Chapter 32: A journey of self-discovery and Rank up
Vandalieu was on his third day of rest, but the Undead Titans were busy at work, as if making up for all of the time that they had spent idle up until now.
「Lumberjacks cut treeeees!」(Titan)
『GYIIIIH!』(Ent)
Holding their axes in both hands, the Titans swung them into the trunk of a large tree. And then the tree… the Ent, the monster that the tree had transformed into, screamed.
The Titans took no notice of the Ent swinging its branches around as a final act of resistance, and in the end, the felling of the Ent was complete.
「Boss! What're we doing with this tree?」(Titan)
『Put it where we're gathering the timber! The Holy Son is resting for now!』(Titan)
「Roooger!」(Titan)
The Undead Titans cut off the Ent's smaller branches and carried these along with the trunk to the place where the timber was being gathered. These Titans had been『lumberjacks��while they were alive, and even though they were now only made of bones and rotting flesh, they worked at a brisk pace.
「We have to hurry and exterminate all of the other monsters in Talosheim!」(Titan)
「Yeah, since the Holy Son is here now!」(Titan)
『Aaah, I want to hurry and go get the salt!』(Titan)
They were working to clear the outer districts of Talosheim, which were being encroached upon by the forest of the Devil's Nests outside, and turn them back into ruins. Vandalieu, the Holy Son, had told them that he would repair the buildings of Talosheim and restore them to their original state.
『Show him how we work!』(Titan)
With the former lumberjacks leading the way, the Titans defeated the monsters attacking them to defend their territory one after another, cutting down the trees as they went.
Before the Titans discovered the tunnel leading into Duke Hartner's* territory in the Orbaume Kingdom, Talosheim had been a city-nation isolated from the outside world by the Boundary Mountain Range.
The royal capital's population was five thousand, and there were only three small villages with populations numbering in the hundreds. Other than capable adventurers like the[Sword King]Borkus and the Knights' Order of the Church led by the[Saint]Jeena, there were no specialized military personnel or battle technicians.
All of the soldiers, including the city guards, did those duties as their secondary occupation; they normally worked as miners or fishermen.
Upon learning this, one would think that even for a country of Titans who were born with great physical strength and sturdy bodies, their military strength was too low. But the reality was different.
All of Talosheim's industries were dependent on the Devil's Nests and Dungeons, other than its agriculture.
Lumberjacks gathered lumber by felling Ents, Treants and High Treants in Devil's Nests and Dungeons.
Fishermen hunted aquatic monsters using tridents.
Even miners would obtain metals from veins in Devil's Nests and Dungeons that were crawling with monsters, so they had to fight and defeat the monsters in their way on their own.
The vast majority of Talosheim's population of five thousand was made of capable fighters possessing battle-related skills.
Even the farmers who should have been an exception to this possessed enough fighting strength to kill any dangerous wild beasts that went after their crops with their bare hands; they were not to be laughed at.
After learning these facts about Talosheim, Vandalieu and the Ghouls wondered,「Why did the Mirg shield-nation pick a fight with a country like this?」
After all, over ninety percent of Talosheim's five thousand civilians were combatants capable of killing a soldier of the Mirg army in a single attack. Such powerful enemies would be waiting for them in a sturdy fortress of a city.
It was as clear as day that any country that attempted to capture Talosheim would suffer several times the number of losses that the Titans would.
Talosheim had few mages capable of using the Titans' unique magic as Titans possessed little affinity for the various attributes of magic, but even the Mirg shield-nation's army was largely made of knights and soldiers; they didn't have many mages either.
The Mirg shield-nation and the Amid Empire behind it seemed to have dispatched their troops after only looking at Talosheim's exterior appearance; they certainly hadn't done any detailed analysis on the city. As a result, though the Mirg shield-nation had been victorious, it suffered historically unprecedented losses including the loss of a magic spear that was a national treasure.
It was a foolish-sounding story, but regardless of these past events, the Undead Titans continued to clear Talosheim of non-Undead monsters.
Around this time, Vandalieu was in the ruins of the Adventurers' Guild, reading a book. The archives of the Church of Vida and the small branch of the Mages' Guild had either been set alight or plundered, but the archives of this place had been left alone. Even now, two hundred years later, there were numerous books that were still intact.
The Church had probably been burned down because of the religious reasons behind the war, and though the Mages' Guild was small, there was a chance that those of the Guild had been conducting their own research, so the archives had been plundered. But there had been no reason to destroy the archives of the Adventurers' Guild. Well, it could have simply been because the Mirg shield-nation had been forced to retreat before they were able to.
And one of the Undead Titans had told Vandalieu that there should be a book in these archives about Dhampirs.
Incidentally, there had been a Magic Item left in the Adventurers' Guild that was able to issue registration cards for those registered with the Guild, but it couldn't be activated. It seemed that only Guild personnel could use it.
If Vandalieu had been able to register himself here, he would have been able to become an adventurer while keeping his Title, skills and Mana pool hidden, but life wasn't always easy.
But investigating the details about his own race was more important.
「I can finally learn some things about myself.」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu didn't know anything about himself other than the fact that he was born between the Subordinate Vampire Valen and the Dark Elf Darcia. He had always wanted to find out more about himself if he had the chance.
First, he wanted to find out his life expectancy so he would know how long he could be expected to live. This would allow him to plan his life out.
In the unlikely event that his life expectancy was shorter than a human's, it would be a big problem. He could extend his lifespan, using[Youth Transformation]on himself, but if Dhampirs turned out to be creatures that lived without aging and then suddenly died when they reached their thirtieth birthday, that would be problematic. It was unlikely, but Vandalieu wanted to know, just in case.
「… I can really read it.」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu's eyes followed the text as he inhaled the scent of old paper. He learned that Dhampirs had the special characteristic of inheriting the qualities of their parents very strongly.
The pattern of inheritance apparently grew even stronger when both parents belonged to races created by Vida.
「So that means I have quite a bit of talent in unarmed fighting and archery, just like my parents.」(Vandalieu)
It was possible that Vandalieu had an aptitude for archery like Darcia and Valen's unarmed fighting techniques that relied on his claws. It was unlikely that he would be able to use spiritual magic, however, as he didn't possess an affinity for the other attributes of magic.
That would always be true unless spirits of the death-attribute, which had never existed before, suddenly started appearing. Lemures were familiars created using Vandalieu's Mana; they didn't count as spirits.
「Hmm? Could it be… I've inherited Father's resistance to the sun as well? In that case, won't I be fine making my body structure more Vampire-like by using[Bloodsucking]to drink more blood?」(Vandalieu)
Newborn Dhampirs possessed none of the weaknesses of Vampires, but repeatedly using[Bloodsucking]made their constitutions more like their Vampire parents. As a cost to the power they gained by doing so, they gained the Vampires' weaknesses as well.
However, Vandalieu's father had been a man known to be resistant to the sun. And apparently Subordinate Vampires only possessed special Vampire abilities related to the body, but they also possessed none of Vampires' other weaknesses.
This meant that Vandalieu could obtain the Vampires' power at no risk to himself.
「Alright, I'll drink lots of blood from now on.」(Vandalieu)
Up until now, he had succumbed to the temptation of drinking the blood of the monsters whenever their corpses were being drained of blood. There was no particular reason to resist this temptation, and if it led to him gaining power, there was really no reason to hesitate to drink it.
If he became able to fight with his claws like his father, his mother would probably be happy as well.
「And the main thing, the lifespan is… dependent on the race of the parent that isn't a Vampire?」(Vandalieu)
That was what had been written. The way Dhampirs lived varied greatly depending on their parents, and their lifespans also varied depending on the race of the non-Vampire parent.
If the parent was a human with a lifespan of 100 years, the Dhampir would live between 300 to 500 years; if the parent was a Dwarf with a lifespan of 200 years, the Dhampir would live between 600 to 1000 years; if the parent was an Elf with a lifespan of 500 years, the Dhampir would live between 1500 to 2000 years.
As a general rule, it seemed to be between three and five times the lifespan of the non-Vampire parent's race.
Incidentally, all of these values had been deduced by researchers of the distant past who had used life-attribute magic to investigate multiple Dhampir specimens. The information's authenticity was a little questionable. However, it seemed that Vandalieu would be able to live for a long time… as long as he wasn't killed.
「Now that I think about it, how long do Dark Elves live?」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu wanted to ask Darcia, but she was currently asleep inside her bone fragment. He wandered around the archives, wondering if there might be a book written about Dark Elves, and fortunately he happened to find the book he was looking for.
About a third of it had been rendered unreadable by mold, but he was able to find out the piece of information that he wanted.
『Dark Elves were born as a race that the goddess Vida hoped would be stronger than Elves, so all of their abilities are superior to those of Elves. As such, their lifespans are long; they can live for a thousand years in contrast to the five-hundred-year lifespan of Elves.』
… At worst, Vandalieu would live three thousand years; at best, five thousand. As long as he survived, he could becoming a living witness to history.
「A length of time longer than the entire Christian Era… I can't imagine it.」(Vandalieu)
His sense of time was just as it had been when he was a human, so he imagined that it could even become difficult to live for so long. At the very least, it seemed that it would be some time before he lived through the fourth lifetime promised to him by Rodcorte.
「I wonder what that god was thinking when he reincarnated me as a Dhampir? Well, he cursed me so that I would commit suicide in despair; I'm sure he didn't think about things like lifespans.」(Vandalieu)
In fact, if he hadn't been able to use death-attribute magic, he would have been finished the moment Darcia died. He wouldn't have had to even go as far as to commit suicide; he would have simply starved to death.
Even in the book, it had been written that the majority of Dhampirs died long before they reached the end of their lifespan. Considering that, Vandalieu could understand why he had been reincarnated as a Dhampir.
「Now then, I wonder if there's a book about adventurers?」(Vandalieu)
The Talosheim branch of the Adventurers' Guild was supposedly set up here by the Orbaume Kingdom's Adventurers' Guild, so the systems used by the Talosheim branch should be mostly the same.
The documents here were from two hundred years ago, but since many races like Dwarves and Titans lived for over two hundred years, things should be mostly the same other than some minor details… If the systems had changed drastically in the past two hundred years, Vandalieu would just have to consider himself unfortunate.
「Here it is… It seems to be mostly the same as the Mirg shield-nation's Guild.」(Vandalieu)
The systems and rules weren't much different from what he had heard from Kachia and spirits of the adventurers that he had killed. It seemed that Guilds were the same even when they were in different countries.
There were two differences. The first was the treatment of the races created by Vida, and the other was regarding the training school for adventurers.
In the Orbaume Kingdom's Adventurers' Guild, some of the races created by Vida, such as Dark Elves and Titans, were treated as people. However, the races created when Vida procreated with monsters such as Lamias, Scylla, Arachne, Devils, Oni and, notably, Vampires - were generally considered monsters.
This was because these races often harmed humans or had long histories of conflict against human countries.
However, some friendly clans of these races also existed, and it was forbidden to harm members of clans that the nation had declared to be allied clans.
「… Hmm, even though they're enemies with the Amid Empire, the way they treat the races created by Vida isn't the exact opposite, huh.」(Vandalieu)
Considering the fact that the Orbaume Kingdom had been trading commercially with Talosheim, it was difficult to imagine that the goddess Vida was thought of in a very negative way. And the Orbaume Kingdom's relationships with each of the other races may have changed in the last two thousand years.
For now, Vandalieu decided that he would ask about these things once he entered human society.
「The next thing is regarding the adventurers' training school… I never imagined that I'd be going back to school in another world.」(Vandalieu)
In the Orbaume Kingdom's Guilds, there were educational institutions that trained adventurers, though such institutions didn't exist in the Adventurers' Guild of the Amid Empire and its nations.
That was because the Orbaume Kingdom had more adventurers, and also more Devil's Nests and Dungeons where adventurers worked.
Of course, the fact that being an adventurer came with occupational hazards was the same in the Orbaume Kingdom. If an inexperienced adventurer went on a reckless adventure and died, the responsibility wasn't on the country or the Guild.
People who became adventurers were people with great confidence in their abilities or those who were very poor… Orphans, those who had lost their jobs while still young or the third or fourth sons of farming or merchant families who had no chance of succeeding the family business, those kinds of people. Though this was cruel to say, they were such people that society would not suffer a great loss if they died.
However, in the distant past, a vast majority of newly-registered adventurers died within a year of registration, and many retired before reaching D-class or higher.
It would be problematic if the Adventurers' Guild was to build up a negative reputation due to these statistics and the number of capable adventurers stopped increasing. If the poor saw no hope in becoming adventurers and decided to turn to crime instead, that would also cause great problems for the nation.
In addition to this, if there weren't enough people to thin the monster populations in the Devil's Nests, not only would there be a shortage of valuable monster materials, but the monster populations could even overflow, jeopardizing the nation's safety.
And so the nation provided funds for adventurers' training schools to be established. The idea was to teach them at least a certain level of knowledge, train their fighting abilities and thus reduce the rate of casualties among new adventurers.
This experiment was a great success; the rate of newly-registered adventurers dying within a year of their registration dropped by eighty percent and the ratio of adventurers making it to D-class and above increased several times over.
In addition, the nation was able to use exceptional adventurers as special escorts and privately-employed mages; only good had come out of the establishment of these training schools.
After reading this far, Vandalieu looked up from the book.
「I guess I'm a bad person for thinking that this bit sounds suspicious.」(Vandalieu)
He could understand the rate of adventurers dying within a year of their registration decreasing, but what about the rate of adventurers dying within the second year? Just how much had the ratio of adventurers reaching D-class or above increased by?
In the first place, why were there no specific numbers given in the information?
「Well, whatever.」(Vandalieu)
The reason Vandalieu wanted to become an adventurer wasn't because of his ideals or because it was just his dream. It was merely the simplest way to secure himself a position in society, and he could even earn money by doing what he had been doing up until now… Hunting monsters and bandits.
Most importantly, it was the occupation that most easily allowed him to make a name for himself.
And so Vandalieu ignored the dark side of the Adventurers' Guild that he was starting to see, and lowered his gaze once more to read what had been written about the adventurers' training school system.
The schools were credit-based, and one could attend between one and three years. As long as one earned the minimum number of credits and had the headmaster's permission, he or she could graduate at any time.
There weren't any particular requirements to enroll at the schools; only the entrance fees and tuition fees needed to be paid. There was even a deferred payment system for those who couldn't pay these fees in advance where they would pay the fees off after graduating.
And the most important thing for Vandalieu was how the school system dealt with minors.
『However, minors cannot advance to F-class or above if they have not graduated from an adventurer training school.』
In the Adventurers' Guild, adventurers were separated into eight classes based on their abilities and past achievements. The lowest, G-class, were newcomers who possessed only their registration cards; the only requests they could accept were non-combat-related requests in the city… what would be referred to as manual labor in Japan. Even the pay was worse than in Japan.
Requests that could possibly include combat, even if they were requests like gathering medicinal plants outside, could only be accepted at F-class or above.
「Basically, if I want to aim higher and gain money and fame, I have to attend the adventurers' training school since I'm underage.」(Vandalieu)
As Vandalieu was currently almost three years of age, he was, of course, a minor. He had decided that he would only go to the Orbaume Kingdom after obtaining the resurrection device beneath Talosheim's royal castle and reviving Darcia, but he had no intention of spending more than ten years doing that.
Therefore, he would definitely still be a minor by the time he registered at the Adventurers' Guild.
「School… I wonder if I can live an enjoyable school life this time?」(Vandalieu)
He had no confidence at all to say that he could.
During his childhood on Earth, even his uncle was forced to allow him to receive compulsory education, and when he was on the verge of entering high school, his uncle had pressured him by saying,「You're only allowed to choose from public high schools. And if you fail your exam, then go and work.」But even so, Vandalieu had managed to attend high school.
However, because of his family environment around the time he was attending elementary school, he was unable to invite friends over to play and he couldn't even go to others' houses to play because he was scared of his uncle's fists. And he couldn't make any friends in the first place because of his strange behavior due to his abnormal emotional state.
On top of that, the teachers didn't think highly of him either and though his grades were normal, there was an image of him being a problematic child. Things never changed as he entered middle school, and by the time he entered high school and was able to rebel against his uncle to some extent, he had already given up on a「bright, enjoyable school life.」
Would he be able to make friends at this school? He still had no confidence that he would be able to interact well with anyone other than the Undead and Ghouls.
「I attract attention as a user of a newly-discovered type of magic, and become someone that my schoolmates look up to… No, I can't imagine that.」(Vandalieu)
He could only imagine his magic causing himself to be alienated and isolated even further.
「… I'm fine with being a loner. It's not like there are going to be any flashy school events, and since it's a credit-based system, if I don't find it enjoyable I can just get the minimum credits and graduate right away.」(Vandalieu)
And then all he would need to do was gather money and fame by going hunting for monsters in Dungeons with Sam and the other Undead, right? He had plenty of friends. He was the Ghoul King, after all.
In fact, wasn't he quite socially successful?
Building up such defensive walls in his heart, he closed the book. Ah, he really didn't want to go to school.
As he decided to go and play with Bone Man and the others to distract himself from his dark mood and put the book back in its place, another book caught his sight by chance.
「A study on Undead?」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu picked up that book and decided to continue reading.
The Undead created by Vandalieu, including Bone Man, played and trained around Sam when not fighting.
They would have practice battles against each other, dodge stones thrown at them by Bone Monkey and enjoy Bone Bird's acrobatic flying displays.
『Juuuh…』(Bone Man)
Vandalieu called out to Bone Man, who had been left behind by his companions as the only one unable to surpass Rank 3.
「I found a way that might be able to make you stronger today, so I'm thinking of trying it out.」(Vandalieu)
『Juuh…?』(Bone Man)
With a bow on his back, a sword at his hip and the leather armor and shield as his defense, Bone Man looked like a splendid skeleton soldier, but the spirits inhabiting his bones were those of rats.
Perhaps because of this, Bone Man's Swordsmanship and Shield Technique skills were still level 1 and he seemed unable to increase them any further. After reading the book, Vandalieu thought that this might be the same reason that he was still Rank 3 even though he had reached level 100.
『There are a number of conditions that might need to be met to create a powerful Undead. The most common of these is for the spirits inhabiting the dead body to match the body itself, or otherwise possess a good affinity with it.』
In Lambda, there are cases where even after a dead body reanimated to become an Undead, the spirit inhabiting the body is not the original owner of that body.
Not only would the body be inhabited by someone else's spirit, but it is common for it to be inhabited by the spirits of small animals rather than a human. But in such cases, it would generally be a weak Rank 1 or 2 Undead.
A human spirit possessing the corpse of a beast wouldn't suddenly gain the beast's reflexes and fighting instincts; in fact, it would take all of its effort trying to move in a body with a different bone structure.
And if the beast possesses body parts that humans do not have… such as a long tail, wings or a second head, the human spirit would have too much to deal with.
It is the same when animal spirits inhabited a human's body; they wouldn't be able to use its hands correctly unless they were very intelligent animals, and the spirits of quadrupedal animals would find it difficult to walk on two legs. Using tools would be out of the question.
Perhaps it would be easier to imagine it as putting the brain of a human in a beast, and putting the brain of a beast in a human.
Considering that, the rat spirits inside Bone Man could be considered exceptionally skilled. It wouldn't have been an exaggeration to call them geniuses among rats.
Rats use their front paws skillfully, but even so, being able to use a bow and arrows, a sword and a shield was impressive. The rat spirits were clearly more intelligent than the average Goblin.
But unfortunately, there was a limit to their abilities. Well, since they were spirits, they could probably overcome those limits given hundreds of years, but Vandalieu wasn't willing to wait that long.
And so Vandalieu thought,「Since Bone Man is a human's body with a rat's brain in it, if I add a human's spirit into it, doesn't that solve the problem?」
He would carefully select human spirits whose bodies had died long ago, whose empty souls wouldn't contain any personalities, emotions or memories. Fortunately, this place was a historical battlefield and it was simple to gather such spirits.
「Now then, I'm going to add more spirits.」(Vandalieu)
『Juuh… Juuoooh…』(Bone Man)
As Vandalieu inserted the fragments of spirits, Bone Man's body absorbed more and more, like a sponge sucking up water.
Bone Man didn't seem to be suffering; in fact, his jawbone was clicking in pleasure and the fire in his eye sockets was flickering, so Vandalieu added more and more.
『Grrr?』(Bone Wolf)
『Geeeeh…』(Bone Bird)
As Bone Wolf and Bone Bird watched their companion with curiosity, more spirits began to possess the human bones that made up Bone Man's body.
And then it suddenly happened.
「Hmm?!」(Vandalieu)
Something seemed to click into place. It was the sensation of puzzle pieces being thrown randomly into a box and coming together by coincidence to complete the puzzle.
『JUUUUUH… Ah, my lord… my loooord…』(Bone Man)
Bone Man's body didn't show any obvious changes like his body starting to glow or releasing an ominous presence, and its appearance was still that of a skeleton soldier, but somehow, the dull, rat-like noises he had been making were replaced by spoken words.
「Could it be, your Rank increased?」(Vandalieu)
Some monsters' intelligence drastically increases when their Rank increases. Though there are many cases where adventurers mistakenly attribute this to being the result of the experience gained by the monsters from leveling up or becoming smarter as a result of studying. But there are monsters that suddenly become able to use magic or speak words after leveling up.
Many of those are Undead.
The reason for this was that the souls become accustomed to the dead bodies they inhabit and regain their memories and techniques.
『Juuh, my lord.』(Bone Man)
Bone Man gave a rat-like squeak instead of a yes in reply to Vandalieu's question as he nodded.
『Because of your divine work, my lord, my Rank has increased and I have become a Rank 4 Skeleton Knight, juuh.』(Bone Man)
He spoke in a rich, flowing, baritone voice that would likely be terrifying if he were to shout. The squeaking at the end of his sentence was a little disappointing, however.
But where had his manner of speaking come from? His movements were unexpectedly refined… Perhaps there had been some knights of the Mirg shield-nation among the spirit fragments that Vandalieu had put into him, and that was the source of this.
Vandalieu thought he had carefully selected empty souls so that Bone Man wouldn't be taken over by some strange malice or hatred, but it was possible that their memories had been restored when they fused with the spirits already inside Bone Man.
It seemed that the[Death-Attribute Charm]was taking its full effect, but if he were to behave like a knight of the Mirg shield-nation, that might cause trouble with Borkus and the other Undead Titans of Talosheim.
「Well then, have you regained your memories of your past life?」(Vandalieu)
When Vandalieu asked to make sure, Bone Man nodded and replied,「Juuh, I remember.」
『It happened when I returned to my family with food to feed them. It attacked me and caught me by surprise. Unable to use any techniques, I was tormented, toyed around with and then it abandoned me without even finishing me off. It had already satisfied itself after killing my family; tormenting me was nothing but『amusement.』That fiendish cat! JUOOOOOOOH!』(Bone Man)
「… Hmm, cats do those sorts of things, don't they.」(Vandalieu)
The idea that humans are the only ones that take lives needlessly - Upon hearing Bone Man's story, Vandalieu learned that this idea was only a fantasy.
Leaving that aside, it seemed that the spirit fragments had only affected the tone of Bone Man's voice; he seemed to have no memories of the Mirg shield-nation, so there was nothing to worry about.
Incidentally, Vandalieu liked both dogs and cats and『owning a pet one day』was one of his dreams.
「But don't kill cats needlessly.」(Vandalieu)
『Juuh, certainly, my lord.』(Bone Man)
It was good that Bone Man was so obedient. A future mass-murder of domestic cats in the Orbaume Kingdom had been avoided. Vandalieu wasn't sure whether there were domesticated dogs and cats in Lambda, however.
Most of the day had passed already, so Vandalieu spent some time playing with Bone Man and the other Undead. He enjoyed himself, throwing monster bones for Bone Wolf and Bone Bear to compete over and fetch, grabbing onto Bone Bird's legs to take a leisurely flight around the sky and being groomed by Bone Monkey.
『JUOOOOOH!』(Bone Man)
Saria and Rita, who had returned from hunting, probably… tilted their heads in confusion at the sight of Bone Man sprinting at full speed, letting out a war cry. Though they couldn't do so physically or visibly.
『Bocchan, Bone Man is running… why is that?』(Saria)
『Some kind of training… It wouldn't be something like that, would it?』(Rita)
Bone Man's cardiopulmonary function wouldn't increase by running around at full speed.
「Ah, I had an idea to build this and he seems to have taken a liking to it.」(Vandalieu)
『… Why?』(Saria)
「The rat spirits that act as Bone Man's base probably had some hamster-like traits.」(Vandalieu)
『Ham… ster, as in star*?』(Rita)
Inside a hamster wheel that Vandalieu had thought to build by using[Golem Transmutation]on some spare wood, Bone Man happily spent the next short while running to his heart's content.
Name: Bone Man
Rank: 4
Race: Skeleton Knight
Level: 1
Passive skills:
Dark Vision
Superhuman Strength: Level 2
Enhanced Attribute Values: Loyalty: Level 1 (NEW!)
Spirit Form: Level 1 (NEW!)
Active skills:
Swordsmanship: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
Shield Technique: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
Archery: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
Silent Steps: Level 1
Coordination: Level 1
Commanding: Level 1 (NEW!)
Bone Man's Rank has increased after having new spirits added. Normally, Skeleton Knights are monsters created by knights becoming Undead after death. Bone Man's base is made of rat spirits, but the fact that it has『sworn loyalty to a specific person』and the fact that the new spirits added to it included those of knights have caused it to become a Skeleton Knight.
Though his outwards appearance is no different, his Attribute Values and intelligence have increased significantly, and though he previously could not level up some skills no matter how much experience he gained, he can now do so.
In addition, he has gained the passive function of the Knight Job,[Enhanced Attribute Values: Loyalty.] This skill enhances the Attribute Values of the bearer as long has the bearer obeys the commands of the person he or she has sworn to serve (usually a lord); in Bone Man's case, his lord is Vandalieu.
Skeleton Knights often possess martial-type skills and commanding skills at a high level and can become a Rank 5 Skeleton General or a Rank 6 Skeleton Lord by commanding subordinates. But in cases where they are employed (before or after death) by someone who rules an entire nation, such as a king or emperor, they become Undead with court ranks attached to their names, such as Skeleton Baron.
Chapter 33: A new resolve on my third birthday
In the mountain range that towered over the eastern and western sides of Talosheim, the[Capital of the Sun], the champion Zakkart had left behind mercury mirrors that he had created using secret Alchemy techniques. The mirrors of liquid mercury reflected the sunlight towards the city, granting Talosheim the same amount of daylight hours as any place on level ground.
And so the long, thin rice that could be harvested three times a year (similar to the rice of India on Earth) was cultivated, filling the stomachs of the race that needed large amounts of food.
More than half of the country's territory was covered in Devil's Nests, but because of that, the crops grew quickly and yielded harvests three times as plentiful as crops growing in other lands.
However, during the war with the Mirg shield-nation, the fields became grasslands ruled by monsters and all of the mercury mirrors were destroyed.
Leaving that sad history aside, Vandalieu was working on making something to play with today as well.
「King, what're you making?」(Child)
Before he knew it, the Black Goblin, Anubis and Orcus children had gathered around him.
Only a few months had passed since their birth, but not a single one of them was smaller than Vandalieu now. He had heard that monsters developed at a quick pace, but seeing it with his own eyes was a shocking thing.
Hearing that the Black Goblins were actually developing slower than pure-breed Goblins was even more surprising.
「Is it a weapon?」(Braga)
「Not quite, Braga.」(Vandalieu)
Braga, one of the Black Goblin children, thought that the wooden disc-shaped object that Vandalieu was shaping with his[Golem Transmutation]might be a throwing weapon like a boomerang, but it wasn't a weapon.
「I know, it's a plate!」(Zemedo)
「Bugoh? To replace the leaves that Mom has been using recently?」(Gorba)
Zemedo, a young Anubis with the tough-looking head of a dog, and Gorba, an Orcus who was already the size of the average human adult, guessed that it might be a plate, but that was wrong as well.
「Then what is it? Tell us too!」(Memediga)
Zemedo's older twin sister… or younger twin sister? Memediga, who was his twin sister either way was curious as well.
「It's a toy」, Vandalieu told her.
『A toy?』(Children)
As his friends spoke simultaneously and turned their heads in confusion, Vandalieu adjusted the fine balance of the wooden disc. Finally satisfied with that, the last thing he did was to use what was inside a barrel that he had set aside… Rubber. He turned some of the rubber into a Rubber Golem and covered the disc in it so that it wouldn't hurt if it hit someone.
It was quite unrefined, but it was finished.
「This is a toy called a Frisbee.」(Vandalieu)
What Vandalieu had created was a Frisbee.
He had thrown sticks when playing with Bone Wolf, but he had thought it might be more interesting to use a Frisbee like people did on Earth.
In Lambda, sports and toys were underdeveloped. Every country held tournaments for athletics and combat, and there were even dolls and stuffed toys.
But there were no Frisbees or sports that involved the use of balls… Well, they might be out there somewhere if one looked hard enough.
And so Vandalieu had decided to try making one himself. Fortunately, there was more than enough wood lying around and even more fortunately, there were rubber trees, so Vandalieu made Rubber Golems from their natural rubber to use it for things like grips and cushioning material.
「This Frisbee, you throw it -」(Vandalieu)
「Hit people with it, and then you win by defeating everyone?」(Child)
「… It's a toy that you throw, catch and throw back to the person who threw it to you.」(Vandalieu)
As Vandalieu's friends seemed to have dangerous thoughts about the Frisbee, he wondered if he should have made balls first. But he generally disliked ball sports, so he didn't have much desire to make them.
Because he had been a loner at school, to him, ball sports had been nothing but「pain」inflicted onto him during physical education classes. They were nothing but a way to show off the achievements of popular people.
「For now, I'll show you the basics. Try throwing it.」(Vandalieu)
That day, Basdia thought of calling out to Vandalieu after she got back from her session of monster hunting and training, and happened to come across this scene.
「Van?」(Basdia)
Vandalieu was chasing after a small disc that was spinning through the air.
He caught the disc and then threw it back towards the children, who were standing far away from him.
「Is this some kind of training? No, he's supposed to be resting, so are they playing?」(Basdia)
Basdia thought for a moment that they were undergoing some kind of training where they were learning to catch a thrown weapon out of the air and throw it back at the enemy, but the atmosphere around them didn't seem like they were training, so she decided to stand there and observe.
After observing a little, she understood that they were playing. But from just observing, she couldn't understand what could be so fun about it.
「Here it comes, King -」(Orcus)
The Orcus boy holding the disc gave a large swing of his arm and threw it.
Because he possessed the[Superhuman Strength]skill that granted him great physical strength from birth, the disc flew high, very quickly.
「Ah, this is -」(Vandalieu)
It was impossible for Vandalieu to catch it. So Basdia thought, but Vandalieu ran at one of the nearby ruined walls and, without slowing down at all, began climbing it like a four-legged animal!
She thought that he was using magic, but it seemed that he was using his claws.
「Van looks thin but he has a lot of strength, and he's quicker than he himself thinks. As expected of the man I'm expecting to be the father of my second child.」(Basdia)
Giving a satisfied nod and thinking more positively of Vandalieu, Basdia decided that she would talk to him later and left so that she wouldn't be in their way.
And thus Frisbees became popular among the Ghouls, Black Goblins and the Anubises in particular. But its popularity was dubious among the Titans and Orcuses.
There was currently a large amount of materials that had been brought into Talosheim.
Over ninety percent of those were the products obtained by the Undead Titans who worked under Borkus to exterminate the influence of the exterior Devil's Nests from Talosheim.
There were large quantities of monster meat, timber, medicinal plants, herbs and goods of Talosheim that the Mirg shield-nation had either abandoned or never found in the first place.
Most of them were still usable… The rate at which more materials were brought in was faster than the rate at which they could be processed, so Vandalieu had simply cast[Preservation]on them and they were lying in a huge pile.
Among the quickly-gathering materials were coins that were used as the Orbaume Kingdom's currency two hundred years ago… copper and silver coins of various sizes, things that had no use now. The Mirg shield-nation had probably taken gold coins and any coins more valuable than those, but the silver coins and coins worth less than them had been abandoned.
If one were to polish these coins and take them to the Orbaume Kingdom, they could likely be used as currency except for the badly damaged ones. The currency might have been revised in the past two hundred years, but they would at least hold the value of the copper and silver that the coins were made of. If lucky, they might be worth a premium the way that old coins on Earth were valued by enthusiastic collectors.
But right now, there was really no way to use them.
「What shall we do with these?」(Vandalieu)
「There is nothing to do with them. For now, let us store them somewhere until you go to the Orbaume Kingdom, Van-sama.」(Tarea)
Tarea was getting her back rubbed by Vandalieu after having come back from changing her Job to her original Job of『Arms Smith』at the Job-changing room in the ruined Adventurers' Guild.
「Currency revisions are quite uncommon, so I believe that there should be no problem, however… I am not knowledgeable about the Orbaume Kingdom. Even if you ask Kachia and the others… Ah, there, harder…」(Tarea)
「You're right; they're enemy nations who have done nothing but wage war against each other, after all.」(Vandalieu)
Neighboring countries would normally have people going back and forth across the border, but unfortunately Viscount Balchesse's region, in which Kachia and the other former adventurers had been active in when they were still human, were not adjacent to the Orbaume Kingdom.
No, even in areas where the Mirg shield-nation and Orbaume Kingdom shared a border, almost nobody did business across them other than black-market dealers.
These two nations had been enemies ever since their foundation, and apparently many of the Orbaume Kingdom's duchies had been taken back as a result of a ghastly conflict that had occurred only a few years ago, so there was hardly an atmosphere to be doing business with each other.
But if one were to question whether the nations still functioned properly, the answer was yes. The Amid Empire covered a third of the continent… Half of the continent if one was to only consider the regions that were inhabitable by humans, and it did commercial business with nearby island nations and other continents.
Thus, the Empire had no economic problems or problems regarding the acquisition of food.
The state of the Orbaume Kingdom wasn't known, but it likely didn't suffer from any problems for the same reasons. The duchies had originally been individual small countries, and they were likely able to trade with nations outside the continent through the Kingdom.
Vandalieu had thought of taking the coins that he had taken from the bandits around Evbejia to the Orbaume Kingdom and exchange them there, but considering these facts, it would probably better if he didn't.
It felt like a waste, but it was probably best to simply melt them down into metal.
「I'll ask Craftsman Datara later.」(Vandalieu)
Datara was an Undead Titan who had been an elderly blacksmith when he was alive. He had continued swinging his hammer for two hundred years… well, swinging his hammer, but not actually making anything.
He had regained a little of his sanity and memories when he met Vandalieu, and now he was struggling to restore his workplace.
His various tools had corroded; he wouldn't be able to work unless he made them all from scratch again.
「That is a good idea. I am still unable to use metal.」(Tarea)
Tarea was a skilled arms smith with high skill levels. However, she was unskilled in the use of metal.
Arms smiths in the world of Lambda mainly use materials taken from monsters to create their weapons and armor. They do not use metal very often, unlike the swordsmiths and weapon smiths that one would imagine on Earth, who would forge metal to create swords and katanas. Even if they do, they would only use Mythril powder or Orichalcum fragments as catalysts, or use iron to make clasps for armor.
The blacksmiths who primarily use metals are craftsmen who create arms using copper, bronze, iron, Adamantite or Orichalcum as the base materials, with materials from monsters used only as catalysts.
The skills and tools used by the two types of craftsmen are different.
In Tarea's case in particular, she had trained her skills after becoming a Ghoul in a Devil's Nest forest, where metal had been scarce. The last time she had used metal in her work was over two hundred years ago.
「If I had the tools, as long as I am not needed to create something, I think that I would be able to at least melt down coins, you know? But if there is a specialist around, it is best to leave it to him.」(Tarea)
「You're right. And Datara would probably be angry if I didn't ask him to do it.」(Vandalieu)
Datara was a moody old man. If he were to discover that Vandalieu had given this task to Tarea, who was unskilled in the handling of metal, he would get very angry indeed. And since he was now an Undead, whose emotions often went out of control, there was a chance that this anger would be permanent.
And moody old men in general seemed like they would be scary if they got angry.
「Still, how shameful of me. To become overenthusiastic and… nnh… cause pain to my back.」(Tarea)
The friendly, two-hundred-and-sixty-four-year-old Tarea who looked like a friendly person in her teenage years had been rendered helpless by a back injury.
Because the Job-changing room in the Adventurers' Guild was usable, all of the Ghouls, including Tarea, had acquired Jobs.
Jobs were blessings granted to people by the gods even before the appearance of the Demon King. Obviously, monsters couldn't undergo Job changes. That applied even for Sam and Nuaza, who had been people before becoming Undead.
However, Ghouls were one of the races that Vida had given birth to alongside the Vampires. They were half-monster, but as the other part counted as human, they could undergo Job-changes.
This was certainly the case considering that Tarea and Kachia had retained the bonuses to their Attribute Values and skills of the Jobs they had possessed as humans, even after becoming Ghouls.
And so the Ghouls who had lived in a Devil's Nest up until now, unable to use a city's Job-changing room or make one of their own, had used the Job-changing room available to them in Talosheim.
Thus, Tarea was able to change from the Job that she had been forced into when she was sold by her family and had long since reached level 100 in, the『Prostitute』job, to her original Job of『Arms Smith.』
「Now I can become a『Renowned Craftsman』and『Artisan』that I had dreamed of being as a human!」(Tarea)
She had been very happy.『Renowned Craftsman』and『Artisan』would be honorable titles given to skilled craftsmen on earth, but in Lambda, they were the common superior Jobs that all crafting-related Jobs shared, including Arms Smith. These jobs would be displayed as『Artisan: Arms Smith』or『Arms Smith: Artisan.』
And so in order to gain Experience Points and increase her level, Tarea had begun working with unknown materials such as those from Raptors and Flying Sharks, but she had been overenthusiastic.
「I understand how you feel, you know.」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu understood the feeling of being unable to acquire a Job. He really did.
As he said this, Vandalieu numbed the pain in Tarea's back with death-attribute magic, used[Spirit Form Transformation]on a part of his body and slipped it into Tarea's and eased the stiffening in her muscles.
『If I was able to do this on Earth, I might have been able to open my own store.』(Vandalieu)
Spirit Form Massages, we definitely understand your muscle pains better than low-frequency massagers! … Probably not.
As Vandalieu released the tension in her muscles, he also secretly checked on the condition of her body, but there seemed to be no problems. There were no signs of declining organ function.
「Ah.」(Tarea)
Had she noticed?
「I just suddenly thought of something. Can you not manipulate metal with[Golem Transmutation], Van-sama? I am sure that there are Golems made of copper, iron and Mythril.」(Tarea)
Apparently not. It wasn't as if Vandalieu was doing anything bad, but he felt a little relieved as he answered Tarea's question.
「I can. It uses up more Mana than when I make Golems from rocks, though. I've never had a chance to try it with Mythril, but I think it should work.」(Vandalieu)
Like Tarea, Vandalieu's exclusion from human society meant that his opportunity to work with metal was limited. However, he had tested it with small amounts of iron before, and he had succeeded in creating an Iron Golem that could fit in the palm of his hand.
「But I still can't do much other than make large changes to their shape. I can do things like make pit dwellings, fix houses made of stone and straighten bent pieces of metal, but for example…」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu used[Golem Transmutation]to change the shape of some copper coins and turned them into a sword.
「I see, this is no good.」(Tarea)
Tarea knew that this sword would be useless with a single glance. It was nothing but a lump of copper in the shape of a sword.
The blade had no edge at all; it wouldn't even be able to cut a branch. It was a thin, blunt weapon rather than a sword.
「This is how it is. I can't make a statue of stone and earth that resembles a person exactly, or apply fine details.」(Vandalieu)
As he spoke, Vandalieu used Golems of earth and stone to make a doll that resembling Tarea, but… while it did have the shape of a woman, the facial features were rough and details like the fingers were very crude.
Using[Golem Transmutation]like this, he couldn't create small details. Even when constructing houses, he could only create pit dwellings; building complicated, tall buildings like houses on Earth would be impossible.
Even when making weapons, at best he would be able to have molten metal pour itself into a mold… The casting process. Even that was impossible unless the mold for the desired shape was already made for him.
In order to become able to create smaller details, he would likely need skills like[Blacksmithing]and[Carpentry]in addition to the[Golem Transmutation]skills. In fact, he had already acquired the[Carpentry]skill by making pit dwellings using[Golem Transmutation.]That meant that he had gained the experience required to learn the techniques of[Carpentry]; in other words, he had actively used the[Carpentry]skill.
「Well, I can remove impurities from metal… like this.」(Vandalieu)
The copper sword began to quiver, and dust-like particles began to fall out of it right before their eyes. And then the sword of copper was shining brilliantly, as if it had completely transformed.
「Th-this is copper?! It shines like a gem… Van-sama, this is amazing! If you are able to purify copper like this and the same can be done with iron, this is a technique that would be desired all over the world!」(Tarea)
In Lambda, raising the purity of a substance to a hundred percent was impossible with technology alone. There were almost no examples of even skilled earth-attribute mages succeeding in doing such a thing. Historically, some mages had produced metal with a hundred percent purity, but only with minute amounts of metal used to begin with. Such techniques could not be used industrially.
And so if Vandalieu was able to create one-hundred-percent pure iron, he would rival those skilled historical mages… no, there was a chance that he would surpass them.
However, Vandalieu showed no signs of pride.
「That might be true, but this is actually really tiring.」(Vandalieu)
「Ah, it consumes a large quantity of Mana, doesn't it?」(Tarea)
「No, it really tires my brain out.」(Vandalieu)
Vandalieu lay down and rested his forehead against Tarea's back. Feeling how hot it was, Tarea let out her voice in surprise.
「A fever?! Van-sama, your forehead is almost hot enough to burn me!」(Tarea)
「This is known as a magic-fever. If you surpass the limits of your Intelligence to force out a complicated spell, this is apparently what happens.」(Vandalieu)
The Intelligence stat displayed on one's Status governs magic and martial techniques, representing the amount that one's brain can process, and the speed with which it does so. If those limits are surpassed, a fever is developed, like a computer that has been overclocked.
Using[Golem Transmutation]to purify copper as Vandalieu had shown Tarea didn't consume much Mana. Perhaps it would be different for other mages, but for Vandalieu, who possessed a Mana pool of 100,000,000, it was a truly miniscule amount.
What he was actually doing was middle-school-level science. He was simply transmuting the copper with the image of ejecting all of the non-copper material from within it.
Though earth-attribute mages manipulated minerals, they were unable to increase their purity. The reason for this was likely because they didn't understand the molecular structure of metals. Nobody could blame them, as this was a fantasy world with no electron microscopes.
However, Vandalieu understood the concept of molecules. But increasing the purity of a single kilogram of copper to a hundred percent had caused a fever intense enough to make his consciousness hazy, so the technique itself did indeed seem difficult.
『Or maybe my Intelligence is just too low. I have a feeling there's a good way around this, but… Fuh, Tarea's back feels good.』
As Vandalieu set heat-absorbing[Demon Fires]around himself and pressed his forehead against Tarea's back, he suddenly realized something.
「Come to think of it, Tarea's…」(Vandalieu)
「Yes, my what?」(Tarea)
「Upper arms are thick and muscular, aren't they?」(Vandalieu)
「That is where you want to touch?! There are plenty of other good places, you know?! If it is you, Van-sama, I would not mind if your hand were to slip a little!」(Tarea)
「Other places… Your back is muscular too, isn't it?」(Vandalieu)
Though arms smiths didn't swing hammers like blacksmiths, they still used a considerable amount of physical strength. That was why Tarea had more muscle on her arms and back than one would suspect… though few had noticed this due to her wearing clothes and ornaments that covered her back and upper arms to conceal it.
「NOOOOO! Why are you choosing only places like that?!」(Tarea)
Tarea was covering her face in shame, but Vandalieu had only meant it as a normal compliment. Muscles were splendid things. They were powerful justice, powerful beauty, powerful muscles.
Even if one didn't have such extreme opinions, would lean muscles not be considered attractive?
「I-I don't need any more massaging- oguh?!」(Tarea)
But perhaps squirming around with Vandalieu on her back had been a bad idea. Tarea's hips gave an unpleasant clicking sound.
「… There aren't any problems with the bones. You have a strained back.」(Vandalieu)
Tarea suddenly stopped moving, and Vandalieu used his magic once more to numb her pain and cool down the affected area.
Strained backs were incredible, to even render a Ghoul possessing the[Pain Resistance]skill to become half-unconscious.
Incidentally, this was the first time the term『strained back*』had been used in Lambda, and in the years and months to come, the term would spread from Talosheim all over the continent. But right now, nobody was aware of that.
「There you are, boy… So, who is this lying down like that?」(Zadiris)
「It's Tarea; she can't move because she injured her back.」(Vandalieu)
It was in the evening, which came early in Talosheim, when a lively-looking Zadiris came to see Vandalieu.
「She injured her back, you say? As to be expected from an elderly person.」(Zadiris)
「Kyiiiiih, even though you are thirty years older than I am! I hope you get a strained back yourself!」(Tarea)
「Strained?* Well, I do understand that you are cursing me.」(Zadiris)
Though Vandalieu had numbed the pain, the injury hadn't actually been healed, so Tarea was lying still to recover.
As Zadiris looked closely, she saw that Vandalieu's arms had fused into Tarea's back.
「… What are you doing?」(Zadiris)
「Spirit Form assimilation therapy. If I turn my body into Spirit Form and fuse it with Tarea's, she becomes able to use my[Rapid Healing]skill. I can't use healing magic, but I tried to see if there was anything I could do and this is what I came up with.」(Vandalieu)
「Fuh, fufufu, are you jealous? Van-sama and I have become one… No, you cannot shake me! Stop it, you insolent little girl!」(Tarea)
「I am only doing this because you show no respect for your elders. Good grief.」(Zadiris)
Satisfied at making Tarea scream after being teased by her, Zadiris whispered into Vandalieu's ear with a serious expression on her face.
「Is it her lifespan that is in danger?」(Zadiris)
「No, she's just old. I can't see a shadow of death, so I think she'll be fine as long as she doesn't push herself.」(Vandalieu)
「… She will, so that is impossible.」(Zadiris)
「You're right. I'll ask her soon if she wants me to use[Youth Transformation]for her.」(Vandalieu)
Tarea hurting her back twice in a row might have just been something unique to Tarea, but Vandalieu and Zadiris suspected that it might be because she was aging. They might have been overthinking it, but it would be best to reverse her age and have her become healthy again long before the shadow of death became visible.
「Come to think of it, how is your training?」(Vandalieu)
「Hmm, it is going well. I have become level 100, so I am due to change Job again tomorrow.」(Zadiris)
The Ghouls who had undergone Job changes had acquired『Apprentice』Jobs to begin with. All kinds of『Apprentice』Jobs existed, such as『Apprentice Warrior』,『Apprentice Mage』,『Apprentice Arms Smith』and『Apprentice Maid.』
As their names suggested, they were Apprentices, so the bonuses to their Attribute Values and skills were weak. However, the bonuses were spread widely over their skills, so everyone could take their own strengths and weaknesses into consideration as they trained and plan out what skills they wanted to obtain.
Zadiris and the other Ghouls had increased the levels of their Apprentice jobs to their limit in the space of just a few days, but they were a special case.
Humans with Apprentice Jobs were normally not much different from average people. Beginning from this state, they would train with wooden swords and spears, have practice battles, fight Rank 1 monsters such as Goblins, Big Frogs and Living Bones under the supervision of a mentor and slowly gain Experience Points.
But Ghouls were at least as strong as Rank 3 monsters to begin with and already possessed numerous battle-related skills. Thus, they were able to kill monsters like Needle Wolves that human Apprentice Warriors would simply be slaughtered by, earning large quantities of Experience Points.
Zadiris had joined the other Ghouls in defeating monsters such as Flying Sharks and Raptors and promptly reached level 100 in the『Apprentice Mage』Job.
Incidentally, her level as a monster didn't increase. It seemed that Experience Points were split separately into『Job Experience Points』and『Monster Experience Points.』
「I know that you are eager to try, but you must be relaxing for now. It should be the date we promised, your birthday, by the time Tarea's back is healed.」(Zadiris)
「Well, I don't know how it'll go, though.」(Vandalieu)
With the[Cannot learn existing Jobs]curse, Vandalieu could not acquire a Job that had already been confirmed to exist in Lambda.
He wanted to try, so he was half-full of expectations but also half-full of anxiety at the fact that he might not be able to acquire a Job.
Well, in the case of the latter, he would simply have to concentrate on making the Undead and Ghouls stronger.
「Auuh, Van-sama, is my back in such a bad state…?」(Tarea)
Not knowing about Vandalieu's curse, Tarea assumed that he was talking about her back, so he had to spend some effort in calming her down.
And then Vandalieu's birthday came. Vandalieu was brought to the royal castle.
『Bocchan! Please just think that you've been tricked and put this bag over your head!』(Saria)
『Don't forget to use the blindfold and earplugs before that, okay?』(Rita)
Vandalieu froze as Saria and Rita approached him with a leather bag and a blindfold made of cloth.
At first, Vandalieu thought this might be a gekokujou*, but this seemed to be a planned surprise, so he excitedly put on the blindfold on and the leather bag over his head. From the outside, he looked just like a child being kidnapped.
『He's here! I took a lot of effort in bringing these here for you!』(Borkus)
「Me too! I brought in a lot of them as well!」(Vigaro)
「Stop competing with each other already when we haven't even shown him yet!」(Basdia)
After a while, things suddenly became noisy. Thinking that a bigger surprise was waiting for him than he'd originally thought, Vandalieu's heart began throbbing.
『Happy birthday!』
The leather bag and blindfold were removed. Vandalieu saw a great dining hall that had been built after Talosheim began trading with the Orbaume Kingdom in order to hold buffet parties and balls like the higher societies of humans.
Borkus, Vigaro, Zadiris, Nuaza, Basdia, Tarea and many others had gathered in this vast place.
The dining hall had once been magnificent, but now it was ruined, a mere shadow of what it once was. As if to replace the decorations and ornaments that had been lost, a great number of corpses covered in colorful feathers and scales had been lined up around it.
「These are dinosaurs!」(Vandalieu)
Nobody knew their exact names and they were likely very different from the dinosaurs that had once inhabited Earth, but their bone structures were easily identifiable those of dinosaurs at a glance.
Corpses resembling tyrannosaurus rexes, with enormous sharp teeth growing in their mouths.
Corpses resembling pteranodons, clearly different from birds and bats.
Corpses resembling triceratopses, with large horns growing on their heads.
Corpses resembling stegosauruses, with sheets of bone growing on their backs and spikes on their tails.
Some of their horns were chipped and their bellies had been sewn shut; they weren't unharmed. But they all seemed relatively fresh.
「This is our present. We heard from Mother that you wanted scaled monsters that weren't Dragons, Van, so everyone gathered them here.」(Basdia)
「There were quite a few of them coming out of the Dungeons. Though we've taken out their blood and organs, since they would have rotted otherwise.」(Vigaro)
It seemed that the information that Vandalieu liked dinosaurs had been leaked by Zadiris.
Well, perhaps because nobody had known what could be categorized as a dinosaur, enormous crocodile and snake monsters as well as a three-meter-long cat-like carnivorous creature possessing sharp claws and teeth with scales covering its whole body were included in there as well.
But this did nothing to inhibit the emotions that Vandalieu felt.
「Everyone… Thank you…」(Vandalieu)
He was moved to tears. He knew how hard it must have been to bring the monsters' corpses all the way back from the Devil's Nests and Dungeons, even if their blood and organs had been taken out first. The Cursed Carriages he had made for crossing the Boundary Mountain Range had probably helped, but even so, it wouldn't have been easy.
『Vandalieu…』(Darcia)
Darcia's spirit appeared from the bone fragment that Saria brought forward.
『You know, during the time leading up until now, there were a lot of times when I thought that everything was over. Your father was killed, I was captured… But you still turned three years old. Thank you so much. Make sure you become even healthier and stronger from now on, okay?』(Darcia)
Vandalieu had cried so many tears that it would be impossible to count them. Tears of anger, frustration, grief, misery, suffering, hatred, sorrow, resentment, rage, loathing.
But this might have been the first time he was crying tears of happiness.
What a pleasant feeling it was.
「Thank you, Mom. Thank you, everyone. Please keep taking care of me from now on.」(Vandalieu)
That was why he would live on.
And he would resurrect his mother.
The tears of joy that he would cry after resurrecting her would surely be pleasant as well.
There was no way that he would be killed, there was no way that he would die.
As for anyone standing in his way, he would kill them - and make them his allies.