Chapter 52: What's impossible is impossible. So then let's think of a method that is possible.
Volume 3: March of the Eclipse King's Army.
On this day, tears of blood fell from every statue of Yupeon, the god of ice serving Peria, the goddess of water and knowledge, in the Bahn Gaia continent and throughout the rest of the world. Those who had received Yupeon's divine protection heard the 'scream of a god' and lost consciousness.
The cause of that was Vandalieu breaking and destroying the soul of Ice Age, the magic spear of ice. But as the Ice Age's consciousness never returned to Yupeon's main body, even Yupeon who had lost a clone of himself did not know this.
The people feared this omen, worrying that it signaled the return of the Demon King or the second resurrection of the fallen champion Zakkart, and the clergymen of every region became very busy.
A heavy atmosphere had fallen upon the audience chamber that was well-organized despite its cleaning being incomplete.
Most of those who had challenged the Dragon Golem excluding the Stone Golems still remained here.
Bone Wolf, Bone Bird and the other Undead animals had turned into a Bone Chimera that let out a strange cry of multiple beasts at once.
The only ones who weren't here were Vandalieu, the one who had repaired this audience chamber, and Bone Man whose spine and hips had been crushed and was still unable to move on his own.
They were still beneath the royal castle.
In order to find out whether the destroyed resurrection device could be repaired or not.
After Vandalieu destroyed Ice Age's soul, everyone received an incredible quantity of Experience Points that even Borkus had never earned in a single battle before. The Dragon Golem made of Orichalcum by a goddess that had been challenged by the S-class-destined Divine Spear of Ice Mikhail and his companions. It had remained standing even after claiming the lives of all of Mikhail's companions and inflicting a fatal wound on Mikhail himself.
Because they had dealt the final blow to such a foe, everyone gained an enormous amount of Experience Points.
As a result, Vigaro had become a Rank 7 Ghoul Tyrant, the highest, most powerful type of Ghoul that had been historically witnessed. His enormous body was now over two and a half meters tall, matching the height of the Titans, and he had grown two additional arms. He was a powerful, four-armed warrior.
Rita and Saria's armor looked the same as before, but they had become Rank 6 High-Magic Armors and their Spirit Form skills had improved. They looked far more human than their previous log-like, vaguely-human-shaped bodies.
… Though Vandalieu would consider them to be like a full-body, white version of the silhouettes depicting the criminal in a way that their age and gender couldn't be determined in mystery manga.
In fact, their Spirit Forms were bulging in various places; it was like some form of joke.
And the levels of the other members had increased as well. Bone Man, who wasn't present here, had probably increased his Rank and Vandalieu's Job level had likely increased significantly as well.
However, the atmosphere in here wasn't a happy celebration of these facts.
"They sure are taking their time…"
Several hours had already passed, but there was no sign of Vandalieu returning. He hadn't suffered any injuries other than giving Eleanora a little of his own blood, but he had expended a large amount of his Mana and his Surpass Limits skill had been active. There was no way that he wasn't feeling fatigued.
However, nobody could suggest that they go to see what was happening.
Everyone could remember Vandalieu's shock upon learning that the resurrection device had been destroyed.
Among everyone gathered in this place, Eleanora had known Vandalieu for the least amount of time, and as she had been sold by her parents when she was young, she had no fond memories of her family.
But she knew how much Vandalieu wished for the resurrection of his mother.
His mother had been killed while he was young. That alone isn't unusual; it is an unhappy story one could hear anywhere. Even as the surviving child bears the large emotional wound, the sorrow must be put in the past in order to move on. Just as Eleanora had put the fact that she had been sold by her parents in the past in order to continue living.
Even she, who possessed an affinity for the time attribute, could not erase the past.
But Vandalieu-sama possesses power. So much power that he might be able to achieve the perfect resurrection of the dead that was impossible even for the goddess.
It might be possible. If he reached a hand out, it might reach it; if he tried his best, he might make it happen. That was why Vandalieu was not trying to put his mother's death in the past.
In fact, he had almost reached it. Darcia's resurrection.
But his efforts had been hindered and trampled underfoot for reasons that there was no way he could understand. It was terrifying to simply imagine his rage, shock and frustration.
Vandalieu-sama is someone who hates those that try to take happiness away from him. He feels anger towards them, he hates them, he curses them, he fears them. He feels true happiness at their ruin and takes comfort in their destruction.
Eleanora had felt this more powerfully than anything else when Vandalieu had destroyed the souls of Sercrent and the Subordinate Vampires who had tried to kill Tarea. That was why he had also destroyed the soul of Ice Age today.
But unlike when he had destroyed Sercrent, Vandalieu was likely unsatisfied with the destruction of Ice Age's soul.
If I could comfort him, I would want to do so, but… I'm not scared, so why am I thinking these things?
Eleanora let out a sigh and placed a hand on her chest. This was the spot where Ice Age's ice had pierced her, and the wound had healed without a trace due to Vandalieu's magic and blood.
Before, she would have been scared if her life had been saved and she had not been of any use. She would have been terrified that she would be discarded for being useless and unnecessary.
But the emotion in her chest now was clearly something other than fear. A nausea-like discomfort and pain, as if her chest was being squeezed.
Do I want to comfort him because of these mysterious emotions? I have not felt the need to gain Vandalieu-sama's favor through straightforward methods until now.
Even if Eleanora didn't do such things, Vandalieu still treated her well. So just why?
"Is the Holy Son still underground?" asked Nuaza, who had entered the audience chamber while Eleanora was deeply reflecting on her inner feelings.
"Yes," replied Zadiris. "He still has not come out."
"I see… There was something that I wanted to apologize to him for," said Nuaza.
"Are you talking about when you, me and the kid went underground two years ago?" Borkus, who had been silently frowning with the remaining part of his face, interrupted. "If so, I'm the one who needs to apologize, not you. I'm the one who asked him to find Zandia-jouchan and Jeena. If he had told me about the resurrection device beforehand and I'd thought about the possibility of Mikhail's spear being an Artifact with its own mind… If I'd never lost to that bastard Mikhail two hundred years ago in the first place, if I'd broken that spear, things wouldn't have turned out this way."
When they met, Borkus had resisted Vandalieu's Death-Attribute Charm. He could probably resist it even now if he tried.
But he had stopped resisting it of his own will. He had realized that doing so was meaningless.
A brat whose expressionless face made it impossible to tell what he was thinking or where he was looking.
That brat had brought the happiness of energetic, everyday life back to the previously-empty Talosheim.
While being given nothing in return.
Vandalieu could have received plenty of compensation if he had asked for it; for Borkus and the other Undead Titans, such compensation would have been a necessary price to pay.
The safe life they had in the city was because Vandalieu had repaired the walls; they were able to enjoy delicious food because he made flavorings using his magic; he had even repaired the enormous rooms in the royal castle.
The goodwill and respect he had received was only natural considering his actions, and though the title of 'Holy Son' was originally something that Nuaza had started using, it was now a fitting title for Vandalieu to have.
He still hadn't recovered the corpses of Zandia and Jeena, but he had said that he would do so in the next few decades. His enemies would be the Pure-breed Vampires who would likely be impossible to defeat even with all the heroes of Talosheim gathered, so facing them within the next few decades could even be considered too early.
And now that Borkus had been on the verge of repay the debt that he owed to Vandalieu, it had become so distant again. How pathetic. How could he call himself an A-class adventurer when he couldn't even complete the one job he needed to do after receiving all the rewards in advance?
"No, that is not it."
However, it seemed that the thing Nuaza wanted to apologize to Vandalieu for was something else.
"Huh? Then what is it?" asked Borkus.
"I have willingly destroyed a part of the Church that the Holy Son was gracious enough to take the time and effort to restore. I have already apologized to Vida and Peria, so…"
"Destroyed?" Eleanora repeated. "Do you mean…?"
"The statue of Yupeon, the god of ice," said Nuaza. "It had merged with the pedestal, so I carefully detached it and buried it in the ground."
In many Churches, statues of gods other than the main god of the Church are enshrined. Not all gods have statues gathered in every Church, but even if Yupeon was a subordinate god, he had existed since one hundred thousand years ago.
Unlike Alda and his subordinates who were clearly the enemy, it wouldn't have been strange for Yupeon's statue to be in Talosheim's Church of Vida.
Nuaza had buried that statue.
"I-is it alright for you to do something like that?" Though Saria didn't breathe, she gasped and held her breath.
Though Zadiris and the other Ghouls wouldn't have immediately understood as they had never built Churches themselves, statues of gods have a special meaning in this world.
This is a world where the existence of gods is known to be true, so an action such as Nuaza's would be a literal display of a lack of fear towards the gods. The armies of the Amid Empire and its nations that worship Alda as its official religion often destroy statues of Vida, but that is because their god instructs them to.
However, there was no sign of hesitation in Nuaza's mummified face.
"Of course. Yupeon has clearly declared through his follower in Ice Age that we are his enemies. However, we have not done anything to be ashamed of, nor have we been punished. So just as we are divine enemies to that god, it is only natural that we treat him as our enemy."
That god regarded everyone here as enemies, including Vida who Nuaza and the others worshipped. So even if he was a subordinate god of Peria like Tristan, who had sired the Mer-people with Vida, there was no reason to hold back.
"However, it is a fact that I have buried and disposed of a statue that the Holy Son restored," said Nuaza. "Incidentally, the sun has set and a considerable amount of time has passed. Should we not go and see what is happening?"
"Huh?" Borkus looked surprised. "Has it been that long?"
"Well, we can't see the sun or the stars from this room," Rita pointed out.
"I suppose Undead have a duller sense of time. But too much time has certainly passed," Zadiris said in agreement.
"Alright, let's go and see what's happening," said Vigaro.
Though they had been doubting how wise it would be to all go down together, now that there was an opportunity and because everyone was curious about how Vandalieu was doing, they all descended underground once more.
"Jyuuh? What is the matter, everyone?"
And then they encountered Bone Man before they reached the chamber.
"What about you, Bone Man-san?" asked Saria. "Did you have your bones repaired?"
"Yes. And I have a message from my lord."
"A message?" Eleanora repeated. "What did Vandalieu-sama say?"
"He said, 'I will be here for a while longer to investigate the device a little more. Also, I am hungry so please bring me some food. Thank you.'"
"… I'd thought that he wouldn't eat or drink because of the shock, but it seems that he's more composed than we thought," said Vigaro.
"Alright, we'll all be making a special dish for Bocchan!" Rita announced. "Everyone except me, that is!" she added.
"Rita, you are a maid, so you should at least learn to make simple dishes," said Saria, scolding her.
"No, now that I think about it, the boy is the only one among us who knows how to cook properly," Zadiris pointed out.
"I could manage if it's just roasting meat," said Eleanora.
"Even I could do that," said Borkus.
Bone Chimera let out a cry.
If these women were on Earth, they would have been criticized for their lack of feminine skills.
Vandalieu slept properly at night, ate breakfast, lunch and dinner without skipping a meal and, of course, took baths.
After investigating the resurrection device for a month in this way, Vandalieu came to the conclusion that repairing it was possible, but impossible for now.
The resurrection device was truly something that had been made by the goddess Vida; even though Vandalieu had acquired the Alchemy skill, his skills were still average and he couldn't make any sense of it at all. It was like a caveman who had just invented stone tools trying to hand-build a supercomputer out of semiconductors.
However, Vandalieu had the Golem Transmutation skill. With this skill that was capable of turning inanimate objects into Golems to change their shape freely, restoring the broken device to its original form was possible.
Ice Age's ice had torn holes in the resurrection device and severed parts of it. But fortunately, the components hadn't exploded or warped into a different shape, nor had any important parts been blown away completely. It was possible to return it to its original form.
However, the essential Golem Transmutation skill was not working on the components of the resurrection device.
Even with the use of Appraisal, Vandalieu couldn't learn anything about the resurrection device's components other than things like, 'A mysterious alloy,' and, 'A mysterious gemstone.' They repelled his Mana even more strongly than Orichalcum and refused to become Golems.
It was likely that either Orichalcum had been included as materials or they were made of some unknown god-made metal. This was a fantasy world of swords and magic, after all. Since Orichalcum existed, it wouldn't be strange for Hihiirokane* or other legendary divine metals to exist as well.
Note: A legendary metal in Japanese fiction. It has multiple kanji reading variations that can mean, "vast fire gold", "crimson gold" or "sun-red gold".
However, Vandalieu's Golem Transmutation had leveled up after the battle with the Dragon Golem, and he had become able to make Orichalcum stay in a fixed shape after manipulating it. If Golem Transmutation increased in level even further, it might be possible to return this device to its original state one day
… It might be impossible even after the skill's level reached its maximum, or the device might not function normally even after the shape of its components had been restored, however.
That was why Vandalieu wanted to find other ways of repairing the resurrection device other than leveling up his Golem Transformation skill or discover another way to resurrect Darcia.
Using Eleanora's time-attribute magic to return the device to before it was destroyed… would be difficult, apparently.
"I was taken in by Birkyne because I have an affinity for the time attribute; if you look at it positively, this attribute is one that becomes great over time. If you look at it negatively, it is an attribute that fails to live up to its name and cannot accomplish anything great except when wielded by the absolute best of the best," Eleanora explained.
The time attribute is the attribute ruled by Ricklent, the genie of time and magic, an attribute that does not exist in Origin. However, like the space attribute, there are few people or monsters with an affinity for it, and it does not have easily-understood effects like the other attributes.
Of course, once the skill reaches level 10, it would be possible to stop time, rewind it, look into the past and future and reach the limits of human knowledge.
However, a mage of Eleanora's level could only accelerate time around herself to speed up her movements, or spend multiple hours to look several days into the past or a few seconds into the future.
"Even if I received Mana from you, Vandalieu-sama, it would be questionable as to whether I would be able to rewind time by even one second…"
Reassuring Eleanora that her apologies were unnecessary, Vandalieu tried to think of other methods.
If possible, a method that would definitely work would be to ask the goddess Vida who had made this device and her subordinates to repair it. She was the one who had built it, so it should be possible for her to repair it. And since she had been conducting research on how to resurrect the dead, it was possible that there were other similar devices outside of Talosheim.
The problem was that Vandalieu didn't know where those would be.
It was said that Vida was lying dormant in the southern region of the Bahn Gaia continent after her defeat at the hands of Alda. But not only would it take time to search the region that made up a third of the continent's land mass that was filled with Devil's Nests inhabited by unknown, powerful monsters, it would also be too dangerous.
As for methods other than using the resurrection device, Vandalieu couldn't think of any methods other than reading through the documents in the Mages' Guilds and the kingdom's archives in human societies and learning about the ancient past from Liches and the spirits of mages.
"In other words, I've come to the conclusion that I have no choice but to work hard and gather information at the same time," Vandalieu told Darcia. "I'm sorry."
The fifth summer of Vandalieu's third lifetime had passed, and he was now five years old.
"Don't worry about it; it isn't your fault," Darcia reassured him. "And if you wanted, I could even become an Undead…"
"No. And there is no vessel for you anyway, is there?"
If Darcia's dead body was available, Vandalieu might have considered it. However, High Priest Gordan had made a display of burning her alive, so there was nothing remaining of it other than the small bone fragment that Darcia's spirit currently resided in.
Recreating her entire body from just this bone fragment would be impossible even for Vandalieu.
"Hmm, then how about using a suit of armor and making me a Living Armor like Saria-chan and Rita-chan?" Darcia suggested.
"There are no suits of armor shaped like the ones that Saria and Rita are inhabiting readily available," Vandalieu told her.
"No, I didn't mean that I wanted armor shaped like theirs. I would like a nice-looking suit of armor, but those ones are a little…"
Vandalieu also felt little desire to recommend that Darcia inhabit a bikini armor or high-leg leotard armor, so he was happy to hear that she wasn't enthusiastic about them.
… Though now that Vandalieu calmly looked back on it, when Darcia was alive, she had exposed more of her body than would normally be expected.
But now that he had spent the past few years in the company of Ghoul women who exposed more of themselves than Darcia, perhaps he wouldn't mind that anymore.
In fact, he was thinking that Eleanora, who had recently joined his companions, exposed herself very little. Of course, he had never voiced that opinion. He could only see a future where she would strip off her clothes if he did.
"But this is causing you nothing but trouble, Vandalieu, I wouldn't mind if you used a suit of armor –"
"You should mind. Please mind it." Vandalieu interrupted Darcia, as she seemed to be on the verge of making a strange decision.
Vandalieu somehow managed to take Darcia's mind off the idea of becoming a Living Armor by suggesting creating a body for Darcia by processing the corpses of creatures like monsters.
Vandalieu had never imagined that he would become Dr. Frankenstein in a fantasy world, but sewing corpses together was likely possible. It would be very difficult to make one that resembled Darcia exactly, however.
Wasn't there a spirit of a bizarre murderer somewhere who could teach him how to do it? Vandalieu decided that he should at least ask the Pure-breed Vampires' souls before breaking them.
"Also, what is this God Slayer skill that I learned?" Vandalieu wondered.
He had acquired a skill that was even more difficult to examine than his Soul Break skill. The fact that it was a unique skill probably meant that only Vandalieu had it; it was highly likely that nobody knew about this skill.
"Hmm, wouldn't it be a skill that kills gods after all?" Darcia suggested.
Vandalieu had tried asking everyone, but nobody, including Darcia, knew the answer.
Vandalieu thought that if this were a game, it would probably be something that simply granted bonus damage against gods and their followers.
As Ice Age was now just a stick of Orichalcum, there were no followers of any gods nearby. There was no way to test it out.
Also, the experience granted by the Dragon Golem had caused the level of his Golem Transmuter Job to reach the maximum limit, so Vandalieu had decided to go and undergo another Job-change tomorrow.
The Attribute Value increases of Golem Transmuter were inclined towards Intelligence, so his Agility had decreased quite a lot, but his Strength and Stamina were close to their base values. His Mana hadn't increased as much as he'd expected, but the bonuses to his skills had come in handy.
These were Vandalieu's thoughts on that Job.
Name: Vandalieu
Race: Dhampir (Dark Elf)
Age: 5 years old
Title:[Ghoul King]
Job: Golem Transmuter
Level: 100
Job history: Death-Attribute Mage
Attributes:
Vitality: 115
Mana: 224,506,933
Strength: 79
Agility: 80
Stamina: 83
Intelligence: 392
Passive skills:
Superhuman Strength: Level 1
Rapid Healing: Level 3
Death-Attribute Magic: Level 5
Status Effect Resistance: Level 5
Magic Resistance: Level 1
Dark Vision
Mental Corruption: Level 10
Death-Attribute Charm: Level 5
Chant Revocation: Level 3
Strengthen Followers: Level 7
Automatic Mana Recovery: Level 3
Active skills:
Bloodsucking: Level 3
Surpass Limits: Level 4
Golem Transmutation: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
No-Attribute Magic: Level 4
Mana Control: Level 4
Spirit Form: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
Carpentry: Level 4
Engineering: Level 3
Cooking: Level 2
Alchemy: Level 3
Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 2
Soul Break: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
Multi-Cast: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
Long-distance Control: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
Unique skills:
God Slayer: Level 1
Curses
Experience gained in previous life not carried over
Cannot learn existing jobs
Unable to gain experience independently
Job explanation:
[Golem Transmuter]
A Job that influences the Golem Transmutation skill and other skills that can be gained from that skill. It grants bonuses to a wide range of skills, but in exchange, the growth of Attribute Values is quite limited.
The requirement for acquiring this Job is to have a level 1 skill in Golem Transmutation, but there is currently not a single person or monster in Lambda other than Vandalieu who possesses this skill.
Skill explanation:
[Long-distance Control]
A skill that allows the user to continue to manipulate parts of the body that are separated from the main body, such as severed limbs.
It is mainly used by high-Rank Undead of races such as Skeletons, Zombies, Living Armors and Dullahans. On rare occasions, it can be possessed by monsters with tremendous Vitality.
As the level of the skill increases, the distance at which body parts can be controlled as well as the number of parts that can be controlled at a given time increase. Of course, there are no people who possess this skill. Also, there is no known method of training that would allow the acquisition of this skill.
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Side Story Chapter 2: The only remaining god of the eleven gods
Alda, the god of law and fate. The only god of creation still remaining in Lambda excluding the subordinate gods. The god who possessed the most power even including the evil gods.
The source of that power lay in the followers and servants who respected him and, most importantly, the number of believers who offered him their prayers.
He had suffered deep wounds during the battle against the Demon King and the one against Vida who was supposed to be his ally, but even so, Alda's power was vast.
He was depicted as an austere-looking, white-haired old man holding a heavy book, a stern-eyed young man holding a large sickle of judgment in his left hand and a torch in his right, or as a shining moon. All of these were Alda's forms, his symbols.
Alda had been worried about many things in the past few tens of thousands of years. What he was worried about, of course, was the future of the world of Lambda that he loved.
To be more precise, he had always been worrying. He had contemplated, listened to the voices of the people, thinking about how he could keep the world in the light, how to preserve its order, how to bring about and maintain peace, how to spread these ideals to the people and make them understand them. He was always thinking about these.
However, things had not gone favorably in the past few tens of thousands of years.
"I suppose this means it is time to revise the policy that has been in place up until now. It is truly irritating that I have no choice but to agree with the words of that god of reincarnation. However…" Alda whispered to himself, trying to gather his thoughts.
"Please wait," said another voice. Curatos, the God of Records who was a subordinate god of Alda's and his close aide, had appeared at his side.
Curatos was one of the servants (Equivalent to angels on Earth) created by Alda shortly after the birth of the world who had risen to become a god. He did not possess his own divinity; he was merely Alda's close aide and this was symbolized by the book that he was holding in his hand.
"My lord, there is no need to pay any heed to the words of one such as Rodcorte," Curatos advised. "The 'development' he speaks of is merely a pretense."
"Calm yourself, Curatos," said Alda, reassuring his servant. "It is not that I have acknowledged that there is a need for the 'development' of which Rodcorte speaks."
Rodcorte had told Alda and the other gods many times that this world was inferior to other worlds and that 'development' was necessary.
However, these words did not ring true in the hearts of Alda and his companions; it was little more than a vague, meaningless complaint.
The development and passing on of culture and art, the stable continuation of a civilization. These are very wonderful things.
But for Alda and the other gods, these were not the things that needed to be prioritized the most.
For the god of law and fate Alda and his subordinate gods, the gods that supported him such as Yupeon, these were times of war. The Demon King and Vida had been defeated, but the evil gods were still making hidden movements while monsters and the races created by Vida were building their nests.
The first thing that needed to be prioritized was the battle against the evil gods, the monsters and the races created by Vida. What was the use in prioritizing the world's 'development' over that?
And then Alda had realized the true intentions behind the 'development' that Rodcorte wished for. Rodcorte simply desired for the population of this world to increase. Because as the number of souls going around in the cycle of reincarnation increased, that god's power would increase with it.
But in contrast, Alda did not particularly want for the population of people in this world to increase.
If the number of people increased too much, the number of resources required to sustain them would increase, many factions would form and new nations would be established. And then there would be conflict between them, making order more difficult to maintain.
It was already difficult to maintain with the current population of less than one hundred million; if Lambda's total population were to increase to the multiple billions that Rodcorte was requesting, there was no telling what kind of disorder and chaos would be brought about. It was terrifying just to imagine.
"To begin with, 'development' is not needed for the preservation of the world," said Alda. "It is absurd to use other worlds as an example."
He admired science and technology that did not require the use of magic, but was that something that was necessary in Lambda?
Electricity, automobiles, gunpowder and dynamite, aircraft, computers, stock trading. The benefits brought about by these things were surely great, and it would certainly make the lives of the people more rich and convenient. But would this outweigh the disadvantages brought about by the existence of such things?
In fact, the existence of those things caused the destruction of nature for the sake of generating energy. Were they not also the causes of some wars and conflicts?
Automobiles caused tens of thousands of people to die in accidents every year; gunpowder, dynamite and aircraft were utilized in wars. Computers gave rise to new crimes while stock trading caused people to concern themselves over things with no physical form and bring themselves to ruin.
The most foolish thing of all was that in worlds where these things existed, there was still no complete system established to control the people who used them, and the systems that did exist were not followed.
Magic already existed in Lambda. There were drawbacks to its existence; people used it to kill one another.
So why should the seeds of disaster from other worlds be planted in this one to add to that?
That was why Rodcorte's words made little impression on Alda. Alda would simply answer that each world had its own circumstances.
That was the consensus of opinion held by the other gods who supported him as well.
"Then what policy would you be revising?" asked Curatos. "The Demon King's transmigration system and Vida's transmigration system... Without their destruction, this world cannot possibly know peace, my lord."
Alda's objective was to destroy the transmigration systems of this world other than Rodcorte's, bringing ruin to the evil gods, monsters and the races created by Vida.
The transmigration system that Rodcorte had created and was now ruling over, unlike Rodcorte himself, was perfect. However, the other two systems were problematic products.
The transmigration system created by the Demon King was still continuing to spawn monsters in this world. It was even used by the evil gods to willingly reincarnate themselves and be reborn.
It was making some contribution to the people in the form of Dungeons, but that was a matter of a single benefit in exchange for a hundred… no, a thousand disadvantages*. And souls were not needed for merely supplying Dungeons with monsters. It was not impossible for Dungeons to generate and arrange soulless puppets… though this would require Alda to wait for the revival of Ricklent, the genie of time and magic.
Note: There is a Japanese phrase that is something along the lines of "A hundred harms and not a single gain" that is something like "All pain, no gain" or "Having no redeeming features" in English. This is a variation of that saying where there is a single gain in exchange for the hundred harms, but then the alteration of "a hundred" to "a thousand" really emphasizes that the disadvantages are very significant.
And the system created by Vida was a very unstable product. As it was merely an imitation of an imitation of the original system, that was to be expected. It seemed that Vida had been thinking of moving the transmigration of every creature in this world to that system one day, but that would have been far too dangerous an endeavor.
Vida had mated with monsters to produce new races in order to stabilize her system and given birth to Vampires partially to have them assist it. Entrusting such an unstable system with the souls of the world's people was unthinkable.
"Many brave souls have fought for your ideals," said Curatos. "For their sake…"
He had 'recorded' all of history up until this point. Therefore, he was someone who used the past as a reference when making decisions on things.
Alda gave Curatos a bitter smile.
"I am certainly not considering giving up on putting an end to Vida's folly," he said. "I am thinking about whether I should revise the way I am doing things."
Curatos let out a sigh of relief. And then he began trying to record Alda's thoughts.
"How are you going to revise your methods?" asked Curatos.
The way Alda had done things up until now was to make his teachings clear and then leave the specific methods of putting them into practice up to the people.
Gods were those who guided the people, not rulers. This fact was one thing that Alda could agree with the gods of other worlds upon.
Alda's teachings stated that the evil gods and members of the races created by Vida were to be exterminated alongside those who didn't follow his doctrine, and that relying on knowledge that originated in other worlds such as the things left behind by Zakkart was forbidden.
He had delivered these teachings through a divine message to the more capable individuals among his believers.
However, the contents of his divine message had been twisted as it spread from those who received it, and there were many cases where they were not putting his teachings into practice correctly.
A recent example of this had occurred in the main Church of Alda in the Amid Empire. The extermination of Vida's races and the knowledge that had been brought from other worlds had been prioritized too much over the extermination of the evil gods and their servants. And the Empire had been utilizing this in their politics too much.
Because of this, Hihiryushukaka, the Evil God of Joyful Life, was being allowed to extend his influence from the shadows.
"I will tell them precisely what needs to be prioritized," said Alda. "Until now, I have been hoping that the people would make the correct decisions on their own, but it seems I have been wishing for things from the past for too long."
"An unavoidable decision," Curatos said in agreement. "Even you are far from omniscient and omnipotent after all, my lord."
"Precisely. Even from this Divine Realm, there are many things I cannot see. That is the reason I had hoped that the people would put my divine message into practice in a way that is suitable for them. However…"
"Then what would you have them prioritize?" Curatos questioned Alda once more. "Should it be the extermination of the races spawned by Vida after all? Or perhaps you would limit their targets to the filthy creatures with monster blood mixed in their veins?"
The influence of the races created by Vida had decreased greatly over the past one hundred thousand years. There were few that possessed their own independent nations, and even those that did exist were on the scale of several thousand citizens. There were exceptions such as the Pure-breed Vampires, but they generally didn't possess much gathered strength. Crushing each race individually to exterminate them all would be relatively simple.
That was likely why Curatos guessed that Alda would prioritize this.
"No, Curatos," said Alda, however. "I am planning to tell the people that the battle against the evil gods should be prioritized."
"My lord! There are still many who have preserved their strength, including the Evil God of Joyful Life. Bellwood-dono is still in a slumber after he and the Evil God of Sinful Chains defeated each other. Is this acceptable?"
As Curatos said, the evil gods had preserved their strength better than the races created by Vida had. Not only were there those such as the Evil God of Joyful Life who had spread their roots into the depths of society, there were those who had established great hordes of monsters who worshipped them and even those that had established their own nations of people who worshipped them on islands separate from the continents.
"I am sure that the battle against the evil gods will be fierce and harsh," said Alda. "However, if the extermination of Vida's races is prioritized, the evil gods will utilize that and take advantage of it. You have recorded the events that befell the Divine Spear of Ice, Mikhail, have you not?"
Mikhail, the Divine Spear of Ice, was a hero who had drawn Alda's attention in recent times. He had been putting Alda's doctrine and the champion* Bellwood's teachings into practice. Alda had been planning to one day welcome him to join him at least as a heroic spirit servant, or depending on his achievements, a heroic god like Bellwood, but…
"I have indeed," replied Curatos. "That valuable individual was robbed from us by the darkness."
Mikhail's spirit had been stolen by something. It was likely the doing of the subordinates of the Evil God of Joyful Life or the subordinates of an evil god haunting the region beyond the Boundary Mountain Range.
"Whoever it was, those wicked gods utilized the conflict between Vida and myself in order to benefit from it," said Alda. "With that being the case, the extermination of those gods should be prioritized over exterminating the weakened races created by Vida. Also, there are some among those races who have already established a position for themselves among the people."
Among the races created by Vida, those such as Titans, Beast-men and Dark Elves had already established their existence among the people. Commoners, slaves, laborers, miners, prostitutes, adventurers, craftsmen. Most of them were in the lower positions of society, but there were also nobles and royalty among them.
As they were not evil in nature, there was no small number of countries who had accepted them as a part of their societies.
"Even if I instructed for them to be destroyed unsparingly, my true will would not be conveyed. The people cannot be told about the transmigration systems, after all."
If Alda were to instruct the people to slay their virtuous neighbors simply for being members of races created by Vida, they would criticize him as an unjust god and many would oppose.
Alda expected that his followers would be able to make the other people understand, but it was still not a favorable choice.
"Therefore, the spearhead must be pointed towards the evil gods first," Alda concluded. "During that time, we must support the people and build plans for destroying Vida's races."
"I see," said Curatos. "However, would the people understand your intentions immediately, my lord?"
"That is where the problem lies."
Even if Alda used a divine message to convey his will, he could not meet the people and talk to them directly. Information needed to be reduced so that the people could understand, and even then, his believers who received it would need to translate it into their own words. Only then could the will of a god be conveyed.
If a god's brain was a supercomputer, the brain of an average person was an older-generation handheld console. That was why it was necessary for Alda to choose a powerful individual among the believers when delivering a divine message in order to ensure that he and the believer were on the same wavelength.
If he were to choose an unskillful individual, they might not understand the meaning of the divine message at all and could misinterpret it. In some cases, they might not even realize that they had heard a divine message.
That was why it was correct to send only short, simple-to-understand divine messages to chosen saints.
It would be different if Alda were to descend upon the earth like he did during the age of the gods or welcome the souls of heroes such as Mikhail into the Divine Realm after death.
"Would they accept your will even if it is conveyed?" asked Curatos. "We subordinate gods and servants have been condemning Vida's races as evil up until now, after all."
"As the people could be told about the transmigration system, the extermination of Vida's races was justified as being in the name of great justice, but… it seems that this has backfired."
Alda believed that the races that had been created through breeding with monsters were evil. There might be some good individuals among them, but with modes of life such as that of the Vampires, roots of evil would be left behind in the future. They were destroying much of the world's current order.
The ways Vampires lived, as well as the appearances of Lamias and Scylla, greatly differed from those of the people. Because of this many of the people believed Alda's words and treated them as targets to be exterminated.
However, as Alda had mentioned not long ago, there were some members of Vida's races who had been accepted by society. That was why Curatos and Yupeon, the god of ice, had been declaring that those races were evil in Alda's name – so that they would be destroyed.
Destroying a transmigration system would require the use of an ability to destroy the soul like the Demon King's, or the elimination of the destinations for the reincarnated souls… the killing of every single individual living creature that the souls could reincarnate in. Exceptions could not be made because they were virtuous or because they were a part of society.
"Now then, how should I handle this?" Alda wondered aloud. His thoughts were hectic, but he was truly devoted to his work as a god.
He was spreading across the world of Lambda the light attribute that he ruled over and the life attribute that he had stolen from Vida.
Normally, Lambda would be operating with the support of the eight gods of the attributes and three other gods, Marduke, Zerno and Gangpaplio.
However, as a result of the war against the Demon King and the battle against Vida, Alda was the only one remaining. The flame and wind attributes were functioning through the remaining subordinate gods of Zantark and Shizarion sharing their management.
However, in order to take away Vida and her subordinate gods' divinity and prevent them from being revived, Alda had stolen her authority over the life attribute.
Because of this, Alda now had to manage the life attribute that he was not specialized in. His subordinate gods were assisting him with it, but it was not his specialty, so it would not become a significant asset in battle.
This would be like requesting the members of a professional football team to produce favorable results as sumo wrestlers without any decrease in skill.
Increasing the number of subordinate gods proficient with the life attribute would solve the problem, but those possessing vessels worthy of ascending to godhood did not come by so often, and Alda could not monopolize prodigious individuals for himself. All attributes were suffering, after all.
"A certain solution would be to have Rodcorte manipulate his system and introduce us souls that are worthy of becoming subordinate gods," said Alda. "However…"
Bringing individuals from other worlds to become gods temporarily and having them work for Alda, even if for only a few hundred years, would lessen the burden on Alda and his followers while increasing their strength to fight against the evil gods.
But Curatos shook his head.
"That god's response would certainly be, 'I cannot use my system in an arbitrary manner,'" said Curatos.
"There is no doubt about that," Alda said in agreement.
Though Rodcorte had become quiet as of late, that did not mean that he had become cooperative. Seeking help from him would be futile.
"My lord, how about searching for new subordinate gods?" Curatos suggested. "There are three current candidates of at least heroic spirit status." He opened the thick book in his hand and showed Alda the candidates to become subordinate gods in the records within.
The reason that they were mere candidates was because there was no telling how their vessels would turn out until the moment their lives ended. No matter how extraordinary they were, those who did not guide the people could not become gods and those who the people did not admire could not become heroic spirits.
At lamentable as it was, nameless heroes could not reach the Divine Realm.
Three was actually a large number of such candidates to exist at a single moment in time. The name of one of them… disappeared.
"My apologies," said Curatos. "It appears that one of them has turned to Vida's side."
"… I see. He has likely either fallen to the temptation of the Vampires or stooped low enough to become a Demon."
Methods of transforming existing people into members of Vida's races were harmful to the real world.
"The other two are Bormack Gordan and Heinz, are they?" Alda knew of those two. Gordan was a zealous believer… a little too zealous at times, but he was a devout individual who continued to fight Vampires at the frontlines. His power as a hero was rather low, but he was top class in the fact that he was a shining exemplar for the people.
But the expedition into the Boundary Mountain Range that had recently begun was to be his last job; it seemed that he was planning to withdraw from the frontlines and focus on guiding the next generation after that.
He was simply wishing that during this expedition he would be able to slay the Dhampir that had escaped him before so that he could retire with a clear conscience.
… At this moment, Alda was still unaware that this Dhampir, Vandalieu, had been reincarnated in Lambda from another world. He had no method of gaining information about Rodcorte's or Vida's transmigration systems; he had no information other than that given to him through prayer by High Priest Gordan.
Though he was a little suspicious about the Dhampir, he was satisfied with the explanation that the Dhampir was a product of the twisted workings of Vida's transmigration system.
When Alda and the other gods had summoned champions in the past, Rodcorte had made the unreasonable demand that the champions should be sent back immediately or exploited to their deaths. Considering that, even a god could never have imagined that Rodcorte would have sent humans from another world to this one with no warning, knowing full well that he had prohibited Alda and the other gods from doing so.
Alda ran his eyes over the recording data regarding Heinz.
Heinz was another of Alda's followers, an individual who had become an A-class adventurer in less than ten years. He had more than enough power, but his achievements were a little lacking to be called a hero.
Perhaps it was best for Alda to bestow him a divine protection to assist him, but it seemed that he was wavering.
Wavering was fine. Both gods and people's thoughts grew deeper through hesitation. A divine protection was merely something to assist the one it was bestowed upon, a reward for the things they had achieved. It could not become something that would bind the believer down.
It was likely that Alda would need to carefully observe Heinz, hoping that his hesitation would lead him to the correct answer.
But it was also necessary to make preparations in advance.
"Notify Rodcorte of these two," Alda ordered.
For the conversion of a hero into the follower of a god after his death rather than creating a new servant through divine power, it was necessary for Rodcorte to be notified in advance. Even if he was a believer of Alda, it was not Alda who controlled the circle of transmigration, but Rodcorte. If Alda were to try anything too forceful on his own, it would cause defects in the system.
"As you wish," said Curatos.
"Also, gather those who are not occupied in this place, including the subordinate gods of the gods of the other attributes. I would like to speak to them of what is going to happen from now on."
"Yes, my lord." Curatos disappeared with a bow. Knowing him, he would soon return after finishing the tasks that Alda had given him.
"It would be good if a second Bellwood would be born among the people…" Alda looked up at the sky of the Divine Realm and his thoughts turned to the distant past.
When Zuruwarn, the god of space and creation, suggested that champions should be summoned from other worlds in order to defeat the Demon King, Alda had been skeptical. He could not understand why champions who had come from another world like the Demon King would risk their lives and fight for the sake of this world. Was there not a risk that they would betray the gods and turn to the Demon King's side?
However, Vida sided with Zuruwarn, saying that bold actions were needed to deal with the situation that they were faced with.
And because the god of reincarnation could not be relied upon for assistance, the opinions of Zuruwarn and Vida were supported by the others.
Zuruwarn opened a gate to another world and the other seven gods including Alda each chose and summoned a worthy champion.
The one Alda summoned was Suzuki Shouhei, who would later become the champion Bellwood. Vida had summoned Sakado Keisuke, who would later become the fallen champion Zakkart. Five other champions alongside them descended upon Lambda.
They were extraordinary saviors. They did have conflicting opinions, but they managed to have discussions that led to better solutions to problems.
Bellwood in particular was the ideal champion for Alda. Not only was he strong in battle, but he possessed great courage, fighting against large hordes of monsters on the frontlines. Most importantly, he understood Alda's thoughts.
Bellwood grieved over Lambda's history, culture and civilization that was lost as a result of the fierce battle against the Demon King, and even regretted that several components of civilizations from other worlds had to be accepted, including the language spoken by the people.
"Alda-sama, I love this world. This world that is so different from the world I lived in before, this wonderful world. After the Demon King is defeated and peace returns, this world will become a far better than the world I came from." These had been Bellwood's words.
It was quite possible that conflict was inevitable between the group of Bellwood and Alda and the group of Zakkart and Vida who asserted that the knowledge from other words should be proactively taken in by this one.
Now that I look back on it, that was a mistake.
Alda was deep in reminiscence. The ones who had survived the war against the Demon King were himself, Bellwood and two other heroes who were in agreement with his opinions, and Vida.
But at that point, Vida had already lost her trust in Alda. She likely could not forgive Bellwood for abandoning Zakkart during the battle, even if it was a necessary decision to be made to achieve victory.
No, it seemed that Vida suspected that Alda and the others had planned things in a way that Zakkart would fall.
The rift between Alda and Vida grew deeper, and though the Demon King had been torn into pieces and sealed away, the two surviving gods fought against each other.
I should have given deep thought to Vida's words, acknowledged that there were parts that I could agree upon and given reasons for the parts that I could not.
This world's normal state was to have multiple gods existing; even the gods themselves knew this. Alda and Vida in particular were two gods with very different senses of values.
In the past, Shizarion, Ricklent, Marduke, Ganpaplio and the others would step between them and remonstrate them. Zuruwarn and Peria would finalize decisions based on everyone's opinions. However, they were all now slumbering or had been destroyed.
If trust had been preserved between us, perhaps Vida would not have done reckless things such as creating her own transmigration system and giving birth to new races, thought Alda. But he also thought that he would have only reconsidered which things should be prioritized; he would never have made large changes such as allowing things that he had previously forbidden.
Because if he were to make changes to his mistaken doctrine, that would mean that all of his believers who worshipped him had also been mistaken.
Most importantly, those who had been victimized up until now would not draw inspiration from such changes.
It was also for the sake of those who had been labeled as 'evil' and buried that Alda could not change the definition of what was 'right'.
"My lord! This is a serious matter!"
At that moment, Curatos returned. However, his expression had changed. Alda had not seen such a look of dismay on his face since the battle against Vida.
"Somebody has destroyed the Artifact that was a clone of Yupeon, the god of ice!"
"W-what did you say?!" Alda showed deep unrest upon hearing Curatos's report.
Because such a thing would only be possible for someone who possessed the ability to break souls like the Demon King.
"The Demon King has been resurrected, or perhaps a new Demon King has appeared… Either way, we must first find out who destroyed Yupeon's clone," said Alda.
Someone possessing the ability to break souls had to be destroyed, no matter who it was. The war could not be allowed to repeat itself.
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Chapter 53: The horns of war are still distant, but fighting forces must be gathered steadily
On this day, Thomas Palpapek was once again drinking black tea in his personal room with a bitter look on this face.
It had been around two years since he had resigned from the position of marshal; his daily duties had decreased considerably. As he was an earl who owned no land, his schedules were very free when he wasn't assigned to an important position, allowing him to peacefully enjoy his black tea as he was doing now.
What he didn't have was peace of mind.
"Those damned Vampires," Thomas muttered.
The Vampires of whom he was speaking under his breath in a tone of irritation were the Vampires who worshipped the evil god.
They were allies. Not to Thomas as an individual, nor to the Mirg shield-nation. Thomas was fully aware that he and the Vampires had simply used each other when their interests aligned.
However, there was no way that he could not feel angry after being made to do something that was so clearly disadvantageous for him.
Around a year ago, a certain movement had occurred in the Amid Empire.
An expedition into the Boundary Mountain Range. The Empire was considering ordering the Mirg shield-nation to make such an expedition happen. No, it was already certain that they would make this order.
The Empire was giving the Mirg shield-nation a chance to rid themselves of the dishonour of the failed expedition to Talosheim of two hundred years ago.
It was likely that because the Mirg shield-nation's power as a country had increased more than expected due to Viscount Balchesse's reclamation project, so the Amid Empire was intending to shave a moderate amount of that power off.
However, it would normally be impossible for such an expedition to happen even under the orders of the Empire. None of the Empire's vassal nations would obey the command of, 'All of you, go out and die meaningless deaths.'
But with the tunnel that had been built a hundred thousand years ago, large enough for an army to march through… One of the Amid Empire's generals, General Mauvid, had presented proof of the existence of such a tunnel and an ancient document that detailed its location.
The tunnel had yet to be excavated, but once it was repaired, crossing the Boundary Mountain Range would become simple. An army would be able to reach the other side of the tunnel in a matter of days.
They would be able to do so safely, with no fear of monster attacks until they reached the end of the tunnel.
With this, the main reason to oppose to the expedition had disappeared.
And much to Thomas's dismay, the Mirg shield-nation and its current marshal, Earl Legston, were eager to make this expedition happen.
It was likely that they had received permission to add any land reclaimed inside the mountain Boundary Mountain Range to the nation's territory, and they would likely receive financial assistance for the reclamation process as well. These conditions had likely been offered to them.
"Those fools."
The king of his nation and the nobleman who was an earl like Thomas were truly fools.
Thomas could imagine the reasons behind this expedition.
The Dhampir who had led a horde of Ghouls across the Boundary Mountain Range and vanished two years ago.
The Vampire who acted as a contact between Thomas and the other Vampires, the one who had panicked after learning that the Dhampir had been allowed to escape.
And for some reason, a new contact had come and told Thomas that his predecessor had been entrusted with another mission.
A year had passed since then, and the only thing Thomas had heard from the Vampires was, "It would be wise to stay quiet for now." He hadn't even been able to tell whether this was an order or advice.
In other words, the purpose of this expedition was to kill that Dhampir and the Vampires were planning to use the Mirg shield-nation's army to do so.
Without their influence, there was no way that a one-hundred-thousand-year-old tunnel whose existence hadn't even been confirmed could have been discovered by a general of the Amid Empire who was not even from the Mirg shield-nation adjacent to the tunnel itself.
There was no doubt that the Vampires would get the Dhampir involved with the official reason for the expedition. They would use some pretense such as there being a deposit of precious magical metal in the region the Dhampir was hiding in, or an Artifact that was supposed to have been lost in the battle that had taken place a hundred thousand years ago.
If the Dhampir was living in the ruins of Talosheim, that would be the worst-case scenario. That place was the site of an unforgettable, humiliating victory for the Mirg shield-nation.
They had sacrificed enormous amounts of funds, over ten thousand soldiers, a national hero along with his party and an Artifact, but only gained a small amount of treasure and a meaningless victory.
That was why the Mirg shield-nation had feared the Boundary Mountain Range until now. That place was a demon's gate, a place to be avoided.
However, now that it was clear that there was a simple method of crossing the mountain range, there was enthusiasm among the nobles of the Mirg shield-nation for committing a second expedition to Talosheim, recovering the fallen hero's spear that was an Artifact of Yupeon, the god of ice, and wiping the humiliating victory from history.
This was merely what was happening among the nobles; there would be more enthusiastic movements in the nation if its commoners were to learn of the tunnel's existence.
"I am an earl of the Mirg shield-nation with connections to the Vampires. I had naturally expected that there would be other noblemen within the Amid Empire with connections to the same Vampires, but… to think that there would be one with the position of general."
A general who knew that the expedition would fail, no less.
Indeed, the expedition that was going to begin shortly would fail. They would dispose of the Dhampir and everything would go well up to that point. But after that, it would definitely come to a halt.
Because the Vampires would never allow humans to step foot south of the Boundary Mountain Range. The ones they feared most were the other Pure-breed Vampires worshipping Vida, who were slumbering in the southern reaches of the continent.
It was particularly likely that the officials of the Church of Alda would announce the beginning of a holy war to purge the Vampires who worshipped Vida. For generations, the Church's Pope had always been radical about denying Vida. Even if individuals were more moderate before becoming the Pope, once they assumed that position, they would become more extreme.
That had always been the case, so it would likely be the case from now on as well.
And so the Vampires who worshipped the evil gods would stop the expedition.
Probably by collapsing the tunnel or making it unusable in some other way.
Two hundred years ago, the tunnel that led to the Orbaume Kingdom had been collapsed; Thomas had heard that it would still be unusable even now. It wasn't guaranteed that this had been the work of the Vampires, but they would surely be able to do something similar to the other tunnel.
"The rewards offered to General Mauvid would be a large sum of money, or perhaps they have offered to turn him into a Vampire. He will obtain immortality, and after that he will use his son, who is rumored to be incapable, as a puppet in order to maintain his public appearance and authority. I suppose the current situation is something like that."
Even if the expedition were to fail, by the time it did, he would have used poor health or some other excuse to resign from the position of general, thus no longer being in a position where he would be held responsible.
What a carefree position. The Mirg shield-nation would naturally suffer as a result of the expedition, but even the Amid Empire had nothing to gain from it. Mauvid would be the only one backing the winning horse, after all.
Thomas would have liked to crush the plans of the Vampires and General Mauvid, but this was impossible for him alone.
The moment he made a move, the Vampires would likely dispose of him. That was the meaning behind the words that he had been told: "It would be wise to stay quiet for now."
It would be a different matter if he had his own fighting force and capable spies that he could use to outwit the Vampires, but…
In reality, if Thomas didn't move, he and the Palpapek house of earls would come out of this unscathed. He owned no land and thus there were no people under his rule who would be enlisted in the expedition, and since he was no longer a marshal, he would not have to take any responsibility.
However, after the pitiful Marshal Legston was forced to retire or hung, he would have to do his utmost to rebuild the strength of his nation that would greatly suffer as a result of the expedition.
"I have to do whatever I can to reduce the homeland's losses… Now that I think about it, I have him, don't I?"
There was a former member of an up-and-coming adventurer party, someone whose personality-related problems prevented him from making use of his excellent ability. He would likely ruin himself one day, getting those around him involved.
This was a perfect time to shuffle the cards.
Thomas rang a bell that was on his desk, summoning his steward who was also his confidant, to whom he told everything except the Vampires.
"Was there something you needed done?" asked the steward as he entered the room with a bow. He appeared to have come straight out of a 'steward's textbook'; he was more like a butler than real butlers. "If you are lacking entertainment, I can make arrangements for something right away."
"If it is a marriage interview, I would rather not," said Thomas. "Do you intend to have me die during intercourse, old man?"
The steward chuckled. "I do pity those who must act as the head of the Palpapek family of earls. It is the duty of a nobleman to take concubines."
"I believe I already have three wives."
"That is not even a third of the number your predecessor had. You must take at least two more," said the steward.
"Then please introduce me to an elegant, tidy lady, seventy years of age or older," Thomas requested. "If she has few relatives and looks like she will die within a year, that is even better."
"Thomas-sama, you must moderate your liking for women who are older than myself."
"I merely want to avoid leaving any roots of evil for the next generation." Thomas changed the subject. "The conversation about marriage interviews ends here, old man. I want to talk about Riley. Is it possible to indirectly place him at Marshal Legston's side?"
Though surprise appeared on the face of the steward whose expression was hidden among his wrinkles and beard, his eyebrows did not even twitch.
"The Green Wind Spear, Riley-dono. It is likely possible, but… is this fine with you?" he asked. "My lord, he is the B-class adventurer that you spent much effort in drawing to your own side to replace the Blue-flamed Sword, Heinz. No matter how inferior he is to Heinz, placing him with Marshal Legston… and if you make him approach on his own with no letter of introduction, the marshal will not owe you any favors."
To the steward's knowledge, Riley had clearly inferior qualities.
There was nothing dissatisfactory about his ability… his strength in battle. He possessed strength worthy of his class and he had talent. Enough talent that he could become at least A-class if he improved himself.
What was actually inferior was almost everything other than his strength in battle. He was inferior as an adventurer, as a nobleman's vassal, as a person.
His personality was a particularly poor quality of his character. At first, it had been thought that he was simply ambitious to achieve things, but he had a strong complex and craving for fame, and… lately he had been displaying elitist behavior, as if he were under the impression that he was a chosen hero.
Learning from the examples of heroes in the past, he had bought slaves, trained them into adventurers and gained a sense of self-satisfaction in doing so, so he was almost beyond saving.
He was a poor product that would fail in the distant future, disguised as a high-quality one. Thomas had already been deceived, but this was the perfect time to send him out and be rid of him.
"I do not mind," said Thomas. "In fact, if I write a letter of introduction, it will be my reputation that is damaged when he makes a mess of something. Make Legston think that this is 'the second coming of the tragic hero Mikhail' or something. Fortunately, Riley wields a spear, so he will be popular among the citizens. Ah, and do not forget to have the Adventurers' Guild make him A-class."
"Certainly. He would be satisfied with becoming a hero as well. I will first order the Guild Master of the Adventurers' Guild to promote him to A-class, and then I will send indirect whispers to him that staying by your side will hurt his chances of becoming a hero, my lord." The steward left the room with a bow.
The work he would be doing from now, sending 'whispers', was clearly not a simple task, but the reason he was serving as the steward for a house of earls was because he was able to do such work.
If he hadn't already been marked by the Vampires, he would have had a little more freedom to move, however.
"I suppose there is no use giving this any more thought," Thomas told himself. "If this causes Riley to serve beneath Legston, the strength of the force that I can mobilize will likely decrease considerably."
If a great hero took part in the expedition, less other men would be needed.
It would be most satisfactory if this move would prevent at least a hundred or two hundred more soldiers from joining the expedition.
"Fortunately, our army tends not to allow the participation of adventurers in military expeditions that do not involve the hunting of monsters. Even in the worst case scenario, we will not suffer an increase in the frequency of monster rampages due to a fall in adventurer numbers."
Now all Thomas had to do was pray that Riley would be accepted by Legston. Don't disappoint me.
The day after Vandalieu had told Darcia that he couldn't repair the resurrection device yet, he headed towards the ruins of the Adventurers' Guild for his third Job-change.
The trading area was busy as usual, so much so that there was apparently a shortage of fish sauce. Talosheim's fishing industry was dependent on Doran's Aquatic Caverns.
The fishermen would walk into the Dungeon, cast their nets, thrust their spears into the water, throw their fishing lines out and then bring the fish home. However, the amount of fish they could bring back this way was smaller than if they could simply pile the fish onto a boat to bring them back.
Apparently this was why supply of the small fish used as ingredients for fish sauce couldn't keep up with the demand.
Even Vandalieu couldn't make fish sauce without using small fish.
"Couldn't they catch small fish in the waterways?" Vandalieu wondered. "We've hunted all of the Flying Sharks living in them, so it should be easier to fish there than in Doran's Aquatic Caverns."
"Yeah, that's true, but the fishermen don't really want to do it. They say that there's not enough excitement," the Undead Titan receptionist explained. She had been made of bones and rotting flesh, but Vandalieu had used Freshness Restoration to return her to the state she had been in when she was killed.
"… As expected of a fighting race."
It seemed that the battles that occurred during fishing were exciting events for the fishermen.
"If it weren't for the katsuobushi and kombu, there would have been a major shortage of fish sauce," said the receptionist. "In my opinion, the solution for this problem is the development of a new product."
Her one remaining eye glistened with expectation.
Indeed, if a new product was developed and demand was divided between it and fish sauce, a shortage of fish sauce could be avoided even if its supply stayed as it was now.
"But the one who has to make that new product is me, isn���t it?" said Vandalieu. "The amount of products I make each month has decreased, though."
"Do your best~♪ Ah, please work on replacing my other eye quickly too!"
"Oka~ay."
It would be nice if I could get along well with the receptionists of real Adventurers' Guilds later as well, thought Vandalieu as he headed into the Job-changing room.
『[Undead Tamer][Soul Breaker][Venom Fist User][Insect User][Archenemy]』
"… What is Archenemy?"
There was a new Job there. What was this Archenemy Job? Was it supposed to be read as 'taiteki*'? Did that mean that he would be something like Satan? Satan, not Santa.
It was probably related to the destruction of the Dragon Golem and the breaking of Ice Age's soul. Archenemy… It would probably grant a bonus to the God Slayer skill.
But it wasn't the kind of Job he wanted being recorded in an Adventurers' Guild.
"Let's take that one later," Vandalieu decided.
He picked the Undead Tamer Job this time. With this, Borkus and Bone Man would likely be strengthened even more.
"You have acquired the[Strengthen Subordinates]skill!"
Name: Vandalieu
Race: Dhampir (Dark Elf)
Age: 5 years old
Title:[Ghoul King]
Job: Undead Tamer
Level: 0
Job history: Death-Attribute Mage, Golem Transmuter
Attributes:
Vitality: 115
Mana: 224,557,626
Strength: 80
Agility: 81
Stamina: 87
Intelligence: 407
Passive skills:
Superhuman Strength: Level 1
Rapid Healing: Level 3
Death-Attribute Magic: Level 5
Status Effect Resistance: Level 5
Magic Resistance: Level 1
Dark Vision
Mental Corruption: Level 10
Death-Attribute Charm: Level 5
Chant Revocation: Level 3
Strengthen Followers: Level 7
Automatic Mana Recovery: Level 3
Strengthen Subordinates: Level 3 (NEW!)
Active skills:
Bloodsucking: Level 3
Surpass Limits: Level 4
Golem Transmutation: Level 6
No-Attribute Magic: Level 4
Mana Control: Level 4
Spirit Form: Level 3
Carpentry: Level 4
Engineering: Level 3
Cooking: Level 2
Alchemy: Level 3
Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 2
Soul Break: Level 2
Multi-Cast: Level 2
Long-distance Control: Level 2
Unique skills:
God Slayer: Level 1
Curses
Experience gained in previous life not carried over
Cannot learn existing jobs
Unable to gain experience independently
The moment Vandalieu's Job changed, he acquired the Strengthen Subordinates skill. This was the human version of the Strengthen Followers skill, a lower equivalent.
It strengthened familiars, beasts, spirits, livestock and Golem accompanying the user, and the amount they were strengthened was about the same as the Strengthen Followers skill. It was mainly used by Alchemists, spirit-users and shepherds.
But as the skill could level up without increasing the number of subordinates, it was simpler to acquire than the Strengthen Followers skill.
"In my case, my followers will have double strengthening from both Strengthen Followers and Strengthen Subordinates."
Vandalieu chuckled to himself at the fact that this was such an easy, certain and effective method of improving everyone's strength.
Incidentally, after this, Vandalieu dug up the buried statue of Yupeon and repeatedly destroyed it and rebuilt it in order to examine his God Slayer skill, but nothing happened. It seemed that he would need to take on a god-made Artifact or a god's subordinate in order discover its effect.
He got the feeling that the dirt around the statue had turned a little red, but nothing about the statue had changed.
A few days after his job-change, Vandalieu went into the underground chamber beneath the royal castle once more. This time, he was here to recover the wreckage of the Dragon Golem.
Though it was wreckage, it was still Orichalcum; with his current level of Golem Transmutation, he was able to change its shape and preserve it.
However, he knew that he could not genuinely manipulate it as he wanted to.
"If I could beat Orichalcum to turn it into weapons, I would be a god right now instead of an Undead," said Datara. Orichalcum was a wondrous material for a blacksmith, and yet it was impossible to manipulate.
It could not be melted even by magma. No file could shave its surface off and even if it bent after being struck, it would soon return to its original shape.
Because of this, not even a first-rate blacksmith could turn it into weapons or armor.
It was said that any blacksmith capable of doing so would likely be praised as a divine craftsman.
"But it's possible to use it in various ways, isn't it," said Vandalieu. "Like turning it into flat pieces and using them as a shields, or turning it into lumps to use in maces and hammers, or using them as ammo for the catapults."
Shields boasting the greatest physical and magical defense of any shield in the world, and blunt weapons capable of tearing through any barrier like paper. Leaving aside the joke of using the Orichalcum as ammunition for the catapults, it should be very useful.
Incidentally, there were no spear-wielders to use Ice Age which was now just an Orichalcum spear, so Sam was holding onto it for now. It would probably make a good lance.
As Vandalieu was splitting the Golem's wreckage into pieces small enough to fit through the entrance to the audience chamber, he found something interesting in the corner of Dragon Golem's chamber.
As he moved aside the broken pieces of the Dragon Golem's wing that Mikhail had destroyed, he found dead bodies covered in cursed ice… probably around five of them.
"These corpses… Whose are they?" Vandalieu wondered.
Though they hadn't decomposed as they had been covered in ice like Zandia's severed hand, they had been horrendously damaged; there was not a single corpse left intact. But they were probably not Titans. And they probably weren't Vampires, either…
"Ah, come to think of it, Mikhail had a party, didn't he?"
Borkus hadn't mentioned them, nor had Vandalieu seen them in Zandia's residual memories. In the stories told in Talosheim and in the Mirg shield-nation, they were simply mentioned as Mikhail's companions; Vandalieu hadn't known their names or how many of them there were so they hadn't made much of an impression of him. But now that he thought about it, Mikhail did indeed have a party.
With that being the case, this was a tomb created by Ice Age. Perhaps because he could not bear to leave the corpses of his master's companions, he had covered them in cursed ice and buried them with small fragments of the Golem in a crater that had been made during the battle.
There was no tombstone, but it was a more extravagant grave than the ones dead royalty and nobles lay in. Considering the price of Orichalcum, it was no doubt equivalent to being buried in one of the pyramids on Earth.
Vandalieu removed all of the Orichalcum and inspected the bodies one by one.
One of them was an enormous man, almost the size of a Titan. There was a crushed shield next to him, so he was likely a shield-bearer. But as his body had been turned into mince from the neck down, he was very grotesque.
The second was a Dwarf… perhaps? There was no corpse, only shredded lengths of braided hair… No, those were probably only his beard and the scraps of metal were likely his armor. There were some pieces bearing the holy mark of Alda, so was he a zealous believer or some priest warrior?
The third was a female witch. She was wearing a robe and holding a staff, so there was no doubt about that. But it was uncertain as whether she was a human or an elf. The lower jaw was the only remaining part of her head, so it was impossible to see the shape of her ears. Vandalieu did think that she was a human, however.
The fourth was a dark-skinned woman wearing armor made of leather taken from a monster. Her head was intact, but the rest of her body was in pieces, like a disturbing jigsaw puzzle. She had probably been cut by the Dragon Golem's wings.
The fifth was… on close inspection, not a person.
"Isn't this an Ogre?"
It was the corpse of a demi-humanoid monster, an Ogre. It was wearing armor and holding a weapon so it appeared to be a large warrior, but the horn that initially looked like an ornament on its helmet were actually growing out of its forehead.
Incidentally, they were often confused for Majins, which were one of the races created by Vida, but they were different. Ogres only had one horn while Majins had two.
It seemed that this Ogre was a tamed familiar of one of the other four. But there were multiple gaping, fist-sized holes in its body; only its heads and limbs were unharmed.
Mikhail, these four and the Ogre had challenged the Dragon Golem and only Mikhail had managed to return to the ground's surface after suffering a fatal wound. His encounter with the Vampires that followed shortly after that had spelled the end of the entire party.
These four had not even left their names behind; even if Vandalieu were to try to listen to their spirits, they had probably likely already returned to the circle of transmigration. With the corpses of these heroes before him, Vandalieu didn't even offer them any prayer as he contemplated.
"What kind of Undead should I create using these?" he wondered out loud. He had no feelings of grief over the corpses of his enemies. He would have been more reserved if they were Titan bodies, but as they were the dead bodies of those from the Mirg shield-nation, they were nothing more than materials to him.
This was no different from stripping the meat off the bodies of Orcs and taking the bones and skin of Dragons. If he had felt aversion to doing things like this, he would never have created Bone Man to begin with.
"First, I'll give this big eyeball to the receptionist-san, but the rest of them are too damaged to make them Undead just as they are. Hmm… I suppose I'll take them apart and then join them back together."
This would also be good practice for creating Darcia's body.
"But I'll do that after the Orichalcum is all carried outside."
After he put the corpses together, he would need to think about the spirits he put in them. It would likely be fine as he had the Death-Attribute Charm skill, but it would certainly be problematic if the Undead were to turn on him like Frankenstein's monster.
Name: Vigaro
Rank: 7
Race: Ghoul Tyrant
Level: 7
Job: Axe Master
Job level: 0
Job history: Apprentice Warrior, Warrior, Axeman
Age: 171 years old
Passive skills:
Night Vision
Superhuman Strength: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
Pain Resistance: Level 4
Paralyzing Venom Secretion (Claws): Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)
Strengthened Attribute Values when equipped with an axe (Medium) (NEW!)
Active skills:
Axe Technique: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
Hand-to-hand Fighting Technique: Level 2
Commanding: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
Coordination: Level 2
Deforestation: Level 2 (NEW!)
Dismantling: Level 1 (NEW!)
Monster explanation:
[Ghoul Tyrant]
The highest-Rank form of Ghoul that has ever been witnessed. They possess bodies as large as Titans and four arms, and it is said that their lion's heads are fearsome enough that even the true kings of beasts would tremble before them.
As they usually rule groups of hundreds of Ghouls, they almost always possess the Strengthen Followers skill.
A Ghoul Tyrant has not been seen in the past thousand years, leading some scholars to believe that they are not a high-Rank version of Ghoul at all, but mutated individuals who are born that way.
Job explanation:
[Axe Master]
A Job that can only be acquired after an individual reaches level 100 with the Axeman Job and possesses a level 6 or greater skill in Axe Technique.
The 'Strengthened Attribute Values when equipped with an axe skill' is a perfect example of the skills specialized for the wielding of axes that can be gained with this Job.
This Job is essentially proof that those who have acquired the Job are first-rate fighters when wielding axes. They can easily become servants of noblemen or open their own Axe Technique dojo.
Adventurers possessing this Job are usually B-class.
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