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The news of the incident in the capital of the Alcrem Duchy, where the evil god Forzajibal was resurrected, spread quickly to every duchy in the Orbaume Kingdom, as well as to its enemy nation, the Amid Empire.
The shock of the resurrection and subsequent defeat of an evil god was so great that it even overshadowed the ‘Face-tearing Demon’ incidents that had been occurring in the Alcrem Duchy. It was so great that even though there were some that doubted whether an evil god really had been resurrected, people were unable to even question that there might be a hidden truth behind the incident.
Thus, none knew of the truth but Duke Alcrem and his close retainers, and most people believed the fabricated show that Vandalieu and the others had created.
That was true even for the Marquis Urgen Tercatanis, who served as the prime minister of the Orbaume Kingdom and was considered to be a sharp individual, and Marquis Fatherick Dolmad, the marshal.
In the royal castle in the capital of the Orbaume Kingdom’s royal realm, the leaders of the kingdom, including Tercatanis and Dolmad, were having an unofficial meeting, although it was in the absence of Duke Corbitt, the current king.
Urgen Tercatanis, a moody-looking old man, was reading and comparing the report of the incident that had been sent by the Alcrem House and the report provided by spies that he had sent in secret.
“An evil god that was over a hundred meters tall, and a god’s incarnation that was even larger than that… It is incredible that Alcrem survived,” he murmured. “The city of Alcrem is surrounded by walls to protect it from rampaging monsters, but they would be like paper before an evil god. And their army cannot be described as powerful, with the exception of the Five Knights of Alcrem and the other knights under their direct command. And yet, they defeated an evil god with no casualties suffered by the people… How magnificent.”
“No, no. It is true that there was no damage or casualties inside the city, but there was significant damage outside the city,” pointed out a plump, late-middle-aged man with a mustache that resembled the whiskers of a catfish.
This man was Fatherick Dolmad.
“The temple of Borgadon in the ‘Sacred Wastelands’ was destroyed, and everyone in the temple died. The ruins of the temple were swallowed up by an enormous hole in the earth, and the bodies of the deceased couldn’t be recovered, apparently,” Dolmad continued. “And the ‘Knight of Collapsed Mountains’ Goldie was killed as well. His successor, his son, was also killed, so who knows when the empty position in the Five Knights will be filled.”
Dolmad didn’t look like a military man, but despite his friendly-looking face, he was calmly calculating the losses suffered by the Alcrem house.
Although he calculated the losses this way… in truth, the temple of Borgadon in the ‘Sacred Wasteland’ had been a temple of Zerzoregin in disguise, and the people there, Goldie, and Goldie’s son had all been Mimic Humans that disguised themselves as humans. Thus, the duke had been able to exterminate these traitors, and the ‘losses’ were actually gains.
On top of that, the dignity of the duke’s house would have certainly plummeted into the ground if the incident with the Mimic Humans had become publicly known. The other nobles serving it would lose their trust in Duke Alcrem’s rule, and it was possible that another duke would use that to instigate a coup d’état.
The duke had managed to prevent that and dealt with that risk by creating the story that Goldie had died an honorable death in battle, so this incident could be considered one of the greatest gains in the history of the Alcrem house.
“I’m sure those matters will resolve themselves. Alcrem was a duchy with thriving commerce to begin with. If they open their treasury and use the large piles of coin that are sitting in there, they should be able to rebuild the temple. As for the empty position left by the ‘Knight of Collapsed Mountains,’ it can be filled easily by hiring some A-class adventurer or a mercenary with equivalent skill,” said Prime Minister Tercatanis.
A slim, middle-aged nobleman who served as finance minister nodded in agreement. “It would be fortunate if that were the case, as we would not need to send any aid. Of course, we will still need to provide some funds and adjust our taxes accordingly for a while. After all, it would be problematic if they were to build a cheap temple and the evil god were to be resurrected again.”
“Indeed. Given that the evil god would likely not have stopped at destroying Alcrem, we should consider it a threat to the whole of the Orbaume Kingdom,” agreed another noble.
“In that case, the next thing we will need to worry about is providing a reward sum,” said a third. “However… that is troublesome.”
The elite nobles at the meeting, all of whom had a court rank of marquis or greater, looked down at the written report that had been sent by Duke Alcrem’s house.
The rewards given to those who had performed distinguished services would be decided at the discretion of the duke’s house. It was customary for other dukes and important nobles to not raise any objections to promotions, salary raises, land, and decorations being given to knights and soldiers, so long as such rewards were not extremely excessive.
Thus, approval for such rewards was usually sought after the rewards had already been given, and prior notice of such rewards was almost unheard of.
And yet, in the duke’s report, there was such a notice: “The title and honorary court rank of countess shall be granted to the Dark Elf Darcia, who accomplished the great deed of defeating and re-sealing the evil god.”
TLN: The court rank of countess is equivalent to the court rank of earl, it’s just that there is no feminine form of earl and countess is used instead for women.
“As there is a rule that we must approve the bestowing of a court rank and the honorary court rank of countess, it is possible to reject his request, but… still, bestowing the honorary title of countess is a bold move,” one of the nobles murmured.
An honorary court rank was a title bestowed upon a non-noble commoner who accomplished a meritorious deed. This title could not be inherited by future generations, and once the one who held it died, the title would be returned to the kingdom.
However, an honorary noble would have the same authority as a nobleman with the same court rank, and would receive an annual sum in payment. There were also numerous historical examples of honorary nobles who went on to achieve even more great things and were rewarded with a true court rank.
That was precisely why having a Dark Elf woman as an honorary countess would be troublesome.
“Dark Elves live for a thousand years… Even when our grandchildren retire, she will still be holding her title.”
“And even though we cannot object to the duke bestowing her the honorary court rank of countess, once she has that title, she will be able to make as many objections to our actions as she pleases. How bothersome.”
“Yes, as she would be no different from the other earls who serve Duke Alcrem. Her influence will be limited, but we will not be able to bluntly refuse to listen to her objections.”
If Darcia became an honorary countess, Prime Minister Tercatanis and every other person in this meeting would also need to treat her as a noble.
It wasn’t such a high title that they would need to obey her unconditionally, but they would need to answer any officially-worded questions from her, and if she were to create a formal appointment, they would need to meet with her.
They would become unable to brush her off with force just because she was a commoner.
“Gentlemen, that is not where the problem lies. The problem is that she is a member of one of the races created by Vida, and she is a holy woman who is able to summon Vida’s familiar spirits,” said Prime Minister Tercatanis.
The issue he saw was that Darcia would become a symbol for Vida’s worshippers and members of the races that Vida had created.
Many of the nobles in this meeting were conservatives who wished for the Orbaume Kingdom to stay as it was now without any large changes. They would not welcome a development like the rise of Vida’s races.
But the foreign affairs minister questioned this view. “But Duke Alcrem has always been strongly influenced by Alda’s peaceful faction, even if it is not to the same degree as the Farzon Duchy. Is he not simply bestowing the title of honorary countess to the Dark Elf to please the peaceful faction?”
The other nobles nodded, agreeing that this may be the case.
The influence of Alda’s peaceful faction had rapidly gained strength in recent years due to the actions of the party of the ‘Blue-flamed Sword’ Heinz, and this was another change that Prime Minister Tercatanis did not welcome.
This was not because the people gathered in this room opposed the peaceful faction’s views of good and evil or their religious beliefs, but because they were human, and because they were nobles… and they enjoyed all of the privileges that came with that.
Still, Alda’s peaceful faction becoming more mainstream was a change that they were willing to tolerate. After all, the peaceful faction’s ideology was to maintain the current system while gradually improving the treatment of Vida’s races.
“According to the information from the spies, this Dark Elf named Darcia and her Dhampir son advocate for Vida fundamentalism, not the peaceful faction,” said Prime Minister Tercatanis.
These words were enough for the other nobles in the room to imagine a situation that they were not willing to tolerate.
“F-fundamentalism?! I have never heard of that. Just what ideologies does that encompass?!” another noble exclaimed in alarm, as the others began to murmur amongst one another.
“I have not heard of it either, but I think I can guess what it is,” said a comparatively calm Marshal Dolmad as he stroked his mustache. “It is likely a principle of wanting to treat Vida’s races as humans. Naturally, this would include Dark Elves, Beast-kin, Titans, Drakonids, and Dhampirs, but also races such as Centaurs, Harpies, Arachne, and Scylla… and Vampires. I believe they would free Vida’s races from the territories where they are contained, and demand that we give court ranks to their chiefs and freedom to the members of these races to conduct business and go wherever they wish.”
The nobles fell silent in response to Marshal Dolmad’s shocking words. Vida’s races possessed longer lifespans than humans; there were also Vampires, who were blessed with great physical abilities, prowess in magic, and immortality. If such races were to become nobles and influence politics, there was no doubt that they would form a large force that would take over the Orbaume Kingdom from within and attempt to turn it into a nation centered around Vida’s races.
The result would be a nation of Vida’s races that was even more authoritarian than the nation founded by the legendary ‘Mercenary King’ Veld.
“If possible, I would like to stop Duke Alcrem, but there is no pretext for us to interfere with his choice. And the duke must reward the deeds of the hero who defeated the evil god. It seems that the Dark Elf in question has already saved a city before this incident, too,” Marshal Dolmad continued.
Duke Takkard Alcrem’s intentions were unclear, but he presumably didn’t have the option of refusing to reward Darcia, whose achievements were of a scale that could not be ignored.
“With the loss of Goldie, the people will want a new hero as well… It would be best if the duke appointed her as one of the Five Knights of Alcrem. Then, her influence would be limited to the Alcrem Duchy,” Marshal Dolmad said, but shook his head a moment later, as if thinking better of this.
It seemed that the finance minister, who was still reading the reports, agreed with the sentiment that this would be a bad idea. “In addition to that Dark Elf and the knights, great deeds were performed by… an Arachne, a Scylla, a Ghoul… and a demi-human monster called an Empusa, who were staying in the capital as the Dhampir’s familiars. Awards and honorary court ranks cannot be bestowed to familiars. And there also seems to have been a Guild Master of the Tamers’ Guild and an E-class adventurer party led by a man named Arthur, but their actions were not great enough for them to become heroes.”
If possible, it would have been a favorable option to balance out the honorary court rank Darcia received by presenting an award to someone from Alda’s peaceful faction in the name of the king and make that person a hero, but the finance minister sighed as he realized that this wouldn’t be possible.
“Good grief. Where in the world were those young, promising individuals that have grown in number in recent years? Those… potential heroes. There should have been at least ten of them in Alcrem.”
“No, more importantly, where was Randolf ‘the True’ and what was he doing? The resurrection of an evil god is precisely the kind of incident that an S-class adventurer should be taking care of, isn’t it?”
Having realized that they would be unable to avoid the emergence of a new troublesome person in the Alcrem Duchy, the nobles began venting their anger on Randolf.
Indeed, the praise that had been given to the ones known as potential heroes was now being directed at Darcia and the others. The potential heroes had simply happened to leave Alcrem before the evil god’s resurrection; it wasn’t that they had escaped from the city because they were scared of the evil god. But it was only natural that the people would praise and respect the people who had defeated the evil god rather than the heroes who had been absent.
“If those so-called potential heroes have received the divine protections of the gods, then one would think they would have noticed some omens of the evil god’s resurrection and gathered in Alcrem,” one of the nobles said bitterly, but he was unaware that the potential heroes had left Alcrem because they had been obeying Divine Messages from the gods.
“Gentlemen, there is no use in lamenting over things that have already occurred. Let us at least be thankful that it is not her son who is receiving the honorary court rank,” said Prime Minister Tercatanis, trying to bring a conclusion to this topic.
Indeed, the current situation was better than a Dhampir, a race with a longer lifespan than Dark Elves and whose presence would agitate Alda fundamentalists even more, becoming an honorary noble.
But many of the nobles laughed rather than agree with him.
“Prime Minister Tercatanis, that would never happen. Considering the fact that he has tamed many monsters of new races, never mind the Arachne and Scylla, and the fact that he has invented Magic Items known as transformation equipment, he is likely as talented and gifted as his mother. But he is still underage.”
“I think that is suspicious as well. Even if he is a Dhampir, the boy is simply too young. I cannot believe that he has accomplished the things that the rumors say he has on his own.”
“I see. Which means that there is someone behind him… a tamer or alchemist who is a Dark Elf or a member of another of Vida’s races, disguising their own achievements as the boy’s.”
“If the Dhampir is an exceptional alchemist, then he should also be an exceptional mage. I always thought it strange that he has achieved nothing as a mage, but it all makes sense now.”
“It seems that his individual strength in battle is considerable, however. He apparently killed a group of thugs who seemed to be members of Alda’s extremist faction when they attacked him outside the city of Morksi. Of course, I’m sure the way he fought during that battle was exaggerated, so this isn’t very reliable evidence.”
The nobles doubted the achievements and abilities of the Dhampir boy, Vandalieu. They had not seen Vandalieu and his companions with their own eyes, so they were reliant on information they received through reports. Thus, it seemed that they were settling on answers that fit their ‘common sense,’ the knowledge that they had learned over the course of their lives.
Indeed, there were no reports saying that Vandalieu had participated in the battle against the evil god, but…
“No, I think the prime minister makes a fair point. If the Dhampir boy were to acquire an honorary court rank, it is possible that he would have become a puppet of not only his mother, but influential members of Vida’s races, and joined forces with Alda’s peaceful faction. Then, the movement to improve the societal standing of Vida’s races may have gained even more momentum,” said the finance minister in jest.
Prime Minister Tercatanis showed no sign of displeasure. “It is fortunate that my unamusing joke has broken the tension.”
The nobles chuckled quietly.
Marshal Dolmad laughed with them, but he was thinking about the intention behind what Prime Minister Tercatanis had said.
I suppose the prime minister’s words were to test just how much those present here know about the Dhampir boy… Vandalieu.
Due to his post, Marshal Dolmad had powerful connections to all of the armies serving the dukes’ houses. Through these connections, he was able to gather information about as well as the average intelligence organization.
He had used this to investigate the evil god’s resurrection, but he had noticed that something was strange. The incarnation of Borgadon had supposedly appeared in order to re-seal the evil god. But before its appearance, the evil god had apparently been fighting someone else.
At first, he had thought that Randolf ‘the True’ had rushed to the scene before the appearance of the incarnation of Borgadon, but there were too many things wrong with this theory.
If he had rushed to the scene, he would have spoken to Duke Alcrem to prevent unnecessary investigations and examinations of the scene afterwards. And yet, his name was nowhere to be found in the report sent by the duke, which meant that the one who had fought the evil god was not Randolf.
Marshal Dolmad had investigated to try and learn the identity of that person, and his eyes had come to a rest on Vandalieu’s name.
Marshal Dolmad had once heard information regarding Vandalieu in the past, but at the time, he had dismissed it as disinformation that was fabricated by the Amid Empire… but perhaps he had been too quick to do so.
If that information was in fact true, and the Vandalieu who had appeared in the Amid Empire and the Vandalieu who had appeared in the Alcrem Duchy were the same person, then he had been seen in a certain city in the Hartner Duchy about four… no, five years ago? Why had he appeared in the Alcrem Duchy now, after all that time?
It seems that the prime minister has more detailed information about the Dhampir named Vandalieu. I shall try to find out more about him as well, Marshal Dolmad decided. After all, it’s too dangerous to stay unaware as to whether he will be an unexpected trump card for us or an enemy that must be exterminated at once.
Meanwhile, Rudel Sauron, who had become the current duke of the Sauron Duchy, was reading through the report that he had received.
“Cancel our plans!” he shouted immediately. “Cancel our plans to invite the Dark Elf Darcia and her son from the Alcrem Duchy!”
“U-understood! I will send word to the head of the Church of Vida right away!” said the pale-faced housekeeper who served the duke’s house.
“Tell all of the leaders of the knights’ orders in the capital and all of the head mages of the court that we will be having an important meeting!” Rudel continued. “And send messengers to the houses of Duke Alcrem and Duke Hartner –”
“One moment,” said the person who had delivered the report, the head of Rudel’s intelligence network, interrupting him. “Perhaps sending a messenger to the Hartner house can wait until after the meeting.”
“That is… I suppose you are right,” said Rudel, seeming to calm down. “Tell the leaders of the knights’ orders and the head mages of the court that we will be having an important meaning. I am counting on you,” he said, repeating his orders to the housekeeper in a quieter tone, then let out a heavy sigh.
Once the housekeeper had left the room, Rudel put his head in his hands.
“… The Dark Elf clergywoman who can summon a familiar spirit of Vida… To think that her son would be connected to the chief of the Scylla of the Scylla territory,” he whispered hoarsely.
“Yes, I was also surprised to see this familiar name in a place that I didn’t expect to see it,” said the intelligence head.
The report was a combination of the information spies had gathered in Alcrem with the intelligence head’s own notes.
That report had included the name and sketch of the face of the Scylla girl who was with Vandalieu. It was the name and face of Privel, one of the daughters of the most influential chief of the Scylla territory, Periveil.
“I considered the possibility that it was an accidental resemblance, but… I believe it is too much to be called a coincidence,” the intelligence head said.
“Indeed. But if this report is correct, we might still be standing on the tiger’s tail,” said Rudel.
If Vandalieu had connections to Privel’s mother Periveil, then his mother Darcia was surely connected to the Scylla as well.
And that would mean connections to the resistance who still occupied the former Scylla territory. Rudel had refused to acknowledge their achievements; in fact, he had decided that they were connected to the Amid Empire and told the public that they had died, along with the ‘Princess of Liberation’ who was their leader, in order to bury the truth.
On top of that, he had sent mercenaries and adventurers into the former Scylla territory in an attempt to take control of it on multiple occasions. Of course, all of these attempts had failed, so he was currently investigating and observing the area while gathering forces and forming a plan to take the land back.
The truth was that Rudel had been hoping that Darcia would fight alongside his men and assist them with this task.
“I was on the verge of asking the tiger to help me take its own territory… But does Vida tolerate armies of Undead? It is true that there is a precedent in the ‘Fallen Champion,’ but his circumstances are different from ours,” Rudel muttered.
“I can’t say anything on that matter. Not a single one of the spies we sent deep into the former Scylla territory has returned, after all,” said the intelligence head. “However, the Church of Alda tells us that among the gods who look up to Vida as their leader, there are also evil gods who were persuaded by Zakkart to join them.”
“I see… After the meeting, I shall make a request to Duke Hartner’s house and ask them to share any information they have regarding Vandalieu… and I will need to probe and find out how much Duke Alcrem’s house knows, and what their intentions are,” said Rudel.
Duke Alcrem intended to grant Darcia the title of honorary countess. How much did he know about Vandalieu and the Scylla… about Vida’s races?
In the worst-case scenario, Duke Alcrem knew everything and yet still chose to join the side of Vida’s races.
That would mean that the Sauron Duchy would be attacked on two fronts – from the former Scylla territory to the southeast and the Alcrem Duchy to the east. There were rocky mountains to the north, an enemy nation to the west, and the only hope was the Hartner Duchy to the south, but Rudel didn’t know how much he could expect from Duke Hartner.
“I also need to contact Marshal Dolmad… No, it’s because I listened to that catfish-mustached fool that I am in this difficult situation! Is it dangerous to carelessly pass on information to him? But if I can’t rely on the Hartner Duchy… Damn it all. The current king, Duke Corbitt, is of no use either! What am I supposed to do?!” Rudel shouted.
The intelligence head decided to wait in silence until he calmed down.
I’m Katie Hartner. A girl who is about to turn five years old. In the future, I’m going to become an excellent tool to be used in a marriage for political reasons.
“The fact that you are hearing this message means that your personality and memories from your previous life have returned.”
Father is the current duke of the Hartner Duchy, Lucas Hartner. Mother is his lawful wife, and I am his eldest daughter, so in the future, my husband will probably be a successor of one of the other dukes’ houses, or at the very least, a noble with a court rank of marquis or higher.
“This message will be played automatically when you regain your personality and memories from your previous life.”
I’m only four years old, but I’m learning how to read and write, and basic etiquette. But it seems that I preferred to play and pretend that I’m a knight or an adventurer. And today, I’m going to… Yeah, yeah, I give up.
“I just need to be quiet and listen, right?” Katie Hartner, known in her previous life as the ‘Urðr’ Kei Mackenzie, said out loud in an annoyed tone.
She rested her chin on her hands as she listened to the message from Rodcorte that was playing inside her head.
The message informed her of things such as the fact that he had adjusted her Status, that she could gain five Levels in Active Skills of her choice, and that the Hartner Duchy had a history with Vandalieu, so she should make preparations for an attack from him.
“Finally, if you pray to me intently, it may be possible for you to send a message to me. It is possible for us to exchange information and messages for one another if you use the ‘Familiar Spirit Descent’ Skill. Once you have finished listening to this message, I would like you to try one of these two methods. ‘Familiar Spirit Descent’ is a Skill that draws attention, so I recommend the former,” the message said in conclusion.
Once she could no longer hear Rodcorte’s voice, Katie did neither of those things, and stared at the ceiling of her room as she considered her situation.
“… What a pain in the ass. I’ve had enough of being a hero of justice in my previous life… and what this guy is trying to make me do isn’t justice anyway,” she muttered dully.
With her ‘Urðr’ ability, which allowed her to see the past, she created an image of herself from five minutes prior.
The image was one of a beautiful little girl who looked like a doll. She was the daughter of a duke… what might be called a princess in this country, and her appearance was fitting for that title.
It was possible that she would have gotten far in a child beauty pageant on Earth.
“He gave me a new life as what’s essentially a princess of a small country, and in the first place, everything would have been over for me after I died in that terrorist attack on Earth. So it’s not like I don’t feel any gratitude at all. But I don’t want to fight Vandalieu to the death for the sake of avenging the ‘Gungnir’ Kaidou Kanata,” she said to herself.
Katie had been informed by Rodcorte of the events leading up to the destruction of Kaidou Kanata’s soul at Vandalieu’s hands.
That was precisely why she felt no desire whatsoever to avenge Kanata.
The relationship between Vandalieu and her family was what bothered her more.
“Still, Vandalieu, huh… His history with this family is just the fact that my ancestors betrayed the princess of Talosheim and those that were with her, right? I just hope Father hasn’t done anything else…” Katie murmured.
She had learned of the Hartner house’s betrayal of Talosheim when Rodcorte explained the circumstances surrounding the destruction of Kanata’s soul.
If that was all, it was possible that the relationship could be mended if Lucas, the current head of the house, acknowledged his ancestors’ mistakes and apologized, restoring the honor of Princess Levia and the others who were betrayed. Lucas might be forced to step down as duke as a result, but even so, that was preferable to being killed like Kanata.
The fact that Katie had regained her personality and memories of her previous life didn’t mean that she had lost the memories of the time that had passed since she was born in this world. She thought of Lucas as her father, and felt love for him.
“Even if I ask Father, he won’t explain things to his daughter who isn’t even five years old. And he’s weirdly on edge these days, too. If I want to investigate with ‘Urðr,’ I’d need to visit the place where it happened. Depending on how I frame it, he might be accommodating, but… maybe I’ll be able to find out if I go to Father’s office,” Katie said to herself. “Come to think of it, I wonder what everyone else is doing? Tanaka and Samejima should have been reincarnated at the same time as me, but… I’d have to pray to Rodcorte and ask him,” she sighed.
She wanted to return to the days when she only needed to think of her studies and snacks, caused trouble for her grandpa, and dreamed of becoming an admirable soldier like her father instead of a wife like her mother.
But even Katie, whose ability was named after the goddess Urðr who ruled over the past, was unable to rewind time.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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Hobbes
Dolmad is a conspiratorial idiot, but Tercatanis is just hopeless… If he was at least a fanatical Aldiot like the Marme house of dukes, that could justify his “character” (or rather lack of any good character), but as is… Tercatanis is just begging to have his soul dive into Van’s gullet.
Gohankuten
Link to next chapter for those wanting to skip Character Summaries:
https://lightnovelbastion.com/novel/death-mage/volume-12/death-mage-side-chapter-42/
Zenden1st
How did Emporer marshuzal get his nobility title maybe darcia can copy his notes
Chiu ChunLing
Marshukzarl was born as the acknowledged child of the Imperial lineage, even though his mother was an elven concubine rather than a politically married wife from the nobility. Darcia’s parents aren’t even properly citizens of the Orbaume Kingdom, nor were they considered citizens by the Amid Empire where they lived.
On the other hand, she’s the Empress Dowager of the Vidal Empire as well as the Incarnation of Vida, so it’s not like there’s a real need to copy Marshukzarl.
Tejing
So Marshal Dolmad is finally beginning to suspect the truth that’s been right in front of his face all along… better late than never I guess. It’s sort of hilarious that these guys are all freaking out over one dark elf having a court rank. Yeah, they live for a long time and it’s a thing, but what’s actually going on is so much bigger than that that it just looks stupid in comparison. There’s another War of the Gods on the horizon, guys.
I love watching Rudel panic. It’s also good that he’s questioning Dolmad. I wonder what kind of plan he’ll settle on now?
So Mackenzie’s finally got her memories back. She’s got her work cut out for her keeping her family from getting themselves killed. Good luck, Katie Hartner…
I guess this means the other 2 will be permanently awakening to their memories back in Talosheim soon. Hopefully they’ll realize it really isn’t that big a deal and just admit it to their families and Van.
Chiu ChunLing
Honestly, the basis of Dolmad’s claims of ignorance were too idiotic to be explained by stupidity. Keeping in mind that the total population of the Amid Empire is probably less than 50 million people, and the way that the Status system sharply segregates people by combat Jobs, losing 6,000 elite troops and having most of them come back as zombies is equivalent to America losing a carrier group and having it come back under the control of Somali pirates and attack a major coastal city. That’s not something you just shrug off with “well, obviously they’re just lying.” Sure, it’s incredible on the face of it, but you don’t just dismiss something of that scale out of hand without trying to find out what really happened, not if you’re a major military leader in a strategically competitive nation. Especially when the Dhampir responsible has showed up twice in your own nation and mysteriously caused less drastic but still fairly serious incidents. AND the legendary heroic figure of your nation, who’s been around since your grandfather was in diapers, tells you to take the threat seriously.
.
I think that the reaction to a Dark Elf becoming an Honorary Countess was reasonable in comparison. Like they say, given her lifespan it’s pretty much the same as a permanent nobility for her family, anyone missing that would be stupid. The reaction to her being a Vida fundamentalist was more telling but also not unreasonable from their perspective. The theory that Vandalieu is being ‘propped’ by a cabal of powerful Dark Elves is a miss but it’s not so far off the mark as to change the essential calculus. It really doesn’t matter whether everything Van has done is his own ability or a group acting with him as their figurehead…it’s just a way to make it more plausible that ‘Vandalieu’ could do the stuff he’s known to have done.
.
I love watching these guys panic so much that I’m hoping they keep it up. The more panic, the better. Meanwhile the only bloodline noble in the Orbaume Kingdom who actually knows what’s going on is an ‘almost five year old’ little girl.
While it would be good for Sieg and…um, the Legston kid to just accept things, it would be a lot more hilarious if they managed to use their abilities to somehow escape to the Orbaume Kingdom and go on wacky adventures with their families (especially Zod) in pursuit. It’d be less hilarious if they went to the Amid Empire, but I don’t know why they’d be THAT stupid. It shouldn’t really be hard, if they can just swing an ‘educational visit’ to the former Scylla territory, they can probably get to the Sauron Duchy and then proceed from there. Naturally, everyone would assume they’d been kidnapped, so Rudel and friends could discover the true meaning of “panic”.
Strahd
“Just” betrayed and murdered, it pisses me off, but well, she has yet to find out that Levia is still on earth, Rodcord probably wouldn’t go into small details.
Chiu ChunLing
To be fair, if you go back a couple hundred years there ain’t nobody whose ancestors didn’t betray and murder anyone. Heck, my aunt betrayed and murdered my grandmother, and she also kinda betrayed at least one other person who committed suicide as a result. I try not to have anything to do with my aunt, but I also don’t stay up nights worrying about anyone coming after me over her stuff, I got enough people wanting to kill me personally without that.
Lord Rin
Those nobles are nothing but corrupt assholes. They might be trying to frame this as a problem of Vida’s religion and races but it’s really all about them being scared that they’ll lose power and privileges because of this.
Anyways so looks like Darcia is going to become an honorary countess. That essentially makes Van also an honorary noble for as long as she lives and she’s immortal since the author once answered a question about that that the new races Van created (chaos elf, dark beastkin, dark human and duerger) have no lifespans. Van has now super accomplished one of his goals. He wanted to gain some social standing to make it difficult for the reincarnating Bravers to openly go after him which is why he had wanted to be an adventurer since they could get massive social standing. Now not only is Van a member of the Adventurer’s Guild along with being a famous member of the Alchemist’s and Tamer’s Guilds but he’s now also an honorary noble too.
Meanwhile Rudel and probably Lucas must be crapping their pants after realizing their connections to Van. Also looks like Rodcorte reincarnated Urdr as Duke Hartner’s daughter. Of the 3 Bravers that he reincarnated into positions that he thought would inevitably force them into conflict with Van after they previously refused to fight him, it looks like only Urdr still is in that position. Skanda and Perseus got reincarnated as the nephew of Kurt and Chezare Legston and Emperor Marshukzarl respectively before they ended up migrating to Talosheim because of events that Rodcorte couldn’t predict. Well anyways looks like Katie has her work cut out for her in trying to convince her father to not get into conflict with Van and apologize for what his ancestors did to Levia and the rest of the titans.
Doc
“That essentially makes Van also an honorary noble for as long as she lives”
Incorrect. The distinction between an honorary noble and a true noble were stated within the chapter. Darcia’s authority and title only apply to her for her lifetime (or unless it’s revoked by the Duke or King). Van may not refer to himself as a noble and if he could it would create the problems the Prime Minister talked about. I also think we’re well past a social standing having any mitigating impact on the reincarnators desire to attack Van. Either they’ll refuse because they heard of his power or they’ll accept because Rodcorte basically forced them into it. If you’re a reincarnator who accepts the mission to attack Van, then Rodcorte promises them the luxury next life package. Upsetting the nobility or populace of a kingdom is a non-factor at that point.
And regarding the nobles in the meeting, bunch of assholes, probably. Corrupt? Not really any evidence to suggest that, yet. Wanting your nation to not be split apart by religious fundamentalism isn’t an unreasonable concern. Especially since they have an aggressive Alda fundamentalist nation in the Amid Empire next door. Nothing said at the meeting implies they’re doing law breaking activities.
Tejing
The plan to gain social status as a defense was originally conceived under the assumption that the bravers would be reincarnated as babies, and would thus have families and other connections with people they cared about, which would prevent them from acting too unreasonably due to potential blowback. Under the current circumstances, where Roddy is just “reincarnating” them in adult bodies from the start, it’s not a particularly effective plan, and I don’t think Van’s still particularly counting on it working.
Chiu ChunLing
It’s not completely ineffective though. There’s a huge difference between the resources they can use to hunt him working from nations where he’s considered a child of a noble compared to nations where he’s a ‘monster’ that can be legally hunted and killed. And also a significant difference in the amount of resources he can use to protect himself. More important, if he’s considered a noble’s child in a human country, going after him means slaughtering large numbers of ‘law abiding’ humans. Murakami and Hajime didn’t balk at that, but the majority of the Bravers will, and with the way Rotcortex is handling things in Origin, those might be the very group that’s going to be arriving soon. Banda can protect Mei and probably Hiroshi, but the Bravers can be sent off on missions arranged by Rikudou. Most the ones who are okay with slaughtering humans without any legal justification are probably on Rikudou’s side by now.
Doc
I mean your stark contrast leaves out the more probable status Van is already in. Just a regular commoner. Nations tend to not be cool with hunting down citizens without proper cause regardless of status.
And again, you’re not updating Van’s threat with his latest actions. When Van first wanted to be a noble that was before he was the ruler of his own nation in the boundary mountain region.
Any bravers who believe stopping Van now that he destroy or devour souls is of the utmost importance, Van’s perceived status is not a blocker anymore. It may have been initially, but no more.
Considering Van had spent no effort trying to become a noble in a human country despite him easily being able to prove himself with his skills means he also realizes that goal is meaningless now.
Now the only reason would be to help Vida races gain more human rights in society. But that’s not about Van’s protection.
Chiu ChunLing
Being just a commoner is in the middle, therefore it’s not left out. But Dhampirs aren’t ‘regular’ commoners, they’re definitely irregular such that there are people who see hunting them as a profitable job even if it’s not actually legal.
Historically, nations which make a clear legal distinction between commoners and nobility are actually pretty okay with anyone working for a noble hunting down commoners…everything we’ve seen about how things have worked in practice in the Hartner and Sauron Duchies, as well as Morksi’s early relationship with Van, pretty well demonstrates that.
Van’s status in the Boundary Mountains is not just irrelevant, but counterproductive, those are the people that the majority of gods worshipped in human nations consider it morally necessary to exterminate. “Emperor of sundry monsters” isn’t a title that makes it any less likely for Van to be targeted for extermination by ‘heroes’.
Child of an Honorary Countess, on the other hand, is very much a status that confers additional legal rights against being hunted and killed with impunity. Your denial of this is simply flat contradiction of the evidence in the narrative itself.
While it might be considered a paper shield, it’s one that is likely to be pretty effective against most of the Bravers, especially the ones most likely to die according to Rikudou’s plan. Since Banda has to stick within a few dozen meters of Mei rather than being free to run around protecting the Bravers, there’s not a lot he can do about that.
Lord Rin
The operative word here is “essentially”. Yes Van isn’t actually an honorary noble but it has already been mentioned before that the family of said honorary nobles are still treated as such especially since often those people end up becoming honorary nobles or true nobles themselves in the future. For example Selen is treated as an honorary noble because Heinz is her adoptive father and he’s an honorary noble.
Chiu ChunLing
I think the key is that Van (like Selan) is protected by the noble status such that it is equivalently illegal to try to kill him, even though he does not enjoy non-survival essential privileges like government access…or at least not without having Darcia act on his behalf, which of course she will. So the essential difference between him and a noble at this point is he still needs his mom to do things like send requests for sensitive information and make appointments to meet important people. As far as the legality of hunting and killing him goes, there isn’t any difference at all.
Wyverius
The child of a noble is considered a noble, even if he’ll never inherit the title.
Chiu ChunLing
“I just hope Father hasn’t done anything else…”
Irazori
Yeah, she definitely set off a flag. Plus, it does seem likely that her father would inherit their ancestor’s idiocy , and that she’d be the family’s black sheep.
Humble Bumblebee
Lucas Hartner already DID do “something else.” Remember the Cultivation Villages?
Skarbrand
So Uror better keep her father away from Van.
Jonathan Hurd
In the Dukes defense it wasn’t directly his idea to destroy the cultivation villages. The culprit the knight captain has already been killed by Van a long time ago. No reason to hold a grudge about that at this point.
The bigger grudge would be the slave mine where Gopher and the rest of the Titans were being held. Though that existed before the Current Duke Hartner’s time and it wa destroyed before he took over.
All in all I think Van doesn’t have particularly good feelings towards the Hartner Duchy, but he also has no intention of making more enemies for the hell of it. Revenge for all the grudges has been taken a while ago. I mean Van literally broke the Dukes Mansion in half and stole back all the remaining Taloshiem treasures. If anything they would have a more legitimate case to hate Van, lol.
Lord Rin
If I recall there were two groups of knights that tried to destroy the cultivation villages. One group was led by a glory hound who wanted to get achievements despite how the group he led was supposed to do dirty work that would never be acknowledged. That group essentially went AWOL and attacked the cultivation villages before Van wiped them out. The second group was expressly ordered by Lucas Hartner to destroy the cultivation villages basically out of paranoia that the Amid Empire had infiltrated them and wiped out the first group of knights and afterwards they were going to use the villages as a foothold to invade the Hartner Duchy while simultaneously screwing over his brother and using their destruction as a reason why he shouldn’t become the next Duke.
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, Lucas didn’t personally start the foolishness with cultivation villages, but he was responsible for approving that strategy, not controlling his subordinates properly when the strategy should have been called off rather than just put on hold, and then he intervened to quadruple down on the idiocy of those rogue subordinates.
Which, leaving aside the moral onus, was just plain stupid no matter how you look at it.
ObserverBias
Less that she set it off and more that she isn’t in a spot where she can see it waving in the sky. That she got the cliffs notes on ancestral history with the Titans but /not/ Lucas’ recent shenanigans with the cultivation villages is… well, it’s prudent on Rodcorte’s part, but foolhardy in keeping critical/need-to-know information out of appropriate hands.
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Although the magi trio might make a point to explain that part to her if she were to call upon them, unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards.
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Doc
There was two interesting questions raised in this chapter.
What is Darcia’s natural lifespan? As a chaos source elf is she immortal? Like I know Van can reverse her age so she’s functionally immortal as long as Van is around but is Darcia without Van, immortal?
Other question is what is Vida’s opinion of undead? Like undead in the presence of Van retain their reason and personalities to some degree. But naturally occurring undead usually aren’t like that. They remember nothing other than their regrets and grudges and usually attack living things on instinct. Vida turned Zakkart into an undead but that doesn’t mean Vida is cool with all undead on principle. I imagine she’s fine with them if they’re rational and don’t attack people.
Chiu ChunLing
It’s been suggested that Chaos Elves may have unlimited life spans…but so far the evidence seems to just be that some of them sorta feel that way. At any rate, turning into a Chaos Elf hasn’t caused anyone to suddenly drop dead of old age, at least.
Vida’s doctrine says that people should try to deal with the grudges and unresolved issues of Undead if possible to help them pass on without regrets rather than just forcefully destroying them without any attempt to understand their situation. But you’re probably right that she isn’t cool with them ‘in principle’.
I think that Van’s research on Undead will eventually result in finding ways to turn most of them back into either living races (perhaps “Eclipse Titan/Vampire/other species”) or becoming heroic spirits for the astral types. Not really sure where “cursed object” types like Living Armors and Cursed Carriages go…I think of them as closer to the astral types, especially if Van keeps adding Spirit Silver to them.
There’s also the option of pseudo-reincarnation into soulless monsters of Van’s dungeons, and Van can probably create dungeons that spawn highly intelligent types of monsters (possibly including new-types he’s mutated, like Half-Minotaurs).
I think that Vida likely has such expectations for the eventual fate of most of Van’s Undead.
Jonathan Hurd
I think Vida is fine with the Undead especially the ones Van has made. It would be one thing if they were mindless monsters that hungered for living flesh, but Van’s Undead aren’t like that. They think, can communicate, and are able to happily coexist with their loved ones. Vida literally made Zakkart into an Undead and created a kid with him because she couldn’t bear the loss. I don’t think she has any room to throw stones when it comes to bringing people back from the dead.
Van did directly talk to Vida when he went to her resting grounds and asked her if she disapproved of anything he had done. She said she was fine with everything and happy with all he had accomplished. So if we’re talking about what Vida directly thinks then… Yeah she’s all for the Undead and happy with everything Van’s done.
If we’re talking about Human societies understanding of Vida’s doctrine… Then I think they would feel making Undead is wrong. Though these are also the same people that are preaching joining hands with Alda’s peaceful faction, think the more monstrous members of Vida’s races should be discriminated against, and have never been able to receive a Divine Message from Vida. So I’d say what Vida’s peaceful faction and Vida think Diverge pretty hard.
Chiu ChunLing
That’s true but I still think she views Van’s Undead (like her efforts with Zakkart) as a transitional phase in eventual resurrection. Which she personally has no problem with, but refrained from doing back when a cooperative relationship existed with Rotcortex. And it seems to me that Van is clearly moving in that direction.
Irazori
Originally as a normal dark elf, Darcia’s life span was the same as a regular elf on a total of a 1000 years. Or maybe dark elves lived longer up to 1500. Dhamphirs live twice as long as their non-immortal parent if I recall.
Doc
I know what her dark elf lifespan was. They also say it in the chapter. Darcia is no longer a dark elf. She’s a chaos elf. A new race and the progenitor of that race. Thus the question.
As Chiu ChungLing said, there’s some speculation that chaos elves may be immortal, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
Dyneamaeus
Even if Chaos Elves aren’t immortal, (and we have no real evidence that they are) Darcia herself almost certainly is. Nigh-unbreakable bones, built in regeneration relic, Life Goddess’ spirit clone, Death Demi-God’s Demonfall, absurdly high-end life magic, and Chaos on top of it all to make sure she can adapt to/escape from whatever might actually be a threat considering her utterly huge, permanently double-boosted stats.
Van set out to make an unkillable Super-Mommy and by the Holy Son did he succeed.
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, Darcia herself is most likely immortal, and she seems to intuit that. But that may not be the case for other Chaos Elves, it’s too soon to know for sure.
asdsdsffdhffggkl
Pretty sure, everytime someone reaches godhood, immortality is a given.
I mean, what kind of shitty god dies of old age? xD
Tejing
1) According to Word of Densuke, Chaos Elves have unlimited lifespans, as do all the new races created by Van. Van does as well.
2) Before Van made it possible for undead to function as part of society, Vida’s opinion on undead pretty much boiled down to treating them as humanely as was practically feasible.
From ch107:
Believers of Vida were tolerant towards Undead, but that tolerance was merely dealing with self-conscious Undead by encouraging them to pass on to their next lives rather than exterminating them with no questions asked.
It wasn’t the kind of tolerance that treated Undead as creatures to be befriended unconditionally. In fact, the Undead that appeared in the wild were just as dangerous to people as other monsters.
Doc
Not really sure what “word of Densuke” means. I suppose that’s some reference material from the author of the story.
As far Vida’s opinion of undead, that essentially means “treat them like any other hostile monster unless they show reason. If they do, help them pass on if possible”. So a clear change from how Van treats them, though I suppose none of the undead Van encounter act aggressively due to his charm effect.
Tejing
Specifically, Densuke stated this in an answer to a reader question on the source website, but generally that phrase refers to statements made outside the story itself by the author. It’s a play on “Word of God” I believe.
Chiu ChunLing
The more important difference is that Van doesn’t really ever encourage them to pass on, he’s even specifically discouraged them from doing so. The closest he’s come to encouraging them to pass on is assigning those with little consciousness remaining to duties where they’d predictably end up being purified.
On the other hand, psuedo-reincarnation does put souls back into Vida’s reincarnation cycle. The same will probably be true of other methods of revival as they develop.
It’s also possible that Van will learn enough about the reincarnation system of Vida to entrust souls back to it, keep in mind that most of his attitude towards ‘passing on’ is formed by what he knows about Rotcortex’s system.
Entropy
Thanks for the chapter. I can’t wait to see how the king regards Van. So far two dukes have been idiots to him, one of which might beg to get in his good graces and a third that has allied with him. How many dukes does this kingdom have, I think it was around 12 or 13. So far a quarter have chosen their fates. Guessing there will be Alda extremists of probably two or three that are throw away for Van so I would guess Van might visit six more. I imagine the prime minister might be dismiss from his position considering how bad an impression he left on Van with the Scylla debacle but maybe Van won’t know he was behind that situation. Kind of curious if the allied duchy will start selling van’s products throughout the kingdom. Van might become a noble of this kingdom regardless of race or age. Funny how the nobles keep underestimating Van, maybe they should send some spies to collect information on him.
Doc
There certainly are a lot of Dukes. In our history, there generally weren’t so many of them within a single kingdom. Though I suppose the Orbaume kingdom is a little unique in that it was several small kingdoms that joined forces to oppose the Amid Empire. So I guess each king turning into a Duke makes sense.
Lord Rin
There’s 12 Dukes if I recall.
Anyways the prime minister had nothing to do with the Scylla. It was the marshal that was behind that whole debacle. Well from the looks of things the prime minister is just as bad as the marshal so I’d hoped both get dismissed from their positions.
Humble Bumblebee
I think there were twelve. There’s a chapter after the Sauron arc where Vandalieu abandons Sauron that says something along the lines of “ten remaining.” After Hartner and Sauron, that would make twelve.
alaric11
I feel so blessed to see a chapter released so often. Thank you very much.
no1
Thank you for the chapter Yoshi. Everything is pretty much wrapped up for this chapter and we should be moving onto vol 12 soon. These chapters a day are great. Hope to see vol 12 start soon. 🙂
sinbad
Thank you so much Yoshi (and donators)!! I love side-chaps, so i love this day ’cause i have to read two of them <3
I even created an account to express my feelings to you .3.
Nobody2
Really rodcorte? You put the reincarnated individual of the 3 with the least personal fighting strength in the family that would require the person born in it to be the most personally competent to fight van. How does that make sense to you.
Tomi97
He placed people, who didn’t want to fight in positions he believed would force them to.
He knew that, of their had the option to avoid Van they would. So he denied them this option, or so he would like to believe.
Nobody2
That’s not my point my point is she most likely the weakest of the 3 since her only special ability doesn’t boost combat at all. Yet instead of making her someone who could control an entire countries army or some elite organization to components for her less amazing personal skills he put her in the position where a few worthless knights orders is all she’ll ever have any chance of controlling.
Jonathan Hurd
I feel like she was in the least hostile position out of the three kids. I mean one was born as Marshakul’s son. The leader of the Empire that has Alda leading it. Persey was born to the lead family of the Shield nation of Mirg. They had the most direct conflict with Van out of everyone. Their army was directly destroyed by Van and Marshakul was the one who sent that army. The Amid Empire and Mirg Shield nation are also the leading figures in killing his mother.
Compared to that the Hartner Duchy never really directly interacted with Van. Its certain Van potentially holds a grudge against them, but the Hartner Duchy is the only one without outright hostility towards Van in return.
The Hartner Duchy also lacked someone with the intent of going over to Taloshiem and trying to fight Van. Marshakul was actively looking at him and the Marshal Palpack(or whatever his name was) were keeping an eye on Van and trying to engage him.
Chiu ChunLing
Well, keeping in mind that at the moment when Katie was reincarnated, Hartner seemed like a strategic obstacle to Van’s access to the rest of the Orbaume Kingdom and Lucas had significantly escalated the conflict by his immediate actions. Van’s decision to pull back from a military conquest of the land was an actual decision, and it was motivated at least partly by concerns over whether such a conflict was ‘winnable’ given his objectives. The most puzzling thing in retrospect is Rotcortex apparently estimating that such a conflict would last long enough for Katie to grow to adulthood, even if in exile. Looking at it conventionally, with the strength he knew Van had available at the time, taking and holding the area around the tunnel entrance could have been difficult to sustain. I suppose Rotcortex was assuming Van would be irrationally committed to the fight rather than realizing that it was pointlessly worsening his relationship with the rest of the Kingdom and simply closing the tunnel entrance. He was also assuming that Van’s early growth was an aberration and wouldn’t continue (let alone accelerate).
In other words, if you grant that Rotcortex’s overall strategy of telling people to kill Van made any sense in the first place, I guess it wasn’t a bad idea to put someone in the Hartner family to force them into a conflict with Van. Even if Van had won, killed Lucas, and driven the rest of the Hartner family into exile, Katie would likely survive and have a motive for vengeance. But while Van committing to a large-scale military conflict with Hartner was a military possibility, it’s simply not in Van’s character to make such a pointless blunder.
There’s also the factor of it being a hasty decision based on exploiting a small window of opportunity presented by the miscarriage. Right when Rotcortex was considering whether it was worth putting someone in the Hartner family, a ‘golden’ chance popped up.
Entropy
Maybe he thought she could provide the duchy information about Van’s past fights. Or more likely, he threw them randomly with known enemies of Van in the hope of uniting them against van. My money is that she will ask for forgiveness and to become allied with Van giving him five bravers counting the three adults and one baby he already has in his kingdom. I feel more sorry for the scylla’s previous duchy, they have no way of getting back into Van’s good gracious and have already lost their standing army in the war with the empire. On top of that they are probably broke from trying to get the scylla’s territory back and have idiot brownnosers in key positions. The only thing that would make his position worse would be to declare war on Van.
Entropy
Sorry meant good graces, was tired when typing.
Doc
As Tomi said, Rodcorte learned his lesson from the reincarnators who immediately scampered away to have nothing to do with Van or Alda’s conflict. He forced the ones after them to be in close proximity to Van and to be in situations where confrontation with Van would be difficult to avoid.
Jonathan Hurd
I think you have the order reversed there Doc. The three kids Ururor, Persus, and I forget last kids name died before the others. They didn’t want to fight and decided to revive normally. Rodidiot in his Rodidiotness decided to try and make sure they were born in an environment that would drag them into fighting Van.
Later the Eighth Guidance had their Murder Suicide party against the Braver’s and that’s where the different groups came from. Murakami’s fight Van, the idiots convince Van, Kanako’s join Van, and finally Mao’s run away.
Chiu ChunLing
She was the only girl. He didn’t have the option to just change the fetus into a boy, and it’s already been established that reincarnating a person with memories of life as a man into a girl could cause them to go insane or even die.
Shank Mugen
I used to hate the side chapters, but I have come to love them just as much as the full chapters
Thanks for the translation!
Kiriaru
I never hated them but I used to never look forward to them like I looked forward to the regular chapters. Now I do too. Thanks for the Translation Yoshi!
Entropy
Know how that goes, used to skip them especially the ones in Origin, but was confused about who legion was so went back and read them. Now I make certain to read them and truly enjoy them.
Doc
I personally like the side chapters more than the main ones at times. The pacing of the main chapters gets so bogged down at times. Couple that with Van having the superman problem of having so many powers and ways of immediately solving whatever conflict he’s up against that coming up with threats that pose any kind of tension to Van or his subordinates seems overly forced sometimes. The usual go-to excuse being “Van doesn’t want to appear too flashy around humans”.
The side chapters instead focus on providing perspectives from other characters. The Origin storyline also seems far tighter a narrative than how convoluted the Alda/Vida/Rodcorte conflict is with Van. Banda has a limited subset of Van’s powers and doesn’t grow in strength at the same rate as Van. Avalon provides a more relatable and imposing threat than a bunch of gods who constantly get things wrong. So we have a protag (Banda) that is vulnerable and has a goal we can all get behind (protect a little girl). We have an antagonist who’s goals directly go against our protag’s goals. A classic but effective narrative structure.
Chiu ChunLing
I find the ones that feature too much Heinz or Alda pretty annoying at times, but the ones with Rotcortex are always extra hilarious to make up for it.
Jonathan Hurd
I get hating Heinz and Alda. Their logic always annoys me, but if we didn’t get to read about them I think the story would be severely lacking in depth. An important aspect to Death Mage is it tries to make it clear that no one is truly good or evil in the story. They’re all just people with their own goals and beliefs. Reading about Alda and Heinz as well as Origin’s Hiroto though helps you see how bad things can become when you try to divide the world into black and white while forcing your views onto everyone else.
junior1210
Well said. I have to remind myself that ALL the characters are acting or trying to act in their OWN self interest, which often times are not what is best for the general good of all or even most. It’s a little too easy to overlook the fact that we as readers get to see information that 98% of the characters never learn even if they should know or have access to it.
Chiu ChunLing
Rather than saying that no one is truly good or evil, I’d say that it makes it clear that most people consider themselves ‘good’ in some way.
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Alda considers his own objective of “returning the world to its ‘correct’ form” absolutely good, while acknowledging he has to do many ‘incorrect’ things to accomplish that goal.
Heinz considers making himself look like ‘the Hero’ absolutely good, no matter how much it involves doing completely inane things like ‘trying to reason’ with a runaway Demon King’s Nose.
Joseph exMorksi considered his own prestige and success to be absolutely good, to the point where he conveniently believed that he was ‘educating’ and ‘guiding’ Van as he had ‘helped’ many others who failed to recognize that ‘correct form of the world’ in the past.
Asagi considers “whatever makes him feel like a Hero” as absolute good, there doesn’t need to be any kind of rational logic to it and it doesn’t matter if it makes him look like an insufferable idiot to anyone with working eyes.
Rotcortex considers his continued existence to be an absolute good. Things that cost him more of his divine power than they will foreseeably pay back according to his narrow calculations are ‘bad’. It’s a refreshingly simple and honest view of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ that doesn’t involve a lot of self-deception.
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I don’t feel the slightest temptation to say of any of them that “they aren’t clearly good or evil.”
Humble Bumblebee
The early ones have important backstory info, but got progressively tedious, like the reincarnation discussions in Rodtard’s divine realm where they just repeated stuff even the characters themselves already knew. “Can we bring weapons with us? Are you sure we can’t? Really really?” Somewhere after Mei’s birth they started getting really interesting.
Chiu ChunLing
I frankly thought that part was both hilarious and pretty realistic.