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Yoshi
In his Divine Realm, Alda, the God of Law and Fate, watched Heinz face the trials of his Dungeon once more with a complex mixture of emotions.
“… No matter the era, men do not do as the gods want them to,” he sighed.
“Please forgive me,” Mill, the Goddess of Slumber, apologized. “I did my best to persuade him, but he did not listen. I gave him all of the information that we possess on Vandalieu as you instructed, but… it seems that he perceives it differently from us.”
Alda had ordered Mill to disclose everything the gods knew about Vandalieu to Heinz in order to put an end to his wavering.
Of course, Alda and the gods who served him did not know everything about Vandalieu. However, Mill had told Heinz that Vandalieu was a reincarnated individual from another world with the soul fragments of four champions, including the ‘Fallen Champion’ Zakkart, and that he had been brought to this world as a result of Rodcorte’s unnecessary meddling.
Vandalieu had turned High Priest Gordan and Heinz’s former companion Riley into Undead in the battle against the Mirg shield-nation’s expedition army, took away land and resources from innocent people living in the land they were cultivating, and attacked their city.
In the Hartner Duchy, he had destroyed a mountain with a slave mine, stolen its slaves, and incited the people of a cultivation village to wipe out the Red Wolves Knights’ Order. In the Sauron Duchy, he had killed Raymond Paris despite the fact that he had been another worshipper of Vida, used his corpse, then destroyed the Pure-breed Vampire Gubamon and stolen his fragment of the Demon King.
Mill had told Heinz all of this information… All of it was from the view of Alda’s forces, but all of it was true.
Mill had believed that this would make Heinz realize that Vandalieu had to be eliminated before he became the next Guduranis, clear up his doubts, and make him find new resolve.
But the result had been the opposite; Heinz now thought more highly of Vandalieu than before.
If Heinz had been a pious believer like High Priest Gordan, he would have become outraged by Vandalieu’s evil and decided that he needed to be eliminated as soon as possible.
But Heinz had said, “He has saved not only members of Vida’s races, but so many people who aren’t, too.” He had compared his own deeds to Vandalieu and realized that he fell short.
Mill had tried to tell him that this wasn’t true, but Heinz’s thoughts on the matter did not change even after his treatment was complete.
“It matters not. We give our teachings to the people, but it is up to each individual person as to whether they will accept our teachings,” said Alda. “And as Heinz said, Vandalieu’s deeds did indeed save people.”
“That may be true, but… does that mean you are willing to accept Vandalieu’s existence?” asked Mill.
“I did not say that. My will has not changed, but there is no need for Heinz to possess the same intentions that I do. That is all.”
Long ago, Alda and the other gods had created the mortals as people that they were supposed to teach and guide. They had not created them as servants and a source of energy that simply offered their worship.
That was why humans had been given free will and the ability to think. That was why, on occasion, humans were corrupted and made mistakes. But that was nothing more than the negative aspect of the possibilities that humans offered.
“But if Heinz does not change his current way of thinking…” said Mill.
“I am aware,” said Alda.
Heinz considered the future of Vandalieu’s nation to be dangerous. The nation was united through Vandalieu’s guidance and he was its core; what would happen if he were to disappear?
Even in other nations, dangerous situations occurred when their leaders died abruptly. Even if they had already named their successors, nations could split and civil wars could take place. There were plenty of incidents in history where the nations had collapsed entirely and been absorbed by other nations.
But Vandalieu’s nation, the Demon Empire of Vidal, had dangerous elements that human nations did not have. First, there were the fanatical followers of Vandalieu that believed that he was a supreme being.
In some ordinary nations, there were leaders with followers who possessed a zealous loyalty towards them… and one could describe this as devotion and worship. But there was an abnormally large number of such followers in the Demon Empire of Vidal. Their numbers were even far greater than what Alda and Rodcorte could imagine.
But what Heinz saw as an even bigger danger than his fanatical followers was the powerful monsters that served the Demon Empire, especially the Undead.
A single one of these monsters was difficult even for A-class adventurers to defeat, and if these monsters were to rampage out of control, they were capable of destroying mountains, splitting the seas, covering the skies, and ravaging the lands. Without Vandalieu, these monsters would be let loose.
If these monsters retained their ability to reason even after Vandalieu’s death, then that would be fine. The highly intelligent races would likely do so. But expecting this of the Undead… That was impossible.
After all, among ordinary Undead, there were far more who had lost their sanity than those who had managed to retain it. They were possessed by their lingering attachment to this world, by the fear and despair that had filled them at the moment of their deaths, their hatred, and their grudges. If not, then they simply hated all living things and their minds were filled with nothing but the desire to attack them.
The Undead had been freed from such a state by Vandalieu’s guidance, and it would be fine if they were to destroy themselves to follow Vandalieu into their next lives after his death. But if they were to be driven insane from the sadness and despair of losing their master, or if they were to return to being wild Undead after the loss of his guidance, then the threat they posed was unimaginable.
When Vandalieu left this world in several thousand years’ time, the ‘Sword King’ Borkus, Knochen, the ‘Eclipse Emperor’s Hound’ Isla, the Ghosts of various attributes, and all of his other Undead companions would be far more powerful than they were now. If they were to lose their sanity and go on a rampage, spreading destruction and death in their path, countless villages and cities… and even fortresses defended by powerful armies, would be turned into mountains of rubble in the blink of an eye.
Would the humans of that future have the strength to withstand such power? Would they have a matching number of people with the strength of S-class adventurers? In the worst-case scenario, all intelligent life on the Bahn Gaia Continent would be wiped out, turning it into a second Demon King’s Continent.
If Vandalieu was to be stopped, he had to be stopped now. The gods of Alda’s forces were gathering fighting forces in order to eliminate him; if they did not do it now, they would not be able to prevent the destruction that would possibly come in the distant future.
That was why Heinz intended to ask Vandalieu whether he had made any preparations for the future where he no longer existed, and if he had, what they were. If Vandalieu did not answer, or if his answer was unsatisfactory, Heinz was prepared to stop him, even if it meant that he had to defeat him.
However, that also meant that if Vandalieu gave an answer that Heinz was satisfied with, Heinz would not defeat Vandalieu.
What did Heinz intend to do in such a scenario? He had already acknowledged that Vandalieu was a more worthy person than himself to save Vida’s races and had already saved more members of Vida’s races. And he had also acknowledged that to Vandalieu, he was the one who had killed his mother.
Considering this, it was possible that he would try to allow himself to be killed by Vandalieu.
“If the awakened Bellwood can speak to Heinz and change his mind… No, we cannot expect too much,” said Mill.
Bellwood had also lost the effects of his guidance. Of course, he had his charisma as a god, but would he be able to change the mind of the current Heinz?
Alda had been staring downwards, deep in thought, but he looked up and shook his head. “Worrying about all of the uncertainties will not make the situation any better. Bellwood, my champion, should be able to guide Heinz onto the right path.”
Hearing Alda speak with such trust in Bellwood, Mill felt some curiosity.
“Forgive my impudence, Alda, but is Bellwood such an inspiring being?” she asked. “It is not that I do not believe in the Heroic God, but I have never spoken with him directly… and most of what I have heard about him are anecdotes that testify to his strength.”
By the time Mill had become the Goddess of Slumber, Bellwood had already been sealed away after he and the Evil God of Sinful Chains struck each other down.
Bellwood possessed more strength than even Farmaun Gold and Nineroad, the other two combat-related champions. Why had defeating the Evil God of Sinful Chains, a single evil god, come at the cost of losing Bellwood? This question was a common topic of conversation even among the gods.
Either Bellwood had been careless, or the Evil God of Sinful Chains had laid an exceedingly cunning trap… But in any case, his qualities as a Heroic God – his ability to guide people in battle with heroic speeches – were the ones that people paid attention to; he did not have much of a reputation for being a god who could guide troubled followers.
“I see. By the time you became a goddess, Bellwood was already in his slumber… Bellwood’s words had the power to appeal to people’s hearts and give them strength,” said Alda. “He encouraged the people to fight against the Demon King’s army once more when they had given in to despair, and he was able to dissuade people from committing betrayal out of fear of the Demon King. He was not able to completely put an end to Zakkart’s recklessness, but… countless men drew the courage they needed to face the Demon King’s army from his words. And the gods did the same.”
“Even the gods? Not just those with physical bodies – the Colossi, Elder Dragons, and Beast-Kings?” asked Mill, surprised that even as a mortal, Bellwood’s words were able to move even the hearts of the gods.
“Yes,” Alda said, nodding. “The great gods, including myself, exchanged words with him again –”
At that moment, Alda was interrupted by another god entering his Divine Realm.
“Alda, I come bearing a report,” the god said.
“You have come personally, Sirius, God of War Horns,” said Alda.
The god named Sirius had the appearance of a barbarian. He was wearing a wolf pelt on his head, his face and chest were covered in war paint, and a stone hatchet hung at his waist.
He looked as if he would be a subordinate god of the war-god Zantark, but despite his appearance, he was one of the oldest subordinate gods of the now-deceased Shizarion, the God of Wind and Art.
“Yes. My familiar spirits and heroic spirits are busy with the task of watching over the continent in which Botin slumbers. The Demon King has been confirmed to still be playing around in Alcrem,” said Sirius. “In any case, the main thing I have come to report is… As we suspected, it seems that Bashas has betrayed us and joined Vida’s faction, as have Zelzeria and Hamul.”
The gods of Alda’s forces were united in order to maintain the world’s existence and carry out justice, and yet some of them had turned traitor to join Vida’s faction, which supported the Demon King Vandalieu.
Mill opened her mouth to express her astonishment, but Alda held up a hand to signal her to stay quiet.
“… I see. What has happened to the Divine Realms of those three gods?” Alda asked.
“It seems that they have moved their entire Divine Realms with them. I believe that it is already difficult for us to make contact with them. However, there is evidence that they are continuing their work to maintain the world’s existence,” said Sirius.
“I see… This is my fault for making Bashas and the others continue observing the region within the Boundary Mountain Range. Tell the others that none should feel responsible for this other than me, and then return to your task of protecting Botin,” said Alda.
Sirius nodded and left Alda’s Divine Realm. Mill seemed to have regained her composure, but she spoke to Alda with anxiousness in her voice.
“My lord, will gods whom we consider allies betray us again like the ones who joined the Demon King Guduranis a hundred thousand years ago?” Mill asked.
Would there be more traitors like Luvesfol and the Boar Beast-King who succumbed to their fear of the Demon King? Alda could not answer that question.
“This is a time for unity. We gods must work closely with one another and not show any weaknesses for Vandalieu and Vida to take advantage of.”
That was all Alda said. However, there were other thoughts that he was keeping to himself.
Now that we are in more hardship than I could have imagined, I truly feel it – Even though we are gods, we need a symbol that acts as a core for us and gives us strength. If Heinz can become a symbol like Bellwood was a hundred thousand years ago, we may be able to stop these events.
The day after the ceremony, a sense of festivity lingered in Alcrem, and it was livelier than usual.
Though they hadn’t made it in time for the day of the ceremony itself, there were bards who had come to compose new heroic tales, merchants looking for business opportunities, and servants of nobles from all over the nation who had come to gather information under the pretense of celebrating the capital’s safety.
And since the duke had vowed to rebuild the temple of Borgadon, laborers had begun to gather in order to find work related to its construction. For now, these laborers were just coming from nearby villages, but eventually, people would come from all over the Alcrem Duchy to find work.
It had also been decided that Mages’ Guild researchers from across the duchy would be sent to investigate the group of enormous black crystals that were believed to have been created by a fragment of the Demon King and left behind by the evil god.
The bustling activity in Alcrem was unlikely to die out anytime soon. Bandits would likely gather as well in order to prey on the people traveling to Alcrem, but that wasn’t a problem yet.
And in the plaza, the food carts were doing their business.
“Here’s your five skewers.”
“Here is your Gobu-gobu skewer.”
“One cold herb tea, sorry to keep you waiting!”
Seeing Darcia working at the food cart in an apron, the ‘Plentiful Sandwich’ Sandy, a middle-aged woman with a good physique, came over to her with furrowed brows.
“… Why are you working at the food cart?” she asked.
“Don’t mind me, Sandy-san. We’ve started doing Gobu-gobu skewers today. Would you like to try one?” Darcia offered.
“Gobu-gobu, that Goblin meat thing that the rumors say doesn’t taste disgusting? W-well, I suppose I’ll try one,” said Sandy, seemingly curious after having heard the rumors.
She took the skewer from Darcia and started eating the Gobu-gobu right away.
“Hmm… This is… quite the strange flavor. It’s purple, so it doesn’t look appealing at all, but it has a vegetable-like texture and it goes well with the salt and cheese sauce… It might be good as a sandwich filling,” she said, carefully evaluating the flavor and texture. “Wait, that’s not what I wanted to say!” she said, returning to her senses after finishing the skewer. “I wanted to ask, why are you, an honorary noble, still working at a food cart with your son!”
“I mean… I’m not an adventurer, and I’m not employed by the Church or anything, so… And I’ve always been working with everyone at my son’s food cart, so I don’t really know what to say,” replied Darcia – Honorary Countess Darcia Zakkart.
She was legally considered a noble, and no commoner was supposed to shout at her like Sandy was right now.
And yet, she was working in the food cart that she had opened with her son in the plaza at Alcrem’s main gate, selling grilled skewers at a reasonable price.
At first, the townspeople had thought that it was some kind of joke, or it was someone who just happened to look like Darcia, but… Darcia and the others had no intention of hiding their identities, so the people were forced to accept this reality.
And since Darcia and the others weren’t putting on airs, Sandy and the others decided to treat them just as they had done during the duel with the Alcrem Food Cart Pentagram… though there were many adventurers and traveling merchants who were genuinely unaware, as they had only arrived in the capital today and had thus not seen the ceremony yesterday.
Still, it seemed that they were aware that this food cart was related to Darcia because the Empusa Myuze and the Ghoul Kachia were working with her.
“Mantis lady!” a customer called out. “Five Gobu-gobu skewers and five Orc-meat skewers over here, please! And a refill on the fruit juice!”
“Right away! However, I am not a mantis but an Empusa, so please remember that!” said Myuze.
“Hey, are you guys not selling alcohol? There was alcohol yesterday, wasn’t there?” another customer complained.
“Drinking outdoors is illegal in this city except for special days. We only had it yesterday because of the ceremony with the duke’s permission,” said Kachia.
Perhaps the customers were under the impression that Darcia and Vandalieu, who had become honorary nobles, were operating the food cart with a new employee and two familiars.
“All kinds of things happened and we ended up not being able to leave the city for a few more days, right? So, we thought that we’d teach everyone about Vida’s races and Vandalieu’s familiars while we earn some money to cover the cost of our stay,” said Darcia.
“The cost of your stay?” Sandy said incredulously. “You’re an honorary noble, right? Haven’t you been given some huge mansion with its own servants?”
“No,” said Darcia, shaking her head. “Just because I’m an honorary countess now doesn’t mean I’m suddenly rich. I’ve been given a medal, and I’m legally treated as a countess while Vandalieu is now the child of a noble, but that’s all. I haven’t been given land or an important position. I receive the same annual sum that an earl would receive, but we’re a big family.”
Under the system, the title of honorary noble was granted to adventurers or commoners who had achieved great things, and this title allowed them to be treated as nobles. Thus, they would be given a medal, a high social status, and an annual sum that corresponded to their honorary court rank, but that was all.
They would not be given a position as a civil official or military officer, and naturally, they would not receive any land, either.
However, as one would quickly realize, those who became honorary nobles had their own lives that they lived before receiving their titles, and many of them were B-class or A-class adventurers, so it wasn’t rare for them to already possess more wealth than the average viscount.
Rewarding non-nobles for great deeds was important, but if real court ranks were given out too frequently and there were too many nobles, that would negatively impact the rule of the nation, so the honorary noble system was partially for preventing that as well.
Thus, honorary nobles did not receive the mansions and money that an ordinary noble of their court rank might have.
“Of course, we’ve received a monetary reward for defeating the evil god, so we’re not actually in trouble when it comes to money,” Darcia added.
“So, the other reason… You want people to feel closer to members of Vida’s races and your son’s familiars?” said Sandy.
Seeing the customers calling out to Myuze and Kachia, she felt that Darcia’s plan had been largely successful.
The other thing was…
“Wow, the legs are moving!” a child’s voice said excitedly in the distance.
“We’re not shaking!” said another.
The large-build Arachne Gizania was doing large laps around the food cart with children riding a specially-made saddle attached to her spider-like lower body.
“Make sure to not lean too far forward,” Gizania warned the children.
If Sandy knew of the theme parks on Earth, she might have been reminded of a miniature steam locomotive ride.
Meanwhile, Maroru, Urumi, and Suruga, the three rat sisters, could be heard squeaking elsewhere as well.
“Red rat!” a bystander said.
“The silver rat, this time!” said another.
“I think it’s the white rat!” said a child’s voice.
The rat sisters were lying flat and stretched out with their stomachs against the ground, and a large number of adult onlookers had gathered as well as children.
With a loud squeak, the rat sisters all stood up on their hind legs together, revealing Vandalieu, who had been lying under them.
“He was under the red rat, Maroru! Those of you who guessed correctly, hold out your hands so I can give you your raspberries!” said a small girl dressed in a cute costume… or rather, a Dwarf woman, as she went around handing raspberries from a basket to the children.
It seemed that they were betting… or rather, guessing which rat Vandalieu would be lying under.
Surprised to see that Vandalieu was not at the food cart, Sandy peered over the food cart to see that… the skewers were being grilled by Juliana, who was about the same height as him.
“Oh, so it was Juliana-chan who was doing the grilling,” Sandy laughed.
“Yes! I have to do my best!” said Juliana.
“I see. You do your best, then. I’m cheering for you…” said Sandy, getting a fluffy feeling from seeing Juliana, who was younger than her own daughter, helping with the food cart. “Wait, that’s not it,” she said, remembering what she wanted to say and turning back to Darcia. “I understand why you’re doing it, but are you sure about this? Everyone’s interested in you people, so they’d gather round even if you weren’t working at a food cart, you know? And as for the cost of your stay, you’d be able to earn enough by going to one of the Devil’s Nests or Dungeons around here, wouldn’t you?”
There was no denying the truth in Sandy’s words. In fact, Simon and Natania had gone with Arthur’s party and Fang to accept a commission from the Adventurers’ Guild and do some hunting and gathering in a Devil’s Nest.
If just one of Darcia or Vandalieu joined them, they would certainly be able to hunt enough to cover the cost of their stay.
“That’s true, but… I’m not an adventurer, and I like working like this,” Darcia said simply.
Sandy gave her an odd smile and decided to stop asking questions. “Well, if you put it that way, there’s nothing more for me to say. There’s all kinds of work in this world, so it’s best to earn your keep the way you want to.”
Darcia smiled and nodded, but… she felt guilty about the fact that she was actually lying.
“But you should be careful. There are people who’ll come to make strange false accusations about you because they don’t like the fact that an honorary noble is working at a food cart,” Sandy warned. “Those kinds of people are –”
“Strange false accusations? Now that is a false accusation in and of itself,” interrupted the haughty-sounding voice of a man from behind her.
Sandy turned around and jumped out of the way in surprise as she saw a young man who seemed to be a noble, with two guards escorting him.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” Darcia said with a sigh, both out of admiration of Sandy’s agility and out of exasperation at the fact that her warning that an unpleasant noble would come to harass her had come true right away.
It was uncertain as to how the young man had interpreted that, but he exhaled arrogantly through his nose before giving her a bow.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Honorary Countess Darcia Zakkart-dono. I am Viscount Piscott Orlamb,” the young man said.
“Well, thank you for your polite greeting. So, what would you like to order?” Darcia said cheerfully in response, ready to take his order.
Bewildered by Darcia’s complete lack of hesitation, the two knights who were escorting Piscott froze.
“D-do not insult me! Do you think that the crude cooking that is sold at a food cart is worthy to be eaten by me, the head of the Orlamb house of viscounts?!” Piscott said, outraged.
“Oh my, that’s unfortunate. Well then, I must take the orders of other customers, so please excuse me,” said Darcia.
She gave Piscott a small bow and tried to leave with the petrified Sandy, but the two knights stood in their way.
“How dare you show such insolence to Piscott-sama!” one of them said angrily.
“Where do you think you’re going!” demanded the other.
Neither of them drew their swords, but Sandy was trembling under the intimidation of these armed knights.
As for Darcia… she sighed heavily as she looked over at the master of these two knights whom she was capable of turning into piles of flesh with minimal effort.
“Do you still have some business with me?” she asked. “Or have you decided that you want to order something?”
“Are you trying to make a fool of me?!” Piscott demanded.
“No, I am providing appropriate service as a food cart worker,” Darcia replied.
She had no intention of making a fool of Piscott. However, she was currently a waitress at a grilled skewer cart. If Piscott was not a customer who wanted to make an order, there was no need for her to attend to him any longer.
If she was at a ball or something that she was attending as a noble, then she would have responded to him differently. Either that, or Piscott simply needed to state what business he had with Darcia, but…
“Damn it, you really are trying to make a fool of me! Perhaps you have become arrogant and conceited after you received your honorary court rank and became one of us?!” Piscott said angrily.
“No, I really am doing nothing of the sort… Umm, so, what business do you have with me?” Darcia finally asked, being left with no choice as Piscott seemed to refuse to state his business otherwise.
There was nothing fun for her about making a fool of Piscott. Both he and his knights were frightening the customers with their shouting, and they were impeding her work. She honestly just wanted them to leave as quickly as possible.
“Mph, fine,” Piscott said reluctantly. “Now that you are an honorary noble, you are at the lowest position among us nobles, and I have come to warn you, because it is the duty of us true nobles to guide you so that you do not find yourself in trouble!”
“… Oh my,” said Darcia, surprised that there really was a noble who had come to harass her because they didn’t like the idea of an honorary noble working at a food cart.
But Piscott mistakenly took her response as a sign that she had understood what he was trying to say.
“Hmph. It seems that you finally understand just how much contempt you are showing for the dignity of nobles. Now that you understand, close this silly food cart at once, and have your son stop that vulgar display over there. As head of the Orlamb house of viscounts, I shall take responsibility and teach you the appropriate manner in which nobles should conduct themselves,” he said in an arrogant tone, reaching out to place a hand on Darcia’s shoulder.
At that moment, a space-attribute Ghost twisted the space behind Orlamb, and at the same time, somewhere in a deserted alleyway, Braga unsheathed his dagger. Myuze and the others began making discreet attempts to stand in front of the children so that they couldn’t see what was happening.
But before anything else took place –
“I do not think you are worthy enough to do such a thing, however,” a woman said in a chilling tone.
Viscount Orlamb stopped his hand. “What is the meaning of this? You filthy commoner, who do you think I –”
Piscott stopped mid-sentence and his eyes opened wide in shock as he turned to see a Dwarf woman dressed in an adorable costume with colorful decorations.
“Th-the ‘Knight of a Thousand Blades,’ C-countess Baldiria Redgorder?!’”
The Dwarf woman who had been working as an assistant in the guessing game was Baldiria, who had replaced her armor with a cute costume for the occasion.
Piscott hastily stood up straight, and the knights who were escorting him quickly did the same.
He was standing before Baldiria, who belonged to a family with a longer history and higher court rank than his, and was even a close subordinate of the duke. The arrogance was visibly slipping from his face with every passing second.
“W-what are you doing in a place like this?!” Piscott asked.
“As you can see, I am helping Darcia-sama, to whom I owe a large debt of gratitude,” Baldiria replied. “Knights are forbidden from working in other occupations, but as I am not receiving payment, there are no problems with this.”
“A-and the reason you are wearing clothes such as those?”
“Oh? ‘Such as those,’ huh? It seems that you have a strong obsession with the dignity of nobles… Do you believe that I am disgracing that dignity?”
In her fluffy, bright pink and light blue one-piece dress, Baldiria glared at Piscott. Overwhelmed by the chilling wrath that was emanating from her, Piscott took a step back and shook his head so furiously that the droplets of cold sweat on his forehead almost flew off.
“Excellent. Now then, let me tell you why you are not worthy of providing Darcia-sama with instruction of any kind,” said Baldiria. “First! Unless the nation is at war, paying a direct, unannounced visit to the head of a noble house that you are not even acquainted with is a grave breach of etiquette! Send a messenger to secure an appointment in advance! Second! Your knights stood in the path of the head of another noble house and intimidated them! Why did you not reprimand them? This only speaks to your poor quality of character! And finally! Attempting to touch a lady as if you are close to her is absolutely outrageous! Educate yourself before you show your face around again, you inexperienced brat!”
Piscott let out a hysterical scream. “I-I’m so terribly sorry!” he squeaked.
With that, he turned tail and ran.
“Piscott-sama!” the two knights shouted, hastily running after him.
Onlookers cheered for Baldiria after she chased away the unpleasant nobleman.
“Nicely done, Baldiria-sama!”
“Nice, tough instructor!”
The people who had kept their distance from the food cart throughout the incident came back to eat.
“Darcia-sama, I am terribly ashamed by the behavior of that man, who is a noble who serves this duchy,” said Baldiria.
“No, you saved me, Baldiria-san,” said Darcia. “By the way…”
“Yes, it seems that he approached you with unpleasant intentions. Honorary nobles are only nobles for a single generation, so there are people who look down on them as inferior in any duchy, but… it is likely that he was attempting to make use of your beauty and fame.”
What Baldiria described was something that was common in any aristocracy. No matter how high the court rank of an honorary noble was, there were nobles who believed that they were superior for having their court rank passed down to them over the generations.
Nobles served their nations for generations; it was not amusing for them to see honorary nobles come out of nowhere and receive the same treatment as them. They were not entirely mistaken; nobles contributed to the nation by ruling over their lands for generations and serving in various official posts, and they possessed more political influence and connections than honorary nobles.
But even so, Piscott had gone too far by calling himself a true noble and directly insulting Darcia despite her being an honorary noble.
“No, that’s not what I wanted to say. You could call me ‘Darcia’ instead of adding ‘-sama’ to my name, you know?” Darcia said.
“R-really?! But I cannot simply refer to you without any honorific all of a sudden…!” said Baldiria, who had flushed cheeks and was shifting around in embarrassment for some reason.
“Good grief, I was scared to death, but I’m feeling alright again after listening to you two!” Sandy laughed.
A small wobbling sound came from the creature that had taken on Vandalieu’s appearance.
“Then, let’s continue the guessing game…” it said, and then it returned to work.
Meanwhile, the real Vandalieu, who had managed to sneak away and fool the gods, looked up, put his pen down and stopped writing his reply to Selen.
From Cuatro’s deck, a distant shadow had become visible.
Vandalieu gave a satisfied nod. “I’ve found the Demon King’s Continent.”
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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Korath
#1 Googled the court rankings and it seems count(ess) is above viscount. 🙂
#2 Had to laugh at the examples Mill gave Heinz leaving out the important points, e.g. mountain crushed (no one was hurt), attack on mine (freed slaves that were betrayed by Hartner), Paris was pro Vida, but not really, he mainly murdered the tentacle women so that they engage in war despite not having any rights and being forced into their area.
Winter
The way that Mill conveyed Van’s “information” to Heinz was really convenient :’)
While it’s true that Gordan and Riley would be targets of revenge for Van, no one forced them to join the second pointless crusade against Talosheim.
Of course it’s also conveniently not casulties of war, but a horrible evil, if Vida’s races kill all the invaders, even though there was zero mercy for the Titans in the first crusade 200 years in the past, where not only soldiers but everyone who didn’t flee in time was killed, and even those who fled were persecuted and enslaved afterwards.
Additionally Mill surely conveniently forgot to mention that the cultivating land that was destroyed afterwards, was the former territory of the ghouls that the Mirg Shield Nation stole from them.
And Van later “stole” the mentioned Titan slaves, who were treated like lifestock for 200 years, and held as convenient labor force, hostages and worse for the women.
And the gall of that goddess to leave out that the Red Wolves Knights wanted to wipe out all the refugees, because they were inconvenient for their lord, and that the piece of garbage Raymond Paris, was a “Vida worshipper”.
Idk why the gods on Alda’s site don’t get along with the remnants of the Demon Kings army, both are just as despicable.
Honestly, at this point I feel like that Alda is gonna pull a ‘Fitun’ on Heinz and just take his body over, if he doesn’t fall in line with his racist genocidal ways.
That doesn’t change that Heinz’s way is stupid too.
“Sure would be awful, if the only person that keeps a horde of almost demigod monsters, and fanatics from anihalating menkind. I better go and defeat that person specifically, because that will surely save the day!”
And of course Alda still sucks Bellwood’s metaphorical d*ck, but that’s nothing new.
Sorry for the rant, but the sheer amount of hypocrisy really pissed me off more than usual :’)
Hobbes
Densuke does his best to almost always emphasize that the only firsthand information that Rotcortex & the Aldiots receive (& can present to others) is inherently one-sided. They can only largely share what their believers & people who aren’t hostile them see & experience…
But even then Densuke has to know that these extreme levels of spin, editorializing, & complete lack of critical thinking (on the part of the Antagonistic viewpoint) is just ridiculous.
Alke
“Without Vandalieu, these monsters would be let loose.” 😑😑so that’s why we’ve to kill Vandalieu?! 😳😳😳😒😒We have to kill Vandalieu because without Vandalieu they’ll be nuts?! So we are going to make them nuts just to prove it or what?!? Well you know what? The guy is Immortal 😒he can pseudo reincarnate himself or be an undead, or cast youth regeneration or tell Darcia to transform him into a chaos elf, or create a new body for himself or just become a god without a body. So you don’t need to find an excuse to kill him because it may be dangerous if he dies afterwards 😒😒😒. And, oh, you must assume the consequences of your actions too
Bigguyman
I mean I see where Heinz is coming from because to the people of Vandalieu’s Nation he is like their God and basically every single industry is run by him, the undead are sane because of him and in the future Vidal will be at the center point of the world so if Vandalieu dies one Vidal Is over the undead you didn’t rank might return to being normal undead and cause a disaster, the Golems might die, and even Vandalieu’s closest circle will fall apart without humans some might attach human nations in their pain. That’s how Heinz sees it and what might happen if Vandalieu dies
Akachi86
Heinz is like:
So, Mill, what you’re telling me is that he saved illegal slaves from a race betrayed by a human duke, protected people under his care from genocide, didn’t kill farmers who occupied areas previously inhabited by ghouls but merely stole their crops and destroyed their belongings, saved innocent refugees from the cultivation villages from being killed or driven into slavery due to a political struggle, used the corpse of a murderer to destroy a 100000 year old abomination and saved a whole city from being wiped out by a descended battle junkie god from our faction, who stole bodies of unwilling adventurers?
He’s the evil one, right?
Mill: Yes!
Heinz: (－‸ლ)
JKingSniper
why the hell everyone assuming Vand will die in a few thousands year
he can be immortal and even revive as undead if he does somehow die
Doodads
Why would they not assume that, pray tell? They don’t know he’s immortal or that he could turn himself into an undead with his mind intact. It’s easy to shit on Alda and Heinz, but they don’t have all the information that we, the readers, have. It’s only natural to assume that Vandalieu, who was born as a mortal, will eventually die. Considering what he knows, Heinz’s choice to get stronger in order to stand his ground long enough to ask Vandalieu questions regarding his worries for the future seems pretty justified, if you ask me. Too bad Bellwood will probably either brainwash or take over Heinz to force a clash with MC instead.
Shitting on Rodcorte is entirely justified though, dude knows all that and STILL thinks his only option is to kill him somehow.
Bob, Son of Bob
Because very few people know Van has figured out immortality and none of them are on Alda’s side.
It wouldn’t matter even if they knew, though. Yes, Alda and Heinz’s concerns about what happens to Van’s empire if he dies are valid, but they aren’t genuine. They don’t actually care what happens, they just want an excuse to try to kill him. If Van suddenly died and all the undead in the empire suddenly reverted to murderous insanity, who would suffer? Oh right, the Vidal Empire where almost all of those undead are located.
Remember, Alda has never wavered from his goal of genocide and Heinz is well on his way to becoming the heroic god of hypocrisy. You can’t trust what they say or even what they think because they’ve spent so long lying to themselves.
Chiu ChunLing
I wouldn’t say that ‘very few’ people know that Van has figured out immortality. It is common knowledge among all the gods that Darcia is both resurrected and apparently immortal, and the gods of Alda’s faction are especially aware of how difficult it is to even imagine a way to actually kill Van himself. I think you’re referring to Van’s specific ability to reverse aging directly, which is indeed still being treated as a secret, but it well known that those who become new races like Dark Human, Dvergr, or the like do not have limited life-spans.
That doesn’t change the point that the theory that Van might still be mortal is just a convenient pretext to invent a ‘inevitable future crisis’ that somehow can be used to justify killing Van now.
Ignitra
Simple, dhampirs aren’t immortal, as van said they have long life spawn but that’s all. It’s possible to become immortal but those methods are not in the common sense (like youth spell)
addy
Braga preparing his dagger on moment’s notice is hilarious.
I can imagine him saying “Yo, nice face you got there, would be a shame if someone peeled it off..”
atharv saraf
alda and bellwood are literally hypocrisy incarnate. So they should be known as God’s of hypocrisy
Triopsate
So Heinz ketchup thinks that Van’s country is fine as long as he’s still alive yet somehow dodges the idea of just letting Van become a god to never need to worry about dying through age. I mean admittedly, Van wouldn’t need to worry about death by aging given he can just remove age from people at will but ketchup man doesn’t know that so I guess it’s forgiven.
However, having an obvious answer in front of his eyes and ignoring it can’t be forgiven.
Ignitra
The fact that van acquired demigod as a job means that nobody has done that while alive in a hundred thousand years, this is a way more obvious answer that “just letting him be a god”… He can expect him to do that because common sense tell you that you can be a god after your dead and not before
Cr1m50nR3ap3r
This could be a permanent solution that could prevent alda ground forces which is to use hollow cannon on the boundary mountains on the side of his empire and use golems to move the boundary area to the dark continent with all of Vida races as the forces of alda will have to use ships to attack them which will be hard as the devil nests in the ocean will halt them or kill them before they even get there
Chiu ChunLing
Um…just because the laws of physics are slightly different between Earth and Lambda, that doesn’t mean that anything that absolutely would NOT work in Earth would therefore be a feasible plan in Lambda. I would offer the slight modification of simply moving all the people from inside the Border Mountains area, rather than trying to move a third of the continent.
That said, what you’re suggesting probably would put a decisive end to the conflict, since it would kill pretty much everyone remaining on the continent when it was attempted. But there are much easier ways for Van to accomplish that.
shawzad
The aufhor is not really that clever
Ignitra
I’m telling you something that should be obvious but countries aren’t dirt floating over the water, even if he cuts in a half the continent moving the tectonic plates would be nearly impossible and dangerous
SoulsTogether
That would cause so many earthquakes, volcanic activity, floods, sinkholes, widespread destruction, and the possible collapse of the entire continent…and that’s only assuming if Van-sama moves the continent about a meter…
N-no…don’t…
felinoel
Ok sure he’s at the demon king continent now but let’s go back to Talosheim for a bit and focus on that cultivation town’s adventurer and his undead harem, will Luciliano’s life gold experiments make them be able to have children? What does that mean for Heinz and his concerns for the undead or might those concerns resolve themselves with the life gold pregnancies and be forced pseudoreincarnations like with Paulina and Juliana where their baby born will be theirselves?
Chiu ChunLing
…
That’s not the plan…or at least I don’t believe that to be the plan, but honestly I guess that would probably work. Though Van can just straight up reincarnate people as any kind of monster that can spawn in any of his dungeons, which is a lot easier in various ways than pseudo-reincarnation. So it’s more suitable for bulk reincarnation if nobody is already pregnant with monstrous offspring.
red1reaper
Am i the only that expects Ketchup to do a 180, and be the one that ends up bringing down Alda? It would be very poetic for Alda to be bringed down by the very same hero he nurtured once he realizes how scummy alda is. The same kind of poetic justice of RodIdiot to be killed by Van. Not expecting him to reconcilie with Van tho, i expect ketchup to do this on his own, of his own volition without Allying with Van. If Ketchup did this he would have done his redemption arc, specially if he sacrifices his life to do this, and this action ends up saving Darcia from some Alda scheme as a consecuence.
Chiu ChunLing
Can’t claim you’re the only one, but I’m seriously not expecting it.
If Heinz was gonna turn against Alda, he’d have done it by now. Specifically, he’d have kicked Bormack Gordan in the nuts, grabbed Darcia, and nigerundayo with anyone in his party willing to follow his lead. That may or may not have worked out perfectly for everyone, but it’d have shown there was a real scruple he’d put above serving his patron god. Even if he’d been really bothered for over a decade about having failed to act then, when Van confronted him in the Trial of Bellwood and explained Alda’s agenda, he’d have listened instead of deciding to fight desperately to defend the Trial.
As he is now, he’s clutching at straws to defend Alda’s agenda, and it’s not like he’ll suddenly run out of straw. If Van mentions that in fact he won’t die of old age, Heinz will just come up with something else, like maybe the fact that not dying of old age is also a ‘terrible violation of the natural order.’ We’re now aware that Alda’s brilliant management of the world is leaving the vast majority of it more polluted with corrupted mana than when Guduranis was at the height of his power, and the Vida races are the only hope of reversing that trend if only Alda would stop telling people to kill them. I don’t know whether anyone explicitly mentioned this to Heinz, but they seem to have told him enough that he could have figured it out if he wasn’t deliberately ignoring the issue.
red1reaper
Not really, i expect that if Ketchup turns against alda to be done in the finale or very close to the finale if anything, snd possibly costing his life in the process, any other way would feel cheap, after all Ketchup is an useful tool to react to van actions in the story, from a self righeus perspective but not as brain dead as alda. If he redeems, i expect it to be at the end and in a sacrificial manner, after he learns common sense and humility trought all of the story. His semi neutral stance on van after havin mill brainwshing his soul for so long is quite meaningful, not everyobody would remain that unbiased about a person tha has tried to kill you when the person tha has been healing you and that also is part of the deitues you belief happen to feed you crap for months, you not being able to hear anything but that crap and directly to your soul., Ketchup may still have biases, but i would expect a hell of a bias after that. I smell it, Ketchup is a bomb that alda set up himself and that is going to blow in his own face.
Chiu ChunLing
The fundamental problem with the idea of Heinz Rex’s character ‘development’ is illustrated in https://lightnovelbastion.com/novel/death-mage/volume-8/chapter-154/ when he ‘tries to reason’ with Vega. Any attempt to parse his motives for saying anything he ever says anywhere else, even to the gods, has to explain his reasons for what he says to Vega there.
Zenden1st
i thought alda wanted to kill vidas races because they emanated polluted mana?
Chiu ChunLing
That’s a pretext, his actual reason is because they keep Vida’s reincarnation cycle running, and he wants that shut down because Rotcortex is absolutely trustworthy and would never abuse his monopoly on reincarnation. This is legit the actual reason Alda himself has given, I’m not just making fun of him.
The fact that some of Vida’s races do technically produce ‘corrupted’ mana is MORE than offset by their ability to consume and purify such mana being produced by monsters, without which humanity would have gone extinct a long time ago because of the spread of Devil’s Nests. This is the case despite some members of Vida races falling into worshipping Evil Gods like Hihiryushukaka because of Vida having been assaulted by Alda and Bellwood, if not for that the entire world would have been largely purified by now with only a few Devil’s Nests remaining in extremely inaccessible locations.
Alda does theoretically seek a world in which no vestiges of other worlds remain, which should in principle include removal of all acknowledgement of the deeds of Bellwood and Nineroad along with the actions of the other Champions just as much as eliminating all the gods that changed sides at the behest of Zakkart. But Alda’s ideology is completely unprincipled and hypocritical on any actual analysis. What he seeks is really nothing more or less than the imposition of his own whims as “absolute law”.
Alda actually plans to eventually eliminate any god that disagrees with him in any way and turn all humanity into puppets that exist only to worship him. Everything he says to the contrary is nothing but incoherent raving in a vain attempt at self-justification.
Galeon82
Well, the serious doubt is what would happen to him if Hainz manages to know everything that Alda hides from him as the other version of the story that was lost or mysteriously omitted from the common knowledge of the population of Lamda. At this point the fact that Alda has already gone through a lot of his mental stability by putting Bellwood on a pedestal (just because I aligned with his mentality from the beginning) so it seems to me if a civil war breaks out between the surviving gods after the defeat of the Demon King Guduranis Bellwood’s ability to maintain a united front is clear when he was human was just a consequence of the blessings that Alda granted him at some point from what I remember the only one of the campernes of that era can be attributed to having a silver tongue that would be Zakkart.
Going back to Hainz’s diatribe, his faith in Alda is sustained by the way they portray their champion Bellwood in the world, which can be very damaging if they come into contact with him, in addition to the fact that if someone releases that he has certain visions of the It was of the Gods as the fights were and they confirm them with Bellwood, things are not going to go well for Alda.
But what matters is that Darcia has a movable title as an Honorary Countess, in addition to the fact that if we take a religious side, she is the incarnation of Vida but recognized as a saint of Vida, the influence as her but she can be felt if she proposes it, but having They go by his side God free the poor soul who gets in his way.
V4NQU1SH
I want to see Selen and Heinz reunion. I wonder what would Selen’s reaction once they meet. Heinz and some of his companion got the Holy Mother Killer status or something..
bk3k
>Bellwood possessed more strength than even Farmaun Gold and Nineroad, the other two combat-related champions. Why had defeating the Evil God of Sinful Chains, a single evil god, come at the cost of losing Bellwood? This question was a common topic of conversation even among the gods.
Oh look forward to that answer… very satisfying.
Chiu ChunLing
I see three general ways the truth about Bellwood and the Sin Chains could really upset Alda’s apple cart.
The worst is that Bellwood actually fused with the Evil God of Sin Chains, because their asshattery just turned out to be THAT compatible. So what Heinz Rex ends up releasing from the bottom of the Trial is basically just a super-Evil God of all kinds of Sins and genocidal impulses, which immediately rips into Alda’s side. The problem with this is that I’d think they’d have noticed if that was the problem, and also it might just suddenly destroy the world, which wouldn’t be a happy ending for Van either.
Under that is Sin Chains having a power similar to the Evil God of Release, only that it binds someone to their sins. Bellwood seems to have been a delusional fool who couldn’t stand looking at reality, so maybe he’s just been wallowing in a disgusting power-fantasy this whole time and will be really displeased at being woken up and seeing what has been happening in the world while he was sleeping. Cue epic rant about his disgusting ideals and most of the newer gods who never knew the real Bellwood being shocked out of their complacent acceptance of Alda’s ‘correct order of the world’. He would also make for a pretty good last boss for Van (especially if Heinz agreed to accept him anyway for his power, that would be sweet).
My favorite is that Sin Chains is something like the Curse of Consequences Van used, only stronger and it applies to past rather than current damage caused by sins. Bellwood has experienced being abandoned to Guduranis and having his soul broken (x4), and then in that state has been subjected to all the further atrocities he’s ever inflicted on the innocent, including the suffering of Vida and all her races at his hands. His personality is a shattered mass of crushed fragments that can only scream incoherent pleas for mercy and a confession of all the harms he’s done. The reason I like this one is cause Van doesn’t really recognize Bellwood as having ever done anything to him personally, so he’s not especially motivated to punish him, so it’s convenient if he’s already been punished…for the same 50,000 years as he was sinning, which seems fair.
I guess it’s entirely possible that the truth will be something less damaging but still probably not to Alda’s liking.
Utsuho
I want to spoil a lot, but I’ll resist.
So I’ll say… One of your theory is close to the truth.
alaric11
How do you know? From raws?
Utsuho
As i grew impatient a year ago, I searched a bit on the net and found a very hasty and horrible translation done elsewhere (i forgot where exactly).
Vandalieu’s name could change three time in the same sentence, nevermind the secondary characters or the place name, which lead to weird time figuring out who’s talking to who.
But in that version, they are already in the epilogue of the serie.
atharv saraf
Plz spoil I can’t wait
Dragão Santo
Eu acho que estou com a memória muito ruim, talvez seja estúpido oque eu vou falar agora mas…
Quem é selen mesmo?
Chiu ChunLing
Most recent appearance https://lightnovelbastion.com/novel/death-mage/volume-11/death-mage-249/
Find “Selen”
Sharinganhokage
Thank you! This is exactly what I wanted to read again after this chapter.
Tejing
Alda complaining more… same old, same old.
.
Arrogant idiot nobles strike again… but I’m glad Baldiria was there to intervene. I wouldn’t be surprised if the duke went out of his way to ensure someone of high status was nearby for exactly such a scenario.
.
Not telling is what’s in the letter yet, huh? I can wait… really I can.
.
Looking forward to meeting Botin and seeing the Demon King’s Continent.
Raidanzoup
Nice nice nice, I’ve been waiting for the Botin plot to proceed.
But does this mean KUHL is more than a Satanic? Blood? Slime right now? Exciting.
ExplodingPenguinDood
So Selen and Van are in correspondence with each other. I may be in the minority in this but I want Van to lose in some form and I hope he loses against Selen; morally/emotionally or what have you. Van needs a deeper introspection more than the one he had when Fang got assaulted by the knight.
Chiu ChunLing
Hmmm…I understand if you say that it’s not good for Van to ‘win’ against Selan. But rather than saying he should ‘lose’, I hope that he can maintain his composure enough to not…dunno, send Braga to short-sheet her or whatever immature harassment.
Naturally I feel a little uncomfortable with him doing something that would make her cry for real.
Doc
@ExplodingPenguinDood I don’t know under what context Van would ever “win” or “lose” against Selen. She’s not a combatant. She wants to be Van’s friend.
I’m also not sure what you mean by Van needs deeper introspection. Nothing has happened lately where Van has either been full of himself or acting against his established character. I mean if you want him to suffer some more loss to up the dramatic stakes, I guess that could work, but honestly I think all the shit he had to deal with over 2 lifetimes and having his mom die in his third life is more than enough on the trauma meter.
no1
Oh yeah, I missed that part at the end about the letter, that could lead to some interesting development 🙂
OTAKU247
You realize that Vandalieu has pretty much been on the losing side in both of his previous lives up until he entered the boundary mountain range. If those experiences didn’t give him any perspective than nothing will.
Chiu ChunLing
I think those experiences might kinda be what gave him his current perspective, though.
Utsuho
Why should there be a fight against Selen of all people?
She have no fighting abilities, don’t know a single sh*t about what is going on and only send letters to Van because he is a fellow Dhampir.
Irazori
Pretty sure he meant Van to lose figuratively, like in a discussion. selen is essentailly “the aldiots of fake peace’s token”, so trying to reason with her on why Van should murder the remaining founders of the moronic blades would be a losing battle.
Utsuho
But here is the catch… She can’t point that out to him as she don’t know that yet.
Heinz and the party didn’t get out of Bellwood dungeon since they went inside. And before they went in, the party was still in denial of Vandalieu very existence.
From Selen perspective, Heinz is exactly as what he told everyone in Orbaume. The story that Vandalieu pointed out as a way to move the masses for his ego.
“The pure and young hero, disgusted by a young dark elf mother’s cruel death by the hands of those who want to purge Vida’s race, fleeing his home country to try to put peoples on the move to ‘help’ Vida’s race (by killing most of them).”
Irazori
Yeah, but even if she didn’t know, Van has no reason to even cooperate with the aldiots of fake peace and their token. Because they can’t give Van anything that he’s already earned for himself.
Irazori
As expected of aldiot himself, always thinking of the worst case that would not happen at all like his second champion. Anyone else think that aldiot having the warhorn god “protect?” Botin’s resting grounds might actually be just another lie he convinced himself to believe and is actually a sealing prison since Botin’s champion was also a creation hero?
I figured that Van and Darcia would end up meeting/dealing with useless nobility, but I didn’t think it’d be that quick. Also, Kuhl can talk now?!
Chiu ChunLing
It seems unlikely that Alda was the one who sealed Botin without any of the other great gods noticing, but perhaps that’s what Peria secretly knows. Even leaving that aside, the idea that they need to protect either of those two from Van really is sheer delusion. What they really want to avoid is giving him a chance to talk to them, cause they know that he’s like Zakkart that way as well.
Irazori
I didn’t mean that aldiot sealed them, only that he wants the others to stay sealed because he probably also knows that they don’t approve of his pro-human supremacy/demi-human discrimination stance like Ricklent and Zuruwann. But yeah, Van has inherited Zakkart’s ability to gain allies by giving out benefits (something the aldiots are supremely incompetent of doing), Guider job or not.
Chiu ChunLing
Hmmm, yeah, I think at the back of his mind he realizes it’s a bit inconvenient for him to have any other great gods he can’t just dismiss as “crazy”. Though I think a couple of steps in front of that is his fear that Botin would feel grateful to Van for releasing her and naturally join his side or at least refuse to condemn him. Even the Heroic Spirits were capable of reasoning that Borgadon might have been swayed by pretty much the exact same concerns.
I still don’t know how he thinks the gods ‘protecting’ Botin are going to fight against Van without any restraining factors. It’s mentioned that they’re led by a Colossus and may include other demi-gods, but that kind just seems like they’ll make bigger targets, like Gyobuz-whatsit.
Irazori
Ah who cares? If the aldiots guarding Botin’s seal end up becoming divine-class equipment like Van’s evil god staff, then it’s a win-win to better destroy the aldiots with.
Lord Rin
Maybe the Demon King’s Continent is like the Dark Continent were the mana is so concentrated even though it’s corrupted that it makes it easy to set up a temporary Divine Realm on the ground like what Zantark has already done that lets him interact with the mortals. If the same thing can be done on the Demon King’s Continent then they could also send actual normal sized gods to back up the Colossi and other the demigods. I mean a full god without a physical body isn’t constrained by size so they could shrink down to human size so they don’t have to be giant targets like Colossi, Elder Dragons and Beast Kings.
Chiu ChunLing
Hmmm…it would be really irritating if it was like a hidden sub-space and they could just pop out and attack before vanishing again. I guess there are probably some other tricks they could play with various Divine authorities, the absence of witnesses cuts both ways. Maybe loosen the local control over attributes and cause natural or supernatural disasters and stuff. Things might get pretty exciting.
bookworm12
It is a little suspicious, but only because there doesn’t seem to be any reason for Van to go after them in the first place. He only went after the gods who attacked him after all.
Chiu ChunLing
Hehehe, though he did give even many gods of Vida’s faction some nervous moments when they first met him. But considering why Zuruwarn, Ricklent, and now apparently Peria have all avoided having a face to face chat with Alda, I think it’s just a matter of projection of how he’d act if he could unseal Botin.
Vida is pretty much the only god I’ve heard suggest trying to reason with Alda could be anything other than an supremely bad idea, which is kinda ironic.
Irazori
To be fair, Vida was wrongfully accused of crimes the aldiots baselessly assumed she was doing, and had used his stakes of law to bind her for so long as he stole the Life-attribute from her.
Chiu ChunLing
I think most of the accusations themselves had evidence, but the assertion that her actions were crimes was the part that went against logic. After all, robbing her of the authority over the Life attribute wasn’t just ‘defined as wrong’ or ‘overturning the correct order’, it was something that involved seriously jeopardizing the entire world.
.
The evidence of 100,000 years has demonstrated that Vida’s races not only did no harm to the world, but are the main reason that it has been possible for humanity (and thus the gods other than the Evil Gods) to survive at all. But you could say that 100,000 years ago this wasn’t yet clearly evident. Even so, to assert that they represented a greater threat than the war that Bellwood and Alda started without even an attempt at negotiation, let alone the extraordinarily vicious treatment of Vida that imperiled all life other than pure monsters and required Alda to seize management of the Life attribute…it’s just impossible to defend.
.
And after even a few thousand years, the evidence was in. Vida was objectively right and humanity needed the Vida races just to survive, let alone prosper, Bellwood and Alda were objectively proven wrong and should have each been subjected to the full penalty they sought to oppose on Vida for her ‘crime’ of saving the world despite them. But they weren’t interested in the evidence, it was never about being reasonable.
Doc
Kuhl talked when he was mimicking Goldie during the evil god farce battle.
Better question is why doesn’t Kuhl talk more often. He seems to only make screeching sounds as his regular form of communicating.
I mean if a collection of rat souls possessing a human skeleton can learn to talk I don’t see why Kuhl couldn’t.
Irazori
Probably because slimes have limited intelligence, only by ranking up so many times and finally eating something he could copy was he able to finally gain the ability to speak.
atharv saraf
Ikr alda and Bellwood’s hypocrisy knows no bounds. They both should be henceforth know as gods of hypocrisy
Yeetus Supreme
You know, I think everything will be alright if Van were to die. He’s already a God, giving out his Divine Protection and what not, the next logical step would be to spread Death Mana around and make it a natural part of the world, bringing further balance to the realms. He’d probably end up taking Alda’s spot as the head God if an all out war would end up happening.
Dr. Steel
Ooh, he’s in communication with Selen? This could be… interesting. Hope it doesn’t start any rants or arguments in the comments!
Dr. Steel
“A small wobbling sound came from the creature that had taken on Vandalieu’s appearance.
“Then, let’s continue the guessing game…” it said, and then it returned to work.”
KUHL! Congrats on the evolution!
Irazori
Oh right. Eating a mimic human might’ve triggered him to gain the ability to talk/be a true doppelganger.
bookworm12
That was the most satisfying part of the Alcrem half of the chapter for me. I was ready for Van to move on already and then… surprise! He’s not actually playing around in Alcrem like the gods think he is, he’s ready to make a move on the Demon King’s Continent!
Vitor o brabo
Eu sinseramente gostei muito desse capitulo apesar de nâo ter muitas lutas nem nada do tipo. A unica coisa que eu mais espero agora é o encontro entre o vandalieu e selen. Imagina se a selen se gostar do vandalieu e heinz fica sabendo? HAHAHHA só imagino a cara dele.
Chiu ChunLing
Uh, she kinda does, you know?
WholesomeAF
Thanks for the chapter! I gotta admit, I’m gonna miss this pseudo mass release. I was disappointed since one of the novels I’m following had slowed down release due to some issues for this month but this novel filled up the empty space in my heart. Thanks TL! Good health to you!
Lord Rin
Aww I’m a bit sad that there’ll be no more increased chapter release rate.
Ah there it is. The biased information that Alda’s faction gave Heinz to try to actively brainwash him even if they won’t admit it. Anyways I don’t know why Alda’s complaining? Heinz is still trying to complete Alda’s stupid dungeon to free Bellwood. Why should Alda care if Heinz isn’t outright conforming to his views? Besides it’s quite clear that Alda cares way more about Bellwood than Heinz and in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if he plans to have Bellwood take over Heinz after freeing him and turning Heinz into a meat puppet just like Fitun did with Hajime. At that point it wouldn’t matter what Heinz thinks.
Anyways isn’t it kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy that both Alda and Heinz are trying to accomplish? They’re all worried about what will happen if Van dies and the Undead stop being guided so they plan to stop(read: kill) Van before that happens and thus bring about the scenario they were worried about. Even if Van died now and his guidance stopped working -which there isn’t any evidence it would given how Alda is still very much under the influence of Bellwood’s guidance even now 100,000 years later- there are already multiple undead at the level of gods that can lay waste to the continent like Bone Man and Knochen. Anyways this whole thing reminds me of what happened with Murakami where he was all “If we do nothing to kill Van then he’ll kill us so we need to kill him first.” and his group preparing to kill Van ended up being the reason why Van started to work on a plan to kill them.
Well enough about Alda’s idiocy. Back to Alcrem for the heartwarming scene of Van hiding underneath the rat sisters in a giant monster version of the game where you guess under which cup a dice is. Also this is just my personal opinion but I’d kinda like if Sandy and the rest of the Alcrem Food Cart Pentagram became subordinate gods after their deaths. I mean we already have gods for weird things like strings and horns so it shouldn’t be weird for there to be a goddess of sandwiches or a god of sweets. There’s already a life-attribute goddess of hearths on Vida’s side so Sandy’s group could totally become her subordinate gods I think. Meanwhile looks like Baldiria has become quite taken with Darcia huh? She’s blushing and wriggling around in embarrassment after being both thanked by Darcia for saving her by dealing with Pissboy er Piscott in her stead and also for being told that it’s fine to just call Darcia by her name without a “-sama” suffix. Well Darcia does have the Allure skill at level 8 so it makes sense that even girls would want her. Anyways I feel like Baldiria would get all well with Priestess Paula from back in Morksi. Like they’d meet and silently stare at each other before nodding and giving each other a powerful handshake like they’re comrades.
Now Van has finally reached the Demon King’s Continent. That’s were Botin is sealed right?
Irazori
I totally agree, adiot idiocy is so short-sighted that they are practically ignoring the fact that what MIGHT happen will happen much quicker if they did succeed (even though they won’t, because they suck at everything).
Chiu ChunLing
Don’t forget that Alda has stationed a bunch of gods there to ‘protect’ Botin from Van. I sense a truly epic smackdown approaching.
With no human bystanders/witnesses around to keep Van from going all out, no less.
bookworm12
God of sandwiches/sweets. lol.
My opinion of Heinz actually improved a little after hearing Alda’s point of view (somehow Heinz’s own words to his companions did not make such a good impression on me). He at least didn’t fall for Alda’s BS misrepresentations of Van’s actions. He ‘took away land and resources from innocent people living in the land they were cultivating’, who took the land and resources away from innocent ghouls who were living peacefully in that land for generations and left without a fight, only to be chased to their new home (and Van was careful not to kill any of those ‘innocent people’ as he took the land back). In the Hartner Duchy, he stole slaves and ‘incited the people of a cultivation village to wipe out the Red Wolves Knights’ Order’. Otherwise known as freeing illegal slaves and granting people the power to protect themselves against being made into illegal slaves. It’s amazing how the so-called god of law is fine with the actions of the knights who believe in Alda towards the villagers who follow Vida but takes issue with Van’s treatment of Raymond and Rick Paris, who pretended to be Van’s fellow Vida worshippers. I also loved Alda’s support of ‘free will’: There is no need for Heinz and other worshippers to share Alda’s will/intentions, as humans are free to become corrupted and make mistakes…by disagreeing with Alda. And surely other followers of Alda will help them realize their mistakes and return to the true path or die.
On a side note, Bellwood has lost the effects of his guidance and is merely very charismatic now. Maybe Mill will meet him for the first time and be disillusioned. I wonder if the Evil God of Sinful Chains pulled some kind of curse on Bellwood that made him experience/regret the sins he committed and/or avoided thinking about? I feel like that kind of curse would have had an unusually powerful effect on Bellwood that could explain how Bellwood lost.
I want to see Van beat the shit out of the gods ‘protecting’ Botin and then offer his hand to help her stand up. Their reactions would be priceless.
bookworm12
Sorry, I missed that last swear word.
f-hndz
Wait is selen the girl hienz is protecting when did she and van start writing letters?!
WholesomeAF
Ohhhh I think this will be a good development
Lord Rin
It’s not like they’re pen pals or anything. Anyways Selen previously sent him one letter back when Darcia and Van became famous for saving the town of Morksi and Selen remembered Van as the boy she briefly encountered in the Hartner Duchy and she mistakenly believes that he’s just shy and that’s why he ran off when they met when if fact Van was so pissed at encountering Heinz there giving condescending compassion that it took all his self-control not to claw off Selen’s face and attack Heinz before running away so that he didn’t do anything. Anyways Selen wrote a letter asking Van and Darcia to come visit the Alda Peaceful Faction under the belief that they would join and Van wrote a complicated letter declining that was more addressed to the adults around Selen. I guess Selen is still trying to reach out to Van so he’s probably going to have to tell her in no uncertain terms in his reply that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with Selen or Alda’s Peaceful Faction.
Chiu ChunLing
I don’t recall it being Selan’s face he wanted to claw off, but yeah. Though I think this is still the first letter she sent him, even if they sent it back in the last volume, Farzon doesn’t seem to even border Alcrem (I recall that being one of the reasons Van picked it…before he ended up Abyssing into the Trial anyway).
Doc
I don’t have the chapter number on hand but around the time Heinz and crew first went into Alda’s dungeon is when Selen wrote a letter to Van because she heard he was another dhampir like herself and she wanted to be friends with him.
It’s not so much them writing letters back and forth. This is Van receiving that first letter and thinking how he’ll respond.
Dragão Santo
Caralho, imagino essa cena num anime ou em um mangá, seria muito foda
Chiu ChunLing
…I guess? Which ‘cena’ do you mean in particular?
Dragão Santo
A parte do nobre, igual aquelas cenas em que o rei ou alguma coisa assim é desrespeitado e aparece um subordinado e coloca a faca no pescoço dele
Chiu ChunLing
Hmmm…I think that kinda scene is just as good in text, though I wouldn’t hate to see it animated.
Flesh Sculptor
Thinking about it Vans death may (probably but not certainly) lead to collapse of Vidal Empire but most things that ketchup-man foretold will not happen. Vidas races and the monster communities in this empire have proven themselves to be reasonable, if culturally unique, and races created by Van are intelligent with or without him. The worst you can expect from them is revenge, and even that would probably not be against all humanity, seeing as they would probably attempt to uphold at least some of his values. Two of the biggest questions are graveyard bees and intelligent undead. Undead will start to deteriorate without someone to feed them death mana, but death mana aligned monsters may be able to do something about it, that is if we assume that they do the same thing that with the old demon king and rip his soul apart, which by the way may not even work, his soul (souls?) is so wacky that even Rod may not be able to do his thing with itat this point. And if he just dies then that is not even a problem the possibility of just taking over his own dead body aside, demigods in this world are basically gods in the flesh so it is probably die and become god for him. What i am trying to say is that in that case he will probably find a way to take care of them from the afterlife. As for the bees – after evolution, the gehenna bees are not only humanoid,but also sentient, so that is prety much the same case that that with other Van created races.
Chiu ChunLing
Well, I wouldn’t count on Van’s “death” resulting in anything other than Gufadgarm grabbing his soul and sticking it in a pod-full of Zakkart’s Root of Life that they haven’t been using for anything else since Darcia’s resurrection. Not saying that’ll happen, cause I seriously doubt Van will die at all, but even if someone did manage to kill him, Rotcortex has demonstrated repeatedly that he can’t reliably get souls that other gods are willing to fight him to keep. He’s lost to Gods of Origen, Zuruwarn, and Fitun even when it comes to retrieving former Bravers. And he’s too scared of Van to get anywhere near him before he’s safely dead. Meanwhile, Gufadgarm is pretty much always right behind Van.
But with Van being out of action and only able to communicate with the gods for a few months, I can see some ‘less restrained’ actions being taken by some of his subordinates, especially if Alda’s faction tried anything foolish while Van was being reborn.
Irazori
I thought the Root of Life was only a single use artifact? Van and Luciliano probably could try to recreate it though. They still also need some of Vida’s power for it to work too, so helping the Goddess of Love and Life is a must first.
Chiu ChunLing
Van still has some, he considered it as an option for Simon but decided against it cause he couldn’t fix his brain (which had lost the paths for controlling his arm). He also decided against using it for Natania, at that time he mentioned that he couldn’t make more yet. But you’re probably right that he could do something close with Base Form of Life-chan, Spirit Silver, and Life Gold.
Van resurrected out of Life Gold would be metal…okay, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself.
Tejing
It can’t be reused, no, but they have a fair bit of it left. They didn’t use all of it resurrecting Darcia.
bookworm12
By the way, they keep acting like Rodcorte has authority over Van’s soul since he is the god of reincarnation, but the gods should be aware that Van’s soul is part of Vida’s system of reincarnation. If Rodcorte had authority over the souls in Vida’s system, he would have just forcibly migrated souls over as they died and reduced the number of Vida’s races that way. He was able to mess with the Demon King’s soul, but I still don’t think it should be that easy.
Chiu ChunLing
That’s true, and not only that but Van’s currently even running his own reincarnation system because of all the pseudo-reincarnating he’s been doing using his dungeons. It’s probably not even fair to call it ‘pseudo’-reincarnating at this point.
I’m pretty sure that Rotcortex is bluffing about his confidence that he can lay hands on Van’s soul, just like with his pretending he’s not subject to Alda’s ‘Law’ authority.
That said, he was apparently instrumental in partitioning and sealing Guduranis’ soul, so if they can overwhelm Van and all his available forces (especially Gufadgarn) and give Rotcortex time to work, it may not be theoretically impossible.
But they’d also need to deal with Banda and the other spirit clones…there’s no evidence that Guduranis ever shared his power like that, or there would be sealed spirt clones of Guduranis around (though maybe that’s what the ‘dust’ was, since Rotcortex assumed it was ‘harmless’).
Chiu ChunLing
If you ask me, “Countess Redgorder” is a more ominous name than “Knight of a Thousand Blades”. It just doesn’t sound like anything good will happen if you encounter someone named Countess Redgorder.
On the other hand, considering what would have happened to Piscott (snerk) if she hadn’t been there…
I guess it was a lucky encounter for him.
Jonathan Hurd
You know there is a very simple solution to Heinz concerns with Vandalieu disappearing. Have him ascend to become a Heroic God like Bellwood, Nineroad, and Farmaun. He is the only being that can kill God’s so he could watch over the undead from above eternally.
It’s funny Heinz talks about Vans death and the terrible things that’d happen, but the only real way Can can die is if Alda kills him, lol.
Chiu ChunLing
Even granting Alda can actually pull it off. But yeah, that’s why Alda is so concerned about Heinz asking Van’s plans. On the other hand, I doubt Van cares enough about Heinz’s opinion at this point not to welcome a chance to provoke a fight. He was even planning to trot out a zombie made from Martina’s corpse to that end. I do think he might be bothered to make fun of Heinz Rex’s concern trolling, maybe make it clear that it’s already too late for Heinz to ‘minimize casualties’ by killing Van.
WholesomeAF
Yeah, but then again as you’ve said only Van can kill gods so it’s really out of the question. The most Alda can do is stake him, though rodcorte did say he can do something like grabbing van’s soul once he died but at this point I hardly believe that.
dakuisha
The more frequent rate of translation over the time you needed to isolate has been really fun. Thank you 😀
Doc
Surprised Baldira didn’t also point out that Darcia’s court rank is above the brat’s, honorary or not. Dude was talking like Darcia was a knight or some lower court rank than his viscount position.
“If Vandalieu did not answer, or if his answer was unsatisfactory, Heinz was prepared to stop him, even if it meant that he had to defeat him.”
There’s such a lack of awareness at how self-defeating this plan is. If Van doesn’t have a plan for what happens after his death, well better kill him then.
The correct solution would be to then come up with such a plan, together. Not that Van would give Heinz the time of day anyway.
Lastly, kinda wish we were told Van’s response to the letter. Guess it’ll be revealed when Selen reads it.
Chiu ChunLing
Well, if Heinz Rex actually wanted to come up with an answer, it wouldn’t be hard. Heinz already knows that Van can resurrect people. By now he should even know about pseudo-reincarnation, since Juliana’s true nature hasn’t been hidden from Alda’s faction. If Heinz honestly just wanted Van to move away from relying on Undead, he would have said “I’m going to ask him to try resurrecting or pseudo-reincarnating people instead of raising them as Undead.”
Which means that demanding an answer from Van is just a pretext rather than a remotely honest question. It’s a way to justify his ‘need’ to gain the power of Bellwood.
Shivanshu
The idea that vandalieu would die and his death would cause trouble is so stupid, i can’t believe they are now using such a filmsy excuse, excluding the fact that vandalieu himself is an immortal demigod, master of death magic, it is obvious that Vida would have turned him into a heroic spirit/god even if he wasn’t a immortal.
Phantom Knight
Well, I can understand. Lol….Think about it, Shivanshu.
The gods of Alda’s forces are seriously lacking information. Thus, they don’t know snout his Demigod status, his power of the Great Demon King, whether he keeps his sanity and skills by becoming an undead, anything about his [Youth Transformation] spells or other immorality related powers, how his Mpire works, or other things.
All forces are just making educated guesses about one another because of their mutual dislike. As such, both sides are making quite a few mistakes, and these screw-ups are going to blow up in someone’s face. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Chiu ChunLing
If they don’t know, they’re not really trying to find out cause Van’s demigodhood is having some pretty major effects. Of course, Alda at least is actively deceiving himself.
dakuisha
The issue with that is if Van’s guider skill would still work after death, it’s metioned earlier that Bellwood became something of a god and no longer has his guider skills.
Chiu ChunLing
The issue is whether Van even needs to die at all. Alda’s faction doesn’t have all the information, but they should have realized by now that Van’s a demi-god, a god with an immortal physical body. And even if he did ascend to a pure god without a body, that wouldn’t erase the effect of the Guidance from before his death, or did you not notice how brainwashed Alda still is after 100,000 years?
no1
So Alda is still being stubborn and arrogant. Heinz is also being arrogant in believing that he has the right to determine whether or not Van should be allowed to continue. Van hiding under rats like one of those basic gambling games, LOL. So no more chapters daily. Oh well, it was only due to quarantine, what else can you do. It will be a bit boring to go back to 2 chapters a month. Especially when we just stopped at a possible exciting cliff hanger, we finally get to see him on the demon king’s continent, we only heard about it last volume. Anyway I guess that means no more chapters this month. Thank you for the chapter Yoshi and hope to see the next chapter soon 🙂
Chiu ChunLing
And cheers for escaping back into the world!
Monto
I really felt like Bellwood was really just a good speaker, he’s an environtmental activist afterall. He’s far from being righteous and just, he might look rational but he also forgot to look at all side and remained bias in his uncertain quality beliefs
Stefxmaster
Im sad that this ultra rapid translation is gone. With the normal rate of 2 chapers a month i hope ill be able to finish this book in my lifetime
Halfsweat
Don’t worry if you cant finish it in this lifetime van-sama will bring you back in the next to finish it
The_Supreme_Being
I’m sure we have it better than the people who are waiting for Luffy to become the pirate king.
Dyneamaeus
And there’s the evidence I’ve been looking for that Guide jobs surpass deities. Alda’s clearly still under its influence. Delightful.
These last few chapters have me convinced that Heinz isn’t going to make it to the endgame. He’s either going to offer his own head to Van or get eaten by Bellwood I think. Or Edgar/Gurandis I guess. (Guradgar? Edgandis?)
I also suspect Bellwood got ensnared by the EG of Sinful Chains due to a weird authority interaction somehow. Maybe his beliefs count as chains (guilt perhaps?), or worse, maybe guide jobs count as some kind of enslavement the EGoSC can abuse. It’d be neat if Bellwood wasn’t a bad guy, but I’m finding that less likely as time goes on.
CyberDre
Maybe massacring people left , right and centre for no reason other than they’re beliefs are different from my own, it’s what Alda’s faction are doing currently so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happened
ObserverBias
Or, very simply, him lying so convincingly to everyone during his lifetime as a human. Considering the conflation of Zakkart’s status by those that recall him (according to Alda he was ‘reckless,’ according to Gufadgarn he was basically a saint), there is nigh nothing to suggest that the same wasn’t done with Bellwood (he “sort of” gave okay speeches that people retroactively considered excellent, and maybe he pointed out one or two fallacies the gods were working under the belief of). If his prowess was in combat, it’s reasonable to presume that’s where his skillset really was.
.
At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if even his nature preservation angle wasn’t buffed up over time to become the extremism-to-the-point-of-assassination that it is today.
Chiu ChunLing
It’s really difficult to know Bellwood when he’s been sealed or sleeping for 50,000 years and the only people who remember him have such polarized opinions. Farmaun seems like the least unreliable source, since he was a believer in Bellwood’s ideals up till Bellwood was no longer around. But that in itself seems…pretty unreliable.
On the other hand, it seems like a testament to Zakkart’s character that Gufadgarn’s devotion clearly made him uncomfortable even if he tried not to be mean about it. Van’s ability to express discomfort has been burned out after his last two lives, so he just quietly endures it.
Lord Rin
Yes Bellwood wasn’t an eco terrorist back on Earth but honestly I think he was like one protest rally away from becoming one if he hadn’t been summoned to Lambda. I mean this is a guy who after becoming a god outlawed the production of soy sauce and rice cultivation all because he believed it had too much of an impact on the environment and Bellwood enforced the ban for at least 50,000 years. It’s only through the hard work of Vida’s races like the Scylla that eventually they were allowed to begin cultivating rice again.
Chiu ChunLing
You know, I think that even Bellwood wouldn’t say it was an environmental danger. It’s true that a rice paddy has more impact than crops that don’t require creating an artificial wetland…but it’s not like wetlands are so bad for the environment, they’re at least as necessary as forests.
I think that the issue is cultural contamination and the development of civilization. It’s not clear exactly what the world was like in the age of the gods, but I feel it’s been hinted to have an early Bronze Age feel, with clothes and architecture easy to distinguish from the late Iron Age vibe of the medieval period. A ‘large city’ would be a few thousand people, and there would be few of these, with the bulk of the population living in small villages or as nomads.
Bellwood seems as much or more a fan of Rousseau’s ideal of the noble savage as of natural ecology. But while Rousseau uses that as a contrast to understand and meaningfully criticize civilization, Bellwood simply goes all in on civilization=evil.
His dislike of both technological and moral complexity and the need to accommodate various divergent interests in a wider society stands in stark contrast to Zakkart’s values and actions.
While ‘eco-terrorists’ mostly seem to lean this way, they can simply be people who consider some particular environmental harm unacceptable compared to the degree to which it can generally benefit society. ‘Eco-terrorism’ generally isn’t actual terrorism, it’s mostly the use of property crimes to impair the profitability of large businesses that exploit resources in ways the activists consider unacceptable. Though the known history of Bellwood fanatics displays a lot of real terrorism, using indiscriminate attacks on the general populace to inspire fear of the consequences of adopting anything not approved by Bellwood. Not just technology, but cultural and political innovation.
Monto
I felt like the part about bellwood guiding the gods? I think not, Farmaun Gold already told that he was brainwashed, he the Gods and people who followed Bellwood before was enticed and encourage by his speech as he really had a good mouth when it comes to delivering what he feels, it’s not about his guider job
About edgar (Heinz companion) I believe he’ll feel more anger toward Vandeliu or be enticed by his guidance depending on how his soul and body would be able to handle the powdered soul fragments of Guduranis
What I think about Bellwood being sealed must not just mean he’s slumbering, if even Alda can’t go there, there’s a chance that the sinful chains assimilated with Bellwood and/or is fighting a quiet battle or Bellwood is also an enemy Alda himself has to watch first
Entropy
I bet bellwood is imprisoned by guilt. Kind of feel bad for the evil god if that is the case since he is imprisoned by Bellwood’s guilt as much as Bellwood. Bellwood did get a ton of people killed, practically served his allies to the demon lord on a silver platter, and attacked Vida first. So many things to feel guilty about. I know at the time he thought he was attacking the actual demon lord and Zakkart and company were safe, but I suspect he feels guilt after the damage was done. From what the evil god of sinful chains sounds like, I suspect he was kind of a god that evolved from a being that was like the dungeon god but more in lines with guilty consciences.
Chiu ChunLing
Or he could have been enticed and trapped by Sins. That’s the kinda image I get from Sin Chains. Maybe Bellwood’s just enjoying a nice delusion where he became the king of the gods, with Alda as his constable and Vida as his whipping slave, and all the others licking his toes, and he restored the world to its ‘perfect form’ in which there are no cities or anything, everyone just living in sylvian villages of a couple hundred people and worshipping him.
And when Heinz wakes him up, he’ll be like “ABOMINATION!!!” and just totally rampage. Destroy every city or walled town, anyone who uses lumber harvested from live trees instead of deadfall, eats anything from monsters or agriculture, and any gods that tell him to stop.
That…probably wouldn’t really be hilarious. But it would be darkly ironic.
Doc
@Monto Edgar wouldn’t be guided by Van. The soul of Guduranis has his consciousness/memories within them unlike the body fragments Van has. As such they won’t be drawn to Van like the other fragments. However, Edgar might feel uncontrollable rage toward Van because Guduranis’ soul hates Van for stealing his title/body.
Monto
@Doc That’s my two theories but I really believe more about him getting more enrage than him getting guided
ObserverBias
… Ahhh, finally figured out what it was that threw me off about the chapter ending. The place he has previously been to was the Dark Continent, this is the Demon King’s Continent. Completely did not compute that for a couple of hours.
ObserverBias
??? Why did it show up down here, I straight-up had it be a separate comment altogether…
Chiu ChunLing
I had the image of a super-powered version of Isla, but I guess that if Sin Chains is a power to bind/attack someone with the power of their own sins, it would be an excellent hard-counter to Bellwood. “These chains are from when you abandoned the other Champions to their deaths! Kshakin!!!” Maybe Bellwood isn’t just sealed or sleeping, maybe his soul was broken.
That would be awesome.
Especially when Heinz Rex finds out, lol.
bk3k
I’ll neither confirm nor deny your theory. But I will say that I think you’ll enjoy it greatly when you see how it went down. So very satisfying. So very fitting.
Who Cares
Not so wierd I’d say.
Bellwood as described is an narcissistic eco terrorist who demanded unwavering devotion, on the level of Jonestown, to him by the people he guided. Anyone not following him blindly and/or not questioning his reasons was considered at least suspect if not outright an enemy. The level of atrocities committed by him or in his name by his zealots would very much qualify him being chained up by the sins those atrocities represent.
At least if we take a literal implementation of the authority of the evil god of Sinful chains.
As for Alda he is probably not so much guided as letting his true nature as the Tyrant God slipping through and admiring the unquestionable obedience that Bellwood instilled in his underlings and the casual (usually permanent) removal of anyone who did dare to question. Still a form of guidance but more of someone trying to be more like their idol then being the target of a Guider type job.
Irazori
“Sinful chains of guilt” seems likely to be a skill to trap that wannabe heroic god. Though maybe it’s something related to the deadly sins that can effectively torture bellwood/
Chiu ChunLing
This is the chain of “Pride”. I’ve also got one for “Wrath”. Oh, and just for you, “Envy”.
.
And just so you don’t find this beatdown too repetitive, I’ve got a special chain for “Intellectual Sloth”.
Irazori
Might want to add Lust too, considering what a harem normie he was too.
Chiu ChunLing
Maybe, but it seems iffy after 50,000 years of emphasizing genocide over any other activity. Considering that the gods feed on worship, I could make a better case for gluttony but that’s already pride.
bookworm12
I thought the same about the Evil God of Sinful Chains exploiting Bellwood’s many sins to defeat him. The guy claimed to be protecting the culture of Lambda, but how much authentic culture can you expect from 3,000 survivors gathered from around the world who worship champions from another world while living in a world polluted by monsters and mana from yet another world? He lost that battle before it started. Then he spent 50,000 years promoting genocide and restricting the quality of life that all people could enjoy by squashing any technological advances. It would be cool if Bellwood regretted his sins after being unsealed, but that seems extremely unlikely. There’s been too much build-up for war for it to end that quickly and peacefully.
Chiu ChunLing
It would be funny if Heinz Rex (and Edgar-suit) got his ‘redemption arc’ by virtue of coming face to face with Bellwood’s intolerance and discovering it didn’t accept the last 50,000 years of civilization’s development, however modest by our standards.
I’m not saying Van has to forgive the Holy Mother Killers or anything, but him coming to the rescue of all the Aldiot’s to save them from their ‘Champion’ would be great.
atharv saraf
Ikr alda and Bellwood’s hypocrisy knows no bounds. They both should be henceforth know as gods of hypocrisy
bk3k
Talking about the culture from before, restoring the world as it was before Guduranis came, is ridiculous. Bellwood never saw such a world. He was summoned in the middle of a war.
CyberDre
Thanks for the chapters Yoshi!
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…