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Drawn by the scent of the blood of multiple monsters, the Kobolds gathered.
Horn Rabbits, Goblins, Forest Wolves, Slimes, Gluttony Goats, Impaler Oxen and Orcs.
The smell of the blood of monsters of varying races and strength was coming from a single place. One could only imagine that this was the work of adventurers.
Adventurers who had come to the Devil’s Nest to hunt were taking a break with the corpses of the monsters they had defeated left in a wagon or carriage.
Having realized this, the Kobolds decided to swiftly attack the adventurers. As there was the scent of Orc blood in the air, it was clear that the adventurers were capable. But the Kobolds’ leader believed that the adventurers could be defeated if they were taken by surprise while they were tired and resting.
What they saw was a wagon loaded with a mountain of monster corpses, and a white-haired child who was sitting down as if hiding.
Believing that they were even luckier than they had initially thought, the Kobolds flooded in towards the cart.
And the Kobolds were met by a large dog covered in a heat-shimmer-like aura.
They shrieked as they were easily repelled, and the Kobold Soldiers’ weapons didn’t even scratch their foe. The heat shimmer around the dog distorted their vision as it leapt about, robbing the Kobolds of their lives one by one.
Realizing that they would be exterminated at this rate, the Kobold General leading the pack roared an order for the Kobolds to take a tightly-packed formation.
He had made the decision that if they protected each other and eliminated each other’s blind spots, they would be able to fend the dog off. The Kobold General’s order, and the Kobolds obeying it, was a fine demonstration of the fact that Kobolds were more capable of unified coordination than other monsters.
At the very least, they were more well-coordinated than unskilled bandit groups.
But with a loud bark, the large dog used the mass of crowded Kobolds as a jumping platform to leap at the Kobold General.
The Kobold General let out a surprised yelp, but quickly roared in return as it activated the ‘Shield Technique’ martial skill, ‘Stone Wall.’ It attempted to use its shield to defend itself from the dog.
But the shield, which had been looted from a human corpse, was unable to completely block the dog’s attack. It was deflected upwards, and the dog’s follow-up attack tore the Kobold General’s throat open.
The dog let out a roar of victory, and the surviving Kobolds screamed in terror and began to run away after seeing their leader defeated.
As if taking over for the Kobolds, the D-class adventurer party known as the ‘Iron Boulder Brigade’ appeared.
“This is a Black Dog! A Rank 3 monster! It’s a dangerous one!” Rock shouted at his companions in warning.
“Black? It looks gray to me… No, wait, Rock,” said one of Rock’s companions.
“It’s not a matter of the color of its fur! That ‘Aura of Darkness’ that looks like shimmering heat is proof that it’s a Black Dog. It uses that to confuse the eyes of its enemies, erase its presence and strike from a blind spot to inflict a fatal wound… It might be Rank 3, but it’s more dreadful than a Rank 3 monster. There are a lot of D-class adventurers who fearfully call it a grim reaper’s servant,” said Rock. “It might be alone, but don’t let your guard down!”
“That’s not what I was trying to say. Doesn’t that Black Dog look familiar? And the aura makes it hard to see, but it has a collar on. And… you,” Rock’s companion said, pointing at Vandalieu, who was sitting near the cart that Fang had been guarding. “Be faster to explain yourself. We’re at fault for giving you a fright as well, though.”
“Sorry, I wasn’t meaning to hide,” said Vandalieu, lowering his head in apology.
The plan had been to hunt a large number of monsters to acquire the meat needed for tomorrow while also increasing Fang’s Level.
Despite merely giving Fang commands to hunt monsters, Vandalieu gained Experience Points as well. But naturally, the one-tenth fraction of the Experience Points from defeating Rank 3 and 4 monsters was nowhere near the amount that he needed to Level up.
But because he had become a ‘Bestower,’ he had begun to gain Experience Points whenever someone transformed into a member of a new race like Luciliano and the others. He had also acquired Experience Points when Fang mutated, so his Level had increased a fair amount already.
The ‘Bestower’ Job might be surprisingly good for gaining Experience Points. And I gained quite a fair amount when Eleanora and Isla disposed of the ‘Bounty Hunter Hunter’ Abel, too… I heard that humans gain less Experience Points when killing another human, so it must have just been my imagination when I felt like I got a lot, even though it was only a tenth of what the kill was worth.
Thanks to these circumstances, Vandalieu didn’t have to think about his own Leveling.
But although he had originally intended to use up all of the time from the early morning until the afternoon, plans had changed due to various circumstances. He needed to strengthen the surveillance network that he had secretly set up around the city of Morksi.
He was simply increasing the number of surveillance Golems and Undead, so it didn’t take too much effort, but it wasn’t a simple enough task to be completed in a matter of minutes.
In order to lure a large number of monsters to them in a short period of time, Vandalieu had decided to drain the blood from all of the corpses of the monsters he’d hunted in one spot.
The smell of blood drifting into the surroundings had lured starving monsters in. Fang had been using his physical strength that had been improved by Vandalieu’s guidance to hunt the monsters that gathered, with the occasional assistance from Eisen and Kühl.
Naturally, his Rank had increased in the process.
“A Black Dog… From what Rock-san and the others told us, it seems that you’re a rare kind of monster,” said Vandalieu, patting Fang’s head.
Fang gave a happy bark. With the way he was wagging his tail, he looked like an ordinary large dog, especially since he was suppressing his heat-shimmer-like aura.
According to Rock, this aura had the effect of instilling fear in humans; Black Dogs were troublesome monsters that attacked not only the bodies of their enemies, but their minds as well.
“… It seems that monsters are more scared of me, though,” said Vandalieu.
He had not realized it until recently, but he was even more terrifying to monsters than Fang was.
He had been aware that Demon-type monsters feared him, but it seemed that this was true for low-Rank monsters in general.
Just like herbivores would avoid carnivores, weak monsters would not approach Vandalieu unless they were starving to the point of insanity.
And the majority of the monsters in the Devil’s Nest closest to the city were the weak kind that feared Vandalieu. That was why he had been staying near the cart with his presence erased during the hunts, though he would have shown his presence if too many monsters happened to gather.
But that was why it had taken some time for him to deal with Rock and his companions when they arrived onto the scene.
“We went a little overboard, didn’t we,” said Vandalieu.
Fang gave a regretful whimper.
Though they had prepared a large cart in advance, Fang had defeated too many monsters, and all of the meat and materials would not fit on it.
After parting ways with Rock’s party, Vandalieu had decided to call Gufadgarn, create a connection in space and have her move the meat that would not fit on the cart to the house.
“Pay it no mind. It is a joyful thing for me,” said Gufadgarn.
Incidentally, the spies of the region’s lord did not follow them into the Devil’s Nest. This was likely to avoid being found by monsters and being noticed by Vandalieu as a result, something that they prioritized over keeping their eyes on him.
“Still, is the Goblin and Kobold meat not unnecessary? I believe you could simply discard it after cutting off their ears,” said Gufadgarn.
The majority of the meat that she had transported to the house was not for use in skewers, but meat that was unsuitable for consumption in the first place. This was meat that nobody would desire other than inhabitants of the slums who were unable to secure a meal for themselves for the day.
“And if you are intending to donate something to the orphanage, would it not be better to offer something a little better in quality?” Gufadgarn added.
Goblin meat was stinky and hard, and Kobold meat was hardly any better. They were not poisonous; meat was meat, so it would be better to eat it than nothing at all. The orphanage would happily accept it, considering that the nuns running it had been forced to cut down on the orphans’ meals and were unable to feed them properly.
“No, I don’t intend to do that. I have other meat for donation. I was thinking of using this meat for Gobu-gobu or baked dishes,” said Vandalieu. “The owners of the food carts operating near us have been looking at us harshly lately, so this might be a chance.”
“… I do not understand how the gazes of the owners of other food carts are connected to Gobu-gobu or a chance for us, but all will be as my master Vandalieu wills,” said Gufadgarn. “But may I say just one thing?”
“What is it?” Vandalieu asked.
“If you intend to continue hunting as you did today, I suggest that you bring more carts and also more members with you.”
Fang vehemently objected to Gufadgarn’s suggestion with a series of sad barks. It seems that he took her words to mean that he alone was not enough. “That’s not right, Ane-go*,” he seemed to be saying.
TLN*: Respectful term for older sister.
But it seemed that Gufadgarn had no intention to imply this either.
“Fang, we are brethren,” she said. “I am not saying that your strength is insufficient. I made this suggestion because the humans may grow suspicious otherwise.”
Vandalieu and Fang were the only ones who were known to have gone out hunting today. At the very least, that was what the Iron Boulder Brigade and the guards at the city’s gate believed.
On top of that, they were under the impression that Vandalieu was leaving the majority of the fighting to Fang. They would never imagine that he would participate in battles himself with magic or weapons.
And then there were today’s results. They were likely surprised that Fang had defeated so many monsters that were of the same strength as himself, but at the same time, perhaps they would feel some apprehension.
Fang gave a short bark of understanding.
“I see,” said Vandalieu with a nod. “From an outsider’s perspective, it looks like I’m getting carried away and conducting dangerous hunts. You’re right in saying that leaving all of the fighting to just Fang would be worrying, even if he is a Rank 3 Black Dog.”
There was no guarantee that monsters would always appear in groups one after the other, in small enough numbers. In fact, it would be more likely for multiple groups of monsters to appear at once, and some of them would attack the (seemingly) defenseless Vandalieu while Fang was fighting off others.
Perhaps Rock and Kest would imagine such terrible scenarios. Kest was just a rookie guard, so even if he imagined these scenarios and worried about the danger, he would simply warn Vandalieu more and more. But Rock and his party were adventurers that hunted in the same Devil’s Nest.
Perhaps they would ask to hunt together. Vandalieu might appreciate the sentiment, but… it would be very inconvenient.
“Yes… and Mom still has her sermon… She will probably be asked to give more sermons from time to time from now on as well, so we can’t always be hunting together,” said Vandalieu.
Darcia was busy today with her preparations for her sermon at the Communal Church tomorrow; it was likely that she only intended to give one sermon. But Vandalieu was certain that she would be asked to give more, because he was a mother-con who knew how attractive his mother was.
Fang barked a few times.
“Rita and Saria? Those two… I don’t know if people will believe that I’ve tamed Undead at this point,” Vandalieu replied. “But Eleanora and the others are in the criminal organization so I can’t have them act, and having Miles give us some bodyguards or recruiting companions at the Adventurers’ Guild would be pointless, since it would be just as inconvenient for us to hunt with them as hunting with Rock’s party… so I guess there’s no other choice but to ask Rita and Saria.”
Deciding that there was no choice but to somehow convince Kest and the rest of the guards that Rita and Saria were humans, Vandalieu began thinking about how to do that.
Gufadgarn opened another hole in space. “No, I believe we merely need the numbers to make it seem like we have a powerful party, rather than actually having a powerful party. So why not insist that you have tamed these during your hunts? They also happen to be monsters that appear in this Devil’s Nest,” she said. “Now then, show yourselves before our lord, my brethren.”
From inside the hole, three monsters emerged, summoned by the evil god of labyrinths!
Having returned to the city of Morksi, Vandalieu explained his situation at the gate, purchased three additional collars from the Tamers’ Guild and completed his restocking for tonight.
Accompanied by Darcia, Fang and the others, he visited the orphanage in the slums to make a donation and comfort the orphans.
Vandalieu’s group approached the gate to the orphanage.
“Hey everyone, the meat is here!” one of the orphans said in a lively voice as he spotted them.
The orphans, who had been spending their early afternoon in the garden, immediately rushed towards them. Vandalieu had donated the unused meat from yesterday, so the orphans remembered him well.
The boy with the lively voice, leading all the other orphans, was Matthew – the one who had previously attempted to steal from the food cart and been stopped by Fang.
“Matthew! Make sure to call him ‘Vandalieu-san!’” said a nun, scolding the boy, then turned to apologize to Vandalieu and Darcia. “I’m so terribly sorry. My shortcomings have caused him to develop insufficient manners…”
“It’s alright, Seris-san. Being lively is the most important thing for children,” said Darcia. “Vandalieu was just a little surprised… weren’t you, Vandalieu?”
The nun was Sister Seris, the one who had come to pick Matthew up from the food cart.
“Well, I would appreciate it if he called me by my name,” said Vandalieu.
“I’m sorry. But that’s how we are, right?” said Matthew, clapping Vandalieu on the shoulder.
“… Huh?” said Vandalieu.
“What are you saying, we’re friends, aren’t we!” said Matthew, still grinning broadly.
‘Friends.’ This word reverberated inside Vandalieu’s mind. Yes, ‘friends.’ Not an older friend like Kasim and the others, but a friend of his own age.
“Yes, we are friends,” said Vandalieu.
“Yeah, of course!” said Matthew, putting his hand on Vandalieu’s shoulder once more.
He was getting rather carried away considering that he had initially tried to rob Vandalieu, but… at this moment in time, Vandalieu strongly considered him to be a ‘friend.’
“Children make friends quickly, don’t they?” said Darcia, beaming.
“I-is that so? Vandalieu-san’s expression isn’t changing and the tone of his voice is still flat… Isn’t he hating this?” asked Seris.
“That’s not true. Vandalieu just isn’t very good at expressing his thoughts in his expression and his voice,” Darcia assured her. “Look, they’re having so much fun.”
Seris looked back at Vandalieu to see that… Matthew and the other orphans were cheering at Vandalieu for him to show them his claws.
“H-huh… A-are they?” said Seris, looking uncertain.
It looked like bullying to her, but perhaps Darcia knew how her son was feeling inside because she was his mother. Seris had thought of herself as the children’s older sister, but she realized that she still had a long way to go.
“Wow, they’re longer than I thought,” said one of the orphans.
“Can they cut through anything?” asked another.
“Yes, I can peel fruit very easily, like this,” said Vandalieu, demonstrating.
“Oooooh!” the children exclaimed in awe.
“Cutting the shell of hard fruit and scooping out the flesh inside is simple as well,” said Vandalieu, demonstrating further, as if he were showing a product on a shopping program.
“OOOOOH!” the children exclaimed, even louder than before.
Vandalieu didn’t feel that he was being bullied.
“Hey, where did those fruit even come from?!” one of the orphans asked.
“They were hidden in my sleeve,” Vandalieu replied.
He had actually grown the fruit with the effects of the ‘Tree Caster’ Job mere moments ago.
“Wow, can I eat this?” the orphan holding the fruit asked.
“Go ahead,” said Vandalieu.
“Thanks, Onee-chan!”
“Wait, you’re a girl?!” asked Matthew in surprise.
“I’m an Onii-chan. I’m a boy, Matthew,” Vandalieu told him.
Despite having started to slowly develop secondary sexual characteristics, Vandalieu’s voice was still high, and he had no facial hair whatsoever. It seemed that the orphans had been unable to determine his gender.
“Onii-chan, did you kill the monsters with those claws?” another one of the orphans asked.
“No, Fang here is the one who mainly took care of them,” Vandalieu replied.
The Black Dog Fang was introduced to the orphans.
“He looks strong!” the children said.
Fang, who disliked humans, didn’t give much of a reaction. But he stayed calm and sitting, still suppressing his aura, and none of the children became annoyed by this.
“Then what about these huge rats over there?” asked Matthew, pointing at three very large rats that were about the same size as Fang, who was a large dog.
One of the rats gave a squeak.
They were Great Giant Rats, each of a different color – white, black and gray. They had round eyes, whiskers that acted like feelers, and long, thin tails. All three of them looked exactly like rats, except for their size.
“That’s Maroru, Urumi and Suruga. They’re the Great Giant Rats that I found and tamed on the way home today,” said Vandalieu.
These were the Rank 2 monsters that Gufadgarn had recommended.
Of course, it wasn’t Gufadgarn who had caught and tamed them. All three of them were originally animals who had been born from Vandalieu and Luciliano’s experiments involving living animals mating with Undead, then transformed into monsters after drinking Blood Potion.
“Stand in line,” Vandalieu ordered.
Perhaps because the Great Giant Rats had been born from experiments involving the breeding of Undead and transformed into monsters by Blood Potion, they were firmly loyal to Vandalieu. On top of that, their appearance was exactly the same as ordinary Great Giant Rats; there was no way to tell that they had been born in unusual circumstances.
And although Great Giant Rats were not as common as Goblins, they were still very common. Since Vandalieu had the precedent of having tamed Fang, there was nobody who could refute his claims of having encountered and tamed them by chance.
Even Bachem, the Guild Master of the Tamers’ Guild, hadn’t shown any signs of suspicion.
“Can we pet them?” one of the orphans asked.
“Yes, as long as you aren’t too rough. Make sure not to pull on their whiskers or their tails,” said Vandalieu.
The children began petting the quiet Great Giant Rats. They had grown up in an orphanage, so they were used to being around rats, but it seemed that they were very curious and interested about these enormous rats that would be taller than themselves if they were to stand on their hind legs.
The Great Giant Rats squeaked and showed off their cute side to the children, rubbing their smooth fur against them.
In other words, they were putting on a show.
“So cute!” one of the children said.
“Hey, didn’t these guys sound deeper when they squeaked earlier?” said Matthew, who was one of the older children, realizing that the lovable enormous rats were being sly.
But the rest of the children were obsessed with the three rat sisters.
Maroru and Urumi began letting the children ride on their backs, and the youngest of the rats, Suruga, went over to Fang and began slapping her tail against him.
Fang let out a surprised bark. Suruga gave him a series of squeaks. Fang protested a little more, but he gave in and let out some soft, never-heard-before barks as he approached the children.
It seemed that Suruga had told him, “We’re doing our best to show off our charm and win over these young humans, but you’re not doing anything even though you’re our senior?! You call yourself a male, curling up like that?!”
Fang, who was above Suruga in Rank but lost when it came to appeal, reluctantly went to interact with the children.
“Hey, did you see that?!” said Matthew, turning to Vandalieu.
But for some reason, Vandalieu was doing push-ups with three young children sitting on his back.
“What is it?” Vandalieu asked.
It seemed that he wanted to show off the strength of a Dhampir.
“Wow, you’re so strong even though your arms are so thin,” said Matthew. “You’d be fine even if Seris-neechan got on your back, right? Even though she probably weighs about ten times as much as you.”
“Matthew, what are you saying?! There’s no way I’m that heavy!” Seris protested.
“But I guess it’s impossible after all, since Nee-chan’s gotten fatter these days,” Matthew continued. “Ah, but I think you’d be fine with Vestra-neechan on top of you, since she’s thinner than Seris-neechan –”
Seris and another nun of around the same age, with slanted eyes and a strict-looking face, quietly walked behind Matthew and took a hold of his cheeks.
“Matthew, if you have the time to be saying silly things and saying mean things about Seris, you can help us carry the meat to the food storage,” said the nun named Vestra in a considerably blunter tone than Seris’s. “Seris, don’t get upset over every thing he says. You need to scold him.”
“Vestra… Thanks,” said Seris. “I know what I need to do, but…”
“Come on, Vestra-neechan! Even you were screeching when Rudo-niichan made fun of you in the past!” said Matthew.
“The past is the past, and the present is the present! Go and help!” said Vestra sternly.
“Okay then. Let’s go,” Matthew said to Vandalieu.
“Yes, let’s get it done and out of the way,” said Vandalieu as he began carrying the food with Matthew.
“Eh? Vandalieu-san, you don’t have to,” said Vestra, hastily trying to stop him.
“She’s right! You’ve made donations two days in a row now; we can’t thank you enough as it is!” Seris protested.
But Vandalieu diligently pushed the cart that was loaded with dried meat he had made quickly with magic and furs that could be used as blankets.
“I’m strong, so don’t worry about it,” he said. “And you don’t have to add ‘-san’ to my name; both of you are older than me, aren’t you?”
“No, you’re running a food cart… and you’re an amazing Tamer,” said Vestra.
“Yes. In fact, you’ve got it together better than us,” said Seris.
The two nuns began helping him push the cart. It seemed that they thought highly of Vandalieu having a temporary registration at the Commerce Guild and being a Tamer, rather than thinking about his age.
“I guess boys have to work, after all,” Matthew sighed. “Hey, Vandalieu, teach me some taming tricks or how to fight!”
“My taming is self-taught so I’m not very confident in it, but I can teach you how to fight,” said Vandalieu.
“Matthew, don’t cause any more trouble for Vandalieu-san… Wait, you’re okay with it?” said Seris.
As Vandalieu and the others headed towards the food storage, Darcia was talking to the head of the orphanage. Other than having an eye-patch over her left eye and being very thin, the head of the orphanage seemed to be a gentle, elegant woman.
“I see, so this is Vida’s…” said Darcia.
“That’s right. When this city was still developing, and the slums had begun to grow larger as if it were the city’s shadow, the first head of this orphanage built this building with his own private funds. ‘This is the place that needs the most love,’ he said. This building has a history to it, if nothing else,” said the head of the orphanage, smiling and pointing at the orphanage that had signs of having been repaired here and there. “I don’t think it can be called much of a history when talking to a Dark Elf, however,” she added.
“No, I’m quite young.”
“Is that so? You have such a dependable son, so I thought… I would certainly like to hear about how you educate your child.”
“Oh no, I don’t do anything special. I’ve caused nothing but hardship for my son.”
Darcia suddenly thought back to the days that she had spent with Vandalieu… and felt a little depressed at all the trouble that she had caused him.
But this wasn’t the time to be feeling depressed. This conversation was not just to build a good relationship with the orphanage’s head, but also to gather information, so she pulled herself together.
“More importantly, you don’t seem to have a good relationship with the priest of the Communal Church and the lord of the region,” Darcia said.
The head of the orphanage seemed to not notice Darcia’s inner thoughts.
“I suppose you can tell. The first head of this orphanage was a Vida fundamentalist, while the priest of the Communal Church is a member of Alda’s peaceful faction,” she said. “In the past, the entirety of the Alcrem Duchy was not a good place for Vida’s races to live in, and this orphanage took in Beast-kin and Titan orphans, so there weren’t good relations back then.”
About three hundred years ago, there was a tragedy in which the daughter of the Alcrem Duchy’s duke lost her life to a bandit attack. The attack on the troop of caravans that she was with resulted from information that was leaked by a Beast-kin knight, and around half of the attacking bandits were members of Vida’s races such as Beast-kin and Titans.
The duke, who loved his daughter dearly, did everything in his power to hunt bandits. At the same time, he exiled members of Vida’s races from public positions such as knights, guards and civil officials. He left a will to his descendants that members of Vida’s races must not ever hold public positions.
Unfortunately, the duke had served as king of the nation for two terms, and was a righteous and beloved figure who had made the Alcrem Duchy prosper. Many of the exiled members of Vida’s races did not resist, believing that he would come to his senses one day.
The next duke maintained his father’s policy out of the sadness he felt from losing his older sister.
This policy had been continued until recently. Under the policy’s influence, Vida’s religion had grown less influential, with more of the Communal Church’s priests favoring Alda’s followers over the generations, causing the orphanage to become estranged from the Church.
“As you can see, we have Beast-kin and Titan children here too,” said the head of the orphanage. “But that is because we have received support, albeit secretly, from the lord of the region over several generations. Though I do believe that it was for political reasons rather than out of compassion…”
“You’re probably right,” Darcia agreed as she watched Fang and the rats play with the Beast-kin and Titan orphans.
If Vida’s races were completely persecuted, there was a risk that they would unite and form a rebellion, and it would have also been problematic if they turned to crime because they could not afford to eat.
But since the duke would not change the policy against Vida’s races, it was hard to support the orphanage openly. That was likely why the lords of the region in the past had done so in secret.
“But then, wouldn’t it be possible to repair the relationship?”
The entirety of the Alcrem Duchy now allowed members of Vida’s races to take up public positions. The wolf-type Beast-kin Kest serving as a guard was one example of that.
But the head of the orphanage slowly shook her head. “It does not go very well. Even if the system changes, people’s hearts… We have had some disputes with Alda’s priest at the Communal Church.”
“I see, that’s –” Darcia began.
Unfortunate for the children, but convenient for us, she thought, finishing her sentence in her head.
Darcia and Vandalieu were against Alda’s peaceful faction… or rather, against all of Alda’s forces. It was important for children to have ordinary lives without starving, but it would be strange if Vandalieu gained friends who were followers of Vida with good ties to Alda’s peaceful faction as a result of his support of the orphanage.
In other words, I need to maintain the Vida fundamentalism in this orphanage, and pull the followers of Vida at the Communal Church towards us. I have to do my best at the sermon tomorrow! Darcia thought to herself.
“Is something the matter?” the head of the orphanage asked.
“No, it’s nothing,” Darcia replied with a smile.
That evening, while Vandalieu was making preparations to open the grilled skewer cart tomorrow, an incident occurred.
The owners of the food carts on the same street gathered in front of Vandalieu’s food cart. There was an unusual air about them, so Fang revealed himself from the food cart’s shadow, and the Great Giant Rats were alert as well.
“Umm, is something the matter…?” a bewildered Darcia asked the food cart owners.
“Please, spare us!” one of the food cart owners said.
“I’m begging you, please stop!” said another.
The food cart owners bowed their heads, making Darcia even more confused.
“The skewers at your food cart are delicious and too cheap! And the meat you used today was even bigger than yesterday. Don’t tell me you were using boar… Orc meat or Huge Boar meat!”
“If you sell stuff like that at the same price, nobody will even take a second look at our meatball soup that has Goblin and Kobold ears in it, or our sandwiches with vegetable and meat scraps!”
“We procure the meat ourselves so we don’t pay anything for it, and we do all of the butchering as well,” said Vandalieu, still continuing to cook his skewers. “That’s brought our prices down, and you’re feeling threatened as a result?”
If even the poor residents of the slums could acquire delicious food for the same price, they would certainly choose the delicious option. And Vandalieu’s skewers weren’t just cheap; each skewer had a large quantity of meat.
And as one of the food cart owners had guessed, today’s skewers had been made with the meat of the Orcs and other Rank 3 monsters that Fang had defeated. This was meat of a quality that would have been better suited for sale at a food cart on the main street near the entrance to the city or in a proper restaurant, not in a back alley that connected the slums to the entertainment district.
What the food cart owners said was correct. There was no way that their products, which relied on their quantity and cheap price to make up for their terrible flavor, could compete.
“Yeah, that’s right! I’m sure you’re thinking that we should just set up business somewhere else, right?!”
“You guys can only do business here because you’re on a temporary registration, but the rules of the Commerce Guild let us set up business anywhere, after all!”
“But the reality is that you don’t have anywhere to go. Your current products won’t sell on the main street, and the other food cart owners might chase you out because your food carts aren’t a good look. But if you move deeper into the slums, you won’t get as many sales, so you can’t make a living,” said Darcia.
“Th-that’s right! You guys probably think that we should just work harder to sell better food rather than the crap we’re making now, or buy new food carts to set up new businesses on the main street, or find some other job, aren’t you?!” the angry food cart owner shouted.
“But if you could do that, you’d have already done it. It seems like you all have your own circumstances, too… Maybe you can’t do manual labor because you injured yourself when you were a mercenary or adventurer, or you can’t get any jobs because you don’t have an education or because you have a criminal record,” said Vandalieu. “You barely even get by from day to day, so you don’t have the funds to buy ordinary ingredients or new food carts.”
“How the hell do you know all of that?!”
The food cart owners whose circumstances matched Vandalieu’s guesses broke into tears. The rest of them were all wearing exhausted, miserable expressions.
… Even Fang, who had been wary of the food cart owners at the beginning, was now looking at them with a pitiful expression.
Incidentally, Vandalieu and Darcia knew of the food cart owners’ circumstances because their advisor Chipuras had told them that something like this might happen if they sold their skewers at too cheap a price.
He had infiltrated human society as a Deputy Guild Master of the Commerce Guild and as a counsellor; one of his jobs had been to extend a helping hand to those who had stumbled in life, ensure that they had nobody to turn to other than him, and utilize them for various purposes.
Thus, he could easily guess the circumstances of such people.
“So, you know why we’re asking this of you, right?” one of the food cart owners said.
“I’ve been courted by the ‘Starving Wolf’ Michael, so you can’t do anything rash,” said Darcia. “I’m sorry. We didn’t intend to drive you people into a corner, but…”
“It’s fine… Unlike the guy before him, Michael-san is a good guy.”
“He only asks for space rent once a month, and he settles disputes properly.”
“His subordinates make sure to pay for their food, too.”
It seemed that the ‘Starving Wolf’ Michael, or rather Miles, was respected by the inhabitants of the slums.
“But since you understand our situation, we beg you. Putting the matter of the ‘Starving Wolf’ aside, your son is a talented Tamer who can tame monsters, isn’t he!”
“I know you’re on a temporary registration, but even if that doesn’t work out, you can make a fine living by becoming an adventurer and hunting. If our businesses fail, we’ll end up dying on the streets!”
“I thought you’d say that, so I’ve prepared another option for you,” said Vandalieu, pointing at the large stone vase that was on his cart.
“Huh?”
“I will teach you how to make a new product, so will you become a part of our chain… our affiliated stores? I just need you to mark your carts with Vida’s holy symbol,” Vandalieu told the bewildered food cart owners.
This was the point where Vandalieu’s encroachment upon the inhabitants of the city of Morksi began to become visibly apparent.
- Name: (Maroru, Urumi, Suruga)
- Rank: 2
- Race: Great Giant Rat
- Level: 70
- Passive skills:
- Night Vision
- Status Effect Resistance: Level 1
- Enhanced Body Part (Front Fangs, Fur, Tail): Level 1
- Enhanced Agility: Level 1
- Rapid Healing: Level 2
- Enhanced Attribute Values: Creator: Level 2
- Self-Enhancement: Guidance: Level 2
- Active skills:
- Surpass Limits: Level 1
- Whip Technique: Level 1
- Armor Technique: Level 1
- Unique skills:
- ヴァン■■■’s Divine Protection [Van]
These are the three sister rats who were born from breeding experiments between Undead and living animals, mutated through Blood Potion, then increased their Rank.
Their appearance is that of ordinary Great Giant Rats, but they acquired a variety of Skills around the time their Rank increased.
During battle, they use ‘Armor Technique’ martial skills – ‘Stone Form’ to increase their defense and ‘Rapid Reaction’ to increase their reaction speed. They move quickly and use their tails like whips, and enemies who slip past their tails and get close are met with their front fangs.
Of course, ordinary Great Giant Rats do not possess the ‘Status Effect Resistance’ and ‘Rapid Healing’ Skills.
They are also far more intelligent than ordinary Great Giant Rats, and they worship Vandalieu as their creator.
- Name: Fang
- Rank: 3
- Race: Black Dog
- Level: 85
- Passive skills:
- Dark Vision (Transformed from Night Vision!)
- Superhuman Strength: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
- Detect Presence: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
- Intuition: Level 1
- Self-enhancement: Guidance: Level 1
- Enhanced Body Part (Fangs, Claws): Level 1 (NEW!)
- Mental Resistance: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Active skills:
- Silent Steps: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
- Aura of Darkness: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Scream: Level 1 (NEW!)
- Unique skills:
- ヴァ■■■■’s Divine Protection [Va]
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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Luke The Stinky Dwarf
Van is a great person. I’m proud of him.
Randy Rando
The undead who ate life gold must have a pulse and be otherwise nearly indistinguishable from other living beings. Fetuses get all their nutrition and sustenance from the blood of their mother, so at least the females must be basically only dead by technicality.
Naberisu
If an undead can give birth to a live being then this is the only explanation.
Sailon
Well is a magic world so many things can work diferent, for what i understand they manly use the life god in the reproductive parts so has vitality to have children the rest is not explain, but bit becessary should have life in the rest of the body, they can maybe feed someother form of energy to tge baby development like mana for exemples, whe sre talking about a world where even ghosts and live armors can eat and have tastes so try using normsl rules in this seems pointless.
Winter
It would be funny, if Van would conquer the continent not by force, but through entertainment, technological conveniences, and good food.
If people have to choose between Vida’s religion that even gives peasants a good enjoyable life, or genocidal racist Alda, who prevents living conditions to improve for most people or even makes them actively worse by destroying progressive products and technologies, his follower count will plummet within the next few years to a bare minimum of racist fanatics. Probably even less then some of the weaker evil gods have.
Zenden1st
franchise van
LoriStori
I know this is a year late, but please tell me that pun was intentional, because it made me snort my soda.
I don’t want to have ruined my shirt for a pun I only made up. 😭
JKingSniper
Nice opening franchise in fantasy world lol
Drackormort
So this is now Vandamon
Kuroky
Rats with divine protection lol
Inea
Dark Mode now gone? 🙁
Flesh Sculptor
Too many female characters appearing at the same time…
I have a dreadful but exhilarating feeling that either the trio of rat sisters will pull out a “Quinn” and get humanised or the nun duo will become a Vida’s battle nun tag team… Demonic battle nun tag team… The kind that wears the type of habits that are way to short and tight – enfesiseing the curves, defeating the original reason for the existence of habits which is hiding the body…
Krixous
Come on does Fang not deserve a harem to I mean Van may have the biggest but the Black Goblin Ninja has two wives, The shield bearer adventurer guy has 3 undead women, not to even mention Vigaro who probably even beats out Van in women (Ofcourse this is mostly cuz Van does not care)
Aircat386
(This is all my imagination)
Plot Twist: Maroru, Urumi, and Suruga are distant relatives of Bone Man.
polynesianvibez
i wonder if the rats will transform later on
thanks for the chapter
MrTrixer
Great Giant Rats, truth be told, i never expected that they would go with rats. But i gotta say that i love the idea. 🙂
Thank you for the chapter and the treat! (^_^)/
dohkou
Damn I was hoping it would be Zadiris :'(
ObserverBias
? You were hoping /what/ what going to be Zadiris?
TruePath111
The Gods were perplexed, not realizing MC is leaking out poison of conversion.
It’s kinda f*cked up how they treat the peaceful Alda faction though. I get that Alda a enemy but these guys want to try to accept them and don’t know what’s going on in the world of the gods. They’re similar to Heinz this way. Being used and manipulated. No sincere preaching.
If Vida and Garcia became more active and reached out to believers of the Alda faction. I think it’ll be more effective. Seeing a God presence for the first time and all.
SuprGofi
They are trying to pull the believers of the peaceful Alda faction to the vida side, it’s not like they are gonna kill them. They just don’t accept peaceful Alda faction itself because it is just human supremacy and vida race a step below, plus it sill kills off some vida races.
Calango
Are you trolling? is not? What the hell is this shit guy talking about? Do you think you’re funny? think you’re cool? is it funny for you to be playing and laughing alone? disturbing others … are you a little child or do you have a mental problem? bah never mind, it’s just a stupid child with twisted mentality pissing off! kill yourself motherfucker!
Vandalieu
Damn Straight!
WholesomeAF
They clearly states hienz as their mortal enemy. Do you really expect them to co exist with his faction?
Blue Berry
Only idiots would create a peaceful faction of Alda when Alda, himself, wanted to eliminate everything other than the races that have existed before the first Demon King appeared. Which means that he doesn’t care about Heinz’s and peaceful faction’s idea of existence. He will eliminate any races like Ghouls, Scylla, Vanpires, Dhampir et cetera.
If you can’t understand that then shut up. What Heinz and his faction are trying to achieve would remain useless as long as they are believing in Alda’s faction.
I am gonna repeat, Alda wants to make the world “pure” once again. So no Dhampirs, Ghouls, or Undead. Even Death-Attribute users like Pluto aren’t safe.
In the end, Heinz couldn’t do anything right other than killing or fulfilling his mission as Adventurer. Hell, Edgard could list mothers they had killed before. Alda don’t give a shit about Heinz’s way of coexistence. He pretty much will abandon Heinz if ever he killed Van and resume on killing other races.
Brandragoon
Indeed, the peaceful Alda faction led by Heinz is far better than the Alda fundamentalists who advocate the genocide of all “non-human” races.
However just because the peaceful faction is better does not mean that it is good enough. The peaceful faction advocates a human centric society where the more human-like of Vida’s races are treated like second class citizens and the races of Vida that are more “monstrous” in appearance and behavior are exterminated and treated like pests.
It’s definitely an improvement from the indiscriminate slaughter that the Alda faction originally advocated, but it’s still objectively wrong.
Mossy Stone
It doesn’t really matter who the “pawn” is …we all know Birky’s plan is gonna fail; it wouldn’t surprise me if Van spotted and incorporated the pawn into his plan. Hope this arc leads to Talosheim beginning some commercial interactions.
MrButchball
The Nuns would never guess that the Pale kid in front of them was The Death God and the dark elf next to them was the Inacrnation of The Goddess and that fact amuses me XD XD
Superboy8338
This is what I don’t get, is Darcia still Darcia or is she just a PIECE of Vida now?
Hasin
My guess is that the best way to understand it is though some christians doctrine.
You know that in christianity, god is 3 seperate body for one entity (christ, father and holy spirit) then how about christ being the son and all? well… most of their schism are about the very nature of christ.
most of those interpretation is that he have 2 … “personality” ? (I don’t know how to translate that in english sorry) One divine, and one human.
after that it i’m not exactly sure I remember well but some doctrine consider these two personalities to be seperate from each other, or fused.
then if they are seperate, some consider that you can’t distinguish them while other think you can.
In the case of Darcia, I think it’s the latest option. 2 seperate personalities that you can distinguish
Afet all, she does say “I” when she talk, but said “WE” when she met Heinz, meaning it was vida and darcia that talked to him… I think….
Jonathan Hurd
You’re right Hasin. A chapter or two ago the story explained that Darcia went through special training to synchronize with Vida. Basically when Darcia calls Vida with Goddess descent she isn’t replaced by Vidas personality but they coexist in Darcia’s body.
That’s the reasoning behind why when she talked to Heinz she said “I forgive you for what you did to me, but we won’t forgive what you did to Van.”. She basically said ‘Darcia forgives him killing her, but both Darcia and Vida do not forgive what Heinz did to Van’.
I would say the best way to think about it is parallel thought processing. Similar to what Van does just one of the thinkers is Vida and the other is Darcia.
Superboy8338
Thank you for clearing up Hasin’s answer.
Superboy8338
Thank you for your answer.
Zauberbiest
in the creation of her new vessel,
the 2nd main Catalyst that was used was vida’s crystalized ”holy” blood next to the root of life made by zakkart combined with the creation originated ability he was given by vida,
and she holds the strongest direct bond/connection with vida next to van,
by her soul being personally tutored and nourished within vida’s divine realm,
while van is made up of the 4 champions souls especially zakkart who held a special bond with vida, while also being her chosen champion
while also being the indirect yet direct ”holy son” of vida,
by being born as a half vampire
possessing the soul of zakkart who was the father of the vampire ancestor,
van could basically be considered a direct descendant of zakkart himself as having a piece of his soul could be considered has having zakkart’s ”blood” running through his veins
same could be said for the other 3champions soul’s that’s why the gods favor him so,
though van is no longer those 4, but a completely new being
yet his soul pieces r a something that cant be ignored,
Darcia having now gained a Direct connection to vida other than being a race birthed by vida
van has become the indirect ”*actual*” ”Holy son” the same way iris has 2 fathers after becoming majin,
her body or rather her blood is a PIECE of vida if u may,
while her soul has now become linked with vida and her holy blood that combines to give off that godly aura
Dracia is still Dracia
a link is not the same as a fusion
the concept might feel incest like..the way i phrased it though lmao
Rollrock
Van might not even know it, but the way he’s going about this is the fastest means of converting people to his cause. Before fairness, justice, honor and religion, most would like something to eat first.
GrimIsaac
So he’s gonna invade through pocketbooks… Hmmm
Ozarazil
I don’t like it when otphaneges appear in anime or manga because more often than not something horrible happens to them.
Now remember that there’s a possibility that whoever is Birkyne’s pawn is they might not be aware that they are.
That’ll make sense because Vandal has a lot of ways to detect this things so a pawn that doesn’t know they’re being used is most ideal.
I’d say is one of the nuns or the both of them, why? Well they manage an orphanage in the slums right? A bunch of kids that nobody cares about. What if without knowing it they are just raising cattle for vampires or kids that’ll be chosen to become vampires? What if this donations the “Lord” has made in the past didn’t come from the Lord but from vampires?
It wouldn’t be the first time sometime like this has been done, that’s how it was in Owari no Seraph.
GrimIsaac
Owari no Seraph is a terrible anime
Jonathan Hurd
I agree with you that most likely Birknyes spy will be someone who doesn’t know that is what they are. I will however say I find the idea of Birknyes directly controlling this orphanage low.
The first problem is just sheer manpower. Birknye lost a great deal of the underworld connections when Ternicias organization was destroyed and Gubamon killed his.
The second problem is that there are better ways of getting people than ruling and donating to one orphanage. The more likely person to control and use would be someone like that Hyena guy who was a part of a slave trading network.
The reason the government controlled the orphanage in Owari no Seraph was because the kids in it were special. Not because they just needed kids.
I will also say this author doesn’t need an orphanage to do horrible things to kids. The first chapter was about how Van was tortured by his first family then sold by the second.
Yoki
Thanks for the chapter Yoshi!!!! Real;y needed this one today after an exhausying day
Paps
Thanks for another wonderfull chapter, HAHAHA Van party keeps increasing, and now is time to brainwash the city, wondering if by the time Alda realize all the souls Van is guiding will be to late.
gomezseba37
how to take over an empire:
-open good value/money food cart
-monopolize all the food industry
-profit ???
hungsayori
actually, step 3 – exploiting their vulnerability, spread your religion
LOL
gomezseba37
what I love about this series are chapters like this van is as powerfull as a god, but he still does things how they shoud be done and not using brute force to do everything. and if feels smooth and not forced
also this chapter was wholesome af especially vans reaccion to be called a friend by a kid
Nox
Thanks for the chapter.
Van is now starting to build his own faction in the human society while his forces griw stronger as day passes and new races are created. The question now is: how will the sermon be like?
UnveilingSage
It obviously going to turn into a concert. Especially after the “I’ll do my best!” Comment from Darcia
Kazza
The wait is over… Now we begin the next wait.
Not too much to talk about. I will confess that I like the history we got from the head nun about the reason Alcrem hated Vida Races so much. It kind of fixes a small flaw in the story for me.
See, one detail about the Alda/Vida conflict that I don’t like is that Vida’s Races are almost always pretty morally good. They’re always usually the victims, and the humans are usually the aggressors. They manage to achieve cohabitation with other species, while humans will even discriminate against refugees of the same race.
And there’s context for these, of course. Alda’s centered a doctrine out of their extermination, so it was either work together or be destroyed. That’s not really my issue. My issue is that making them unequivocally good really weakens the conversation one can have about the morality of the conflict.
‘Cause, and I know this will sound bad, Alda’s not 100% wrong. Closer to 99.9999999% wrong, but he does have one or two legitimate points about the Vida Races. Those descended from monsters inevitably corrupt the land around them, and due to having both ranks and jobs can become much stronger than humanity. If they were to abuse their power, humanity might in turn become the discriminated victims.
So, simply saying “No, Vida Races are all super nice and loving due to being descended from the love godess, so they wouldn’t do that.” Is really weak. Love isn’t perfect, and people can do monstrous things in the name of love.
So, just the acknowledgement that Vidas Races are capable of corruption and violence against parties that have not directly wronged them really strengthens the conflict. It shows that humanity isn’t inherently evil, and that they too can fall victim to love’s vices.
However, I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s more to that story. Some of it doesn’t make sense. Why would the daughter of the Duke be in a commerce troop, instead of a guarded caravan? What exactly did the guard give away? That she was on there? The route? And finally, how could they know half of the bandits were Vida Races? Bandits usually leave none alive, and if there were some merchants who ran away, why didn’t they take the daughter, arguably the most important person in the entire caravan?
If it turns out this was a big conspiracy by Alda fundamentalists to trick the Duke of the past, I’m going to be a little disappointed. I like the idea that Vida Races have a capacity for evil, just like anyone else. And saying that the most evil thing they had done in the story was a fabrication… would really detract from that, to say the least.
Anyways, any thoughts?
mexgema
Maybe the attackers were only aiming for the duke’s daughter from the start, in that case it would explain how someone would be able to escape, as well as why the daughter was left behind, After all it would make it much harder to run away with the main target on your back. As for why the beast folk would target the duke’s daughter… personally I think it’s gonna be revealed that the Duke was doing some shady shit in secret and that his daughter became the target of revenge because of that. Like you said we haven’t really had any outright super evil Vida race groups aside from the vampires, and I don’t think that’s gonna change soon. which leaves us off with a situation where there’s no “good” side and, as you said would show us that Vida’s races have the capacity for evil, just not senseless evil, which I would like to see.
Entropy
It could be as simple as the lowest group of the area were Vida’s races. If they were never given any positions of power or much in the way of jobs, then I would not be surprised if some of them resorted to becoming bandits. Plus look at how many human bandits Vand ran into, I suspect the only reason there weren’t a lot of Vida’s races among them was that most of the bandits were located in areas where there weren’t any, be it the empire or in areas where they are forced to live in seclusion. It does make me wonder if someone may have been pulling their strings though. Bandits would go after merchants and goods, kidnapping a duke’s daughter would be more trouble than any ransom they could get.
Jonathan Hurd
To me my big issue with Alda is that he isn’t really doing his mass genocide for anyone but himself. That is the biggest issue I have. It can be argued he is helping the humans, but is that really true? He is willing to throw any number of people to their deaths to fight his war for him and he doesn’t care at all about those losses. He has literally said as long as the survivors worship him he doesn’t care how many nations or people he has to destroy.
For Aldas ‘points’, Vida races and monsters spread tainted mana leading to devils nests and that’s bad. The first part of this statement is definitely true but I argue the second doesn’t really follow. Devils nests are rich with resources. They help crops grow and give monsters you can hunt for meat. Humans throughout the Amid empire and Orbuame kingdom rely on devils nests. I would argue if you take them all away you instantly destroy a great deal of people’s livelihoods.
People could live easily, in the age of God’s before, thanks to the Beast God creating things to hunt, but he died to the DK. There are no assurances people could adequately provide for themselves without devils nests. Scarcity would lead to war over prime land. Without any outside threats to unite people they will most likely start warring over food. I would argue Devils Nests help a lot more than they hurt humanity at this point.
For Vidas races can become strong. That is definitely true, but so what? The skill and job system allows just about everyone the chance to gain strength. Add in that a lot of Vidas races have trouble reproducing like ghouls, lack the urge to like majin and vampires, or need a male of another race like Scylla and Lamias. Humans can always easily out number Vidas races.
Add in the power of people like Schneider, Rudolph, and even Heinz. Humans can become overwhelming stronger than the majority of monsters as well even if they don’t have both class and jobs.
On Vidas races are portrayed as always the good guys, I would point at the Noble Orc Empire arc. The villains in that arc were all people who were Vida followers who betrayed their gods and took up evil.
Van also said he couldn’t really judge Heinz and his groups killing of ghouls because he didn’t know the circumstances for them. He acknowledged that the ghouls and majin might really have been killing humans and needed to be put down.
There are plenty of examples in the story of Vidas races straying. I mean the Pure Breed Vampires that turned to Evil Gods are clear examples of that. The problem the author is pointing out is the human tendency to take a few bad apples and declare everyone evil based on that.
Take the Alcrem story for example. Half the people who killed his daughter were of Vidas races. That means the other half were humans. Why then did he only start to hate Vidas races as a whole and not also humanity? Why was he able to say to himself ‘that was just a small band of individual humans, but all of vidas races are evil!’
I live in the United States. I see this same leap all the time in my country. People declaring all colored people are criminals. The fact that any person of Muslim descent doing terrorism means the entire religion is about it, but white mass shooters are just disturbed individuals.
The way I see it, we live in Aldas society. What I think the author is trying to do is show us that it doesn’t have to be that way. We can have a society closer to Vidas. Sure there will still be crime. There will be problems, but at the end of the day the society itself won’t work based on oppressing and hating each other.
Supreme king
Not everyone is a fighter having a bunch of devil nests pop up isn’t a old thing either specially if they aren’t maintained and monsters culled regularly a lot of shit can really go to hell for example in this’s one series called sevens if a dungeons monsters aren’t regularly killed they can grow in number And in the end the dungeon regurgitates them letting all monsters out this shit happened to the world biggest dungeon that they kept around to do exactly as you said out of greed and it basically ended the world
Kazza
Ok, sorry to say this, but I have to disagree.
1. Devil’s nests are dangerous. We can forget that because Van and company treat them as training grounds, but to a normal person they are a hazardous place full of monsters that can kill a normal person.
Now, are there advantages? Absolutely. As you said, they give you a surplus of resources and can serve as great training if you’re strong enough. I even vaguely remember that the land Zadiris’ tribe originally lived had supersoil, or something like that. However, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s an “As long as…” deal. And if that “As long as..” isn’t present, the advantages aren’t nearly worth it.
2. Why does it matter that Vida Races can become strong? It’s not just that they can become strong, it’s that they get stronger much faster than humans/elves/dwarves, due to having both ranks and jobs. Ironically, the Vampire Trio lost their capacity for jobs, which in a way completely stagnated their growth. However, even with only ranks, they are powerful opponents that S-Ranks are needed to defeat. Now, imagine how powerful they would be if they had both.
Of course, as you said, their populations are much smaller, but we’re talking about a hypothetical world where Alda didn’t order their extermination. If they weren’t forced into the mountain range, who knows how their population would expand. Ghouls, for instance, are only limited in their breeding by the environment, but otherwise seem to breed normally.
3. Evil Vida Races. I think we’re talking past each other here. We both agree that Vida Races have a capacity for evil, but my issue is that evil acts never come from their inherent humanity (That sounds weird but hold on). For the Vampire Trio and the Bugitas Rebellion, it was an outside God who converted them. At that point, they’re basically not Vida Races anymore, they’re “Hihiryushukakan” or “Ravovifardian.” They don’t embody her teachings at all.
See, I’m saying that people can do evil things in the name of love. I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. And if you sum up her races as always good because they embody love, that doesn’t make sense. Hell, take Van: The reason he wants the Blades deader than dead is because he loves Darcia and never wants her to be hurt by them again.
So, yes, there have been Vida Races who did evil things. But I’m not impressed if the caveat “But they were following a different god” is used. You’ve got to take the good with the bad.
4. Theme of broad strokes. I think you’re looking too deep into that. I’m also American, and I’ve got to say I don’t see that as a bookwide theme. In this one situation? Absolutely. But not throughout the conflict.
At no point has Alda declared that Vida Races need to be destroyed for a crime their ancestors performed. Although it is a heinous and flawed reason, he has a legitimate reason to want them dead. It’s not just association with other Vida Races. The issue is that it’s extremism of the highest caliber without taking steps to speak with the opposing party or compromise.
Keep in mind, America and Japan both have their own unique cultures, and expecting the same cultural allusions isn’t always correct.
Jonathan Hurd
Okay so here is the biggest issue I can bring up. Define Evil for me.
I am a philosophy major so I have read through many different works and theories of what is evil. Some say that it is evil to kill, but what if someone is going to kill you first? Is it okay to kill them then or is it morally right to let yourself die?
I feel like you are giving Alda way more credit than he ever deserves. From what I have read Aldas definition of evil is this:. Anyone who disagrees with me is evil. Anything new is evil. Anything evil must be destroyed.
He isn’t destroying this for anyone’s good. He’s just following his Lord and savior Bellwoods words without thinking. Dissent is marked as one of them and should be purged.
For Devil’s nests, yes they are dangerous. I do not disagree. So is the sun if not dealt with appropriately. So is the weather. So are wild animals. So is technology. So are other people. My point still stands, if we got rid of all Devil’s nests there is no assurance there will be enough resources to live. People have lived with Devil’s nests for a hundred thousand years. They have the means to purify and destroy them. They have people strong enough to clear them out to allow the purification. They have not done so. Why? Because they are important for survival.
Related to the danger thing is your point on Vidas races being strong. So first I should point out that Ghouls do have an amazingly low fertility rate unless Van helps them. The reason they needed to live in Devil’s nests I’d without it’s increased reproduction effects they wouldn’t be able to have kids.
The more important part though is I have to ask why you only care that Vidas races can become powerful? Schneider if he decided to could walk up and kill anyone he wants and we couldn’t stop him. Shouldn’t we fear and attack him? He’s stronger than all of us therefore dangerous. Why again does being able to become stronger only matter with Vidas races?
For the point that when Vidas races worship evil God’s they stop being her races so her races are pure… This one I find a bit strange. No one can make you worship an evil god. It is there conscious decision. That was a choice of someone of Vidas race to do evil. Even if they worship an evil god their origins didn’t change. They were still Vidas people.
Kazza
Ok, so I think we’re just disagreeing to a difference of perspective.
1. I’m no philosophy student, so I can’t define evil beyond simple concepts like damaging others to improve yourself or taking actions as if you are the only person in the world.
And as for your example, you need to explain better. Why is the person trying to kill me? Have I killed someone of theirs? Can I stop them without resorting to lethal force? If I can, and I have the presence of mind to acknowledge that (I’m not in a panic, for instance), then I would say, yes, in this situation killing this person is evil.
Evil is too complex a subject to say something is always evil or never evil. There’s always roots to it, things that led to taking measures that cause you to commit evil. Even the Nazis, arguably the worst example of humanity’s potential for evil, had circumstances – some actually sympathetic – that led to them taking such atrocious actions.
Alda is committing evil acts. You will find no arguments from me there. They are also unnecessary. 100% agree. I’m not saying his actions are justifiable, just understandable. And just because I understand why doesn’t mean I condone it or think there aren’t any better options.
And that’s why I think you can’t just say Alda is 100% evil. He’s misguided, as you said, but I don’t even think Bellwood is 100% evil. They have their reasons for thinking the way they do.
And of course, I agree they need to be stopped. They’re causing harm to the world and have no one to keep them in check. But simply dismissing everything they say as misguided or evil stops yourself from discussing the reasons they took those actions – and more devastatingly – finding out ways to prevent history repeating.
2. I actually don’t remember Devil’s Nest’s being able to be purified, but I’ll take your word for it. My memory is pretty bad sometimes, after all. That takes care of most of the problems I have.
3. I’m going to sound worse than I intend to, but you’re not understanding my issue. You keep saying over and over Vida’s Races ‘can’ get stronger. That’s not my issue. It’s that they can get stronger ‘faster than an equivalent trainer.’ They essentially have 2x experience. And since they too have the capacity for evil, they could theoretically flip the scale so they would rule over and discriminate against the pure human races, and it would be much harder for the humans to fight back. Especially now, where they have years of discrimination and resentment to get revenge for.
Is that likely to happen? Probably not with Van in charge, but it’s a legitimate issue that needs to be discussed regardless.
Yes, Schneider too has a capacity for evil. And that’s why I don’t blame Marshukzarl for having several sources of insurance on him. Because simply assuming he’s not going to act in his own interests is foolish. We don’t know enough about Orbaume, but they may have measures in place for Randolph and Heinz (perhaps Selen?).
4. Vida Races. Ok, I’ll take these blame on this for not wording it properly. When I said they essentially stop becoming Vida Races, I mean in a religious sense. Vida’s teachings are all about love and caring, and someone would use that as an explanation for why they never really perform evil actions. My counterpoint is that love and caring does not prevent you from doing evil. For example, when the Titans first learned of the Hartner Duchy’s betrayal, they wanted to murder everyone in the royal line. This is a cruel act motivated by the love they had for Levia and the feeling of betrayal. Even Vida herself said at one point that her teachings do not preach for unlimited pacifism or forgiveness. That sometimes you need to fight and kill in defense of your loved ones. Will that always lead to good results? I’d say no, and could just as easily lead to unnecessary evil.
So, if you say “There are examples of evil Vida Races” but they don’t follow her teachings or acknowledge her as a moral standard in any way, I’m unimpressed.
Hasin
I think you’re reading too much into this. it has never been said anywhere that vida’s race were goor. the only reasons why they don’t do much evil things while following vida is because they lose the war and thus, needed to cooperate.
If it didn’t happen, no doubt that they would have a very different society.
But, that’s the same with humans. if they had been driven in a corner of earth and had to cooperate, they wouldn’t do that much evil things either.
It’s pretty obvious in the novel that every sentient being have flaws, even the “all-powerfull” gods.
And I would argue that NO ONE really does evil things in this novel (appart from the demon kings remnants faction… and again, monster there exist by design, they do what they were made to do.)
Every faction have their own sense of justice and morals, they are just incompatible with each other.
Alda, for instance, is simply a lost person. he regret the past and want to do everything to return to it, even if it mean believing stupid lies or destroying most of things that he do want to get back.
The best exemple is his stand on technology. believing bellwood about the fact that it ruins the land and bring war… and blinding himself because is followers DON’T NEED technology to make wars. and that magic is as destructive if not worse than technology. that it can ruin the land as surely as a bomb or pollution.
And I would like to point out your thing on devil nest : if that’s so bad….why the human faction almost never destroy them? because it’s not worth it economically speaking from what we learned.
not really an emergency then. And if they decided to do it… WHY on earth, would it be obligated to do it everywhere, even where humans doesn’t live?
Well, it’s not particullary good for the whole “let’s live together in peace” and all, but nothing prevented them to do seperate societies. And japan know a lot of things about seperate society.
Well anyway, once again, it’s a question of their very point of views. for Vida, it doesn’t matter what happen, because love and nature is a competition. for one of the other (can’t remember if it’s zuruwarn or ricklent) it would just be the fall of an order/world to bring a new one…
In the end, no one’s good and no one’s bad. it’s only a question of ideology, and alda is truly a good representation of a certain part of japan that fought change and refused to bulge while the world changed around him and ultimately disposed of him. (just like many part of many countries in the world.)
Kazza
Ok, be careful with this first point. You say “The story doesn’t say Vida’s Races are always good” and then the next part “The only reason why they do evil things…” as if it’s expected that they are normally unable to commit evil acts.
I think you’re making the point that the story had never made it canon that Vida’s Races are incapable of evil. I agree, and that’s why I like this little scene. It establishes that they are just as capable of evil as humanity. I like that idea, because it brings up a potential issue that needs to be discussed. If they have an advantage over humanity, and nothing stopping them from abusing it, what prevents a reversal of the current state of things? Because keep in mind, humanity WAS backed into a corner – approximately 3,000 left after the DK war – and look where they are now. Being a victim doesn’t stop you from reversing and becoming a tyrant.
As for the Devil’s Nest thing, as said above I was under the impression they couldn’t be purified, but I guess I’m wrong on that point so go ahead and disregard what I said on that.
Sailon
First yeah devil nest are dangerous, but the corruption of vida races are very small comparEd with normal monsters and Vida created this races to live and maintain devil nest to not spreed too much, and was said that she was able to restore bah gaia continet to living then alda and they forces failed in their continent invade bah gaia continet and started to live there, and if was so worried about devil nests he would try make peace with zantark or simple help separate without interaction, but he dint even when release his hold over light and life he said that if evil gods was released there and weakned zantark would be good, and alredy said without zantark keeping the devil nest of demon continet in check with help of the vida races, and if vida races are seduced by evil god(remanant of the demon king army) mean they are evil, and vida races are stronger and this could cause they opression over other races but back then they need stronger races to clean and mantain devil nest, human libing in bah gaia continet was after vida races clean up the place, vuda was reclekess but did have a necessity ove this, and alda dont hunt them because they are a threat to humans is because they are threat to them, and vampires are stronger but only the purebrred can resist sun and silver without dieying, noble born and servants has weakneds and only exist 100 purebreed that could keep eachother in check, gida races are not show many evil because they are mynori and for exemple in amid empire a autority can make a blind eye to a human bandit but would active persecute even called the church if was a vida race, in the boundary mountain range they dint fight agaist eachother because they gods choice a empiror that keep them togethet using the threat of Alda, resume vida races are stronger can be a tgreat but i see that if the gods worked together great part of this problem could be solved, alda simple use some excuse to exterminate them because they dont match his vision of order and what is roght for his world, this is show that the other great gods view vida as being reclekess but still dont side with alda
Kazza
Ok, so I’m confused on what you mean. I’m with you on the reason the Scylla Nest became so big is Van’s actions, but consequently you have to agree that it was already a Devil’s Nest because of the Scylla who lived there. But then you say that Vida Races don’t cause Devil’s Nests? But pure monsters like Kobolds and Goblins do?
I think we’re differing on scales, here. I agree in that I don’t think a couple hundred Vida Races are enough to completely transform a large area, but my counter is that Vida wasn’t going to just make a couple hundred Ghouls or Scylla. She was planning to repopulate the world with them. Their birthing defects aside, that would’ve inevitably spread the Nests throughout the world. And that creates a problem because weaker races like humans aren’t capable of living inside them unprotected, even small dungeons like in the Scylla Nest. Alda and Vida both had their ways around this: Vida believed in the weak and strong working together to cover each other’s weaknesses. Alda is taking the lazy and haphazard way of complete extermination. I think you and me both agree with Vida, but that doesn’t make Alda’s objections wrong. I’m pretty sure both can agree that they messed up and should’ve spoken to each other before coming to war, and regret they didn’t.
As for that last bit about Origin, did you read that ahead? Because I don’t remember anything about weapons being used to create psuedo-Devil’s Nests. The closest thing I remember is Pluto’s contained Death Mana running wild, but I doubt think it said anything about creating monsters, only that it was instant death to those who touched it.
Kazza
Alright, you got me there. I have to admit that you’re correct on this point.
Morgan
My bet is that the Nun with the eye patch is hiding a magic eye that transmits everything it sees and hears to birkyne. Meanwhile the Nun believes she lost her eye and doesn’t realise she’s a sleeper agent.
Also Yoshi-san, did something come up? you’re normally never late. Hope everything’s alright.
no1
wait which nun has the eye patch? Can’t find it in this chapter
Jonathan Hurd
The nun with an eye patch is the owner of the orphanage that Darcia talks to about Vida and Alda worshippers relationship.
Jonathan Hurd
I like your idea there. That makes a lot of sense for how Birknye could forcefully get information about Van. The only thing he has to do is put in some kind of self destruct measure in the eye if someone tries to remove it. As long as the person in question has no memories of being a spy it doesn’t really matter if they become guided.
The logical move for people like Birknye and Marshakul would be to abandon a person like this, but considering how much Van cherishes his people no way he does that. Another move would be to isolate them, but again Van is to kind to do that to someone. Especially a believer of Vida.
A weird solution I can imagine happening though could be Van finds out about it and instead of removing the eye causes it to mutate. Changing the eye into something useful.
Xias1
I doubt it.
Remember Van’s abyss skill?
–> Whenever Van is observed with a skill or magic (tool) his abyss skill would counter it by watching the observer in response.
Also Van would notice the mana within flowing through the magic eye (tool) and recognize that it is a different magic energy and not normal.
So Van would have noticed that kind of approach.
Most likely Birkyne simply manipulates some people related to people in Morksy.
Then he has those people send letters and the like to the people in Morksy asking for anything unusual and after hearing about the dampire boy the questions would be focused on him.
Furthermore since dampires are really rare and currently treated as VIPs in the Orbaume kingdom due to Heinz’s party = the heroes chosen by Alda voting for their protection it is not suspicious that the people outside of Morksy would ask about anything regarding such a dampire boy.
Morgan
Actually Van’s Abyss skill only activates when he’s targeted by a vision based ability. Since a magic eye thats simply records and then transmits said recording doesn’t specifically target anything, Van’s skill wouldn’t activate. There’s 2 reasons, 1, Van isn’t targeted and 2, it’s a recording not real time like what Rodcorte and Death Scythe pulled. Also I don’t remember Van being able to sense mana other than neutral and death attribute. Of course the eyepatch could just be concealing the mana and then the transmission happens at night when Van would have no reason to be near the Nun.
Tejing
The limits of the abyss skill are quite vague. Keep in mind that Van was able to enter the Trial of Bellwood through the abyss skill as well. Simply because an accurate facsimile of his body was created, he was able to inhabit it. It’s not totally clear how that’s related to the eyes, and it’s certainly a recording, not real time. Also the abyss skill popped him into merrebeveil’s divine realm when she tried to observe his mind. It’s again unclear how much vision was technically involved, and it did more than allow him to look back, it actually put him in her divine realm. The vision explanation was originally given by Rodcorte… so take with with a (very large) grain of salt. He’s an idiot.
tanathos
true, also i think it could be mathew
Ozarazil
I think the only person with an eyepatch there is Van to conceal his heterochromia
Jonathan Hurd
Van admitted that he’s a dhampir so there is no reason to hide the eye proving it. The chapter literally says the head nun has an eye patch, lol.
ExplodingPenguinDood
I cant believe I’m this early, now the wait is longer for me but what is a guy to do. So Mat is the spy but I wonder how and who is he giving info to?
Triduo
Can’t say if I should encourage that kind of mental manipulation or not…
Well, I guess that as long as they don’t brainwash the whole town-
*5 chapters later – The whole town is own by Van and Alda’s faction is driven out of town*
DAMN IT VAN !!!
Paradoxe : Well, as long as it’s not confirmed by the true chapters, I guess it’s safe to say that it won’t happen ?
Remember those words…
Jonathan Hurd
Lol, I’m just imagining five chapters later people start running into two spirit clones of Van looking at them with dead pan eyes saying “Come play with us…”
Come join the Van hive mind.
Locke25
He’s making a food cart chain, using the symbol of Vida, so the slogan should be “I’m lovin’ it”.
Haraken
He is literally making a fast-food chain with takeover and buy out of every nearby competition.
If he make a sandwich called McVandalieu… I won’t even….
Jonathan Hurd
To be fair he isn’t so much buying them out as hiring them on. Even if Van did give up his business and go elsewhere it’s not like their business was going to do well. Now that Van is teaching them how to improve goblin and kobold meat they might actually be able to make a living.
Supreme king
Mcdalieu sound sounds better lol
InfernoHomura
Much like a parasite.. sasuga Vandalieu-sama!
Lightnovelfan
Yay, new chapter. Great start into sunday morning. It´s a nice Feeling when you check this site regularly and see an update.
About the gained experience, could it be that now that his curses are weakened he gains more exp from kiling humans?
Triduo
Maybe ?
Or it counts only when it’s not a human from Van’s faction that kill another human ?
Jonathan Hurd
I can think of two possibilities. First is the people in charge lied about humans giving less exp to other humans. Basically try to prevent power hungry people from going on killing sprees.
The other one is that the less exp only counts of its a ‘human’ who kills a person. This might be the system basically saying that Van is now considered more monster than person.
Yoki
I think it is the latter rather than the former, because even with the Gods lying about it, there are people who have killed other people like murderers or even during wars
UnveilingSage
Van was never a huma in the first place though? He’s a damphir.
UnveilingSage
You’re all forgetting something very important. Van isnt human. So it isnt even a case of human killing another human. Its monster killing another monster, or monster killing a human.
Kuro-san
I realized that the translator started using ‘Beast-kin’ instead of ‘Beast People’, I don’t know about you, but for me that was a change for the better.
Mainly because it is easier to say ‘Beast-kin’, but also because they are literally beast kins, considering that Vida-sama crossed with the Beast Kings to give birth to the race as a whole.
PS: I may just have seen it wrong and the translator never used ‘Beast People’, so correct me if I’m wrong, okay?
Darquesse
I personally don’t remember him using beast people. I think he only used Beast kin
Jonathan Hurd
I think he might of used Beast People, but not sure. Also to lazy to comb over the old chapters to find out, lol.
TheDerangedOne
you might have had a case of stories blurring together there man, races with beastial traits are rather common in eastern style fictions.
Kuro-san
I went after it and found ‘Beast-People’ on ‘Appendix 4 – Explanation of races that have appeared’. According to Raw, this Appendix was written after Volume 4 and before Volume 5, so the translator must have used ‘Beast-People’ in the older volumes.
Brian P.
Yeah, it’s used a couple of other times. Chapters 42, 78 and 94 at least use “beast-people” or “beast-person” in them. Quite a few others, after that. https://lmgtfy.com/?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Flightnovelbastion.com%2Fnovel%2Fdeath-mage%2F+%22beast+people%22
Yoki
As someone who have just finished rereading, it is true that Yoshi-san has used “beast-people” or ” beast-person” in the older chapters. If I’m not mistaken, there was a reader that suggested this change in the comment section. not sure if it was in this volume or near the end of the 9th volume.
Dritch
“There are a lot of D-class adventurers who fearfully call it a grim reaper’s servant”
clearest foreshadowing if i ever saw one.
Triduo
Fang is going to become “The God of Death’s Hound” ! O_O’ Scaryyyy…
Paradoxe : A dog becoming a dog… What ?
Jonathan Hurd
Me: “What do you all mean become, lol? He is the Grim Reapers doggy he just needs to now live up to the position.”
Yoki
Eleanora, Isla, and Bellmond aren’t gonna be too thrilled at that…
hahahahaha
VEreality
This. This is good. I like this a lot.
Opening a food chain/helping people that already sell food or want to is the best idea Van had in a while. No matter how strong it is, faith won’t fill your stomach. And there are plenty of starving people in the slums. That is without even saying that he could create a lot of working places for people who don’t have a job. Add Darcia and her sermon and the true heretics will soon be out of this town.
Thank you Yoshi-sama!
Triduo
Paradoxe : You do realize that they’re acting that way in order to gain influence all over the town and to draw out Van’s enemies, right ?
DON’T SPOIL THE GENEROSITY OF A CHARACTER !!! (/>O<)/
Yoki
THIS IS VAN-SAMA STRICTLY DOING MISSIONARY WORK, SPREADING HIS RELIGION
Jonathan Hurd
It is a nice move. Van can’t permanently setup shop in Morksi. He could leave someone behind to continue the food cart business in his stead but it would honestly be easier to just teach some of the locals means to survive.
Gobu Gobu might be unappetizing, but it surely beats the pants off trying to normally eat goblin. Considering Vans cooking skill too he’s probably been able to improve the recipe. I don’t think it will have become a delicacy. It probably will be better than it has been before while remaining dirt cheap to make.
VEreality
It is better than you might think. Try to look at it like this:
Better ingredients and recipes ->Better food ->More people come by to buy food ->More money ->Expansion ->The slums will soon no longer be slums ->The people will be forever grateful to Van
A simplified version of it really but this is sure to give the city an economic boom. The best part? Nobody sane will question it(merchants from other parts of the city aside because they might soon become part of it). I mean who in their right mind will question why the food is suddenly better and look into it very deep?
As for the insane ones *cough*alda followers*cough*………do you really think the people will not go up and armed if they try to do something about it??
PERFECT PLAN!
Jonathan Hurd
It would be amazing to watch if Alda worshippers started trying to beat up people desperately trying to make a living in the slums. That’s a surefire way to destroy your religions image in one fell swoop, lol.
The funny part about it is the Lord of the city can’t really fight it because it is dealing with the unemployment problem. If they can’t crawl their way up through this they will have to become thieves and bandits making more headaches.
Blackpercher
giving blood potions to the nuns would be great…huehue
Triduo
I don’t think that they’ll like transforming into Dark Human when they’re worshiping a Goddess like Vida…
Paradoxe : Worst-case scenario : They’ll die because of a lack of faith and loyalty towards Vandalieu. -__-
Jonathan Hurd
I feel like Vans mutation skill works more based on the will of the subject. I do think he could probably forcefully mutate someone. Especially if he put Demon King pieces into then, but for something like turning into a Dark Human, I think that will only happen if the subject wishes it.
Lord Rin
Van got himself some more pets and Fang leveled up to Black Dog. It was kinda funny how Fang was getting bossed around by the rats even though they’re weaker than him.
So I guess Matthew is the one Birkyne brainwashed and is using to get to Van. Not like it’ll work anyways since Van can just guide them.
Also Van is gonna open up a fast food chain to spread the influence of Vida. What’s he gonna call it? McVida’s?
VEreality
In the end no man can argue with a woman who has a point. They won’t let us argue T_T
Jonathan Hurd
To be a respected as a sempai you gotta act accordingly. Who is going to look up to a guy who can’t even play with children, lol.
InfernoHomura
I guess its not about their rank but their mentality on what should be done on certain situations
Mr.Darkness
“So I guess Matthew is the one Birkyne brainwashed and is using to get to Van.”
If it is, Birkyne was truly worshiping Rodstupid…
McVidas for everyone \o/
Jonathan Hurd
I feel like Birknye is smarter than just sending one orphan kid to be Vans friend. If Matthew really is the spy there has to be more to it. What he could be doing is hold Matthews parents hostage and threatened to kill them if he doesn’t get info from Van.
He could basically force Van to send him info because Van of all people knows how painful it is to lose your parents as a child. He could also demand tasks of Van and use those to throw Van at Alda and his forces. After the two sides have exhausted each other enough Birjnye could swoop in and finish things off.
Kiriaru
I really enjoy this story, Van’s got 3 new pets for 4 total now, making waves all over the city practically and is working with his mother to gather more people under Vida and making a food cart chain.
I believe the Lord of the duchy, is punishing the fellow from the merchants guild who is taking advantage of his position to make things harder for Van, at least I hope that’s what happened last chapter.
If things go well Van’s registration will be made permanent, the orphanage would become more devout to Vida and the Slums would as well. Then maybe the carts in the Slums could sell good food cheaply and spread Vida religion while Vandalieu moves up and starts having an effect on the other residents of the city.
I really wonder when Birkyne will make his move.
kazamakj
The 3 new giant rats are just additions to Pete, Kuhl and Pain. But these are the pets that can be explained and the other 3 really cannot be shown outside. A purple jar sounds like he is selling Gobu Gobu to the Slums.
MintyMints
I think Van considers the lizedmen pets
Reiji
Who wants to bet the the Orphanage Director is a Dhampir with her wearing an eyepatch and all?
Tejing
Dhampirs are very rarely born, and even when they are, they almost never reach adulthood. It’s WAAAAAY more likely she just lost her eye in some kind of accident.
Jonathan Hurd
Part of me realizes it is very unlikely that the old nun is a dhampir, but God would it be interesting if she was. I will say though if she really is just missing an eye Darcia could probably heal that for her as a kind of miracle from Vida.
Kuro-san
I bet ten platinum coins that at least someone in this orphanage is a dhampir.
Triduo
Noctyrannus : I’m taking the bet that she’s one ! (-O_O) 100 gold coins !
Dimhélios : I’m betting that she’s not !
Kutakot22
Who is this bounty hunter abel again?? Is kasim and the others that have been mention is the S-rank adventurers that Vida’s followers right?? I really forgot hehehe
Tejing
It’s ‘bounty hunter hunter’ actually, and he’s one of the mercs that rebellious drug dealer hired to try to take things over from Van. I don’t follow the other question, sorry.
Kutakot22
What chapter did he appear again??
Jonathan Hurd
The bounty Hunter Hunter was introduced and immediately killed in the previous chapter. He really didn’t have much purpose than to become exp, lol.
Kutakot22
Oh so thats why i forgot about him immediately hahahaha this is really the problem for slow Update novels, well for me atleast
Jonathan Hurd
So you’re thinking of two different people. Kasim and his two buddies are the young adventures that Van originally met at the cultivation village. The S rank adventurer that has joined Vans side is Schnieder.
Kutakot22
Ahh yeah yeah i remember now hahaha tnx for the info btw
Jonathan Hurd
Np, I know I can get confused by names sometimes too. For a while I was really confused about the fallen champion Zakkart and the god of fire Zantark.
Entropy
Thanks for the chapter. Glad Vand got three new pets. Kind of curious about if Vand will open up a chain of fast food places. That might be more dangerous for Alda and company than fighting, if he sets up McDonalds in the name of Vida, Alda would lose more followers faster than speed of light. I am curious about the importance of the orphans and nuns. Can’t wait to see fang evolve more in the future.
Kutakot22
Oohhhh!!! That kind of plot is interesting …..Maybe the nuns will become leading figures in the future??
Mr.Darkness
Yeah, i totally agree!
If Van were malicious enough, he could dominate the world in so many ways, it’s almost scary.
InfernoHomura
tru dat
Jonathan Hurd
The best twist to Van opening wide spread chain of restaurants is what he can put in the food. He starts distributing a secret sauce that has some of his blood in it… We could have mass guiding and mutations throughout the lands.
VEreality
Pretty much DmC: Devil May Cry? Instead of putting the poison in energy drink they put it in the sauce. That would be efficient if he wants to enslave humanity ……… Once again we are reminded how dangerous Van is XD
Jonathan Hurd
Look on the Brightside, instead of blood and guidance he could mix in a slow acting disease into the food that only hits non Vida races. He could potentially put a kill switch into the disease to activate on command. Spread VanDonalds world wide then activate it, boom no more humanity ;D
Opalucide
lost in the sauce
InfernoHomura
McDonald’s from Van-sama? uhh SIGN ME UP!
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Superboy8338
Glad to see that Van and Lucc’s experiments are bearing tangible fruit.
YohaoShakur
Van got more pets and a friend(that is probably the person Byrkine is using) and is even spreading Vida’s religion ! A lot of good news this chap so I’m a little afraid that the next one will give us the bad news, even if they are little.
Superboy8338
Classic Van, using EVERY opportunity to make more allies and followers. Also, it’s not funny anymore that people STILL sometimes confuse him for a girl!
Jonathan Hurd
We’re making progress, this time some people actually thought he was a boy! Before everyone thought he was a girl. We’re going in a good direction.
Darkhelios
Thanks for the chapter!
I guess we now know who Birkyne will target in order to attack/negociate with Vandalieu.
Let’s just hope that he will do a better job at planning his attack than Gubamon…
Superboy8338
Lets keep reading to find out!!
Yoki
Or Marshukzal…. remember those Fifteen Evil-Breaking Sword guys…?
“negotiate AFTER hurting and nearly killing his allies and subordinates….
no1
Thanks for the chapter Yoshi
iamleejn
I have a bad feeling about what Birkyne said at the end of last chapter and the orphanage. Especially this Matthew who suddenly his friendship with Van. It’s just too much of a McGuffin to ignore.
Superboy8338
Fugget about it! You, me, and all the other readers know that Birkyne will get his comeuppance SOON.
Doom-sama
PRAISE VAN-SAMA, OUR LORD SAVIOR, OUR CHAMPION, OUR DEATH GOD, AS HE SPREADS HIS INFLUENCE AND SPREADS HIS FOOD ACROSS THE LANDS! THE SACRED MESSAGE TODAY IS:
Matthew’s mouth is rated as an S-Rank Disaster for sure.
Superboy8338
And soon Matt will be a lvl 1 (whatever warrior he wants to be).
WizziBot
This Matthew is bringing shame to all us Matthews
General Gratas
PRAISE VAN-SAMA!
Vilebird
Thanks for the chapter!!
Sebas Tian
Hope you all enjoy the chapter. Have a good weekend.
NovaPulse235
To you as well
Superboy8338
You too.
Gawain
A good day made better by a new chapter!
YohaoShakur
Thanks for the chapter ! Good weekend for ya too !
Reiji
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE CHAPTER 🙏🙏🙏
Have a good one everyday 😊
Jonathan Hurd
Thank you to the whole team and I hope you guys also have a fun weekend.