[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-became-the-patron-of-villains":3,"chapter-became-the-patron-of-villains-became-the-patron-of-villains-chapter-378":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Became the Patron of Villains",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},759668,1006,"Chapter 378 : A Birthday Without Memories (3)","became-the-patron-of-villains-chapter-378",378,"\u003Cp>“Brother’s memories have reverted to when he was a child.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Magrina’s shocking words — perhaps a desperate gambit thrown by Rine, who couldn’t come here — instantly silenced the murmuring crowd.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What do you mean by that?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Radan asked, putting on a grave expression.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Magrina sighed and spoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s exactly as I said. His memories are gone. More precisely… they’ve gone back to about thirteen years ago.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her declaration, spoken as if stamping confirmation, briefly swallowed the room in silence again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The heavy silence was broken when—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Could it be that someone attacked Master?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seolrang, who earlier couldn’t hide his surprise, now wore a blank expression that showed no emotion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Huh?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That he—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“—was attacked?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seolrang’s words seemed to be the spark.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At her single line, the people who had kept silent began to exude a terrifying force—no, magical power began to flow out from them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crackle!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even dispersing mana bent the nearby terrain and changed its shape in an instant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Who did it? Who dares touch Chief—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We’ll have to kill them.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a series of harsh, buzzing sounds, the surrounding trees began to topple, making a tremendous racket.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was so loud that even Alon, who knew nothing of the situation, could hear it faintly in his ears.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmm—did two monsters fight or something?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What is that…?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If large monsters fight sometimes you hear noises like that. But there shouldn’t be any large monsters around here.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Alon tilted his head at Penia’s explanation while they were handling official business together—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait, everyone calm down.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Calm? Is this the time to calm down?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“First hear the explanation to the end before you get angry, if you please.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Magrina tried to cool the overheated air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If left alone, those people would smash everything around them at once and go hunting for whoever might attack Alon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Magrina began to explain, in a composed voice, why the current situation had occurred.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>About ten minutes passed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So then, in short, Marquis temporarily regressed thirteen years for magical achievement? And the accident made that state persist longer than necessary?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s right.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmm—so Master wasn’t attacked by anyone, then?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sigh, and here I was thinking—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ryanga exhaled and continued.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So? Why are you telling us this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Of course there’s a reason.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What is it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Right now Marquis hasn’t announced to the outside world that he’s lost his memory.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If news spreads that he lost his memory now, that wouldn’t be good in any sense.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Magrina nodded at Deus’s words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s why I’m telling you all ahead of time. If Marquis behaves a little oddly, then—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Play dumb and act like you don’t know.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s correct.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At her affirmation, everyone gathered there nodded in agreement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If we react strangely to such matters, it would look suspicious.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We’ll be mindful.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Me too.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Okay, I’ll do that as well.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The atmosphere relaxed in an instant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was hard to imagine that these people had just been radiating enough mana to tear someone apart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So there’s nothing else to report?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then I’ll be going.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Me too!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Same here.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I have to go too. I still have things to prepare.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One by one, they waved lightly and departed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Historia flicked her hand in a breezy manner as she left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Magrina let out a small sigh as she watched them go.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With that, the visible duties were, for the moment, finished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Magrina recalled the scene from just now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though she had waved them off, relieved that nothing major had happened, each of the departing people had shown the same look in their eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A look that said they could do something at this timing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Magrina cleared her throat without meaning to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, as soon as Rine had told her the news earlier today, she had done a little “preparation” of her own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I hope tomorrow comes quickly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Magrina murmured as she turned and vanished into the forest, and soon the woods were left empty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>***\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Late at night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alon, who hadn’t yet slept, sat alone in the study without even Penia, lost in thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He thought about magic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How should he proceed?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Except for the first week he spent adapting to the suddenly changed world, Alon had spent the remaining three weeks thinking about magic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More precisely, he had been thinking about how to remove the vulnerabilities of the “artifacts” and “phrases” he used.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alon had taken the regression potion through Penia and reached this state to find a way to eliminate those vulnerabilities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But unfortunately—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hadn’t found any clues in the past three weeks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In some sense that was only natural.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The basic functioning of the regression potion is to temporarily erase memories and return one to childhood, then use that childlike imagination to find unseen paths in the present.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A child’s imagination is richer than an adult’s, after all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There were even Tower Masters who’d seen results with this regression potion, so it must be helpful to some degree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, even if it helped mages—or even Tower Masters reach the eighth rank—it didn’t help Alon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Think about it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What Tower Masters sought through the regression potion was childhood imagination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But, unfortunately—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alon had never had a period in this world when he possessed a child’s imagination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was a being who had entered the game.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In short—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no imagination for him to recover with the regression potion from the start.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All that existed for him were the memories, worn thin and frayed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn’t gain the imagination one might expect from the potion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, the thought crossed his mind — “Was my future self just stupid, doing something completely meaningless?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But before long, he abandoned that thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how desperate his future self had been, there was no way he wouldn’t have known this fact.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Alon concluded that his future self had knowingly drunk the Regression Potion regardless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then the reason must have been… to erase knowledge about the game.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For that purpose, Alon tried to recall his memories.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The memories of the magic he had seen in the game — once so vivid before he fully regained consciousness — were now faint and unclear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was like reading Psychedelia from a book rather than experiencing it firsthand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other words, before drinking the Regression Potion, Alon seemed to have deliberately erased his knowledge of magic from the game.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As if expecting something from it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Past Alon realized this about three weeks later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And from that realization, he tried to develop his reasoning further.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But even now, he hadn’t achieved any meaningful result.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'Why would I erase that knowledge?'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He asked himself for what must have been the tenth time, but of course, no answer came back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Haa…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only reasonable deduction Alon had reached over that time was this — his future self believed that in order to improve his current weaknesses, the “knowledge from the game” was unnecessary — or rather, poisonous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Feeling his eyelids growing heavy, Alon stood up and looked out at the night sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlike the sky he had seen a month ago, there wasn’t a single star — only the moon hanging alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Staring blankly at it, Alon eventually turned toward his bedroom to rest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even as he walked back, his thoughts refused to stop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>***\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next morning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Despite being unable to sleep until dawn because of magic, Alon woke up rather early and rubbed his tired eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Today’s… my birthday, wasn’t it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment he remembered, his heart grew heavy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had to deceive everyone who would come today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'I’ve been told the basics, but…'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Penia had explained who would visit him today, and who might possibly come by.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, it was obvious that mere explanations wouldn’t make him any better at lying — something he’d never been good at in the first place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'This is going to be stressful.'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Feeling an unnecessary weight, Alon pulled open the curtains that usually stayed drawn.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Outside lay the same peaceful village scenery as always, along with the statue of the Northern Warden standing proudly—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The statue was there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes, it was there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as it always had been.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Exactly where it should be.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And yet, the reason Alon found himself staring blankly at it was simple—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'It’s… bigger?'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The statue had grown in size.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'Did I see that wrong?'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He blinked several times and examined it carefully.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its posture was definitely the same.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he turned his gaze toward the auction house beside it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He remembered the statue being about one and a half times taller than the auction hall when seen from his window.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'Twice the height?'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how many times he compared it to the building, the conclusion was unavoidable — the statue really had grown.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An hour later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Good morning, Marquis.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, Deus.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alon looked at Deus and, behind his neutral expression, couldn’t help but think—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'He’s handsome.'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlike the grotesque face he had in the game, Deus Maccalian was strikingly good-looking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he walked around like that in public, people of all ages and genders would surely turn their heads to admire him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Alon’s surprise didn’t last long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So, how do you like the gift?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Gift?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes — the statue, my lord.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that, realization struck him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason the statue had suddenly become so huge was because of Deus.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before he could even begin to wonder how someone could alter such a massive sculpture overnight without making a sound, Deus continued—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, since you liked it so much before, I prepared a larger one this time!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fact that his future self had supposedly liked that ridiculous statue of the Northern Warden left Alon even more dumbfounded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But of course, he couldn’t show it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...Thank you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He replied calmly, pretending not to question, “I liked that?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How about I prepare two more next time?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...Two more of those?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes! You liked it so much, after all!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deus said enthusiastically, full of pride.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Feeling utterly confused, Alon nonetheless replied,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sure… that sounds fine. I do like it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And with that—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“As expected! You really do love statues, my lord! I’ll get to work on them right away!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching Deus leave with a strangely proud expression, Alon began to feel a creeping dread at what kind of person his future self had become.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just then—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Master! Look at this!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What is it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A gift!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time it was Seolrang who brought a present.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The gift you wanted, Master!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—A marriage registration form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'What the hell is this now?!'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alon’s mind went blank.\u003C\u002Fp>",1757,"2026-06-02T12:43:45.413Z",1,"novelbin.me","c6c97bc082b65cce983692f39e94808e8227a419a88de868a74b7b0b13147e4e","became-the-patron-of-villains-chapter-379","became-the-patron-of-villains-chapter-377",479,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fbecame-the-patron-of-villains-cover.jpg"]