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Several hours previously, around the time Vandalieu’s group was being questioned at the gate, a certain E-class adventurer party had gathered in the dining room of an inn.
“… The time has come,” said Arthur, a muscular swordsman with thin eyebrows and a ruthless-looking face.
He was the man with the divine protection of Basha, the Goddess of Rain Clouds.
“The Divine Message has come true, Brother,” said Kalinia, Arthur’s beautiful younger sister who had wavy, waist-length hair and gloomy, slanted eyes with a sharp gaze.
She had received the divine protection of Zelzeria, the Goddess of Dark Nights, and served as her priestess.
“With this, we can finally move to achieve our true goals,” said Borzofoy, a Dwarf Mage who was young but had thin hair and a weak constitution that made him look like an old man, the gaze of his bulging eyes wandering aimlessly.
He was the person who had received the divine protection of Hamul, the God of Shadows.
There were few people in the dining hall at this time of day, but the presence of these three gave it a suspicious atmosphere, as if it were a place used for shady dealings.
This was despite the fact that they were potential heroes who had been chosen and received the divine protections of gods who were respectable gods, not evil gods – one of the wind attribute and two of the light attribute.
“U-umm, what are these ‘divine messages’ and ‘true goals?’ Nobody’s told me anything about them!” said Miriam, with confused tears rising in her eyes.
She was a rookie adventurer who had been an adventurer only a little longer than Arthur and the others. “If there’s something worrying you, please talk to me about it. I almost forget sometimes, but I’m the leader of this party, you know!”
People who had heard only rumors were under the mistaken impression that Arthur was the party leader, but it was in fact Miriam.
As Arthur and the others had lived their lives in a remote village, they did not have the common sense that people in the city had, nor did they have common sense as adventurers. Thus, they had earnestly requested the more experienced Miriam to be their leader.
… However, Arthur and the others’ erratic behavior often meant that she did not have much leadership and was instead often dragged around all over the place, so people often thought she was a victim of the three strange people, or that she was a strange person herself.
Arthur suddenly opened his eyes wide and stared at Miriam. Several seconds of silence passed.
“Arthur-san, I get the feeling that you’re steeling yourself to confess something that is very difficult to say… You’re very scary,” said Miriam.
“Miriam… You have worked very hard on the behalf of us country folk, but staying with us any longer will be dangerous. We have not told you, but we have received divine protections from certain gods, and we have been given a task,” said Arthur.
Borzofoy burst into deep laughter, and his dilated pupils wandered even more wildly as he spoke to Miriam. “Leaving our village and coming to the large city of Alcrem, becoming adventurers – from the very beginning, it was to accomplish our task. Miriam-san, you were used by us,” he said.
A customer who had just entered the inn turned around and ran back out the door after hearing Borzofoy’s ominous-sounding voice.
But Miriam simply sighed. “Borzofoy-san, don’t force that weird laughter. And you’ve been avoiding making eye contact with me even once this whole time, haven’t you? You have a habit of avoiding eye contact when you’re lying.”
“Gah, you’ve seen through me?!” Borzofoy said in surprise.
“Miriam-san, there’s at least a little truth in what Borzofoy says… We have received divine protections and a mission from some gods,” Arthur whispered.
“Ah yes. I did suspect that,” said Miriam, nodding simply.
Arthur and the others were astonished that she had suspected a truth that they had kept a secret from her.
“Well, I mean… it’s just strange for people who were hunters and domestic servants just months ago to be this strong with just a little instruction in magic from a priest. And you three are wearing handmade charms in the shape of the holy symbols of Bashas, Zelzeria and Hamul,” said Miriam. “That’s why I kinda thought that maybe you were some of those potential heroes with divine protections who’ve popped up lately.”
Miriam had noticed what everyone fearful of Arthur and his companions had failed to see.
“So, you realized that my brother had received the divine protection of Bashas-sama,” Kalinia murmured, looking shocked.
“Huh? You mean you and Borzofoy-san hadn’t, Kalinia?” Miriam asked.
“I now have the divine protection of Zelzeria-sama, but… I received it after we met you, around a month ago. I’m sorry, but I am just a domestic servant who happens to be strong,” Kalinia replied.
“I also received my divine protection around a month ago. It seems that I had strong qualities for magic, considering that I am a Dwarf,” said Borzofoy.
“I see. Well, I guess… I’m sorry,” said Miriam, apologizing for having underestimated Kalinia and Borzofoy.
They had turned out to be far more talented individuals than Miriam had initially thought.
“Leaving that aside… it is surprising to hear that you were aware of our secret, but that is even more reason for us to not allow you to travel with us any further. The mission given to us by the gods is a very dangerous one,” said Arthur.
“I’m well aware. The potential heroes that people talk about in rumors all accomplish amazing things,” said Miriam.
The potential heroes in the rumors were said to have resealed rampaging fragments of the Demon King, cleared previously-undiscovered Dungeons, and more recently, slain a Noble-born Vampire who worshipped an evil god. It was even said that there were some who were currently going through Dungeons created by gods, as one of the trials set for them.
From the perspective of a rookie adventurer like Miriam, their deeds seemed great enough to call them heroes, not potential heroes.
She was unsure if she would be able to continue following Arthur and his companions if their mission from the gods was similar to such deeds.
“But I’m stubborn,” said Miriam. “It’s true that you’ve been dragging me around all over the place, but even so, I can’t forget my debt of having been saved by you.”
Miriam had begun travelling with the peculiar trio when she visited their village in the fall of last year on a request to gather some rare medicinal herbs.
The remote village was far from the highway and didn’t even have a branch of the Adventurers’ Guild. As Miriam searched for medicinal herbs in the forest surrounding the village, she had been attacked by an Ogre.
Encountering a Rank 4 Ogre in an ordinary forest that wasn’t even a Devils’ Nest had paralyzed Miriam with shock, and she hadn’t been able to even try to escape.
And she had been rescued by a fully armed Ogre… or rather, Arthur. He had intimidated the Ogre with a ferocious roar, and as it flinched, he had engaged in melee combat with his hatchet and managed to emerge victorious.
“Are you alright, my lady?” Arthur had said with a smile, his face completely red with the Ogre’s blood.
Miriam had reached her limit and fainted on the spot.
She had then been nursed back to health by Kalinia in Arthur’s house, and Borzofoy, a childhood friend of Arthur and Kalinia, had taught her about the plants growing around the village, allowing her to successfully harvest the medicinal herbs.
The events of those several days had taught Miriam that Arthur and his companions were good people despite their appearances, and when they told her that they were thinking of becoming adventurers, she had been determined to be the one to help them this time.
She had decided to guide Arthur and the others to a city with a Guild branch and spend some time acting as their senior and teaching them the ropes.
… They had gone into a Devils’ Nest far from the village to defeat monsters because they needed money to buy equipment, and after guards on the highway expressed suspicions that they were bandits, for some reason, they helped the guards exterminate some real bandits in order to prove their innocence. The three of them had dragged Miriam into all kinds of trouble since before they became adventurers, but looking back, these had been good experiences for her.
“It may be true that I lack strength. But we’re friends, aren’t we! We’re comrades belonging to the same party, aren’t we! You can’t leave me behind just because it’s dangerous!” Miriam said.
“But from this point onwards, it really will be –” Arthur began, still trying to persuade Miriam otherwise.
But Kalinia raised her voice to interrupt him. “Stop it already, Brother!” She stood from her seat, took Miriam’s hands and enclosed them in her own, and looked at her with teary eyes. “My brother understands that we’re only here because of you, Miriam. Even after receiving Bashas-sama’s divine protection, he never sought to leave the village. I also knew that I was a burden to him, but I was afraid of the outside world. We siblings have always been misunderstood by others in the past, so… But it was you who changed us.”
“Huh? Did I really do such a significant thing?” Miriam said, bewildered.
Kalinia nodded. “None of us three had anyone we could call friends but each other. Miriam, you were the first person from the outside world who became our friend… a friend of the heart!”
“U-umm, Kalinia-san, what do you mean by ‘friend of the heart…?’”
“Indeed… It is as Kalinia says. Even those from our village found the three of us to be unpleasant, and yet you call us your companions… your true friends,” said Borzofoy. “Arthur, I believe that we should not completely ignore what she wishes for.”
“B-Borzofoy-san, I didn’t say anything about ‘true friends’…!” said Miriam, unable to conceal her bewilderment at her ranking up from an ordinary friend to a friend of the heart and then a true friend.
TLN: There’s a Japanese play on kanji going on here which probably isn’t very interesting or funny when explained in English, but here we go. ‘Friend of the heart,’ the word used by Kalinia, is 心友/shinyuu. ‘True friend,’ used by Borzofoy, is 真の友/shin no tomo, but if you remove the hiragana in the middle, it becomes 真友 which is also read as ‘shinyuu.’ Both are very exaggerated terms; you would never see these words used in real life. These two are both plays on the word 親友/shinyuu, which is an ordinary, commonly used word to say ‘close friend.’
“It is as they say. Miriam-san. I was wrong,” said Arthur in a solemn tone, taking Miriam’s hands in his.
Seeing the tears of emotion pouring from his eyes, it was very much impossible for Miriam to tell them that they were wrong.
“You are a companion of our party, risking your life with us on our adventures, a friend who is bound to us by a bond stronger than any other. The four of us will be together, whether we live or we die!” said Arthur.
It seemed that he, Kalinia and Borzofoy had an innocent outlook on what it meant to be ‘companions of an adventurer party.’ Not abandoning each other no matter what the predicament, being connected through their hearts, things of that kind.
That was likely why they deemed Miriam, a member of their party, a friend of the heart and a true friend.
That’s not true, Arthur-san! There are parties of people who don’t get along with each other outside of work, break up because they have bad chemistry and there have even been cases where people kill members of their party and make it look like an accident! Miriam screamed internally.
But the words that came out of her mouth were words of agreement. “Yes, you’re right,” she said.
She was the one who had asked Arthur and the others to tell her their secret; she found herself unable to say that it was too heavy a burden to bear now.
“Very well, Miriam-san. I shall tell you of the mission given to us by the gods… We are to make contact with Vandalieu, the Dhampir boy who arrived in Alcrem today… the one whom the gods call the next Demon King, and we are to travel with him,” said Arthur.
Miriam instantly regretted her decisions, realizing that there was nothing good about the gods’ trials for Arthur and his companions.
Arthur knew that Vandalieu was headed to the Tamers’ Guild this afternoon. He, Kalinia and Borzofoy intended to wait for him on the path Vandalieu and his companions would take to return to their accommodation, planning to hand him a letter, but Miriam, through great effort, persuaded them not to.
However, there was no scout in their party, and nobody had the ‘Silent Steps’ Skill other than Arthur, who was originally a hunter. Considering that, and the fact that it would be unwise for women to be in a back alley with a dangerous criminal known as the ‘Face-tearing Demon’ on the loose, Arthur ended up delivering the letter on his own.
Arthur succeeded in dropping the letter at Vandalieu’s feet and smiling at him when their eyes met to show that he meant no harm. He returned to the party’s inn, certain that he had made great progress in accomplishing their mission.
That night, The Great Church of Ricklent was quiet as always.
It was known as the Great Church as it was the largest church in Alcrem, with a longer history than any other Church. However, the worship of Ricklent was not very widespread in the Alcrem Duchy.
Several thousand years ago, a mage who worshipped Ricklent had sealed away a fragment of the Demon King that was rampaging out of control. This large, sturdy church had been built to reward his achievement – and also to keep the seal on the fragment under protection.
Numerous nations had fallen and risen over the many years that followed, and the people’s worship had shifted from Ricklent to Alda to Vida, but the Great Church had remained.
The fragment that had been sealed shortly before the time of its construction had been moved to a Church of Alda by the ruler of the land at the time, but the heads of the Church had always preached that it was not the fragment that was important; the important thing was to keep the fragment sealed, and pass the knowledge required to maintain the seal onto the next generation. Even now, the Great Church of Ricklent still possessed the reputation of being the greatest church with the longest history.
But the topics being discussed by the high-ranking clergymen of the Church were not virtuous topics by any means.
“The earnings of the Great Library are satisfactory, I suppose. It has been making a loss recently, so that is quite a relief.”
“The generous contributions from the duke’s family to reward our collaborative research with the Mages’ Guild were substantial.”
“The contributions of other nobles and merchants have been fewer as of late, after all. Although I suppose it cannot be helped that the people’s prayers and donations will go to the Churches that are visited by heroes.”
“Of course, all of those heroes have left Alcrem all of a sudden, so I am sure the contributions and donations will return once more. The heroes that remained in Alcrem also left the other day. At the time, I did think it strange that they all left at the same time, but…”
“I suppose it is likely related to the Divine Message that the head of the Church received. And considering the timing, the ‘Patron Saint of Transformation Equipment’ Vandalieu… We could certainly use a sample piece of that equipment.”
“The reports from Morksi state that they can only be used by the individuals they are made for, did they not? Just who are you planning to have it made for?”
The teachings of Ricklent, the Genie of Time and Magic, had never preached a correct way for people to live, but had stated the importance of the correct way to conduct oneself as a researcher.
It was important to look at one’s ideals, have a vision and use the imagination. These were the driving forces of progress.
However, it was important to not forget that the feet walked across the ground of reality.
No matter what kind of important research one was conducting, no matter what kind of knowledge they were trying to obtain, it was necessary to have the means to preserve it.
“In that regard, I suppose we could say that he helped us, but what should we do? I do not intend to disobey a Divine Message that I heard so clearly, but…”
“Let us reveal the truth only to him. He would not leak any information.”
“Indeed. Well then, I must hole myself up in the Great Library tonight and investigate things until morning.”
“Let us say that I drank some alcohol, which I do not habitually do, and slept in my chambers until sunrise, shall we?”
“Wait, you can’t drink alcohol, can you? Are you alright?”
“I cannot, and that is why the bottle will be filled with fruit juice, not wine. Please consider this to be highly classified information.”
“Good grief… Well then, I suppose we’ll say that I stayed up three nights in a row, so I was sleeping very soundly.”
“That is the truth, is it not? You are not young, so do not stay up all night too often.”
Having come up with excuses to not notice anything that night no matter what, the high-ranking clergymen of the Church disbanded, and they spent the time until the next morning uneventfully, just as they had decided to.
The next morning, it was established that the fragment of the Demon King sealed by Randolf ‘the True’ – the Demon King’s oviduct – as well as one other unknown sealed fragment, had been replaced by fakes.
The high-ranking clergymen of the Church stopped that information from spreading in order to prevent panic among the public and reported to Duke Tackard Alcrem that they had been stolen by an unknown culprit.
And then they told the truth only to Randolf ‘the True.’
Under instructions from Ricklent, the Genie of Time and Magic, they had allowed an intruder to sneak in in the middle of the night and steal the fragments of the Demon King that had been entrusted to the Church.
However, neither the high-ranking clergymen of the Great Church of Ricklent nor Randolf had a good awareness of the current situation, so the news of the truth was delivered to Randolf’s main hideout – the one in the royal capital, at the heart of the Orbaume Kingdom.
Thus, Randolf, who was currently undercover in the city of Morksi… the bard named Rudolf, remained unaware of it.
A pompous atmosphere enveloped the meeting room inside Alcrem Castle, which had been built back when the Alcrem Duchy was still known as the Alcrem Kingdom.
“Just what is the meaning of this… I heard that Randolf made the decision to leave Juliana and another captured female adventurer alive and leave them in the care of an adventurer in the city of Morksi, but… just what events took place to lead to this situation?” muttered Duke Tackard Alcrem, sitting at the round table in the room.
His face had aged; he looked like a completely different person from when he met with Bachem here not long ago.
“I did not plan the willful murder of Juliana,” he whispered. “I had no idea that it was Minotaurs, not bandits, that were hiding in that village… and I certainly had no idea that it was a horde led by a Minotaur King that had absorbed a fragment of the Demon King.”
The duke’s retainer, who filled a prime-minister-like role and managed the internal affairs of the duke’s house, nodded.
“I know, Your Excellency. I am also aware that you sent the group of knights led by Juliana-sama because you took into account the tiny possibility that it would be monsters, not bandits, that awaited them. Everyone present here is aware that you had no intention of murdering Juliana-sama,” he said.
“That’s right. After that, when it became clear that Juliana and the others had been captured by monsters, there was no ulterior motive in my request to Randolf that he behead her rather than rescue her. Time had passed since her capture. I only gave that order because I thought that it would be too cruel to allow her to keep living after that,” said the duke.
“Of course, Your Excellency. I am sure that your father, the previous duke, would have taken pity on Juliana-sama and made the same decision if he were still alive,” said the retainer.
In this world, being defiled by monsters inflicted deep harm upon women. That was especially true for the daughter of a noble family. Favorable talks of marriage would be impossible afterwards, and they would either have to spend their lives away from their mansions or join a Church in a remote location.
If the daughter’s house was incredibly powerful, they would be able to conceal the fact that she had been defiled by monsters, and it would be possible to have her marry into the house of lower-class nobles such as barons or knights. However, that would only be possible if her body… and more importantly, her mind, remained intact.
It would have been very much impossible for Juliana, whose limbs had been cut off at the elbows and knees, had Minotaur young implanted inside of her, and lost her mind completely.
“If you saw Randolf’s eyes when I made that request of him, it would be clear that he thought that the power of the house of the duke… its money and political influence, would be able to save Juliana in some way as long as she was still alive,” the duke continued. “Indeed, it would have been possible to keep her alive. It would have been possible to discard the monster young in her womb and use expensive Potions to regrow her limbs. However, I would have been forced to have tight-lipped servants continue to take care of her needs, hoping that her sanity would return, not having any idea how many years it would take. And that would have continued for years, until she either woke up or until she died… But in this case, would you have been able to say that she had been saved?”
Randolf might have insisted that there was still a chance. Indeed, he had partially helped Juliana and the female adventurer who was with her. But even with that result, it was clear that Duke Alcrem did not think well of it.
But Bravatiyu, the ‘Knight of Roaring Flames’ – one of the Five Knights of Alcrem – wished to put aside the events that had led to this situation, and whether decisions made in the past had been correct or not.
“Your Excellency, this is not the time to be talking about events of the past. We must come up with a method to dispose of the Dhampir and the Minotaur child that is a living replica of Juliana-dono,” he said.
“W-wait, Bravatiyu! Would it not be too hasty to dispose of them? I did not gather you here with such intentions in mind!” said the duke.
“But Your Excellency! Their ulterior motives are clear as day!” said Bravatiyu, paying no heed to the duke’s words of caution.
Another knight gave a small laugh. “Roaring-Flames-dono, what may these ‘ulterior motives’ you speak of be? There is no information to suggest that they have any such motives, from what we have heard from our spies.”
“‘Knight of Distant Thunder’ Serjio, you are too young to understand. Very well, I shall say it clearly,” Bravatiyu said. “There are various things about that Dhampir that are simply too unnatural! He may be a subordinate of one of the other duchies… no, of the Amid Empire!”
“W-where is the evidence of this?!” said the duke.
“There is none! But think about it – a young child who has barely passed the age of ten is taming monsters, and even increasing their Ranks and producing species that have never been seen before, one after another! Not only that, but he has invented Magic Items known as transformation equipment that even the alchemists employed by the Alcrem house cannot explain the functions of, and he is openly ruling over the slums and entertainment district of Morksi!” Bravatiyu argued. “If it were just one of these things, then I too would think that he is simply a boy who is blessed with talent. But all three? It smells like nothing other than a conspiracy!”
“Th-then what are his ulterior motives?”
“He plans to wound the influence of the Alcrem Duchy and plunge the Orbaume Kingdom into chaos, of course! There is no doubt that he gave the name ‘Juliana’ to the Minotaur child who was presumably given birth to by Juliana-dono for this purpose, and he wishes to spread news that she died in a power struggle over the position of head of the house in order to create a scandal!”
As Bravatiyu pointed out, putting Vandalieu’s achievements into words made it clear just how difficult it was to believe that they were the accomplishments of a single young boy.
Thus, the rest of his arguments did sound convincing to some extent as well.
Serjio was willing to admit this, but he was still skeptical.
“I see. Indeed, he has accomplished too much. I am sure the fact that he is a Dhampir, the fact that one of his eyes is artificial and the claws on his hands are all because of some trick or disguise, aren’t they? I’m sure there is someone else who provided the powerful Ghouls of new races and the transformation equipment. Oh my, how terrifying,” he said sarcastically towards the older knight who treated him like an inexperienced rookie.
“… You bastard, what is it that you want to say?!” Bravatiyu demanded.
“Bravatiyu-dono, perhaps this is the point that Serjio-dono is trying to make? He is indeed suspicious, but if it really is a conspiracy, a disproportionate amount of work and cost has gone into it,” said Baldiria, the ‘Knight of a Thousand Blades.’
She was the sole woman among the Five Knights of Alcrem, but… because she was a Dwarf, she looked like a little girl at first glance.
Hearing her summary of Serjio’s argument, Bravatiyu sat back down in his seat, grumbling under his breath.
“And it is the ‘Face-tearing Demon’ that is causing a stir in Alcrem, not the Dhampir boy and the Juliana-dono lookalike, isn’t it? The ones who have been killed so far are all villains and villains who pretend to be virtuous, and proof of their evil deeds have been left behind alongside the skins of their faces, so it has not caused a panic among the citizens. However… at this rate, the authority of the guards and us knights will be undermined, and the people’s trust in us will plummet to the ground,” said Serjio.
“Indeed… I have heard that these days, the people praise the ‘Face-tearing Demon’ as some kind of virtuous criminal, and look at us with cold gazes. The Dhampir and his companions have not taken any particular actions, so I suppose we should simply keep an eye on them or maybe just investigate them a little further, and focus our attention on the ‘Face-tearing Demon’ as planned,” said the duke.
The reason he had gathered the Five Knights of Alcrem here in the first place was to apprehend the ‘Face-tearing Demon,’ the virtuoso assassin whose trail the ordinary guards and knights had been unable to find.
Of course, the duke was still worried about Vandalieu and Juliana, but the ‘Face-tearing Demon’ was the bigger problem.
“So, you understand… It’s true that we can’t ignore the Dhampir Vandalieu and Juliana. But we still don’t know what objectives he has, or whether he is simply an extraordinary boy who will be spoken of in legends in the future,” said the duke. “Considering the current situation, it will likely be us who will be showered in criticism if we make any hasty moves on him.”
Officially, Juliana had died, and that ‘Juliana’ was a familiar who had been born as a result of a woman named Julia having been attacked by Minotaurs. The Tamers’ Guild would likely criticize the duke heavily if he killed her just because she resembled his younger sister.
As the duke’s house had many Dragon Knights in its employment and was thus dependent on the Tamers’ Guild, a crack in that relationship would be a painful one.
Considering the power of the duke’s house, it was likely possible to keep the truth concealed, but… the presence of her master Vandalieu and his mother Darcia was too influential.
According to the knights the duke had posted at the city’s gates, Vandalieu was accompanied by new races of Ghouls, an Arachne, a Scylla and a mysterious demi-human-type monster who possessed the characteristics of praying mantises. Vandalieu claimed that the Ghouls were just ordinary Rank 3 and 4 Ghouls and that the Arachne was an ordinary large-type Arachne, but it was unclear as to whether this was true.
More investigation was needed to determine how to proceed.
“I am thinking of having the ‘Knight of Keen Insight’ Ralmeya be in charge investigating Vandalieu and the others,” said the duke.
The man named by the duke, who wore a robe instead of armor and carried only a single small knife, nodded. “Very well. Using the ‘Demon Eye of Appraisal,’ I shall survey the Attribute Values, Skills and Levels of the Dhampir and his companions and present them to you.”
Strictly speaking, Ralmeya was not a knight, but something of a technical spy. The Unique Skill he possessed, the ‘Demon Eye of Appraisal,’ surveyed objects that he looked at and displayed information as numbers.
It displayed their size, weight and momentum, but it could also give a rough measurement of Attribute Value and the Levels of targets’ Skills if he observed them in battle or using the Skills.
It took longer to work than ‘Demon Eyes of Analysis,’ which could read information with a single glance, but it was still effective for gathering information.
“Yes, I am counting on you,” said the duke. “I will have the rest of you focus on the ‘Face-tearing Demon.’ And listen to me, ‘Knight of the Collapsed Mountains’ Goldie. I will be having you leave your task of watching over the sealed evil god, but…”
“I have no objections,” said the ‘Knight of the Collapsed Mountains’ Goldie, who had been silent up until now, with a very serious nod. “The seal on Forzajival, who was sealed by the heroic god Farmaun under the collapsed mountains during the age of the gods, will not be shaken so easily. My duty is to merely obey the will of the one to whom I have pledged my sword as a knight.”
“I see. I am relying on you all. The peace of Alcrem rests on your shoulders,” the duke said to the Five Knights of Alcrem.
And so, the Five Knights of Alcrem began to take action, the duke’s stress was released, and his retainer breathed a sigh of relief.
However, the report from the Great Church of Ricklent the next day caused a sharp increase in the duke’s stress once more. He gathered Knights once more, with the exception of Ralmeya, and divided them into two teams – one to hunt the ‘Face-tearing Demon’ and the other to chase down the fragments of the Demon King.
Late at night, in a dilapidated house that nobody lived in, a man was begging for his life.
“W-wait, p-please, spare me! You’re the ‘Face-tearing Demon,’ aren’t you?! You’re wrong about me, I’m different!” the man pleaded desperately, his face stained with tears and mucus.
Standing before him was a person holding a liquid-filled bottle in one hand and a knife in the other.
“I did commit crimes, I’m a villain! But I’m not the kind of evil person who deserves to have his face torn off by you!” the man cried.
The ‘Face-tearing Demon’ only targeted villains. And even among villains, they were atrocious fiends, the kind that would receive no sympathy from the people even if they died horrible, gruesome deaths.
The ‘Face-tearing Demon’ didn’t pay any attention to criminals like petty swindlers and thieves that swiped goods from benches at markets. Most victims were people like those running drug trade rings, other similar high-ranking members of criminal organizations, capable assassins, black-market slave traders that dealt in illegal slaves, and the nobles who benefited from dealing with such criminals.
But this man didn’t fit into the latter category.
“It’s true that I sold drugs, but I’m one of the lower-ranking dealers! I haven’t killed anyone! I mean, it’s true that the store I worked as a bodyguard for was apparently involved in illegal slavery under the table, but I didn’t know anything! You’ve already torn off the face of that store’s owner and the leader of that slavery ring, haven’t you?! So why are you coming after me at this point –”
The ‘Face-tearing Demon’ poured the water in the bottle over the man, causing him to sputter.
“This is holy water. It is an instruction from me for the gods to accept even a criminal like you into heaven without hesitation, so be grateful… and become a foundation. You will not be killed because you are a criminal, but you will become a foundation for the extermination of the Demon King,” the ‘Face-tearing Demon’ said. “Until then, the evidence I fabricate will portray you to be an accomplice in human trafficking, but I promise you that the dishonor on your name will be erased once things are settled.”
“W-what are you saying?!” screamed the man, who had been tied up. “I don’t understand anything –”
The ‘Face-tearing Demon’ poured more holy water over him, then began peeling off his face.
The next morning, the skin of the man’s face was discovered alongside money supposedly accepted from a black-market slave trader and a note that incriminated him.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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RayneVilanore
still don’t believe The duke didn’t know what he was doing when he sent Juliana after the Hyena.
Akachi86
I love how their dialogue is written as if they’re planning some nefarious deeds, even when they’re talking about down to earth everyday stuff 😀
Zenden1st
hmm nobody lackey drug dealer is gonna become a legend
Chiu ChunLing
Pretty sure that part about erasing the dishonor on his name was a lie (just like the part about accepting him into heaven)…and even if true, it wouldn’t make him a legend, just a guy who was sacrificed by ‘the true hero’ (which is exactly why I think there’s no intention of revealing the truth about this).
JKingSniper
Vand can shoot egg into ppl like Alien lol.
SmerchOleg
Lol, now that I think about it, he can impregnate a woman (and not only) by kissing.
Chiu ChunLing
Not just women.
Adddmeeee
Nooooooo. I caught up!
That last part was brutal
Hunt3rm4n
Ah sh*t. I caught up… Time to leave this website for another year, I guess.
SchmidtNation
So, without any knowledge of future chapters, is Forzajival a remnant of the demon king’s army or a member of Vida’s faction? The fact that it was sealed by Farmaun means it could be either, since Farmaun was allied with Alda and Bellwood during the war against Vida.
If it were an ally of Vida, I would expect the name would have been intentionally unrecorded, so that rescue attempts weren’t made. Unless they were intending to use it as a trap, but none of the gods friendly with Van has mentioned an ally sealed in Alchrem. So, I’m guessing remnant of the demon kings army.
Doc
I would assume remnant of Demon King’s army. Vida or one of her faction would have told Van of an ally he could free if the evil god was one of theirs. Or Farmaun himself would have told Van now that he’s simmered down and realized Vida’s side isn’t evil.
Chiu ChunLing
Could also have been sealed before Guduranis was defeated.
Chiu ChunLing
“Very well. Using the ‘Demon Eye of Surveying,’ I shall survey the Attribute Values, Skills and Levels of the Dhampir and his companions and present them to you.”
Nice knowing you, dude we just barely met.
Irazori
All I can say is that bravatiyu is definitely an idiot. I mean seriously, in what world would the aldiot empire (a country full of human supremacy a-holes) would employ a Dhamphir (an existence that they say to kill on sight)?
Chiu ChunLing
Well, keep in mind that his thinking here isn’t exactly original. We’ve seen the exact same line of argument (backed by even less evidence) from that Dolmand guy who’s supposed to be one of the big brains in Orbaume. Also, Marshukzarl really did try to recruit Van, however inexcusably inept his approach.
And of course Van is working on behalf of an empire, just not one known to them.
ScaPixel
While I agree to most of this, I would like to remind how Dolmand came to his conclusion. He based his on the facts:
1. The resistance live in an area taken over by support powered monsters
2. The resistance stopped getting recourses from where they did before
3. The Princess knight no longer prays to Alda.
4. If the letters are real there is most likely only a tiny group left
The conclusion he draws is based on a lot of facts about the organization as a whole, and not much about Van as an individual.
Then he adds the rumors about Van to the mix as an outrageous rumor and nothing else.
He does draw some strange conclusions, but his original investigation makes a lot of sense
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, but his fundamental reasoning about Vandalieu himself is identical.
Right there, that’s beyond moronic. When you send 6,000 elite soldiers, and they come back as zombies, that’s doesn’t mean there’s some kind of uncertainty as to whether they were repelled.
The information is too unbelievable, therefore it’s fabricated.
Rudel is smart enough to point out exactly what is just as wrong with Dolmad’s conjecture as Bravatiyu’s. Dolmad brushes it off with a motive that is even more nonsensical than anything Bravatiyu says.
And while his suspicions about Iris at least make some sense, there’s absolutely no justification for not trying to confirm her story. Unlike Van, they actually have regular contacts with the Resistance. They could just ask them how they’re surviving in an area with monsters that wiped out several of the 15 Swords, who’s funding them, and how many of them are really left (the bit about Iris no longer believing in Alda is immaterial given that most of the Resistance are Vida believers and he has no way of knowing that anyway…but if he did he could still just ask).
Instead he’s accusing her of treason without proof simply because it’s more politically convenient to erase her and the Resistance. He doesn’t think about the inconvenient fact that, if he’s right, she’s got powerful backers who don’t hesitate to slaughter anyone in their way…because he doesn’t really believe his own accusations.
Frankly, carefully comparing them, Bravatiyu is way smarter.
Hobbes
Don’t bring Dolmad into this. The man’s a conspiratorial idiot who is either a pathological liar… or someone that assumes everyone else is. In other words, he’s a paranoid idiot who somehow happens to make his living as a manipulator & politician. How he functions with that diseased a mind, G-d only knows…
Entropy
Well considering Heinz has a pet dhampir and a former hero of the empire as well as the empire not being above using those of vida’s races as slaves. It could be possible, although super unlikely, that the empire bought Van as a slave and sent him in as a spy. Mind you the only flaw with this would be that spies are supposed to be unassuming so a dhampir would stick out.
Doc
To me the biggest leap of logic from that idiot wasn’t thinking he was some spy from the Amid Empire. It was thinking his mission was to seed chaos in Alcrem Dutchy specifically. Did he think Van running a skewered meat cart business and helping to save Morksi from certain destruction were 4D chess moves in a master plan to take down the dutchy?
No wonder the other knights laughed at him.
Chiu ChunLing
I have to admit, throwing in the bit about the kid being a genius skewer cart king as one of the suspicious points was a step too far.
Of course the central issue is the report of a tamed Minotaur variant that looks and sounds exactly like a younger Julianna with horns and a tail. That by itself is plenty to infer that something really freaky is going on. And going from what would seem the most plausible explanation for that, the most reasonable guess would be that it was actually Julianna herself and they somehow made her look younger and disguised her as a ‘half-Minotaur’ (which isn’t really completely different from the truth).
Jumping from that to a motive for doing such a thing is where Bravatiyu goes wrong, but I have to admit that it’s still the most plausible motive based on his information. Even if he knew about pseudo-reincarnation, without knowing Van personally, the motive for pseudo-reincarnating Julianna in such a form and bringing her to Alcrem would still seem likely to be political, and potentially adverse to the Duke.
When Bravatiyu tries to assemble the rest of the information as being a conspiracy, some bits fit better than others. Saying Van became a “Genius Tamer” to sell this ‘obvious deception’ is actually pretty reasonable if you accept that the story of a child born from Julianna’s capture by Minotaurs is intended to be embarrassing (rather than simply being embarrassing because of Tackard’s own actions).
But bringing up that Van can make transformation equipment doesn’t seem relevant. Sure, it increases his credibility in general, but not for his specific claim that Julianna is a half-Minotaur born from Julianna. And him faking being a Food Cart King in the red light district is just silly. It would make far more sense to think of that as real accomplishment that was leveraged to get the influence necessary to become recognized as a Genius Tamer (which even happens to be the truth, sorta).
At least Bravatiyu doesn’t try claiming that Darcia being a “Holy Mother of Victory” who can perform Angel Descent and repel a massive monster attack on Morksi is also part of the scheme.
If it were Dolmad, he definitely would have gone for that angle.
no1
Thanks for the chapter Yoshi. Nice to see the group of Adventures did plan to meet Vandalieu in the end. A lot of other things going on, hope to see the next chapter soon.
Inea
the fake Face-Tearing Demon must be from Alda!
i mean who fanatic enough to do that in the name of god ? 🤷♀️
SchmidtNation
Niltark, the one who willing sacrificed two familiar spirits just to see some of Van’s ability (during the fight with the 15 evil breaking swords). Any god similar to Fitun, who was planning to murder most of a city during the fight with Van. We’ve already seen how frightened and hysterical most of the younger gods are, so them acting impulsively and desperately would make a lot of sense. Not very likely, but it could even be an evil god hoping to incite the world against Van before Van finds and eats it.
It might even be Rodcorte himself. Fitun was able to steal one of Rodcorte’s ‘champions’ so why can’t Rodcorte usurp one of the heroes that have been told to worship him and now has his divine protection. I mean, we all expect him to be much too incompetent to pull off convincing another god’s hero to fully join him, but it’s technically possible.
Irazori
Either way, it’s still someone from the aldiots doing idiot things, just to try and discredit Van.
SchmidtNation
Yeah, such a weird plan though. Go be a serial killer for a bit so that we can lie and blame it on someone we already believe is evil incarnate. Why?
Chiu ChunLing
It could be to secretly draw Van or his friends into a trap. They’re the only ones who even have any way of knowing that a Face-tearing fake is in play, but they can’t tell anyone without revealing that they know the real Face-tearing Demon.
Get them to investigate, stay a step ahead, watch for the moment when they’re overextended. Maybe hit the investigating team, or hit the familiars when Van is looking after the investigators. Or suddenly throw a totally innocent victim in the mix and have Van himself go all out to save her.
Alternatively, frame someone else as the fake and let Van go after them. It could be the main target or it could be a stalking goat to pull Van’s attention away from the real threat.
This may not really be about Van, it could be a setup to get these sacrifices to send their final prayers up to gods in the Alda faction and make them aware that someone is copy-catting Van’s Face-tearing Demon, supposedly on orders from a god in Alda’s faction. This one gets super squiggly, but maybe someone wants Alda to take his suspicions about the loyalties of his faction more seriously…or make everyone in his faction think that’s coming.
Since the fake is providing the ‘evidence’ of wrongdoing, it could simply be an agenda to slowly take over the role of Face-tearing Demon and gradually shift the narrative of what it’s about. Possibly to make a shift to Alda’s extremist faction seem more attractive to the Duke (or some other outcome that Van would have been trying to avoid).
Or the ‘plan’ might be some totally insane nonsense that simply wouldn’t compute to a rational mind.
Chiu ChunLing
The question is more which god has a plan for using this to take down Van?
I can think of a half-dozen ways to use a fake Face-tearing Demon to throw a wrench in Van’s plans. But they’re not clearly in-line with Alda’s way of doing things. Alda’s faction is held together not by aversion to atrocities but by belief that those atrocities are justified in the service of “Law”. It’s kinda hard to reconcile the plans I can think of with being in the service of “Law”.
starfish
Thanks for the chapter!
Lord Rin
So those suspicious people really did turn out to be heroes with divine protections. Also their gods have given them a mission to meet with and travel with Van the Demon King. That pretty much confirms that Bashas’ group are planning to defect to Van and Vida’s side. Meanwhile Miriam doesn’t have any god’s divine protection but she is the leader of the group since Arthur and the rest are apparently from a remote village and thus have no common sense. I feel sympathy for Miriam. She’s basically the sane person of the group being dragged around and trying to rein in her comrades. Well if she’s going to continue travelling with Arthur’s group and they’re all going to follow Van then Miriam will probably eventually gain someone’s divine protection -probably Van’s- and achieve enlightenment where she will no longer be perturbed by anything since nothing will be as weird as Van.
Looks like Van has some allies in Alcrem’s capital. The Church of Ricklent apparently got a divine message from Ricklent instructing them to let Van take away two Demon King fragments and they decided to obey the instruction while only telling the truth to Randolf who since he isn’t in the capital, the information won’t reach him in time.
I guess I misjudged Duke Alcrem. Turns out the duke really did think he was only sending Juliana to deal with some bandits and only sent out her small knight order as reinforcements just in case there were monsters which he expected would be low rank ones that they could deal with. It’s only afterwards that he learned that they were minotaurs led by a king. Also I thought he had ordered Juliana’s death to get her out of the picture due to political motives but now I see that he really thought hard and was reluctant about it when he ordered her death and it really was just a mercy kill without any other motives behind it. As he said, while he did have the money to take care of Juliana and even physically heal her, the mental wounds would be very hard to deal with and it would be a gamble of whether she would regain her sanity -which could take years- or never regain it and die. Even if she was healed and fully recovered, if it got found out what happened to her then it might be just as bad. We’ve already heard how badly monster rape victims get treated in human society where it got to the point that a bunch of human women that Van encountered willingly gave up their old lives as humans to be turned into ghouls just so they wouldn’t have to deal with what human society might do to them if they found they had been raped by monsters.
That Roaring Flames guy Bravatiyu seems like he’ll be entertaining. He sounds like a crackpot conspiracy theorist. He has no evidence yet he’s come to the conclusion that Van is working for another duchy or the Amid Empire to create chaos in Alcrem or Orbaume. Next I’m hoping him to start talking about mole men or the reptiloids that secretly control the government. Well at least the duke has managed to steer him back on track and tell his knights that the most important thing is dealing with the Face-tearing Demon instead of Van. Meanwhile he’s still going to send a guy with a demon eye that can see people’s stats to investigate Van. That’s probably not good. That guy will see his ridiculous stats and Van’s Abyss skill will reflect the demon eye skill back which will make Van aware of him.
Oh what’s this about a sealed evil god? Unless it turns out to be one of the ones who joined Vida and then later sealed, I’m guessing this will be the final boss of this arc after being unsealed whether deliberately or through an accident.
So looks like that guy at the end is the copy-cat Face-tearing Demon. He sounds like a religious zealot. I’m not sure how exactly will doing what he’s doing falsifying evidence to punish criminals will exterminate the Demon King though. Maybe he’s one of the heroes from Alda’s faction who’ve let the fact that they’ve been chosen as a hero go to their head and have snapped. Well even if they’ve gone insane, their god probably wouldn’t care because they think Van is evil.
SchmidtNation
A bit naive to believe what the duke says in front of his retainers and knights are his true thoughts. Do you really expect him to admit, in a room full of people, that his plan to kill off his sister failed?
I’m not sure evil gods count as final boss level threats anymore, Van was beating and eating one a day on his last trip to Zantark’s continent. At this point, finding the seal is probably more difficult than disposing of whoever’s in it. I think the false face-tearing demon has a much higher chance of being the big bad of this arc.
ObserverBias
It’s in equal parts ‘as’ cynical to immediately believe the given impression that it was all under the table for him as well. That it can be spun either way is the trick of it.
Would guesstimate that there may well be some convergence between the face tearer and the seal. Perhaps claiming the name openly, associating themselves with the Demon King through claims, and then breaking the seal thus tarnishing any further efforts of the real FTD and Van’s efforts?
SchmidtNation
True, and it’s most likely a mix. How would he had known that it was actually a horde of minotaurs led by a demon king fragment wielding Minotaur King? But once she was captured, her death was ordered to prevent dishonor and shame falling onto the family, not out of concern for her recovery. Something like that.
Are the people of Lambda aware of the new Demon King? Some, or all, of the hero candidates were told of the threat of the Demon King, but does anyone else know?
Even if the face-tearing demon gains notoriety, Van’s goals aren’t hindered. He’s removing criminals and their accomplices that might make trouble for him in the future, while also gaining experimental subjects. He was surprised the public decided the FTD was a virtuous thief and had a good impression of it in the first place.
And if the false demon does go public, it gives the perfect opportunity to strengthen the people’s view of Vida by having Van and Darcia deal with him. Especially if they manage to subdue an evil god in the process (yes, Van doesn’t like to stand out that way. But if he notices that the duke’s spy has already seen his status, maybe he’ll decide to not bother hiding his strength anymore?).
He could even reveal his title Holy Son of Vida and introduce the concept of ‘heroes of Vida’s faction’ to the world. Not very likely, but possible.
Jonathan Hurd
Its pretty clear that Alda and his group have been sending plenty of Divine Messages saying ‘THERES A NEW DEMON KING GET READY FOR WAR PEOPLE!’ Plenty of people have been told about it. The problem is there is no clear existential threat to back up what Alda is saying.
Alda says the Demon King is on the rise and it is true that the Demon King Fragments are acting weird, but there isn’t really a clear target to fear. The problem for Alda is he can’t point out the DK is Van because that would just seem laughable to anyone who doesn’t have a good understanding of Van’s power. To anyone else you would just seem crazy pointing at a ten year old kid and saying he’s on the level of Guduranis.
This is also not helped by Van not making any sweeping invasions of human lands or doing mass slaughters.
I think part of what the Fake Face-ripping demon might be doing is trying to make the threat of Van a bit more personal. At least for the Alcrem Duchy.
Chiu ChunLing
Well, Alda has sent Divine Messages about Van being the new Demon King to everyone that can receive them. the problem is that Divine Messages are filtered through both the faith of the recipient in the sender and the beliefs they have about the god sending the message. That’s in addition to fundamental differences between the mentality of the sender and receiver.
So even if someone receives a Divine Message identifying Van as the Demon King, if they don’t have direct information about Van personally all they get is “A mysterious Dhampir is the new Demon King” even if there are no cognitive biases distorting it further, like a belief that the Demon King couldn’t be born normally in the world, turning it into “An unknown Dhampir is serving the new Demon King”.
Throw in “a good person couldn’t serve, let alone be, the Demon King” and you get “An talented young Dhampir is in danger because of the Demon King” (shades of Schneider). This is something like how Heinz et al interpreted the far less ambiguous message of being trained to fight against Van.
So creating a ‘sinister’ side to Van fits…it’s just that there should be way worse true charges against Van from the perspective of Alda believers. A vigilante assassin is questionable but not unambiguously evil, but a master of Undead who’s directly opposed to Alda worship, even the Reconciliation faction, and is parading around a cute monster psuedo-reincarnated from a member of the Ducal house makes a better ‘outrage’ to Alda believers.
That means that, even if the god behind this is nominally part of the Alda faction, s/he just sees things fundamentally differently.
And perhaps more accurately. After all, Alda’s real beefs against Van are not things that would upset any sane person from a humane perspective.
Chiu ChunLing
Leaving Bravatiyu aside for a moment, I doubt there’d be much use in Tackard trying to fool them. That doesn’t mean he deserves no condemnation for his ineptitude in handling the situation.
Realistically, for people whose lives hinge on their liege lord’s decisions, a problem that can be resolved by a change of heart is a lot less damning than one that requires a dramatic change in IQ.
Which is to say, if he’d really wanted to kill off his sister, I would expect his closest associates to already be in on it, and the discussion leaning much further towards how to cover it up. Not that sending a guy to investigate Van using a Demon Eye is going to turn out well either way.
On the other hand, Evil Gods might not be final boss level threats, but they can still be entertaining snacks, or possible additions to Vida’s faction.
Lord Rin
Well those evil gods Van was eating one a day were heavily weakened and immediately attacked as soon as they were freed from their seal in a controlled environment. Meanwhile the most recent evil god Van fought was Hihi-chan who is not specialized in combat. Also all the other evil gods he’s faced were low-level ones.
SchmidtNation
I’m assuming that if this was a powerful evil god know for it’s combat ability, one of Van’s divine friends would have given him a heads up. It did slip my mind that the evil gods handed over by Zantark’s faction were sealed quite recently, so you are right that this one should have recovered a lot more.
But, as long as it’s sealed into an artifact, moving it into a dungeon of choice and surrounding it with adequate forces is probably the way Van will choose to deal with it. Provided someone doesn’t mess with the seal first.
Jonathan Hurd
I think its going to depend on how much info the Evil God has been getting inside his Seal. As was mentioned a while back most of the other Evil God’s have decided to lay low and out of sight from Van for now. This guy might not have been able to get the message since he’s been sealed so he might bust out and then get eaten by Van, lol.
Not before Van gets to make a giant show of taking him down to win over the populace of the Alcrem Duchy probably, lol.
Irazori
It was just speculation about Duke Alcrem possibly being another worthless noble. The appraisal guy is definitely going to get himself screwed by “Abyss”.
I definitely forgot about how rape-shamey human society in Lambda was until the manga reminded me. Though I think it’d be waaayyy worse in the aldiot empire.
Chiu ChunLing
Well, in the Aldiot Empire they’d probably declare her a witch and infer that she deliberately gave birth to monsters…oh wait that’s kinda exactly what Bravatiyu is almost implying….
No, I’d guess Bravatiyu is going for the angle that the ‘supposed’ half-Minotaur Julianna is actually Julianna herself in some kind of disguise. Which is sorta not entirely untrue. He’s just wrong about why she (and Van) decided to do that.
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, Van is definitely going to either eat or recruit that sealed Evil God. At this point, the Evil Gods Van knows about are mostly already members of Vida’s faction, and as the successor of Zakkart he’s probably inclined to at least try recruiting.
I’m not entirely letting Tackart off the hook for not giving Randolf the option of bringing Julianna back alive if her condition made it possible for her to return as “the princess knight who miraculously survived and escaped” rather than “the miserable disgrace of Alcrem’s misbegotten policy”. I mean, Randolf was considering doing that anyway, and Tackart should have been smart enough to realize that, so he’d have been gaining a lot of credit where it counted with what amounted to secret lip-service given the odds and the actual events.
I understand that rulers have to deal with slightly modified moral circumstances, but one of the big ones is “you don’t get a pass for being a bloody fool.” All the ‘complex circumstances’ of the nobility only give you a pass if you acknowledge that you have an extraordinary duty to either be fully competent or GTFO of that game and leave it to someone more qualified.
Not paying free lip-service to an option that he had a moral responsibility to be aware Randolf would consider anyway means he should actively try and find someone smarter to take his position. Not that I’m necessarily claiming he’d find one easily.
Entropy
I suspect that the copycat is either a hero/servant of an Alda god such as Niltark or a Bellwood extremist. Either way definitely out to eliminate Van. I did hear that the thieves could have been a braver trying to test how the seal works, but I doubt Ricklett would cover that up. I agree that Alcrem was caught in a catch 22. Either he is seen as power-hungry noble willing to kill his own sister or his sister is treated like trash as soon as her torture is revealed. Either way she would suffer a terrible fate. Sounds like Bravatiyu might be an Alda extremist or be kept to think of everyone as spies. I suspect that he might still try something that will annoy Van. Imagine if that one spy succeeds, I wonder if the duke would even believe him after reporting Van’s true strength.
As for the sealed evil god, unless he is much stronger than an average evil god and specializes in combat, he will end up as a snack. I guess if the evil god pulled what happened with Zantark by fusing with another deity or two and kept control, he might be strong enough to put up a fight
Chiu ChunLing
A Bellwood extremist sounds fairly plausible, come to think of it. Unfortunately it doesn’t explain how he’s getting his intel, since the Bellwood extremists are bad at receiving Divine Messages, but they could be getting secondhand information from the Alda temple and taking off on their own tangent.
Tackard had a bad situation, but it wasn’t like there was no right answer, he just handled it poorly. It was a mistake for him not to explicitly give Randolf orders to bring Julianna back alive if her mind and body could be restored sufficiently to avoid any scandal, and let her rest in peace otherwise. That was so unlikely that Tackard didn’t think it was possible, but for just that reason it would have cost him nothing to gain a bit of Randolf’s good will. And he wouldn’t be in such a pickle now even though it would have changed nothing else. He’d have the option of claiming that he told Randolf to save her if possible, and he could choose to view her return in that light.
Instead, he’s stuck in the situation of it being obvious (to himself not least) that he ordered her death and Randolf deliberately blew him off.
If he’s not smart enough to navigate a situation like that, then he should let someone smarter try being the Duke.
Tejing
It’s worth noting that Duke Alcrem didn’t KNOW Juliana’s situation when he gave the order to kill her. He just assumed. That seems like evidence of how shallow his concern for her was.
Chiu ChunLing
And don’t forget he was talking to Randolf. We don’t get the conversation itself, but remembering Randolf’s conversation with Rudel Sauron and Dolmad when they were assuming the fate of Iris and the Resistance, he seems like the type to bring up problems with the assumptions being made but not push the issue if he gets ignored.
And he had an issue with what Tackard ordered him to do. I think he probably at least asked Tackard “what if Juliana had retained her sanity against all odds and insisted that she didn’t want to die…?” Maybe not in those words, but from his interaction with Rudel and Dolmad, he’d have questioned the assumption that there was no chance. Just like he brought up the issue of the assumptions Rudel and Dolmad were making about the Resistance, and he warned them about Van.
It’s true that what Rudel and Dolmad were doing was dirtier by a couple of orders of magnitude, but they also didn’t ask Randolf to be directly involved in hunting down and exterminating Iris and the remnants of the supposedly ‘traitorous’ Resistance. He had less reason to say anything to them about that then he had to say something to Tackard about the possibility of saving Julianna. But he still said enough had they been inclined to listen.
I suppose the other difference is that Randolf clearly knew it was unlikely that Julianna was still alive and sane, whereas we can infer he guessed that Dolmad’s theory about the Resistance was self-serving nonsense. But he had a personal concern about killing Julianna.
Tackard clearly bulldozed over that concern in a way that left Randolf planning to ignore his request if Julianna had a different opinion. Unlike Schneider, Randolf has a conscientious attitude and sense of duty towards the nobles that rely on him. He doesn’t go around doing as he damn well pleases.
I’m not going to say Tackard had a moral responsibility to be personally concerned about his half sister, anymore than Earl Morksi had some duty to take the side of his uncle Joseph (or Julianna had some duty to cover for Tackard). But as a Duke, ignoring Randolf’s qualms was stupid and avoidable.
Tenma shinigami
I have finally caught up and suddenly this new chapter appears before me is this luck? Is this van-sama’s divine protection
Irazori
That depends, when did you start reading?
Lucian
Prayse Lord Yoshi for delivering us another great chapter!
graustier
Hmm, so Bashas is a subordinate of Nineroad, like Fitun, if memory serves me right, yet she is planning on aiding Van with her chosen hero, along with the heroes chosen by the Goddess of Dark Night and the God of Shadows.
I am curious as to whether the rest of Alda’s faction are able to witness these events through Miriam or the others. Also, why would she be planning to aid Van in the first place? Has she been brainwashed by observing Van’s doodles for too long, or is it something else?
Edit: Thank you for the chapter, Yoshi, and I hope the last month has not been too hard on you. Please stay well.
CyberDre
Van’s doodles don’t brainwash you , if it did it would also work on his enemies, what it does is , it offers a suggestion for you to join Van, if you have Similar thoughts or beliefs as Van, you become inclined to join him, if not , your sub councious strongly rejects him causing mental damage to you, it’s like watching an ad, if you’re interested in the product it’s selling you’d wanna watch it to the end and even buy it , if not you get irritated and skip the ad, that’s the gist of it.
ObserverBias
From an ‘outside’ perspective, it’s about the same thing; already “sort of” aligned with the way of thinking? You’re in. Definitely not even close to aligned? Go mad from the revelation and feel free to let the door hit you on your way out.
For gods that second one manifests as getting tired and needing to switch out with others to “keep an eye” on any location featuring Van’s doodles; and from what we’ve seen, the three gods affected in the first way “phrase” it as themselves getting brainwashed, but we’re also given the impression they’re the heroic god equivalent of “theater kids,” so any dramatic statement by them is to be taken with salt.
Irazori
No Van’s anti-clairvoyance measure only kills die-hard aldiots. Also, it hasn’t been established that Miriam is committed to any god. So she’s essentially just someone that could join Van because of the benefits rather than religious.
Chiu ChunLing
I don’t recall it actually killing anyone, though I guess the cases of indefinite catatonia aren’t functionally that different.
I’d guess that Miriam is most likely to worship Farmaun, or Vida. Those would be the ‘vanilla’ choices for an adventurer in the Orbaume Kingdom, and she’s definitely a ‘vanilla’ girl.
Chiu ChunLing
The gods can witness things reported by their believers through prayer. As long as Miriam doesn’t pray to the other gods of Alda’s faction about those events, they’ll get nothing.
Rotcortex seems to be able to get nearly everything related to a person’s entire life as long as they’re part of his reincarnation system, at the cost of getting nothing even if they believe in him if they aren’t part of his reincarnation system. So the particulars of divine authority seem to have an influence as well.
Doc
They don’t have to be actively praying to Alda’s god faction for those gods to see through regular citizens eyes. Most regular people in this world believe in Alda. Even if Miriam was not religious (which she likely is seeing as she identified holy symbols of 3 lesser known Alda aligned gods on sight), Alda should still be able to see through her eyes as he’s done with people in Van’s general area before.
It’s only once Van begins to guide someone that they become closed off too Alda.
Chiu ChunLing
That’s true, but without any active praying Alda won’t get a heads up that there’s something interesting to check, and with Curatos out of the picture, it’s currently a lot more effort for Alda to go searching through those records.
I’m not sure whether Miriam is particularly religious or just very aware of how suspicious her companions seem and keeping a close eye on their behavior. But Alda probably already knows Arthur etc. are the heroes blessed by Basha’s group. If he wants to know what they’re up too, it makes more sense to ask them directly.
If they say, “we’re concerned that we don’t have good intel on Van’s movements”, what’s Alda going to say? Only that Van might guide them. “That’s an acceptable risk, it won’t kill them and as long as they continue praying to us they’ll still be serving well.” That plays into the ‘role’ Basha has adopted already.
Alternatively, I guess they might just make a run for it if Alda comes round to ask questions. They’re probably already planning to do that anyway once they contact Van.
But my guess is that Miriam, despite her reservations about how good a friend she is, will respect that what her party has told her is a secret.
Doc
Not really sure what you mean by “a heads up”. Van is the main threat Alda’s gang is trying to deal with. They’re constantly keeping watch on Van’s movements when he’s moving among regular people. That information tells them nothing other than Van’s general location and what he’s doing at that moment in public.
The gods tasked with watching Talosheim from above aren’t doing it to track Van specifically but to get insight into what’s happening within the Mountain Boundary Region. As that’s Van’s powerbase.
Again, “active” prayer is not necessary for Alda’s side to learn what they need to learn.
Chiu ChunLing
It’s necessary for them to learn that there’s something for them to learn. At least in this case.
And all they’d learn is “Basha thinks her hero will be more effective getting close to Van than running away from him.”
graustier
Excellent points, ChunLing. I neglected to consider the likely possibility that Miriam was not a follower of Alda’s faction, given that she is a citizen of the Orbaume Kingdom. I have also had some time to mull over and ruminate over recent events in the story and have managed to revise my outlook a bit.
I’ve pictured the Gods’ awareness to prayers as something along the lines of message alerts, something that might attract their attention but does not directly command it like a forced, direct audio/video feed would. They might still be able to view things through the perspective of their followers, whether it be through their records or in real time, but that appears to require them to focus and actively do so, rather than treat it as an automatic background function. One might also argue that Bashas and her two Light Attribute collaborators could be the designated gods to directly observe their heroes and report developments to their superiors. If Fitun managed to conceal his activities and those of his champion, Hajime, from Nineroad and Alda, then I see little reason why Bashas and Company could not do something similar.
Rodcortex is another important criterion to consider, especially since this adventurer group appear to have not (yet?) been guided away from his system of reincarnation. However, in order to be apprised of the situation, he would have to actively focus and observe the adventurers’ individual records, and he would have to be aware of and informed about them before even that. Given that situational awareness, teamwork, and analysis are demonstrably not strong suits of his, I find the chances of Ol’ Roddie bringing this to Alda’s attention to be fairly remote, or at least not until it is too late. 😉
In conclusion, one question remains unanswered: what exactly are Bashas and Company’s intentions in ordering their chosen heroes to link up and travel with Van, the Demon King? Do they mean to defect to Vida? Could there be dissent among those of Alda’s Divine Court? Find out the answers to these questions and more, next time on Vandalieu (Z)!
Edit: A bit more than one question, I know, but the rest just spilled out as I typed. 😉
Chiu ChunLing
Well, Fitun pretty much was all in on Hajime by the time anyone would have become aware of him anyway. To be specific, he was out of his Divine Realm and using Hajime as his ride. So even though Alda saw what he was doing, it was too late to do anything about him.
So far, Bashas and friends don’t really have much to hide. They’re telling their Heroes to get in contact with Van, but there are plausible excuses for that. And most likely they’ve prepped to leave their Divine Realms and escape Alda if the heat is on.
Rotcortex could probably spot them if he weren’t so dismissive of the heroes being raised by Alda’s faction, or if he weren’t so distracted by what’s happening in Origin. But even when he knew about Ricklent and Zuruwarn, he didn’t warn Alda cause he thought it would only cause pointless trouble. Having failed to warn Alda about that, he’s now in a worse position to tattle on Bashas.
I think it’s pretty clear that Bashas and her dark friends have been Guided by Van. Defecting seems like a sensible plan. Or they could be offering to spy on Alda and report to Van…that seems a bit dangerous. I don’t see them trying anything more extreme like acting as agents provocateur. Such a role wouldn’t suit them anyway.
It could be that they believe Van’s expertise in pseudo-reincarnation could be put to good use. After all, he rezzed his mom and turned her into an Incarnation of Vida, one of the major gods. And he just got those oviducts…no, maybe not. But even leaving aside relying on the DK fragments, he can probably handle making minor Divine Vessels somehow.
iamleejn
Huh. Guess I’ll have to go back and re-read this business about the face tearing demon: I thought it was Isla.
Nobody2
There’s a real one who is one of van’s subordinates and a copycat who we now have met here.
Chiu ChunLing
The real one is Braga, who learned the technique from Isla.
Irazori
No it was Braga (the ninja black goblin)
ObserverBias
Braga and his troop understudied the execution style from Isla, and are collectively the (real) Face Tearing Demon (or, it’s possible that’s particular to Braga specifically). The copycat, we don’t even have a height or color description for.
ExplodingPenguinDood
God of Shadows and Dark Nights sounds hella sus geez. I wonder what other gods are there. I would really like for Miriam to join Van, provably be some sort of balm to his mental health.
Eberam
He’s so skewed malformed and insane that that balm would not have an effect at all at best just to have a small influence in a few mood swings. Don’t forget Van is so insane he evolved a skill that proves insanity 2 times and now uses that insanity to eat EVIL gods (and normal ones if they’re unlucky to be his enemies)
ExplodingPenguinDood
I mean he still gets embarrassed easily, have a few wants that are down to Lambda and very rational. I thought that Van is classified as insane because of his massive jumbled soul and mind.
Absolute Zer0
He is insane because his mental structure and outlook of reality is different from others, in Nasuverse term he would have developed Reality Marble of highest order, got esper ability and classified as Outer God long ago.
nadirku
Thank you for the chapter, but I think I might have noticed a typo, if it is possible to fix it.
Currently there is the line:
It kind of seems like the line should be:
Unless there is some other translation error going on, that final “hers”/”his” should be referring to Arthur’s hands, as opposed to Miriam’s hands, implying the pronoun to use is “his”.
The wording as is, implies that Arthur is making Miriam hold/take her own hands in her hands, which is an awkward idea, and almost definitely wrong based on the context of the scene.
nadirku
Thanks for the Chapter
For Miriam, Arthur, Kalinia, and Borzofoy, is anyone else getting something like gender swapped Konosuba vibes?
Eberam
how is it gender swap when there are 2 girls and to guys ?
nadirku
I suppose that I was specifically feeling a Kazuma to Mriam gender swap vibe
Chiu ChunLing
No, but I somehow get what you’re saying, or at least I didn’t find it completely irrelevant.
Miriam isn’t a distaff Kuzuma, and Borzofoy and Arthur are opposite Megumin and Lalatina in way more ways than having spears, and Kalinia isn’t Yun-yun (or male).
Same for their gods. Definitely not Aqua and Eris, though Zelzeria’s impression compared to Eris is almost as good as gender-bent.
And yet, they’re still funny.
BLK
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Truthful
Thanks for the (side) chapter!
Entropy
Thanks for the chapter. So the face stealing demon mentioned the demon king, wonder if he is talking about setting up Van or the original. Makes me wonder if I misread him as being merely an assassin covering up his crimes. It would be hilarious if he turned out to be a “hero” on Alda’s side trying to paint Van and Vida as evil. I feel sorry for the spy sent out to see van’s stats. Either his demon eye is reflected back telling Van his info, which is the best case scenario, or he actually sees Van’s stats and goes crying in a corner of the world. I am guessing the thief will deliver the demon pieces to Van. If I recall Van already has the claws, I wonder when he will get the tongue or something that produces poison. Makes me curious about how many Demon King pieces exist. I know his body was divided, but he had a strange body and I am guessing that there are sealed pieces kept by Alda’s fraction, hidden pieces forgotten by time, and independent pieces kept by evil gods that are out for themselves. I am guessing that Bravatiyu is going to try something that annoys Van eventually. Good thing the duke did not listen to him, otherwise that would mean three dukes struck out.
Irazori
Yeah, I definitely see that copycat killer being an aldiot wannabe hero. As for the lesser appraisal eye guy, I think he would take some damage of some kind due to Van’s “Abyss” skill.
Doc
Does Van’s Abyss damage people? I thought it just alerts Van that somebody is looking at him in some way. Van could then choose to attack that person, but the skill itself doesn’t passively attack people I don’t think.
And yes, the copy cat Face tearer definitely is against Van. Referring to him as the demon king confirms he’s working for Alda’s god faction as they’re the only ones who call Van that.
Jonathan Hurd
I believe the Abyss skill basically reflects what is done to Van by skills using eyes back at the opponent. So for instance when Gubamon tried to use Demon Eyes of destruction to hurt Van. He was then hit back by Van’s Abyss skill the same damage he dealt. On the other hand when the Clairvoyance was spying on Van in Rodidiots realm all that happened to him was he was being spied on as well.
I think if someone uses a Demon Eye to try and appraise Van then Van would just end up appraising them.
A thing to remember with this guys Demon Eye’s though is they are for analyzing and not actual Appraisal ones. He apparently needs to see Van exercising/fighting to tell the status’/skills to get a grasp on them. I’m not sure how much info he’ll be able to gather if Van doesn’t take the fight at all seriously.
Doc
But I distinctly remember Van being able to tell how many guards were looking his way outside Morksi during the battle with Fitun and Murakami’s group because of Abyss.
Though I guess that could still fit the definition of “reflecting”. They observe him therefore he observes back.
SoulsTogether
That is what the Abyss skill is about.
“If you look into the Abyss, the Abyss will look back.”
ICZephyr
Definitely one of the coolest if not the coolest sounding description of a skill. Period.
Renrobt
Don’t forget that that the town was too far away from the battle, only the people who could use magic like Farsight could actually see Van.
So it could be that Van was aware of the guards because of the reaction towards the magic.
Though having the ability to automatically detect any and all gazes towards you could also be it’s function, using that he knows how many are watching him from the town’s direction I guess.
Chiu ChunLing
Well, the ‘any and all gazes’ is probably nearly worthless in practice, especially compared to his Detect Life spell. He likely ignores it most of the time.
SoulsTogether
The brings up a good point.
Demon Eye’s ability will cause Van’s Abyss skill to activate…and since the Demon Eye’s ability “give[s] a rough measurement of Attribute Value and the Levels of targets’ Skills if he observed them in battle or using the Skills[,]” that means that Demon Eye will display Van’s Abyss skill to the poor guy…
…oh dear…
Chiu ChunLing
Well, the fake Face-tearing guy is definitely not on the right side. But whichever god he serves, this seems like coloring a bit outside of Alda’s lines, if not to the same extent as Fitun.
All the other faithful servants of gods seem okay.
Jonathan Hurd
Alda’s group has worked under the ideology that the ends justify the means for quite some time. I mean that’s how they excused Fitun’s actions the entire time. I don’t think Alda particularly cares what anyone does if it can kill or hurt Van he’d approve.
Honestly Alda calls himself the God of Law and Justice, but it is fairly clear there is no particular guiding code he follows. The only real principles seems to be New things bad, Vida bad, Evil Gods bad, and I miss the Old ways with my giant pair of nostalgia goggles. He really has no qualms about following societies laws or else he wouldn’t be trying to undermine human society as hard as he currently is with the Amid Empire.
Killing? Alda might as well be the God of Mass Genocide at this point. His death toll is far higher than any of the Evil God’s by this point.
Chiu ChunLing
Sure, but there has to be a definable ‘end’ to justify the means. It’s true that Alda’s faction is full of brainwashed idiots, but they’re not actual robots. They may accept Alda’s narrative uncritically, but it still has to be something they can at least understand.
What this guy is doing doesn’t seem to fit the narrative.
Dr. Steel
He already has the tongue, and I’m pretty sure it was either the black goblins or himself that stole the sealed DK pieces.
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, he also has the DK venom glands.
Entropy
Forgot, he has so many pieces and some of them combine into the body or jaw. Kind of curious what the second piece was.
Chiu ChunLing
Well, the tongue was one of the lot received as a bonus for talking with Zantark, and the venom glands were among bits the vampires were holding onto, which didn’t even get a scene.
Since he got the DK aux-brain and the DK Skill, he hasn’t really needed to overtly ‘activate’ any DK part fully analogous to one of his natural body parts, he just puts in mana while using them like his own body. So it hasn’t explicitly mentioned each of them so much (his venom secretion Skill got upgraded, though). Considering he’s got like forty fragments now, the narrative would slow to a crawl if it mentioned every time he’s using them.
As for the second piece, we can always hope for Muscles! Or maybe testes for testosterone…actually, testes would also be good to balance out that he’s getting an oviduct, otherwise I see him getting mistaken for a girl again.
Dr. Steel
I thought Jaw got integrated into his Demon King’s Body skill? So on his status, he no longer has the section listing every DK piece he has they just all join that skill.
Chiu ChunLing
True enough, and there’s the possibility that a number of parts have already combined during previous rampages and never been successfully separated before being sealed.
What matters is what can be done with the parts he has, it seems like he hasn’t really explored the full potential of all of them. Though I guess that some of that potential is…ethically questionable.
IRONMAN000elas
Welp thank god they started the investigation into the fake face tearing demon
Tejing
I have a feeling Miriam is going to be a fun character to have around 🙂
I guess the one who snuck in was Van? At least I hope so… and who else would Ricklent have personally covered for?
Tackard is fooling himself. He never saw her as family, just as a nuisance. Otherwise, he would have tried to help her regardless of those considerations. Well, at least he’s not jumping on the “strike back first” train, so he may yet survive.
Hmm, how exactly is acting as the face-tearing demon supposed to help bring down Van? I mean, maybe it isn’t… the guy’s obviously got a bit of a screw loose, but still…
Entropy
If I had to guess, I would say someone allied with van stole those pieces so he is getting two new parts. Tackard was stuck in a terrible situation in my book. Either he is painted as a power hungry noble or he must keep his sister hidden until the day she might recover or dies whichever one comes first. Plus if she was found to have bred with monsters, most of the common folk as well as the nobles would treat her with disdain and disgust. I am guessing that the copycat might be a hero of Alda’s group playing the long game to paint Van as a killing fiend that attacked innocents. Maybe he was selected by that god of law that works for Alda, Niltark. I mean he did sacrifice two of his familiar gods to learn info about Van so I can see him sacrificing petty criminals for the greater good.
Jonathan Hurd
I will say in Tackard’s defense it isn’t like he was really that close with Juliana. She was a bastard child who suddenly showed up at one point down the line and was young enough to basically be his daughter rather than his sister. Its not like he grew up with her and they were close. She was always a potential liability to his throne.
I know what I’m saying here sounds pretty cold, but not everyone has Van’s benevolence, understanding, and resources to look after people in such terrible condition.
We know that when Juliana met Van she was already completely broken. Meeting him brought her slightly back to the edge, but not by much. Van himself could of regrown her limbs, but he realized that her mind and body had hit their limit so he went with rebirth. That’s not really an option for anyone else other than sending them through Rodidiots system the old fashioned way.
As sad as it is I think as far as Tackard is capable of it would of been the right and merciful choice to just let her pass quickly and quietly. I am happy she found and met Van, but if she couldn’t have I can’t imagine her ever making much of a recovery.
ExplodingPenguinDood
If I have to say, the plan probably involves the bravers. The demon may kill innocent people in the future, Rod would hold on to the soul and parade it claiming the Van has gone mad with power. It’s Van’s oldest fear come to life
CyberDre
That doesn’t sound like the memo of any braver on Lambda that’s alive, besides, many of them are miles apart from Van, plus have no teleporter amongst them.
SchmidtNation
Not a plan using one of the Bravers in Lambda, but a plan to convince future Bravers to side against Van.
ObserverBias
… By having a random humanoid copycat a killer of “a certain type of person” while also fabricating evidence against both the killed and the (framed) killer in the future? Sounds too smart by half for Rodcorte, and too underhanded for any of the other Alda-aligned gods now that Fitun isn’t among them. Speaking of, they relatively recently had a meeting concerning how his methods were unbecoming them, no?
So who could possibly have any level of info on the real killer’s identity or ties to the Demon King, that could also pass by their notice? It would have to be a god behind the person to have any awareness of the Bravers, but this is a heck of an aware long play to consecrate a soon-to-be corpse to (maybe?) avoid having Van even converse with the ghost.
SchmidtNation
“too underhanded for any of the other Alda-aligned gods now that Fitun isn’t among them” Really? Even though we don’t know the personalities of the vast majority of Alda’s faction? Baselessly assuming Fitun is the only one willing to rationalize sacrifices is stretching it, especially since they seem to grow more hysterical and desperate every time we see them. Currently, three of the Alda faction gods are sending their heroes to join the Demon King, but killing criminals is “too underhanded”?
ObserverBias
Convincing a follower to kill criminals and implicate them in heavier crimes explicitly for the sake of undermining the Demon King’s machinations, are not the measured tactics of a hysterical or desperate god, I think.
Also we saw them reject Fitun’s methods in abusing his followers in a forum of themselves (their peers). Unless there’s another god that was very conspicuously aligned to these sorts of actions/methods already (that Fitun himself never bothered to consider for his ploy), the copycat’s information source has /some/ idea what Van is doing through Braga (which is generally just idly pruning Alcrem’s weeds), which clashes with Alda’s faction infamously being unable to get a read on him.
Chiu ChunLing
I wouldn’t say that it’s too underhanded period, but looking at the relative benefits compared to other methods that should be available with the same resources I think there is a point here.
In other words, someone from the Alda faction should have equivalently effective options they would definitely prefer. But that doesn’t mean we can absolutely say none of them would do this instead.
We already know that Alda’s faction isn’t perfectly unified, there could be plenty of gods like Fitun in the sense of pretending to be good followers of ‘the Law’ while secretly hiding a secret agenda. Buying time to safely defect to Vida’s faction isn’t the only such motive, though it seems to be one of the most popular.
Fitun wanted to engage in a pitched battle with no certainty of victory, there could be another god out there with a taste for covert operations that can’t be fully satisfied while being a good follower of ‘the Law’ but also doesn’t play well with Vida’s ideals.
There’s also Evil Gods, though somehow this doesn’t feel…alien enough for one of them.
SchmidtNation
Perhaps not hysterical, but the plan does reek of desperation. And they’ve had about a month since Fitun died to calm down.
Fitun’s methods were looked down upon because they didn’t match his public teachings. “Indeed, if Fitun had been a god whose teachings were of self-sacrifice and devotion, his actions could have been defended”-side ch 35, during a discussion among Alda’s pantheon. The action of punishing criminals is very in line with any god related to law or judgment, even if the punishment is a bit extreme.
They are unable to properly get a read on his intentions and plans for the future, largely due to incredible bias, but they are able to watch him through the eyes of every believer in human society. Through the events in the Sauron duchy, they know that Miles and the black goblins work for Van. They probably see the current situation as Van taking over a criminal organization and now disposing of rivals so that he can gain control of the entire underworld of Alcrem. If the black goblins had assassinated the targets, maybe they wouldn’t know who did it, but skinning the faces of living people means extended contact and most likely being seen.
Entropy
Personally I suspect Niltark or someone close to him of being the one pulling the strings of the copycat. He was more than willing to sacrifice two of his familiar gods in that fight with the evil breaking swords to learn about Van’s abilities and he seems a very black and white deity. He sounded like someone that would kill any criminal regardless of the crime. I suppose it could also be one of those Bellwood extremist that simply wants to get rid of Van. If they do still exist, they would be enemies of van for several reasons in that he is bringing advanced technology to the world and he is a dhampir.
Chiu ChunLing
But as you say, Niltark is a little unsubtle.
And whatever this Face-tearing fake is doing, it’s not perfectly straightforward. Besides, I can’t see a follower of Niltark saying “It is an instruction from me for the gods to accept even a criminal like you into heaven without hesitation” even as a comforting lie. A Niltark believer would be like “No matter how small you think your crimes, my god will not forgive you.”
Actually, now that I think about it, maybe the part about this being to take out Van is also a lie, because the whoever is doing this is conscious that people tend to pray when facing death, and doesn’t want to be suspected. Like, it could be another possible defector with a slightly different understanding of how best to make contact with Van. I’m not saying that this is a good plan for making friends with Van, but it would still beat any plan that actually involved directly opposing him, right?
We could have another round of “sending a letter is the normal way to make contact, why doesn’t everyone get that?”
Jonathan Hurd
I honestly think the fact that the fake Face-ripping demon said “It is an instruction from me for the gods to accept even a criminal like you into heaven without hesitation”. Makes it feel more like something someone who worships Niltark would say. Basically you are atoning for your crimes by being used to bring down a greater enemy.
Niltark is definitively unsubtle, but I feel like this plan could be his. My understanding of Niltark is that he’s cold, logical, and ruthless.
My guess of what the plan is that the fake Face-ripping demon is working to keep the trail from going cold. He wants the Duchies men to keep looking for Van’s forces and traces. Once the authorities make a connection between Van and Face-ripping they can then start Face-ripping on a bigger scale. Basically more victims and more places. Convince them that Van is trying to slowly take control of the Duchy from the inside.
It could be a strategy to try and undermine Van’s growing position and popularity in the Alcrem Duchy and hopefully turn this Duchy against him. Sauron and Hartner are already afraid of Van. If you could get a majority of the Duchies to fear and hate Van they could forcefully drag the rest of the Orbaume Kingdom to fight him.
Chiu ChunLing
But for the gods of this setting where almost everyone is just tossed back in reincarnation cycle, being accepted into heaven has a highly specific and special meaning of being elevated to the status of a Heroic Spirit, or even a Heroic God.
I can see some gods obscuring this point in their teachings by saying something ‘nice’ about the afterlife, but not Niltark. Niltark isn’t the god of Atonement, but of Condemnation. His followers shouldn’t bother to answer pleas for mercy in the first place, let alone peddle a ‘comforting’ lie.
That makes me think that this guy’s god is likely something of a trickster, if not a deceiver. There should be light attribute gods in charge of illusions and stuff like that, and since Alda isn’t letting Zuruwarn manage the space attribute he also must have space attribute gods in his faction…or pretending to be.
Also, we haven’t really verified Hamul’s true intentions. A copy-cat assassin…it really sounds “god of shadows” ish. Or maybe a god of reflections.
After all, for the scheme you’re suggesting the copy would have to be so perfect that the traces he leaves would naturally lead back to the original rather than himself. After all, currently Van isn’t even a suspect. Even Bravatiyu didn’t make the leap to “the Face-tearing Demon is clearly just a ploy to distract us from the Dhampir!”
Jonathan Hurd
We shouldn’t forget humans are strictly kept from knowing about the System of Reincarnation. We as readers know everyone is just thrown into Rodidiots system and spit back out with no consideration to the previous life, but mortals aren’t really allowed that info. I mean even Vida’s group can’t talk about it with Van.
Considering how Alda’s group sells themselves as judge, jury, and executioner especially for after death. I could imagine some of the more fanatical followers think they too share in that role.
I would say the fact that Niltark is the God of Condemnation would increase the belief of a follower that people he kills are being sent up to be judged by Niltark. Killing and framing this one guy would not completely agree with him, but if its for a greater good then his sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain.
From what we saw with that one Evil Crushing Blade Irvine, Niltark doesn’t seem to be much for emotion and more for results. He didn’t even really care that Irvine used a Familiar Spirit of his for a distraction.
Chiu ChunLing
Hmmm…that fits better with an extremist doing it without having received a Divine Message. And I think that a Bellwood follower works better in that case, it fits their established idiom.
It seems to be something of a problem for Divine Messages to be straight up lies, things the god giving the message actively believes to be untrue. The concern doesn’t seem to be so much an ethical concern about lying as such, but that Divine Messages are a form of empathic telepathy and the god sending them doesn’t have full conscious control of the meaning tokens sent. So a straight up lie would be accompanied by awareness that it was a straight up lie, effectively randomly adding “Lol”, “yeah, right”, and “Not!” into the message.
It would be easier to send a Divine Message saying “you have to lie about this” instead.
Which fits in better with the tactic being employed, which is why I think this is more likely to be some kinda god of trickery than someone like Niltark, or this guy is just lying/deluded about working for the gods.
Chiu ChunLing
While I doubt the general level of faith among the criminals being targeted, it’s certainly true if they’re ever going to offer prayers to Alda, it would be when they’re captured by Black Goblins and having their faces peeled off.
Chiu ChunLing
In that case, it’d be rather counterproductive to announce to the departing soul such incriminating information. Also, they have plenty of worse looking dirt on Van already. From the perspective of the Bravers, there just wouldn’t be a big difference between extrajudicially killing this relatively minor villain and doing the same to the real big-shots, especially the ones who are legit-but-corrupt nobles. The Bravers have a history of cooperating with extraordinary atrocities as long as they are sanctioned by those in power.
Not that it’s impossible that Rotcortex would try to make the evidence against Van a little worse, but Izumi etc. would catch him and redouble the case against trusting him. By now, Rotcortex is best off handing any other Bravers that enter his power directly to Alda’s control, just reincarnate them in an Arda temple or whatever as Heroes summoned to fight the Demon Lord and let the priests ‘persuade’ those not eager to fight. Besides, he’s not great at subtle mind games.
A more plausible plan would be using the activity of the fake Face-tearing Demon to lure Van or his associates into a trap of some kind. But Rotcortex currently has no assets for the trap, so it’s likely another god.
Jonathan Hurd
I find the idea intriguing, but there seems to be too many holes in it to be able to convince the Bravers. I mean the Bravers when they show up in Rodidiots zone will ask to look at the information about Van. If you present them a mystery killer and then refuse to let them see more info about him that just reeks of suspicion.
There is also the three ‘Guardian Angel’ Bravers that you would have to force to back you up. They obviously dislike Rodidiot and Rodidiot isn’t really capable or interested in making them act naturally. So that would just turn them against Rodidiot even faster and harder.
All in all it just seems like way to much effort for Rodidiot to go through to try and bandwagon people on. It’d be one thing if he didn’t have an entire video reel of Van killing Murakami’s group, Hajime, and Death Scythe. Van killing an entire human army. Van bringing back the dead. Van using Death Magic and Mana. If these things wouldn’t convince people to fight why would they care about some random serial killing?
I think you are right though in that this is a plan to get people involved against Van though. I think instead of the Braver’s however they are going to try and gather the Duchies attention and turn it against Van. Currently the Serial Killer is actually liked by the populace because they only go after the worst of the worst, but if the Serial Killer starts expanding his range and hitting less horrible people… Fear could start building up. Then you start a rumor that the Face Hunter is actually a minion of the rising Demon King and you could finally get people to start taking the rumors of the New Demon King seriously.
Add in if you spread Face Hunting to other Cities and Duchies. Make it an MO and you could spread word that the Demon King’s activities are increasing. Use the fear to bring the Duchies together and convince them the new Demon King is a threat to take seriously.
ExplodingPenguinDood
You know I don’t get the dislike for the undead in Lambda when they were there before Van. I get that Asagi wouldn’t accept it cuz he’s bull headed but the rest idk. Kinda like killing all orc like beings in another planet just because orcs ate mostly portrayed as evil in fiction
Chiu ChunLing
I think I get what you’re trying to say. You mean that it’s strange to blame Van for the undead when mostly what he’s done is tame already existing and highly dangerous undead and made them safe and sane. And in the cases where he’s killed people and turned them undead, they were clearly worse monsters before he killed them.
The problem is…Asagi is one of those worse monsters who would be significantly improved by being killed. He’s maybe on the borderline, but Van’s undead are so good that there are just too many cases like Asagi, people who normally you couldn’t justify killing but with the option of turning them into an improved version it’s almost hard to justify not doing it.
Van doesn’t do it cause, much as he dislikes Asagi, he knows he’d find clingy undead Asagi fawning over him unbearable.
But Asagi is Asagi precisely because he can’t understand that. He’s trying to parse Van’s motives in terms he can understand and can’t understand how the last thing Van wants is Asagi’s passionate attention.
I think most of the Bravers can see how they are basically have zero or negative value for Van, and see how the undead Van creates all have positive value, and so they can’t easily conceive that killing them and turning them undead is just not worthwhile for Van. The “live and let live” Bravers are a minority and didn’t fit well into the Bravers since that’s pretty much the opposite of the entire ethos of the organization.
CyberDre
I get where you’re coming from but , it’s hard to shake off your religious and moral beliefs that have been the foundation on your two lives so far, unless something shocking that destroys all common sense you’ve built up.
In Asagi’s case it’s gonna take something like personally witnessing what gods and humans fighting against van are willing to do to get what they want especially Alda and Rodcorte.Take the fight against Fitun , it’s not gonna be hard for him to see that Alda’s side are in the wrong. I can see him being sympathetic towards Heinz but being disgusted by Alda and his forces.
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, Fitun’s actions are really beyond the pale. And Aran decided on giving them the full story there.
We need to see Asagi’s reaction to that news, though. Maybe he’ll get it, maybe not.
Chiu ChunLing
I don’t believe Tackard is claiming to have seen her as family rather than as an unwanted relation. His claim is simply that he hasn’t done anything to her that would be as atrociously bad as it might seem to someone not considering the full circumstances.
I tend to the side that he should have given Randolf a clearer discretion to save Julianna if it seemed her mind and body were intact, which would have made no difference in practical terms in the event but would have made it much clearer that it’s not like he was hoping for the worst. Randolf would still have had reasons for exceeding that discretion despite Julianna being in an unsalvageable state, but he wouldn’t have thought ill of Tackard for not throwing in “or if killing her would make it really inconvenient to save some random girl whose sanity was still intact.”
The fact is, he didn’t put as much care into that order as he would have if he really wished Julianna to return. But he’s not claiming he wanted her back, just that he wasn’t eager for an excuse to dispose of her.
Doc
I didn’t really read the Duke’s actions as overly evil. Juliana was never in a position to usurp his authority in the first place. To me it was more indifference and not wanting Juliana’s capture to lead to his aristocratic enemies using it as ammunition to attack his authority. I mean he has a very valid point that once he discovered she was captured by Minotaturs, her life in high society is kind of over at that point. So telling Randolf to finish her off served two purposes. To end her suffering. And so nothing blows back on him. Yes it’s self serving but it’s not particularly evil. Given the information he had, his decision was reasonable.
As far as who’s behind our copy cat killer. Clearly it’s some god aligned with Alda. They’re the only ones who call Van the demon king. For who the God is, well there’s a ton of them. Could easily be an unrevealed one. Could even be Alda himself.
Phantom Knight
I agree with youon some of stuff said, but I do think the Duke Alcrem probably did care for Juliana in his own way. The novel already explained that murder is one of the most merciful options for monster r@pe victims since the earlier chapters.
In other words, his actions are actually the normal thing to do for Lambda inhabitants, and Juliana might have just been super unlucky in the incident…..Vandalieu-sama thankfully distorted their fates in the end though.
Chiu ChunLing
I’m not going to talk about whether he really cared about Julianna herself, but here’s what he would have told Randolf if he was smart enough to be Duke.
“I cannot allow the scandal of Julianna, famed as a “Princess Knight”, having become a breeding bed for Minotaurs. I know that this is unreasonable, but if it’s at all possible, I want you to rescue her so that it can never be proven she didn’t escape with her honor unsullied. The most important thing is that she herself can strongly refute any rumor of being captured and made to breed monsters in her womb.
“My resources may not be unlimited, but they are great. I must leave it to your judgement whether Julianna can recover fully and quickly enough to prove she escaped alone.
“If…that’s impossible, I need you to remove any evidence of her fate, especially the unique jewelry in her possession. It cannot be proven that she wasn’t caught and used.”
Randolf isn’t a fool. He knows a living Julianna, or even an identifiable corpse, is included as “evidence of her fate”. But Tackard had the option of appealing to him that he really wants to protect her honor rather than wanting to make sure she’s dead.
Failing to do so was stupid.
And stupid people don’t have a good excuse to cling to authority.
Moonsshadow
thanks for the chapter
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Superboy8338
It feels good to be early, thanks for the update!!
Superboy8338
I almost feel sorry for all of Van’s future enemies, ALMOST.