Volume 10: Alcrem Duchy
Thomas C. ($50), Alexander T. ($30), Jordon A. ($30), Craig W. ($25), Johari N. ($25), Sandra P. ($20), Daniel V. ($10), Mathilde K.D. ($5), and Daniel C. ($5) are the sponsors we should all be thanking this time.
Vandalieu looked happily at the him that was slowly taking shape through being reconstructed and broken down repeatedly, and the sight of everyone taking part in the process.
He had the feeling that they had increased in number without him realizing it, but he was more interested in how fun it all was rather than worrying about that.
“Van, this sticky black stuff won’t come off,” said Pauvina.
Vandalieu noticed that she and some others had discovered something mixed with the blocks… the fragments of Vandalieu.
“Some of the fragments have a black, strongly adhesive substance mixed among them… Danna-sama, what could this be?” asked Bellmond.
“We do know that it’s not a good thing; it’s somehow not Vandalieu-sama-like,” said Eleanora, looking perplexed.
Vandalieu looked at the fragments that they were pointing to through the eyeballs and compound eyes around him and saw that there were black muscle-like things between the fragments.
There was something black in between the fragments, similar to the white striations found in high-quality meat. For some reason, Vandalieu felt a sense of repulsion the moment he saw it.
Every human and conscious person had a part of them inside that they didn’t want to believe existed, but Vandalieu felt a different kind of presence from it. However, he could not remember what it was.
“Okay, time for an encore,” said Vandalieu, deciding that he couldn’t remember so he would have Kanako dance some more in the dome that was his own skull.
Every movement of her legs caused grooves to be carved into the gray flesh-mass fragments, providing moderate stimulation for Vandalieu.
“Hmph, I must not lose!” said Bone Man as he began to make cuts in the fragments in front of him. This stimulation was perhaps a little strong.
But before long, Vandalieu remembered what that black substance was. It was the three curses that Rodcorte had placed on him.
Rodcorte had placed three curses on Vandalieu – ‘Experience gained in previous life not carried over,’ ‘Cannot learn existing Jobs’ and ‘Unable to gain Experience Points independently.’
These were still in effect, but… they caused almost no hindrance to Vandalieu now.
In fact, it was possible that these curses were why his Mana pool had increased to this point.
“So, what shall we do, boy? It will be quite the task, but should we try removing all of it?” asked Zadiris.
Vandalieu wasn’t sure whether to put a pause on the rebuilding to try and remove the curses or ignore them and continue the rebuilding.
It had already been over ten years since Vandalieu was reincarnated in Lambda, so the ‘Experience gained in previous life not carried over’ curse was almost entirely meaningless now. As for ‘Cannot learn existing Jobs,’ there were many undiscovered Jobs, so it did not cause any significant inconvenience for Vandalieu.
The only curse that was still actively hindering Vandalieu was ‘Unable to gain Experience Points independently,’ but this also caused him no problems as long as he was a little careful, as he had his Dead Spirit Magic and his Demon King Familiars.
Was it worth it for Vandalieu to delay the reconstruction of his soul to remove these curses?
And even if he did choose to delay his soul’s reconstruction to remove them, would it actually be possible?
Using one of his hands that had been completely built, Vandalieu took one of the fragments nearby and opened it up to find its cross-section filled with black specks.
“… It seems impossible to remove all of this,” said Princess Levia, sounding disheartened.
In order to remove all of the black substance, every single fragment of Vandalieu’s soul would need to be opened up and checked before being used. But the fragments varied greatly in size, from small fragments that would fit in the palm of a hand to large fragments that would need all four of Vigaro’s arms to hold.
The total volume of the fragments was roughly equivalent to an entire skyscraper’s worth. There were more people working on the task than there were at the beginning, but even so, there weren’t enough.
“And there’s definitely got to be some negative effects to breaking down the fragments even smaller than they are now, even for you. You’re in a bit of trouble even now, aren’t you?” said Borkus.
As he said, there was no guarantee that Vandalieu would be completely fine after having the fragments of his soul, which was already in pieces, broken down even smaller.
On top of that, it would be problematic for Vandalieu to be unable to move his arms and legs for too long. After all, he had entered the city of Morksi in order to draw Murakami and Birkyne out.
“So, should we just take off the stuff on the surface of the fragments? That should at least do something,” said Schneider, who had joined the task without Vandalieu noticing.
Even if it was impossible to remove all of the black substance, it could be assumed that the curses’ effect would decrease if some of it was removed.
It was small consolation, but it would be unpleasant to simply leave the black substance as is.
“Alright, let’s just take the stuff off the surface of the fragments and gather it up. If you’re struggling to get it off, work with the person next to you!” said Schneider.
Everyone obeyed his instructions… and began moving with rather dull movements. It seemed that their consciousnesses were sluggish because they were dreaming.
Some time later, Knochen brought the black masses of curse that had been gathered together to Vandalieu.
Knowing that it would be terrible if it were to stick to anyone else, Vandalieu decided to use Soul Devour to break it. He didn’t devour it; he simply extinguished it from existence by breaking it down.
Vandalieu easily broke a part of his curses to pieces.
Immediately after returning to his Divine Realm, Rodcorte began devoting all of his effort into the work on the soul of the ‘Ash Blade’ Edgar, one of the members of the Five-colored Blades.
“… I wonder how much meaning there is to this task?” he wondered.
Ordinarily, Rodcorte would not repair… heal, damaged souls. This was because there was no meaning to it.
Rodcorte being in possession of a soul meant, under ordinary circumstances, that the body that the soul belonged to was already dead. In other words, its life had already ended.
With that being the case, Rodcorte could simply place the soul in his circle of transmigration system, which would take it to its next life no matter how damaged it was. The damage to the soul would be largely repaired in the process.
If such a soul was born as a human, it might perhaps behave and react to things more strangely than a baby with a healthy soul, but that would be the extent of the effects. The damage would heal completely over the next few years, and the soul would enter a new, ordinary life.
If the soul was born as something other than a human, even these small effects would not be seen.
The reason that Rodcorte was repairing Edgar’s soul despite all of this was because he had been requested to do so by Alda, the god of law and fate. If Edgar were to be lost, the Five-colored Blades would become greatly weakened, so Alda had asked Rodcorte to do anything that he could.
“Indeed, the Five-colored Blades were able to corner Vandalieu a great deal. I must admit that they performed the best in battle against him out of all of those who have faced him,” Rodcorte murmured to himself.
At the very least, they had done far better than the reincarnated individuals utilized by Rodcorte… the ‘Gungnir’ Kaidou Kanata and the ‘Death Scythe’ Konoe Miyaji.
Having seen records of the series of battles fought by Heinz and his companions, he felt that they had a chance of defeating Vandalieu… at least a one in ten-thousand chance.
Vandalieu’s powers had been greatly limited in that Dungeon. Perhaps not reduced by as much as half, but Rodcorte doubted that he had been able to exert even two-thirds of his original strength.
And there was no doubt that if weren’t for the intervention of Curatos, the god of records, not only Edgar’s, but Delizah and the all-important Heinz’s souls would have been devoured as well.
On top of that, the Dungeon was largely destroyed during the battle, so it was uncertain as to whether Heinz and his companions could become any stronger.
“To insist on occupying me with the task of restoring a man who does not even possess any cheat-like abilities… and even demand that I ‘do nothing unnecessary’ other than repair his soul. I was certain that Alda would have requested me to add cheat-like abilities like those of the reincarnated individuals,” Rodcorte muttered.
“… I’m pretty sure that this Alda god has made some good decisions. Warning you not to do anything unnecessary is absolutely on the mark, and the same goes for the other decisions he’s made,” said Aran, his eyes fixated on Edgar’s soul with an expression of pity on his face.
Aran had ascended to become a familiar spirit, a spiritual life-form. It couldn’t be pleasant for him to see a deeply-damaged soul.
What Rodcorte was doing was equivalent to transplanting an Edgar whose body surface was missing over 90% of its skin into the empty skin of Niltark’s destroyed heroic spirit Luke, then performing plastic surgery based on previous records of Edgar’s appearance.
But perhaps fascinated by the task of restoring a soul, Aran showed no sign of wanting to avert his eyes.
Rodcorte had no problem with his work being observed, so he made no attempt to stop Aran from watching.
“Other decisions, you say?” he asked Aran.
“The fact that he’s not expecting anything from us reincarnated individuals,” Aran replied. “Excluding Murakami’s group, everyone you’ve sent so far has failed, right? With that being the case, from Alda’s point of view, he just doesn’t want to lose the strongest cards in his hand, the ones that he’s been raising himself.”
Now that Aran mentioned it, this was indeed the case. ‘Gungnir’ and ‘Death Scythe’ had been pitifully defeated, while ‘Venus’ and two others had betrayed Rodcorte. ‘Noah’ had refused to take part and fled the Bahn Gaia continent, and ‘Super Sense’ was attempting to do the same.
The rest had yet to produce any results.
It wasn’t surprising that Alda had no trust in the reincarnated individuals who had accomplished nothing.
“Well, considering that, his choice of leaving one of his strong cards in your hands is incomprehensible,” Aran added. “Couldn’t the other gods have done something? They grant divine protections and have their familiar spirits descend on their followers; they probably do some work with souls.”
This seemed to be the thought process of Aran, who only had knowledge of gods other than Rodcorte and didn’t know them personally.
It was true that gods granting divine protections and responding to the activation of the Familiar Spirit Descent Skill to have familiar spirits descend upon their followers were feats related to the soul in a way.
However, the task that Rodcorte was performing now was in another dimension.
“If Alda and his servants believed they could have done this task on their own, they would not have requested that I do it,” said Rodcorte. “The fact that they have means that they do not believe it possible for them to do it.”
In any case, Edgar’s almost non-functional soul needed to be restored to a state as close as possible to his original state. It wasn’t just his personality and memories; he needed to be able to use the Skills he had acquired just as he was able to before.
To Alda’s knowledge, Rodcorte was the only god who could possibly be capable of accomplishing this.
Though it is possible that there is such a god in Vida’s faction, Rodcorte thought to himself.
It was unpleasant for him to imagine this, but the fact that she handled her own circle of reincarnation system meant that it was likely that Vida herself had expert knowledge regarding souls. It was possible that she or her subordinate gods would be capable of repairing Edgar’s soul.
Of course, it was even more impossible for Alda to request this of them than Rodcorte.
“What I find more difficult to believe is your actions, the fact that you are speaking to me. Are you curious as to what was decided in the gods’ council and the battle between Vandalieu and the Five-colored Blades?” Rodcorte asked Aran.
“… Of course I am,” Aran muttered.
“I see. That is why you are trying to gain information from me while the other two are analyzing information regarding Vandalieu from the records,” said Rodcorte. “Would ‘Inspector’ not have been more suitable for that task? You have no guarantee that I am not lying.”
“If it were Izumi here, you might not say anything at all,” Aran pointed out.
“… Hmm, that is true,” Rodcorte agreed.
It would have been a troublesome task to protect his secrets, responding to questions without lying so as not to be detected by the ‘Inspector’ ability, while treating Edgar at the same time. It would have been far easier for Rodcorte to ignore any questions and not reply with a single word.
But during the council… the discussion with Alda and his followers, nothing had been decided that Rodcorte needed to keep a secret from his familiar spirits. Aran and the others had already correctly predicted the contents of the discussion.
“Regarding the reincarnated individuals, I will erase their memories if they refuse to show any desire to fight against Vandalieu. I will then either reincarnate them in adult bodies in Churches controlled by Alda’s forces, or take their abilities back and reincarnate them as infants,” said Rodcorte.
“I expected the former, but why did you decide the latter?” Aran asked.
“Because Alda and his followers believe that each reincarnated individual has things that they are suited for and things that they are not,” Rodcorte replied. “Even if I erase their memories and they are made to be champions, it seems that those who are not suited to battle will remain that way, as they will possess their original personalities.”
If Rodcorte were to erase someone’s memories to the point that their entire personalities would disappear, they would also forget how to speak and walk, returning to an infant-like state. If the reincarnated individuals were to be used as fighting forces, Rodcorte would need to preserve their basic knowledge, such as language, when erasing their memories. But doing that would leave their personalities intact.
If the reincarnated individuals’ remaining personalities were the kind that disliked fighting or felt distrust in unfamiliar religions, they would become a hindrance.
“It seems that it would be problematic if reincarnated individuals were to feel distrust towards the people of the Churches and escaped. With that being the case, Alda believes that there is a higher chance of succeeding if I simply recover their abilities from them and grant them to others,” said Rodcorte.
“I see. That might be for the best,” said Aran, remembering his companions who were still alive in Origin.
They would have their memories erased and their abilities removed. But that was only natural for someone dying and being reborn. None of them even knew that a third life was awaiting them.
At the very least, it would be far better than being forced into a battle that they did not want to fight, risking their souls being devoured by Vandalieu… There were too many things that they were better off not knowing, and this was particularly true for the ‘Angel’ Narumi.
“Speaking of the reincarnated individuals, has something happened in Origin? I sense a curious deviation in your thoughts,” said Rodcorte.
He had quickly looked over the records of Aran and the other familiar spirits in spare moments during Edgar’s treatment, but Aran remained composed.
“What are you talking about?” he said calmly.
However, Aran had ascended to become one of Rodcorte’s familiar spirits. Rodcorte saw through Aran’s façade and knew that he was hiding his discomposure. The thought that perhaps the familiar spirits’ records were worth investigating in detail, even at the cost of delaying Edgar’s recovery, crossed Rodcorte’s mind.
However, Rodcorte stopped Edgar’s treatment for another reason. He sensed a part of his own power… a very tiny part, being destroyed.
“… Vandalieu has broken a part of the curses that I placed on him? How futile,” he mused.
The curses that he had placed on Vandalieu’s soul were now unremovable even for him, largely due to Vandalieu’s own actions.
Rodcorte had seen in the records of the Five-colored Blades that Vandalieu was capable of not only breaking others’ souls, but absorbing them by devouring them as well. Because of this, his soul had been greatly transfigured.
Even if Rodcorte himself were to perish, it was uncertain as to whether the curses would be removed. It was likely that the only certain method of removing the curses was for Vandalieu to destroy his own soul.
But the fact that Vandalieu had attempted to remove the curses meant that… even if his soul was damaged to the extent of him devouring his own soul, he would quickly recover.
“It seems that I cannot afford to spend too much time,” Rodcorte muttered to himself.
It was likely that the ‘Avalon’ Rikudou Hijiri would make a move within the next few years, causing the deaths of even more reincarnated individuals than during the previous incident, but… it was possible that Rodcorte could not afford to wait for this to happen.
With that being the case, Edgar, who was currently in Rodcorte’s possession, was a precious part of the currently-existing anti-Vandalieu force.
“But at this rate, it will take time to return Edgar to Lambda. I have already used up all of the usable fragments of this heroic spirit… I suppose it cannot be helped,” Rodcorte said in a resigned voice.
“Huh? Hey, what the hell is that?!” Aran exclaimed.
From his pocket, Rodcorte had produced some fragments of the soul of the Demon King Guduranis… or rather, some residual pieces of his thoughts and memories, not even large enough to be categorized and given names.
Using these, he continued Edgar’s treatment.
“Hey, I can tell that powder was dangerous just by looking at its color! You just sprinkled it over Edgar, didn’t you?!” Aran shouted.
“This is something that you do not need to know about,” Rodcorte told him.
Though there was no changing the fact that these were fragments of the Demon King’s soul, the very act of repairing a soul on the verge of collapse by transplanting the soul fragments of a heroic spirit was already unprecedented. Surely it would not matter if there were some adverse effects.
It would perhaps be dangerous to join together the crucial soul fragments of Guduranis that Alda had sealed away… the Demon King’s core, which was needed to hold all of the fragments together and resurrect the soul as Guduranis, and the Demon King’s life, which was needed for Guduranis’s fragments to function as a part of him instead of parasitizing other life forms.
However, the risk of Edgar’s restored soul ending up being devoured by Vandalieu was far greater than the risk of such things occurring, so it was not even worth thinking about.
“With this, I can shorten the time required for Edgar’s treatment. You three will need to watch over the system in my stead,” said Rodcorte.
“… Alright,” Aran said, giving up on the impossible task of persuading Rodcorte to explain what the powder was and walking away.
Lost in his own thoughts, Rodcorte did not even glance at Aran’s back.
Considering their disloyalty, my three familiar spirits are quite useful. I was only able to attend Alda’s council, and I am only able to devote myself entirely to Edgar’s treatment, because they are watching over the system. This would not have been possible with familiar spirits that have no mind of their own, he thought. It is likely best to leave them be for a while. At the very least, there should be no problems as long as they are watching Earth and Origin. Vandalieu exists only in Lambda, after all.
And so, Rodcorte decided to prioritize Edgar’s treatment over looking through his familiar spirits’ records, and in doing so missed his chance to learn that while Vandalieu did not exist in Origin, Banda did.
Awakening in his inn, Vandalieu checked his Status just in case, but the curses were still there after all.
However, the numbness in his limbs had diminished greatly compared to the day before, and he gave a sigh of relief upon finding that he was able to move his body.
He left the inn with Darcia and the first thing he did was purchase a food cart.
“Vandalieu, is this really okay?” Darcia asked.
“There’s no problem, Mom,” Vandalieu replied.
Through the information network of the criminal organization that Eleanora and the others had infiltrated and taken control over, Vandalieu had learned of an old man who had retired from his food cart business last year. He purchased the food cart second-hand from the old man for three times its market value, with that sum also including hush money to keep quiet, and the old man walked away beaming happily.
“It can be used with no problems if we clean it a little,” said Vandalieu.
The old man had used the food cart with care. With some cleaning, it wouldn’t look out of place on the main street.
“That’s not what I mean. I’m talking about the numbness in your limbs and your Mana,” said Darcia.
She was worried because Vandalieu still had some numbness remaining in his limbs, and his Mana had not yet fully recovered.
“… Well, roasted skewers aren’t that difficult to make. And I’ve recovered about half my Mana,” said Vandalieu.
He had only recovered about half of his Mana because his soul was currently undergoing reconstruction.
Even with only half of it recovered, he still had approximately 3,500,000,000 Mana, so there were indeed no problems, but there was still an expression of concern on Darcia’s face.
“But it would be dangerous if you needed to fight… Don’t you think you should call Bellmond-san and drink her blood?” she suggested in a whisper.
The blood of Bellmond, who possessed the ‘Offering’ Unique Skill, had the effect of rapidly recovering the Mana of those who consumed it. In ordinary circumstances, drinking her blood would have caused Vandalieu to make a full recovery.
“But Mom, Bellmond is currently acting as the secretary and lover of the boss of the criminal organization, so getting her to come out here right now is a bit… Anyway, this is probably a problem that has to do with my soul, so drinking her blood might not be enough to cure me,” Vandalieu pointed out.
He had made the effort to take control of a criminal organization without anyone noticing; it would be far too frustrating to risk breaking Bellmond’s cover to have her come out here only to have her blood not work.
“You’re right. If it’s to do with the soul, there’s no telling what will happen… Ah, how about drinking my blood? I’m Vida’s incarnation, so it might have some effect! Veld-sensei told me to be careful not to give my blood to any remnants of the Demon King’s army plotting to resurrect evil gods!” said Darcia.
As to be expected of the incarnation of the goddess of life and love – It seemed that her blood was immensely precious in a way.
“And I’m really confident in my regenerative ability. Even if you drink my blood until your whole stomach is full, I’ll be back to normal in no time,” Darcia added.
Her ‘Super Rapid Regeneration’ Skill was Level 5; her blood would quickly be replenished.
“… Then let’s try it when we get back to our inn room,” said Vandalieu.
They were keeping their voices down now, but he had the feeling that it would be a bad idea to start drinking blood while outside. He decided to drink Darcia’s blood after cleaning the food cart and returning to the inn.
“Don’t hold back, put your fangs in deep. If you put them in shallow, the wounds will seal back up right away,” said Darcia.
“Yes, Mom,” said Vandalieu as he bit into her neck with his fangs as he was instructed.
Warm blood filled his mouth, and Vandalieu’s eyes opened wide the moment he tasted it.
It was rich, savory and yet it entered his body without resistance, soaking into him. Power welled up from within the depths of his body.
“Mmm… This reminds me of when I used to breast-feed you back in the day,” Darcia whispered.
These words would normally have caused Vandalieu to writhe in embarrassment, but his body was so filled with power that they did not even register in his mind.
The numbness that had been in his limbs since the morning faded away.
《You have acquired the ‘Enhanced Vitality’ Skill!》
《The Levels of the ‘Enhanced Vitality’ and ‘Bloodwork’ Skill have increased!》
The power filling Vandalieu’s body was not the only effect of Darcia’s blood; the mere act of drinking it granted him a new Skill and increased some Skill Levels.
If a single mouthful had such effects, Darcia’s blood could easily release a sealed evil god or two. The incarnation of Vida was incredible indeed.
“I’m alright now, Mom,” said Vandalieu. “If I drink anymore, I think I’ll go crazy from all the power filling me up,” said Vandalieu as he removed his fangs from Darcia’s neck.
Before he even finished speaking, the wounds they had left in Darcia’s skin had already healed cleanly.
“Okay. Once we take a rest, let’s take the food cart to the Commerce Guild,” said Darcia.
“… I feel like I’d be able to drag the food cart and run into the distant horizon right now. But although the numbness is gone, my Mana hasn’t recovered yet,” said Vandalieu.
“It seems that it really is to do with your soul. But my blood worked for your numbness, so it might have some effect,” said Darcia. “You should drink my blood once a day from now on.”
“… Once we’ve made a temporary registration at the Commerce Guild, let’s buy or rent a house as soon as possible.”
Though this inn was better than the first one Vandalieu had stayed at, the Starling Inn, it was hard to say that it had exceptional soundproofing and security. It would also be problematic if one of the inn workers were to come into the room for cleaning while Vandalieu was drinking Darcia’s blood.
Vandalieu decided to speed up his plans in order to protect their parent-child privacy.
Unlike the Adventurers’ Guild, which was near the entrance to the city, the Commerce Guild was at the city’s center… close to the building that served both as the center of the city’s politics and as the residence of Earl Morksi, the lord of the city.
The Commerce Guild was possibly in the perfect location, right on the border between the residential and commerce districts where the commoners lived, and the high-class residential area inhabited by the city’s lord, the nobles as well as successful merchants and adventurers.
On their way there, Darcia and the food-cart-dragging Vandalieu attracted many stares from the city’s citizens.
“I guess Dark Elves really do stand out?” said Darcia.
“Yes. I saw several Elves when I looked around, but not a single Dark Elf,” said Vandalieu.
“But I can’t use my ‘Chaos’ Skill to make my skin pale… Ah, maybe I should have made my ears round,” said Darcia.
To be precise, the one gathering people’s attention was Darcia. Dark Elves were rare, even in Morksi, which was one of the Alcrem Duchy’s hubs for commerce.
It wasn’t surprising that the townspeople’s gazes were attracted to the beautiful Dark Elf woman walking through the streets.
“… It might not be making much difference,” said Darcia.
Even with her ears made round to disguise herself as a human, a chocolate-skinned beauty stood out among the inhabitants of a city in the northern region of the Bahn Gaia continent who had skin as white as snow.
As for Vandalieu, the people assumed that he was Darcia’s servant and didn’t pay him any attention after the first glance. There were none who realized that they were mother and son.
“Maybe I should cover my face with a hood starting from tomorrow?” Darcia wondered.
“Well, it’s not a bad thing that we’re drawing attention. Murakami has a Radar that tells him my location, but Birkyne wouldn’t take any notice of us if he doesn’t get information that we’re here,” said Vandalieu.
As a part of his plan, Vandalieu and Darcia did need to attract attention to some degree, so it wasn’t entirely a bad thing.
However, Darcia drawing attention also meant that it was easier to attract trouble.
Two large men suddenly stepped in front of Darcia, blocking her way.
“Yo, Nee-chan. Wanna come with us?” one of them said with a grin.
“We’ve just finished work, so come have a drink with us and celebrate,” said the other, flashing a pouch seemingly filled with gold at her.
The men had weapons hanging from their waists; they were likely adventurers or mercenaries. Their arms were thicker than Darcia’s thighs.
“I’m sorry, we’re very busy. If you’re looking for people to celebrate with you, find someone else,” said Darcia, maintaining her gentle smile but firmly declining – standing and facing the men directly.
“Hey, don’t be so cold,” one of the men said with a smirk as he reached out to grab Darcia’s arm.
Meanwhile, the other man was ogling Darcia’s chest.
“You know, we’re pretty famous in the Mercenaries’ Guild –” Suddenly, the man reaching out to grab Darcia stopped in his tracks. “W-we’re sorry for stopping you when you’ve got things to do. We’ll excuse ourselves now!” he stuttered, hastily grabbing his partner’s arm.
“W-what’s the matter? We’re just about to get to the good part…” his friend said, looking bewildered.
“Shut up and come with me! E-excuse us!” the first man said, and with that, the two of them ran away.
If the man really had grabbed her arm, Darcia had been planning to grab his arm back and twist it enough to hurt, but not enough to break it. She blinked in surprise as she watched the men flee, then turned around and gave Vandalieu a confused look.
“Vandalieu, did you do something?” she asked.
“I haven’t done anything yet. Neither has anyone else,” Vandalieu replied.
“… Chase them, fertilizer?” Eisen asked.
“You mustn’t chase them, Eisen,” Vandalieu told her.
Neither Vandalieu, Darcia or anyone around them knew why the two men had run away. Not really caring much about it, Vandalieu and Darcia stopped thinking about it and continued on their way to the Commerce Guild, and the people nearby just assumed that the man harassing the beautiful Dark Elf woman had realized that she was a former adventurer or something, then taken his companion and fled.
The truth was that the fleeing man had a Level 5 ‘Intuition’ Skill, and he had survived on the battlefield many times due to that intuition. This Skill had warned him as he reached out to grab Darcia that he would be in danger if he laid a hand on her. Trusting that instinct, he had fled the scene.
He had made a pitiful display of fleeing from a beautiful woman in front of dozens of people, but it certainly had been a better decision than having his arm twisted by Darcia or having something done to him by Vandalieu.
At first glance, the Commerce Guild looked like some kind of government office.
“I was sure it was going to be more spectacular,” said Vandalieu.
“The Commerce Guild doesn’t actually do any direct trading, so this is good enough,” said Darcia.
Vandalieu stopped the food cart and entered the Guild to find that it was almost empty, partially because it was already almost noon.
With that being the case, making a temporary registration at the Guild would be quick. However, Vandalieu could not shake off his feeling of unease, as he was even less familiar with the Commerce Guild than he was with the Adventurers’ Guild.
That was why he had prepared an advisor that he could rely on for today.
It was the ‘Fine Dog’ Chipuras, former colleague of Bellmond and Isla, one of the Pure-breed Vampire Ternecia’s Five Dogs… or rather, his Ghost.
“The ones entering and leaving this place are not ordinary customers, but merchants, the merchants’ employees and tax officials,” Chipuras said.
He had been slain by Heinz, but he had infiltrated human society before that and served as Deputy Guild Master of the Hartner Duchy’s Commerce Guild for ten years. It was now time for his experience and knowledge to be of use.
“Do not worry. It is rare for there to be problems while making a temporary registration. You just need to respond to the receptionist’s questions confidently, as if you have nothing to hide,” Chipuras assured Vandalieu with a bright smile, looking like a good-natured old man.
His good physique gave him a dignified and dependable aura, and Vandalieu’s unease vanished.
“Well… My memories are slightly unstable because Heinz cut me in two when he killed me,” Chipuras added.
Vandalieu felt a little of his unease return at these words as he approached the counter with the receptionist.
“Excuse me, I’d like to make a temporary registration,” he said.
“Of course. But it is a rule that the business owner must fill out the form themselves…” the receptionist said.
“Yes, I am the business owner.”
“Huh? It’s you, not that Dark Elf lady over there? You’re not kidding?”
“Yes, I really am the business owner.”
“Yes, this is where you use some force!” Chipuras said encouragingly.
The Commerce Guild only registered business owners; their employees did not need to be registered. Thus, Vandalieu planned to be the only one who would be registered, and Darcia would be an employee working at the grilled skewer cart.
“… Alright. Please fill out the form,” the receptionist said.
She seemed unconvinced by Vandalieu’s claim of being the business owner, but there was no law in the Alcrem Duchy that prevented underage individuals from doing business.
Vandalieu was obeying the advice of Chipuras that the receptionist could not hear, and the receptionist handed him the form and a pen, as if she had no other choice.
“Do you need someone to write on your behalf?” she asked.
“No thank you,” Vandalieu replied as he proceeded to write his name, age, race and the details of his business.
“Please note that your registration will be erased if your business does not continue for the duration of the three-month temporary registration period,” the receptionist said.
“Do I need to open my business every day during that period?” Vandalieu asked.
“No, you are free to decide which days your business closes on. However, you will need to submit your ledger at the end of the three months, and if we decide that your business is not sustainable, your registration will be cancelled.”
The receptionist didn’t give Vandalieu any specific requirements, but… it probably meant that there would be no problems as long as the business was making enough income to live on.
“A food cart?” the receptionist said, running her eyes over the completed form. “The Guild will decide where your cart will be set up, so please wait one moment.”
“So I can’t decide that on my own,” said Vandalieu.
“No. There have been conflicts over locations between cart owners in the past, and since then, it has been decided that the Commerce Guild shall designate cart locations. And… you’re a Dhampir,” said the receptionist, looking up from the form.
“Ah, yes. As you can see, I am a Dhampir,” Vandalieu said, removing the cloth covering his eye that he had forgotten about.
He faced the receptionist, showing her his purple and crimson odd-colored eyes.
“This is… Could you please show me your fangs and claws, too?” said the surprised receptionist.
“Of course,” said Vandalieu, showing her his fangs and claws as requested.
“I-I see. You are indeed a Dhampir… It is my first time seeing one,” the receptionist said.
The only publicly known Dhampir living in the Orbaume Kingdom was Selen, the Dhampir under the protection of the Five-colored Blades. Many of the Orbaume Kingdom’s citizens had never seen a Dhampir before, and the receptionist was no exception.
“Is there a problem with me being a Dhampir?” Vandalieu asked.
“That’s the way,” Chipuras said encouragingly.
Vandalieu and Chipuras were both on guard, wary of a possible situation similar to the one that had occurred in the Hartner Duchy.
But the receptionist shook her head. “No, not at all,” she said. “Please wait one moment.”
The receptionist took Vandalieu’s form into the back of the office, presumably to determine where Vandalieu would be allowed to set up his food cart.
“It looks like things are going okay, Vandalieu,” said Darcia.
“Yes,” Vandalieu agreed.
“It is as I said it would be, is it not?” said Chipuras.
Vandalieu had made the criminal organization he had taken over investigate the rules of the Commerce Guild, but he and Darcia had still been worried. But they were relieved now that it seemed like the paperwork would be completed without any problems.
However, some time passed, and the receptionist still did not return.
“… Maybe there are more carts than expected, and there isn’t enough space to accommodate them all?” Darcia wondered.
“She might be taking care to not place us next to a stall owned by a believer of Alda,” Vandalieu suggested.
“… I have a bad feeling about this,” said Chipuras.
The receptionist finally returned, with a well-built, bearded middle-aged man behind her.
“Welcome to the Commerce Guild. I am the Deputy Guild Master, Joseph,” the man said, introducing himself. “I have some matters to discuss with you, so I request that the business owner please follow me to the office.”
There was no response from Vandalieu’s Danger Sense: Death, but he had a bad feeling about this man.
It wasn’t just anyone who possessed the ‘Intuition’ Skill, and Joseph certainly didn’t.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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Korath
If there was a kids party and Roc would be out of baking powder he would sub it with meth without even batting an eye. Thats how low he is.
Naberisu
How stupid can Rodcorte be? If Guduranis’ body parts can parasite other bodies why isn’t he even considering the possibility of Guduranis’ soul fragmenra corrupting other souls?
I kinda liked Edgar tbh, one more reason to hate Rodcorte
Winter
So many people with the death wish passive running around.
Alke
Well, Rotcortex did it 😑😑😑, yareyare he’s really a piece of work 🙄🙄🙄. Anyway, it’s not Vandalieu that will be disturbed by that anyway 😏😏😏. Looks like a snack is on the way 😋😈😈. Alda is soooo gonna be pissed off! I hope that he and Rotcortex will kill each other 😇😇😇😇
Rizeres
Rodcorte….. Proving once again, just cause your a god, does not mean your smart.
prnewt
From his pocket, Rodcorte had produced some fragments of the soul of the Demon King Guduranis…
He has done it again
Vitor
Did anyone seriously expected him from not doing it again?
the curious one
I was more baffled that he literally kept what amounts to an unstable bomb in his pocket
lazygeko
I believe there are 3 fragments sealed that have the demon kings thought/soul or whatever, those fragments that have a guarantee of resurrecting the demon king. 2 are with Rodcorte and one is with Alda, if I remember correctly.
Taking all guesses. Rodcorte used one here. He will use one on rokudou, when that idiot comes over eventually. And I think even Alda will let his fragment out, using “Van is the greater threat, I can just seal them both away after they duke it out.” Showing once and for all his immense arrogant hypocrisy.
Those are my guesses.
NsP7737
Let’s wait for the Demon King burger to serve itself to Van screaming “MAIN BODY!”
Chiu ChunLing
Hahaha, good one. That’s basically what Edgar and Luke are at this point now that they’re stuck together with Demon King ‘soul condiment’, isn’t it?
Drackormort
so like a meat patty of 70% pork and 30% beef, with demon king secret sauce
Alke
Chiu Chun Ling : some pepper demon king power on a tasteless mushed soul sandwich 🥪🥪itadakimasu
Rasho
Yup, just like I thought, Rodiot is evolving every time he appears
FunniFear
I feel bad when any action the author belts out “Danger Sense: Death.” Not every action in the story plays into the values of the battle. Sometimes it’s interpersonal relationships or politics.
ObserverBias
Which in this case is fine. While it’s vague how far Danger Sense extends (whether it can tell how far an action would be from the possibility of death, or it only clocks in when it’s imminent), clarifying that “this isn’t about to be an ambush, just annoying” is fair.
Ryuutsukai
My third time rereading this and I’ve finally decided to make an account despite being an anon lurker on like 20 other sites… Though it’s because I wanted to thank Yoshi and the sponsors… And Doom-sama’s scripture readings must be propagated.
Baldingere
Joseph (Druid), the other bravers and Eight Guidance followers and Meh-kun weren’t there to build his soul back up? Sad, I thought that would be the opportunity to guide them for good.
Kerlark Dgrayman
Rodcorte doesn’t know the meaning of the word consequences and just did something unbelievable. What an idiot.
Well, it will bite him later on. No beings and gods will escape in the fangs of Karma.
Flesh Sculptor
Rodcorte rebuilding a damaged soul: Full skin transplantation.
Van rebuilding his own soul: Build-A-Bear workshop for all my friends!
[At the very least, there should be no problems as long as they are watching Earth and Origin. Vandalieu exists only in Lambda, after all.]
Yeah, about that…
Zauberbiest
rodcorte never learns does he? i guess when u have a infinite life span no lesson is to great to be taught by
also lol, atmosphere with mom chan is lewd
Raidanzoup
Rodcorte said one Demon King sandwich with Edgar buns coming right up!
DarthJawa
When I read the part where Rodcorte used the demon king soul fragments I audibly called him an idiot. If the body parts are acting like nutcases and dying to join Van, what’s gonna happen to this guy who has his soul?
Calango
as they say, rodcorte doesn’t settle until he does shit. I don’t want to imagine what the fragments of the DK soul are capable of.
polynesianvibez
hmm, hope Joe doesn’t do anything stupid lol
thanks for the chapter
TruePath111
“Private child and mom moments” I always see this perverted hints in the novel lol *wink wink*
JeKeBe
Considering your other comments, I’d guess you’re drawing from personal experience. Explains a lot of the hate for non-virgins.
SuicidalSkeletin
Probably this Joseph wants to try to threaten Van since he’s a child. I mean it’s the Commerce Guild after all it would be weird for there not to be any trouble
Paps
Thanks for the translation, poor Joseph has no idea of the problem he is walking into.
Lord Rin
Oh well this is a nice surprise. I randomly came to check here and it turns out that there’s not one but two new chapters released.
While as Van did say that his curses don’t really affect him anymore, it would still be nice if he can at least break the curse about being unable to gain experience independently. It is kinda annoying that Van can’t just blast people with his Hollow Cannon because then he can’t get XP for killing them that way and it’s hard for his allies and Demon King Familiars to fight some of Van’s stronger opponents like Evil Gods. Which would necessitate him possibly having to be the one to fight them or give the killing blow personally and that’d just be a waste of XP because of the curse.
Also Rodcorte: You. Stupid. Mother. Fucker. I expected him to do something stupid but I didn’t think he’d be stupid enough to actually use Guduranis’ soul fragments on Edgar. Even a complete moron could tell that nothing good would come from that. And Alda even specifically forbid him from doing anything unnecessary to Edgar’s soul which this very clearly counts as unnecessary.
Anyways this Joseph guy is probably fucked. He’s probably thinking about some way to take advantage of Van. Mama Darcia ain’t having none of that shit.
Mr.Darkness
“To Alda’s knowledge, Rodcorte was the only god who could possibly be capable of accomplishing this.
Though it is possible that there is such a god in Vida’s faction, Rodcorte thought to himself.”
Those guys are fucked! Vandalieu is training an entire army of people that can repair souls!!!
“From his pocket, Rodcorte had produced some fragments of the soul of the Demon King Guduranis…”
Are you fucking stupid?!?!?!?!?!?
That can’t be… Rodstupid is totally doing it on purpose! I don’t even know english enough to express how stupid is this idea!!!
Skarbrand
His head is so empty it makes outer space look cluttered.
InfernoHomura
Heck maybe its even darker and denser than the black hole to not realize how stupid is his method
SuicidalSkeletin
Idiotcorte has lost the ability to use his synapses. That much is certain
Ryuutsukai
My attempt would be along the lines of “and this is what it’s like to know someone who’s I.Q. can only measured with imaginary numbers.”
Sturmi
” It wasn’t just anyone who possessed the ‘Intuition’ Skill, and Joseph certainly didn’t.”
i dont quite understand ,does he have intuition or not?
Mr.Darkness
“Joseph certainly didn’t” So, he does not.
“It wasn’t just anyone who possessed the ‘Intuition’ Skill” States that it is not a common skill to have. But maybe it sounds more natural for non native english speakers (like myself).
Jago
Sound like Joseph is thinking to take advantage of Vandalieu and, lacking the “intuition” skill isn’t receiving a warning that it is a very bad idea.
Morgan
fun fact. Intuition is the 6th human sense and relies on the emotional sense to function. it’s basically that gut feeling you sometimes get. and is the cause of “feeling like someone is walking on your grave”
SuicidalSkeletin
Basically the Joseph is numb to anything other than short term merit and so he has essentially zero emotional intelligence
Metazoxan
I wonder what effect the partically destroyed curses will have? I certainly hope he doesn’t permanately lose power since apparently the curses were boosting his mana pool.
I’d expect the effect to be weakened. Like instead of no experience from his previous life carrying over he can now access a small portion of it. Although since he did absolutely nothing but be a death magic lab rat the only experience he’d get would be more Death magic Mastery UNLESS he’s able to reach even farther back and access the former champion’s experience.
Then for the jobs curse maybe instead of not gaining previously owned jobs he can either not gain common ones or any previously owned job will have a slow growth rate.
lastly maybe he can gain partial experience from his own kills.
Although honestly instead of destroying the curses I was hoping he’d refine it into something useful… or throw it onto Heinz :P.
no1
According to this chapter, it said that destroying parts of the curse won’t have any effect unless he gets rid of all of it. And the curse is within each part of his soul, both on the surface and within the cross sections of each piece. Who knows if Vandalieu will ever be able to remove his curses, but knowing Vandalieu, he might find a way
Jago
The presence of the curses and what they removed/kept away gave more space to Vandalieu soul, so he had more mana at the start of his new life. But now the extra space is part of him, I doubt that removing part of the curses will affect that.
Morgan
I agree with Jago. I think of it like a quarry. just cause the digger’s gone doesnt mean the dirt’s gonna come back. Also Van is immortal and nigh indestructible. plus if his body is ever destroyed he can use literally any of the countless demon king familiars and the root of life to resurrect himself. since he has infinite time, he can do anything
UndeadAnonymous
Based on Rodcorte’s reaction, the current progress of destruction of the curse is too minor to have a visible effect. (1 out gazillion exp is still small enough to be 0 exp) The only thing he is worried about now is the fact Vandalieu can start moving so quickly after having devoured his own soul. (The time he was most vulnerable was immediately after he devoured it cause he couldn’t move or defend himself. Opportunity lost for Alda and Murakami)
The fact that he can devour and destroy the curse at all just means eventually progress can be made to weaken its effects. But doing so chunks at a time will get more and more difficult like a mold or stain. It is easier to clear out chunks but strands and leftovers in between cracks will be more difficult.
If he continues to remove the curses to the point where it becomes visible, although it will have to be way in the future or after a series of events where he gets the opportunity to do so again and again.(and I am sure Rodcorte will inform us when it does.) the first visible signs would be getting 1 exp from killing a boss and getting jobs discovered or unlocked by his subordinates (and unknown by the public).
If further progress is made that 1 will become 10 then 100, until he receives maybe 50% and maybe one day after the series is over, 100% of the exp. same applies to the jobs extending to publicly available jobs. But by the time this happens he would probably already reached godhood and replaced Rodcorte.
The reason why I don’t mention anything about past experience is because he has already reached or surpassed his prime as the Undead with the help of the system.
Of course since getting 1 exp for killing off a boss worth gazillions of exp is pointless, we will unlikely see that happen as his subordinates will do the killing for him. It would have to be against someone his equal so that he has to be the one to do the deed and way past the point just barely visible curse-free. Of course there is an upper limit of exp receivable being the amount required to max a job but he already is doing so with party exp. so he does not need to get 50% of personal kill exp unless it was some impossible job like god of reincarnation (which by that point he already broken out of the system)
QuantumQuilava
Sometimes I am disappointed with the all over the place upload schedule, but then Im greeted to the absolute best translation of any light novel I’ve ever read here. Honestly nothing can beat this translation
SuicidalSkeletin
Indeed. I went back to read a novel I had left unfinished some time before and I was surprised at how bad I thought it was. Literally some translations out there are worst than google translate and ones as good as this one are so few its like miracles when you find them.
Zauberbiest
yeah like seriously i was never that much into novels and it always bored me, but this one caught me attention quite well
Triger
Who is bellmond again i forgot there are so many characters who barely show up
Jonathan Hurd
She was one of Ternicias main lieutenants. She is a monkey beast man vampire. Was called Ternicias foolish dog and was kept around because of her unique skill ‘offering’ which fully heals the hp and mp of the one who drinks her blood. She spent i think 10k years locked in Ternicia’s secret mansion alone.
After Van saved her he did a skin transplant from Ternicia to Bellmond giving Bellmond a voluptuous body like Ternicia and also the Evil eye of petrification.
Entropy
She is also Vand’s butler who uses strings in fights. There are quite a few characters and some have weird names. I remember one of the noble orcs names and thinking that was another race’s name like ghouls. Took me a while to realive that it was just a name.
Vitor
The top seat in the bust rankings
Vaccaria
Can’t believe I actually read someone saying Alda is right. LOL
Metazoxan
Alda may be an idiot but he’s still above Dumb-Corte.
The intelligence ranking goes like this
Rodcorte<Alda<brain dead coma patient< young infant< Heinz < Average 5th grader<Everyone else.
Morgan
you forgot average vegan protestor. it should go
<brain dead coma patient< young infant< Heinz< average vegan protestor<
SuicidalSkeletin
damn now this is comedy
Mossy Stone
The DK fragments view Van as the main body …what if Edgar moved toward him as a result of Rodidiot’s (unnecessary) addition betraying FCBs/Alda? Guduranis seems to have believed “might makes right” so I’ve sometimes thought he would ask Van to judge him for his failure devouring his soul.
Seems like most bad guys ignore that little voice foreshadowing their doom ….my what a nice skill to have. Wasn’t there a guard that was the ignoring type?
The goddess of flow feels that the situation of gods gathering under one, ie. Alda, is unnatural – so I think that as a servant of Peria, neither she nor Peria would be hostile to Vida’s faction, but won’t join them either; that’s good enough for Van.
Vida may be able to gather some curse fragments for van to devour …this ain’t over till the Rodidiot wails.
Ltshrek
my guess is Edgar would be probably go crazy or like what you said betray the ketchup faction and proceed to find Van since van is now the main body of dk frags
Jonathan Hurd
I definitely think something is going to happen to Edgar and he will seek out Van eventually, but I feel like he isn’t going to be impulsive about it. This is Edgar we’re talking about and the fragments of the DKs soul are small. I think what might happen is Edgar being his usual pragmatic self will realize and Heinz and the rest are the biggest threat to Van currently. So it is best to stick with them and betray them when they meet Van to protect him and rejoin him.
He’d also realize he can’t really move alone Alda and the rest are watching him and his face is to well known to hide. Best to try to act normal than freak out at the start get caught and put down.
Entropy
I think it is more likely that Edgar will go insane and try to kill everyone and everything. He will have the voice of Luke telling him to kill Vida’s races, Edgar’s telling him to be peaceful, and the original DK wanting to take over the world. Talk about multiple personalities. I am curious about what will happen if Vand devours Edgar’s composite soul.
Jonathan Hurd
I think you might be right with what where Peria could fall. She might decide to stay neutral and see where the chips fall and who comes out as the final Victor between Vida and Alda. That would probably be one of the easier moves.
There is of course the worry that if Alda and Vida completely exhausted themselves the world could collapse because no one’s left sustaining it. Add in the chance that even if one side wins and can support the world they could be sneak attacked by some of the remaining Evil Gods loyal to Guduranis.
I think the best route might honestly be to see which side is strongest then try to act as a mediator between the two. Acting as mediator might be helped if she supports the weaker of the two sides since I don’t think anyone wants death.
If negotiations failed she could act as a neutral third party and have both sides save some forces for maintenance and evil God deterrent. If she becomes the head of that party she assures her life with the Victor and the future.
no1
I agree, it could be an interesting development for Vandalieu in the future. If he devours Edgar’s soul and those minute pieces of Guduranis’ thoughts and memories affected him and his fragments. I would like to see what the effects are. 🙂
Lord Rin
These soul fragments are probably from Guduranis’ core that Rodcorte is supposed to be safekeeping. They probably would still have Guduranis’ ego and not view Van as the main body. They’re more likely to drive Edgar insane and/or take over his body and maybe seek Van because Guduranis would think he stole what is rightfully his and would try to take it back. He might also try to go after the remaining fragments to try to reconstitute himself before fighting Van.
UndeadAnonymous
I agree to a certain extent. The fragments are too small to for him to be taken over by Guduranis but what is more likely to happen is for Edgar to think he is Guduranis. (Big difference as he would have fragmented memories, different personality from the real one and none of the power)
Imagine I said I was Oprah Winfrey but lacked everything to made her Oprah and just acted like someone completely different like Tom Hanks. That is what Edgar is likely to happen the creation of a personality radically different to the sum of its parts.
UndeadAnonymous
My guess is due to the dregs of DK soul fragments, he will mistake DK memories for his own and his personality will be warped. Rodcorte is an idiot but he is still an expert in the soul. So the side effects are not enough to make Edgar the demon lord Guduranis, just enough to make him think he is. There is a difference. Other demon lord fragments are not gonna accept him as the main body. If he does get devoured, the only effect will probably be Van being able to read the memories using the record skill but he won’t mistake it for his own memory.
Vitor
She won’t join Vida… but… Van’s soul also contains Solder’s remains, Peria’s champion
Morgan
↓↓↓ how many people agree Rodcorte is dumb.
Entropy
It could be that Rodcorte simply excels at one thing and one thing only. He is great at running a reincarnation circle and putting souls together, but doesn’t know anything else. Look at his fight with the Time and Space gods when they took Legion’s souls. He is powerful, but has never been in a fight. Mind you, I also think he is an idiot.
Jonathan Hurd
I don’t disagree he is really good at handling souls, but to me that just increases how stupid and arrogant he is in my book. It’s not that he can’t learn and understand people, he just doesn’t care. He keeps making mistakes but since he feels invincible since there is no one who could touch him he doesn’t learn.
The fact that Alda keeps coming back to him after Rodidiot ignores his warnings and demands time after time just increases Rodidiots hubris. I find it really sad that he understands the God’s of Origin, Earth, Zuruwarn, Rincklent, Vida, and even Alda hate him but he still hasn’t bothered to think about why. Ironically his apathy to sympathizing is kind of the reason why, lol.
Turix
He excels in his field to the exclusion of all else.
Chiu ChunLing
I’m sure it’s higher than that, but I’ll go ahead and point out that Aran could have been smarter too.
…Yeah, Aran, that’s real clever. Like you have any reason to bother hiding that you’re thinking that it would be better to avoid trying to convince Narumi to fight.
I’m honestly sick to death of all the people trying to hide the truth about Van from Narumi “for her own good”. At least Banda‘s hiding from her for his own convenience and to avoid causing a massive crisis in Mei‘s family.
If he actually cared about her, he’d find a way to let her know. But he doesn’t, she’s just “Mei’s mother against whom I don’t have enough of a grudge to bring up the past if it would cause problems for me and Mei.” No pretense of hiding the truth from her “for her own good”.
Anyway, leaving that aside, Aran shouldn’t try to hide things by acting like he’s hiding something…I thought they were boasting about taking anti-interrogation training? He should have just admitted that he was worried that Narumi might die in the coming conflict since Rikudou already targeted her before, and that he doesn’t believe it possible to convince her to fight Van. Go ahead and use his vaunted Laplace’s Demon…though I don’t need a supercomputer to say that the odds are just about zero once she finds out The Undead was Amamiya Hiroto, and that Kouya and El Braver both knew this and didn’t tell her.
If Aran wants to distract Rotcortex, he should admit that he’d rather not try telling Narumi about Van in the first place. Then he should follow that up by saying Angel is an extremely bad matchup against Van according to everything they know, and given her personality, even if her memories were erased and she were deployed against Van, she’d most likely try using it on him with predictably disastrous results. Even if he restricted it so she couldn’t use it on Van himself, she might use it on his allies, which would likely be just as bad. And using it on her ‘allies’ might not work out so well either.
Rotcortex will probably get that he’s still hiding something, but it will be that he’s not hiding the truth from her “for her own good” but merely because it would be awkward and uncomfortable for him, Kouya, and El Braver if she found out, however briefly.
asdsdsffdhffggkl
he does not seem dumb, he is just fucking insane, I mean what the fuck, healing a soul with the soul of the fucking demon lord? even if it just a little, I can already see him becoming strong enough to take over the human and reviving again somehow, I guess van needed a new enemy around his level lol.
Vitor
I disagree, he has long ago surpassed the limit when one can call him just dumb
Morgan
“Vandalieu exists only in Lambda, after all.”
You had to raise the flag, didn’t you Idiorte?
Just wait till Van becomes a god and Banda and Van reconnect. They’ll probably become a dual aspect god.
(Think of the greek and roman gods. same god different name slightly different personality)
Ltshrek
probably not more like once they merge again van would become more powerful than he is now because of Banda
Morgan
i wasn’t too clear but that’s part of what i said. for example the greeks (Lambda) have Vandalieu while the romans (Origin) have Banda. same God, two different aspects. mostly the same personality but with definitive differences.
Jonathan Hurd
I think Van and Banda will share their memories but I feel like Banda will remain separate. Banda will have probably started developing his own personality by this point and Van will probably leave him with Meh Kun.
Morgan
good point. That’s probably what will happen
Dr. Steel
Yeah, like both Van and Banda grow, then when they come together they react and spike in power
Dr. Steel
I can’t wait for Van to eat Idiotcorte, steal the reincarnation system, and become the God of Reincarnation for all of his worlds, using the system to farm power, on top of what he has now
Blackpercher
sigh* what a long way selling meat skewers…
Crimson Nanashi
So let me see if I have this right. Rodiot’s jenius idea to fix Edgar’s soul is to add parts of DK’s soul. Knowing full well that Van is 100% going to try to kill and devour his soul. Knowing full well that Van has tons of DK parts and that adding part of the DK’s soul will definitely help Van. His jenius truly astounds me. It’s not every day that someone implements a plan that will immensely help Van once Van devours the soul that contains part of the DK’s soul. Did I mention how Rodiot is a Jenius?
Jonathan Hurd
I love that Van eating Edgars soul is actually the best case scenario, lol. The other one is Edgar with the DKs soul ends up resurrecting Guduranis. I am honestly mystified and confused at what this is supposed to accomplish. I know Rodidiot doesn’t think things through but this is a new level of dumb, even for him.
Darkhelios
If the previous DK ends up being resurrected, people might even start to believe that Alda helped the previous DK in order to deal with his sister, Vida.
Entropy
More likely option will be that Alda will claim that the peaceful fraction is in danger of being corrupted by Vida and become pawns of the previous DK. Perhaps even go as far as to say Vida is in league with the original and new DK. Alda will never admit to making a mistake because he can’t, if he does everyone will start wondering about him being in charge.
Jonathan Hurd
I agree, no way Alda wouldn’t try to spin that as the work of Vida trying to corrupt his champions. He hasn’t admitted fault for a hundred thousand years why start now?
UndeadAnonymous
Edgar’s DK soul ratio is too small to have a visible resurrection effect. At most a warped personality and fragments memories without the power. Rodcorte is an idiot but he is still an expert in souls. His meddling is not enough to make Edgar into a real Guduranis clone.
Rodcorte will probably revive Guduranis for real eventually but it is definitely not this moment.
Moonfang
So presumably Van’s curses are slightly weakened. I think this means that Van will now be able to gain those jobs that have only ever been held by one or two individuals throughout the course of history. Did any of the creation heroes have such a job?
Jonathan Hurd
That sounds interesting. My guess was that Van will now be able to get a percentage of the exp for killing things himself. Not all of it like a normal person, but maybe more than he gets through others hands.
If your idea is right though that would make it easier on Darcia choosing jobs. Currently she’s trying to be careful not to overlap with Van because if she takes a job he had available he loses it.
For the last curse maybe some of the knowledge and skills of his life in Origin will come to him as well. Not sure what kind of effect that can have now, but maybe he’ll become a better surgeon since that seems to have been a l it of what he did for the researchers.
Entropy
My bet was that with the curses weakening, Vand might be able to gain experience from fights involving his allies even when he does not witness them. I remember he had to have an eye on each fight to gain the exp. As for the second curse, maybe jobs available to Vida’s races or those who serve him will be accessible.That would be powerful considering he is an emperor, but worthless if he was not. As for the last curse, I agree with you on your hypothesis, he might even gain some of the abilities that he had as the Undead or that Band or the Legion had before dying.
UndeadAnonymous
Maybe eventually but not right now. Rodcorte May be an idiot but he is the technical expert on his own curse. If Vandalieu continues to remove the curse maybe eventually that will happen and we can be sure Rodcorte will conveniently inform us when it is clear that it has become a visible threat to him.
Muglas
Remember, kids, thinking with your penis can only lead to you dying horribly.
Skywinter
Thx
The Butt Wizard
Someone in the comments awhile back asked how badly Rodcorte could mess up Edgar’s reconstruct.
This is the reason I laughed in response.
Muglas
There’s no way this won’t go catastrophically wrong, no siree.
Kazza
Just one person?
Jonathan Hurd
I think we all saw this coming. Watching Rodidiot is like watching a train crash that is filled with Natzi’s. Sure the result is horrible, but it’s hurting bad people so we can enjoy the show.
Jeanean
And the best thing about it, its just like a GIF, Its reapeating itself over and over again untill you get tired of it. Though that wont happen anytime soon XD
Jonathan Hurd
Watching Rodidiot screw things up for himself and Alda never gets old, hehehe.
The Butt Wizard
Now what do you think would happen if Alda were to find out? This wouldn’t be a “minor strain” on their relationship, this would be the end of all possible semblance of trust between them. It could flat out place Rodcorte ABOVE VANDALIEU in Alda’s list of people to kill. Except the main difference is, he has a legitimately good excuse to kill Rodcorte, system be damned.
Are you excited? I’m excited! 😆
UndeadAnonymous
The most likely thing to happen is Rodcorte and Alda entering into an antagonistic relationship. Where Rodcorte does not respond to Alda at all cause if he does, Alda will try to bind and seal him like he did Vida. In other words, they act separately to try to kill Vandalieu by interfering with lambda.
FishEater
This is true, very very true. Hell, I could even seen Alda, that ignorant idiot siding with Vandalieu in this situation. After all, remember that Van is only destroying the souls of those who have fucked him over (and curatos, but he basically killed himself). Sure, their relationship wouldn’t be mended at all, but I can see Alda convincing Vida to teach him how to make his own circle of transmigration so that they can kick idiotcorte out. We know Alda will be able to do so, after all, he took Vida’s divine authority that was stated to be near idiotcorte’s. That, or out of pure rage and stupidity, Alda will try using the stakes of law on idiotcorte, having no expectation for them to work, but when they do, basically putting idiotcorte on a leash. After all, we know that the idiot has negative pain resistance. Heck, he got slapped a bit and it was enough for him to completely lose focus, which is just depressing. Then, being the petty, bad god he is, he would probably help his familiar spirits learn how to make a system then send them to Vida or some shit as a “fuck you’ to Alda. Basically, this is the most shit thing he can do. AND this is ignoring the impact that the interaction between some of the demon king’s memories and the new demon king could have. Heck, in this chapter it was stated that the things needed to resurrect the demon king as gunduranis were in the hands of Alda, which aren’t going anywhere ever. Thus, he would basically be handing over the memories of the only death-attribute user who really knew what they were doing to Van. Basically, just DON’T.
Dr. Steel
OMVandalieu! I never thought about that, Edgar gets the Demon King’s memories, Van eats Edgar, and then steals his knowledge of Death-Attribute magic, and becomes learns all his techniques, tricks, and spells, and uses them to surpass him in offensive power (cuz Alda says Van surpasses Guru in all things except combat power)
Sailon
I doubt Alda could do what Vida did and create a new reicarnation cicle first od all altought he steal Vida divinity over Life attribute, was alredy state that he is not very addapt in controling and barely managing with the help of subordinate gods of life attribute, and rodcorte said that vida is adapt to heal souls because she manage to create her own cicle but alda is not able to do it even tought he has her divinity to life, and Alda fight agaist Vida and Van is because they go agaist what he believe be justice and world order so i doubt he would sided with them because of rodcorte action, he attack in a fit of anger and use this to control rodcorte to some extant is more likely
The Butt Wizard
Everyone stop what you’re doing and give all your likes to Jonathan. Well said, lad!
The Butt Wizard
I only responded to one
Chiu ChunLing
Well at least he decided against using the Core and the the Life.
For now…I think that the fact they’ve been mentioned is what we call Chekhov’s Gun.
Ragnmunkeez
Van’s divine protections will probably make erasing their memories a futile effort. Van’s divine protections seems to help put a mind in a proper order to function, which would prevent memory alteration from being effective. Especially if it grants them some of his skills like mental encroachment (probably not Abyss because it requires something extremely traumatic to happen on a regular basis. Mari, or Metamorph, is the only one I see getting the Abyss skill because of Hijiri’s brainwashing and tormenting). That and I wouldn’t doubt if Banda’s actions will make erasing their memories impossible.
bk3k
You (and Rodcorte) assume that Rodcorte will necessarily get to handle all those souls. Consider the case of Legion for example.
Ragnmunkeez
The case with Legion was the first case of its kind, so Rodcorte was caught by surprise. He may be an idiot, but doing the same thing probably won’t work out well because he may have set countermeasures in place. If he were to be hurt by someone or lose part of his powers because of Van breaking that small part of his curse, then maybe something can be done. But if everything remains constant, the moment the Gods mess with the circle of reincarnation of Origin again, Roddy boy will be ripped off because of the errors.
Morgan
Legion also happened cause Ricklent and Zuruwan basically stole those 5 souls and threw them at Vandalieu. then they got sucked into the soul silver and mystery meat.
Jonathan Hurd
To be fair those souls weren’t grabbed by Zuruwarn and Ricklent. They were passed to them by the God of Origin. The God of Origin was the first to interfere with Rodcorte and there isn’t anything he can really do against them especially on their home turf.
Add in Origins God’s feelings about Rodidiot versus Van… They’re going to help Van. They also have a link to Van through their Divine Protection and now that Rinklent and Zuruwarn have joined up with Vida they can get her help with the reincarnation.
This is also assuming contact with Banda doesn’t finish the Guidance into Vidas circle Van started. Considering the final battle in Origin against Hijiri will probably be against the Bravers to kidnap and exploit Mei. I can imagine a situation where Banda reveals himself guides the bravers and then they die. Their souls might just decide to stick with Banda and follow him to Van. Rodidiot has no clue what’s happening in Origin right now. He isn’t prepared to stop a mass migration of souls it’ll completely blindside him.
ReignGuard
So an alley-oop by the god of origin and a slam dunk by zuruwarn and ricklent?
Jonathan Hurd
Remember who we’re talking about here this is Rodidiot. He doesn’t learn from mistakes. He still doesn’t even understand why Origins God’s hate him.
Add in the Eighth Guidance is dead so he probably assumes there’s no one left in Origin to be Vans ally. Rodidiot won’t alter the system to deal with something like this happening again. He hasn’t even made a patch for dealing with Souls breaking because he assumed Van will die soon.
UndeadAnonymous
By the time Rodcorte notices, it will probably be too late to interfere. The majority of not Avalon souls would have already been guided and no longer be in his circle to do anything about it. It is already happening to all those Pluto/ eighth guidance worshipers, the three angels/subordinates classmates are just handling it with the system that Rodcorte isn’t noticing it cause he thinks it is just Vandalieu guiding souls in Lambda.
Jonathan Hurd
So a few things to comment here…
Van can’t give Abyss or Mental Encroachment. Those aren’t skills to give away. Van has never actually given anyone his Unique skills either. He has helped guide them to skills that suit themselves and discover their own Unique skills.
A problem for Van to protect those who Rodcorte is resetting is that it’s not so much brainwashing but a full system reboot. The difference is that brainwashing is putting something new over the old. What Rididiot would be doing would be wiping the soul clean and starting over.
With someone like Mari for example, her original personality and memories are still there just buried deep. Van is slowly bringing them to the surface. He can’t really do that to a fresh soul that has had everything wiped away.
Decaf [Invidia]
As long as they’re lured into Vida’s circle of transmigration, then they won’t have to even interact with Roddy on their way.
UndeadAnonymous
The thing to remember is Vandalieu is already guiding souls constantly in Lambda and Rodcorte is not handling the system personally, the subordinate classmates are. By the time, Rodcorte notices that souls in Origin are being guided every classmate soul with the exception of key figures such as Avalon would be out of his system and circle of reincarnation.
lazygeko
Thanks for the chapter. I always want more Van, but we gotta set up the other factions stories as well, I suppose.
I guess it is almost time for the 3rd faction to start their rise. The real demon kings pieces will start to come into the world from now on, is my prediction. And will coincidentally find each other. Rebirth of the past demon king. A mass search for DK fragments by Van and the new DK. Best candidate for host, that power hungry person messing everything up on origin. Gonna be a while till any of that happens so I shall enjoy this arc and hope for more adventures of Mei too.
Entropy
That is my bet. I suspect that the goddess of the flow is a spy for the original DK and the few remaining unaffiliated evil gods will be scooped up by the original. I am curious about what would happen if Vand got the original DK’s memories or soul. At least Alda and his allies won’t have to worry about Vand destroying the world since the original will with their help.
Ragnmunkeez
I think the Goddess of Flow is on Vida’s side. It makes no sense for her to be on the side of the evil God that actively tried to destroy her, and she is a founding God of that world. To support the original Demon King would place her existence at risk. Also, Peria (the God she is a subordinate to) had Solder as a champion. Solder was also one of the champions whose soil was destroyed and assembled into Van’s soul. I’m not going to say that she’s on Alda’s side because he’s a power freak and, if she is anything like Vida, she blames him for Solder being killed because of his actions in the war. Remember, Vida feels that Alda chose to sacrifice the creation oriented champions to gain an advantage and delay development, which started a rift between them. And Solder was one of said creation champions. If anything, I see Peria coming back and joining Vida’s side with the Goddess of Flow while granting Van Solder’s name like Gufadgarn granted Zakkart’s name.
ShadowWolfXIII
Solder wasn’t flow champion they were her master’s Peria the goddess of water and knowledge but i assume her true master is Peria and shes a sleeper Vida faction unlike that traitor Yupeon who laugh at the destruction of the crystallization of knowledge of resurrection
Entropy
Well regardless, I do get the feeling that the original DK will make an appearance. I initially thought he would possess an evil god possibly the last vampire of the god of joyful life or that god himself, but now I am betting Edgar will become an insane demon king since he has so many differing parts in him. Can’t wait to see which group will attack Vand next, the final vampire or his former classmates. Another surprise would be if Vand’s father is either still alive or a vampire zombie. I know it is unlikely, but learned long ago to never assume a character is dead.
Jonathan Hurd
I think Edgar is to minor a char to be the one to resurrect the DK. Something is definitely going to happen with him having part of Gudaranis soul, but I don’t think he has enough to do much with.
To me the guy who will resurrect the DK has gotta be Hijiri. I think Aldas going to become desperate enough that he will give Hijiri the main DK fragments and hope he and Van kill each other enough that Alda can then clean up the pieces.
I will say to that there is no way in hell that Birkyne would charge at Van at this point. He knows he’s weaker than Gubamon and Ternicia in battle and Van has just kept getting stronger. He’s also tracking Asagi’s group and might be able to take advantage of them.
Murakami on the other hand wants out of this world as fast as he can. He also doesn’t want Van getting any stronger as well as anymore of his helpers to leave. So almost a hundred percent sure Murakami will come before Birkyne. I do think though that the first challenger might be Fitun.
Depending on Fituns personality I can imagine him waiting for Van to start fighting Murakami and then ambush Van, but that feels like it would take a lot of the fun out of it for him.
For Vans Father being alive/undead I think that’s close to zero percent chance. Vans already interrogated the two Evil God Vampires who could make undead. They want to please him any way they can when spirits so they would have spilled the beans. Add in the make an undead vampire ritual only worked on noble born vampires, and Valen was just a subordinate vampire, I don’t think he’s currently walking around.
I will say though that one of Vans goals is the resurrection of someone who has already reentered the circle of reincarnation. He also knows how much his Mom loved his Dad. So I do think before the Novel is over we will see him again.
Entropy
Well the only reason that I think that Vand’s dad could make a return is that his soul may have been stuck being tortured by the Evil god. He was a vampire so Rondidiot could not reincarnate him, he served the God of Joyful Life so Vida is also unlikey, and the aforementioned god could have sent him into the demon lord reincarnation circle, but might have hung onto him since he warned his followers to kill Vand at the very start. It is true that the two evil god vampires did tell Vand what they knew, but the last one was the schemer of the group so he might have retrieved the body, don’t know about the soul, and kept the information to himself. I do admit that it is exceptionally unlikely, but I agree he will probably make a comeback before the end of the series. Another possibility is that Asagi’s group might release the original DK while trying to figure out how to lock Vand’s magic or soul away. I really hate that self-righteous jerk, he assumes that Vand is in the wrong even after watching all of Vand’s previous lives. He is the mirror image of Alda’s champion in their ability to ignore other possible circumstances. He might be used by Alda to revive his hero’s soul.
Jonathan Hurd
I would laugh so hard if Asagi was stupid enough to release the Demon King while trying to study the seals. I can imagine that happening because he got jumped by some of Birkynes vampires reflexively uses mage masher to try and defend himself and that cancels the nearby seal.
I would laugh my butt off if Asagi or one of his friends gets encroached and then they have to run to Van and beg him to save them.
For Valens soul. The problem with keeping it around is the amount of time since his death. Valen was killed before Van was born. Hirishaku only realized Van was a threat after he turned three. Add in I believe Sercrent was thorough in making sure Valen was dead and gone.
Even if he wasn’t thorough I don’t think Valens soul without the support of Death Attribute mana could survive all those years. Add in how funky the monster circle of reincarnation is and I don’t think anyone could fish his soul back out.
Pallington
so basically it’s a dk fragment land grab
oh fuck that’s both hilarious and terrifying
Superboy8338
Thanks for the update and now we know that it IS possible to get rid of those pesky curses.
Diggydawg
Congrats to the Commerce Guild’s new Deputy Guild Master!
Nox
Thanks for the chapter.
Is it just me or do I see Darcia become a Part of his harem? It is based on the premise that Vans personality might change due to his ability to alter/change his soul and him getting the soul thing of Demon King Guduranis from Edgar and thus being influenced by it.
Otakukamikazes
He already sank his poisonous fangs into her
Pallington
goddamnit, take your upvote
Kiriaru
Darcia is his mom though, so it is just you.
There is no way that Darcia wants to marry her own son, she just wants to help him however she can because he is still pretty young.
Morgan
marriage laws havent been talked about much in this world plus Van is the Emperor of Vida’s races and will soon be a god. Also consider that almost all of Darcia’s dna (like 99.90%) now comes from Vida since her body was reconstructed. So it’s possible Darcia will become a part of Van’s harem though I think they will just be an abnormally close mother and son rather than lovers.
I’m confident the author will probably make them closer than lovers without them becoming lovers.
Jonathan Hurd
You guys do know you can love someone without fucking them right? She’s his mom. The first person to show him love and affection after over about 30 years of torture and abuse. They love and cherish each other. Sex is not the only reason people are friendly to people of the opposite sex.
Morgan
I get that. That’s also a part of my point when I say they just become abnormally close but not lovers.
That said after 30 years of torture, being used by those I hate and finally killed by my former ”friends”, I personally would get suuuuper attached to anything that just didn’t say mean things about me.
Jonathan Hurd
Well add in the fact that almost immediately after finally getting a mother’s warmth and love it was taken away for 9 years. Of course there is going to be some bonding now that they can physically touch each other. My point still stands though. Love doesn’t have to be with the end goal of sex.
Honestly considering Vans lives thus far I think it’s important for him to have someone who can nurture him and allow him to be a kid. He’s got plenty of servants, potential lovers, friends, and subjects. Darcia is one of the only people he is able to rely on and be spoiled by.
Morgan
My opinion is that Love is love and the only condition is the method of expression. Whether it is familial, friendship, romance, sexual or other, it’s still love.
Also I want to slightly correct your last sentence, Jonathan, Darcia isn’t the only one he can rely on and be spoiled by, she’s just the first one and the only one who can “mother” him. Everyone else feels like a friend or extended family so it’s different.
Vinhcent
Rody just never learns, i just know that that decision is gonna come back to bite him in the ass
TheDerangedOne
ain’t much of a surprise though, people called that shit when he was asked to repair that soul and it was revealed that he had the demon king’s soul in custody as well. Idiot doesn’t know how to do a quality patch job, let alone be a chess master like he keeps trying to be. …. Well, then again he could be trying to play the chess master when everyone else is playing poker or monopoly or sommat. Rody needs to get out more, get some followers, actually think things through and all that…. Ah well better a stupid enemy that thinks themselves cleverer than they are, than a clever enemy that’s feigning stupidity any day of the week.
Odd thing is, Van’s the one who’s doing the thing he wanted done on lambda in the first place: break the medieval stasis that’s going on….
Rody’s gone senile from lack of social interaction, hasn’t he?
Entropy
The only problem Rody has with Vand doing the stuff he wants is that it is helping Vida’s races. Rody considers Vida a threat to his monopoly of that world. My bet is that if Vand was human, elf, or dwarf making new things, he would be Rody’s golden child.
bk3k
There is still the concern about destroying souls. IIRC they mentioned doing that too much can take down the entire reincarnation system – which is going to result in the death of 3 worlds. Although Van isn’t ever going to do that on a large scale (but he could). So there was never much chance of that.
Jonathan Hurd
I think the biggest problem coming from Van currently is the Guidance. He is shaking things up and breaking a few souls but the mass migration of Souls to Vidas system is probably the biggest threat to Roddy now.
Vandalieu-sama's Nun
This Arc is one of my favorite to be honest, cause it is Darcia mama’s first outside world experience (living) , and “other” reasons
Jonathan Hurd
It’s not just her first outside living world experience. It’s the firsts mother son outside living experience. Instantly makes this a great arc.
EdgeGod
At the very least, there should be no problems as long as they are watching Earth and Origin. Vandalieu exists only in Lambda, after all. Rodcorte is such an idiot. So omnipotent yet so blind
Superboy8338
The idiot God is very powerful, but he is in no way omnipotent.
Morgan
Indeed. If he where omnipotent, he would probably have a girlfriend. Too bad he’s impotent.
Jonathan Hurd
I think he meant omniscient. It is true though. It doesn’t matter if you can see everything if you never bother to look, lol.
Morgan
Wise words indeed
PrinceHaten
Great work thanks for the update
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
ARandomReaderWithAFull-SpacedName
I don’t see how Alda is anything but petty and childish, and Rodcorte has a magnificent way of underestimating his opponents and taking half-baked countermeasures.
Entropy
Yeah, I think that Alda surrounds himself with yes men that will say all of his ideas are good. So far, only the war god hoping to fight Vand to the death has thought that Alda is foolish and he kept this opinion to himself. I suspect that if Vida had a single hero on her side when Alda sucker punched her, she would have won. I am also thinking that one of his yes men, perhaps the goddess of the flow might be a spy for the original demon lord. I could be wrong, but if some of the demon lord evil gods were willing to betray him then the opposite is also possible.
Superboy8338
Agreed.
theblasblas
Not really, Alda is someone looking at the bigger picture, he wants a sustainable world of peace and order. If there’s anyone petty and childish among the gods it’s Vida… and Rodcorte of course, but among the gods of Lambda Vida is just the worst.
Superboy8338
Alda wants the world to fit his designs. A world of order, rigidness, staleness, a world of stagnation. Alda is wrong, in order for the world to be at balance it must have both order and chaos, if you take away either of the 2, well you’re better off dead.
Ragnmunkeez
Yeah you’re losing me on how Vida is in the wrong and Alda is right. Alda basically surrounds himself with yes men and wants genocide against races that aren’t inherently evil, but they are living to the best they can because of actions HE has taken. If he treated them with even a bit of compassion or was indifferent and not openly antagonizing or oppressing them when they want to be left alone, this wouldn’t be an issue. He didn’t even tell his followers that they were basically killing sentient beings that could be called humans. His “champions” kill men, women, and children alike, be they evil or innocent. Even the Vampires may not have turned to evil Gods had he not killed Vida and let her guide them peacefully. Vida just wanted to repopulate with stronger races and make a reincarnation system independent from Rodcorte.
Also, if the war 100,000 years ago proved anything, it’s that the “perfect” world that he wants to go back to is flawed because if there was another war like that, most of the population would die off because they do not have the strength to protect themselves. Save for a few like Heinz and his party, it would likely be another massacre. Vida recognized this and created new races that could have jobs and ranks, therefore making them stronger and providing them a means to enhanced growth while replacing the population that was killed off.
Plus, Alda had no problem using the “monster” races when he needed the world rebuilt, but decided to decimate and take the power and authority from Vida because she didn’t do exactly what he wanted and get rid of races that are her children. Even if they release corrupted mana and create Devil’s nests, Alda’s faction has no problem using the useful resources that come out of them. So he’s a hypocrite as well.
Also, please don’t forget that there are 11 founding gods for this world. Alda was never the chief god originally because he had to rule in tandem with them. But he decided to make himself chief God when four were killed by Guduranis, four were wounded to the point that they needed to sleep to recover, one was driven mad from absorbing evil gods to give HIS side an advantage in the war, and the last was gravely weakened and lost her champion but still strived to repopulate their world and make a circle of reincarnation so that they wouldn’t have to reply on Rodcorte because she recognized how corrupt he was. Alda is a power hungry idealist and opportunist. Not to mention that Vida had no champions and Alda had all of the other champions from whispering that “Vida gas gone mad” in their ears to get them to turn on her. Even Faramun recognized that they fucked up.
So, in short, Vida isn’t wrong and is not worse than Alda, she is doing what she has to to survive. And Alda is the equivalent of a kid kicking kids out of a beach section he doesn’t necessarily own because they want to build sculptures while he wants to build castles and thinks that that’s the only way.
Alda and Rodcorte are essentially the worst things that could happen to this world. And before you say Vida’s races aren’t natural, the natural order of things is literally chaos. Nature hates order. This has been scientifically proven. So there.
theblasblas
“and wants genocide against races that aren’t inherently evil”
That’s the kicker, why does he want that? It all roots back to the fact that the demon king, and the monsters he creates are walking cancers. They spread corrupted mana just by existing which creates devil’s nests which creates monsters whose only instincts are to reproduce and destroy. Solution is fairly simply, kill the demon king and all his monsters….
But what does Vida do? She freaking breeds with them. Now we have walking cancers… that have a freaking conscience… what’s a God to do. Alda, doesn’t want to kill the sentient races, he even says that he wants to keep the sentient, non-monster races like the dark elves alive, but he needs to kill all the monsters if he doesn’t want the world to turn into the same freaking hell hole that the Demon Lord Guduranis tried to escape from.
That whole balance of order and chaos thing was the state of the world before Guduranis came, and would have been the case after he had been defeated, if only Vida could have kept it in her pants.
P.S. Yes, I’m fully aware that since the MC is someone friendly with the monsters, he’d eventually find a way to work around the whole them being “walking cancers” thing. But that’s besides the point, pinning the very existence of your universe onto the chance that something like the MC will appear is foolishly unrealistic.
Ragnmunkeez
His original races didn’t even have the power to define themselves from an outside threat and had to rely on summoning heros from another world. Meanwhile, the deities of Earth and Origin both make it clear that they do not like that summoning and Rodcorte take souls out of their world for the benefit of Lambda. Alda keeping technology and development from happening also means that they have even less of a chance to defend themselves.
Their main argument was that they would make war occur, but it is very clear from the story that war has already been a constant happening, so that’s moot. They argue pollution, but magic could easily replace energy sources that cause pollution.
And the final argument is that they corrupt the environment with corrupted mana and create Devil’s Nests. While this is true, without the help of those races, Alda would have probably lost the war. The environment that is best for survival and development may not be the one that is all sunshine and rainbows with butterflies, and it is apparent that Lambda would suffer more than they would gain. If another Demon Lord like the original were to appear, Lambda would be screwed except for a few strong people. Imo, demon nests are less important that survival against external forces.
Besides, demon nests still produce what is necessary to provide, but just not in the form Alda wants his sandbox world to be. To argue from the point of Humans and ignore that the humans would have been wiped out without Vida’s races is awfully convenient. To use them while you need them and throw them away like a dirty rag when you’re safe.
theblasblas
Vida’s races came AFTER Guduranis had already been defeated, they weren’t created to defeat Guduranis but as Vida’s preparation for future threats that they didn’t even really know would ever come. There’s a simple solution to making the races of Lambda stronger that has already been shown to us: Curatos. They could have just created copies of the already defeated evil gods and monsters, and levelled the sentient beings already on the planet. It’s an easier, simpler and cleaner solution than Vida’s method.
It’s also the method that we humans in reality are using. Alda is essentially the god of society, Vida is the god of the wild. She doesn’t care about humans in particular and only wants life to flourish, regardless if it’s in the form of monsters that are constantly at war against each other in order to get stronger. This is apparent from her discussion of Van regarding good and evil. None of the gods are good, but at least Alda has the interests of beings that are part of a society, or to be more accurate, a sustainable society.
Chiu ChunLing
Zakkart and his companions had the actual good of people in society in mind.
Alda and Bellwood were willing to bring humans right to the brink of extinction for their ‘ideological purity’, and Alda’s willing to do it again.
3,000 people. That’s all the elves, humans, and dwarves who survived the war after Bellwood took over leadership.
If Zakkart had converted even one fewer of the Evil Gods to fight against Guduranis, that figure would have been zero.
But of course Alda and Bellwood can’t admit that the conversion of the Evil Gods was a good idea and that Vida has a lawful obligation to accommodate their needs in return.
No, they’d rather plunge the whole world further into danger by fighting another war against Vida.
Because that’s ‘sustainable’.
kagemao
Remove the sustainable and peace, and you’ve got Alda’s motives a bit closer. Rodcorte’s sticking point at the start of all of this was that Alda’s group is hampering advancements that would boost the human population. Alda’s only goal at this point is to kill everything that isn’t human/elf/dwarf, and maintain the new authority he has as the supreme god. Instead of being one of many old gods.
Vida did some dumb stuff, but it was because she was solely focused on repopulating the planet in general, instead of sticking to humans. Also that she was making races to be followers of the new gods that sided against the demon lord, so they could survive. Alda wanted to just kill/seal them all regardless of if they were friendly.
Jonathan Hurd
The big thing to me we should ask Alda is who is he making this world of peace and order for exactly?
Not Vidas races he’s trying to exterminate them. Not the humans currently living they’re just tools he can replace at anytime. Not for the great God’s he’s mostly written them off as insane.
Aldas, Heinz, and Bellwoods speeches sound nice about making a better world but at the end of the day they are all ignoring the people living in the world. If you disagree or don’t fit into their perfect world they eradicate you. How do you make a world of peace and order like that? If you kill everyone who ever disagrees with you at the end you’ll find only yourself standing on a mountain of corpses with no one to share the ‘paradise’ you created.
Peace and Order can’t be made through genocide and warfare those are it’s antithesis.
theblasblas
Alda doesn’t want to kill the sentient races, but he has to. He’s said before that if he could he would want to keep the races like the Dark Elves alive. However he needs to kill the monsters in order to save the world. Did you guys miss the part where it’s the very existence of the monster races that’s causing the Devil’s Nests to spread. The Devil’s Nests that create monsters who only know how to breed and destroy?
The existence of an anomaly like the MC aside, wiping out all those who spread corrupted mana is the surest way of saving the world.
kagemao
It’s the surest way of saving humans as they currently exist genetically. The world would do just fine. They can use dark elves and mermaids and do just fine. If Vida can pull humans into her reincarnation circle, I’m sure they can get an upgrade the way goblins did and bypass the whole issue. Maybe she’ll need to get more of her power back or rely on Van for that.
Entropy
The main flaw with Alda’s desire to return the world to how it was is that it is unobtainable. After the DK, the world had fewer people and the ones left were basically in a post end of the world. The previous world had about a dozen major gods, and it was reduced down to two with the others being wounded or asleep. If Vida had not made more people, most of the gods would have probably been easy to finish off by what remained of the DK’s evil gods or the number of people would have been further reduced by the monsters born from the demons’ created dungeons. Demons also produced corrupt mana which created monsters and dungeons. The gods derive their power from people so Vida may have feared more gods falling asleep due to the low population. Another problem is that post DK, the world was probably war torn with monsters created by the DK’s side and land polluted by poison by him as well so Vida may have made more races to make the land sustainable again and get rid of the monsters over many centuries since all of her races live for at least 300 years or more. The other problem if you were to mention that elves and dwarves live longer, the story does not go into how many there were left, but considering how many humans there are, they probably don’t reproduce as easily. My biggest problem with Alda is that after the war, he immediately attacked those who had allied with him without trying to first talk to them.
Superboy8338
And that’s why I call (Nim)Rodcorte ‘the Idiot God.’
bk3k
The God of Incompetence and Reincarnation.
mythmaker12687
The problem with Rodcorte is he really, honestly doesn’t care. There are a trillion trillion trillion souls passing through his system every day, and over millions of years he’s completely lost touch with reality outside of his bubble, if he ever had it in the first place. He knows, in a clinical way, how the world works, but he doesn’t live in it; he’s a step removed from even the other gods in that respect.
As for Alda, I have some (slight) sympathy for his situation. He’s basically holding the world together single-handed after his fight with Vida which, if we’re being honest, he wasn’t entirely to blame for (Vida herself conceded that she wasn’t in her right mind at the time). In his POV, he comes across to me as resigned; like he knows that what he’s doing is wrong, but he doesn’t know what else to do, and he’s hoping if he just rides it out he can try and “fix” things later. Npt saying that excuses what he’s done, because it definitely doesn’t.
Jonathan Hurd
Here’s the thing Vida was grieving and distraught by the end and understandably so, but she wasn’t insane to make the new races. The humans, elves, and dwarves were made from the union of two God’s themselves. Those God’s were gone or sleeping now. So why not do the same thing to increase the population.
The Evil God’s Vida worked with helped win them the war. If you ask me the insane person is the one who says ‘thank you for betraying your boss who can break souls and helping us win. Btw I don’t like you so die!’
To me Alda is a scared little kid who lost his way a long time ago. He stopped making his own decisions and just followed Bellwoods lead by the end of the war. After Bellwood got sealed he hasn’t really done anything or changed anything significantly at all. He realizes what he’s done is wrong, but is to scared to admit it so he just keeps doing the same. He has admittedly surrounded himself with Yes men, but if you ask me they seem just as Childish as Alda.
No one questions what they’re doing. No one argues or discusses they just mindlessly follow. I think they have to trumpet how great and good they are and that all who disagree with them are insane because they can’t accept or face that they are bad people.
The two open exceptions are people like Farmaun who is trying to repent and Fitun who hasn’t bought into the BS that they are the st was wart heroes of the story.
mythmaker12687
Vida wasn’t insane, but she had essentially gone rogue. She basically declared war on Rodcorte by establishing her own reincarnation system, and she was creating new races without concern for their affect on the environment. Considering the fragile state of the world at the time (only 3000 surviving mortals), things could easily have grown out of control, especially since Alda and Vida weren’t exactly on speaking terms. If you reread Side Chapter 5, you can see that while she wasn’t crazy, she had become paranoid and obsessive, and she was putting her plan together as she went along. She may not have been wrong on any singular point, but she needed to talk and coordinate with the other gods, and she flat-out refused to do that.
As for the Evil Gods, Alda doesn’t like them (for obvious reasons), but he at least tolerated them until Vida went rogue. At which point, they were fair game, since he needed to contain Vida’s faction anyway.
As for Alda and his subordinates, I think you’re right on track.
Guroga
rodcorte just managed to feed vanda guduranis core.
meanwhile vanda has trouble incoming.
Sebas Tian
Roddy didn’t say he used the Demon King’s core, he said Alda has it.
Cr1m50nR3ap3r
Just to let you know that all chapters before this one are coming up with a 404 message so you may want to fix the links
Otakukamikazes
Let me know if it comes with a 34
no1
it wasn’t the Demon King’s core, it just said it was pieces of Guduranis’ thoughts and memories
Tejing
I didn’t expect him to start drinking Darcia’s blood, though enhanced vitality is certainly a welcome addition to his skill list; he needed more passive survivability. I wonder if continuing to drink her blood for a while will grant him more power than just that though?
I wonder if the nobility in Alcrem have heard some of the rumors going around and are on the lookout for a dhampir? Maybe that’s why Joseph is paying special attention to him?
Also, rodcorte is an idiot, but this is not news.
Entropy
Don’t know about the nobility being on the lookout for Vand. I mean the crimes he has committed in the kingdom are as of yet unconnected to him and the dukes treat each other as enemies. The five blades are still out of action so they can’t be after him for his fight with them, plus it happened the day before. The only thing i can think of is that Joseph is either going to blackmail them to get a merchant permit or try to buy Darcia assuming she is a slave. Can’t really think of why the head of a Merchant Guild would want to talk to a child with no experience
Tejing
Well, I’m thinking of the stuff that Rudel Sauron’s advisor-type guy called false information propagated by the empire. Surely that at least has gotten around among the top nobility in the Orbaume kingdom.
dragon for Brazil
No Spoilers
Entropy
Blank now.
no1
Vandalieu drinking his mother’s blood was unexpected. It is a shame that even the blood of a goddess’s incarnation can only relieve his numbness and not repair his damaged soul.
bk3k
>he needed more passive survivability
Oh believe me he doesn’t. Remember him getting his heart and lungs turned off when attacked from Rodcorte’s realm? Or getting his head sliced off from behind? Without giving spoilers… You’ll see in the current volume just how hard it is now to kill Van. There are multiple major battles incoming.
Otakukamikazes
I think I read somewhere that even if his entire body was smashed to pieces it would only take him a few minutes to put it back together.
VEreality
How to identify an idiot:
You say as clearly as possible what he/she can and can’t do.
Him/Her: OK
5 minutes later:
He/She does exactly what you said not to/somehow finds that one bad thing that was unspecified halfway through.
Really Rodcorte? This is why we can’t have nice things. Why does Alda even trust him? He has proven time and time again that he’s an imbecile.
Thank you for the chapter!
Entropy
Kind of agree with you there. Mind you Alda already shot himself in the foot by punishing Vida when she tried to take over reincarnation. If he tries to do it as well, many of kiss-ups will wonder if he is incompetent so he must rely on Rodcorte. What makes me laugh is that Vand is accomplishing just what Rodcorte wanted. Rodcorte wanted the world to advance with new ideas and concepts from Earth, and Vand is making it happen. That is another way to tell he is an idiot
Sebas Tian
He doesn’t trust Roddy, but Roddy is the only soul expert he can rely on. Like what Roddy said, if someone in his camp could do it, they would never have asked Roddy for help.
VEreality
Fair point my friend, however what I wanted to say is: Why would Alda trust in the fact that Rodcorte would do what they had agreed on while unsupervised? Like…..it wouldn’t had hurt anybody to have someone …….ANYONE…… just watch to make sure that he doesn’t do dumb. Because he did dumb. There was plenty of dumb in this chapter.
Entropy
It could be Alda can’t send anyone to keep an eye on Rodcorte. Rodcorte might be able to visit the realms he has connections to, but the other gods might not be able to do the same or it might be that only greater gods considering the time and space gods were able to go there. Of the greater gods most are slumbering, sealed, or enemies which only leaves Alda himself able to go keep an eye on Rodcorte. This also holds some potential considering, Alda sent messages and finally had to go there himself to talk to Rodcorte. Plus most if not all of the gods are busy preparing champions or trying to heal the five blades to deal with Vand.
VEreality
Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn’t Rodiot be able to invite a heroic spirit or someone else into his divine realm? They don’t have to fight him, they have to watch over what he is doing and report to Alda.
theblasblas
Why would Rodcorte let them do that? Remember Alda is the one making a request of Rodcorte. Alda has no other choice than to trust that Rodcorte wants to keep the partnership up, and not do anything that would cause them to split.
Entropy
Well he probably could, but he might be paranoid that Alda is trying to copy his reincarnation circle like Vida did. Rodcorte is basically a parasite and loan shark going from world to world and feeding his system with souls while also staying off the radar. Another possibility is that Rodcorte could threaten to disconnect that world, Alda still does not know that Rodcorte is linked to his world. My bet is that none of Alda’s group has any idea of how to repair a soul. They might know what a soul should look like similar to most people knowing that a car needs an engine, but have no idea how make repairs or alter the engine. If Rodcorte says a soul needs something most of Alda’s group would probably smile and nod.Personally, I think that Rodcorte and Alda are either lazy or exceptionally foolish or both.
Kazza
It’s here, Boys! And Gals! Volume 10!
Ok. First chapter is good so far. Looks like Rodcorte is pulling a stupid. Who could have guessed?
Not too much to speculate about. This Joseph, to me, seems like he wants to try some blackmail-ish thing to get his hands on Darcia. Don’t know if I should code this as ‘pulling an Aggar’ or not, but obviously we should prep a coffin soon, regardless.
Darkhelios
During this time…
In Alda’s faction:
“So the next reincarnated individuals will be asked to join our side?”
“Yes.”
“And if they don’t like this whole “certainty of death, small chance of success” then we will erase their memories?”
“Yes.”
“Then if they can be used, we will send them into our Churches in order to use them as if they were some puppets and force them to fight against their will?”
“Yes.”
“…and if they can’t be used, we will behave like thieves and take their abilities before discarding them somewhere else?”
“Yes.”
“…Are we the baddies?”
Inside Rodidiot’s realm:
“I managed to find a new idiotic idea… It might be dangerous… It will probably come back to bite me later… WHAT A GREAT IDEA! Let’s do it!”
Entropy
What really is lousy for them is that Rodcorte can read their minds so even if his familiar gods warn them of the consequences and they lie, Rodcorte will know.
ZeroX1
i laugh way too much read your comment man this is good XD
Destro777
Thanks for the new chapter
no1
Good chapter, awesome, I called it that Vandalieu would try deal with the 3 curses during the reconstruction of his soul. Good to know that actually happened. Also good job for whoever made the claim that Rodcorte would use Guduranis soul fragments to repair Edgar’s soul. Good opening to volume 10. Hope to see the next chapters soon.
Entropy
That last sentence makes me think that Joseph will try something with Darcia and it will end badly. Another Duchy destroyed, 3 down, nine to go. Another possibility is that the Merchant’s guild is connected to a slave group and just found two new rare items. Kind of curious about what will happen now that the three primary curses have been reduced, maybe Vand will be able to learn jobs that are already known by certain groups, or he might be able to gain experience without needing to witness the deaths. The thing that intrigues me the most is Edgar’s new soul. I wonder what happens if Vand consumes it. Can’t wait for the next chapter.
Ragnmunkeez
Anytime Rodcorte says “What’s the worst that could happen” the worst literally happens, so I’m betting on Edgar’s new soul being corrupted to the point of no return. I’m banking on him eventually turning against Heinz.
Entropy
You’re probably right, but still find it unusual that the second in command of a guild would speak to a novice and a child at that. My bet is that Joseph wants to either use the Vand or Darcia for some nefarious reason.
Soundwave
Ty for the chapter as always 🙂 I read ahead a bit and I can’t wait to read the next chapters! (I used Google Translate >_> ) it was pretty broken a lot of the times I only ever got a general idea of what had happened
Doom-sama
PRAISE VAN-SAMA, OUR LORD SAVIOR, OUR CHAMPION, OUR DEATH GOD, AS HE BRINGS FEAR TO HIS ENEMIES AND BEGINS HIS GRAND ECONOMIC CONQUEST! THE SACRED MESSAGE TODAY IS:
Sensing danger is a vital skill to have!
Ryuutsukai
Ah, Doom-sana, one of the reasons I decided to register an account
Ryuutsukai
Doom-sama* friggin autocorrect
Apokryphos
Hell yeah, Thanks!