Thank you all so much for supporting me during my quarantine! I will squeeze out two more chapters, one Friday (tomorrow) and one Saturday. I will probably go outside my house for the first time in 2 weeks on Sunday, but I might get some translation done then too lol
This chapter’s sponsors: Shaun B. ($20) Kevin S. ($30) Tristan R. ($100)
Volume 12: The Demon King’s Continent
Each and every fragment of him experienced an intense brightness that felt like it was searing his vision.
None of them had forgotten the agony of his entire body being cut into pieces, nor the humiliation of being locked away.
At first, they were possessed by violent emotions that drove them mad. Both those emotions and their reasoning sought for an opportunity to turn the tables on his enemies, and as they hectically searched through his memories for any experience that could be of use, his Mana, his spirit, and his ambitions welled up and seethed inside of him.
But over time, every fragment of him became calm. They stopped all activity and waited for the time to come, as if they had become inanimate objects.
Curiously, although they were divided and isolated, each fragment of him reached the same answer.
“Bellwood, the other champions, Alda, Vida, and even Rodcorte who pretends to be an expert, none of them are capable of doing more than splitting a soul into multiple parts. None of them are able to destroy one. Because only I, the Demon King Guduranis, am capable of that!”
Thus, the fragments of Guduranis’s soul continued to wait for an opportunity. An opportunity to become whole once more and exact revenge upon Bellwood and his allies.
Although they understood that the chance of such an opportunity coming by was close to zero, they continued to wait, vindictive and persistent.
It was not that Guduranis did not admit his defeat.
He had perceived Zakkart and the others as a great threat, as they had turned Guduranis’s own subordinates against him and strengthened the inferior organisms using strange tools. As a result, he had underestimated Bellwood and the other combat-related champions who had no talents other than their ability in combat… in other words, the enemies that were easy to understand and mundane to him. He had no excuse for that.
Even Guduranis had not been able to predict that they would abandon the things they needed to protect and risk extinction in order to carry out a desperate attack. He had been unaware that they were cornered into a position where they had only two choices – victory or ruin – and he had let his guard down.
As a result, Guduranis had been defeated by Farmaun Gold, Nineroad, and Bellwood.
Guduranis was from a world where the moral and ethical views of humans did not apply. The only rule he acknowledged was survival of the fittest.
Powerful beings had the right to devour, steal from, and trample over the weak. Because Guduranis was powerful, he had ruled over his subordinates as the Demon King and tried to steal the world of Lambda from its weak gods and humans. But he had been defeated by Bellwood because he had been weak. That was all.
Yes, Guduranis had been defeated. There was no way to deny that. But if there was an opportunity for vengeance, he would reach out for it without hesitation. If he could take revenge, he would. There was no reason to be ashamed of doing so. It was Bellwood and the others’ fault for not having the power to destroy him completely, after all.
And then, one day, after countless long years of waiting, the fragments of Guduranis’s soul that were sealed away in the Divine Realms of Rodcorte and Alda, the God of Law and Fate, realized something.
Someone, a being other than him, was taking possession of his body.
“This is absurd! Even the champions who defeated me were forced to seal my body away, unable to destroy it completely… and yet, someone is taking possession of it instead of being possessed by my fragments?!”
It was difficult to believe, but the fragments of Guduranis’s soul were unaware of what had been happening in Lambda for the past hundred thousand years. Thus, not a single one of the soul fragments could deny the sensation that he was feeling as ‘impossible.’
“Someone is stealing my body from me and is taking it in rather than being taken over by it… Does he plan to replace me?! Curse you… Curse you! I will not allow this! I will never allow this!”
The fragments of Guduranis’s soul felt an intense fear and hatred towards the being that was trying to replace him as Demon King, and he felt an agonizing sense of humiliation that drove him mad.
If that being had the same ability to destroy souls, then that would mean that they were capable of truly destroying the Demon King Guduranis. They were a being that he needed to be even more wary of than the detestable Bellwood.
The soul fragments of the Demon King Guduranis had become aware of Vandalieu’s existence due to Vandalieu acquiring the ‘Great Demon King’ Job, and they were filled with a maddening rage like the rage he felt a hundred thousand years ago, but before long, they calmed down again as if nothing had happened at all.
The seals on the fragments of Guduranis’s soul were far more powerful than the ones on the fragments of his body, and they were watched over by Rodcorte and Alda themselves. No matter how much rage Guduranis felt, he could not break them.
Thus, he decided to wait until the opportunity to destroy the new Demon King came.
In his Divine Realm, Rodcorte noticed that there was something strange about the seal on the fragments of Guduranis’s soul.
“The fragments of the Demon King’s soul are trembling? … Is this because of Vandalieu?”
Rodcorte knew of only one being that could possibly have an effect on faraway fragments of the Demon King.
However, so far, Vandalieu had only affected the seals on the fragments of the Demon King’s body. And even then, he had only caused fragments whose seals were coming apart or those who were already taking over an infested host to rampage out of control. Fragments that were firmly sealed and under appropriate management had been unaffected.
And yet, Vandalieu was having an effect even on the fragments of the Demon King’s soul…
Rodcorte briefly thought of Edgar, whose soul had been treated using powdered fragments of the Demon King’s soul, but he quickly dismissed the thought.
“It must be because Vandalieu has absorbed a large number of fragments,” he told himself.
He had only just returned Edgar to Lambda, and he probably hadn’t done anything yet, so the possibility that this was what had affected the fragments of the Demon King’s soul was out of the question.
But Vandalieu had absorbed even more fragments of the Demon King after devouring Zerzoregin, the Evil God of Cannibalism and Pillaging. Perhaps the Demon King’s soul was resonating or something because Vandalieu had grown even closer to being the Demon King.
“The soul is not beginning to recognize Vandalieu as its main body like the body fragments do, is it? If it is, it would not be good, but… No, that is not possible.”
The fragments of the Demon King’s body did not possess Guduranis’s consciousness or intelligence, so they had simply mistaken Vandalieu for their main body. In contrast, the fragments of the Demon King’s soul were Guduranis himself, and they would not mistake Vandalieu for their main body.
Upon reaching this conclusion, Rodcorte turned his attention away from the fragments and towards Origin and Lambda.
Meanwhile, in the suburbs outside the ‘town’ in Alda’s ‘Trial Dungeon,’ three members of the Five-colored Blades were sparring with the newly-returned Edgar.
“Damn! The three of you have gotten pretty strong, haven’t you?!” said Edgar.
“Of course we have!” said Jennifer as she parried Edgar’s dagger. “Did you think we were slacking off while you and Heinz were away?”
“Losing to that guy made us think about a lot of things… but if we just sat around thinking, our bodies would have gotten weaker and our brains wouldn’t be working as well!” said Delizah.
“Training was also good stress relief,” added Diana.
The majority of this Dungeon had suffered catastrophic damage from Vandalieu’s World Piercing Destructive Hollow Cannon, a spell that seemed to be capable of piercing a hole in the world itself, and the god who had managed the Dungeon, the God of Records Curatos, had been destroyed.
This ‘town’ was a recreation of a town from the Age of the Gods, and although it was possible to stock up on food and purchase arms here, the people populating it had disappeared.
However, the Dungeon’s trials were still functioning, although they were limited to only the trials that the party had already cleared once before and the trials that they were supposed to face much later.
Jennifer and Diana, whose souls had not been damaged by Vandalieu, and Delizah, whose soul had been damaged but only lightly, had been challenging themselves by facing these trials once more.
“It was pretty tough, being two people short… Alright, let’s call it a day!” said Delizah, putting the sparring session to an end as Jennifer stopped her fist a moment before it landed on Edgar’s body.
Edgar sheathed his dagger and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “You guys have surpassed me by so much. I’m no match for how fast young people learn.”
“What are you saying? You’re sounding like a middle-aged man,” laughed Jennifer.
“I’m already in my thirties, after all. But don’t call me middle-aged, I’m not that old yet,” said Edgar.
As he raised his arm to wipe his sweat away with his sleeve once more, Diana offered him a small towel.
“I’m so relieved. Not only do you have no lasting damage, but your ability in battle hasn’t suffered either, Edgar-san. The sharpness of your movements and techniques is exactly as we remember them,” Diana said with a smile.
Damage to the soul would normally cause significant permanent damage, such as memory loss, personality changes, numbness in parts of the body, and hallucinations. Jennifer, Delizah, and Diana had been told of this by the gods. They had been told that Heinz’s treatment would take between several months to a year, but such after-effects could be prevented.
However, they had also been told that Edgar’s soul had suffered deep wounds, and even if he was treated, it was unclear as to whether he would be able to return to being an adventurer.
And yet, Edgar had shown in his sparring session with Jennifer that his movements were just as sharp as before, so this was a big relief to the others.
“I haven’t noticed anything strange since you came back, and there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with whatever’s inside your head, either… There’s nothing wrong with you, right?” said Jennifer.
“Hmm, come to think of it… For the life of me, I can’t remember the face and name of the childhood friend I promised to marry!” Edgar shouted, clutching his head.
“What?! Really?!” Jennifer said in panic.
“You don’t have a childhood friend like that. We grew up in the Mirg shield-nation, remember?” said Delizah, revealing Edgar’s lie.
“You were lying?!” Jennifer said with an annoyed look.
“That’s not very funny,” said Diana.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself,” Edgar apologized. “I don’t have any memories of when I was being treated. My head was cut off by Curatos who had Martina’s appearance, I blacked out, and then the next thing I knew, I was back in this ‘town.’ It’s been three… no, four months since then? I can’t believe I was out for so long that the season’s changed.”
Unlike Heinz, who was able to converse with the Goddess of Slumber Mill, Edgar had been unconscious during the time he was undergoing Rodcorte’s treatment. That was how critical a state his soul had been in.
But despite that, Edgar didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary, though perhaps this was only normal – One would immediately realize when their body was wounded, but it was normally impossible for them to perceive damage to the soul while they were still alive.
In the living state – in other words, a state where the soul resided in the body – the body would die long before the soul could be wounded heavily enough to cause lasting damage.
Edgar’s soul becoming so heavily wounded was a rare occurrence that had occurred for two reasons: Firstly, in this Dungeon, his soul inhabited an exact copy of his body that had been created through Curatos’s divine authority, and secondly, his enemy had been Vandalieu, a being who could devour and destroy souls.
“So you don’t know what kind of god treated you?” asked Jennifer.
“No. I hope it was a kind goddess, but… it might have been Niltark,” said Edgar.
Edgar had received his divine protection from Niltark, the God of Judgment. After being treated and returning to this ‘town,’ he had received a Divine Message telling him that he had been treated using fragments of the destroyed soul of the heroic spirit Luke.
However, neither he nor the gods were aware that Luke’s soul fragments had not been enough, and Rodcorte had also used powdered fragments of the Demon King Guduranis’s soul.
“Well, as you can see, I’ve been fixed up pretty well. I’ve gotta be grate–”
Just as Edgar was about to say ‘grateful,’ he suddenly stopped mid-sentence. He froze in place, and his gaze wandered into the distance.
“Hey, what’s the matter?” asked Delizah, bringing him back to his senses.
“No, it’s nothing. I was just thinking about something,” Edgar replied immediately, but that wasn’t true.
A number of strange images had suddenly appeared in his vision.
A bizarre creature that looked like a cross between a rhinoceros beetle and an octopus running away, a sky with a shimmering, distorting sun and clouds with as many colors as the rainbow, unfamiliar people screaming as they scrambled about trying to flee.
And finally, a young man whose entire body was shining, swinging his blade down towards Edgar.
What was that creature and that sky? Even if that thing was a monster, I would definitely remember seeing a monster that disgusting. And that sky didn’t look like anything in this world. But I recognize the people running for their lives. Or rather, the clothes they were wearing, Edgar thought.
Before Curatos’s destruction, the ‘town’ had been populated with recreations of the people who lived during the Age of the Gods. The clothes worn by the people in Edgar’s vision were similar to the ones worn by them.
Seeing that there were people from the Age of the Gods, does that mean it was one of Luke’s memories? No, Luke didn’t exist a hundred thousand years ago. Then what was it…? And that last scene. Why was I being cut down by Bellwood? Edgar wondered.
The young man in his vision looked exactly like the Heroic God Bellwood, whose statues stood in Churches of Alda, the God of Law and Fate.
Was that just a coincidence? To begin with, was there any meaning to these memories at all?
“Edgar, what’s the matter? You’re tired after all, aren’t you?” said Jennifer, before Edgar could think about it too deeply.
“He must be. It is possible that he has accumulated fatigue in his body without realizing it. Shall we rest for the remainder of the day?” said Diana.
Edgar turned his attention away from the memories and back to his companions. “No, I was just thinking about things. A lot has happened, after all.”
“Yes. While you and Heinz were absent, we thought about the things that boy… the things that Vandalieu said. And we discussed them,” said Diana.
Edgar was referring to the strange memories in his mind, but Diana seemed to have thought he was talking about the things said by Vandalieu, the one who had damaged his soul.
But still, Vandalieu’s words were also something that Edgar could not ignore.
“… Yeah. I’ve always wondered about Ghouls,” said Edgar.
There were some who thought that Ghouls, who could speak the human language and acquire Jobs, were actually people – a race created by Vida, not monsters. Edgar wasn’t the only one; Heinz and Delizah thought so as well.
But even Heinz and his companions, the leaders of Alda’s peaceful faction, could not advocate for them. The reason for that was –
Suddenly, the artificial sun that had been recreated in the sky above the ‘town’ suddenly grew brighter.
It was so bright that Edgar and his companions couldn’t keep their eyes open; they clamped their eyes shut and prepared themselves for danger.
Was this half-destroyed Dungeon finally reaching its limit?
But rather than the disastrous noise of the Dungeon collapsing, they heard the voice of their companion instead.
“… Everyone, I’m back.”
“Heinz?!”
The brightness faded abruptly, and when they opened their eyes, there was Heinz, who had finished being treated by the Goddess of Slumber Mill.
“Heinz, you’re back!” cried Diana, rushing over.
“Are you alright?!” asked Jennifer.
“Yes, I’m fine, thanks to Mill who treated me, and… Joshua, who protected me,” Heinz replied before turning to look at Edgar. “Edgar, I’m glad you’ve managed to return to normal as well. Mill told me that there might be some lasting damage to your memories and your body, so I was worried about you.”
“I’m glad you care about me so much, but you were in a similar position, weren’t you? And you’re one to talk. You did spend longer than me in treatment, even if it was only by a day,” Edgar said in a lightly joking tone.
“Well, unlike you, I was conscious during my treatment,” said Heinz, smiling.
“I’m glad you both made it back safely, but now that the five of us are together, we have to make a decision, don’t we? About what the Five-colored Blades will do next,” said Delizah.
Heinz nodded, his smile fading and being replaced by a serious expression.
The Five-colored Blades had been reunited, but they were standing at a crossroads.
Their defeat at Vandalieu’s hands, the suspension of their trials due to the Dungeon’s collapse, the destruction of Curatos, Joshua, and Luke. And most importantly, the fact that the forces of Vida’s faction were being gathered in the region within the Boundary Mountain Range by Vandalieu, whom Alda called the Demon King.
Would the party stay together, or would they disband? Would they continue being a part of Alda’s peaceful faction, which advocated for harmony with Vida’s races, or would they change their stance? Would they fight against Vandalieu once more, or would they flee far, far away?
They didn’t know if they would be able to accomplish any of these things, but they had to choose.
“… While I was being treated by Mill, I was thinking the whole time, while listening to the information that the gods know about Vandalieu,” said Heinz. “First, he is different from the Demon King that we know, the one that is taught about by the Church of Alda. If we judge him by the teachings of Alda, the God of Law and Fate, he is an atrocious fiend. An absolutely evil being. But…”
Vandalieu had absorbed a large number of Demon King fragments, which were considered taboo, and was in full control of them. On top of that, he had created countless Undead and destroyed gods by devouring their souls.
“But on the other hand, he has saved so many members of Vida’s races… and so many people, including believers of Alda as well. While we were stuck here, he protected a city while defeating an evil god who was hiding in the Alcrem Duchy,” Heinz continued. “Honestly, at this point, he’s saved and protected more people than we have… all kinds of people, not just members of Vida’s races.”
The gods of Alda’s forces viewed Vandalieu’s actions as being self-serving. Unlike Guduranis, Vandalieu lived in this world, and they believed that he was only protecting the world so that he could survive in it.
But Heinz was not a god, and viewed Vandalieu’s actions as another inhabitant of this world.
“An evil god?!” Edgar exclaimed. “So, he’s grown even stronger…”
“Yeah. He also apparently destroyed Fitun, the God of Thunderclouds,” said Heinz. “Fitun descended upon Lambda and took over a young boy who was apparently one of his worshippers, but…”
“He’s gone that far, huh. He probably won’t struggle against us at all now, will he?” said Edgar.
“Probably not,” Heinz replied.
Delizah and Diana turned pale.
“The other thing is our position in Alda’s peaceful faction,” Heinz continued.
“If it’s about the Ghouls, we’ve been discussing the matter as well, but we haven’t reached a conclusion,” said Delizah.
Heinz nodded, showing no sign of discouragement. “Yeah. That’s fine for us. We can’t do what Vandalieu has done.”
Ghouls might be a race that Vida had created. Heinz and his companions had been unable to voice this opinion in the Amid Empire, where the worship of the God of Law and Fate Alda was the nation’s official religion, but they had also failed to voice it in the Orbaume Kingdom.
The reason for that was that there was no meaning in simply claiming that they were a race created by Vida.
The worship of Vida was allowed in the Orbaume Kingdom. There were even dukes who were of races created by Vida – one Beast-kin, and one who had been born a Titan despite having two human parents due to atavism.
However, the Orbaume Kingdom was not a nation that treated Vida’s races favorably.
As proof of that, Vampires and Majin were considered to be a threat to humanity, so there were commissions posted at the Adventurers’ Guild to exterminate them. There were also races who were confined to their own autonomous territories, like Scylla.
Heinz and his companions had gained their titles as honorary nobles as a reward for having defeated a member of one of Vida’s races – Ternecia, a Pure-breed Vampire who worshipped an evil god.
Claiming that Ghouls were a race created by Vida would simply result in them being grouped with Vampires and Majin – the races that were considered dangerous. There would be no meaning in that.
The other thing was that the majority of Ghouls were unaware that their race was one that Vida had created. Like monsters, they attacked humans, ate their flesh if they were men, and transformed them to members of their own race if they were women.
Heinz did not have the ability to take leadership over such a race. He might be able to tell them that they were a race created by Vida and they should stop attacking humans, but whether the Ghouls believed him was another story.
Heinz had considered the possibility of acting as a guardian for Ghoul children, but others would view it as an attempt to tame monsters, so he would not be able to protect many of them that way.
And even if he did become a guardian for them, they would still be treated as tamed monsters. Once they became adults, he wouldn’t be able to release them; he would have to take them with him wherever he went or hand them over to a tamer.
That was why Heinz and his companions had kept quiet about Ghouls – making excuses that they were only delaying their action to save them, and that they could not afford to put all of their effort into helping only Ghouls.
Vandalieu had a guidance that made Ghouls obey him and a nation in which to keep them safe. On top of that, in the Alcrem Duchy, he had not only made the nobles there feel grateful for his deeds, but also struck a fear into them that they would be killed if they were to become his enemies. This had allowed him to quickly improve his social position and further secure a safe environment for Ghouls.
Heinz did not have any of these factors. His guidance was not of a kind that would exert a great effect on Ghouls that he had only just met, and he had no place where he could guarantee their safety.
“But I don’t intend to justify the fact that we haven’t been able to do anything. Vandalieu is a more worthy figure to advocate for harmony between humans and Vida’s races, and I believe he has the ability to do so as well. But it doesn’t change the fact that we aren’t able to do what he can do,” said Heinz.
“So, are we going to leave this Dungeon without fighting Vandalieu? But you, Edgar, and Delizah are mortal enemies to him. Won’t he go after you again?” said Jennifer in response to Heinz’s words, which seemed to defend Vandalieu.
“I heard from Delizah that his mother has returned to life, but… even so, it doesn’t seem like he is willing to forgive you,” said Diana, seeming to have the same concern.
“Well, I suppose that’s true. If a thief steals money from you, even if you earn that money back, that doesn’t make the thief innocent,” said Edgar.
“And we killed Vandalieu’s mother again, right in front of him,” added Delizah. “Even if it was a recreated fake, it doesn’t seem like that matters to him…”
Edgar and Delizah didn’t seem to think that Vandalieu would forgive them, either.
Thus, even if they went against Alda’s wishes and stopped targeting Vandalieu, it was difficult to imagine that Vandalieu would stop going after them.
“I know that. But before that, I want to confirm something with you, Jennifer, Diana,” said Heinz. “Vandalieu isn’t after your lives. But if you stay with us –”
“Don’t ask something you already know the answer to,” said Jennifer, interrupting him.
“I feel the same way as Jennifer,” said Diana.
If you two wanted to leave, I was planning to have you take care of Selen, who’s still waiting for us to return, Heinz thought with a bitter smile.
“Alright,” he said. “In that case, I will state my intention… I will fight Vandalieu and stop him, even if it means defeating him. Currently, he is not the Demon King, but… he may become the Demon King in several thousand years’ time, and even if he doesn’t, what he leaves behind will be more dangerous than the Demon King.’
Heinz had learned the information the gods knew about Vandalieu, and was aware that he had created a nation of Vida’s races, certain races of monsters, and Undead in the Boundary Mountain Range.
In that nation, under Vandalieu’s rule, the people enjoyed freedom and equality that was greater than in the Orbaume Kingdom, and even greater than what Alda’s peaceful faction was aiming for.
Heinz could not help being vexed at the difference that existed between himself and Vandalieu despite them both being Guiders.
However, at the same time, he had also come to realize the danger of that nation.
Vandalieu’s nation only existed in union because of the existence of its ruler. Unlike the rulers of other nations, Vandalieu was irreplaceable.
Vandalieu’s existence made Vida’s races cooperate with one another, made monsters intelligent and gentle, and allowed Undead to act and live in rational ways as if their personalities from when they were alive were still intact.
But what if Vandalieu were to disappear? The power of a guider could not be inherited, no matter how strong the blood ties were.
And even if he didn’t disappear, what if Vandalieu began oppressing the people, having become too proud after ruling over the nation for so long?
If such a time were to come, the world would be in danger.
“I intend to stand before him once more to ask him these questions and, depending on his answers, to stop him. Of course, if I were to do that right now, I’d be killed before even having a chance to ask these questions, so it will have to be after we finish the remaining trials in this Dungeon and become stronger,” said Heinz.
“Get stronger, you say… The only trials that are still intact other than the ones we’ve already cleared are the last ten floors. Even though we don’t die in these trials, there’s no telling how long it will take us to clear them,” said Edgar.
“And during that time, Vandalieu will grow even stronger. At this rate, the difference will never shrink,” said Delizah.
“It’s alright,” said Heinz with a nod. “The Heroic God Bellwood slumbers in the deepest part of this Dungeon. The purpose of this Dungeon is to awaken him and grant us a Skill that allows us to summon him upon our bodies. Bellwood once summoned Alda, the God of Law and Fate, upon his body and defeated the Demon King Guduranis. We need to become as powerful as him.”
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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roseblack
LOL whats even more wild is that Heinz thinks that vans empire would collapses if he where to die…. my man you are talking about a guy that has the power of a LITERAL GOD plus the man is a damphir and you know his parents are he will out live all of you and your kids kids naturally. But the biggest kicker is that they live in a world where people can become heroic spirits after death so even if he dies of like old age millennia later mind you he would instantly asend to the ranks of GODS simply because he is worshiped like a GOD so even if he was controlling his nation like a puppet nothing would change because he would become a GOD
Ronin
What baffles me is it’s like Heinz and all the Gods worry more about “what if he were to turn evil later?” They focus on the worst case as if it’s their job to allow no one to be too strong in case the go bad. Like S ranks in some cases are considered Demigods but, no one is out thinking “what if they start oppressing people later?”
Naberisu
Heinz is being extremely biased to imagine that a demi god would change his ideals in a few thousand years.
After all, Alda and all of his allied gods from the war remain the same hypocrites as they have always been, the only ones that changed sides were a few that became gods after fhe war.
And although he does have a point of The Demon Empire of Vidal needing Vandalieu to operate as it is now, it’s not like all the undead and monsters will go into rampage when Van is away, it will be harder to maintain the system and another god will need to help but definitely not as bad as the genocide Alda was planning.
Ronin
He doesn’t know that the races were already in existence and alliance even before Van came along. The noble Orc kingdom had already united the majin, kijin, high kobols, harpies dracoids, high goblins and the Arachne and empusas, All Van did was bring the titans, undead, ghouls and later the scylla. Granted the public works stuff he has created and luna currency would be what is lost. No new undead will be born but, what has already been will not change after he dies.
SnekyKuro
I know that we have been seeing Bellwood idiocy to expect anything from him but, I can’t help but imagine if he actually reflect on his action during his time while having no power and when heinz reached him, he would be like “sorry but I’m gonna side with the damphir this time”. That would be stupidly hilarious
Winter
Heinz and Asagi could become best buddies sharing their ideological idiocies together.
His arguments remind me of people, who’d rather keep using coal energy, which messes up the world slowly but surely, than having nuclear power plants that could potentially cause great harm, if mishandled, but otherwise is pretty save and clean overall.
At this point I feel like no small part in Heinz’s and Alda’s gods’ overall actions are to no small part, because they don’t want to acknowledge (whether that’s consciously or subconsciously) that Van is doing a better job of uniting and saving the world than them.
Malkav0
Idiot-heinz is it again…
“And even if he didn’t disappear, what if Vandalieu began oppressing the people, having become too proud after ruling over the nation for so long”
Not realizing the exact same thing could be said for gods. He’s actually blaming Van for being powerful, so, by the same reasonning, trying to defeat him requires to be as powerful and the same blame could be adressed to him by basically anyone. Idiot-heinz.
Lawless
The logic here moved me to tears
Sailon
(Alright,” he said. “In that case, I will state my intention… I will fight Vandalieu and stop him, even if it means defeating him. Currently, he is not the Demon King, but… he may become the Demon King in several thousand years’ time, and even if he doesn’t, what he leaves behind will be more dangerous than the Demon King.’
Heinz had learned the information the gods knew about Vandalieu, and was aware that he had created a nation of Vida’s races, certain races of monsters, and Undead in the Boundary Mountain Range.
In that nation, under Vandalieu’s rule, the people enjoyed freedom and equality that was greater than in the Orbaume Kingdom, and even greater than what Alda’s peaceful faction was aiming for.
Heinz could not help being vexed at the difference that existed between himself and Vandalieu despite them both being Guiders.
However, at the same time, he had also come to realize the danger of that nation.
Vandalieu’s nation only existed in union because of the existence of its ruler. Unlike the rulers of other nations, Vandalieu was irreplaceable.
Vandalieu’s existence made Vida’s races cooperate with one another, made monsters intelligent and gentle, and allowed Undead to act and live in rational ways as if their personalities from when they were alive were still intact.
But what if Vandalieu were to disappear? The power of a guider could not be inherited, no matter how strong the blood ties were.)
.
Ok so you saying van dies the vida races that are working together may separate? That work for all kingdoms founded by a amazing king guider or no guider, even withou guider Van they are still people with inteligence risk of them go out control is the same of ani human nation, nation rise and fall that is natural. I mean the Undead is a risk becsise is Van that keep they reason, but the rest is bullshit.
.
(And even if he didn’t disappear, what if Vandalieu began oppressing the people, having become too proud after ruling over the nation for so long?
If such a time were to come, the world would be in danger.)
.
The same can be said to any ruler both mortal and immortal hell did he no think about what Alda had being doing last 100 000 years? Anyone with more power then other can go crazy with this power and became a tyrant, but if you act in suspicious is more likely to really make the danger became real.
And we are talking about a world where gods interfere so immortal beings ruling the world alredy exists. Heinz only think in ways convinient to hilmself, taking extreme action to thing that maybe has a possibility to happen. Really i think he only whant to make excuses to jusyify his action to make himself as The Hero.
Sailon
(Alright,” he said. “In that case, I will state my intention… I will fight Vandalieu and stop him, even if it means defeating him. Currently, he is not the Demon King, but… he may become the Demon King in several thousand years’ time, and even if he doesn’t, what he leaves behind will be more dangerous than the Demon King.’
.
Heinz had learned the information the gods knew about Vandalieu, and was aware that he had created a nation of Vida’s races, certain races of monsters, and Undead in the Boundary Mountain Range.
.
In that nation, under Vandalieu’s rule, the people enjoyed freedom and equality that was greater than in the Orbaume Kingdom, and even greater than what Alda’s peaceful faction was aiming for.
.
Heinz could not help being vexed at the difference that existed between himself and Vandalieu despite them both being Guiders.
.
However, at the same time, he had also come to realize the danger of that nation.
Vandalieu’s nation only existed in union because of the existence of its ruler. Unlike the rulers of other nations, Vandalieu was irreplaceable.
Vandalieu’s existence made Vida’s races cooperate with one another, made monsters intelligent and gentle, and allowed Undead to act and live in rational ways as if their personalities from when they were alive were still intact.
.
But what if Vandalieu were to disappear? The power of a guider could not be inherited, no matter how strong the blood ties were.)
.
Ok so you saying van dies the vida races that are working together may separate? That work for all kingdoms founded by a amazing king guider or no guider, even withou guider Van they are still people with inteligence risk of them go out control is the same of ani human nation, nation rise and fall that is natural. I mean the Undead is a risk becsise is Van that keep they reason, but the rest is bullshit.
.
(And even if he didn’t disappear, what if Vandalieu began oppressing the people, having become too proud after ruling over the nation for so long?
If such a time were to come, the world would be in danger.)
.
The same can be said to any ruler both mortal and immortal hell did he no think about
Alke
Oh! Stupid me! I forgot Bellwood! Of course Bellwood is one of the important roots of evil, he needs to be deleted from existence as soon as possible too
Alke
Okaaaay…. There is an emergency, these pple just need to die. Yeah, that’s for sure! Ketchup, Rotcortex, bakalda, Edgar/Guduranis, these are the trash that must be cleaned up. Question is, why does the poor Great Vandalieu sama have to do all the cleaning or die?! 😒😒💩💩💩It’s a clean up other pple’s mess or die mission!
jjzz
Im starting to think that bellwood and gunudaris are going to be partners in this, gunudaris taking edgars body and bellwood heinz against their will and team up to face the great Van-sama
Randy Rando
“And even if he didn’t disappear, what if Vandalieu began oppressing the people, having become too proud after ruling over the nation for so long?”
So basically exactly what the God you worship and spread the praises and teachings of has been doing for 100,000 years and intends to continue doing for all eternity?
Mr. Ketchup is frustrating. He thinks about what potential effects something could have or is having on the world, but he never thinks far enough. He only ever thinks one step ahead, while to truly understand the implications an action could have you have to think 5-10 steps ahead, 2-3 behind, and 4 or so to either side.
NjShade
He just like mr rotten wood, take 10 step ahead and take 20 step back, he technically try to suppress technological advancements, but he never think about all human in deferent world simply the same. The technology they will discover also the same although focus more technomagic still they use same concept. Even after 100,000+- years they never archive anything from culture, social and tech.
Randy Rando
The gods of Alda’s forces viewed Vandalieu’s actions as being self-serving. Unlike Guduranis, Vandalieu lived in this world, and they believed that he was only protecting the world so that he could survive in it.
By that logic, Mr. Ketchup isn’t a hero, and neither are any of the people you guys are raising to kill Van, they’re just glorified errand boys/girls obeying a god’s orders to kill somebody who has shown the world nothing but tolerance and kindness unless he or his friends have been attacked, all out of fear of divine punishment if they refuse to comply.
vigarro
So, Ghouls are evil because they attack and eat human?
Hmm…. Idk Heinz. It’s not like ghouls actually never leave the Devil’s Nest and human literally come to invade their home to hunt them for their body parts is it?
Tbh, I really hope the ending is that Alda/Belwood and Heinz finally kill each other, because Heinz is too tired of Alda being too hypocritical while himself is not hypocritical enough
Zenden1st
cmon Heinz just because ur int stat is the lowest doesn’t mean you have to act like it
Chiu ChunLing
“Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.”
The obvious corollary is that some things canNOT be explained by stupidity.
Hypocrisy requires applying entirely different standards to others than you apply to yourself. This requires more mental energy and ability than just applying one standard. It cannot be explained by mere stupidity, no matter how stupid it is in practice.
For Heinz to be worrying about what Van might do in the distant future while actively trying to unleash BELLWOOD on the world again requires such astonishing mental gymnastics that he’d be a contender for the Olympics of hypocrisy if someone were insane enough to make it a new event.
caccuhuy
Seriously… Heinz…. I cant understand…. you…… Is this the advanced thinking of otherworld hero?
caccuhuy
Seriously… Heinz…. I cant understand…. you…… Is this the advanced thinking of otherworld hero? ‘Cause this is the dumbest one I’ve ever seen
JKingSniper
lol Heiz the dumbest
Rollrock
“and even if he doesn’t, what he leaves behind will be more dangerous than the Demon King.’
Ah yes, scientific advancement, improved quality of life, advanced medicine, potential lifespan extension for people regardless of their social class, eradication of diseases and infirmity, restoration of fertility and removal of hereditary diseases, many politicians today would also agree that those are incredibly dangerous things.
atharv saraf
Sigh! Heinz is to stupid and braindead can’t he do things like “thunderclap” does thing’s honestly at this point I really respect thunderclap who was able to see how bs alda was
atharv saraf
At this point this is going to be bloodbath when of dk gets out of seal which is most likely going totally everyone vs of dk
Temp950
I mean, his point about the Undead being a danger if Van was to die is valid, but the rest of it is silly. Whether he becomes a bad ruler later on is something that can happen to anyone. The same thing could happen to any powerful figure, not just Van, and they could go about destroying a city or two. If anything, the worst thing to do in this situation would be to try and fight him. They know he loses it if his friends are harmed, so it seems like a terrible idea to risk that happening.
Irazori
Yep, you are definitely an aldiot no matter the faction heinz. Because seriously, “No point in revealing the fact that the ghouls are of the races of Vida”? More like it’s because you and the rest of your fake peace party don’t want to face the repercussions of the scandal you’ve gotten yourself into. And if you’re so worried about what would happen if Van’s nation would do after or if Van died, what makes you think that it wouldn’t happen if you did it now by defeating him? Seriously, you aldiots may have some insight on what MIGHT be the worst case scenario, but just unilaterally made it the only possible future. A future which you aldiots made it become reality even quicker by continually thinking it won’t because you moronically believe it will go your way. And let’s not forget about the fact that even your new party members of the fake peace faction are recognized as “Vida’s mortal enemy” by the title system.
Dyneamaeus
Honestly, Heinz would make for a solid protagonist in any other story. He’s kind and sincere, but he’s been brainwashed his whole life and (likely thanks to his guider job,) is only just now starting to challenge what he’s been taught. And it’s too late. I mean, the obvious answer to his current dilemma is to help Van ascend so his alterations to Undead can be made permanent, but due to how twisted Alda’s faction has become the idea doesn’t even cross his mind.
Chiu ChunLing
Heinz had his “call to heroism” when Darcia was being hunted, captured, handed over to a fanatic (literally by Heinz’s own hand), tortured, and finally executed.
If he’d done more than offer a half-hearted verbal protest, like say kicking Bormack Gordan in the nuts from behind and taking off with Darcia, or even listening to her side of the story before handing her over, he would indeed be a solid protagonist for a story.
But he didn’t, and he’s never done anything to make up for that failure…not even honestly admitting it.
Till he willingly confronts that he could have done something and didn’t, he’s not protagonist material. At best he could be a literary anti-hero, not the “Dark Hero” popular culture mistakes for an anti-hero, but the pathetic sub-human struggling with (or merely wallowing in) his lack of redeeming virtues that is NOT popular because…it’s not a protagonist.
Heinz is really just a villain desperately (and fairly successfully for a time) covering up his crimes. He’s a well written and believable villain, I’ll grant that much.
Randy Rando
You’re wrong in thinking that he never admired that handing Darcia over to Gordan was wrong. He didn’t do anything in the moment because he didn’t have the time to truly think about what he was doing and question its moral justifiably before Darcia was already dead, and when he finally finished thinking it through, he almost immediately took action by declining the noble’s invitation to a party to recount his “heroic” deeds and fleeing the country. Even when Schnider realized that Alda was wrong after he met a scylla, the only thing he did was confirm that Alda was wrong by meeting more members of Vida’s species until he got strong enough that he no longer had to fear removal by the Empire, and even then he didn’t publicly speak out, only taking covert action until he had somewhere to run where he knew he’d be totally safe. Although Mr. Ketchup isn’t going quite far enough in his attempt to liberate Vida’s species, he took action immediately. Both Schneider and Mr. Ketchup’s actions are highly praiseworthy, especially considering the conditions they were raised in. I’d say Schneider’s actions are a bit better, Mr. Ketchup’s took a lot more bravery. He doesn’t seem to have entirely cemented his new mindset as the only correct and just way either, shown by his willingness to accept gouls and admit that Vandilieu is a better savior to Vida’s species than himself. His current plan of action is also a cautious one, being to gain the strength necessary to defeat Vandilieu but only do so if Van doesn’t have good answers to his very reasonable concerns.
bookworm12
Excuse me, Heinz’s actions took a lot more bravery than Schneider’s? Are we reading the same story? He declined to recount his ‘heroic’ deeds at a party because it would have been super awkward to listen to constant praise and relive events that he was feeling uncomfortable/guilty about. And fleeing the country was part of getting away from that guilt and starting over. Not sure I would call that ‘immediately taking action’. And since arriving in the Kingdom where Vida’s races are less openly persecuted, Heinz barely did anything to help Vida’s races. He saved Selen and kept her around as a mascot and spoke openly about his desire to coexist with Vida’s races – but only in a place and setting where it wouldn’t get him into any trouble. He still went out and slaughtered Ghouls, majin, vampires, and other Vida’s races without getting much or any confirmation that they were committing acts of evil. On Schneider’s side, you said he ‘only’ confirmed that Alda was wrong by meeting with other members of Vida’s races until he got stronger and never publicly spoke out until he had a safe place to run. Schneider meeting with other members of Vida’s races and confirming things WAS taking action (incidentally, an action Heinz never took). Then he started taking steps to evacuate the innocent members of Vida’s races to safer areas and intercept requests to exterminate them so that no one else would kill them. That was the best he could do while in the Amid Empire since he would have been executed for heresy otherwise and the empire would have followed up with destroying the Vida’s races’ villages they knew he’d hidden. He also rescued Zod, Lisanna, and others and incorporated them into the party, whereas Heinz might have killed them on sight because they were a scary pure-blood vampire and evil god. Again, Heinz took action right away in the sense that he immediately ran to where it would be safe to talk publicly about his feelings and where he wouldn’t be forced to kill all members of Vida’s races, and then he got stronger by killing some members of Vida’s races even while grandstanding about Alda’s peaceful faction. By no means did this require more courage than Schneider’s undercover actions.
As an example, consider 2 different people in Nazi Germany. One person makes friends with Jews and starts running an underground railroad to get them to safety. Publicly, he’s an assassin, but he just uses that to explain where all the Jews are disappearing to as he leads a double life. The other person was working at one of the death camps. Although he didn’t personally pull any switches or shoot anyone, he helped herd Jews into the gas chambers and helped remove the bodies afterwards. He finally realized this was wrong and ran away to Argentina, where he adopted a random Jewish orphan and made grand speeches about the horrible things Nazis are doing in Germany (while not admitting his part in it). On the side, he helps the police hunt down gypsies, gay people, Chinese – any ‘undesirables’ who are not Jewish. Heinz is like the second person. How exactly is this brave?
Hobbes
@bookworm12 EXCELLENT response my friend! Couldn’t have said it better!
To sum your great analogy at the end up: Heinz isn’t truly evil, but he refuses to truly go out on an unsafe limb & take a stand against what he KNOWS is wrong. Being a silent onlooker to BS is simply acting as an accomplice. And Heinz is much more a willing & able accomplice than a silent, powerless onlooker.
EdgarJTC
So we have to kill him because there’s a danger that when he dies in the future the monsters and Vidas races will rampage at his absence. That makes sense to me.
lazygeko
This is actually quite common throughout history. Ending potential problems before they become actual problems is common for governments.
Chiu ChunLing
What’s common is for governments to overlook the things that actually will be problems and instead do things that end up causing more problems than they were supposed to solve.
ObserverBias
… Except it would already be a problem, because they would be causing the issue they’re worried about. If they attempt to kill him and /fail/, they prove that humans suspect too heartily and need to be put in a hole by themselves to figure ish out. If they attempt to kill him and somehow /succeed/, they suddenly have literally all of his followers to face, who would be fully justified in taking rageful vengeance upon humanity.
kuraba susumu
these hypocrite heroes in this kind of story is always like this
it’s always “what if the worst is to happen” with them, without realizing that what they are doing is the one leading to worst-case scenario to happen
why don’t you just try to be equal with the demon king to bring them to a standstill while preserving both side’s rights instead of just trying to control or destroy the “bad” side?
lazygeko
The biggest problem for them on negotiating a truce is that the basic first step on Van’s side is their deaths. Hainz even said it in their last meeting, that even if he did wrong he cannot die yet. He’ll make up for it later.
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, but Van offered to just let him quit and not continue the Trial, and they chose to fight to the death over it even though it was very clearly explained that the only POINT of continuing was to train to kill Van and everyone he cares about.
It’s not like there wasn’t already plenty of evidence that was the real nature of the Trial, either.
bk3k
Well the trial is also making them stronger, regardless of its theme. What you chose to do with your own power is your choice at the end. So no reason to quit the trial either way.
I mean he’s still a shithead, but that isn’t why.
Chiu ChunLing
The trial is specifically designed to awaken Bellwood, a genocidal tyrant who is largely responsible for everything that went wrong with the world after Zakkart managed to turn the tables on Guduranis, including almost losing the war and coming within spitting distance of humanity being driven extinct, which Vida averted by creating new races to serve as a buffer against expanding Devil’s Nests.
The motive for awakening Bellwood is nothing more or less than to destroy Van personally so that everyone he loves can be exterminated, regardless of the fact that this will remove the only thing that’s been keeping humanity alive so far.
I’m sorry, but saying that this is justifiable “because it’s a way to get stronger” is entirely beyond the pale, and is easily answered by saying “eating souls/gods is a way to get stronger too, therefore it is always justified regardless of there being any other reason.” Of course many of those who fear Van do so exactly because, if THEY could eat souls to get stronger, they would do so without regard for any other moral considerations.
ScorpionXX121
I feel like van is going to eat demon lord in future bit by bit cos shitty god of reincarnation who shall not be named will keep giving people parts of DKs soul. While Van just enjoys free meals.
ObserverBias
Paranoia god only had the two fragments of DK to begin with, though, the [memories] and [soul], didn’t he? I think I vaguely remember a spoiler concerning the soul, but I don’t think it can be partitioned in and of itself.
Humble Bumblebee
“What if he becomes the Demon King in several thousand years?”
Yes, since power corrupts then everyone with power should die before it corrupts them. That’s a perfectly rational and not at all retarded thought, Heinz. 😐
Tejing
Yet somehow that “everyone with power” never includes the one thinking it or his friends…
Humble Bumblebee
It doesn’t, does it? How odd.
Reading anything about Heinz’s thought process gives me a such a headache. The conclusions to which he leaps, the sheer and unmitigated hypocrisy, is just staggering.
Dyneamaeus
The part that annoys me is there’s always actual logic behind Heinz. He just never seems to actually follow that logic to its conclusion.
“We should try to understand and live in peace with other people > ‘other people’ should include anything that can communicate, not just the ones my god hasn’t blacklisted.”
“The future of Vandalieu’s kingdom is extremely uncertain, and extremely likely to devastate most of the planet when it collapses > WE SHOULD PROBABLY WORK WITH HIM TO PREVENT THAT RIGHT?!”
*Sigh* At the very least I can stop worrying that Heinz is going to drink Alda’s kool-aid. He’s definitely an idiot, but I can forgive his stupidity because he does seem to be trying to think for himself. I’d rather he just be dead so he stops wasting screentime, but assuming Bellwood doesn’t eat him I think we’re stuck with him, and he’s nowhere near the most frustratingly stupid enemy in this series.
widecrusher
wonder if endgame is Rodcorte saying fuck it and trying to purge Lamda by resurrecting the demon king before
remembering that he can’t actually leave thanks to Van
Humble Bumblebee
However you’re imagining this will go down, the true endgame is a thousand goddamn times better.
Chiu ChunLing
While we know that Rotcortex can put parts of Guduranis into a soul before sending it to Lambda, I doubt he could resurrect Guduranis entirely, at least not safely and easily. It took Gufadgarn thousands of years to create a very humanoid vessel, and that used the Dungeon function of generating monsters. Rotcortex seems to be limited to working with ‘normal’ species rather than highly magical ones. Also, he’s scared of what Guduranis might do to him before he could send him to Lambda.
So I don’t seem him resorting to this without a fairly involved plan, like maybe reincarnating a bunch of souls each with just one part of Guduranis and letting them reassemble themselves after they’ve been sent down to Lambda. It wouldn’t need to be Bravers either, he could maybe do it with just any old souls.
Of course, Alda would freak out and probably stake him if he did that, but as long as Guduranis killed all the people in Lambda who know about Rotcortex, he’d stop being a god of Lambda so he could probably escape.
Doc
Yep, Edgar definitely a ticking time bomb
“…what he leaves behind will be more dangerous than the Demon King”
I mean what Van is leaving behind is lots of humans and Vida races being in peace with one another.
Also, Van didn’t unite many of the races in the boundary region. They were already on friendly terms with one another. The only races Heinz sorta has a point on is undead without Van’s influence would likely be dangerous. And there are a bunch of demons in Van’s dungeon that could conceivably go rogue and attack people if Van wasn’t around. But other than that, each nation of Vida races was doing just fine for tens of thousands of years without Van. Van’s empire just made things more convenient for the member nations, that’s all.
And the whole “but he could go evil some day” is such a copout reasoning. Heinz, you “could” go evil one day. You don’t make major decisions that impact the lives of entire races because of something that could possibly happen thousands of years later.
Mr. Nowhere
The problem with Heinz is that he hasn’t grown as a person since his time with the five colored blades. He tells himself he has because he protects Selen, but that’s pure guilt. He hasn’t made any meaningful changes. He advocates for peace between Alda and vida’s races without really thinking about what that means in a practical sense. He ignores the systemic problems that races like the Scylla have to endure. His justice only extends to the vague concept of ‘that seems wrong so it must be made right!’ He doesn’t pause to think of the consequences of his actions. He just casually assumes that doing something that feels like justice IS justice.
The worst part, is that when he’s given information that conflicts with his world view, information that forces him to think about his past actions, he doesn’t make any kind of meaningful change. He just decides, ‘I’ll do better next time’ and stops thinking about it. I bet you the next time he encounters ghouls, he wont attack them, but he’s not going to stop others from doing it. Then he’ll find out they’re migrating to Vidal and will be conflicted again about what the right thing to do is. Let them go and strengthen the demon empire’s forces more, or attack them now and kill a bunch of immigrants.
Doc
I’ve seen these statements before, but it’s all kinda nonsense
First off, considering Heinz went from killing Darcia and other Vida races to not killing them and advocating for them to some degree IS a major change. Whether it’s out of guilt or not is irrelevant. A change is a change.
Secondly, you talk like there’s only two extremes. Either Heinz does absolutely nothing. Or he solves all systemic issues in society immediately. That’s the only way Heinz can prove he’s done something.
Slowly trying to improve people’s perceptions of Vida races might not be the most efficient or effective way of helping them but it’s also not nothing and is in general a “good” direction. Especially since he’s operating from a severe lack of critical information coming from Alda’s side and not Vida’s.
As Heinz himself says, Van is in a far better position than he is to unite Vida’s races and fight for better treatment.
No, Heinz problem isn’t that he doesn’t change. You do touch on his actual problem, however. It’s that he thinks his sense of justice is “correct” and superior to anybody else’s sense of justice. Despite being aware that Van has done far more to protect both normal people and Vida races than he has and that Van is far more capable of bringing peace to everybody than he is, he’s still adamant about killing Van on the off chance Van decides to go against literally everything he’s done so far in like a thousand or so years. I call it the Ben Affleck Batman in Batman V Superman school of flawed logic. “If there’s a 1% chance he could be evil, we must take it as an absolute certainty and take him down”
CyberDre
The greatest flaw with Heinz is also what makes him a very interesting character and that’s his Hubris, it’s a trait with Archetypal heroes in Fantasy especially the Isekai genre, the problem is he doesn’t realize he has it and he doesn’t realize the gods of his own religion also possess it.
This chapter made me appreciate his character even more, as well as the series as a whole, he has enough information (albeit bias) to deduct Van isn’t evil, given that Mill would have to share information on Van’s allies too, it’s not a stretch to assume he also knows what figures like Schneider and his crew have been up to, so he knows there were alternatives to his way of doing things, at least now. He accepted Van would be a better person to unite races , he understands he has time to do this , he understands that it’s working and that he has several gods and subordinates willing to bring it into fruition, he understands all this and accepts it .That being said he understands all this but still chooses to consider Van might grow bored or get drunk with power becoming just like Guduranis one day, a completely logical what if scenerio given human leaders are like that sometimes. Also his plan to get stronger so as to stand his ground against Van is logical, the problem is he has been shown time after time despite being shown or given information enough to make him question his actions so far, he still chooses to ignore them and justify his actions so far.
This makes him a very interesting character to me, this Hubris is what made Alda and Bellwood turn against Vida and her faction, this Hubris is what made Vida separate from Alda, this Hubris is what drives Asagi and Hiroto, it’s what drove every character to do what they do in story, well everyone of importance.
I feel he’ll realize and accept his mistakes sincerely when he meets Bellwood face to face, and see how he’s really like,maybe the reason why he didn’t meet Alda is because he wouldn’t have hesitated to leave Alda if he had seen what he really thought of humans.
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, basically Heinz is the kind of character who thinks that he has plot armor to ensure nothing he does could possibly be wrong. Hunting and capturing Darcia and handing her over to Bormack wasn’t wrong cause it was legal. Bormack torturing and executing her wasn’t Heinz’s fault cause he washed his hands of it.
Taking the Trial to become the successor of Bellwood, AFTER carefully studying the truth about all the Champions and realizing that Bellwood was absolutely the Champion of genocide and suppression of innovation, was ‘necessary’ to ask Alda’s will. After being trained intensively to kill Van and all his friends, INCLUDING human friends, he still thinks that continuing the Trial is so important that he MUST prevent Van from wrecking it at all costs.
Let’s do a quick bit of math here. Van can only even wreck the Trial if he has the power to destroy a dungeon created and maintained by the gods. Otherwise he’s just saying he’s upset about Heinz and party training to kill him and all his friends. Did Heinz simultaneously believe and disbelieve Van?
The more pertinent issue is that Heinz has no reason to continue the Trial other than to gain the power to kill Van and everyone he cares about. There are no questions left for Alda to answer, the contents of the Trial so far ARE the answer, and Van has helpfully explained. The only possible reason to fight Van to keep the Trial intact is because Heinz wants to kill Van and everyone he cares about. That’s the only thing he’s gonna get out of the Trial.
Then after fighting Van and losing, the gods explain to him in person that yes, just as Van said, just as the Trial demonstrated at every turn, Alda’s will is that Heinz kill Van and everyone he cares about, and the only purpose of the Trial is to give him that power.
…
And he STILL decides that’s enough reason for him to complete the Trial. Cause he’s “The Hero”, this is HIS story, and he has plot armor against ever having actually done anything WRONG.
Gonna call him Heinz Rex from now on.
bookworm12
I think the biggest change Heinz has gone through is that he has gotten stronger. He never liked killing members of Vida’s races without ranks, like dark elves, titans, and beastmen, so he moved to the kingdom where 2/12 duchies are ruled by a titan or beastman. The only good thing he’s doing there is cooling down the few Alda extremists a bit. He’s still attacking other members of Vida’s races and when it comes down to titans from Taloshiem who have been illegally enslaved for 200 years vs the humans of the Hartner duchy, he was concerned about the taxes increasing if the mine closed down. But the self-righteous part is indeed the bigger problem.
regfurby
Rather than being passive, incompetent, hypocritical or self-righteous, I think Heinz’s biggest issue is that he’s unwilling to gamble on actions that are high-risk, unknown-reward, and have a very high chance of backfiring on his team (like rescuing Darcia and fleeing from Alda’s church).
Although Alda’s faction is trying to set Heinz up as some kind of hero, Heinz is fully aware of he and his team are just mortals, so as a responsible team leader, he’ll reject any irresponsible actions that would put them in unwarranted danger, even if this means he has to avert his eyes from the ‘lesser evils’ being carried out around him.
At the same time, these ‘lesser evils’ leave a bad taste in his mouth, so Heinz puts in the effort to make some changes. These changes however tend to be low-risk and tolerated by the established system (saving a Dhampir, establishing contact between the Peaceful Alda faction and the Vida faction), so immediate effect is negligible, and it will take many years of similar effort from Heinz before he can make a significant change to the system.
Heinz likely belongs to the group of people who believe that behaving themselves, enduring oppression and making small changes from within the system will eventually lead to a brighter future for everyone, while those who clash with the system are reckless fools who only endanger everyone.
Which is why Heinz opposes Van so much, because he sees Van as one of those reckless fools challenging the system; worse still, Van actually has the power to threaten the system, which means the system will fight back seriously and put countless innocent people in the crossfire. Regardless of whether Van’s changes are effective, whether he is successful or whether he manages to save many people, it doesn’t matter to the people who fail to be saved and are killed or sacrificed as collateral damage by the rulers of countries and Alda’s church in their conflict with Van. That’s not even mentioning the hidden dangers like Van losing control over his undead, getting possessed by the Demon King pieces and going berserk, killing Alda and Rodcorte (as far as Heinz knows, the world may just explode when they die), accidentally wiping out something important (the ‘ordinary wasteland with a crater’) and so on.
Unfortunately, Heinz’s understanding of Van is based on incomplete (and often incorrect) information, as well as a limited perspective (that of a regular Lambda human), so he doesn’t know that:
– The system is the one challenging Van, while Van is the one fighting back seriously
– Van is becoming an Elder God, so the usual failures of a mortal ruler don’t apply to him
– Van’s people cheerfully ignore his protests and build statues to worship him
– Van takes responsibility for his actions even when they are inconvenient for him
– Van’s guidance can cross worlds and even transcend death
– Van has forgiven some hated enemies (ex-Bravers, Mikhail, Vampires…)
– The Demon King fragments like Van more than Guduranis
Overall, I believe Heinz is someone who genuinely wants to protect the people around him and make the world a better place (not someone whose focus is on boosting his own ego and reputation), but due to the constant misinformation being fed to him and his own limited perspective, he ends up making all the wrong conclusions about Van and going down the wrong hole in a brave (but misguided) attempt to prevent the world order from collapsing.
Chiu ChunLing
Basically, Heinz Rex wants to be “The Hero” without having to personally take any big risks or make any waves.
Same as El Braver.
Not wanting to personally take big risks or make waves is fine…Van doesn’t want to take big risks or make waves either. The difference is that Van accepts that life is risky and full of waves anyway, and doesn’t try to set himself up as “The Hero”.
Sailon
I think you forgot the things he said in this chapter i mean fear that the undead lose control is valid but figth and kill him will only cause this to happen and star a war agaist someone because he can became evil is ridicule, i mean you expect he only accept his death? No he was feed many false information but he admitiled that Van save more people then him and other things so he have some valid information but just like alda he only see what he whants to see and believes only his way is just, he is hipocrate, he indeed care about the people close to him, but this dojlnt justify cause a war about something the may happen, just think like that country A started a war agaist country B because is possibily to coujtry B started a war agaist them in the future, this is put the car before the horses is stupidy, honesty the fact they put they ideals and the people important to them is similiar to Van, but Van dont start war with people for no reason, for things that may be without any prove nothing Van did or that he see Van did justify his ideia that Van will destroy the wirld and start a war agaist Van that will definitily even involve the gods would only put the world in the danger that he supossodoly is trying to prevent
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Raidanzoup
What if I just… rubbed out the glue holding it all together? You’re telling me this piece of tape is all that’s holding things together? What if I just tore that right off.
Chiu ChunLing
But I’ll wait till the crucial moment when the fate of the world hangs on that bit of tape.
kuraba susumu
but glue is poisonous if you eat them, therefore we have to rub it off clean even if it risk collapsing the whole thing down
Silverdrem
Thanks for the chapter! I really like this new development for Heinz, using him to question legitimate problems with the way how Van does things, rather than just make him into a one-dimensional hateable enemy. It makes me wish they can still somehow end up on the same side, but given how much Van hates him, that’s unlikely.
Also Guduranis will probably incite Edgar to hate Vandalieu and perhaps even completely take over his soul and once Bellwood descends on the Five-colored Blades he will probably force them to fight Vandalieu regardless of what they want.
Chiu ChunLing
If Heinz were willing to switch sides because of sincere moral qualms, he’d have done it when he realized that Darcia was just a young mother trying to protect her baby and Gordan was a vicious ideologue torturing her for that ‘sin’.
He’d have grabbed her and nigerundayo with anyone willing to follow her, and he’d have been one of Van’s best friends for the last decade or so. Which would have been a great story.
But this is not that story, by Heinz’s own choice.
Silverdrem
Abandoning your entire faith is not such an easy thing though. When you have been taught something is “right” your entire life and never been made to question it while you are still young it usually takes a lot to change your mind. Heinz realized his beliefs were not perfect when they led him to do something horrible but he still believes only some parts of it are wrong and hopes to somehow change Alda’s mind about them. As readers, we know that’s impossible, because we know what Alda is really like, but he still wants to believe the god he has always worshipped can be made to see his mistakes.
Chiu ChunLing
When your ‘faith’ is that torturing young mothers to find and catch their children is “righteous”, not being able to easily abandon it when it’s happening right in front of you is a character issue.
And yeah, I’ve set mousetraps and observed how the mice getting caught in the traps suddenly get much younger at some point, after which there are no more mice. It’s not because I have some religion of hunting mice, it’s because I don’t want mice in my house. I don’t pretend that this is anything other than my selfish desire to have less inconvenience in the form of mice getting at my food supply. I’m completely like Marshukzarl when it comes to mice, or flies, or any number of other species that I’m willing to kill just for my own convenience.
But I’m not like Heinz who has to make it an issue of “Justice” and can’t figure out that Darcia is more like a person than a mouse.
Jonathan Hurd
What’s funny is you can kind of see what the path might have been if Heinz had realized the mistakes being made and tried to help by looking at Schneider. Both were believers of Alda faced with hurting Vida’s races. Heinz went through with it, but Schneider decided to help.
The thing that annoys me with Heinz is that he has very nice words. He has a lot of words…, but there is no action to back it up. They have excuses to why they couldn’t help ghouls, but it just all feels like more excuses to avoid responsibility for their lack of action.
I mean look at what Schneider has done. In the Amid Empire which is more anti Vida than the Orbaume Kingdom. He’s saved thousands of Vida’s races and worked to hide and protect them in a territory that actively hates them. He never made excuses like ‘Well the Kingdom is too big so I can’t do anything’. He decided to make a difference and did something.
Chiu ChunLing
Actually, I thought it over and Van’s early life doesn’t have to be all that much different if Heinz and the part of the party willing to follow his lead had rescued Darcia and come to pick him up. It would probably accelerate a few things by making them easier, but they’d still have trouble just running the border with the Sauron Duchy with Bormack in hot pursuit. It wouldn’t be strange if they decided to hide out in a Devil’s nest, very possibly with Ghouls.
After that, the difference is mostly just degrees of hardship. And that Van prospective harem would probably include a few of Edgar’s kids…okay, what I meant to say was that Martina would probably still be alive.
If they placed a higher priority on opening the Hartner tunnel so the Five Color Blades could return to human society (and lay groundwork for Van), they could even have picked up Selan and so forth and been running around advocating for better treatment of Vida’s races.
But when the decision point came, when Darcia was being tortured to death right in front of him, Heinz wasn’t willing to do more than make excuses for why it wasn’t his fault.
Doc
@Johnathan Hurd
I’m not really sold on the comparison between Heinz and Schneider. I mean for one thing the time scales are completely different. It took a long time for Schneider to come around to helping Vida races and he wasn’t saving them day 1 of his decision to help them. Heinz left the Mirg-Shield nation upon his realization but unlike Schneider he never had the hard cut away from Alda. But even still he advocated for Vida races. I’m not a fan of this all or nothing argument people keep making to criticize Heinz’s actions. If he didn’t stop all racism in the few years he was operating in a foreign nation then that means he did nothing worth mentioning.
I feel like your argument also takes away from Schneider as well. Since you’re making it sound like just anybody with a bit of power to their name could do what he did.
Now of course Heinz could have done more. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that.
And there certainly are problems with his actions and his beliefs. I just don’t get this over the top reaction people seem to have of the guy which is not reinforced by what is actually written.
Chiu ChunLing
The problem is that Heinz Rex prioritizes looking like he’s doing something over actually doing anything. It’s true that he’s done what was necessary to look like he’s doing something, but he doesn’t do anything if it won’t help him look good.
Schneider does stuff without maybe even caring enough about how it looks. Or rather, he gets that it looks different to different people.
Like Van.
For Heinz, the people who don’t agree that he looks good are just not people at all. They’re just props to use to make himself look good by defeating them and then giving a self-justifying account of things.
Doc
I mean no. You say that first sentence like nobody is allowed to make mistakes in their life or change because of those mistakes. It’d be like blaming a member of a cult for doing the things they were brainwashed to do. That cult member later leaving that cult and working to undo damage their cult might have caused but still yelling at the person for stuff they’re no longer doing or because they didn’t fix 100% of problems their cult caused right away.
Heinz has not been written like the scumbag you seem to be trying to force. He’s been written as a person trying to do what he thinks is the right thing but is led astray. As Van is the protagonist and is provided much more information than Heinz is, of course they’re going to be in conflict with one another, but won’t be because Heinz thinks Van or all Vida races shouldn’t exist like Alda believes.
bookworm12
Except Heinz isn’t leaving Alda’s cult. He’s staying in there and continuing to act under the assumption that Alda is right about mass genocide. He’s like some lower rank member of the cult who decides to work his way up the ranks as an exemplary cult member in order to convince the leader to scale back on the sacrifices. Sure, he has limited information and ability to act compared to Vandalieu, but he has no problem discriminating against most of Vida’s races. Someone once commented that he probably would have killed Selen’s vampire mother himself if he had the chance, which I feel is supported by Heinz’s thoughts this chapter about how all vampires are evil. When those extremist followers of Alda tried to kill Selen, Heinz bent over backwards to spare their lives, but he slaughtered entire villages of Vida’s races without confirming their guilt or trying to talk to them. Putting their fighting ability aside, Schneider visited Vida’s races to gather more information and compared what he found to Alda’s teachings before picking a side. Heinz just moved over to where it would be socially acceptable to not attack Vida’s races without ranks and has relied on biased surface level information for all of his decisions. Even when he was face to face with Vandalieu in the dungeon, he ignored the valid questions Van was asking him and said something like: “Do you realize what you’ve done? You increased taxes and removed sources of income for those poor human residents!” He honestly thought his passing knowledge of the situation was enough to lecture Van and didn’t give a s*** about the people Van saved from real suffering. That was the point I really began to look forward to Heinz’s death. He’s not the most evil character in this or other novels, but as others have pointed out, he is to some extent a racist, hypocrite, and coward (not willing to take risks) and is extremely self-righteous. Van has every right to kill him for revenge and to protect himself and his loved ones. Personally, I think breaking his soul would be going too far, but Van really has no choice since he knows that Alda will just resurrect Heinz as a heroic spirit and send him out to fight again if he doesn’t break Heinz’s soul.
Chiu ChunLing
Heinz Rex isn’t the most obviously evil character, but he’s probably the most effectively evil.
Rotcortex is obviously evil but hilariously incompetent at actually using his power for evil.
Alda is determined and committed to evil and makes committing evil the core of his religion. But he’s still pretty cornered when it comes to doing anything effectual against Van.
Bellwood was a great evil in the past, but he got kicked in the nuts (or whatever) by the Evil God of Sin Chains and isn’t really doing much other than being talked about anymore.
Heinz makes evil look good. He convinces people that evil is justice. And he gets the job done, then makes the justifications stick. He’s the most effective at evil because he’s obfuscates his evil and gets it widely accepted.
Phantom Knight
Lol. I agree with you, Sicerdrem. These qualities are some of the things that make this novel so great. 👍👍👍
Yup yup
I’m more of the opinion, the demon king soul dust would slowly eat up Heinz soul while strengthening itself, then when they meet Bellwood, he will strike his soul then eventually eat it up then it will become a fight between the old and new demon king
bookworm12
Edgar is the one with Demon King soul dust, not Heinz. I like the part about Edgar attacking Bellwood, but I think it is more likely that Heinz gets guided by Bellwood and takes Edgar out himself.
Chiu ChunLing
Maybe once that happens, Guduranis will infect Heinz Rex and lurk in his soul very comfortably since what they really want isn’t so different.
Sailon
To only the hate Van has about Heinz even Heinz are not thinking of working with him because in the future he can became evil he prefer to prevent thant risked is ridicule Heinz only follow his own sense of justice as the right thing he is full of conteadition and hypocrosy
Chiu ChunLing
So…Heinz doubles down. Vandalieu MIGHT become the Demon King in thousands of years, so let’s kill him now, and just gloss over the vast numbers of women and children of Vida’s races you’ve ACTUALLY slaughtered, including his mom.
LycanChimera
Not at all. He says that Vandaliu is potentially the most dangerous thing in the world. So he’ll get strong enough to talk to him and make sure he is actually a good guy. If not he cuts him down. If he is he recognizes Van is a better hero than himself and would probably try to join him.
Lord Rin
Oh please. You actually think there’d be a calm discussion between these two? Heinz can’t handle any criticism about himself and lashes out with violence claiming the other is evil while Van has legitimate grievances with the way Heinz does things and is incredibly blunt in how he brings them up.
Chiu ChunLing
I don’t see Van as incredibly blunt, because the only reason I wouldn’t be that blunt is because I would be way more pointed.
Phantom Knight
I am glad that someone can analyze or recall such facts without bias. Heinz is certainly making a rational decision.
However, Vandalieu-sama is literally not sane and might not allow any type of discussion to develop. The radical differences in their beliefs will also mean that both parties will need a long discussion to make proper compromises……
…..Again though, we know such a discussion is not going to happen. Lol
Chiu ChunLing
Alda has done far more harm and brought the world far closer to destruction than Van ever will. Not in a hypothetical future, but for tens of thousands of years.
bookworm12
He thinks he’s making a rational decision. And did you forget what happened in the dungeon? Van tried to hold a rational discussion before the fight and Heinz didn’t hold up his end. He couldn’t argue against Van’s criticism and made sloppy accusations of his own based on biased information.
Chiu ChunLing
That’s true, and the most important thing that Heinz Rex ignored is that Van told him what Alda wanted, which is supposedly the reason for taking the Trial. Of course, the nature of the Trial had already made it extremely clear if Heinz were playing attention, the entire message of the Trial was that Alda wanted him to kill Van and everyone who likes Van, Van just pointed out that he’d talked to Vida and the other gods and that was indeed Alda’s agenda for Heinz.
So the only remaining reason to continue the Trial was to follow Alda’s agenda rather than question it.
And that’s what Heinz chose.
Strowy
And he also appears to be ignoring the whole “Vida’s Mortal Enemy” title he got.
You’d think that having one of the great gods declare that they think you suck in the most aggressive way possible might cause at least *some* introspection that your choices are stupid, but I guess not.
Dyneamaeus
See, this right here is an excellent example of the REAL problem. Propaganda. The other great Gods are considered lesser to Alda by people in the current time period. Most were too weak to survive the big battle, Vida went insane right after, and all of them have been mostly silent for thousands of years. Hell, even Vida’s own clergy aren’t used to her actually answering their calls.
Meanwhile Alda’s been not just present but directly involved in rebuilding the world for that entire time.
Chiu ChunLing
It’s kinda hilarious that Luves was the one to explicate the problems with this…though not as funny as how he fainted in terror right afterwards.
Dragão Santo
EXATO
Lord Rin
Oh golly gee who could have ever expected that the powdered soul fragments of the Demon King would begin to slowly take over Edgar? /sarcasm
Once again Rodcorte ignores the warning signs that something might go wrong and just thinks it’s probably nothing. First the seals on Guduranis’ soul fragments begin to react despite how they are supposed to be the strongest seals and Rodcorte brushes it off as just being because Van has taken in too many fragments. Second is that Edgar is starting to experience Guduranis’ memories. Even though Rodcorte can’t read his mind and thus can’t see that Edgar is seeing Guduranis’ memories, you would think he’d at least monitor him for a while because of the powdered soul fragments and notice that Edgar is acting strange but nope, Rodcorte just slapped the soul fragments into Edgar and sent him on his way like nothing.
Ugh once again we see Heinz and his BS excuses. All that talk about how they couldn’t do anything for the ghouls because of certain factors but it’s really all just excuses so that they don’t damage their images or that it’s too much work. Then Heinz keeps talking about what-if scenarios almost as if they are certainties. Plus Heinz has spent the better part of 4 months in Mills’ realm being fed information about Van that while it’s almost all assuredly biased information should still have had some objective information contained within that Heinz had months to ponder on and draw conclusions but nope too much work, let’s just double down on Van needs to be stopped because of what-if scenarios and continue Alda’s dungeon of genocide training against Vida’s faction.
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, once Edgar’s friends are specifically asking him if he’s had any weird effects on his memories or whatever, and he’s like “Hmmm, got a bunch of weird memories in there, but let’s not tell them that.” It’s definitely Guduranis in an Edgar-suit, just like Birkyne.
I’m going to defend Rotcortex on the charge that he should notice something strange about ‘Edgar’. First off, his soul was super-damaged, to the point where it’s unprecedented for him to come back to life after that. So of course he’s going to have aftereffects. Second, Rotcortex is not an expert in how living humans behave, he primarily handles souls between lives and has no reason to really care about how people act when they’re alive. Of course, it was his decision to create the situation with Van and the Bravers by meddling in the affairs of the living, so the situation as a whole is his fault. But that just means he shouldn’t have caused all of this in the first place. And of course he shouldn’t have put Guduranis bits in Edgar, there should be no “let’s watch and see how it goes” on that even if he were an expert on human behavior.
The problem with the ‘excuses’ about them not being able to help Vida’s races or even the humanity of the Alcrem Duchy the way Van has is that they’re true, and yet Heinz wants to eliminate Van even though he’s can’t be replaced by Heinz or anyone else. That’s basically admitting that protecting the Vida races is simply not a real priority for him…being recognized as Alda’s hero is. When Alda was having an image problem because of his own damn doctrine, Heinz tried to fix it. Now that Alda’s having an even worse problem because of Van, Heinz is gonna fix that instead.
And the reason he’s stuck on being Alda’s hero isn’t even because he thinks Alda is right, just because Alda was the god with the most power before and Heinz has done too much harm to the Vida faction and races to become their hero, especially when they already have Van.
Triduo
Rodcorte should have reacted more to the fact that the seal on Guduranis’ soul fragments has weakened after Edgar’s soul has been patched up. ‘Cause if the fragments reacts to Vandalieu, of course powdered fragments would, too !
Paradoxe : To be honest, I’d react more to the fact that Edgar’s having memories from Guduranis coming to him than Rodcorte focusing more on the influence Vandalieu has on soul fragments. -__-
Fair enough… Speaking of fairness, sounds like Heinz’s soul therapy had good effects on his mind. I mean, he recognizes that he’s inferior to Vandalieu without being toxic about it and he actually raised good points about Van’s reigning : What if Van were to disappear from Lambda ? Would the Demon Empire of Vidal survive or would the loss of their ruler revert them to chaotic factions ?
Paradoxe : For Van to disappear would require someone higher than Gods or for Van to migrate to another world. Also, I’m pretty sure that the Demon Empire of Vidal could survive as long as Death-Attribute Mana still exists and can be produce.
Chiu ChunLing
The point that Heinz is (deliberately) overlooking is that Van has thousands of years to fix things, and he’s already SOLVED resurrecting the dead. Yeah, maybe he hasn’t been told about pseudo-reincarnation and so forth, but he should know that it took Van all of a decade to resurrect his mother. If Van didn’t prefer living people to Undead, he wouldn’t have done that. Actually, if he didn’t prefer living people to Undead, the entire population of the Amid Empire would be Undead by now.
Heinz probably had help overlooking these very obvious facts about Van, but he still chose to overlook them himself.
Triduo
I wasn’t saying that Heinz was right. I was just saying that he raised some good questions…
But yeah, I guess that his faith is just making him think that Undead are bad and people raising Undead are just as bad…
Chiu ChunLing
It’s not just his faith, it’s also his experience, and the experience of most people who aren’t friends with Van. But he’s not open to the experiences he could have had as Van’s friend cause he’s not willing to consider Van as a person rather than a prop in “the legend of Heinz, the hero of legend.”
bookworm12
I like the last point in particular. In order for Heinz’s worst-case scenario to occur, Van needs to die. So, Heinz is planning on killing Van to remove the possibility of Van losing control after dying. That’s if Van doesn’t listen to his ‘talk’ and get rid of his allies that might lose control after his death. And did Heinz forget that Alda wanted Van dead just for being born as a Damphir?
C3pJ0e
I like that Heinz admits his ways were wrong and sees that MC actions for what they are but hate the fact he keeps making excuses for his actions.
When Edgar gets strong enough or meets MC again, I see the demon king taking over
LycanChimera
Way I read it: Less excuses and more legitimate points he wants to discuss with Van. The issue is that he has never had a proper conversation with him and probably won’t unless he is strong enough to survive the attempt. Afterwards if he is satisfied with Van being a good guy he’ll probably try to aid him. If there does seem to be a risk of Van going bad he’ll stop him.
Chiu ChunLing
If Heinz had enough of a conscience to save Darcia from Gordan even though it would get him in trouble, he wouldn’t ever have been Van’s enemy in the first place.
That was Heinz’s defining character test, and he flubbed it. Just imagine that scene from Heinz’s perspective and just try to justify him watching Gordan torture Darcia for hours and finally burn her at the stake cause she refused to sell out her child.
Dragão Santo
and in the manga they still blame her while drinking to celebrate the “subjugation success”
Metazoxan
THe issue is that it’s all empty talk.
He says he wants to “discuss with Van” but he’s never going to accept anything van says. He’ll insist Van essentiall surrender “For the good of the world” or something along those lines. You can see the signs of this result in his behavior up to now.
Heinz’s problem is he has enough of a concience to feel regret over his actions but lacks the determination to make any of the tough decisions to actually do anything about it.
The example with the ghouls is the perfect example. He knew they weren’t monsters but make excuses to push aside the task of doing anything about it. ALthough some of his excuses do ring at least partly true it’s still no excuse for killing them like mere monsters without trying. He just decides it’s useless and uses that to absolve himself of guilt.
He does this everytime until the truth hits him in the face so hard he can’t run from it but the end result is very little change. When he faced his sins against Darcia he didn’t change his goal of trying to become a famous hero. He just decided to do it as a moderate follower of alda rather than a typical one.
Lastly with Van he’
bookworm12
Thank you! Heinz has reasonable questions but already thinks he knows the answer and has no intention of listening to Van. I feel like there’s another option with the ghouls: he could have forced his way into their villages and tried to convince them that involving themselves with humans is not in their best interest. If he’s strong enough to massacre Majin villages, he could easily force ghouls to hear him out, and this may have prevented further human casualties and taken away the justification for adventurers to attack ghouls. Better than doing nothing at least. He didn’t have a problem with beating the Alda extremists who tried to kill Selen and pressuring them into joining the peaceful faction.
Jonathan Hurd
The funny part is those questions are legitimate, but I think they’re being aimed at the wrong person. I mean try aiming all those questions at Alda the God of Stupidity and you start to wonder why no one is questioning him. What’s funny is if we wanted to describe someone as Demon King Alda would fit the bill way better with his indiscriminate killing spree lasting over a hundred thousand years. As well as back stabbing your own ally.
Another problem with the questions is that its nice and all to ask, but that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t listen or understand the answer. Heinz is just full of prejudice against Vida’s races being monsters that would never listen. He assumes the only thing keeping Vida’s races from killing each other is Van. We’ve seen though that beyond the Boundary Mountain Range Vida’s races have been living in peace with each other for over a hundred thousand years. What about humans though? Humans have been killing, stealing, and hurting each other for those exact same hundred thousand years.
Chiu ChunLing
Well, we have seen some gods leaving Alda’s faction already (in addition to the ones who declined to join much to the disbelief of Alda’s lackeys). I’m guessing that we’ll see more following suite now that Bashas etc. have demonstrated that it’s a real option.
The problem with asking Alda such questions has been mentioned, nobody wants to get a stake in their face, and everyone capable of considering the question feels that’s the most likely answer.
kuraba susumu
imagine being responsible behind making a world stagnate for a hundred thousand years
no development, no improvement to life quality, not doing anything to slumbering threats (sealed evil gods and DK fragments), and many other things
aldumb is incompetent and we all know it
Entropy
Thanks for the chapter, can’t wait to see how long Edgar stays himself. I suspect the pieces of the demon lord will infect his soul and eventually take it over as fragments of the demon lord do to their hosts. I find it funny that Heinz is worried about a possible what if situation. What if Van becomes evil or if they succeed in killing him. Heinz could become evil just as easily and Van is effectively immortal at this point. Funny how the Alda peaceful fraction are still unwilling to do anything to help Vida’s races. Maybe letting people know that ghouls are part of Vida’s races would allow some to welcome them or treat them better than monsters. I am curious how Heinz and company feel about being labeled Vida’s divine enemies. Talk about problems with wanting to coexist with Vida’s races. Apparently Heinz and company still care more for their image than their ideals. I see why Van discarded the peaceful fraction as worthless. Rather than having all of Vida’s races killed on sight, the peaceful fraction wants them as either slaves or pets. Makes me curious about what will become of the dhampir when Heinz is long dead, will she be kept as a pet of one of his descendants?
unmellow
Other problems with his logic is the fact that the people beyond the boundary mountain range have been at peace long before vadaleu showed up baring the undead but even for them the residents of taloshiem have been standing on guard in their city not looking for humans to eat at all
Even if vandaleu did die we know he can become a lich and mortals have become gods before
As for him becoming evil can we talk about the fact that Bellwood and Alfa both are indisputablely by definition racist and therefore evil?
But I guess the devil you know vs the devil you don’t for this idiot
unmellow
Alda* and fascist* autocorrect
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, I mean “racist” can also apply to some of the attitudes of the Vida races towards humanity and even each other, but at least they’re not trying to genocide anyone out of existence.
Heinz turning to evil isn’t exactly a hypothetical future scenario here.
Jonathan Hurd
I do love how Heinz spends some much time questioning the ‘evil’ of Van, but never thinks to point those questions at Alda and human society, lol.
The thing that really pisses me off with Heinz is everything he does is human centric. He didn’t bother announcing Ghouls are Vida’s races because for human society wouldn’t accept it. He never thought to secretly help protect them like Schneider did. He never thought to try and protect the loss of lives. He just gave up because he couldn’t do it publicly.
What I love is he says ‘well ghouls wouldn’t trust me so I don’t need to help them’. Well of course they wouldn’t trust you if you never do anything to help them! You win peoples trust by action not words. Throwing in the towel at the very starting line and still saying you ‘care’ about Vida’s races is just laughable.
Chiu ChunLing
I don’t mind Heinz being human-centric anymore than I mind anyone else being their own race-centric. Even Van says of Jennifer’s past actions towards Ghouls and Majin that he doesn’t know who’s at fault with enough certainty to lay blame. But Heinz doesn’t think that way at all, he categorically denies any other race the right to exist for their own sake rather than as a convenience for humanity.
That’s not just ‘centric’ anymore. It’s supremacist.
LycanChimera
True the so called “peaceful” faction is not worth much and I hope Heiz and his group can come to understand that.
no1
When I saw the title of this chapter I expected to see some pathetic excuse from Heinz or some self righteous justification and I was right, seriously his words would piss a lot of people off. Wow was not expecting to get some dialogue from the og demon king. So he could feel Van taking his fragments and that Van’s job was great demon king, the hits just keep coming for Guduranis and he can’t even do anything about it. Rodcorte just realizing, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to put those soul dusts into Edgar’s soul, LOL. Here’s a thought, does anyone else think that Rodcorte is stupid enough to give one of Guduranis soul fragments a temporary physical body so that he can use him to destroy Vandalieu? So Edgar got a flash of memories from the soul dust, that might be a problem in the future. Thank you for this chapter Yoshi, great way to start the volume and almost can’t wait to see the next chapter tomorrow. 🙂
Entropy
Knowing Rodcorte, he might let the demon lord soul go without informing Alda. Rodcorte cares solely about gaining souls for his reincarnation circle so he might use the demon lord to cleanse the world of anyone that knows of him and then unplug the world or he might try to control or bargain with said demon lord. I suspect Edgar’s fate will be similar to what happens with beings that come in the possession of demon lord fragments, but maybe slower. Maybe Rodcorte will pass the demon soul into a powerful braver.
Triduo
That would be going too far. Even for Rodcorte. O___O <I mean… He's self-focused, lack empathy, paranoid and never find fault in his actions but letting the Demon King roam free would just put him in even more danger of getting erased.)
Lord Rin
That hasn’t stopped him before from seriously considering letting Guduranis loose. It’s really only a matter of who he fears more -Van or Guduranis- that is keeping Rodcorte from freeing Guduranis and I think eventually his fear of Van is going to win out and lead him to do something stupider than normal..
Chiu ChunLing
I mean…Rotcortex’s track record on avoiding doing things that will get him erased isn’t so good.
LycanChimera
Is it so self righteous? Everything Van has built is dependant on his guiding abilities and he is the potentially most dangerous being in the world. Hans has also never had a conversation with him and only knows what the gods have told him. Despite that he wants to actually talk with Van to get his answers to these issues and get a measure of his character. If the kid is legitimately evil or corrupt he needs to be able to take him down, and if not he needs to get strong enough to even survive trying to talk to the kid.
Chiu ChunLing
Um, yes Heinz has had a conversation with Van, that’s how he ended up in Mills’ care. Heinz lost that argument so badly that it hurt him worse than having his soul partly devoured, so I can understand why you think he’d try to forget it, but it definitely happened.
There are other people who can seriously talk to Van if he’s really a threat to all life in the world…like say the goddess of Life and Love, Vida, or her incarnation, who happens to also be Van’s mom.
By saying he can’t leave it to them, Heinz is basically adopting Alda’s position wholesale and any ‘conversation’ he has with Van will be a hypocritical pretense like his ‘conversation’ with Vega. The difference is that Heinz knows Van can talk back.
bookworm12
Like Chiu ChunLing said, Heinz did have a conversation with Van, if you can call it a conversation. Rather than conceding Van’s point that his group should have confirmed the situation with the Majin and other Vida’s races before slaughtering entire villages, Heinz tried to lecture Van about what he did in the Sauron and Hartner duchies. While relying on rumors and half-baked knowledge (and displaying how much he favors humans over Vida’s races). What is this if not self-righteous? Assuming that Van or his allies do not realize the potential fallout from his guidance disappearing or have a plan for that scenario is also self-righteous. Speaking of which, what will Heinz do if his guidance of the Alda extremists disappears while he’s in the dungeon, and they try to kill Selen again? Van’s not the only one who guided potentially dangerous beings.
Chiu ChunLing
Holy cow, I don’t think enough like Heinz Rex to even have considered that, but you’re right. If Heinz’s party had failed the Trial of Zakkart, Selan’s life would’ve been at stake. The same would apply to the Trial of Bellwood’s successor that appeared in it’s place, and yet they just left her in the care of a bunch of people who only aren’t killing her cause Heinz is ‘the Chosen of Alda’.
Chiu ChunLing
Knowing Rotcortex, it wouldn’t surprise me if he drops more DK soul fragments on Edgar somehow. Right now, it’s looking like all the Bravers most likely to die in Rikudou’s schemes (that Rotcortex is allowing so as to get them killed) will be in the ‘refuse to fight Van’ faction. Yet with his great interpersonal genius, Rotcortex has failed to notice this and will be completely taken aback, then feel like he ‘has no choice’ but to further ‘strengthen’ the Five Colored Blades.
bookworm12
Whenever Rodcorte shows up he does something incredibly stupid or unfair to cover up his past mistakes. And it’s only going to get worse, considering the situation in Origin and his new deal with Alda about mind-wiping the braves before they reincarnate.
Chiu ChunLing
I feel like Narumi would just get reborn normally, there’s less than zero chance of her accepting a contract to kill Van, and her ability and personality is an outright liability in a fight with Van. The moment she uses Angel on anyone who knows what’s going on (whether Van’s friends or foes), all the ‘benefits’ of erasing her memories would be undone. Even without her personality, that ability is a self-destruct mechanism for anyone fighting Van (or Kanako). “Okay, so you can give one of our Heroes an ability to instantly be converted to Van’s worshipper? Next!”
El Braver…would temporize on whether or not he’d be willing to face Van in order to keep his memories and abilities. I don’t know if he’d succeed, but even if Rotcortex knows that he’s not super committed he might see it as unlikely that he’d be able to reconcile with Van. Still, I lean towards him ending up mind-wiped and used as a pawn by Alda.
Joseph and Mari (and maybe some other Bravers) are an interesting case because it seems likely that the Gods of Origen would help them evade Rotcortex like Legion. If Van’s tracking what’s going on in Origen, he could be all ready to reincarnate them the same way (only with separate bodies this time).
Just imagining Rotcortex’s reaction over that brings a smile to my face.
Thinking about it, there’s no definite reason that someone has to be guided by Van for that to work. They could probably do it to anyone who gets killed in Origen at this point. But I think Van’s really over Narumi…though she is still Mei-kun and Hiroshi’s mom….
I don’t see him doing it with El Braver, though.
Gawain
At last, Heinz shows that he is not like Bellwood! Heinz is actually using his brain and thinking a bit! Him realizing that Vandalieu is actually a good ruler, and is very kind to the people in general (except for those that piss him off). It’ll be interesting to see how Alda reacts to Heinz using his head…
On a different note, interesting that Bellwood had the God Descent skill. Heinz and gang are in for a surprise when they realize that Darcia can summon Vida.
Volume 12 is starting off on a high note!
Lord Rin
But he’s not really using his head though. After he brings up all those good points of Van, he immediately starts talking about what-if scenarios and using that as a reason to continue the rest of Alda’s dungeon which we know explicitly has been designed to present a skewed view of Vida’s faction and encourages mindless slaughter of Vida’s races. Heinz even says he wants to get stronger to stop Van as if it is an assured thing that he’ll turn evil. Heinz is basically the same as Asagi.
LycanChimera
I mean Van is potentially the most dangerous being in the world. He wants to actually talk to him before deciding whether he should support or stop him. It is just that he will never be able to if he isn’t strong enough to survive the attempt. He is being very reasonable here, that just doesn’t mean he is automatically on the MC’s side.
Chiu ChunLing
Heinz really believes, or EVER believed, that Vida is a legit goddess of Life and Love and that her races aren’t monsters, Van already has plenty of people to counsel him on ‘not being EVILE.’
Heinz is either completely insincere about his ‘Reconciliation’ stance or he’s completely insincere about his justification for needing to talk to Van…or BOTH.
More concisely, he’s lying.
Jonathan Hurd
If Heinz was ever serious about the Reconciliation he would offer his head to Van, or at the Very least apologize. Stop making excuses why it was okay to kill Van’s mom and tell the poor kid you dun goofed and you are sorry.
Sankyuu
Heinz’s arguments: He is too powerful, if he is turn evil, there will be no one to stop him.
Alda on the other hand is practically all that he feared Van would turn into. He just like to believe that Alda is and will be eternally good simply because in comparison to our self-denying God boy.
bookworm12
@Jonathan Hurd. For some reason I can’t reply to you. Good point, I forgot that Heinz never even apologized. If he actually feels sorry, he should say so.
atharv saraf
I agree I think last fight will be bellwood ,asagi and Heinz vs vandelieu
Tejing
Edgar’s already getting Gudu flashbacks… Oh boy, here we go.
.
So basically Heinz is following in Asagi’s footsteps? It’s actually a somewhat less hostile stance than I expected from him. The way Heinz talks gets on my nerves a bit. He makes things sound decisive even while the objective content of what he’s saying is totally wishy-washy.
LycanChimera
The objective content of what he’s saying is “let’s keep our minds open to the good and bad, get strong enough to actually talk to van and decide things from there.”
Chiu ChunLing
The objective CONTEXT is that he’s lying to try and make himself look good.
Jonathan Hurd
The objective content of what he’s saying is “There’s a lot of good Van has done, but he could just maybe go bad so we have to go beat him up!”
I mean what is the point of asking these questions in the first place? It’s nice to say you are going to confront Van with morals… but then what? If he disagrees with you are you going to kill Van and start a blood feud between Vida’s races and humans worse than the current one? What if he agrees with you? Are you going to say ‘thanks I just wanted you to consider that.’ What is the end goal here?
Why do THEY need to be the ones asking Van these questions? Why do they need the power to beat Van to ask them? This just reeks of an excuse for them to continue get stronger so they can prevent their deaths.
Chiu ChunLing
Well, they already basically made this decision back when Van told them what the purpose of the Trial was and that he wanted them to quit. The only real reason for them to refuse to just die and go back to the town was cause Van was gonna wreck the Trial so they couldn’t complete it, the only reason to complete it was so that they could kill Van. They didn’t need to ask Alda what the deal was anymore, the Trial so far had amply answered that question, especially combined with Van’s testimony. Alda’s policy was to have them kill Van and exterminate the races he was protecting, which they’d have figured out pretty easily if they actually wanted to know, even before Van confirmed it.
The only thing that changed from then is that they found out that it wasn’t going to be easy or safe to do what Alda wanted, that there was a real risk they’d fail even with all the help Alda could give.
Kiriaru
Rodcorte was finally right about something in the beginning of this chapter.
Telephotoleek69
Heinz is right about the guiding of the monsters some of them may remain the same but the undead, and tamed monsters will possibly change back unless Vandaielu guiding still works after his death. But the gods and others have said Vandaielu maybe turned into a god upon his death. Anyone else’s thinks their maybe a problem about the those in Valen.
Chiu ChunLing
Yeah, even though Heinz might not know that Van is already a demi-god and thus immortal, he’s really stretching to ignore the likelihood of Van becoming a god in thousands of years. Also, he was explicitly TOLD that Van has solved the problem of resurrection and immortality. Even if Van did die, the only way he wouldn’t come back as an even more powerful and immortal version would be massive intervention by Alda’s faction and Rotcortex.
asdsdsffdhffggkl
at the pace van gets stronger, he will become a god in about 5 years lol.
Chiu ChunLing
He’s already a god, just one that has a body and thus can do things that can’t be done without a body.
Doodads
Valen was Vandalieu’s dad, the country’s name is the Vidal Empire.