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On the evening of the day that marked two weeks since Vandalieu opened his food cart, the Deputy Guild Master Joseph of the Commerce Guild was in his office, his expression so bitter that the number of wrinkles on his face had doubled.
“Grr, that damned, impertinent brat…!” he muttered.
Of course, he was referring to Vandalieu.
“It’s his fault for rejecting my offer and starting his stupid business. I made that offer for his benefit… How ungrateful.”
Joseph had made the offer of making contact with Alda’s peaceful faction to Vandalieu, the second known Dhampir in the kingdom. This was because he wanted connections to the important figures in Alda’s peaceful faction, which was steadily becoming the major faction in the Alcrem Duchy – In particular, he wanted connections with the Five-colored Blades.
Indeed, it was an effort that would benefit Vandalieu in the end as well, though the protection of Alda’s peaceful faction and the backing of the S-class adventurers would be nothing but a nuisance for him. But Joseph couldn’t be blamed for not being aware of that, as he had no way of knowing of Vandalieu’s circumstances.
But Joseph’s offer to Vandalieu hadn’t been for Vandalieu’s benefit in the slightest at the time he made it. He had simply altered his version of events in his own memory to justify the offer to himself.
Unaware of this, Joseph was so angry that he might scream out loud, so he pressed a hand against his mouth. He was from a family of earls, but as the Deputy Guild Master, his office was inferior to the Guild Master’s in size, extravagance and soundproofing.
And no matter how much I educate him, he continues to disobey rather than apologize!
The ‘education’ that Joseph referred to in his mind was his harassment of Vandalieu. However, it was no figurative expression or sarcasm; he truly thought of it as education.
He thought that he was teaching an impertinent brat how cruel the world was and how important it was to listen to one’s superiors. It was something that he had done to many ill-mannered youngsters in the past.
But Vandalieu showed no signs of regretting his actions or wanting to apologize to Joseph and accept his offer. He hadn’t even visited the Commerce Guild once since completing his temporary registration.
Though Joseph had interfered with Vandalieu’s food cart business, Vandalieu had hunted and acquired meat on his own, and even associated other food carts with himself using astounding methods of preparing Goblin and Kobold meat for consumption.
Considering that he had already tamed and increased the Ranks of a stray dog and Giant Rats, he had been noticed as a promising newcomer by the Tamers’ Guild.
And although this was unconfirmed information, the monsters had apparently become members of new races after their Rank increases yesterday. Guild Master Bachem’s visit to the capital was also rumored to be because the Tamers’ Guild headquarters was planning to work on Vandalieu to take him in.
But I don’t care about the Tamers’ Guild. The problem is the Goblin meat!
Since ancient times… Even from the time when the heroic god Bellwood was still alive, countless mages, alchemists, nobles, adventurers and city chefs had attempted to make stinking, unpleasant Goblin meat edible.
These had all resulted in countless failures. Some methods of processing or flavoring the meat had been discovered in the past, but all of them had been so expensive and resulted in tasteless dishes. Methods that spent a large amount of time, effort, flavorings and spices just to make Goblin meat not inedible couldn’t be used in times of food crisis or for feeding the poor.
But Vandalieu knew a way to use Goblin meat in food. The method is apparently Ghoul knowledge, but… how in the world did he learn it? Did he tame them? Or perhaps his Dark Elf mother’s village interacted with Ghouls… No, I don’t care about that. The products are for the filthy poor people, but that technology could be used to squeeze money from nobles that are having problems feeding their people! And yet… That damn wench and her brat! Do they even really want to do business?!
Vandalieu had not folded to Joseph’s harassment, nor had he shown any weakness for Aggar and his companions, whom Joseph had paid, to take advantage of. Instead, he was continuing to make profits. On top of that, Darcia was being treated as a saint after summoning a familiar spirit at the Communal Church.
Darcia and Vandalieu’s popularity was continuing to increase among the city’s inhabitants. It was to the point that Vandalieu was being called the ‘food cart king’ and ‘genius tamer,’ while Darcia was known as a ‘holy woman.’
In fact, Joseph was in the worse position.
He had never cared about what the poor people of the slums thought of him. But because Darcia was being treated as a saint, it wasn’t just the people of the slums; the whole city was beginning to have a bad impression of him.
And once a negative image of Joseph spread throughout the city of Morksi, which was a city of commerce, it would then spread to the surrounding cities and villages through merchants and travelers… No, considering how famous Vandalieu and Darcia were now, it could even spread to other duchies.
At this rate, things would be bad for Joseph once the Guild Master returned.
According to recent rumors, people are calling me a lecherous old man who tried to court that Dark Elf, was rejected and is now harassing her in retaliation! At this rate, things will be bad for me… and yet there is no word from Aggar, even though he told me that he has a good plan. He’s useless after all!
Joseph didn’t trust Aggar very much. He was just a crooked guard in the end; Joseph had decided that he couldn’t expect much after Aggar’s first attempts to find faults with Vandalieu’s business had failed.
Even so, Joseph had kept an eye on Aggar, thinking that perhaps he might come up with some ingenious idea, but… it seemed that it was time to give up on him.
“… Now that it’s come to this, I have no choice. I’ll apologize,” Joseph decided.
He would kneel on the ground before Vandalieu, say that he was wrong and stop his pressure on the wholesale stores, which he had left alone recently as Vandalieu hadn’t been visiting them.
“I have heard that he has been donating to the orphanage and is caring for adventurers who have lost their limbs. He is either doing it to propagate his religion, or if that isn’t the case, he is an unmistakably good person,” Joseph said to himself. “If I bow before him with many people watching, he will likely accept my apology. It might be more effective if I mention Vida’s doctrine during my apology.”
After that, he just needed to quietly continue his duties as Deputy Guild Master until something else happened. And once opportunities presented themselves, he would offer Vandalieu useful-seeming information and treat him favorably as a way of apology.
If he did this repeatedly, their hostile relationship would become hazier.
“Very well. Now that I have made my decision, I will go right now… No, the food cart is located in a back alley of the entertainment district. I shall head there to apologize when more people gather in the evening,” Joseph told himself.
As he began thinking about how to word his apology to Vandalieu and Darcia, there was a knock on the door, as if timed to interrupt his thoughts.
“… Enter,” he said without looking at the door, thinking that an employee had come with documents.
But in the next moment, his eyes opened wide in surprise as he saw that it wasn’t an employee who entered, but armed guards.
“W-who are you people?! What do you want with me?!” he shouted.
“Deputy Guild Master Joseph of the Commerce Guild. You’re under arrest for inciting embezzlement and kidnapping by Aggar and three other rogue guards!” one of the guards declared.
Joseph was even more astounded by their words. “I’m under arrest?! Embezzlement and kidnapping?! What are you talking about?!”
He was panicked and confused by these charges that he had no knowledge of. It was true that he had paid Aggar and his companions to find faults with Vandalieu’s business and interfere with it if they found even the smallest excuse. But that was all.
If Aggar had embezzled the guards’ funds and confiscated goods or plotted a kidnapping, Joseph had nothing to do with it. He hadn’t asked him to do such things; he certainly hadn’t incited such activities.
“Where is your proof?! If you wish to arrest me, then show me your proof!” Joseph demanded, standing up from his chair as his panic and confusion turned into anger.
“Silence! Resisting will do you no good!” one of the guards said in response.
Having no intention of showing Joseph proof of the charges, the guards surrounded him, held him down forcibly and began to tie him up.
“You bastards! Do you know who I am?! I-I am a Deputy Guild Master, the uncle of the Earl Isaac Morksi that you serve!” Joseph shouted. “Don’t think you will get away with this –”
But the guards didn’t respond; they simply dragged Joseph from the office that, until seconds ago, had been his. The reason for that was because they had been directly ordered by Earl Isaac Morksi to secure Joseph’s safety.
Isaac had heard a strange report from his spies… He was puzzled by the fact that Aggar and his companions had entered the orphanage through the back door and then vanished without a trace. He was puzzled, but Aggar and his companions were now missing. Isaac guessed that someone had somehow taken them captive and disposed of their corpses somewhere.
He had the feeling that this ‘someone’ was Vandalieu or someone connected to him. There was no proof of this. He only had the vague idea that some advanced magic had been used, an idea that anyone could come up with that couldn’t even be called a deduction. It was an irrational line of thought that all strange events were connected to Vandalieu.
But he couldn’t think of any other reason that Aggar and his companions would vanish at that moment in time.
That was why Isaac had decided to secure Joseph’s safety, as he was likely to be Vandalieu’s next target, and punish him.
He had been driven by the need to show Vandalieu that he was not an enemy by offering his own uncle as a sacrifice, even if it meant becoming indebted to the Commerce Guild.
“Th-this is breaching the Guild’s rights! Do you think the Guild will stay silent over this?! I’m innocent; I’m definitely being framed by someone! SOMEONE BELIEVE ME!” Joseph screamed.
But not a single person responded to Joseph’s words as he was dragged out of the Commerce Guild building.
The morning after Vandalieu acquired the ‘Dream Guider’ Job, around the same time that Joseph was arrested, Simon was in visibly high spirits as he met Vandalieu for his training.
“Listen, Master! The truth is… I’ve acquired a divine protection,” he whispered to Vandalieu and Natania.
“… I see,” said Vandalieu.
“O-oh really…?” said Natania.
“Ah, neither of you believe me! It’s true! When I woke up this morning, I heard ‘You have acquired a divine protection!’ And when I looked at my Status, it was really there!” Simon said happily.
Neither Natania or Vandalieu knew how to respond.
Natania couldn’t just say, “I have it too,” nor could Vandalieu tell him, “I’m the one who gave it to you.”
“So, what kind of god’s divine protection is it?” Vandalieu asked.
Simon gave a bitter smile and scratched his head. “That’s the thing… Even when I look at my Status, the god’s name is covered. All I know is that it’s six characters, and the last character is an extended vowel,” he said.
It seemed that Simon’s Status displayed ‘■■■■■ー’s Divine Protection,’ so he didn’t know that Vandalieu was the one who had given him the divine protection.
TLN: The ー character indicates that the previous character’s vowel sound is extended, but in this case the previous character is hidden, so vowel sound is unknown (to Simon).
“It might be a subordinate god of Vida related to swords or battle. The truth is, Master, I had a strange dream last night. Someone put their warm hand on my back as I was training, and when I turned around, I had received a sword… and when I woke up, I’d received a divine protection,” said Simon, describing his dream. “You’d think that sleep is the specialty of Mill, the goddess of slumber who’s one of Alda’s subordinate gods, but I didn’t get the feeling that it was her. Can you think of any of Vida’s subordinate gods that might rule over dreams or swords?” he asked.
“… No, I can’t think of a subordinate god of Vida who rules over dreams or swords and has a six-character-long name,” said Vandalieu.
He couldn’t give any other response. He couldn’t tell Simon the truth when the truth was that he had used the tip of his hanging tongue to touch Simon’s back rather than his hand, and the thing he had given him was a horn that had fallen off his body rather than a sword.
“I see… Then I suppose I’ll try indirectly asking at the Communal Church… Ah, maybe it’s better to go and visit the library for the first time in over a decade and look it up,” said Simon.
Fang gave a sigh-like bark in disappointment at Simon not realizing the truth, and the rat sisters gave him disappointed looks as well.
“Sorry I can’t tell you which god’s divine protection it is,” said Simon.
He couldn’t tell what they were really thinking; he thought their disappointment was from not being able to hear which god had given him the divine protection.
“I wonder if this kind of thing is common? I’m sure it’s because I’m not pious enough… I can’t even think of a god whose name has six characters and ends with an extended vowel sound,” said Simon, his earlier bright attitude having turned into a depressed one.
Vandalieu wondered whether he should tell Simon, “Don’t worry about it; it can’t be helped.”
“But still, the fact that they’ve given me a divine protection means they’re expecting good things from me! If I do my best with the training, get my arm back and redo things, I’m sure I’ll learn the god’s name!” Simon said. “Now then, let’s go and train!” he said, cheering up again and heading towards the gate.
Fang and the rats followed, likely thinking about what a hopeless junior he was and that he should notice soon enough.
“… It’s surprisingly hard to realize the truth,” Vandalieu muttered.
“I think it’s something to do with the fact that he can only see the vaguest character, but I think it’s normal not to realize, Master,” Natania whispered back.
As far as the people of Lambda were aware, divine protections were granted by gods. The contents of one’s Status was normally important personal information, but divine protections were such special Unique Skills that acquiring them would be happy news to share with those close to oneself.
In addition to reducing the difficulty of overcoming barriers in one’s development and other tangible effects, they gave a sense of achievement in having been chosen by the gods.
It seemed that Simon would never even dream that he had received such a thing from his own master.
“I didn’t think that the person in my dream was you either, Master… although I saw the ‘V’ in my Status when I woke up and thought it might be, and I accepted it after you told me straight away,” said Natania.
She’d had a dream of when she was used as bait by the Flaming Blades and attacked by the Minotaurs. It was a nightmare that she’d had countless times, but in the middle of it, enormous black legs had descended from above.
The legs had crushed the Minotaurs and sent the Flaming Blades flying away with some kicks. Natania, lying on the ground, had looked up to see a grotesque giant looking down at her.
The giant had then picked her up with a bony hand and enveloped her in a warm fluid. That liquid… its crimson blood, was absorbed into Natania, becoming a part of her own blood.
When she woke up from that dream, she had received Vandalieu’s divine protection like Simon. Incidentally, Juliana had also received a divine protection in the same way, causing her to cry emotionally for some time, and it had taken some time to calm her down.
“By the way, I’m happy that I got your divine protection, but… is it related to the training, Master? It won’t have weird effects like making our tongues longer, right?” Natania asked, looking worried.
“Hmm… It’ll probably be alright, won’t it? Well, you might become able to extend your tongue when you want to,” said Vandalieu, giving a rather uncomforting reply.
But Natania and Simon gained the ‘Spirit Form’ Skill in that day’s training.
“Wow! My arm, my arm is moving! I can move this metal artificial arm exactly as I want to, Master!” Simon shouted excitedly.
“Me too, I can walk! I’m still a bit wobbly though!” said Natania.
Simon’s spirit form had inhabited his artificial arm, and it was moving at his command. Likewise, Natania was able to use her two artificial legs, and although her movements were still clumsy, she could stand and walk.
“Congratulations. You’ve cleared the first stage of the training,” said Vandalieu, clapping to congratulate them. “Natania, you have more parts that need moving, so you’ll need more practice. But at this rate, you should be able to move your artificial limbs as if they were your real ones.”
Simon and Natania were moved to tears by these words.
“Now then, we’ll begin the second stage of training right away. We’ll be alternating between combat training with me and free practice,” said Vandalieu.
“Yes, Master!” Simon and Natania replied in unison, their hearts pounding with excitement.
When they returned to the city, a little after lunch, Simon was being carried by Fang and Natania by Vandalieu.
“M-master, you’re incredibly strong…” Simon wheezed.
“I was mostly practicing stances… Am I going to be alright tomorrow?” Natania wondered.
The two of them were totally exhausted and surprised after having learned the difference in strength between themselves and Vandalieu by having practice battles against him.
Simon had been aware that Vandalieu was no ordinary person, and Natania knew from what she had been told that he had the strength of an A-class adventurer or more.
But imagining something and experiencing it were completely different.
“More importantly, how are you able to do those kinds of things? Materializing your spirit form, tearing it off and then throwing it…” Simon muttered.
“And it’s so tricky that your spirit form moves after you’ve thrown it,” Natania added. “Just what kind of spirit form do you have, Master?”
It wasn’t simply that Vandalieu was stronger than the two of them had imagined; it seemed that the way he used his spirit form was inhuman.
“Because it’s easier to improve your Skills by training against people of your own strength and those who are stronger than you. I might have been a little overenthusiastic though, since it was my first time trying to fight with this method as well,” said Vandalieu.
He had mainly trained Simon and Natania with his spirit form, not using any spells or weapons. He had thought it would be better for them to face the same Skills that they were trying to improve.
“And the two of you are the same as me, now that you’ve gained the ‘Spirit Form’ Skill and are able to use them in combat. From the perspective of ordinary people, that in itself would seem quite inhuman,” Vandalieu added.
He was half-right and half-wrong.
Forcibly changing the shape of one’s spirit form would have a corresponding effect on the mind, and in the worst-case scenario, it could cause insanity. The reason this wasn’t the case for Simon and Natania was that their spirit forms were simply returning to the form they had when they had all of their limbs, so their shapes did not deviate from the shape of a human.
On the other hand, Vandalieu had altered the form of his own spirit form so many times that he was well past the point of deviating from the shape of a human. There was no way to describe it other than that it was in a shapeless, Slime-like state.
Natania and Simon did indeed alter their spirit forms like Vandalieu, but the extent to which they did so was very different… though Vandalieu did intend to eventually pull them up (if it could be described as that) to his own level.
“In any case, once you acquire the ‘Materialization’ and ‘Long-distance Control’ Skills, increase their Levels and increase your Mana so that you can sustain your spirit form for long enough, both of you will be able to do the same thing,” said Vandalieu.
This was why he had shown Simon and Natania what their goal was, made them experience it through practice battles and made them believe that they could do the same.
Unlike the body, the spirit form was completely controlled by one’s strength of imagination and will. There were limits to it, but one could do almost anything with it as long as they could imagine it and strive towards it.
“I see… It would be great just to have a body that can fight again, but if I’m going to go for it, then I’d at least try to become a C-class… no, a B-class adventurer or better!” said Simon.
“Me too. I don’t know if I’d be able to return the favor if I only returned to the way I was before. I’d get left behind by Juli… Julia, too,” said Natania.
“Yes, yes, that’s the spirit,” said Vandalieu with a satisfied nod, looking at their sweaty faces as they reached the gate.
“Welcome back. Looks like today’s training was rough,” said Kest, who was on duty at the gate by himself.
Those who knew that Vandalieu had taken the one-armed Simon and limbless Natania outside the city yesterday and today thought that it was strange. Just what were they doing?
But since Vandalieu and Simon would reply that they were training if asked, many misunderstood that Simon and Natania were training to become Tamers and were satisfied by this explanation… because Vandalieu was famous in the city of Morksi not as a mage, but as the owner of a food cart and as a Tamer.
Many adventurers who were Tamers would rely on their tamed monsters in battle, so one could imagine that it was a possible way for the one-armed Simon and limbless Natania to live their lives.
The two of them were totally exhausted, had removed their artificial limbs and were being carried by Fang and Vandalieu, so it wouldn’t be until after the next day that this misunderstanding was cleared.
“Yes. By the way, even if it is midday when less people enter and leave the city, isn’t it a little careless to have just one person on duty?” Vandalieu asked.
“Is Aggar, that senior of yours, slacking off again?” said Simon.
“No, about that, we’re a little short on hands today,” Kest replied vaguely. “Hmm… I’ve been told not to talk about it, but I suppose you’re related, Vandalieu,” he said, seeming to decide to explain properly. “The truth is, it was discovered that Aggar-senp – Aggar, and four other guards, were crooked. I know you’re thinking that it’s a bit late for that, but they smuggled poisonous substances that we confiscated, and… it seems that they were trying to kidnap orphans from the orphanage for human trafficking.”
“No, no way,” Vandalieu said in a flat tone.
“Now that you mention it, it was quite noisy around the orphanage yesterday. To think that such a thing had happened…!” said Simon.
Kest gave a bitter smile and shook his head. “You don’t have to act surprised, Vandalieu. I know you’ve been visiting the orphanage,” he said, assuming that the nuns or the orphans would have told Vandalieu the news. “Fortunately, things ended with it just being a kidnapping attempt. There was apparently a nun who was there when Aggar and his friends leapt over the walls, and they ran away when she screamed. But even if it was just an attempt, kidnapping is a serious crime. Guards who do such things can’t set an example for everyone else in the city. They’re going to be thoroughly investigated, and we’ve been recruiting a lot of new people this morning.”
“Even so, it’s dangerous to have only one person stationed at the gate, isn’t it? From the way you’re talking, they haven’t been caught yet, have they? How would you stop them if they were to try to leave the city?” asked Simon.
“It’s alright. I’m the only one watching people enter the city, but there’s an inspection point set up on the other side of the gate to check people who leave,” said Kest.
“Wow, it’s a good thing we left early in the morning, isn’t it, Master?” Simon said.
“Yes… it is,” said Vandalieu, a little bewildered that his companions’ disposing of Aggar and his companions had had more significant consequences than he had expected.
It was likely the command of the earl or someone close to him, but it seemed that they had made the story so that the masked men that Sister Seris had witnessed were Aggar and his companions… Just how much of the truth had he figured out?
I just told Gufadgarn and the others to wait until the very last moment, then dispose of them if they ever tried to enter the orphanage, but… to think that the spies would try to capture them just seconds later. Why didn’t they capture them before they entered the orphanage? I wouldn’t have done anything to them if the earl’s people dealt with them, Vandalieu thought. Maybe they had a different opinion on how to handle the children and nuns at the orphanage? I would think it best to avoid scaring everyone, but maybe the earl’s people thought differently… I know they have all kinds of circumstances, but if that’s the case, it’s rather unpleasant.
“But since Aggar and his friends haven’t been caught yet, be careful. There’s no guarantee that he’s not plotting something bad out of resentment towards you,” said Kest, having finished explaining things. “Tell your mother to be particularly careful.”
Aggar was currently wandering Gufadgarn’s labyrinth that had no way out, but Kest didn’t know that; he seemed worried that Aggar was hiding in the city somewhere and up to no good.
“Alright. We’ll be careful,” said Vandalieu with a nod, feeling guilty because he couldn’t correct Kest.
He considered having at least Aggar’s corpse be discovered somewhere.
Incidentally, Natania knew the truth; she was pretending to sleep on Vandalieu’s back so that Kest wouldn’t suspect anything.
Upon entering the city and returning to his house, Vandalieu found that he had received a personal invitation to a tea party from the earl.
《Vandalieu has acquired the ‘Food Cart King’ and ‘Genius Tamer’ Titles!》
《You have acquired the ‘Spirit Therapy’ Skill!》
Birkyne mulled over the information that he had received from his puppets in the city of Morksi. “It seems to be the perfect time to make a move,” he said to himself.
The information was extremely fragmented. However, Birkyne considered all strange and inexplicable events in that city to be related to Vandalieu.
According to the information, it seemed that Birkyne’s puppets had slipped into Vandalieu’s pocket better than he had anticipated.
With the puppets in so deep, Vandalieu would not be able to so easily cut them off. It was plenty to use as a negotiating chip and compensation.
“Are you sure about this? At this rate, it is likely that it will reach the region inside of the Boundary Mountain Range that is ruled by him. Would that not be too late?” said one of Birkyne’s close confidants.
“No, we do not have that much time,” said Birkyne, shaking his head. “If we take too long, it is possible that Alda’s believers will make a move. Well, I’m sure they didn’t expect him to begin a peaceful food cart business in the city, so they are likely racking their brains for a way to deal with them as well, and they surely don’t have the forces to defeat him. But it’s possible that the impatient fools will gather the heroes that are their pawns and attack as soon as he leaves the city.”
Birkyne was aware that there were fools even among gods. Alda, who had been incited by Bellwood a hundred thousand years ago, and Vida, who had been unable to see it coming. More recent examples would be Ternecia, who cornered herself and had her hand bitten by her own pet dog, and Gubamon who had gone mad and isolated himself by disposing of all of his own subordinates.
Pure gods were different from dragons, true Colossi and Pure-breed Vampires like Birkyne himself, as well as evil gods that could not maintain their existence without a physical body, but there was no difference in their foolishness.
“Well, it is difficult to imagine that they would force their own heroes to act like bandits. Still, I am not so sure about the reincarnated individuals. It is highly likely that they have acquired impossible powers from the gods,” said Birkyne. “Mortor, have you learned what they are doing?”
Cold sweat appeared on the bald head of Mortor, one of Birkyne’s Four Confidants, a Noble-born Vampire who was once a Dwarf.
“Asagi Minami and his two companions are staying in the Birgit Duchy. They are researching the fragments of the Demon King that they have captured along with alchemists and mages who are connected to our organization, and they are showing no signs of moving away,” he reported. “And it seems that Kaoru Gotouta has left the Farzon Duchy from the port on a boat headed for the Laberta Archipelago. There have been no signs of her returning to the continent.”
The movements of ‘Mage Masher’ Asagi and his two companions, who were clearly reincarnated individuals from the fact that they contacted Vandalieu and their characteristic names, were being reported by individuals in contact with them. Birkyne had also received information regarding the ‘Super Sense’ Kaoru Gotouta, whose characteristic name also gave away the fact that she was a reincarnated individual. Birkyne had information on four reincarnated individuals in total.
“But… Hajime Inui, Junpei Murakami and two others have disappeared,” said Mortor.
The tension in the air of the room increased immediately.
“And?” said Birkyne, indicating for Mortor to go on.
Birkyne’s other confidants began to break out into cold sweats as well.
“Hajime Inui never came close to places where humans live, so it has always been difficult to track him, but since his presence has not been confirmed at any city, village or highway, we do not know whether he is simply inside a Devil’s Nest or Dungeon, or whether he is moving in secret while avoiding attention,” Mortor continued. “Like Hajime Inui, we are unable to confirm the whereabouts of Junpei Murakami and his two companions after they disappeared from the cities and villages that they were staying in.”
Birkyne had also correctly guessed that these two groups were reincarnated individuals from their names; they had evaded being tracked by his organization numerous times.
As the ‘Marionette’ Hajime Inui stayed away from places of human settlement, it was difficult to even have someone make contact with him, let alone maintain surveillance on him. Murakami’s group was simply very wary, so Birkyne’s organization could not make contact with them carelessly.
Though the reasons for each differed, it seemed that the organization had lost track of them.
“I see… Then they are either in hiding near the city of Morksi, or in the process of moving there and going into hiding,” said Birkyne.
Considering the timing of their disappearances, it was easy to guess their purposes. Thus, he did not rebuke Mortor… or go into hysterics.
His confidants all let out a sigh of relief.
“But how did the reincarnated individuals sense Vandalieu’s appearance? Is it the special powers they received from the gods?” one of the other confidants said.
“More importantly, if the reincarnated individuals are going to make a move on Vandalieu, would it not be best to wait and see what results from it? If they are victorious, we profit greatly. If they are defeated, it does not affect us at all.”
“We can’t do that. We don’t know when or with what purpose they will make contact with Vandalieu. It’s possible that they will become his subordinates like Kanako Tsuchiya and the others… though that’s pretty hard to imagine.”
Hajime’s actions were those of someone undergoing repeated harsh training in order to face a powerful foe, and Murakami’s group clearly saw Vandalieu as a target.
It was unlikely that things would end up like they had with Kanako, who had become Vandalieu’s subordinate, or Asagi, who had withdrawn after just speaking with him.
Considering that, it was ill-prepared of them to have their identities revealed just by their names… but perhaps not so much, if I consider that the god who sent them to this world also wanted them to dispose of me? Well, I can think about their circumstances and purposes later, Birkyne thought, turning his attention away from them.
He tapped his finger on the city of Morksi on the map of the Alcrem Duchy on the table.
“If the reincarnated individuals decide to get rid of Vandalieu with an extreme method such as blowing away the entire city, there is no telling what will happen to my puppets. It would be foolish to wait and watch, only to lose the pawns that are necessary for my plan,” said Birkyne.
He did not underestimate the power of the reincarnated individuals, or at least that of Hajime and Murakami. If they intended to kill Vandalieu, then they likely had power equal to or greater than that of A-class adventurers.
If such individuals were to act violently without considering the victims, the city of Morksi would suffer great losses. There was no guarantee that Birkyne’s puppets would remain intact if such a thing were to happen.
“And… if we take too long, there may be effects on the puppets themselves. He is likely to be a guider, after all,” said Birkyne.
A different kind of tension from before appeared on the faces of Mortor and Birkyne’s other confidants. It was not one of mere fear; it was one of dread.
“Even if he is a guider, he could not shake the control over Birkyne-sama’s puppets… or is that really possible?!” Mortor exclaimed.
“It is. After all, Vandalieu is gathering the fragments of the Demon King, although it seems that there are no effects on the puppets for now…” Birkyne stopped mid-sentence.
Perhaps the puppets had already been affected.
The puppets’ behavior towards Vandalieu… Birkyne had prepared them in a way that they would approach and feel positively about individuals that met a certain description, in a way that would not be unnatural. As a result, Vandalieu and the puppets had a good relationship with one another, but… would the guidance not affect those positive feelings?
No, even if there were effects, they will be within an extent that I can control, so it is not a problem. My fragment’s main part is within me, and the parts I cut off remain residing inside the puppets. There are no problems, Birkyne told himself repeatedly.
“Now then, let us go to make a deal. Vandalieu will obtain our puppets, and we will obtain our safety. If he refuses, battle will ensue, but… even if that happens, it will go in our favor so long as he is unable to sacrifice the puppets,” he said to his confidants.
Title explanation: Food Cart King
A Title that can be acquired by one who is associated with multiple food carts and is a leading figure in the streets and regions in which they operate. There are many other related Titles (For example: Food Cart Queen, Food Cart General).
It is often acquired by chefs who have trained multiple apprentices or influential figures who represent other food cart owners. There is at least one Food Cart King in most busy cities.
It provides a bonus to the ‘Cooking’ Skill, though it is small.
Title explanation: Genius Tamer
As the Title suggests, it is a Title that can be acquired by gifted Tamers. Having incredible achievements or displaying incredible potential as a Tamer is a requirement for acquiring it. Due to the nature of this requirement, it is easier for relatively young Tamers to acquire.
It is a rarer Title than ‘Food Cart King,’ but in the Orbaume Kingdom, there is only about one ‘Genius Tamer’ in each duchy every dozen or so years.
One would have sufficient Tamer-related Skills by the time they acquire this Title, but they receive bonuses to some extent.
But someone with this Title becomes a candidate to be one of the higher-up members of the Tamers’ Guild… the top of a branch, at the very least. This is more significant than the bonuses it provides to Skills.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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Winter
“…if I consider that the god who sent them to this world also wanted them to dispose of me?”
Birkyne is so narcissistic that he still thinks he’s part of the game, while he’s not even on the chess board as a pawn anymore :’)
He’s at most a bug skittering around, and the only reason that the other players would bother killing him is because he’s annoying.
Shadow1
His reasoning is not wrong at all. Even if he is low on target priority, Rodcorte did consider that thi se reincarnated individuals massacre vida’s race and evil God worshipping Vampires.
But, ultimately, he will just be an extra and nothing more in this game where even God’s are now deeply involved.
Zenden1st
It’d be the wackest shit ever if Van is going through all this vetting of duchies just so he can hand Talosheim over to the most acceptable one
100X0=0 Michelin star-rated dish X drop of dirhea= Trash food
Kuroky
Better start begging for your life brkyne lol
DarkCarnage
he should have started 10 years ago lol.
Vitor
Indeed, it’s already too late for him
A_wandering_otter
Yeah I would’ve immediately went and personally kill van with all three pure breed vampire present after van killed all those noble vamps
Baldingere
My bus just passed by me without stopping. I guess i wasn’t noticeable enough. The next one is in 30 minutes, so till then: Van time!
hungsayori
“No, no way,” Vandalieu said in a flat tone.
not even Kanako’s lessons, multiple Divine Protections and unlimited development could clear Vandalieu of his abysmal acting performance
IRONMAN000elas
kest be like: Aggar disapeared
Vandalieu: oh no! Anyways.
LmaoLN
I mean technically since Vandalieu he doesn’t need to know how to act with facial expression he just has to say words
polynesianvibez
is simon the puppet?
thanks for the chapter
Vicx
It might be the demi guard.
Dean1997
They often speak in plural, so there’s probably more than one. Candidates are Simon, Kest, and the orphanage.
hungsayori
No, it’s the stray dog, guys. Birkyne’s gone as far as to use a dog as a sacrificial pawn, that monster!!11!
junipersr
I was thinking the puppets might be the two girls who lost their limbs.
A_wandering_otter
That’d be quite impossible the two girls were doing stuff in a completely unrelated area until they’re captured by minotaurs and moved here on the whim of Randolf the true if byrkine have the insight to predict all these events van would be dead by now
Korath
Not saying Im right, but it can be possible, that he made them puppets without the intention to interact with Van, things happened and a connection was established. If you live 100k years you probably will have a network of 1000s of people even if they dont know. Especially the duke daughter would make sense cause she is a noble.
MrTrixer
A discussion of a peace offering and cease fire agreement? Smart move, as for his puppets, the orphanage perhaps? Its no secret that Van cares for them and one of them even became a friend to him. Other than that i can only think of the guard, maybe one of those adventurers as well..
This could get interesting.
Thank you for the chapter and the treat! (^_^)/
junipersr
I was thinking that the two girls who lost their limbs were the most likely candidates to be the puppets.
akatsuki kuranashi
well that was expected
JCBroca
Birkyne vs Vandalieu
serp80887
Six chapters per month! This is really cool!
akatsuki kuranashi
you do realize that this is a result of coronavirus right?
Kuro-san
Thanks for the chapter!
Kuro-san
What would a deity of death look like in Death Mage?
I am not talking about a being like Van-sama, I am talking about a deity born out of chaos, shaped on the concept known as ‘Death’.
My guess is that this deity would be a being with an undefined form, whose appearance varies from person to person (EX: to me, this deity may appear as the Grim Reaper; however, to another person, the deity may appear as a shadow .). And in terms of personality, I would say, it would be somewhere between Death of the Endless, a character from Saindman, and The Lich from Adventure’s Time. And finally, with the ability to manipulate the mana of the death-attribute as well as Vida can manipulate the mana of the life-attribute.
Kazza
See, that’s the problem with death as a divine aspect. Death itself is the end, but it has no ego or drive behind it. It happens, it comes to everyone, and you can’t stop it. There’s no lesson to learn except these bare minimum of acceptance.
See, love goddess Vida is very kind to accentuate her aspect of peace and goodwill, acting like a mother to her followers.
Alda, god of order, light, and douchebaggery is very strict and uncompromising to accentuate the rigidity of law and justice, as if he were a judge.
Even Zantark, from what we’ve seen, is a very talented fighter, but when calm has surprising insight on Farmaun Gold and the whole conflict, symbolizing both martial prowess and ingenuity most people would expect from a general.
But death is death. There’s no hidden depth, so it’s hard to add character to a concept as barren as death.
So, for character, I don’t really visualize anything exciting, but more like the silent worker, a la the Ghost of Christmas Future. Does he like his job? Hate his job? Who knows, cause all you’ll ever know is he’ll do it without saying a word. He isn’t here to teach you a lesson, merely show you your fate. And if you run, he won’t chase you, cause he knows you’ll be back soon enough.
The ones who preach about nihilism as if death is a higher purpose really just come off as too evil to me, when death as a concept is neutral. It happens, so accept it. There’s almost nothing else you can learn about it
So, to your original question, if there was a god of death in Death Mage, I’d wager they’d be one who is uninvested in the Alda/Vida conflict, who continues to do their job without complaint and merely observes from the sidelines. If you wanted believers, I’d imagine they would teach something about acceptance and the whole continuation of life through others. Maybe they’d also be in charge of purifying undead instead of Alda, as Van points out that undead act nearly always on emotions, but death doesn’t care if you had unfinished dreams or missions. The dead should stay dead, and only live on through others.
No good. No evil. No joy, sorrow or anger. Death comes in when it’s time and does it’s job, then leaves for the next.
Absolute Zer0
Feels like kinda character that can be observing from somewhere while doesn’t give a damn about what the hell is going on.
Really i even started suspecting there was such character all along without being noticed by either Deities or Mortals. Hell, i feels that kinda dude maybe do nothing while whole Lambda is being destroyed.
Morgan
Death isn’t the end. This novel is proving every single chapter since the prologue. It’s little more than a checkpoint in an endless cycle. Only soul breaking is the real end. As such, a god of death would represent the journey of a soul from the end of one life into the next.
Rodcorte’s system already covers this part of the journey though which is why there has never been a death god, because there was no need when there’s a system older than the original gods already guiding souls from one life to the next.
Also why wouldn’t death have it’s own emotions when life, its counterpart, does?
Plus it’s only intelligent creatures that have insignificant worried like regrets despite knowing they’ll eventually have a new life.
Kazza
See, that’s just something that the novel hasn’t sold me on. When the gods are panicking about Van being able to break souls, it makes sense because they can manually reincarnate or sleep to heal. If they get their soul broken, that’s an irreversible end.
But humans? Why should they care? When they die, they get reincarnated, but that means the same fate. Who they are, what they know and believe, all of that will disappear in the next life. All that they were has disappeared, except for their memory among the still living.
Reincarnation is basically just reusing a battery from junk. Your calculator broke? Take the batteries out cause they still have juice and discard the rest to be forgotten in the garbage. Put them in a TV remote and never think about them again.
Death for humans is honestly just as bad as soul breaking, or conversely, soul breaking is no worse than simple death to a human. So, saying that death is just a step in a journey, not the end, is false. Outside of Van, who has plot powers to counter it, it is an irreversible phenomenon that erases a person’s agency on the world.
As for the personality thing, that’s just what life and death represents – Life represents emotions, creativity, motion, etc. Death represents silence and stillness. Basing personalities off those is just what people do.
And as for the final thing, what do you mean insignificant regrets? What if Van never met Levia, and she had the regret that the Hartner family never faced justice, or her people were in danger? Her forgiving and forgetting to pass on and lose all the memories doesn’t fix the problems. The old Duke Hartner would still be able to commit crimes and conspiracies with the only force aware of them now gone. After all, Van didn’t know anything about it until he met a spiritualist – who specifically affirmed that the dead do not pass on unless their regrets are fulfilled or too much time had passed.
Simply being unable to act on them does not mean those regrets are foolish to have. If anything, it shows that you are not truly ready for the end and want to continue, not lose it all and forget.
Kazza
I think you misunderstood me. I meant why should a human care if they get told “After I kill you I’m breaking your soul” when reincarnation effectively does that anyway. The only people that should matter to are the Bravers, who can reicarnate semi-freely.
I’m actually 100% ok with gods fearing soul breaking, and even in them fearing the destruction of Rodcorte’s system.
But that’s all dependent on Rodcorte’s system being fully automated. Souls aren’t finite, or else Rodcorte couldn’t add new worlds into his system. So Van breaking a soul damages the system, sure, but that damage isn’t irreparable, as Rodcorte only needs to manually fix the error. If he were to break millions of souls in a day, maybe that’d actually cause irreversible damage, but even Alda should know that’s selling him short.
If anything, that’s a ball in Rodcorte’s court (heh). He can take the time to modify his system to account for broken souls, but he’s too lazy/prideful. Any decent administrator would take the more difficult option of improving their system, but Rodcorte’s anything but.
And all of this is dependent on understanding Rodcorte’s role in reincarnation, which the story seems to imply is forbidden knowledge to mortals.
So, while yes, soul breaking is ultimately more dangerous to the gods/world, to a human it should be the same as death anyways. That’s what I’m trying to get at.
Kazza
Again, I think we’re arguing different points. I agree that Soul Breaking is pretty much the only thing that can cause death to a god and other divine beings, but I’m talking about the perception of soul breaking to mortals.
For an example, I first stated questioning this when Eleanora swore fealty to him because he can destroy souls while Birkyne couldn’t. That just didn’t make as much sense to me, because in reality she had no other option. She was a Noble Vampire, sure, but she knew Birkyne would dispose of her given the drop of a hat the moment she showed weakness. Besides some information, he didn’t have a use for her after death, so even if the revived her in that ritual she would be thrown away as Hihiryushukaka’s doctrine should state. So at the end of the whole thing, she’d end up in the same position as if she was soul broken.
It was much easier to simply say she had no other options, but Densuke tries to make the case she turned due to the soul breaking. And when going over the actual facts, it just doesn’t make as much sense.
In the story, Soul Breaking is thought of as much more terrifying than regular reincarnation, when in reality they’re one and the same except to gods and other divine beings. But those characters make up such a small part of the cast that the entire world fearing it is just illogical.
Keep in mind, this was my response to the notion death was just a checkpoint. It’s not. Reincarnation is not any different to soul breaking for a mortal, only for gods.
Kazza
I’m sorry, but I’m not letting you get away with that first paragraph.
Birkyne would have been merciful to her? Birkyne?
The man who enters a state of manic slaughter and murders anything in the room not strong enough to defend themselves the second he gets angry?
The guy who literally taught fear to Eleanora firsthand by murdering her fellow vampire initiates for not being as good as her?
The guy whose introduction showed him having happily tortured a guy to near death for failing his master (not him, and it’s unlikely Gubamon even cared) just to show everyone how ruthless he is?
The guy who was one of the three popes of a religion of tearing someone apart the second they show weakness?
The guy who fucked over the other two popes the second the opportunity presented itself?
THAT Birkyne would be merciful? He wouldn’t just extract whatever information Eleanora-as-an-undead would know (as it seems the undead can’t disobey their masters) then torture her in front of everybody to demonstrate how he will tolerate failure?
And Hihiryushukaka, the god who enjoys toying with the weak would suddenly have a change of heart for ten seconds and make this one vampire who failed a familiar spirit? Instead of ignoring her execution because he’s got hundreds of other identical vampire followers?
She has an equally likely chance of becoming a familiar spirit of Alda, because she represents everything those two hate; weakness and Vidaness respectively
You need to try again. That was horrendous, and I’ve seen you use better references.
She was dead to rights. Her fate was sealed, so it was better to cut her losses and become Van’s subordinate instead.
You’re right, anyone who could become a familiar spirit should be very afraid of getting their soul broken. People like Gordan, Heinz, and such. But those positions aren’t infinite, so to someone who is doomed to die unremembered, it doesn’t matter in the slightest.
Maybe you’re more spiritual than me, but looking at it logically it doesn’t matter. Van is the reincarnation of Zakkart, but no one ever attributes his great deeds to Zakkart.
Because Zakkart died thousands of years ago. He’s not around anymore, and he’ll never come back. Similarly, Alda doesn’t talk about how cool Heinz’s past life must have been, because they are already dead and he has no use for them.
In my example earlier, I compared it to taking a set of batteries out of a calculator and putting it in a TV remote. Tell me how that isn’t similar, because the story takes great steps to show it isn’t the soul who defines a person, it’s their personality based off their experiences. A person of great virtue could become a monster in their next life, while a mighty warrior could become a docile farm animal.
Reincarnation, as a system in this story, takes a complete person as a product, discards everything that made them unique, and salvages the power source of their soul to recycle it into another product that will eventually face the same fate. At the end of the day, that person is destroyed, and only exist as the memories they left behind.
What if Heinz’s past life was an extreme Vida follower? If you could travel back in time to tell them what Heinz would end up doing, would you say they would be happy to find out that their soul was repurposed to serve that purpose? I would think not, but that’s how little reincarnation cares about your agency.
It’s true death in all but name. You no longer exist, as Rodcorte’s taken you and repurposed you despite your desires.
I mean, the title itself, “The Death Mage who Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time” tells me pretty clearly that Van knows a Fourth Time, no matter how potentially utopian it could be, still means he has to forget those he loves, allow Rodcorte to get away with his injustices, and shirk the responsibilities to protect those under his care. Even when he had nothing as a baby, he knew he would never allow that to happen, no matter what it took.
As for your last statement, that actually makes much more sense, and I didn’t consider it until you brought it up. However, you seen to be stating that they fear soul breaking because of the danger it represents to the world, when no one except those who understand the Circles could possibly understand how.
It’s much more likely that they fear it because it reminds then of Gudurandis and what he did, not what his actions would eventually lead to.
Jonathan Hurd
To be fair, I believe everyone in Lambda knows that souls reincarnate. That’s literally in the explanation of how dungeons make monsters. They also have a very direct connection to God’s and I believe have been told they will be reincarnated. Mainly because the first thing anyone would ask before becoming a familiar spirit is what happens if I say no. The taboo stuff mostly has to do with the systems reincarnating people.
As far as the fear goes I think Tank is right. Basically we all fear the approach of death, of the ending of our lives. To ease that fear you can think of the fact that the pain will some point stop. The slate will be wiped clean and you will get another shot. Destroying the soul is losing not only your current life, but the infinite number of lives you would of gone on to live.
I admit soul destruction doesn’t seem so terrible to us because we don’t really have a definitive answer to what happens after you die. For us it could be reincarnation or it could be the abyss the characters in the story face after death. I will admit I find it funny how connected people are to lives they will never know they are experiencing since their minds are wiped clean each time.
I think the importance is more the legacy. The knowledge that things can be better for the next you. For our perspective I think it’s similar to passing your hopes and dreams to your children and grandchildren after you die. They carry a small part of you in them and they stand as a testament that you lived. In that case destroying someone’s soul is like not only killing a person but wiping out their entire family line.
This of course only applies to the mortal people whose souls are threatened. A lot of them like Asagi are mostly angry that it goes against the order of the world or such. The truly fearful of Vans soul breaking is always the gods. Mainly because that ability reintroduces them to death, the thing they thought they had escaped. For most God’s even if they get defeated and sealed they could eventually rise back up given time.
Ac3
I think death is what you think it means.
I think a deity of death doesn’t have an appearance but if it has to it should be something akin to black smoke that is weightless and has no presence since you don’t know when you will die
I think for it’s personality it’s something like it’s has no personality? No emotion. No reason . Nothing. Since death can come to anything including mortals,gods even planets and stars can die.
Basically a deity of death is what you think of as death, an end all be all since technically all beginning must have an end or a new beginning since in this novel the circle of transmigration is a thing
If he does have a teaching it should be death will come no matter how long it takes years decades eons who knows? But there will always be death since everything, everyone can technically come to an end (or die) and when there’s nothing left to die then the concept of death it self will die resulting in nothingness and emptyness in which of in it self is considered death which corelate to what I said in the beginning death is what you think it mean since it’s like a paradox.
Paps
Thanks for the chapter, wondering who are his puppets, and Sorry but I don’t see this vampire surviving.
Morgan
My guess is the orphans. They really liked Van from the start even though most people are creeped out by him. They could have been manipulated by the fragments inside them to get close to the main body. Plus Van has never harmed children so the orphans would make good puppets.
Jonathan Hurd
To be fair it seemed the orphans were mostly charmed by the cute friendly giant rats and the good food Van brought. If someone came to your home when you were starving and bored with good home cooked meals and a Wii I think anyone would warm up to the guy no matter how dead pan he is.
Slamdunk
Don’t know why people are talking about a big fight, the strength diff between them is already clear and huge.
But he will probably play and test with them so at least we can expect unusual stuff.
Thanks for the translation.
Absolute Zer0
Well, it is no only Byrkine you know? Most likely Evil God Mr.Longname will descent on him and Fitun dude must be raring to go too. And i refuse to believe Alda will miss such chance. Most likely it’s gonna be like Raid on Legendary Boss and they all know they can’t take down Boss by themselves.
VEreality
I don’t think any god that is on Alda’s side would do anything until the battle is over. Fitun is the only exception. Just because they hate evil gods
Absolute Zer0
Really, how did that Bellwood dide brainwash those Gods? Like, Alda is acting like like Bellwood fanatic. Gufadgarn believes Zakkar was strongest tamer, but i think Bellwood guy is more fitting to such title. Hell, he is leading Gods with sweet word for almost hundred thousend years.
Morgan
(Summary at bottom) A hundred thousand years ago the gods were naive and Bellwood used pretty words and ideals to sway the gods. So Alda believed that Bellwood was right even though he accomplished nothing except vilifying the Demon King and the Creation Champions.
Honestly, this is literally the only way Rodcorte is actually better than Lambda’s gods. Rodcorte doesn’t believe in pointless black and white concepts like good and evil.
Alda being the god of law however wants clear definitions for good and evil and got “brainwashed” when Bellwood told Alda what good and evil was.
Meanwhile Bellwood was just scared of anything non-human and believed evil gods were incapable of doing good things.
Basically, Alda is a naive idiot that was swayed by Bellwood’s heavily flawed world view.
Jonathan Hurd
The problem with Rodcorte is that he doesn’t believe in black and white he really only believes in good for himself or bad for himself. Anything bad for him must be avoided or destroyed. Anything good will be invested in. Anything that falls outside those two categories he doesn’t care at all about and will exhaust no effort towards. To be honest it’s not a great way to view the world, but it does make some sense and we see it a lot in humanity.
My biggest problem with Alda isn’t that he got tricked. He was definitely duped by Bellwoods pretty sounding words, but so were many others like Farmaun Gold. My problem with Alda is his refusal to change course even after realizing this is not the right path. Yes the start was Bellwoods fault for pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes, but at this point Alda is just like a little kid crouched in a corner covering his ears yelling “I can’t hear you!” Over and over again. Alda stopped thinking for himself and decided to try and wipe away his sins by killing everyone and anyone who thinks he has done something wrong.
Mossy Stone
Birkyn’s big battle seems to me more likely to end with a whimper. Most likely “a” guider??? Van’s guider is like the unique skill of guider jobs! By making the puppets feel favorable to Van, it’s like giving him a new subordinate on a silver platter.
“ No, even if there were effects, they will be within an extent that I can control, so it is not a problem. My fragment’s main part is within me, and the parts I cut off remain residing inside the puppets. There are no problems, Birkyne told himself repeatedly.” ☠️FLAG
I don’t think it’s the Nun at the church is a puppet since she went for Darcia, not Van.
Joseph was planning on backstabbing Van, which would have probably been seen through; hope his demise is still forthcoming.
😏It is sooo nice of those people to gather DK fragments for Van, isn’t it?
Lord Rin
So Alda’s peaceful faction is slowly becoming the majority faction of the Alcrem Duchy? That just gives Van another reason to stay here and convert the duchy to Vida’s religion. It’d be a good way to screw them over.
I am surprised that Joseph even thought about apologizing to Van. Regardless of how obviously insincere it would be, I didn’t think that he would even consider it because of his personality. Anyways now he’s been dealt with. Personally I would’ve wanted him to get executed but that just doesn’t seem feasible. At best I can see him being indefinitely incarcerated because being associated with people doing illegal human trafficking seems too major of a crime for Joseph to only spend some time in jail while at the same time there are limits to the false charges Earl Morksi can throw on him.
Hah~ Simon… Can’t even figure out he got Van’s divine protection. Anyways sounds like them learning Rocket Punches are getting closer to reality if Van is planning for them to eventually get the ‘Materialization’ and ‘Long-distance Control’ Skills.
So Birkyne is just an idiot who thinks he knows everything. He can find out about the reincarnated individuals, that they probably have a way to track Van and that a god of reincarnation is probably responsible for bringing them and Van to Lambda yet he can’t even verify if Van is a guider or not. Then he wants to make a move now before anybody else because of stupid reasons like thinking the reincarnated individuals might side with Van even though his own information shows that there’s probably a 98.999% chance they would never join him or thinking that the fighting would kill his puppets even though he specifically made them to get close to Van and have no other purpose and are expendable. Well Van has probably already guided them and Birkyne’s DK fragments don’t work on them anymore so he’s just gonna pointlessly expose himself to Van thinking he has the upper hand when he really has nothing to threaten him with.
Heh now Van has the Food Cart King title. He needs to upgrade it to Food Cart Emperor since he already has so many emperor titles. Meanwhile the Spirit Therapy Skill will probably help Simon and Natania use their spirit forms better so they can use their metal prosthetics better. Maybe it might also help Juliana and her subordinates while they undergo their pseudo-reincarnations.
Jonathan Hurd
I gotta admit Joseph being ready to bow his head surprised me too. Though if you think about it knowing when he’s bitten off more than he can chew and spitting it out is probably why he’s been able to keep doing all his petty abuses to this day.
For Joseph’s fate I think it’s less locking him up and throwing away the key and more an elaborate house arrest far away from Van. Joseph’s nephew is basically doing this to save his life worried about Vans retribution.
I think we should go a little easy on Simon. He has just begun to scratch the surface of Vans weirdness. It does make more sense that some mystery God has taken interest in you than Van a mortal can give divine protections. Especially if you didn’t get any real letters to read. Even for Vans loyal followers it took them a while and some comparing to realize what they had.
I feel like we might also be a bit hard on Birknye as well. For Vans being a guider it would be easier to confirm if he could be observed more often. Problem is Van only just appeared in this Duchy and he treats being outside as walking in an enemy city. The true mark of a guider is seeing the followers and how they develop. So watching how Fang progressed is probably a good sign that Van has the job. Though Van has always had monsters and can easily power level so that makes it a bit harder.
For the reincarnators joining Van I think Birknye is smart to try to prepare for that 0.02 percent. Last thing he needs is Van getting more powerful allies. Another problem for Birknye dealing with Hajime and Murakamis groups is they are so cautious. Makes it hard to collect intelligence about them and their motives.
For the pawns I will say they are disposable, but this is the first and potentially last chance Birknye has to reach out and talk to Van before the War heats up. After Van finishes whatever he’s currently working on he could disappear back beyond the boundary mountain range. Who knows when he’ll get a second shot. Also if the pawns die now that means about two to three months of work resulted in nothing. Best to use them now before the shot hits the fan because Alda and his crew do not care about collateral damage.
I like the idea Spirit Therapy could be useful for Juliana and her groups reincarnation. It could also potentially have some positive effects on the Ghosts in Vans party. Maybe he’ll start giving his massages to Princess Levia and Orbia, lol.
Sebas Asmos
Thanks for the chapter.
Nox
Thanks for the chapter.
It is quite astonishing Birkynes’ ability to gather and analysis information as the reincarnated individuals haven’t done that much and even guessing that a god who isn’t yet known in Lambda is responsible for them. On the other side we now know some of the abilities his fragment holds. But even with all that he ain’t a opponent of our mighty Death God, Vandalieu-sama.
SuicidalSkeletin
Yoshi is our lord and savior. \o/
Neecron
all praise lord Yoshi, because he gave us his translations in this calamitous times of coronavirus
Jonathan Hurd
All hail Lord Yoshi may he never be discarded down a hole for the sake of a higher jump!
V4NQU1SH
Thanks for the chapter~!
GashBello
Thank you very much for the chapter!!!
no1
Thank you for the chapter Yoshi. So Aggar is wandering around Gufadgarn’s Labyrinth? Can we just consider him dead already? So Birkyne is finally going to make his move, I hope we found out what kind of Demon king fragment he has in the next chapter and who his puppet really is. Also if Hajime and Murakami’s current location is unknown. I guess we won’t be hearing from them for a while.
SuicidalSkeletin
His fragment is most likely one similar to Van’s brain one. He’s able to implant it into people and take control over their thoughts. I think Van has the one that controls motor functions, then Birkyne’s controls emotions or critical thinking, allowing him to brainwash people
Xias1
I do not think that “fragments” here refer to the demon king’s fragments.
After all Birkyne can use but not control the demon king’s fragment completely.
So if he would cut of a part of it to manipulate his puppets the fragment would just use that opportunity to contact Vandalieu whom it recognizes as the “main body”.
Also using the demon king’s fragment to control those people would mean to have it active the whole time which he cannot do as he would be corrupted by the fragment.
My guess is that Birkyne is using something similar to Van’s ability to create spirit clones.
Just that Birkyne’s ability only allows him to separate a small fragment from his spirit form with a preset “programm”.
Then he can implant / connect these separated fragments to another person that has no sufficient mental defense in order to manipulate their behaviour with the preset “programm”.
That is also why he is concerned about the “puppets” being taken away from his control as it would be possible either if Van’s influence increases their mental defenses high enough, if Van’s influence affects and changes or deletes the preset “programm” in the fragment or if Van’s influence erases those fragments completely.
Jonathan Hurd
My guess is that Birknyes fragment could be close to the Demon Kings luminescent gland or scent gland. He uses it to put the puppet into a hypnotic state and instill instructions/suggestions into people to work on an unconscious level.
I think Xias is right that the fragment has probably not been physically put into someone. From what we have seen previously anyone who had a fragment, even an offshoot of a fragment, put into them turned into a Demon King Familiar that craves the main body.
Chadd
So he has
Vampires
2 groups of reincarnators.
Alda’s heros/Gods
Targeting him.
As is under the watchful eye of
1 group of reincarnators
The earl
Im imagining a scenario where all the groups attack at the same time and wipe each other out with Van doing nothing leaving the Earl to wonder WTF is going on.
Jonathan Hurd
While that scenario would be stupidly amusing, considering none of them are listening to Rodidiots advice I don’t think it likely for them to self destruct like that.
Murkowski and Birknyes groups are just concerned about results. So as long as someone kills Van they don’t care. I think the Duchy guys are more likely to cut their losses and abandon one city if it turns into ground zero rather than get in the way of a fight between Van and others.
The one I’m not sure of would be Fitun. It’s clear he’s raring to battle I just don’t know enough about his current mental state. It seems clear he desires to battle Van and defeat Van himself. Problem is I’m not sure if he would go ‘You must overcome these small fry to have the true battle against me!’ If Murakami shows up first or if he’d jump in try to finish them all.
I will say while I don’t expect a complete free for all I am looking forward to the giant mess all these factions are about to find themselves in and how this prewar fight will be spun to the public.
Absolute Zer0
Really, such Battle Royale is hard to come by in this novel. Heroic Spirits descending, battle cries echoing throught wilderness, magics roaring throught heavens, God of Death staring at his foes, Heroes and Gods falling one after another.
Just thinking about it gives me shiver. Now I’m so nervous it feels like I’m the one facing against Van.
I think Fitun is not gonna miss such mess and raring to go in his Divine Realm. Pretty sure Van’s gonna eat several Gods. Just can’t wait to read.
VEreality
Bruh. That would be next level. I imagine this as something like the gladiators from One Piece that wanted to kill Doflamingo. One. Giant. Mess. Of people. All going for one dude that could fight all of them at once anyway.
Kidd
The puppets are definitely the orphans, considering the fact that one of the kids got a bat for a pet
Anyway thank you for the chapter!
Kiryl
I also suspect Simon to be one of the puppets.
This is a quote from chapter 214 after Vandalieu save him:
“He hurt the muscles in his arm, and just has a few other scrapes. His organs are like this because of years of unhealthy living, Vandalieu observed. His brain is… hmm.”
I mostly suspect it because we never were told what was up with that brain.
Renrobt
We have been told what’s up with his brain:
His brain essentially forgot how to use his right arm. Braincells that did that were lost or repurposed. It was explained that because of this even if they just regrow his arms it might take decades before he could fight with that arm.
Also mentioned that this was the problem for Belmond with her tail, but since she was a vampire with regeneration this was repaired easily, but for Simon who’s human this will be a great difficulty. And considering that it is Van saying that it is difficult it can be considered impossible.
SuicidalSkeletin
no since Van examined his brain closely he’d be able to find out if he had an implanted DK fragment, but i don’t think he performed spirit healing on the orphans.
IlCroato
Probably Kest. Had a positive and friendly disposition towards Vandeliu since day one plus even if it was said he was not afraid of Fang and the 3 rats because he was “an inexperienced guard” every other guard was very much afraid. Last but not least hardly any better puppet than the person watching every person entering exiting the city.
Jonathan Hurd
You’d honestly expect an inexperienced guard to be more afraid of a giant beast not less. Kest is definitely down in my book as a spy. Other suspicious people to me are the Priestess of Vida who first approached Van and maybe the Tamer Guild master.
I will say I think the Tamer guild master is probably someone who just naturally warmed up to Van, but the Priestess was a bit too in love with Darcia from the start.
To be fair the Priestess and Kest seem like good candidates. Ones a member of Vidas race that has the most opportunities to interact with Van naturally. The other is a priestess of the Goddess Van worships and supports. Van is likely to be naturally friendlier to them from the start especially if they approach him amicably.
Jonathan Hurd
The thing that makes me most suspicious of Kest is the fact that he was guided while only off handedly meeting Van at the gate. Vans charm has an effect, but a pretty weak one on Beastkin. With their amount of interaction I feel like it’s a bit unnatural that Kest was guided unless he had already started predisposed.
I will admit I’m a little shakey on Vidas Priestess. She just came on really strong to me. The fact that she met her Goddesses incarnation even unknowingly definitely played a factor. Still I’m slightly suspicious. She does have fairly good reasons though to try and win over Van and his mother though considering how hot a topic Dhampirs are right now.
Maybe I could push the Tamer Guildleader a little further than Vidas Priestess. It’s hard for me to decide. Kest I’d say is around 80 percent the other two around 50 for me.
Morgan
i doubt it’s Kest. He’s a member of Vida’s races like Van and no doubt felt increased affinity because of the Holy Son of Vida. Plus he’s also just a good guy. I believe it’s the orphans though because most people are creeped out by Van yet the kids liked him immediately plus it’s known that Van doesn’t harm children. However they aren’t his followers and don’t spend enough time to get guided as fast as what Birkyne is worried about so I’m not sure.
Tolkien
I just love this novel so much … I guess is my favorite at the moment … ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
ShiN.A.X
Alda, who had been incited by Bellwood a hundred thousand years ago.
……. Okey
Jonathan Hurd
Basically everything Alda has done was Bellwoods idea or doctrine. Rejecting technology, destroying Vidas races, overthrowing and sealing Vida. These were all decided by Bellwood. I believe in the flashback with Farmaun Gold he said it was Bellwood that came to him and said Vida was creating monsters, had gone insane, and needed to be stopped.
Alda has also been constantly pining for Bellwood to come back and tell him what to do next. Alda hasn’t done anything different since Bellwood was sealed since it was Bellwood making all the decisions. Alda has spent these hundred thousand years still single mindedly following the last orders he got to get rid of all monsters and preserve nature.
The only thing Alda wants is the old Bellwood back to lead him. He’s not even interested in a new hero to take Bellwoods place. That’s why Heinzs trial isn’t to succeed Bellwood but to awaken him.
Morgan
I thought Bellwood didn’t have a guidance skill which was one of the reasons he was jealous of Zakkart who possessed a creation related guidance skill.
Gohankuten
All 7 of the champions were also Guiders and had Guider skills. It was mentioned awhile back during one of the talks about Guiders. In fact I think Bellwoods exact Guider was mentioned alongside Zakkarts but I can’t remember what they were now.
Renrobt
Can we just stop for a moment and appreciate that he finally got titles that he doesn’t have to come up with a long winded excuse or story to explain?
I mean these are still incredibly impressive from the common perspecive, like oh a 11 y old kid is already Food Cart King, must mean he has a promising future as a master cook. Even more so with the Genius Tamer.
All other titles are either incredibly negative or at least worrying or some just unique. I mean imagine if he told everyone he is the Holy Son of Vida. Or has the title Champion or Trial Conqueror. All these would rise quite a few eyebrows.
Aaand the rest of his titles are all range from worrying through panic inducing up to “OH GOD OH NO”
Triduo
Imagine what would happen if he says that he’s the [Holy son of Vida] as well as [The Second coming of the Demon King]…
Tolkien
I guess he already has the Demon King tittle
bk3k
Just the amount of titles is enough to freak people out. Then passive skills, active skills, statuses. Even if they can’t read them, it would be unsettling and difficult to believe.
Related – [spoiler]Duke Alcrem has a person under his command who has a special eye. A special eye that can read the status of others. Ordinarily no one can tell he’s doing it. If the person is much stronger than himself, he won’t be able to read exactly what it says. The information will be garbled, but that alone is telling. Just to see how many skills etc someone possesses.[/spoiler] But that won’t matter for a while anyhow.
Jonathan Hurd
The problem for Van as I know it isn’t becoming an Adventurer. Basically anyone old enough can apply for that. The problem is the initial information reading when they first make your card. The important reason for Van to become a Merchant Guild Member is he can bypass the check and just get an Adventurer Guild card if he’s already proven himself as a merchant.
I will admit I think he could potentially become an honorary noble through the Tamer guild if he set his mind to it, but I think people would always wonder why he isn’t an adventurer if he tried it that way. Climbing to the top while snubbing the adventurers guild would probably lead to way to many problems down the line.
Morgan
The eye of surverying can only tell title count, job total count and total skill count. The stronger the tatget the longer the time it needs.
IRONMAN000elas
Mate just the number of jobs is TERRIFYING!!
Chiu ChunLing
I don’t know that there’s any long-winded story or excuse for things like over half a dozen kinds of Emperor (including Emperor over an entire category of minor gods, which is more impressive than Emperor of Emperors, or maybe Emperor of Emperors of Emperors), Holy Son of Vida, or Champion, let alone Demon King and Transgressor.
Guardian of the Cultivation Villages is pretty harmless, and the story is short. “I protected some cultivation villages.” Trial Conqueror speaks for itself, you just need to add “it was the Trial of Zakkart, that’s how I got that as my surname.” Hmmm…that has a pretty dangerous synergy with Holy Son of Vida and Champion, come to think of it (guess it ties in with Transgressor too).
Actually, if you think about it, “I passed the Trial of Zakkart and became acknowledged as the reincarnation of Zakkart” pretty much explains everything, even the part of being both the Champion and the Demon King (Yuusha and Maou, the classic dicotomy).
It’s not a long winded story, and it explains everything.
VEreality
Well, it seems Simon put too many points in STR and not enough in INT. We love him nonetheless however.
Divine protection for everyone. Let it rain Van. I mean we still dodn’t know the extend of it in Origin and we would be grateful to know what is happening over there, but the incoming fight with Birkyne is more than good enough.
Thank you Yoshi-sama!
Triduo
They already teased Birkyne’s fight, Origin can wait a little longer !
( O_O) <At least until Rodcorte's assassins fails at killing Van.)
Paradoxe : What about the Marionette ? -__-
It's already broken and his power would probably have no effect against Van.
Paradoxe : And if he's under that god's influence ?
Then the fight would be fiercer but still ends with Van's victory.
Paradoxe : What about the god ?
Death.
Paradoxe : You're goddamn right ! ( O_O)b
SuicidalSkeletin
He indeed does not have immunity to marionette. It’s an ability that controls motor functions through electrical signals. Van can’t completely “shut off” his brain, that would lead to his body dying.
But his anti magic barrier can most likely negate the effect because the signals aren’t very strong and air functions as an isolator anyway. So yeah marionette is a bad matchup against him, but a fight with the incarnation of a war god would be epic even without a cheat ability
Jonathan Hurd
I will just say I think Isis and Vans cases are slightly different. Van can definitely move his body with his soul, but I don’t think he’s brain dead doing it. Isis situation I feel was closer to her ghost possessing her brain dead body. In her case there was no nervous system to work with since it was all dead. With Van I feel like all the wiring is still there to try and hack.
I will say a problem for marionette could be if Van covers himself in Soul Form like against Heinz. That is his soul fighting so not really the same thing as a body to control. Another part would be if Van uses the DK sub Brains and DK nerves. Those might not be as easy to hijack as normal nerves.
Morgan
1st. Van can just use delay death to stop his body dying.
2nd. He can simply use the demon king’s aux brain
3rd. Soul form to make another brain
4th. Magic can’t be stopped since Marionette controls motor skills
5th. Soul Form his head to just negate the ability entirely
6th. marionette can only control one being at a time and Van has a small but unstoppable army in his body
7th. His mind is immune to tampering and his body immune to negative status effects and i think marionette would fall under one of these since Marionette appears to be a form of mental possession.
100,000,000,000/1 chance of Marionette actually doing any damage
bk3k
Well… I wouldn’t say completely useless when combined with Fitun. Remember this is a god of lightning. But [spoiler]you’ll see… fairly soon. It is a really good arc. Look forward to it.[/spoiler]
Morgan
Marionette controls neural impulses responsible for major motor control. Even with a god of lightning boosting it for full control of the brain, Van already said back in one of the earlier volumes that he doesn’t really need his brain for anything other than keeping his physical body working. His mind is in his soul itself and he is the only one that can damage souls so Fitun is gonna be one-sidedly slaughtered if he fight Van.
YohaoShakur
So who are you guys betting on as Byrkine’s puppets ? I think he will full classic villain using the orphans, but for what he said about it going better than expected I’m thinking he could be using the others food carts owners.
Thanks for the translation and stay safe Yoshi ! Hope everyone avoid getting covid-19 !
Tejing
The orphans definitely make the most sense. Everything else seems like a big leap.
Doom-sama
It’s not the orphans. Kest is the most likely, him or Simon. However, the highest Chan WoL of probability is the people at the communal church.
Triduo
It could be guards like Kest or nuns too…
Carex28
I think its gonna be Kest just because of how he behaved when he met Van
Jonathan Hurd
I’m 100 percent with you on Kest. He’s a member of Vidas races. Obviously oppressed by his sepia but doing his best. He has also been kind to Van since the beginning. I believe he tried to tell Aggar not to steal from Van when he first went through. The fact that he feels no fear of Fang considering Fang could literally bite him in two also stands out.
I think the other spy is likely that Priestess of the Church of Vida. She was a bit to quick and eager to approach Darcia and a bit to head over heels for her from the outset.
I think what might of happened is the brainwashing made her feel more favorable towards Darcia and Darcia being Vida’s incarnation also made her affinity rise. I think the two combined and that is why the Priestess was so forward and eager to hear from Darcia.
For the orphans… I feel like they would make good hostages, but they’re to young to go out and make connections with Van. They can’t really move around society freely without raising suspicion. The most likely brainwashed Orphan would of been Matthew, the first orphan to approach Van, but the first thing Matthew did was try and rob Van. That seems pretty against the brainwashing.
Kiryl
The one i suspect the most is Simon.
In chapter 214 we got this after he was saved:
“He hurt the muscles in his arm, and just has a few other scrapes. His organs are like this because of years of unhealthy living, Vandalieu observed. His brain is… hmm.”
I think that part kinda makes sense if it is because Byrkine has injected something into him.
Bubu
The brain was already explain it was a part of a brain that responsible for the Simon’s arm. I will bet my balls that the puppet will be Matthew, or one of the orphan. Base on Birkyne’s record, that he uses orphan or something.
SuicidalSkeletin
That’s what happens normally when people lose motor functions for a long time. It is precisely because Van was able to study his brain thoroughly that we are sure it’s not him, Van would 10000000% be able to recognize a a DK fragment.
Lord Rin
It’s probably the orphans.
Though it would’ve been incredibly hilarious if Birkyne completely misread the situation and his puppets ended up being Joseph and Aggar’s group.
Jonathan Hurd
Lol, if Birknyes puppets really are Joseph and Aggar then he is either to stupid or incompetent to make a threatening plan against Van.
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
R there a way to get a notice when the chapters is out?
?.?…
Tejing
You can get notifications through discord if you give yourself the proper role.
Mr.Darkness
“The ‘education’ that Joseph referred to in his mind was his harassment of Vandalieu. However, it was no figurative expression or sarcasm; he truly thought of it as education.”
YOU FUCKING RODCORTE WORSHIPER!!!
“and yet there is no word from Aggar, even though he told me that he has a good plan.”
Yeah, the plan was so good that even spies were after him ¬¬
“If I bow before him with many people watching, he will likely accept my apology. It might be more effective if I mention Vida’s doctrine during my apology.”
Not even a sincere apology? You fucking bastard!
““Silence! Resisting will do you no good!” one of the guards said in response.”
This felt really good!!!! hahahhahahahhahahahha!!!!
“though Vandalieu did intend to eventually pull them up (if it could be described as that) to his own level.”
Are you trying to kill them? XD
“Birkyne’s puppets”
Wait, plural? Now i am sure that the orfans are the puppets!
“Birkyne was aware that there were fools even among gods.”
You bet!!!!!!!!!!
““Now then, let us go to make a deal. Vandalieu will obtain our puppets, and we will obtain our safety. If he refuses, battle will ensue, but… even if that happens, it will go in our favor so long as he is unable to sacrifice the puppets,” he said to his confidants.”
This is exactly the kind of plan that only a person with lack of information would execute…
I hope Van surprises he and me! 🙂
Absolute Zer0
Well, Van’s opponents has little to no information, his decisions are mostly unpredictable and he has no movement pattern since he is literally insane. If i had such enemy then i will do my best to not to go to the point no return and leave path to retreat since i am assured to lose. Becoming enemy of such person itself is utterly foolish thing in the first plase.
Jonathan Hurd
I think the biggest problem for Vans foes isn’t that his decisions are unpredictable, but that they don’t understand his goals whatsoever. Keeping Vans goals in mind all of his actions make perfect sense. They are trying to run Vans actions through their own mindset and that’s what keeps stumbling them.
For instance, to Marshakul he couldn’t see the Undead as anything but pawns and so it never occurred to him Van would look at them as family.
For the leaders of this Duchy they have no clue why Van acts the way he does because they’re thinking about it from their perspective of wanting power, fame, or money. If he wants strength why not apply to the Adventurer guild. They don’t know Van doesn’t want to show his status.
If it’s money why give away the recipe for making edible goblin/kobold meat. They don’t understand Van has all the money he could ever want and doesn’t want to let others suffer.
Vans goals are fairly simple. Lure out hostile forces is the first goal. How do you do this? Gather attention. So he revealed he’s a Dhampir and refuses to be ‘protected’ because he’s laying a trap. So we have the trap now we need to give our foes time to come to us.
So goal two kill time. Well an old but ever present goal for Van has been become a famous important member of society so the reincanators can’t kill him. We work back from there. To become important and famous he needs to be an honorary noble. To do that he needs to be an adventurer. To be an adventurer he needs to register. To register he needs to do so without showing he has the Demon King Title making it so he’s not so much important to society but feared by it. So finally we have the goal of registering as an adventurer by using a commerce guild registration. Doing all of this fulfills the killing time goal.
The problem for Vans enemies is none of them can even begin to imagine how naive Vans thinking is, lol. Part of this is because of how scary he is to them. They forget he is physically a 11 year old boy. He has lived over 40 years but the majority of that he has never been a part of society. He is also surrounded by yes men and others who also don’t understand human society.
What is kind of funny, but also sad is Van as well can’t really understand their actions. For the leaders power and security triumphs over human life. For Van the number one priority is the lives of those he cares about then other things. I sometimes wonder whose mentality is the more insane one between those two.
Triduo
Bullies in power getting their just desserts always felt good to see ! ^^
Paradoxe : Crazy bad guys getting ahead of themselves by underestimating their targets, and receiving a one-sided cruel defeat and death, is also good to know… Particularly when they think that discussion can save them : Van’s the God of Death and the Emperor of the Souls. If he wants to know everything his enemies know, he can just kill them and ask them afterwards.
Jonathan Hurd
Only for Van does the saying Kill first and ask questions later make sense.
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, Joseph is basically pretty similar to Rotcortex.
But at least he’s better than Asagi and Aggar, in that he (like Rotcortex and Alda) understands that some of his actions might make him look bad to impartial observers and there can be a need to at least pretend to apologize. He’s even ahead of Rotcortex and Alda in realizing that apologizing to Van would actually work.
Dust
So Van might just get the “Food cart emperor” title
Triduo
Paradoxe : Just go and give him the “Food cart Messiah” Title ! >_<' <His Mother's a Saint already !)
Morgan
If he becomes Food Cart King in a few other cities he would likely obtain Food Cart High King or Emperor
Absolute Zer0
I SMELL EPIC FIGHT!!!!
Duke is really has good head on his shoulders. His plan to take neutral stance would have been succeed if other side was not Van.
And Birkyne’s DK fragment seems to have effect to manipulate others so he is Chuunibyo guy who believes himself to be puppeteer, huh. It seems those Pure Vampire guys are generally delusional bunch.
Nobody2
The pure breeds generally seem to have high opinions of themselves and their skills. That said birkyne does seem like the most competent one
Absolute Zer0
I think Birkyne will try to ensure his own safety but in the end Evil God Mr.Longname will descend on him.
Triduo
Paradoxe : Knowing what happened to the other two, it’s not really improving his odds at survival against Van…
Jonathan Hurd
Not to be mean, but I feel it’s a little late to now be picking up on the fact that Birknye considers himself a puppeteer, lol. He’s been trying to be that since the get go.
I will also say considering all the Pure Breeds we’ve met, all of them have some screws loose. Birknyes trio being a rather violent bunch of course.
TheTrueDeathGod
Can’t van influence demon king fragments still in other hosts he said something similar when he had taken the lungs out of the goblin
Moonfang
How long until “Food Cart Emperor” though? lol
YohaoShakur
Maybe when he gets control over food carts on a lot of cities and dukedons
Jonathan Hurd
Yeah, don’t think you can call yourself an emperor just by owning one cities worth. Soon the food carts with Hearts painted on will spread across the lands. Then all will know of the Food Cart Emperor Vandalieu…
Just a side thought. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if Van gets famous and his own honorary noble title from the food carts before he ever gets the chance to be an adventurer, lol!
w1ck3d
About as long as it takes to sell the franchise rights. Coming to a duchy near you; McVandals.
Bubu
I waiting for vans religion to be established, the people will be called Vandalism.
SuicidalSkeletin
lmao
Tejing
It seems Birkyne hasn’t realized that the fragments actually view Vandalieu as their true master, even the fragments under another person’s control. I’m betting that will be his downfall. But what will Hihiryushukaka’s plan be?
Poor Simon just can’t even guess the truth. Not that I blame him. I wonder how many characters it’ll take before he starts to suspect?
The meeting with the earl should be interesting. It’s past time they spoke. But will the earl approach this right? or all wrong?
Merovingian
The Earl seems to be an intelligent and honorable man, who has always been troubled by the corruption in his city but unable to take legitimate action. While he seems to be aware that Van has a very high DANGER value, as he is aware Van took care of Aggar, it looks like he has also recognized him as a positive factor for his city as he created a rumor that would clear suspicion from Van.
Their meeting will likely give the Earl some answers depending how bold he will be, it will likely shift the conversation to the state of the country and a plan to use the new Revived Vida Religion with backing from the Earl and secret backing from Van’s Empire to create a new and reformed Human Kingdom, with possibly the Earl or a Duke from their faction as the new King serving under Divine Emperor Vandaleu.
bk3k
>It seems Birkyne hasn’t realized that the fragments actually view Vandalieu as their true master,
This isn’t unconditionally the case. Regarding Birkyne and the fragment he possesses… well it is a highly usual case but I don’t want to spoil it. It won’t be something you’d ever guess.
iamleejn
Wait, so Birkyne’s puppets are being controlled by a “piece” of a demon king fragment rather than it’s effect? Then there isn’t any real problem. Van can influence fragments outside his control already (the Goblin he got the Lungs from). Birkyne’s plan failed before he executed it.
I wonder how the Earl’s tea party will go. Van should bring some Talosheim cuisine to impress the Earl.
reisben55
However, Birkyne himself planning to meet Vandeliu for starting his plan.
No matter how you look at it, its checkmate.
Morgan
Birkyne’s always been a schemer and if his puppets are controlled by the fragment piece, does this mean Birkyne has the Demon King’s Primary Brain?
Entropy
Thanks for the chapter. I am thinking the puppets are the orphans more and more. I do wonder if Vand even has any tamer abilities. I know he has the equip create abilities but don’t remember the taming abilities. Kind of funny if he gained that title without any of the abilities. Can’t wait for the next chapter.
Mr.Darkness
“I am thinking the puppets are the orphans more and more.”
Me too, even more yet after the word “puppet” was used in plural form.
“Kind of funny if he gained that title without any of the abilities.”
I think it’s exactly that! hahahhahahhahahhahahahhahahahhaha
Kazza
Ooh. Getting some big hints from Birkyne, here.
So, “The main part of the fragment is with me, the parts I cut off within the puppets.”
Hmmm….
Van’s already got the brain, so what could that leave? From how Mortor is describing it, it seems to have some sort of mind control effect…
Ok, unless there’s some kind of psychological thing in play, like the Ego/Id/Superego (Again, I think Gudurandis’s consciousness and soul etc. Are split between Roddy and Alda), I’m betting on a bit of a long shot.
Cordyceps.
If you’ve played the Last of Us, you’d know cordyceps is the fungus that basically turned them into zombies. Now, that’s actually based on a real species of fungus that parasitizes dead ants to spread their pollen.
So, considering that the Demon King fragments depend on their surroundings, its possible Birkyne’s fragment is a type of parasitic fungus that can control people with weak resistance. Maybe not necessarily Cordyceps, but a similar mechanism (I only choose that because it’s the only mechanism that’s organic).
Now, I know there’s some holes, like how can the fungus be connected to the main body without being affected by Van’s charm-skill-thing (After all, Randolph’s was going crazy with Van not even being in eyesight) but honestly, Densuke has to answer that, not me.
Oh yeah, and eat shit Joseph. It’s the kind of apology that pisses me off the most: Apologizing after you’ve been caught and you’ve got no options. It’s the most weasily type that in actuality should just get your punishment extended further in a just world.
I can at least respect Aggar for not caving in.
You hear that Joseph? You made me compliment Aggar. That’s how much you suck!
Entropy
I am thinking it is something demon king fragment Birkyne has is not a physical body part, like the voice or maybe something intangible like a reflection, though a reflection would be more mirror related than demon king. I would suspect the demon king’s voice would possibly have a hypnotic ability or maybe a commanding ability.
Mr.Darkness
“maybe something intangible like a reflection”
I think it would be something more permanent, like his “shadow”.
Entropy
Hmmm, a shadow does seem like another possibility, but I do think Birkyne’s demon king fragment is something intangible and something powerful enough to make the other two pure bloods treat him as an equal. I don’t know how a shadow would be able to control someone, but after seeing one piece I suppose it could be used for that. I would think that the voice of the demon king could be used in that way. Of the possible parts, I think the shadow would fit better with a vampire.
bk3k
Are you really guessing, or [spoiler] did you real MTs and you’re pretending to guess? Because that’s correct.[/spoiler]
Entropy
This does not tell me what I am right about, but don’t tell me. I am pretty sure that is something abstract similar to the demon king’s soul or memory. It does raise the question what other unusual pieces that are thought of as concepts will be introduced. My money is that ego, personality, memory, reflection, shadow, voice, spirit, and maybe something related to magic will show up. i wonder if the demon king had something along the lines of a few extra senses such as a spidey sense or the sense to see souls. The more that is revealed about the demon king, the more I wonder what other parts he will have. Maybe even venom sacs or a poison producing ability or both will show up.
bk3k
I’ll remind you of something you may have forgotten – The Demon King’s Fragments are NOT something to be used casually – with the exception of Van and Guduranis himself. For everyone else, it is very risky and gradually corrupts them. Once that corruption reaches level 10… they’re just another runaway fragment host. Yet Birkyne is using it to control random “puppets.” There where “puppets” in place before Van arrived here. In a place no one predicted Van would show up.
Again none of this is new information, hence not a spoiler. But it is significant information.
Mr.Darkness
But that would make him being dominated by the fragment millennia ago o.O
Could he be immune like Van?!?!!? This is interesting!
blackkat
Remember that fragments can be the exact same body part. As no fragment has a specific shape or part when it was sealed. They just become that, which is why no one knows what fragments are inside the sealed items.
So it “could” be another brain.
YohaoShakur
The Demon king Nervous System was shown already ? I was thinking on something like it when I read what he said.
SuicidalSkeletin
No I think Birkyne’s part is still a part of the brain, likely the one that controls critical thinking, or endorphins, because Van can only control motor functions, not actually thoughts or consciousness. Remember no body part is specific to each fragment, they can overlap.
Morgan
Van already has the Auxillary Brain. My bet is Birkyne has the primary brain
Superboy8338
I am SO GLAD that one of Van’s immediate problems took care of itself.
Doom-sama
PRAISE THE GOD OF DEATH, THE EMPEROR OF LIFE, THE CHAMPION OF HOPE, VAN-SAMA! WATCH AS HE GROWS IN RENOWN AND POWER, AND PUTS FOOLISH PEOPLE IN THEIR PLACE! THE SACRED MESSAGE TODAY IS:
Wait! People get the Food Cart King title regularly?! And what kind of person gets to be named Food Cart General?!
YohaoShakur
I’m really looking forward to ‘Food Cart Emperor’ when his food cart organization take over the whole kingdom
Morgan
Who knows… there’s so many Kings already, Van might just get Food Cart High King instead
Morgan
Probably them boss ladies that have an army of food carts lined up behind them while pointing off in a direction with food flying in the air like a battlefield
Hunt3rm4n
Ah yes, food regularly flies through the air on battlefields… And we must not forget the lined up food carts when we go to war.
XPotato
I can’t stop wheezing thinking what would happen if someone were to see his titles: demon king and food cart king side by side
Gawain
Thanks for the chapter! Always a pleasant surprise to see when a new one comes up!
Maximus
Thanks for the chapter, guys, I’m happy to have something good to read as I’m at home in these trying times.
Sebas Tian
Hope you all enjoy the chapter. Birkyne is an idiot who thinks he’s really smart. I don’t feel bad for Joseph and it’s not like he’s going to be executed, just tossed in jail for a bit and honestly he’s probably still going to get the same fancy meals and bed that he’s used to, just in a smaller room.
Superboy8338
Thank you.
IRONMAN000elas
thx mate