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While Vandalieu and his companions were overcoming Joseph and Aggar’s insignificant schemes, a certain man entered a nameless bar between the entertainment district and the slums with his drinking buddies… or rather, his subordinates that were posing as such.
“Welcome…” a waitress said unenthusiastically.
In addition to the unmotivated waitress, there was a strong-looking but amateur door guard, and a man who served as both bartender and chef, who talked constantly and yet was so unfriendly that it was incredible that he hadn’t been fired yet.
Even the customers were the kind that were satisfied with drinks that had been diluted to mask the fact that the alcohol had been fermented for too long.
“Your order? If you’re still deciding, I recommend the Slum Cocktail. It’s made from the leftover booze that we get given from other places, but tonight’s mix is a good one. You’ll be in paradise for sure,” said the bartender, talking on and on in a gloomy tone.
“One special red wine and sheep cheese set, large,” said the man, placing his order without engaging in the small talk. “I’ll share it with my drinking buddies.”
“… We’re out of that. We do have white wine and normal cheese, though,” the bartender said.
“No, I want the red wine and sheep cheese,” the man insisted.
“Very well. Follow me to the back room,” the bartender said, and with that, he led the men to a room with no windows and nothing inside except for a plain table and chairs.
But one of the man’s subordinates pressed a button, and a staircase leading downstairs appeared in the middle of the floor.
“Let’s go,” the man said.
“Yes, ‘Venomous Snake’ Erkid-sama,” said the bartender.
The man was the ‘Venomous Snake’ Erkid. Like the ‘Hyena’ Gozoroff, he was a somewhat well-known figure in the Alcrem Duchy’s underworld.
And like Gozoroff, he was the boss of a lower branch of a nameless criminal organization. At the bottom of the stairs that led underground was the organization’s headquarters… At least, Erkid had been told that this was the headquarters, and this was where he met with the leader of the organization and the bosses of the other lower branches of it.
There’s no guarantee that what I’ve been told is true information, and there’s no definite proof that the boss that I’ve met is the real boss and not a body double. I have to say, I’ve done well to place myself so deep in a mysterious organization, Erkid thought to himself sarcastically.
But he felt no dissatisfaction towards the organization. There were many things that the organization provided – such as the cultivation of raw materials, their refinement into drugs, trade routes to sell the drugs, information on ongoing drug investigations.
Naturally, Erkid paid the organization a large amount for these services, but… he was still left with plenty of money in hand.
That was why he felt no dissatisfaction… or at least he hadn’t, up until just a moment earlier.
As Erkid and his subordinates descended the stairs and proceeded through the corridor ahead, a woman appeared before them.
“Welcome, ‘Venomous Snake’ Erkid-dono. The leader is waiting further inside,” she said.
She was a Beast-kin woman that the organization’s leader had recently been keeping near him, and her name was Belle. It was rumored that she was both the head’s new secretary and lover. But Erkid thought that she was probably his bodyguard.
The evening dress that was made of thin fabric and even had long slits on the sides, revealing her plentiful chest and the shape of her hips, looked like it belonged to a high-class prostitute rather than a secretary.
But as Erkid looked at her hair that was too short to reach her shoulders, her sharp eyes and her posture that left no openings, Erkid told himself that she was about as similarly capable as himself.
“But before you enter, may I ask what business you have with him?” Belle asked, winding her tail that was a defining characteristic of forest-monkey-type Beast-kin like herself, around her neck like a scarf. “I have heard nothing other than that it is an urgent issue.”
But Erkid gave a weak smile and declined to answer. “Of course, I would not waste the head’s precious time. But it is an extremely important matter… so I would like to tell him directly, in person.”
Belle stayed silent for a moment, and then let out a sigh. “… Very well, if it is insisted by none other than you, Erkid-dono. This way,” she said, giving up on getting any answers from Erkid and leading him and his subordinates further inside.
The eyes of all of the subordinates except for one were fixed on Belle’s white back and her bottom, which bounced gently beneath her tail with every step she took.
But Erkid suddenly stepped forward and forcibly grabbed Belle’s tail. Perhaps she couldn’t have even imagined that the boss of a lower branch of the organization would dare to do such a thing to someone who was the head’s secretary and lover; she made no move to avoid her tail being grabbed.
But Erkid could see that her shoulders were trembling.
“I don’t know if you’re the head’s favorite or something, but don’t be so full of yourself, you monkey bitch. How many women do you think the head’s used and discarded like trash? You’ll be joining them as soon as he gets bored of you. You should be sucking up to me while you can, so then maybe I’ll use you once you’re let go. I’ll be cutting this bothersome tail off you first, though,” Erkid snarled, pulling Belle’s tail a little as if threatening to pull it out, but then he let go.
“… This way,” said Belle, attempting to continue leading Erkid and his subordinates as if nothing had happened.
But Erkid and his subordinates didn’t fail to notice that the blood had drained out of her already-pale face, making it even more pale.
Satisfied, a faint smile appeared on Erkid’s face once more as he continued following Belle, making no further attempt to touch her.
Before long, they reached a large door. They hadn’t met any other members of the organization along the entire corridor.
Though this place was called the headquarters, the boss was not always here, and the authorities would never enter this place, so there was no need for any guards or fighting forces to be present, though it was possible that there was a vault somewhere in here and there were accountants doing administrative work and Erkid just hadn’t been informed.
Belle knocked on the door. “… It’s Belle. I have brought the ‘Venomous Snake’ Erkid with me,” she said.
“Come in,” said a woman’s voice from inside.
Behind the door, there was a large meeting room. However, there were only three silhouettes waiting inside.
“Erkid, you said that it’s an urgent matter, but… you seem to be in quite the good mood,” said the old man who was sitting in a chair that resembled a throne.
Though he had a white beard, it was visible even through his clothes that he maintained his body and kept it muscular. This was the leader of the organization.
The two women standing behind him, one to either side, were his bodyguards.
The woman on the right was a beauty; her body wasn’t quite as sensual as Belle’s, but it was attractive nonetheless. She was clearly older than Belle in appearance, but her skin had a glossy appearance to it that made it clear that her body was not declining. But she had a strangely faint presence; she didn’t give off any signs that she was alive at all.
In contrast, the red-haired woman on the left was about twenty years of age, with a strict-looking, beautiful face. She was wearing leather armor that seemed to be made of a monster’s hide, and a longsword hung at her waist.
And both of them were wearing chokers… or rather, collars. Erkid wondered if these two were slaves that the leader had acquired from somewhere.
There was also an Elf girl standing behind the head. She had the plainest air about her of the three women, but she was a tidy-looking girl who could certainly still be called attractive. There were likely a good number of men who would prefer her over the red-headed, strict-looking woman and the somewhat gaudy-looking, middle-aged woman.
But she wasn’t armed, so it didn’t look like she was a guard, and although she didn’t have a shabby appearance, she didn’t seem to be one of the head’s lovers. She wasn’t wearing a collar, either. Erkid had heard the rumors that this was one of the head’s illegitimate children that he had made with an Elf woman.
After quickly examining the people in the room, Erkid quickly gave a bow before the leader would begin to suspect something.
“Yes, I’m afraid… I have come to check on the organization’s management and personnel,” he said.
“That is your ‘urgent matter?’” the leader asked.
“But of course. Why have you put a hold on my plan to expand my drug business? The plan to take over a remote village and convert the entire village into a drug manufacturing factory… Was there something inadequate about this plan?” Erkid questioned.
Erkid’s plan had been to use brute force to take over a distant village that was only visited by merchants once or twice a year, turn its inhabitants into slaves and use it for the cultivation and refinement of drugs. Of course, the Commerce Guild would pull some strings to switch the merchants out for those working for the organization, and trade drugs illegally under the pretense of ordinary business.
If things had gone well, this would have resulted in the biggest drug-production operation in the Alcrem Duchy within a few years.
The leader of the organization had suddenly put a hold on that plan. He had said that drug controls would become stricter or other organizations might interfere, and instructed Erkid to wait and observe the situation.
Erkid’s intelligence network had found no information about drug controls being tightened or anything about other organizations.
“I believe I have explained the reason. Do you not trust my command?” the leader of the organization asked.
“I don’t. And that’s not all. The ‘Hyena’ Gozoroff is fairly quiet these days, isn’t he? And it seems that there are some other lower branches of the organization that are taking a break,” said Erkid.
“… There are other circumstances that the other lower branches find themselves in,” the leader said in a somewhat flat tone. “Is there any reason for me to require your understanding of each of them?”
The bodyguard women beside the leader were glaring at Erkid with dangerous looks in their eyes. The middle-aged woman’s almost-invisible presence was certainly not invisible now.
“And… who is this ‘Starving Wolf’ Michael? It seems that you have left the surface work to him, but I’ve never heard of the man before,” Erkid continued. “From what I’ve heard, Belle over there and the wenches you have on either side of you are giving commands in your place. As things stand, I can’t trust you like I did before.”
“Erkid, do not misunderstand. Whether or not you trust me is unimportant. Whether I trust you or not is. That is everything,” said the head.
That was how things were in criminal organizations. But upon hearing the head’s words, Erkid hardened his resolve.
“I see… Then I shall stop being your subordinate, starting today! Take this, you guys!” He shouted, facing his four subordinates and raising a hand.
The ring on one of the fingers of his raised hand shone for a moment, and swords, axes and spears suddenly appeared.
“An Item Box?!” Belle shouted.
“Erkid-dono, you intend to betray us?!” one of the other women demanded.
Erkid felt as if his heart was dancing in joy. The organization had changed too much in such a short period of time, and he could no longer trust it. With that being the case, there were only two options to ensure his survival – he needed to separate himself from the organization, or take control of it.
He had made his preparations for this. He had gathered capable individuals, and since it was unlikely that he would be allowed to see the leader while visibly armed, he had purchased a Magic Item that would allow him to sneak weapons in.
Three of the four subordinates he had brought were either C-class adventurers or fighters with fighting strength equivalent to C-class, who had either become addicted to drugs or fallen into debt.
The other was a former B-class adventurer with a bounty on his head for evil deeds such as killing his clients who had made commissions, but he had slain many would-be bounty hunters who had come for him. He was known as the ‘Bounty Hunter Hunter’ Abel.
Erkid himself was quite skilled. Even if he could not take over the organization this instant, he would be able to do severe enough damage for it to become unable to act for a while.
He would use that opening to set up his drug-trading organization independently and make preparations.
The scene before him promised the fulfillment of his ambitions… Erkid let out a triumphant laugh as he watched his subordinates swing their weapons down at the leader of the organization.
“You women, if you surrender, I might spare your lives! I’ll keep you as pets, starting with Belle over there… Huh?” he uttered in surprise as he realized that the weapons of his subordinates, who were supposed to be strong enough to be C-class adventurers, hadn’t harmed the body of the organization’s head.
“W-what is this?! A magical barrier?!” one of the subordinates shouted.
“My special move, ‘Iron Sever,’ had no effect at all?!” yelled another.
A transparent barrier had appeared, wrapping around the Elf girl… Melissa, who was standing behind the organization’s leader.
“This leader isn’t really worth protecting, is he?” Melissa said casually.
“I can’t maintain his Live-dead state if he’s too heavily wounded, so don’t say that,” said the leader.
Erkid’s subordinates continued desperately trying to attack them, but they were all blocked by her ‘Aegis.’
And Abel, who was Erkid’s trump card… had been struck down by the swords of the two bodyguards simultaneously, and was now collapsed on the floor, scattering blood everywhere.
“Hey, why are you going for this one as well?!” the red-haired bodyguard said, looking at the middle-aged one.
“Because he looked the strongest of them all, of course,” replied the other bodyguard. “Well, he was still a small fry, though.”
“Well, whatever… Infinite Thrusts!”
And with that, the red-haired bodyguard… Eleanora, performed a ‘Swordsmanship’ martial skill that unleashed an uncountable number of thrusts at an incredible speed.
With their blood spraying into the air, Erkid’s subordinates collapsed onto the ground.
“Ah! At least leave one of them alive! What are you going to do if my ‘Torture’ Skill gets rusty!” said the other bodyguard… Isla.
“If your skill gets rusty because of something like that, then that means that was all there is to your skill,” said Eleanora. “Besides, the one you want to torture is that man standing over there, isn’t it?”
“So cheeky… despite the fact that your ‘Swordsmanship’ Skill hasn’t awakened into a superior Skill,” Isla gloated.
“Kuh, getting me right where it hurts! I feel like I’ll reach something if I go a little further, you know!” Eleanora protested.
Having witnessed his subordinates being slaughtered helplessly, Erkid stood stock-still, dumbfounded. His brain was unable to keep up with the change in situation, and had stopped thinking entirely as a result.
His subordinates had been a B-class adventurer with a bounty on his head and three men as capable as C-class adventurers. They should have at least been able to put up a fight; Erkid hadn’t even imagined that they would be massacred without even buying him any time.
“It seems that you are unoccupied. Very well, I shall be your opponent,” said Belle… Bellmond.
In his stupefied state, Erkid failed to avoid Bellmond’s tail wrapping around his leg like a snake.
“What the hell, you ape woman?!” he shouted in surprise.
In the next moment, Bellmond smashed him against the ceiling of the room with just the strength of her tail.
A few seconds later, she struck him against the floor. And then back again. Erkid made several trips back and forth between the ceiling and the floor, gasping in pain each time.
Erkid was very quickly turned from a young, aspiring boss of a drug-trading organization to a wounded man on the verge of death.
Just as his face started to become unrecognizable, Bellmond stopped to take the ring from his finger.
“I’ll take this,” she said, and then swung Erkid with her tail once more and let go of his twisted leg at the same time, sending him flying like a piece of garbage.
The corners of Melissa’s mouth twitched, while Isla’s turned upwards in a smile.
“Isn’t he dead? I thought we were supposed to take him alive,” said Melissa.
“Melissa, he’s still hanging on to life. Once a person becomes a D-class adventurer, they don’t die so easily from things like this. It seems you’re still not used to how resilient the humans of this world are,” said Isla.
Indeed, Erkid’s chest was still faintly moving up and down. It was likely that he could still be saved with a Potion or with magic.
“… It seems that I can’t get rid of my habit of thinking of humans with the common sense that applies on Earth and in Origin, though I’m fine with monsters and you people,” said Melissa.
“You haven’t experienced a lot of battles against people since you came to this world, so it can’t be helped. You’ll get used to it whether you like it or not soon enough,” said Eleanora. “More importantly, how is that Item-Box-ish ring?” she asked Bellmond.
Bellmond examined Erkid’s ring for a few moments, then shook her head. “Unfortunately, it’s a low-quality Item Box. It is likely only capable of holding a few weapons, though it is still quite valuable.”
“… He might have acquired it just because it was the right size to carry some weapons. It may be effective for surprise attacks,” said Eleanora. “Anyway, you seemed to be quite rough on him. What got into you?”
“Yes, it was quite a relentless attack coming from you. It does seem that you held back, but… did something happen?” Melissa asked.
“No, nothing,” said Bellmond, giving a smile as she wrapped her tail around her neck like a scarf once more.
Hearing her answer, Eleanora and Melissa immediately knew that Erkid had managed to incur her wrath.
It’s probably something to do with her tail, thought Eleanora as she made eye contact with Melissa.
There’s no other explanation, thought Melissa, knowing that Eleanora was thinking the same thing.
Meanwhile, a fluffy creature emerged from the back of the organization’s ‘leader’ behind them… The Demon King Familiar that had been controlling his mouth.
“Well then, let’s heal this guy and question him, then use him when we destroy his organization,” the Demon King Familiar said. “Good work, everyone.”
From a hidden door in the meeting room, the other members of the organization who had undergone surgery to transplant fragments of the Demon King into their bodies… Aberrations, including the ‘Hyena’ Gozoroff, emerged to carry their soon-to-be new brethren into the processing room.
Erkid would not be punished by the law, but he was likely to continue an existence where he could regret his evil deeds for all eternity.
“Incidentally, Danna-sama… Could you please stop this backstory of me being a secretary and lover?” said Bellmond. “Not that anything happened,” she added.
The Demon King Familiar looked away. “I thought that less people would try to make a pass at you if we made you the organization leader’s woman, but… it seems that it didn’t work out.”
Eleanora, Isla and Melissa nodded in agreement as the Demon King Familiar looked towards them.
“I only got called out to once. Maybe people keep trying to find out information about the organization’s leader?” said Eleanora.
Isla let out a disdainful laugh. “I was called out to five times. It seems that I have a different charm as a woman compared to a girl like you.”
“If looking as if anyone could win you over with some sweet words is a charm, then perhaps so,” Eleanora said in retort.
“… Girl, I shall accompany you in swordsmanship training in the form of a real battle. Make some room in your schedule.”
“Don’t do that. If you two did training in the form of a real battle, this underground base would collapse,” said Melissa. “And I’ve always been staying close to the organization’s leader, so I’ve never been called out to or had men put their arms around my shoulders or waist… though for some reason, it seems that there’s rumors that I’m his illegitimate child.”
“It might be best not to use this method from now on,” said the Demon King Familiar… Vandalieu.
It seemed that when an organization’s unity loosened, the underlings looking to overthrow the leader saw his women as trophies.
“Let’s think more carefully if there is another opportunity. Well, the rebellions seem to be over, though,” Vandalieu said.
“Yes… because there are almost no lower branch leaders left. The only two remaining are the ‘Brown Rat’ and the ‘Vulture,’” said Bellmond.
“Bellmond, why do they have even more unpleasant-sounding names than the ‘Hyena?’” What kind of people are they?” asked Isla, scowling in displeasure.
As a Zombie, perhaps she disliked creatures that fed on the remains of the dead.
“The ‘Brown Rat’ is an old man who is the boss of a group of beggars, and possesses his own information network. He is based in another commerce city, not Morksi, so he is unlikely to show his face,” said Bellmond. “The ‘Vulture’ controls the black market of stolen goods. He is not in Morksi either, so he will not show himself here.”
“Perhaps we can say that the unimportant ones have survived. Incidentally, I wonder why all of the leaders of this organization have Titles named after animals?” said Eleanora.
“Who knows. It could simply be that Titles named after animals that are well-known to many people are easy to acquire,” said Bellmond.
“… This is a northern region. Are there even any vultures around here?” said Isla.
There were no longer any human-hunters like the ‘Hyena’ Gozoroff, mercenary groups or assassin organizations left in the organization.
Vandalieu and his companions had crushed them all.
At first, Vandalieu had only intended to use the organization to gather information, but he had been unable to overlook evil plans such as Erkid’s plan to take over an entire village, so he had put a stop to them. When the leaders of the lower branches disobeyed or attempted to overthrow the organization’s leader like Erkid, they had been crushed.
The only ones currently remaining were the ‘Brown Rat’ and the ‘Vulture.’
“Sorry to change the topic, but you’re not going to use Blood Potion to treat the ‘Venomous Snake’s’ wounds, are you? It might be problematic if he were to turn into a Dark Human and escape,” said Melissa.
She had directly witnessed humans consuming a part of Vandalieu, including Doug, and transforming into members of a new race. She seemed to fear that the same might happen in Erkid.
“You don’t need to worry about that. We tested this on the people from the lower branches of the organization that we captured alive,” said Isla. “Even when they drank Vandalieu-sama’s precious blood and had the Demon King’s fragments directly implanted in them, they didn’t transform into a new race… though they did become Aberrations.”
The result of transplanting materials made from the Demon King’s fragments into a living human was an ‘Aberration,’ a meat puppet that had no will of its own. They had received Vandalieu’s fragments like Doug and Luciliano had, but they were completely different beings.
Perhaps remembering the screams of the victims as they transformed into these Aberrations, a smile of joy appeared on Isla’s face.
“Yes, that’s how it was for the Aberrations that took away the ‘Venomous Snake’… so it’ll probably be fine. But I wonder what the difference is between him and Doug?” said Melissa.
“… Don’t compare him to scum who would do anything to profit from selling drugs. If he knew, I don’t think he would like it very much, even if he knew that you are talking about his race and constitution rather than his personality,” said Bellmond.
It seemed that she really considered Erkid to be absolute vermin.
“The difference between them? That’s obvious. It’s whether or not they’ve received Vandalieu-sama’s guidance. Only those who have given their bodies and hearts to Vandalieu-sama can advance to a new stage!” Eleanora said animatedly.
Before, Melissa wouldn’t have believed in such spiritual-sounding words.
But she gave a nod. “Maybe you’re right,” she said. “Statuses exist in this world, and Guidances affect them, so spirituality isn’t limited to just the mind. It wouldn’t be strange if this affects whether someone mutates or not.”
Perhaps sensing something dangerous in the way that Eleanora had phrased things, the Demon King Familiar’s fur quivered a little.
“Melissa may be right, but let us not phrase it that way, Eleanora. It makes us sound like a cult,” Vandalieu told her. “And you don’t have to offer your body and heart to me, either.”
“Well, Vandalieu-sama is humble as always,” said Eleanora, then her expression suddenly turned serious. “Moving onto another topic, the organization being manipulated by Birkyne isn’t making a move yet, is it? It has been a week since Vandalieu-sama made the fact that he is a Dhampir public. We should have heard some information by now.”
Birkyne was Eleanora’s parent as a Vampire, the last of the Pure-breed Vampires worshiping Hihiryushukaka, the evil god of joyful life. He currently ruled over the Vampire organization of Bahn Gaia. It seemed that his organization’s influence hadn’t reached the city of Morksi, but it was almost certain that his subordinates were present in other cities in the Alcrem Duchy.
Vandalieu had revealed himself in a commerce city where large numbers of people traveled to and from, so news should have reached Birkyne’s subordinates, but…
“It seems that no Vampires have entered the city yet. I’ve turned a part of the city’s walls into surveillance Golems, and set up surveillance Undead around the city,” said Vandalieu. “The spirits haven’t found anyone suspicious either, other than the region lord’s spies and Joseph’s pawns.”
“There isn’t anything in the information from the lower branches that are still active, either,” said Bellmond. “Eleanora, you should be the one who is most knowledgeable about the way that man thinks.”
“You don’t know anything? You were his favorite, weren’t you?” added Isla.
“That’s true,” said Eleanora with a bitter smile. “But although I was his favorite, I didn’t play a big role in the organization. It’s just that Birkyne supervised me directly. I didn’t even have subordinates. Maybe Bellmond wouldn’t know that, but you should, Isla.”
“You say that, but… when I was alive, we were not aware of the circumstances faced by the other factions. And if you’re a leader in a high position like I was, you aren’t interested in someone who is merely Birkyne’s favorite,” said Isla.
Though Eleanora had been said to have great promise, she was but a single Vampire. Perhaps this was the difference between her and someone like Isla, who had acquired a Title as a trusted confidant of a Pure-breed Vampire.
As for Bellmond, she had spent most of her time after becoming a Vampire managing Ternecia’s safehouse at the underground lake. Naturally, she knew nothing.
“It could be that he is having more difficulties than expected with reorganizing Gubamon’s faction now that Miles and the other main Vampires aren’t in it,” Vandalieu suggested. “Or perhaps… Birkyne’s subordinates are actually already inside the city. Ones that are not Vampires, don’t do evil deeds and are not even aware that they are working for him.”
“I see,” said Melissa, nodding. “Someone sends a letter to a family member describing events in the city. The family member who receives this ordinary letter is already a subordinate of the Vampires, and leaks information to places they don’t intend. That kind of method, huh. That wouldn’t be caught by our information network.”
“… That sounds like the kind of method that Birkyne would like,” said Isla. “It seems that he has narcissistic tendencies, so he would like tricks that make himself look clever.”
“It was just a suggestion of a possibility,” said Vandalieu.
“No, Vandalieu-sama. Now that I think about it, I don’t know how he found me when I was a slave who had been sold to a mine. It isn’t as if he gathered his subordinates from random places,” said Eleanora. “I think it’s certain that he’s hiding these human subordinates in places where people gather.”
If she was right, Birkyne was already aware that Vandalieu was in the city of Morksi. With that being the case, he was almost certainly planning something.
If that plan was to avoid and hide from Vandalieu in order to survive, then this plan was a failure, but… if he was planning to look for an opportunity to attack –
“We need to strengthen our watch over the city after all. Everyone, please stay alert,” said Vandalieu.
“Yes, Vandalieu-sama!” Eleanora replied.
“… Ah, I forgot to ask. What are we planning to do about Joseph and Aggar?” asked Bellmond.
“We don’t have time to deal with them, so we’ll leave them be. I don’t know if the Deputy Guild Master of the Commerce Guild can harass us any more than he already is, but I’m sure the region’s lord will do something if he goes too far,” said Vandalieu.
In a dark place, far away from the city of Morksi, Birkyne was reading a written report.
“This is a good sign,” he murmured to himself.
As Eleanora had guessed, he was aware that Vandalieu was in the city of Morksi. From the description of the appearance of the ‘Starving Wolf’ Michael, he had realized that it was Miles, Gubamon’s former subordinate. He was also aware that Vandalieu was with a Dark Elf who went by the name ‘Darcia.’
He had endless questions regarding this information, however.
“So Miles has changed sides… but why is he able to walk in the sunlight? Perhaps he was using a spell or a Magic Item during the battle against the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords to resist the sunlight for a short while, but he is lurking in the city’s alleyways in the middle of the day. Could it be that he has acquired the ‘Sunlight Resistance’ Skill like Valen did?” Birkyne muttered. “And the Dark Elf who calls herself by the Dhampir’s mother’s name. Who is she? The mother’s corpse was burned at the stake and turned to ash, so she is unlikely to be an Undead… Has he brought a similar-looking Dark Elf relative from his mother’s homeland? If so, what in the world for?”
Despite being a Pure-breed Vampire with the knowledge that came with having lived for over a hundred thousand years, Birkyne wouldn’t have been able to imagine that Vandalieu had mutated Miles into an Abyssal Noble-born Vampire.
But he did make a correct guess regarding the other mystery that he was pondering.
“No, she must be the real mother. If Zakkart’s relics were hidden somewhere inside the Boundary Mountain Range, then the ‘Root of Life’ might have been preserved. So, he used that and resurrected her…”
Before the battle between Vida and Alda, Birkyne had himself once been a Pure-breed Vampire who worshiped Vida. Thus, he could imagine to some extent as to what lay within the Boundary Mountain Range.
“In that case, stirring up trouble with Vandalieu is not the correct move after all. I shall wait and observe for a while longer,” Birkyne decided.
“Are you sure you should do nothing? Perhaps we could advance our plans, using our subordinates and sending in new humans under our control?” suggested his subordinate Mortor, a Noble-born Vampire who had been born as a Dwarf.
“It is crucial that we do nothing,” Birkyne replied. “It is a coincidence that he appeared in the city of Morksi, but he has planned things so that his plans will succeed no matter where he carries them out. And even if we do nothing, my adorable puppet will draw closer to Vandalieu. Naturally, with pure, uncorrupted intentions. Vandalieu is good-natured. You know this from our investigations, don’t you? Even if I do not act, he will show compassion towards my puppet, save it, and become so close to it that he cannot abandon it even if he realizes the truth,” he said with a smile as he picked up his wine glass. “That is when we shall act,” he said as he emptied the glass of its crimson contents.
Earl Isaac Morksi gave a scream upon hearing the report from his spies in his office.
“What the hell is my stupid uncle thinking?!” he shouted. “Have the guard’s direct superior reprimand him! If he disobeys his instructions, I shall send him to another city! As for my uncle, I shall write him a letter! Hand him the letter directly, personally make sure that he has read it, and if he declines to read it or, gods forbid, he tears it to pieces without reading it, make up some charges for insulting the dignity of his lord and drag him here!”
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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TherapyKitten
Sigmund Freud would have a field day with Van
emergency3808
I wonder if the puppet that Birkyne’s talking about is Eleonora, or someone else?
Ronin
My guess is some child or some one weak and in need. Van tend to help those less fortunate like he did with the orphanage. So I can guess Birkyne would use things like that to get close to Van.
Korath
It seems to be some hidden trigger spell the “puppet” knows nothing about, but if it would be Ele, he would have already tried something when Val was way weaker. Maybe Selen, but she basically would have died and I dont know how he would have gotten access to her, maybe when the 5 guys were in the dungeon?
All the others are unlikely too. Cant rule it out, but I guess it must be someone unknown or someone not present right now.
Winter
Birkyne thinks that he’s still the big shot from a hundred or so chapters ago, while Van started eating gods like candy :’)
Zenden1st
lol Issac is triggered
SmerchOleg
Showy boy still can’t calm down. Still, he has most chances to survive among Van’s current enemies.
Illuvatar
Haha, poor earl. Family can be a curse
w1fenrir
this kid is still so naive
ObserverBias
What kid, and concerning what matter?
unwanted child
alda: “THE DEMON KING IS EVIL AND WANTS TO DESTROY THE WORLD!!!!!!
Birkyne ” vandalieu is good natured”
alda’s gotta know he’s fucked in the head when a psychotic monster realized this before an actual great god
Chiu ChunLing
Alda is fully aware that Van is good natured, that’s exactly why he believes him to be able to “destroy the world”, by which he means “secure the survival of the Vida races.”
DarkCarnage
and alda’s “perfect world” he wants to go back to just humans, elves and dwarves. no monster of vala races left really and no other world tech/items left.
NjShade
If just human remain, I believe humans cannot hold much longer after monster wave from jungle that includes rank 10 and above break out since no one
cleaning or control number monster in the dungeons. Since human have heroes but still limited by number…even they manage to hold the advancement of monsters human only left 15 to 20 percent of they territory because if territory to large they force must spread to thin to guard the frontier.
mickeyduck
Birkyne is probably the only smart enemy we have come across in all 200+ ch. of this novel and I can honestly respect that – he still gotta die tho that goes without saying
Dragon_King_Kyoleth
Honestly, one of the downsides of him being so smart. He tends to over think things, thus making it more difficult for him to understand Van’s movements, seeing as Van’s brain runs differently from everyone else’s.
Korath
Imo if you randomly slaugther your allies, you are not smart. The old guy pure bread did this too and got betrayed by Miles. Thats why you dont do it.
Not that I think its “bad” to punish your subordinates if youre a villain, but it must be reasonable and the others should understand why and agree with the descision.
hungsayori
Compilations of Isla’s sadistic tendecies –
“Ah! At least leave one of them alive! What are you going to do if my ‘Torture’ Skill gets rusty!” said Isla.
“I’ll take this,” she said, and then swung Erkid with her tail once more and let go of his twisted leg at the same time, sending him flying like a piece of garbage. The corners of Melissa’s mouth twitched, while Isla’s turned upwards in a smile.
Perhaps remembering the screams of the victims as they transformed into these Aberrations, a smile of joy appeared on Isla’s face.
terrifying.. I suppose this is what personality retention even after charm entails. even though she was such a hard M for Van too 😮
polynesianvibez
this earl seems like good guy
thanks for the chapter
Randy Rando
More like not a complete idiot. Anyone with even half a brain should be able to see why it’s a bad idea to pick a fight with a mysterious dhampir that showed up out of nowhere. The Earl has the benefit of his spy’s intel gathering to know for certain that Vandilieu is far more than he appears, but even a nobody should know how bad of an idea it is to pick a fight with an enemy of unknown strength, let alone a commerce guild deputy guildmaster.
TruePath111
I never liked Bellmond. Sh even was always described as a prostitute
Kionzel
She was a victim of rape you ignorant piece of shit. Fuck you and everything you believe in. Her violent reaction to the thugs is understandable if you pulled your stupid head out of your ass.
jacktronsit13
god I hate you dude, you’re way worse than that disappointed guy.
Brandragoon
You know that you’re comments make you look like a disgustingly desperate incel, right? so why are you purposely subjecting yourself to this? You must know that you’re ignorant comments will only be met with ridicule and disgust and yet you still feel the need to leave you’re toxic comments behind.
Please, stop doing this to yourself. Get some help or reach out to someone but please stop trying to ruin everyone else’s reading experience.
Zauberbiest
lmao dude, even a hentai joke would have been more well received
.the way u phrase things, ur doing it on purpose aren’t u,
mickeyduck
at this point i swear he’s actively trying to piss people off
DemonMountain
Kill yourself you fucking scum cunt.
ObserverBias
Bellmond had a botched job of reconstruction initially as Ternecia’s treasure trove guardian, and a while ago had a portion of Ternecia’s assets shifted onto her form by Isis and Van doing surgery on her.
.
And Ternecia has been stated to be “stacked.”
.
Fascinating that you condemn the character being harassed instead of the mook that made the attempt. It’s so bizarre how far you go to completely misread things.
Zenden1st
author said bellmonds surgery went well tho
Chiu ChunLing
But a major reason for that was because Van just used Ternecia’s bits as they were without trying for any tricky modifications that they’d have probably regenerated from anyway. So Bellmond’s figure is now highly reminiscent of Ternecia’s.
Vitor
So, if everyone who is fed up with your nonsense were to punch you a hundred times would be also your fault? No, right? then why are you so incoherent?
Hobbes
GTFO!!! Right now! Stop your victim-blaming, you piece of human waste!
Bellmond is best girl!
iunno
I caught up..
UnveilingSage
Thanks for the Chapter!
Kuro-san
Spoilers are not allowed
Feniz
Spoilers are not to be encouraged.
123
Don’t ask for spoilers.
Kuro-san
No posting spoilers.
no1
As good as that is to know, even if it is just a little bit, please don’t spoil the story. Seriously, not cool spoiling the story like that
Supreme king
Don’t encourage the sharing of spoilers.
Tejing
No spoilers please. Discuss those in the #spoilers channel on discord, not here in the comments.
hungsayori
Spoilers, also defined as descriptions containing an officially serialized literary media’s significant future plot progressions unknown by subset of the media’s viewer base of which may disturb the immersion of exciting suspense formed through articulate writing of the original content creator is by any means, not condoned within the medium known as comment section that serves as a discussion zone of plot points that have already been consumed by us readers, for us readers.
akatsuki kuranashi
who wants to bet that the puppet is selen?
ExplodingPenguinDood
I’m guessing it’s Simon or Rock but I’m having a hard time believing that it’s her. Van knows she’s in being protected by Heinz, why would he help her? Birkyne sounds so sure that Van would help his puppet so idklol
UnveilingSage
I actually just had an epiphany. What if the puppet is the Cat-person Guard. You know the one he keeps meeting. I think that that’s a possibility!
Tejing
Why would he need saving though?
UnveilingSage
I dunno. Maybe we’ll find out later
Catwiz15
Cats arent domesticated though
UnveilingSage
Sorry. I forgot. But I was actually more inclined towards it because of the whole ‘info gotten from a family member’ thing. He seems like the kind of person to write these types of letters. So that’s something backing up my theory
Vitor
Name’s Kest, and he is a wolf, not a cat, seriously?
Morgan
Impossible. For starters, after all the effort Birkyne, Gubamon and Ternicia put into killing one dhampir, why would Birkyne run the risk of a second one becoming like the first one
Jonathan Hurd
Selen is to famous and obvious to use as bait by Birknye. At least not against Van. Using her against Heinz makes a lot of sense, but no way Van wants to get involved with her considering his feelings towards Heinz.
Suhardi
Man, because you (akatsuki kuranashi) bet about selen maybe Birkyne’s puppet, a few days ago i dreaming this novel with content about selen actually Birkyne’s puppet
King Kid
Me, i bet it’s isaac
SpinelesS
Who wants to bet that it doesn’t matter who the puppet is, Van’s Guiding abilities will take over and steal them 😛
Dragon_King_Kyoleth
Five bucks on that. Also want to mention this, I’m pretty sure the guard said he was a wolf beast kin (Ended up leading to that ass Aggar making a dog joke)
NsP7737
From what we could see, his puppet if not many of them is amongst the good-natured people around Van
so either the guard Kest, the butcher, or people visiting his stall
Lacsus
Is it only me or this chapter feels abit short? Love this novel so much, that time flies so fast for me to enjoy this
no1
Still can’t wait for Van and Birkyne to fight. After this chapter, it seems like Birkyne does not plan to confront Van any time soon. So it might still be a while. I’m still curious what type of demon king fragment and demon eye he has. Gubamon and Ternecia both had demon eyes and demon king fragments so I’m assuming Birkyne will also have these two things.
Ltshrek
It won’t be a battle,rather it’s a one sided massacre,also I think miles is probably much more stronger than birkyne by now
Strowy
Birkyne is vastly more powerful than Miles even now.
Miles is Rank 11 (ch 206). Pure-breed Vampires like Birkyne are at minimum Rank 13, and Birkyne is also considered a subordinate god of Hihiryushukaka (this is why he can’t access Jobs anymore, he’s basically become pure monster).
Of Van’s mortal allies, only a few like Zod could evenly match Birkyne in raw power.
Hobbes
Zod would completely overwhelm Birkyne in terms of raw power you know… though you are right about Miles. It takes a miracle for a Noble-born Vampire to surpass a Pure-breed, but luckily Van hands out miracles like leftover 5-cent candies after Halloween. So Miles and the other Noble-born will leave them in the dust sooner or later.
Entropy
I doubt that he will try to fight Van. birkyne is a coward and will try to get Van as an underling. I suspect his evil god will try everything to save him when that plan fails. I am just curious about what the plan will be.
Lord Rin
Nah Hihiryushukaka would immediately abandon Birkyne if he gets into conflict with Van. He did abandon Gubamon when the guy tried to use Familiar Spirit Descent when fighting Van and nothing descended.
Entropy
It kind of depends on how true to his ideals Hihirushukaka is. On one hand he has only one devout follower left but if his teachings are any indication, he views his followers as mere pawns to toy with. Either way he will probably follow Birkyne to the grave soon after his last follower’s death.
Jonathan Hurd
I think Hihiryushaka is perfectly happy with Birknye trying to kill Van. The reason he abandoned Gubamon was because Gubamon was useless. Gubamon was almost dead when he gave up on him. Add in that Van has proven he can kill Familiar spirits why try to save him? A big factor in abandoning Gubamon is also the fact that he had killed all of Hihiryushaka’s worshipers who were under him.
Hihiryushaka knows Vida’s faction dislikes him and that Van is most likely in her faction. Knowing Van can kill Gods there is a good chance Hihiryu will die if Van isn’t killed and Birknye is the last tool in his belt to try and do that. Might as well try to at least inflict some damage using Birknye before you do more desperate measures.
bk3k
Only if you really want to know – [spoiler]Do you remember what happened with the Noble Orcs? The one who rebelled after worshiping an evil god? Remember what that evil god did?[/spoiler]
Brandragoon
Don’t respond to spoilers
Hobbes
Don’t respond to spoilers
mickeyduck
hihiryushukaka is such a wack name tho who came up wit that
Jonathan Hurd
I think Birkyne sees Van as being too powerful to take as an underling. More likely if he wants to work with Van he would go for partner instead. Basically try to make a new alliance like what he had with Ternicia and Gubamon. The only issue with that though is Birknye really doesn’t have anything to bring to the table for Van.
More likely Birkyne will try and figure out a way to undermine Van and surprise attack him just like Van did to Gubamon and Ternicia.
bk3k
“Not soon” might be sooner than you think. Depending on your meaning of “soon”. [spoiler]But you might not see the fight coming. Birkyne is a very sneaky one, and of course lacks morals. I’ll just say the fragment he possesses suits his nature well.[/spoiler]
ExplodingPenguinDood
Wow I can’t wait to find out about it, I’m guessing the fragment is for skulking about, maybe the one the demon king used to transform in that ambush against Zakkart and co. and if so how fitting it would be
UnveilingSage
If his fragment has to do with sneaking about several ideas come to mind. The first one being something that lets him freely tunnel through the ground, like a Mole. The next one being an Eye of some sort, presumable one specialized in spying, like the ability to link vision between his eyes and an implanted one. The third…perhaps Cameleon scales? These are just guesses so I hope I’ve given some people something to think about
UnveilingSage
Oh yeah! Dont forget that Byrkne qas also mentioned to have a super secret super powerful skill! Some thing like ‘Judgement’ I belive? Dont quote me on that. I remember he mentioned he was actually willing to die to keep it a secert sometimes. Isnt this right?
Jonathan Hurd
I will just say I have no clue about this ‘judgment’ skill. A few points against it however would be that it has been stated Terncia was the best offense of the three pure bloods. Gubamon was the best defense. If Birknye truly had a super skill why is he considered lower than them on the scale?
I will also just say I don’t understand who is dying to keep it a secret. If this is truly the final ace in the hole for Birknye he wouldn’t let anyone know about it considering how betrayal happy his gods worshippers are. If it’s Birknye’s life we’re talking about what does he gain from dying rather than using it? Add in Birknye is probably the most self centered and self obsessed person in the story. He values his life above all others. There’s nothing he would sacrifice his life for.
Jonathan Hurd
I will say an important thing to keep in mind with DK fragments is that as long as your not Van activating them or having them transplanted leads to encroachment. Also add in how every fragment we have seen get close to Van immediately betrayed its owner to jump ship… I think the chances of Birknye spying with his DK fragment is really low.
I feel like considering Vans mental encroachment ability messing with someone’s mind can also probably be figured out. So I think the spy method will involve some innocent bystander who is threatened into spying, or who is unwittingly carrying some kind of spy tech for Birknye. With Birknyes personality I find both possible.
I feel like considering Birknye he is unlikely to go and do the spying himself. Mostly because it doesn’t fit the image of the evil mastermind he seems to see himself as. Add in that Birknye doesn’t know the other Pure Bloods are awake but still fears them. The chance he sends things with his mana or himself into the boundary mountain range seems small. I think the simplest solution is to send a spy/assassin to Van while holding the pawns family hostage.
That way one of two things could happen even after the pawn is charmed. He follows through with the job to save his family, or he confesses everything to Van. Knowing Van he wouldn’t ignore a friends family in danger so he will mount a rescue. Birknye then sets up a trap and leads Van to it. A nice trick here for Birknye is to lead Van to somewhere Alda has forces. Have Van and Alda exhaust each other profiting Birknye overall.
For a place to do this, Alda in his infinite stupidity has made some fairly flashy moves sending a bunch of God’s to Botin and Perias rest areas. If Van was lured near those places seeing how Paranoid Alda is he’d assume Vans coming to kill them and be forced to attack Van.
Overall this is the strategy I can imagine Birknye taking. It is similar to how he was dealing with Ternicia. Let your enemies fight each other and when they’re exhausted swoop in for the kill. Honestly it wasn’t a bad strategy. The problem was how much he underestimated and disregarded Van and his moves. Birknye is never going to take a direct fight. He has a great information network to help avoid those.
UnveilingSage
Good points. Very good points. I did not think of that (obviously). Thanks for the reminder. I suppose your right about that skill. Maybe it was letting someone else die rather than reveal it. Yeah, that’s so kuch more likely it’s scary. I think it was mentioned somewhere aroundwhen Van was hunting the other pure bloods. Dont remember where though. If someone would be kind enough to verify that for me that would be great!. Besides that though, what do you think about his fragments then? Any guesses guys?
NovaPulse235
No spoilers
Lightnovelfan
Thank you very much for your hard work translating. I really enjoy reading it
fahhad0555
i love this site and i love this novel, but can you speed up the translation ?
the raw has already reach the end of vol 14
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fncode.syosetu.com%2Fn1745ct%2F1%2F
franz941
Great thing take time. we get 2-3 chapter a month is not the 4 a month we used to get before but is a good enought rythm for such high quality traslations.
Tejing
The raws release at a phenomenal rate, considering the chapter size. Merely keeping up with the raws, much less catching up to them, would be a huge time investment for Yoshi. (He’d need to quit his job, for starters) Be content that you’re getting the highest quality fan translation I’ve ever seen for free with fairly regular releases. Donation supported projects don’t get much better than this.
no1
This translator, Yoshi, has given us clear, fluid and accurate translation while google translates tends to mess up the wording of the sentences. I’d rather wait for this translation then be confused by lower quality translation
Entropy
Tried reading a chapter or two, and they make barely any sense. So far chapters have been released about once every week or two so I have no problem waiting. Rather have a chapter that makes sense than a ton of chapters that are impossible to read.
bk3k
Regarding MTs you can get a general idea most of the time, but if you want things to make more sense then you’ll need to figure out a lot of what it should be with other context. The context of which may not be from that chapter or even that story arc. It doesn’t make for light reading since you need to think and associate many things while reading – so isn’t something you might attempt prior to getting your morning caffeine. I’m entirely read up on MTs, but they’re painful for sure. I only read them because I lack the patience and need my fix LOL.
Yoshi’s translations are great to read, and I’m very glad to read them as they come even if I’ve read up (much!) further in the story. So for me it is very well worth re-reading despite knowing what happens already.
Sure I’d like it if the translations came out more often, but I understand. People have real lives to live including translators. Jobs, family time, their own leisure time/activities/etc. Maybe even sleep. As long as the average chapter is, they come out every few days! Densuke is a writing machine. I think it would be something to keep up with it even if one was unemployed (and I don’t wish this). I wouldn’t expect that much. I’m glad for what we get.
Ltshrek
He can do it as long as you donate 150$
DUH
Entropy
Valid point, although google translate doesn’t take certain aspects of speech into consideration. Personally the time delay is not too bad considering the years that some books need in order to come out.. Besides that I do enjoy rereading this book
Kuro-san
How do normal people change from ‘jobless’ to ‘artisan’ or ‘farmer’?
Do they kill monsters until they reach level 100 of ‘jobless’, gain experience in other ways or undergo a change in forced labor, like slaves?
Locke25
From what I remember, jobs acquire experience from doing tasks related to the job. Crafting jobs mostly seemed to work like that. Following this reasoning, I’d say that jobless gains experience by doing nothing at all. Of course, they could also gain experience by killing monsters, being jobless probably means that they just get no special bonuses to their stat growth.
Alternatively, it could be related to being a womanizer/pervert, as there are other novels where the skills of Jobless job are related to sex.
theblasblas
I think that nearly everything can give experience, so likely jobless people doing whatever profession they have can give them experience.
PS. You’re talking about Growth Cheat, right?
Kuro-san
I am talking about the ‘none’ job, the job that everyone who can acquire jobs has and that disappears after acquiring the second job (which is usually an apprentice job).
Jonathan Hurd
A big thing to remember is for a lot of jobs they have prerequisites that you have to meet to choose them. For instance I think to become a Warrior you need at least level one in some form of martial skill.
So during the jobless period you use that time to try to develop a skill or two so you can get a job. From the start if you have no skills there are no jobs for you.
Tejing
Not all jobs have skills as prerequisites, so it’s not quite as clear-cut as ‘no skills means no jobs’
Kuro-san
OK, thank you.
Kuro-san
OK, thank you.
Kuro-san
OK, thank you.
Zurric
are you talking about this (death mage), or growth cheat?
if it’s this, they probably get enough experience just from general life as children to change their job, or they don’t need to level jobless up to be able to change it.
if you’re talking about growth cheat, i’ve only been reading the manga but I do remember one of the gods saying that his jobless was never supposed exist, and that it was basically an error made during his reincarnation. Also, I’m pretty sure that in growth cheat everyone starts off with a job like civilian or noble or something else based on their social class.
Kuro-san
OK, thank you.
Lord Rin
No in Growth Cheat barring nobles/royalty and random rare exceptions, everybody is born and starts out as Jobless but they almost immediately switch to some other job like Commoner.
Hobbes
You are misremembering the story. The “error” refferred to by the Goddesses is that the MC’s ‘Jobless’ job levels up which has never happened before for a variety of reasons. Anyhow, it’s a decent isekai story to read (there are 325 chapters+ and counting) so it’s worth giving a shot. 🙂
Hawke
This isnt actually true, in fact the MCs little sister Miri in GC specifically stated she had power leveled a jobless baby to level 60 or so when she was the demon lord. So it’s not his ability to level jobless that is a mistake, anyone can do that, what’s a mistake is the skills that it gives for some reason because jobless isnt supposed to offer skills of any kind.
Hobbes
You’re right, my bad and thanks for the correction there. I hate when I misremember details like that, because I’m usually pretty good in that regard.
Tejing
Almost everything you do grants experience points in theory, but tasks unrelated to your job give very little, so a farmer doesn’t get much experience from killing monsters, but gets a decent amount from farming, while an adventurer is the other way around. I would guess that jobless is somewhere in the middle, getting non-negligible experience from almost any activity that can help level any job, so you could level it by killing monsters, but you could also level it by farming or production activities. I would assume a lot of people level jobless by doing the same things they intend to do after getting a job.
Kuro-san
OK, thank you.
Lord Rin
I think you are mixing up Death Mage and Growth Cheat (incidentally I just caught up to that series). There isn’t really a ‘Jobless’ job in Death Mage. You just get random experience from doing anything and there is nothing special if you reach level 100 when you don’t have a job. Remember Van and all the ghouls didn’t have jobs until they reached Talosheim and found an abandoned job-changing room.
Anyways basically whatever you do before you pick a job becomes experience that can open up more job options when you finally do go change your job. Like say a child starts working on a farm and he continues to do standard farm-related work. When he finally goes to pick a job, he’d mostly get farm-related type jobs as options. If that same kid instead started doing some production work while farming like helping to brew alcohol or concoct simple medicines from the plants growing on the farm then when they go get a job they might also get options to be a cook, brewer, or herbalist apart from the farm-related jobs. At the same time, if the kid survives an attack from monsters or bandits then he might unlock the option to become an apprentice warrior and from there depending on how they fight they might unlock swordsman-type jobs if they favor using swords or magic-type jobs if they favor magic and if they use both then they might unlock magic swordsman-type jobs.
Kuro-san
OK, thank you.
In fact, I only used ‘Jobless’, because I thought it would be easier to understand (in addition to being what I would use instead of ‘none’).
Tejing
Why is Melissa described as an elf here, rather than a dark elf? (I know she’s not a dark elf, but that’s what she’d look like to people who don’t know about chaos elves) Can her chaos skill make her skin look like an elf’s again?
ravelphenex
chaos elf can change their skin color remember? chaos elf’s skin is darker than dark elf but they can change their skin color to be similar to any type of elf. darcia also change her skin color to that of a dark elf.
Tejing
Darcia can change to a dark elf’s skin color, but that’s just her particular ability granted by the chaos skill… different people get different abilities. (It was also clearly stated that Darcia cannot change to pale skin like an elf) I don’t remember any mention before now of Melissa or Kanako being able to change their skin color (unless you count Kanako’s ability to turn invisible… which I don’t).
Jonathan Hurd
I think Melisa was able to make insect wings from her Chaos ability. There seemed to be other transformations the body could do, but it was different for each person.
Tejing
Where are you getting this? I’ve searched quite a bit, and unless I’m blind there is no mention of this for anyone other than Darcia until this chapter. Even with this chapter, there’s nothing saying Kanako can do it.
Hobbes
Your speculation on the limits of the Chaos skill might be correct or it might be a few other things. Van could have covered her in the DK’s ink to make her appear a certain way or someone could have used light magic to create an illusion or something entirely different could have been done.
Regardless of my alternatives, I prefer what you said though.
Tejing
So you’re not seeing anything in the story I’m not, you’re just assuming it’s an ability of all chaos elves because 1/3 became 2/3 by implication in this chapter. The way you said it made it seem like it was established information in the story, not an assumption.
My basic issues were:
a) It seemed odd that a previously unmentioned chaos sub-ability would be introduced implicitly without even a sentence mentioning that it was one of the things melissa could do with her chaos skill. This novel usually explains such things.
b) A bunch of people were telling me that it had been stated before that she could do it, but I could find no such statement, and still can’t.
Tejing
Are you talking about this?
Volume 9 Character Summary Part 2:
I also believe that the entire race possesses a Unique Skill called Chaos. It is a Skill that allows the user to transform their body, and although the forms and types of transformation vary from individual to individual, it is a powerful Skill that allows the user to gain Skills that ordinary people would be unable to acquire.
I don’t think anything here implies a distinction between skin color changes and other transformations.
Locke25
“I also believe that the entire race possesses a Unique Skill called Chaos. It is a Skill that allows the user to transform their body, and although the forms and types of transformation vary from individual to individual, it is a powerful Skill that allows the user to gain Skills that ordinary people would be unable to acquire.”
– Luciliano in part of his explanation of Chaos Elves
no1
Yup, the chaos skill of chaos elves allow them to alter their body types from different types of appendages to skin color
Entropy
I think that chaos elves can change into their previous race so Darcia, and other dark elves turned chaos elves would be able to change back and forth while regular elves turned chaos elves would be restricted to regular and chaos, Not 100% sure.
Mr.Darkness
“he will show compassion towards my puppet, save it, and become so close to it that he cannot abandon it even if he realizes the truth”
Wait, were you worshiping Rodcorte unknowingly??? This plan is really stupid!!!
“Earl Isaac Morksi gave a scream upon hearing the report from his spies in his office.”
Yeah, i would totally scream too…
bk3k
I tend to think of Rodcorte as the God of Incompetence. Believe me he isn’t done doing stupid, reckless things that blow up in his face. “It should be fine.”
But Birkyne’s plan isn’t as dumb as you think. That’s all I’ll say about that.
Nobody2
What chapter do we learn his plan
Mr.Darkness
I’m already waiting for people that are really stupid or incompetent to all automatically receive Rodcorte’s Blessings…
There’s no way these are not his autority.
Jonathan Hurd
It is a kind of funny catch 22 for the God of incompetence to give his blessing. If he gives it correctly then that means he’s competent, but he’s the God who rules over incompetence so obviously he can’t be competent. So he’d have to give it to competent people accidentally, but after he does that they become incompetent. That would mean he blessed the right people which isn’t allowed so he takes his blessing back and they’re competent again.
I find it fun imagining Rodcorte just blessing and retracting the blessing over and over like the idiot he is, lol.
Mr.Darkness
I still remember Van being afraid that those giant loopholes in the curses by Rodcorte being all some elaborate trap cuz no god would be so stupid XD
Chiu ChunLing
It’s refreshing to have the perspective of an essentially normal person.
On the one hand this setting has a lot of people raise in the most desperate developing world circumstances imaginable. They’re pretty normal…for people in that kind of circumstance, but they don’t have any perspective.
On the other hand, we’ve got the people who have totally committed themselves to Vida’s cause and Vandalieu as their champion. They have perspective…and of course we agree with them, but they’re not normal.
In between, we have all these despicable sociopaths who are successful by trampling on the basic dignity of everyone else. Most of us know more people like this than we like, so it’s not like they’re completely outside of ‘normal’, and they do have their own perspective, but…
And now we have Isaac, who’s really just a normal guy with a normal perspective (by modern standards). He’s not fanatical or crazy or twisted by extraordinary malice. He’s not pathetically ignorant of the world, nor does he have secret knowledge known only to the gods.
He’s just a guy trying to do his job without bringing some kind of terrible retribution down on himself or his city. Keeping in mind that all he currently knows is that Vandalieu and Darcia likely to be interesting to Heinz and the Reconciliation faction.
iamleejn
Thanks for the new chapter; I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms.
Still waiting for Isla to meet Fang…
Birkyne’s plan is to mess with Van’s emotions. Van’s totally gonna nom his soul
Deputy guildmaster might get lucky and ONLY get imprisoned/exiled/executed instead of shattered or “Isla’s practice”…
gomezseba37
Birkyne cant possibly win against van in any way van is WAY stronger than him and has allys that are at his same level. he can get a non agression deal at best
Hobbes
Even that is out of the ballpark with this potential plan of his. Van doesn’t easily forgive those who hurt people he intends to protect.
If Birkyne had appeared before him without threatening him and tried to negotiate in good faith there’s a slii~iight chance he could have disassociated from Van & probably the Bangaia continent as a whole, but bringing in hostages to negotiate without having some kind of absolute defense against Van’s immediate rescue attempt ends any possibility of talks happening before they can even get started.
Jonathan Hurd
I would say this is Birknye we’re talking about. No way he goes for a direct confrontation til he has a hundred percent chance of winning. I think Birknye will use his information network to lure Van into battles with Alda. After Van has exhausted his strength, then and only then, would Birknye come out to fight.
Nox
Thanks for the chapter.
The question after this chapter is, how many men tried to hit on Belle/Bellmond?
It is sweet to see someone who is smart and thinks of himself as smart and thus look down on other people, thinking everything in their control to fail. And Birkyne is going to fail big and the last time as afterwards he won’t ever get the chance to scheme again.
Morgan
I’m enjoying seeing Van take care of ordinary daily trouble but I would like to hear more about the Adventures of Banda and Meh-kun.
Anyone know how many chapters until then?
Morgan
Thanks. so maybe another 4/5s of a year at the absolute slowest
SheepySenpai
Thanks for the chapter!
Also does anyone know if there is an upload schedule for the series?
Morgan
Go to the homepage, move the slideshow thing at the top to How Death Mage is translated.
Yoshi gave an update schedule of 2-4 chapters a month. That also depends on him getting the $150 to translate a chapter. He said that sponsored chapters (ones that are donated for) will be ones he releases faster but he’s had a backlog on the donations for a long time so he’s pretty much just operating by his normal schedule.
Tejing
There isn’t really a schedule, just a general target for overall release rate. Any info that’s available on when the next chapter is coming out is in a pinned message on the discord channel.
Morgan
There is a schedule though. As I said, Yoshi said he’d try to upload weekly and that we can expect 2-4 chapters a month. That’s the schedule right there.
Ozarazil
Yes, Vandal is in essence good natured but what Birkyne ignores completely (well in fact many characters do) is something the writer has made emphasis on since the very beginning, Vandal is insane.
Yes he will help you if you need it and if you’re a good person (according to his moral compass) but if you betray him he will kill you.
I think the puppet is the girl that was a former slave.
Zurric
well, that and he will probably guide the person as well lol
Jonathan Hurd
Are you talking about Emma when you say former slave? He picked her up randomly before he even entered Morksi so I think theres about zero percent chance she could be the intended spy. Unless Birknye has basically randomly put a spy in just about every slave caravan throughout all the duchies.
Ozarazil
Well what they said about Birkyne’s pawns made think of her. They said that many of his pawns don’t even know they’re working for him, that he sees it as kind of game.
I doubt the dog is the puppet unless the puppet is someone yet to appear in the story.
Hobbes
He’s not insane… Van’s a sane person who has surpassed insanity. In other words, a Super Sane
Jonathan Hurd
Lol, so Van is so crazy he came out the other side huh. I like it.
A big thing I’d point out is insanity is really in the eye of the beholder. A lot of people consider Van insane because he is so willing to go above and beyond to help those under him. Ignoring Birknye whose God thrives off exploiting each other the concept of helping those below you do thoroughly seems crazy even to Alda and his crew.
I think it’s because Van is unwilling to abandon people that Birknyes plan might actually work. If you sent someone as a spy to befriend to Marshakul or Birknye they’d throw them away after finding the draw back. To a certain degree I think Heinz probably would act the same. It’s only Van who has constantly defended the poor and downtrodden no matter the cost.
I guess the nicer way of putting this is Birknyes plan can work not so much because Van is insane but because Van cares.
Tirirism
Wait. He said “it” not “him” or “her”.
Could it be… THE PUPPY?!?
Tejing
Birkyne is the type who might well refer to normal humans like objects, so I don’t think that’s useful information for figuring out who the puppet is. Honestly though, I wondered this for a sec too.
CCaprice
Thanks for the chapter. Poor Earl.
GashBello
Thanks for the chapter! I can’t wait to see Van acquire a new allie transforming the Birkyne subordinate.
Archomp
Birkyne?
I must have been Mandela’d because I thought for sure all the three vampiric stooges had died.
CCaprice
Nah, Hero got one and Van got one and the other ran away and hid.
Lord Rin
Well technically Heinz only kill stole Ternecia when she fled back through some portal trying to escape Van and she was already on Death’s Doorstep.
Mentalperson
Nah, Messiah complex kill stealed one and Van got one and the other ran away and hid.
mickeyduck
your word phrasing is gold
Lord Rin
“While Vandalieu and his companions were overcoming Joseph and Aggar’s insignificant schemes…”
This sentence just made me laugh.
So now we know exactly how Van has been dealing with the underworld. They previously mentioned that Bellmond was acting as the lover of the boss of the underworld organization but I had found that odd given her personality. Like I couldn’t see her try to seduce someone when she has Van. Turns out the boss guy has been turned into a Live Dead controlled by Van and they’re only acting which also explains how easily Eleanora, Isla, and Melissa were able to slip in without being questioned. Also these Aberrations sound like a higher grade of Live Dead that are in charge of the organization’s management and that’s how Van has control of the criminal underworld.
So Birkyne plans to send somebody to Van to get close to him before betraying him. That’s not a very smart plan. Did he forget how Eleanora immediately switched sides to Van when she was sent after him? Or how other vampires like Miles have also switched sides? Why does he assume that the next person he sends wouldn’t switch sides too? Anyways I assume that who he sends is probably somebody who has been brainwashed to act as a sleeper agent who will seem all normal and that Birkyne’s people will engineer something to happen to them to make Van rescue the brainwashed person and that at some point their brainwashing will kick in and that that’s when they would betray Van. Too bad that even if they are brainwashed, Van can probably just guide them which will undo the brainwashing and make them loyal to Van.
Meanwhile either Joseph and Aggar are being unknowingly used as pawns by Birkyne in this plan or they unknowingly stumbled onto it and somehow think they can use this against Van while simultaneously screwing up Birkyne’s plan unintentionally. I mean Birkyne is a narcissist so his plans would be unnecessarily flashy and intricate because he’s trying to be clever so I could see him being stupid enough to include Joseph and Aggar because he heard how they have been in conflict with Van and Birkyne thinks it’d been clever to use them without realizing how inept they actually are or Birkyne’s plan turns out to be so crappy because he’s trying to be clever that those two idiots somehow got wind of it and think they can use it against Van. Like maybe they hear about a dhampir or dark elf coming to the city and they think they can use them against Van because of their identity and they move to kidnap or arrest them to blackmail Van before the person that was to be used for Birkyne’s plan has a chance to actually carry out the plan.
VEreality
No Spoilers
VEreality
Excuse me whoever took my comment down but it wasn’t an actual spoiler. It was a joke and I have no idea what is going to happen next. Just saying 🙁
Oshibo
Birkyne should know that Vida is recovering and that Zakkart isn’t a surname one can casually have. Seeing as he is obviously Vida’s champion his heart, even if soft, isn’t a weakness. If someone like Vida with the biggest and softest heart is strong and can turn enemies into allies why would her champion be any different?
tanathos
Well is a common miss conception, people usually thinks that being kind or having a soft heart is the same as being naive, stupid, or incapable of any act of violence. In fact, kind and peace seeking people are the ones that can make the most violent acts when they are pushed to do so
tanathos
so vans or vida “soft heart” isn’t a weakness i agree with you
junior1210
Well said!
Hobbes
What I don’t understand is why people confuse the notion of being soft-hearted or hard-hearted as being an all-encompassing personality trait.
I mean, if there’s a part of something that you would say is much softer than the other parts… that intrinsically means there’s some awfully tough parts there too… If there’s a Yin there’s gotta be a Yang so to speak.
Entropy
Thanks for the chapter. I am wondering what pawn Birkyne has in mind. It has to be someone Van would be friendly towards so maybe a reincarnated soul like the magic-masher or one of his group since Birkyne was keeping an eye on them. Another possibility could be Van’s father. I know a lot of people will say Birkyne does not use zombies, but there is a difference between not using zombies and not being able to use zombies. Birkyne may also try using a Dhampir. I would say that the first one might be the most likely, but considering Birkyne said that Van will show compassion to the pawn and that the pawn would draw closer to him, I strongly suspect a dhampir. Van would have race in common, would know what it is like to be hunted, and a rogue dhampir would head straight to Van for protection. It could be loyal to Birkyne if Birkyne was its father or protected the dhampir from the other two pure-bloods. Birkyne did want Van as an ally initially after seeing his power so he might have done something similar in the past. Whatever he plans to use must be a decent trick since of the three pure vampires, he was the weakest and that does raise a question of why he was still around.
Jonathan Hurd
I feel like the chances of Birknye sending a reincarnated person to him is fairly low since he has no real connection to Rodcorte. He is following Asagi’s group, but I think even if he took Asagi’s entire group Van wouldn’t help them even if they begged.
The chances of Asagi and the rest giving up someone also seems pretty abysmal. Sure they could be tortured into helping, but the only way they could find out where the other reincarnators are is talking to Rodcorte or his familiar spirits. Rodcorte’s not going to give Birknye Murakami when Murakami is hunting Van. I also feel like he just won’t see the gain in the strat and would ignore it.
For a Dhampir, I think your idea is interesting, but I feel like there are some problems with it. The biggest problem to me is why would a Dhampir go to Van instead of trying to go to Heinz/Alda’s peaceful faction? We know Van is strong and well established, but only the top people in the human nations have an idea of this. Any commoner would just see Van as a small boy struggling to survive same as them.
Another problem with the Dhampir idea is they just wouldn’t be old enough. Birknye and the rest have been hunting Dhampir’s fairly successfully for the last hundred thousand years, and there is a pretty big taboo on their creation to begin with. Maybe he could repeat Marshakul’s plot and send a woman pregant with his dhampir child to Van, but I don’t really see a point in him doing that if the only goal Birknye has is spying or assassination.
I think we might be thinking about this a little too hard. Remember how Van has always acted. He picks up and helps the weak. This has been shown to especially true for Ghouls. So I think what Birknye would probably do is find someone belonging to Vida’s races and kidnap their family. Then he just sends them to Van after kicking the crap out of them and hiring thugs to chase them.
The most important part is Birknye needs something to keep their loyalty. Otherwise they’ll just betray him like Eleanora did.
Darkhelios
So Byrkine is planning to create some hostages and hide behind them in order to attack Vandalieu…? Well… At least, he’s far better at planning things than Gubamon. I still remember the whole “Using undeads against someone who controls undeads” plan. It was quite funny.
As for Aggar’s and Joseph’s fates…
Considering that his superior will intervene under the lord’s direct orders, Aggar will probably be temporarily dismissed? …I suspect that he might continue his actions… and might even try to go inside Vandalieu’s house. Would be funny too. For Joseph, I wonder… Will he be smart enough to stop…? Probably not…
Kazza
Hmm, guess Birkyne isn’t as dumb as he seems. He’s trying a good old subterfuge plan.
Seems he’s sending someone to get close to Van, but then what?
“… and he’ll become so close to it he cannot abandon it even if he knows the truth.”
That’s interesting. What would be so damaging to Van that he would have to debate getting rid of it? He can’t be talking about Asagi, cause even though he doesn’t know their history he knows Van won’t approve of his research.
Maybe it’s someone with a sealed DK fragment that is somehow detrimental to the other fragments? Since (as far as Birkyne knows) Van can’t remove DK fragments without killing the host, he’d hesitate killing them, maybe? But how could Birkyne control that…
Honestly, it’s like a really rugged jigsaw puzzle. It’s got to fit a certain shape…
So, for what it is:
1. A person or sentient being at the very least.
2. Isn’t willingly connected to Birkyne.
3. Has some trait that would make them an enemy – or at the very least – a detriment to Van. For an additional possibility, they could be related to an enemy of Van.
4. Is going to Morksi.
5. Probably hasn’t met Van before.
6. Probably isn’t an Alda follower (cause that puts them in direct opposition, even if they are in the peaceful faction).
7. Is probably unable to take care of themselves and/or are afflicted with something only Van can help.
Honestly, I know I’m not the greatest information retainer/speculator, but I think this person would have to meet these criteria. Does anyone have an idea of who could meet these? Or, if you feel I’m off mark, add/take away your own?
Entropy
I am thinking it might be a Dhampir. They would have being hunted in common and the dhampir’s parents could be used as leverage. I don’t know how a young dhampir could be a threat to Van, but perhaps as a hostage. Another possibility could be that Birkyne could try to kidnap Heinz’s dhampir and drop her off near Van. Another factor to include would be that the person would need to be able to get close to Van since Birkyne wants to play on Van’s compassionate side so it has to be someone that Van relates to.
Kazza
See, that’s why this is like a puzzle piece to me. A slum orphan would get sympathy, sure, but how does that help him beat Van? If he’s just planning to hold them as a hostage, that’s stupid. Even if he took steps to ensure the hostage couldn’t be revived by the Death Mage, that only succeeds in pissing Van off. He’s partially responsible for his mom being burned alive, after all. If that didn’t break him, the death of someone he feels he should protect wouldn’t either. That’s three of the four sides, but it still doesn’t fit.
Plus, if he wants to use orphans as a bargaining chip, why only one? His words imply one person traveling, not a group.
Lord Rin
Well we know that Birkyne will engineer a person’s misfortune and manipulate them into joining him like how he did with Eleanora. I seem to recall they mentioned that he was the one responsible for her being sold into slavery in the first place before then showing up much later to ‘rescue’ her so she would pledge her loyalty to him and become of a vampire though that was all part of a larger plan to then betray her because he wanted to see her expression when he did it. I could see something like that done to an orphan but with the added step of them being brainwashed as a sleeper agent for Birkyne.
Like I could see Birkyne planning this when he first heard about Van being in Morksi. He could find somebody that Van might be sympathetic to like a dhampir or dark elf, make them into an orphan then swoop in to act as their savior, they pledge their loyalty to Birkyne who uses that to his advantage and brainwashes them into a sleeper agent before erasing their memory of him and then sending them off to Van with some phony backstory like they’re some orphan that slavers are chasing while Birkyne engineers some danger with pawns to ensure that Van rescues the orphan sleeper agent.
Yeah it’s a convoluted plan but Birkyne is a narcissist who would make such a plan because he thinks it’d show how ‘clever’ he actually is.
Lord Rin
I guess I remembered it incorrectly that Birkyne was directly responsible for Eleanora becoming a slave but still the rest of it stands. He took her in for the final end goal of betraying her to see her in despair because that’s part of the teachings of Hihiryushukaka. He’s done it before. It really is a miracle that the group didn’t fall apart long before Gubamon and Ternecia died.
Yes Birkyne doesn’t need to make an orphan but since he is a narcissist then he would probably rather go for the bigger and meaner plan that’s more complex to show off how ‘clever’ he really is instead of the more pragmatic and simple plan. Plus Hihiryushukaka’s teachings state that to truly enjoy life then you need to stomp down on others so Birkyne making somebody an orphan as opposed to just finding one would be following his god’s teachings.
Anyways yes Birkyne has said that he tries not to be wasteful but that’s only because he tries to paint himself as this sophisticated and wise person because of his narcissism when he really isn’t. He flies off the handle over the smallest reason and massacres everybody nearby and will go on a rampage for sometimes days on end killing his subordinates. Then after he’s done he’ll just go, “Ah well, whatever.” and not reflect on his actions. That is not how a person who actually tries to not be wasteful does things. Also the only reason he didn’t send more backup with Eleanora wasn’t because he didn’t want to be wasteful and instead it was because he thought it wasn’t necessary because he underestimated Van since he was only a few years old at the time.
Kazza
What? I’m not trying to be rude, but there’s no way that’s his plan. Neither of them are stupid enough to trust one another with a non-aggression pact.
Van knows for a fact Birkyne completely and utterly fucked over Terenicia and Gubamon, despite being in a pact to help each other for millennia. If he doesn’t take care of the threat now, the immortal vampire will always exist and be a potential source of danger.
And it works the other way. So, Birkyne gives Van the orphans. What stops Van from then reneging on that deal. More orphans? As long as Van views him as a threat, he isn’t safe.
No, the only way this conflict ends is with one of them dead. In a straight up fight, Van wins, so Birkyne needs to do something to tip the odds in his favor.
Tejing
He’s not going for a non-aggression pact. He wouldn’t trust Van’s word on such a thing anyway. From his previous words, it sounds like he wants to engineer a situation by which Van will stop hating him.
Lord Rin
But Birkyne isn’t even trying to attempt to create a non-aggression pact. He’s trying to place a puppet in Van’s group that will then betray him and try to kill him all while Birkyne hides in a hole.
Hobbes
Correct, but nobody ever said Van’s enemies said no to horrifically bad ideas.
Kiriaru
I feel like somehow it is the dog Fang.
Adorable puppet, Van saved it. Van already has plans to raise it and level it up. It would be perfect, I just don’t know how clever Miles is in pulling that off.
Tejing
I assume by ‘Miles’ you mean ‘Birkyne’…
Reiji
I think the highest probability would be the orphan that tried to steal from Van. Maybe the orphanage is being pressured or controlled or something by Birkyne. Van will probably find out about what Birkyne is doing to the children and Birkyne will get his well deserved beat down. I might be wrong though but I’m willing to bet that it has something to do with the orphans and orphanages and the children. I also think that the 5(?) adventurers Van met when Fang became a Demon Dog will have more roles to play in the future.
Entropy
I had not considered them, but maybe they are Biryne spies. I don’t think all of them, but one of them could be a vampire. Since vampires remain ageless, if a child was turned young and had sun resistance, it would make the perfect trap for those who are compassionate, but I don’t see how the vampire would succeed in entrapping Van. I guess he could use the other kids as meat shields, but that is a poor plan that can easily backfire against a ruthless opponent.
Mr.Darkness
Maybe that Simon guy? I really can’t think of anyone…
“… and he’ll become so close to it he cannot abandon it even if he knows the truth.” Besides Darcia, i doubt there is someone like this ‘-‘
Van is very spiteful, he really holds a grudge if someone betrays him…
Harknail
After reading your message, I got an idea of who Birkyne might be using… The young Dhampir girl protected by the adventurers that captured Van’s mother (and then repented). The girl herself would pose no threat. But the adventurers protecting her would then protect her from Van. This plan would be flawed in that these adventurers were already being groomed by gods to fight Van, and are in bad shape after fighting just his soul. Still this would fir with being unable to abandon her even after finding out the truth of her connections.
Lord Rin
That is literally impossible to have happen. Birkyne would need to risk either himself or one of his people and go all the way into what might be the highest concentration of Alda worshipers that is probably also heavily watched by the gods of Alda’s faction that could send down a heroic spirit or whatever as security. Whoever goes in would need to get through all of that before even thinking of taking Selen. Also at best Van is indifferent about her so he would be very unlikely to help her or take her in. In fact he wanted to claw off her face when he first met her because she was having the sort of happy family life that Van couldn’t experience.
Paps
HAHAHAHA is fun how everyone has a secret plan working. Van actually was on point regarding those fools, and the Vampire is about to lose another piece, foolish one.
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
no1
Thank you for the chapter Yoshi. So this chapter describes Van current control a criminal organization. These recent chapters are interesting in explaining things that were mentioned briefly in previous chapters. So Birkyne is planning to use some kind of pawn get near Van, wonder who that would be. Also what role does Earl Isaac play again, his presence in this chapter seemed unnecessary?
Morgan
He’s trying to reign in Joseph while also trying to keep the religious factions from rioting because the tomes in the hands of alda’s statues broke and a lot of high preists fainted. He’s also dealing with his ordinary troubles as the regional lord. I think he might be Birkyne’s puppet too, since he’s mostly unknowingly helping Van.
Tejing
From what Birkyne says it sounds like his puppet will need to be saved by Van… that doesn’t really fit Isaac.
VEreality
Birkyne has narcissistic tendencies and believes in the god of joyful life.
Oh boy
He is going to have a rude wake up call very soon.
Now the question is: Is he going to piss his pants and curse Van until he dies or fall to his knee and worship our small death god with his dying breath?
Thanks for the chapter!
PsychicBlast
Thanks for the chapter!!!
Apokryphos
Oh gods.. a puppet in which Van will show his trust… what ugly plot this might turn out to be…
Rainbow Dash
Noice
Doom-sama
PRAISE VAN-SAMA, OUR LORD SAVIOR, OUR CHAMPION, AS HE PROCEEDS TO SQUASH HIS ENEMIES AND SPREADS HIS INFLUENCE! THE SACRED MESSAGE TODAY IS:
Lets further strengthen our defenses and make the city safe! I wonder if the enemy will send Fang any good chew toys?
General Gratas
PRAISE VAN-SAMA!
Soundwave
Thank you for the chapter as always 🙂 I can’t wait for what may happen next
Sebas Tian
We finally get to see how Van has been dealing with the area’s unmentionables and see what Birkyne is thinking up. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
Superboy8338
I am enjoying it.
Mr.Darkness
I enjoyed it ^^
Birkyne says he worship Hihiryushukaka, but his action make him seems to worship Rodstupid…
Warlono
So far he seems to be the smartest among Vandalieu’s enemies (though that isn’t saying much). Unless I’m mistaken he’s the one who’s been the most correct in regards to his thinking towards Vandalieu and his actions.
akatsuki kuranashi
he is going to use selen as bait right?
Dr. Steel
No. How would he, and why would he think that would do anything? What would that accomplish? The most I can think of is if Van wanted Selen to use against the Five Blades, but he isn’t the kind to get bystanders caught up in his revenge, and how would Birkyne use that?
Brainlet
as nice as seeing the enemies pov is i want some meh-kun povs please