhaps slightly dazed—eyes stared straight at him.
"Aren't you a little too close?"
Just as he said, Ria was standing very close.
So close, in fact, that she was pressed up against Alon's body, her white tail wrapped around his waist.
"It was always this close before."
"The tail?"
"It was always like that."
Ria wasn't wrong.
Ever since Arquilainisis had wrapped her tail around Alon's waist, other tailed beings had followed suit.
"What does the Marquis even do to have women like that constantly clinging to him?"
"Well, it's kind of complicated, but... most of the time it is his fault."
From behind, he could hear Evan and Penia's conversation, and for a moment, Alon tried to ignore Radan's uneasy gaze.
He began to think about why the situation had resolved itself so neatly.
'They did call Ria Great Race, and once she acted like she knew me, things settled instantly.'
With just a word from Ria, the soldiers had cleared out like the ebbing tide.
Alon spoke to the beastman still kneeling before him.
"Please raise your head. As I said earlier, we did not come here to start a fight. May I first ask who you are?"
"Y-yes, of course!"
Tensing his entire body, the man introduced himself as Hao, the one who managed the harbor in the Eastern Nation.
"I'm so, so sorry...!"
He bowed low once again.
Seeing him bend over so much, Alon found it difficult to blame him.
"Please lift your head. I'll admit I'm not thrilled about what happened, but I don't intend to hold it against you."
"Thank you so much...!"
Hao smiled brightly, as if he'd been granted salvation.
At the same time, he kept sneaking glances at Historia.
Seeing this, Alon became curious about how much power she held in the Eastern Nation—but he brought the conversation back on track.
"May I ask about the current situation in the Eastern Nation? As I mentioned, we're outsiders and unfamiliar with what's happening here."
"I'll tell you everything!"
With a sharp breath, Hao straightened up and began to explain the situation in the Eastern Nation.
Alon was able to grasp the details.
"Rebellion and terrorism, you say?"
"Yes. To summarize, humans dressed in red who call themselves 'The Martyred' have appeared and stirred up chaos, resulting in a full-blown rebellion within the Eastern Nation."
"The Martyred... you say."
Alon murmured while stroking his chin.
It was a name he knew all too well.
The Martyred.
They appeared in the middle part of Psychedelia, right after one of the sins was destroyed, and they were notorious in the player community as a massive nuisance.
If players didn't complete the emergency quests triggered by their appearance within each territory, the territory would fall, and all facilities would become unusable.
Moreover, the Martyred aimed to destroy the world in order to "crown a new god"—a motive that made little sense.
Players saw them as nothing more than a cheap trick by the developers to ramp up the game's difficulty.
In the time-sensitive Psychedelia quests, they were the epitome of annoyance.
However, Alon now had a question.
'Weren't those guys only supposed to appear in the Allied Kingdom?'
Granted, Alon had never played the DLC.
So predicting what would happen in the Eastern Nation was impossible for him.
Even so, the presence of the Martyred here felt out of place.
He quietly pondered for a moment, then nodded as if he understood and turned to Historia.
"?"
Historia tilted her head at Alon's gaze.
"Ria."
"Hmm? God?"
"Why are you here?"
"You mean in the Eastern Nation?"
"Yes."
Historia opened her mouth slightly and then answered.
"Because of a gift."
"A gift?"
"Yeah, I came here for that."
"To receive it?"
"Grant a favor."
"So... you granted a favor and came to receive a gift. Is that it?"
Nod.
Their conversation was fragmented and oddly disconnected.
As Alon pieced together the information, Historia just kept nodding.
Feeling once again that their conversations always seemed just slightly off, Alon turned to Hao.
"Would it be possible to have an audience with the King of the Eastern Nation?"
"You mean His Majesty?"
"Yes. I came here because I was told the King wished to meet me."
Of course, what made Alon decide to travel to the Eastern Nation in the first place had been the words of the goddess Sironia.
'Now that I think about it, Sironia just told me to go east, not what I was supposed to do when I got here.'
Maybe I'll find out if I ask the King—Alon was just thinking that when—
"God, is meeting the King your goal?"
"Yes, it is."
"Then I'll take you."
"...You will?"
"Yeah, I was planning to head there after finishing my business anyway."
Historia cut in.
"If you travel to the Sacred Vessel where His Majesty resides with Lady Historia, you'll definitely be granted an audience," Hao added.
With those words, Alon made his decision and stepped out of the room.
'That was a close call…'
As soon as Alon and Historia left, Hao let out a deep sigh of relief, like a man who had just escaped death.
"!"
He flinched and quickly turned his head at the presence he felt nearby.
"L-Lady Historia? Is something the matter...?"
There stood Historia—who had definitely walked out with Alon just moments before.
Startled, Hao forced a smile.
Historia, staring at his twitching lips, said, "Remember."
With a completely expressionless face, "There won't be a next time."
She said that, then silently turned and walked away.
After that, Alon was able to learn two more things.
The first was the reason why Historia was currently here.
She had come at the king's request to deal with the Martyred, who were at the center of the rebellion.
And the second—
"Lady Historia...!"
"...Wow… It's Lady Historia."
"That's the Great Heavenly White Wolf...?"
—that Historia held an incredibly high status within the Eastern Nation.
Alon observed the gazes of the beastkin.
Filled with awe and reverence, they looked just like the devout believers he used to see in Sironia.
'This is a bit surreal.'
The Historia he knew—both from the past and from the game—had been a quiet figure who always moved alone, even among the Seven Great Powers, so this was an unfamiliar sight to him.
But only for a moment.
"God, wait here."
Historia took a step forward.
"So you're telling me to wait while you handle business?"
"Yeah. It won't take long."
"You've figured out their location already?"
Alon spoke to her.
"We'll help."
"You will, God?"
"Yes. After all, I've received your help."
Of course, even without Historia's help, he could've escaped that earlier situation.
But without her, the chances of a peaceful resolution would've been close to zero.
"Hm—"
Historia pondered briefly, then casually wrapped her white tail around Alon's waist and said,
"Thanks."
"Then let's get moving."
"Yeah."
The two, stuck together as if one, started walking.
"...Seriously, are they not going to tell us anything?"
"I thought I gave a rough explanation earlier?"
"A bit more detail would've been nice... Sigh, let's just go. Not like this is the first time I've been left confused."
Evan, lamenting as he watched them walk away, soon shrugged and followed after them.
Penia also started to move, but then—
"?"
She noticed that Radan, who stood beside her, wasn't moving.
"Aren't you coming?"
Radan, chewing nervously on his lip with a troubled look, muttered under his breath.
"This is dangerous... I might not be able to hold myself back..."
'What was that just now?'
Penia flinched and gave him a weird look.
But Radan didn't seem to care, still soaked in unease.
And within his trembling eyes—
—a red brooch shimmered.
***
It wasn't long after they started helping Historia that Alon arrived at the hideout of the Martyred.
Or more accurately—
"This is far beyond the level of a hideout."
They were standing before a massive fortress.
It was nestled in a gap beneath a mountain range so enormous it could block out the sun, a place no normal person could hope to approach.
Just looking at it, the fortress of the Martyred radiated an ominous energy.
Everywhere Alon turned his gaze, he saw them—
—the mutated monsters that always appeared alongside the Martyred.
These monsters were easily twice as strong as normal ones.
And that wasn't all.
Compared to the Martyred strongholds he had dealt with in Psychedelia, the one before him looked far larger.
But the thing that troubled Alon the most—
"Abyssal Beings."
"They're here too."
The Abyssal Beings, already a huge problem in the Allied Kingdom, were also here.
While Alon considered what to do—
Sss—
Historia, who had been clinging to Alon with her tail wrapped around his waist, stood up.
"Ria?"
Alon called out to her.
Historia looked at him for a moment, then said,
"I'll be back. It won't take long."
She began walking forward.
"Wait, it's better not to go alone—"
Alon reached out, trying to stop her.
He knew from the start how powerful Historia was.
Even if he didn't know much about 700 years ago, she had been one of the Seven Great Powers of the Allied Kingdom.
But still, the Martyred were no ordinary foes.
Each one was monstrously strong, appearing in the mid-game with terrifying abilities.
And under the name of "sacrifice for the great god," they committed all manner of atrocities, including suicide bombing.
He knew that taking them on alone was unwise and tried to stop her.
But in the next moment—
Alon saw it.
A massive amount of mana gathering around Historia's body as she prepared to draw her sword.
Then—
First Ritual.
Historia drew her blade.
Genesis.
...Nothing happened.
Click!
Historia returned the sword to its sheath and turned around.
The world remained unchanged.
The Martyred in the fortress still existed.
The monsters were still there too.
Nothing had changed.
"...?"
"?"
Evan looked completely confused.
So did Penia, and even Radan tilted his head slightly in puzzlement.
Alon was no different.
But—
[...You've gotta be kidding me.]
Only Basiliora, perched on Alon's shoulder, cursed in disbelief.
And just as Alon turned to question Basiliora's reaction—
-!
A faint sound reached everyone's ears.
It was like something being scratched—a tiny, subtle noise.
Skrrrrrk!
And then—
Alon saw it.
A sharp, blinding sun that seized his gaze in an instant.
He squinted at the light, confused.
In this position, the massive mountain should've blocked the sun, leaving this place in shadow.
So why was sunlight pouring down?
It didn't take long to find the answer.
Beneath the sunlight—
"Ah."
—was the great mountain, now sliced clean through horizontally, falling toward the valley where the Martyred were gathered.
!!!!!
A thunderous roar echoed across the world.