The Patron of Villains Reading Guide: Where to Start

Episode 1 of The Patron of Villains saves its best joke for the last few pages. Allon Palateo, an office worker reborn as a minor villain in a game he used to play, mails a friendly letter to Eutiah, a girl who in the game grows up to be the Sin of Wrath. He slips in an incantation he remembers from her arc, "Anguish of the shadow, clarity of the light. One worth, one binding," hoping it calms her down. She reads it as a covenant from her true master. The comic stamps her title across the page, Eutiah, the Queen of Blood, then cuts to Allon in bed, pleased with his "wonderfully lazy life."

If that sounds like your kind of comedy, start at Episode 1 on WEBTOON, the only official English publisher. The website lists Episodes 1 to 46, the newest posted November 5, 2026, and says 14 more are waiting in the app, which brings English level with the Korean original. WEBTOON runs it as a Global Launch series, "with new episodes publishing simultaneously worldwide." The Korean title is 악당들의 후원자가 되었다, and MangaUpdates and MyAnimeList also list it as Raising Villains the Right Way.

The Patron of Villains at a glance

Both platforms call it a Friday series, and both date every recent episode on a Thursday, so don't be thrown when the new one shows up a day early on the list. Korea hasn't missed a week: Naver's list runs from Episode 1 on October 23, 2025 to Episode 55 on November 5, 2026, one Thursday after another. English opened in a burst, with Episodes 1 and 2 on January 22, 2026, one a day through Episode 5 on January 25, then Episode 6 on January 29 and weekly ever since.

Korean series cover. Image: Naver Webtoon.

Step-by-Step: reading The Patron of Villains in order

1. Open WEBTOON and start at Episode 1: The English series page credits "Adapted by LICO", "Art by JOGEN" and "Original work by Bom Han Bang-ul". The line "Read 14 new episodes only on the app!" sits right above the episode list, so the website gets you to 46 and the app does the rest.

2. Judge it on Episodes 1 and 2: Episode 1 sets up the premise and the letter joke, and Episode 2 runs the same trick on the second villain. If Eutiah's misreading at the end of Episode 1 doesn't make you laugh, Episode 2 is more of the same and probably won't win you over; the next section shows what that joke looks like on the page.

3. Learn the name spellings before you search: WEBTOON's translation calls the lead Allon Palateo and the first villain Eutiah. AniList has them as Alon Pallatio and Yutia, MyAnimeList as Alan Pallatio and Yutia Bludia, and the Korean novel's notice writes 알론, which is where "Alon" comes from. Search all three spellings when you look for discussion threads.

4. Read straight through to Episode 46: Neither list has season breaks, recap chapters or renumbered arcs, and the Korean side has updated every week since October 2025, so there's no long pause waiting for you.

5. Pick how to wait: Past 46, English readers go to the app's 14 extra episodes. Naver's free list is at Episode 55, and Episodes 56 to 60 are paid previews, each with a countdown to going free, one week apart. After that, the story only continues in the Korean novel, which is still being written.

WEBTOON is the only English home for this one. Our where to read manhwa legally guide compares it with the other licensed platforms if you're setting up an app for the first time.

What Episodes 1 and 2 set up

We read both episodes in full on WEBTOON on November 6, 2026. Light spoilers for the opening only.

Episode 1 opens on the apocalypse: "in ten years time" the Union of Eastern Kingdoms "will face a catastrophe… brought forth by the Five Prime Sins." The narrator was "a corporate drone working 78-hour weeks" until he woke up as a noble inside Psychedelia, "a turn-based RPG game I used to play during my corporate days." Naver's Korean synopsis is blunter and calls him a 좋소 노예, a small-company slave.

Then he finds out who he is. Allon Palateo, "Third son of Count Palateo… a mere side villain", from a house that "only shows up as a subquest before the main story even begins." His brothers are Leo, "King of Vice", and Tonio, "King of Narcotics." Allon has no powers, so he picks the one plan he can afford: reform the Five Prime Sins while "they're still children." The episode labels them Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Pride and Obsession.

Two months later he has pulled orphans out of a human experiment lab and put a girl named Eutiah in charge of a new orphanage. His bodyguard Evan, a former mercenary, is introduced as that rare thing in Psychedelia, a loyal supporting character in a world "where betrayal is commonplace." The game knowledge is where the dark side comes in: Eutiah is a Bloodborn who "later becomes the Sin of Wrath."

The letter is deliberate. Allon remembers the quote from the game, where an archbishop recites it because "the incantation allows one to gain favor with the Bloodborn, so it should have a soothing effect," and copies it into his note on purpose. He even admits it's "kind of ridiculous that a simple quote is all I need to be buddies with a monster." Eutiah reads it as a covenant only her true master would know, and as "his will." The scene closes on her title card, "the Sin of Wrath and the Daughter of the Abominable Blood, Eutiah, the Queen of Blood", and the episode ends with Allon tucked into bed: "Now it's on to the second one." MangaUpdates files the series under "Misunderstanding/s" and "Misunderstood Protagonist."

The game quote Allon copies into his letter, Episode 1. Image: WEBTOON.

Episode 2 runs the trick again with a nastier edge. Evan reports he has "rescued the second child as per your command": Deus Macallion, "the second boss of Psychedelia", sold into forced labour as a child, who "later becomes the Sin of Sloth." A caption says players found his arc "the most disturbingly violent in the whole game." Allon, meanwhile, insists he's "determined to live a happy life as a feeble and incompetent illegitimate child." Partway through the episode Tonio turns up dead. Allon's first reaction is "Already…?", and then he decides Leo or someone in his camp must have done it. By the last pages Eutiah and Deus are acting in his name: "We, the Blue Moon, shall be his sword."

What sold us on the series is how fast it switches tone. Right after the captions about Deus's gore, Allon trembles over a teacup because "the depiction of gore is still fresh in my mind." A few panels on, Evan asks whether his last letter to Eutiah was about the second child, and the art drops into a chibi Allon on a starry orange background, sipping tea and answering "Yeah, pretty much." The letter beside him opens "Eutiah, how are you? I'm doing well. My second brother used me as a chair again today." Without those beats, the game-lore captions would get grim fast.

Allon's "just a greeting" letter, Episode 2. Image: WEBTOON.

The best gag in Episode 2 is a quiet one. A year after Tonio's funeral, Allon is pen pals with Eutiah, and the orphanage's cheerful update reads "Deus performs puppet shows quite often." The next scene is Margoth, "a drug distribution zone", where a hooded Deus works glowing strings and a dealer screams that his hand is "moving on its own", followed by the line "Once again, an excellent puppet show." Allon reads the letter and decides "they all seem like great kids." You know what the puppet shows are; he doesn't.

The weak spot is that both villains' backstories arrive as caption boxes from the game, each telling you who the kid "later becomes", so their trauma is told before it's shown. Eutiah's night scene with Deus, where she tells him he's been "chosen by the Great Moon", is the first stretch where the art carries the menace on its own.

Character art from the English series page. Image: WEBTOON.

Is The Patron of Villains finished? The novel and the credits

No. Naver lists the webtoon as ongoing and not on break, MangaUpdates agrees, and no end date has been announced.

The story it adapts isn't finished either. The original is a Korean web novel by 봄한방울 (Bom Han Bang-ul), an exclusive on Naver Series from the publisher 엔리즈 (n-ries), rated for all ages. It's marked ongoing at 717 episodes and updates "주 5일(월~금) 18시", Monday to Friday at 6 p.m. Korea time. MangaUpdates still says 622, so third-party chapter counts run behind. The novel has no official English edition: MangaUpdates lists WEBTOON as the only English publisher, for the webtoon, and Naver Series is the novel's only official home. Its notice, "알론과 다섯 죄악이 드디어 웹툰으로도 나왔습니다", announces that Alon and the five sins have finally arrived as a webtoon.

For credits, Naver lists LICO as writer, 조겐 (JOGEN) as artist and 봄한방울 as the original novelist. Episode 1's own end card is more specific: "Adaptation · Production" goes to Namisa and "Drawing" to JOGEN, with the Studio LICO logo under the credits, and AniList lists Namisa for story. LICO is the same studio credited, with ARCHE, on Return of the Blossoming Blade, both on WEBTOON's creator list and on Naver; our Return of the Blossoming Blade reading guide covers that one.

There's no anime. MangaUpdates has no anime entry and AniList lists no adaptation, just the webtoon editions in English, French, Thai and traditional Chinese on WEBTOON, plus Dongman Manhua in China. An edit video posted to r/manhwa in June 2026 had one reader saying they "almost expected an anime release date at the end of the video". Another asked whether it came from a promotional video, and the thread never says.

If the trapped-in-a-game setup is what hooked you, our best game manhwa list has seven more where the game rules matter, and best transmigration manhwa covers leads who wake up as someone else.

Romance, harem talk, and whether it's worth it

AniList's community tags include Female Harem (60%) and Yandere (66%), and that's what a July 28, 2026 r/manhwa thread argues over. Its title: "please tell me he doesn't end up with his own adopted daughter." The novel readers in it mostly say no, so far, with a catch. One wrote that "as of now in the novel no romantic relationships whatsoever," then added in the same comment that "a plethora of characters have feelings for Alon such as Yutia." Another reader checked back in on September 4: "I'm on chapter 472 of the novel and so far it's still the same, he just ignores or is oblivious to all and any women who try to get together with him."

Not everyone reads it as obliviousness. "He's fully aware of it, he just doesn't want it," a third reader replied, and another warned that with the novel still running, "no" today "could very well mean 'not yet'." The "he raised them" worry also gets pushback, since Allon funds the orphanage from a distance: "He just put them in an orphanage and exchanged letters. He is, at most, a guardian figure." That matches the first two episodes, where Allon's only contact with Eutiah is by letter.

It's worth reading for the comedy. Episode 1 earns its premise in one chapter, and the joke has teeth because the game-lore captions keep reminding you how monstrous these kids were supposed to become: Eutiah as "a ruthless monster that kills hundreds of thousands of people", Deus as the one who "decimates all the kingdoms." A June 2026 r/manhwa commenter called Allon "one of my favourite ignorant masterminds, 10/10." On MangaUpdates it has a Bayesian average of 7.75 from 172 votes (November 6, 2026).

Our call: read Episodes 1 and 2 and decide on the letter joke. If you laugh when Eutiah turns a soothing quote into a holy covenant, you'll like the next 44 episodes, because that misunderstanding drives everything. If the romance teasing in the Reddit thread already bothers you, one novel reader put the trade-off plainly: "I personally really enjoy the plot and can just ignore the blatant flirting, but I know some people very much can't."

If you liked it, read these next

AniList's top recommendation is The Eminence in Shadow (Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute), another lead whose throwaway words get taken as a grand plan, and MyAnimeList users suggest the same pairing. AniList also lists Wo Zhen Bushi Xie Shen Zougou, Baekjakgaui Mangnaniga Doeeotda and Isegye Chakgak Hunter.

For another Naver game-fantasy comedy with a lead stuck inside a character, try our The Player Hides His Past reading guide. The joke runs the other way there: an office worker trapped in the edgy hero he invented as a teenager.

How we checked this: on November 6, 2026 we read Episodes 1 and 2 in full on WEBTOON and went through WEBTOON's full English episode list (desktop and mobile), the Korean episode list on Naver Webtoon, the Naver Series pages for the webtoon and the novel, AniList, MangaUpdates and MyAnimeList, and two r/manhwa threads. We haven't read past Episode 2 for this guide. Last reviewed: November 6, 2026.

References

• The Patron of Villains on WEBTOON: official English edition, schedule, credits, episode list
• 악당들의 후원자가 되었다 on Naver Webtoon: Korean original, episode list
• 악당들의 후원자가 되었다 on Naver Series (webtoon) and (novel): Korean paid edition and the original novel
• AniList entry: staff, characters, tags, recommendations
• MangaUpdates entry: status, publishers, categories
• r/manhwa: please tell me he doesn't end up with his own adopted daughter (July 2026) and Bro is the master of misunderstandings (June 2026)

Related Reading

• Return of the Blossoming Blade Reading Guide: the other big Naver adaptation from Studio LICO.
• The Player Hides His Past Reading Guide: an office worker stuck as his own cringe character.
• Best Transmigration Manhwa: more leads who wake up in someone else's life.
• Best Game Manhwa: series where the game rules actually matter.