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The previous emperor of the Amid Empire, Marshukzarl von Bellwood Amid, had been an exceptional ruler. But even he was surprised when he received that report back then.
“Hmm… Earl Drefas has been killed by an adventurer – the A-class adventurer Schneider, no less,” he murmured.
To be more precise, he wasn’t yet surprised when he first received the report. Earl Drefas, the one who had been killed by Schneider, was known for his atrocious deeds; he had been a potential lizard’s tail for Marshukzarl whose name had been quite high up on his mental list of foolish nobles that he wouldn’t be sorry to cut off.
Thus, Marshukzarl didn’t find it surprising that Earl Drefas had incurred Schneider’s wrath and been killed. It was likely because of some foolish thing he had done for some stupid reason that Marshukzarl couldn’t understand.
Well, Earl Drefas’s death wasn’t something that Marshukzarl would mourn, but it was important to consider how to make use of it. But before he could properly begin thinking about that, he realized that the military officer who had given him the report was still there, looking at him with a pale face.
“What is the matter? Do you still have more to report?” Marshukzarl’s secretary asked.
“Yes, sir! After bludgeoning Earl Drefas to death, Schneider and his companions continued their rampage against the earl’s knights and the guards and adventurers who rushed to the scene! The number of casualties is still increasing!” the military officer reported.
“… What?” said Marshukzarl, questioning whether his ears were working correctly.
The earl had been bludgeoned to death. That wasn’t surprising.
But Marshukzarl had assumed that this was an assassination. He had assumed that Schneider had carried out this crime in some unseen place or through methods that didn’t arouse suspicion, and that this report was reaching his ears because the empire’s exceptional guards and knights had carried out an investigation to identify Schneider as the culprit.
“I cannot believe I am about to ask this. But surely, you are not telling me that Schneider bludgeoned Earl Drefas to death in a busy street in broad daylight, in full view of the public?” Marshukzarl questioned the military officer.
“Yes, Your Majesty! That is exactly what he did!”
Marshukzarl pressed a palm to his forehead and looked up at the ceiling.
Adventurers of A-class and above were superhumans among superhumans. Although they looked no different from ordinary people, they were monsters with such strength in combat that they could slaughter a thousand soldiers as easily as twisting a baby’s wrist.
Thus, those who became adventurers of A-class and above were capable of doing almost anything they set their minds to. Bludgeoning a nobleman to death in broad daylight, in full view of the public, would be child’s play.
But examples of such incidents in the past were surprisingly few in number, because society had systems in place to stop violence carried out by such powerful adventurers.
First, there was the law. Breaking the law would cause them to lose their lifestyles, relationships, and social position. Even such monsters would not be able to bear such consequences, given that they were people living in society.
Next, there was the Adventurers’ Guild. If a member committed excessive violence and broke the Guild’s code, it would put up commissions for its other members to subdue the offending member. Even monsters would wish to avoid having to fight against other monsters.
Finally, though this was only true for large nations, there were elite forces that possessed strength equal to or greater than A-class adventurers.
Other important factors included the adventurers’ own consciences and the trouble they would cause for their family and friends if they were to commit crimes.
Thus, A-class adventurers rarely committed crimes recklessly. When they did, they would use their well-trained skills to make sure that their crimes were never discovered.
But Schneider and his companions were trampling all over the systems that were in place to keep them in check, in the present continuous tense.
“… Can we not put out a commission for other A-class adventurers to suppress them?” Marshukzarl asked.
“The Guild is already working on it, but it seems that this will take some time. The A-class adventurers that are currently available are all apparently inferior in skill to Schneider,” the military officer said.
There were differences in strength between adventurers, even if they were of the same class. Such differences were the most striking between A-class adventurers – after all, A-class represented the top of the Guild, other than S-class adventurers.
Within the A-class, there were both former B-class adventurers who had barely advanced to A-class, and those who possessed the strength of S-class adventurers but hadn’t yet made the accomplishment needed to be promoted to S-class. Could an adventurer in the former category be considered to be the same as an adventurer in the latter, just because they were both A-class adventurers?
At the very least, their abilities would certainly not be the same.
“This is a problem. At this rate, the empire’s knights and guards will all be beaten to death. But I would also like to avoid having this nation’s outstanding adventurers kill one another,” said Marshukzarl.
Naturally, he was concerned about losing knights and guards, but he was also concerned about the loss of adventurers. Adventurers weren’t even directly employed by the empire, so they might not even fight for the empire during times of war. But they were valuable fighting forces against monsters.
Having high-ranking adventurers kill each other in order to maintain public order would be pointless if this caused monsters to grow in number and cause a disaster in the nation.
“Your Majesty, how about deploying the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords?” suggested Marshukzarl’s secretary.
The Fifteen Evil-Breaking Swords were the most elite force in the Amid Empire. A certain number of them were available at all times to suppress any potential coup d’état, even those attempted by multiple individuals with the strength of A-class adventurers.
It was likely that they would be able to defeat Schneider and his companions.
“That certainly is an option, but… how many of them do you think we will lose?” Marshukzarl, directing this question at nobody in particular.
A voice came from somewhere to answer. “Even with all fifteen deployed together, at least five would be lost. With the number that is currently available… it is possible that the shockwaves produced by the battle will destroy this castle before it reaches its conclusion.”
The secretary gasped in surprise, looking around for the owner of this voice… the commander of the Fifteen Swords, the Zero Sword, who remained invisible.
Marshukzarl made his decision. “Earl Drefas may have been a noble, but it would be utterly foolish to make such a sacrifice for the sake of a man that I considered less than a lizard’s tail – a man that I was looking for an opportunity to get rid of as quickly as possible. Tell Schneider and his companions this: ‘Surrender peacefully, and carry out a task for me as a punishment. If you do this, you will eat more extravagantly than I do for the duration of your stay in prison.’”
“U-understood!” the military official said with a bow, hurrying back to the scene to carry out this command.
Schneider and his companions’ response to Marshukzarl’s message, delivered by the military official, was, “Well, if you insist.” And so, they surrendered peacefully.
At this point in time, Schneider didn’t yet have any ambitions to stage a coup d’état or subvert the nation. He had simply gone on a rampage after witnessing Earl Drefas kill a slave that was a member of a race created by Vida for a stupid reason.
Schneider wasn’t obsessed with his health at this point in time, either. He, Dalton, and Merdin ended up enjoying extravagant meals and then left the castle to carry out Marshukzarl’s absurdly difficult request in exchange for having his crime of murdering the earl pardoned.
Marshukzarl expected Schneider to succeed in carrying out this absurdly difficult request. However, he was under the assumption that he would lose one or both of his companions in the process, or suffer some significant injury that would weaken him.
Once Schneider was taught a painful lesson, he would become more prudent and not do any more foolish things in the future. Or so Marshukzarl thought, but Schneider and his two companions returned almost completely unharmed. They had carried out his task of slaying an Elder Dragon that had turned into a monster with spectacular success.
Marshukzarl was shocked.
“Are you satisfied now? If you like, I could carry out more tasks for you in advance so I can kill ten more idiotic nobles later,” Schneider boasted.
Marshukzarl’s relationship with the Storm of Tyranny, led by Schneider, would continue after that – but it was certainly not a friendly relationship.
On the surface, he and Schneider may have looked like two people who were in different positions but acknowledged each other deep down. Indeed, that was how they were depicted in operas that were performed in the imperial capital. This couldn’t be helped, as a feud between the emperor and an S-class adventurer wasn’t something that could be made public.
Marshukzarl and Schneider’s true relationship was that they were enemies. Not the simple kind of enemy that could simply be killed on sight – each was a complicated, troublesome enemy to the other.
At this point in time, Schneider was concealing the fact that he was a worshiper of Vida, and he had been working in secret to protect members of Vida’s races that lived within the empire. Marshukzarl was an enemy because the persecution of Vida’s races was a part of his administrative policies. But Marshukzarl was the emperor, and Schneider knew that killing him wouldn’t be enough to bring an end to that persecution.
Even if he were to kill Marshukzarl, the nobles and the empire’s people wouldn’t change their way of thinking, and the persecution of Vida’s races wouldn’t stop. The only difference was that Marshukzarl would be replaced by another emperor. And if the Orbaume Kingdom were to take advantage of the chaos caused by a change in emperor to invade, the members of Vida’s races living in the empire would be in an even bigger predicament.
In the Orbaume Kingdom, the worship of Vida had been allowed since the nation’s foundation, and human rights were given to those of Vida’s races, with the exception of races such as Vampires and Majin. But the kingdom was not a nation that had been founded for the sake of Vida’s races. They simply recognized Vida’s races as people… in the same way that the poor who died of starvation in the slums were people.
The Orbaume Kingdom wouldn’t wage a war on the Amid Empire out of compassion for the impoverished members of Vida’s races that lived there.
It was said that the weak were the first to fall victim in war, and in the Amid Empire’s case, that would be the members of Vida’s races.
That was why Schneider could not kill Marshukzarl. He and Marshukzarl kept up this farce while thrusting knives towards each other’s backs, and during that time, he made preparations to protect Vida’s races and his allies.
Marshukzarl couldn’t kill Schneider, either. Schneider was simply too powerful. It was possible that he could kill Schneider by sending the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords after him, but that would result in the certain loss of at least half of them. Even if they succeeded, it would be a pointless victory if it came at such a cost.
Thus, he had no choice but to wage his secret feud against Schneider and his companions while buying time – time to gather the fighting forces needed to kill Schneider, and to create a situation where the empire would not be at risk even if Schneider was killed.
But this was a battle that Marshukzarl lost.
If he hadn’t abdicated as emperor, if he had continued to rule, Schneider would likely have killed him or dragged him off his throne by force.
Schneider’s party had doubled in strength with the addition of two new companions. The fighting forces gathered by Marshukzarl amounted to far less than that.
Not only that, but Schneider had fought tenaciously in his secret feud with Marshukzarl, and he had succeeded in creating a way to protect many members of Vida’s races.
And with Vandalieu’s appearance, the direction the world was heading in was –
“Hmm?” murmured Marshukzarl, the pen in his hand coming to a halt as he looked up.
He could hear noises of destruction that shook the entire building, and – even more loudly – a familiar-sounding angry bellow.
“Hey! Still alive, former emperor?! Or have you kicked the bucket already?!” a voice shouted.
“If I were dead, I think calling out to me would be rather pointless,” Marshukzarl replied.
A moment later, the door flew off its hinges as it was kicked down from the outside. Broken fragments of the door scattered across the floor, along with Marshukzarl’s guards – or to be more precise, the knights that had been stationed here to monitor him.
“This facility was built using taxes collected by the empire. I find your decision to dirty it with blood, entrails, and pieces of flesh to be quite questionable,” said Marshukzarl.
“If you’re going to complain, how about complaining about the fact that I just killed your knights? They belong to your precious empire, don’t they?” said the person who had entered the room – the exact person that Marshukzarl had expected.
“The ‘Thunderclap’ Schneider,” Marshukzarl mused. “As you are well aware, I do not see much value in the lives of knights who have not sworn loyalty to me. And I am the former emperor. The empire is not very precious to me now.”
Schneider gave an exasperated sigh. “I suppose this is what happens when someone who derived nine-tenths of their personality from their position is removed from that position. They end up like you. You’re so lacking in ambition that I feel sorry for you. It’s like you’re a living corpse.”
“Indeed, it’s like I’m half-dead,” Marshukzarl agreed. “So, have you come to kill me today? Or have you come to capture me alive so that you can make use of me?”
“Good guess,” said Schneider, grabbing Marshukzarl by the collar and lifting him into the air.
As a member of the imperial family, Marshukzarl had been taught the basics of combat. But training of that level was entirely negligible to Schneider.
“My business is the latter,” Schneider said. “I’m going to carry you out of here alive because I want to make use of you for the cause of defeating the current Emperor What’s-his-name… Well, once we get to where I’m taking you, you might be turned into a Live-dead or have your brains replaced with those of someone else, but that ain’t any of my business.”
“… So, Vandalieu is behind all this after all.”
“Yeah, though I’ll be asking for approval of this plan after I’ve already carried it out.”
It seemed that Vandalieu had less control over Schneider than Marshukzarl had initially thought.
“I feel like it would be easier for me to simply have you kill me here, but it cannot be helped. I mean, I was so unoccupied that I was writing an autobiography. I suppose I have the time for you to take me to hell,” said Marshukzarl.
“Why are you acting so arrogant, in this situation? Well, not that I really care,” said Schneider.
Carrying the ambitionless but still-arrogant Marshukzarl, Schneider left the castle that had been chosen for Marshukzarl’s ‘recuperation.’
And with these events, the Amid Empire’s turmoil only deepened even further.
Meanwhile, in one of Vandalieu’s Inner Worlds, a group of people had gathered. At first glance, they looked like they had nothing in common.
“I’m Bulgo.”
“My name is Jadal.”
“It is very nice to meet you. I am known as Zarzanote.”
“I’m Matthew. Nice to meet you!”
“… I am Erpel.”
Hiroshi found himself overwhelmed by the people who had just introduced themselves to him.
“N-nice to meet you,” he stammered. “I’m Amemiya Hiroshi.”
He knew that this was another world, and that there were races of people other than humans. He’d already met people like Legion and Kanako.
Jadal was a Ghoul girl, which he could understand. But he felt overwhelmed by the sight of a black-skinned Goblin wearing ninja clothes and a muscular person with the head of a crocodile.
“What’s the matter, Hiroshi? Could it be that you’re nervous because you’re meeting everyone for the first time?” said the Vandalieu of this Inner World, confused by Hiroshi’s behavior.
As the one responsible for setting up this meeting, he felt like he needed to do something.
But the problem that had occurred was one that was destined to happen from the moment this meeting was planned, and there was nothing that could be done about it.
“What’s the matter, you ask… ‘You should learn how to get along with other people your age,’ you said, but these people are clearly adults!” Hiroshi protested.
“I turned four years old this year!” said Bulgo.
He was one of Braga’s children, and as a Black Goblin, he had matured to adulthood in less than a year after birth.
“I am turning five years old this year! And I am still a child!” said Zarzanote, opening his mouth to show rows of sharp teeth.
He was of the first generation of Ammit – a race of people with the heads of crocodiles. He was already as tall as an adult human male.
“And I never said I’d be introducing you to children of your age,” said Vandalieu.
“You didn’t?! Then why’d you deliberately word it that way to trick me?!” Hiroshi exclaimed.
“So that you could learn that people of different races have different physiques, even if they’re the same age. And although it is important to get along with children of your age, it’s also important to get along with adults,” said Vandalieu. “This is necessary to make sure you don’t end up being a loner in the future like I used to be, Hiroshi.”
Vandalieu’s meddling to ensure that Hiroshi didn’t become a loner in the future was burning like the flames of hell.
TLN: The Japanese phrase for ‘meddling’ used here is 余計な世話を焼く which literally translates to something like ‘burning unnecessary trouble.’ Because the verb is ‘burn,’ ‘like the flames of hell’ is used as a simile here to emphasize Vandalieu’s needless meddling
“Is it really that necessary?” Hiroshi wondered.
“W-what game do you want to play, Hiroshi-kun?” asked Bulgo.
“O-oh, yes! How about we play house?” suggested Zarzanote.
“Hey! Both of you are acting all suspicious now just to go along with what Vandalieu says! And kids my age don’t play house!” said Hiroshi.
“Yeah, I guess we’re a bit old to play house. I only play house when my younger brothers and sisters want to,” said Matthew, agreeing with Hiroshi.
“I stopped playing house last year, too,” said Jadal.
“You saved us, Hiroshi or whatever your name was!” exclaimed Erpel. “I thought I was really going to be forced to play house…”
“Phew… Umm, you three are normal kids, right?” said Hiroshi.
“Yeah, I’m a pal of Vandalieu’s! And this is Nightwing, my familiar!” said Matthew.
“I’m Grandma Zadiris’s granddaughter. I’m going to be one of Van-kun’s many brides when I grow up,” said Jadal.
“… No, I am a Pure-breed Vampire, and despite my appearance, I am an adult,” said Erpel.
Matthew was an orphan from the orphanage in the city of Morksi, and he had come here along with the orphanage’s director. Jadal was Basdia’s daughter and Zadiris’s granddaughter. Both of them were children. Matthew was somewhat older than Hiroshi, but he wasn’t an adult yet.
But Erpel was an adult Pure-breed Vampire – or at the very least, he considered himself to be an adult.
“Huh?! You’re lying!” Hiroshi and Matthew shouted simultaneously, not believing him.
Erpel began crying loudly. “Vandalieu, tell them! Tell them that I’m an adult!” he wailed, clinging onto Vandalieu.
“There, there. Let’s calm down and wipe those tears, okay?” said Vandalieu.
Jadal and Bulgo were aware that Erpel was an adult, but his behavior made it awkward for them to testify to that fact.
“Anyway, let’s play. It’s my first time coming to an Inner World!” said Matthew.
“Then let’s go to the amusement park! Gabriel and the others should be finished with their studies by now, so let’s invite everyone else, too!” said Hiroshi.
“A-muze-mint park? What’s that? Is it food?” asked Bulgo.
“I’ve heard of it before!” said Jadal.
The amusement park that Vandalieu had built in this Inner World, Exciting-Wriggle-Vanland (named by Hiroshi and Mei), was currently open to visitors. Most of the attractions were made of Demon King Familiars – which were split entities of Vandalieu – so it was a state-owned amusement park that was literally run by the emperor himself.
“Matthew, do you not need to watch the nuns’ practice first?” asked Vandalieu.
“Nah, I’ll watch with everyone else from the orphanage later!” said Matthew.
“W-wait! I am the leader, not Zarzanote or Bulgo!” said Erpel.
And so, Hiroshi spent a fun day at the amusement park with his new friends.
Meanwhile, Mei was being dazzled by the sight of everyone dancing on stage.
“Everyone’s amazing,” she murmured.
Vestra and Seris, the orphanage’s nuns who had become Abyssal Subordinate Vampires, and Holly, the orphanage’s director, were wearing frilly, sparkling clothes as they danced.
“Vestra-san, you have to smile more! And Seris-san, your movements are a little stiff. Holly-san, you’re doing great!” said Kanako, who was instructing them.
“W-what are we doing here?!” Vestra demanded.
“Umm, is there really a need for us to dance?!” shouted Seris.
“You two, we’re doing this so that we can see the children’s happy faces. It’s no different from forming a circle with the children and dancing with them. Am I wrong?” said Holly.
“You’re wrong about everything, Director!” the two nuns shouted.
“Save your complaints for after you’ve learned to dance!” Director Holly said, scolding them.
She had stopped damaging the skin on her face with drugs to look older, so she had gone back to looking like someone in her twenties.
The story being told to the public in Morksi was that Holly, the former director of the orphanage, had fallen ill and had embarked on a journey to a monastery in the countryside to recuperate. Her relative, whose name also happened to be Holly, had taken her place as the orphanage’s director.
Holly had never gained much attention from the people as the orphanage’s director in the first place, and the former director was quickly being forgotten. The people were even gossiping about the new young director, and there had been almost no problems with this backstory.
“It looks like there are no problems with the new model of all-purpose transformation equipment,” said Tarea, one of the people responsible for creating the clothes that Holly and the others were wearing, as she nodded with satisfaction while watching them dance.
Up until this point, all-purpose transformation equipment had been nothing more than metallic-looking body suits, and their function as defensive equipment and as magical media had been poor (by transformation equipment standards). The new model of all-purpose transformation had improved on those points and were able to be worn by wearers of a range of sizes. They were mass-producible transformation equipment that functioned at a reasonably high level.
“No matter how well Van-sama performs, there’s a limit to how much transformation equipment we can make that is tailored specifically to the wearer. But with this new model of all-purpose transformation equipment, each unit has exactly the same structure, reducing the amount of work that only Van-sama is able to perform! Mass producing them won’t be just a dream!” Tarea said happily with a triumphant laugh.
“And you can even change their color and add frills. It’s very helpful that they are also very versatile as costumes,” said Kanako with a nod. “Now then, let’s bring this lesson and practical test to an end, take a break, then begin combat testing.”
“Eh? Combat?” Director Holly repeated.
“Of course. This equipment serves as costumes on stage, but on the battlefield, it is combat equipment!” said Kanako. “We can’t call it a test without having you fight while wearing it!”
“You’ve gotten it backwards. You seem to have forgotten that you are wearing combat equipment as stage costumes,” said Tarea.
“Now then, Tarea-san, I’ll leave the next performance to you,” said Kanako. “Mei-chan will be delighted, too.”
“Wait – Wait just a moment!” Tarea protested. “I did not come here to dance –”
Kanako was leaving, taking Directory Holly and the nuns with her. Tarea was desperately trying to stop them, but one of the Demon King Familiars that were playing music spoke up.
“Well, I think testing the equipment yourself will be a good experience for you,” it said.
“Yes, Van-sama! Mei-chan, do you have any requests, perhaps?” Tarea asked.
“Can you do wriggle-wriggles?”
“Wri–?!”
Having gotten ahead of herself, Tarea had poked the bush and inadvertently increased the difficulty of the dance she would have to perform. But by performing a wavy dance, she succeeded in fulfilling Mei’s request.
TLN: This is the same ‘poking the push to draw out the snake’ expression from chapter 329.
Meanwhile, Vandalieu’s main body was thinking hard about how to reply to the second letter he had received from Selen, silently cursing the Five-colored Blades for encouraging her to send it as he wrote.
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NOVEL DISCUSSION
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graustier
Thunderclap Schneider is only A-Class?
Wasn’t he and his party supposed to be S-Class?
graustier
Ah, a side chapter that includes events from years ago.
That explains it. I should have finished the chapter before commenting.
My bad.
Chiu ChunLing
Actually, Marshkuzarl is writing his autobiography when the scene shifts to the present, so it could be inferred that the past is a portrayal of his reminiscence (it would be kinda weird if the content were exactly what he was writing, though if so I’d give him props for the honesty).
maxhh
he was reminiscing about the past when he was an A-class adventurer.
Seinvolf
Thank u always for ur great work…
^^…
Lord Rin
Marshukzarl was a well-written antagonist. He just made a single mistake of holding the Idiot Ball once. By sending Ervine and a few others of the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords to use violence to try to strong-arm Van into working for him as his first choice instead of doing some investigation of Van’s power first before doing anything it cost him the lives of all the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords he’d sent there along with some noble’s death and the retreat of his forces occupying the Sauron Duchy which gave the nobles dissatisfied with the emperor a good excuse to force him off the throne and install a puppet while at the same time Alda also used this opportunity to engineer an artificial prophecy so he could have the current pope replaced with somebody he could easily order around. Well now that Schneider has captured Marshukzarl to hand over to Van I guess he might become an unofficial political advisor to Van though I guess Van will have to kill him and make him undead first.
.
Heh. Erpel got grouped with a bunch of children because he looks and acts like one despite being thousands of years old. Also so Jadal wants to also marry Van? Damn, that’s the whole family line then in Van’s harem: Zadiris the grandmother, Basdia the daughter and now Jadal the granddaughter.
Chiu ChunLing
I don’t feel that any of Marshukzarl’s mistakes really qualify as “Idiot Ball” level. Yes, he did some really stupid things, starting with failing to reach some kind of tacit accommodation with Schneider and other proponents of better treatment of Vida’s races earlier, but they’re all “explicable” stupidity. And Schneider’s stupid joke about “If you like, I could carry out more tasks for you in advance so I can kill ten more idiotic nobles later,” genuinely put him in an extremely difficult position. From then on, he had to either accept that all of Schneider’s antics were being unofficially endorsed by him, or respond to them with all-out open war that would cripple the Empire even if it didn’t destroy it outright.
Keep in mind that Marshukzarl is intelligent enough to understand that the Aldiot policy of exterminating Vida races is national suicide because it’s impossible for humanity to maintain their habitation of the continent without Vida race populations to act as buffers against Devil Nest encroachment, but that it’s also impossible for humanity to be a dominant force in nations that totally reject Alda because they wouldn’t get the Divine Protections from him or his faction. Therefore, the Amid Empire simply cannot continue to exist without balancing between those extremes.
Of course, from a larger view, there’s no reason the Amid Empire should continue to exist, or ever have existed in the first place, since they could just become a Vida race dominated society. But that’s the fault of the gods, not of Marshukzarl. And from their perspective, they should be focused on the reality that even the distant islands where humanity retreated in their most desperate last resort would eventually become untenable without the Vida races and their gods. But that’s all genuinely above Marshukzarl’s pay grade. His concern is the nation he rules, he simply doesn’t have the knowledge or authority to plan the fate of the entire world many thousands of years into the future.
In that context, his failure to correctly thread the needle between the impositions of the Aldiots and the Vida faction is completely understandable stupidity. In point of fact, he ends up failing to appease either, which means he was probably genuinely trying for a middle path. Which was itself probably his main stupidity, but one that it’s unfair to characterize as an “Idiot Ball”.
RTOmega
“it was a state-owned amusement park that was literally run by the emperor himself.”
Lmao
MadMaxton
Marshukzarl’s disbelief and exasperation at Schneider murdering a noble in broad daylight is such a delight to read. XD
Also that dark dry humor “I mean, I was so unoccupied that I was writing an autobiography. I suppose I have the time for you to take me to hell,”. He may be an enemy of Vandalieu, but he’s certainly one of the most likable ones.
A wonderful chapter indeed.
FrogAku
The thing is (and it may be the ONE thing that saves Marshukzarl’s life!) it that it’s never Personal with Marshie. Even Schneider mentions it: He’s lived his life for his role as Emperor, certainly improving his own lot, but by his own standards doing well for the Empire itself. He was completely willing to secretly recruit Van earlier, despite knowing it would piss off his conservatives / Alda’s clergy, because it would have granted him and the Empire considerable power.
And when he couldn’t, and realized Van was a powerful threat BUT one that didn’t proactively work against him, he was more than willing to let things go – he didn’t actively target the villages of Vida’s people, arrange assassins, or anything else. He even hinted to Mirg and others to go out of their way to NOT anger Van.
Absolutely he did little to stop the existing prejudice, actions, and abuse of Vida’s people. He didn’t try to understand or work with Van. He’s not a hero, even in the sense that Heinz is doing what he thinks is “good”. He’s pragmatic, focused on himself and HIS empire. But he isn’t a monster.
And Van may well find him useful. Van’s personal domains, and his work as overlord is only going to continue to grow. I can absolutely see Van executing Marshie for his crimes, then, with his loyalty as an undead secured, and the execution having cleared the slate, immediately put him in position as a chief counselor to Cezare.
Libio
I absolutely agree. Van would have great use for someone like him and technically, role of prime minister is still vacate (there is only general who was forced to stand up for prime minister, because there wasn’t anyone better).
Libio
Thanks for chapter!
This chapter make think what if Van (and rest) didn’t reincarnated. What would happen, which way would world go?! First gods wouldn’t get prophecy about his arrival etc., so their actions will be different. They will not need to wait for him etc. What sides Gods are wouldn’t change, just their actions. For start Alda side is generally more passive side during this story, but they could be even more in this what if scenario. I remember that in one of first chapters with Alda, he just make decisions to switch focus on demon king army remains over Vida’s races. He believed that it’s better to take care of them first, before continuing war with Vida. (Them Vandaleiu happens etc.) So force of Alda will target evil God worshipers like vampires and evil gods themselves. They would have some targets. They would be of course much less attentive to morals problems and wouldn’t care about state of empire etc. On Vida side: Active great gods would probably focus on gathering strength, helping vida’s races and her fraction as whole and finding way to break seals of Alda and Demon king. While Alda is powerful with cheat power, he isn’t most creative or smartest of gods and gods of space and magic where able to overcome barrier that Alda and rest couldn’t. And goodness of knowledge did outsmart them all too. So these tree could find solution that Alda couldn’t imagine, like using demon king equipment technology to create very specific tools etc. God of Labyrinths also wouldn’t leave Vida’s resting place and probably would deal with all enemy evil gods that would dare do something in his territory. Now to empire side: they would still have Sauron territory, but with resistance active there. In shield nation, there is high level noble that wants independence for his country with connection with Vampires (they must know about his ambitions) and their S rank party is on Vida side wanting rebel. Their other potential S rank party would probably still leave to kingdom. Maybe later etc, but Heinz would start to feel dumbs when seeing problems of Vida races (actually, some Drampir should be born in place of MC, so they could leave as in original). They wouldn’t lose member in trial dungeon and some details could be different, like not saving Drampir girl or members of party and without Van, they wouldn’t discover Vampires organization, so they grow could be slower, but they would still grow. With great gods active and not sure how secretive they would be, they could manipulate things and give few blessings to some people, so not sure, if storm of tyranny would find Zod or if they get blessings from different great gods(one of them should see potential and give him protection). Anyway Alda’s peaceful fraction would gain its heroes in kingdom and would probably fight against local evil gods etc. (Wasn’t there evil God in magic book that was about to be released before Van eaten him?). Empire would face three/four treats at same time and probably would fall or lose big territory. First is rebellion of storm of tyranny. They goal would be creating nation for Vida’s races or something similar. Second would be shield nation independence rebelion, with vampires backing. They would probably use situation to try create nation controlled by them. They have one in past, so why not another, when they have opportunity. Another treat is kingdom, who would definitely want to hurt empire and take territory back, possibly backing independence rebelion etc. Lastly (and most unsure) is great gods churches rebelion against Alda church and teaching. In some subordinate nations is strong faith in these gods and this could create problems with Empire. Alone, they wouldn’t be so big problem, but with all that could be happening, there is good chance, they would unite with Storm of tyranny rebelion. I honestly want to see what would Emperor do in this situation. Probably cut loses and make deal with one troublemaker for sake of dealing with others. I can’t imagine him making any meaningful deal with kingdom, so he would make deal with shield nation about them having independence in exchange for dealing with kingdom and allowing him focus resources on different rebelion, or make deal with Vida side and either give Vida races rights (and suppressing Alda’s church, but he was already doing it anyway) or letting someone subordinate nations be Vida’s races ‘paradise’ and maybe independent, but not necessarily. Of course Alda could act, but probably not as much as he act now. There was saying that (?) heroic spirits doesn’t descend even if great nation is falling, so he shouldn’t care much for empire and if he did, he would focus on destroying shield nation rebelion, because it could create vampire controlled country and they are his main target for now. At least I imagine this would happen.
Chiu ChunLing
The fundamental problem is that without Van, the world is doomed.
Even Alda knows that his strategy of cleansing the world of ‘corrupted’ Mana (meaning anything originating from the Evil Gods, even after they become committed to maintaining Lambda) is going to take millions of years. But what he refuses to see is that, without the Vida races working actively to help humanity hold out, they only have a few thousand years before humanity is driven extinct by the expansion of Devil’s Nests. Marshukzarl is tacitly lenient towards Vida races not because he’s impious (though he is) but because it’s obvious even to a human intellect just from careful review of historical records that the Aldiot strategy of exterminating Vida races leads to national collapse…in other words this is something that has happened so often over the last hundred millennia that any competent national leader cannot fail to realize that holding the Aldiot churches in check is essential to national survival.
The major strategy of the Aldiot faction to minimize the damage of encroachment that humanity couldn’t handle on their own was Nineroad’s plan to concentrate it all on the Demon King’s Continent, but that was just buying time and the current condition of the DKC clearly shows that it had reached it’s limit. Even a modicum of intelligence would be enough to see that, in another hundred millennia, the entire world would be in the state of the Demon Continent or worse, which is to say, utterly uninhabitable to human populations not under the protection of Vida races. Peria estimates that it might be only a few dozen millennia.
Everything the Aldiots attempt would only make things worse, so if not for Peria forecasting Van returning through Rotcortex’s bumbling (caused because even he could see that the Aldiot strategy was untenable), Zuruwarn would have to go GET him, regardless of what it took.
Thus there really is no “if Van doesn’t show up” scenario.
MihaelZ64
Am I the only one thinking Van is going to chew the 5 colored blades out for using Selen as a scapegoat for their guilt in a letter back? Will be interesting for ketchup to meet braver, you know they are cut from a similar cloth and the conversation would be interesting
RanmaChaos
“Damn you Hienz! Forcing me to be penpals with Selen.” -Van probably
Thanks for the chapter!
CaTastrophy427
A step shy of penemies, perhaps?
Irazori
The former emperor may not have been an aldiot, but his biggest mistake was letting the aldiots have too much of an influence in his country.
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I was wondering what happened to the Ammits. It honestly felt much longer than 5 in-universe years since Van created them.
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I wonder what did the token dhampir of the aldiots of fake peace write exactly to piss off Van?
Doc
I don’t think it’s anything that Selen wrote. It’s just that Van made it pretty clear in his first response that Heinz and his group are not his friends, he has no intention of making friends with them, and that he’d prefer not talking with Selen again.
So it doesn’t matter what’s in the second letter, the problem is they ignored his blunt refusal from the first letter. Van doesn’t have any personal issue with Selen and Van is aware Heinz and co are taking advantage of that fact by using her to convey messages.
So it’s the double whammy of Van understanding Heinz and co are using Selen to mess with him and the fact that Van is forced to follow along somewhat because he doesn’t want to just ignore Selen who’s innocent in all of this.
FrogAku
I actually disagree. The Emperor -though- he had control via his control of the Pope. Prior to Van acting as a huge accelerant, Alda had been largely passive for multiple lifetimes. Instead, the Church was a helpful tool to control the masses, a way to direct discontent at the followers of Vida, and a way to keep the Empire unified against Orbaume.
If (as another fan posted above) Rodiot hadn’t brought Van (and later the others) to Lambda, things would likely have continued to work out quite well, and with Alda shifting from persecuting Vida’s peoples to the remnants of the Evil Gods, the Emperor might even have been able to reach an uneasy peace or compromise with Schneider.
So, TLDR, it’s STILL always Rodiot’s fault.
Irazori
No, the aldiot gods were persecuting both Vida, her races, and the evil gods all together because they were too braindead to ever bother to differentiate because of bellwood and aldiot didn’t approve of them to begin with. rod-moron may have escalated it, but all of those thing had already existed even before Van was reincarnated.
bookworm12
Yes, but in some side chapters Alda mused about shifting his focus towards evil gods/vampires and eliminating them first before turning back to Vida’s races, since there was no imminent threat from them. So, if Van hadn’t arrived, things might have become safer for Vida’s races for a few hundred years (at most, until Alda changed his mind again).
Irazori
Pretty sure the aldiot gods were still just allowing their followers to discriminate towards Vida’s races because they possessed Ranks coupled with pro-human bs standards thanks to bellwood regardless if they were focusing on evil gods or not. Especially since some of Vida’s races were connected to evil gods that Zakkart had recruited to help rebuild Lambda, which again falls under the aldiots not bothering to differentiate that from allies to the ones from the DK remnants.
ExplodingPenguinDood
I’m surprised there isn’t someone loyal to Marsh in the evil breaking swords, I guess he wasn’t as charismatic as he was brilliant
Doc
They’re the elite knight force of the empire, not the Emporer’s royal guard. As such their responsibility is to serve the empire, not any particular Emporer.
Also, all of them have anime antogonist syndrome and just want to fight strong foes and Marsh was against going into open conflict with Van’s side.
Lord Rin
I think I recall that only the Zero Sword remained loyal. I can only assume Schneider beat him up and left him unconscious or killed him offscreen somewhere when he went to go kidnap Marshukzarl.
GlennTheFarmer
Zero is loyal to his role, so he wasn’t around. I think 5 headed snake was a pro Marsh according to the guy who attacked Schneider at the end of the Storm of Tyranny’s comming-out rampage.
Nobody2
Despite how cold he is and how he ran the empire I’ve always loved the emperor as a character. He’s just to confident and competent to hate
ICZephyr
Same. He was a very well written character. It’s true that he is cunning and his methods are cruel and foul, but he always works with his country’s best interest in mind. He was thoroughly efficient and smart as well.
It’s not exactly his fault that he failed to grasp how strong Van’s side actually was with the amount of info he had available. Not even considering how badly Van broke the power scale of Lambda.
I was hoping that he’d survive and at least got to know who exactly he was going against before he died. It’s nice that they’re actually going to address him now. He should get the consolation that his downfall isn’t exactly due to his mistakes but that he had no chance of winning no matter what he did. He deserves that at least, for all the effort he’s done for his country.
roseblack
he was such an excellent king that the only thing that was able to remove him from power was LITERALLY the act of a god. Van assid no other kings are fit to talk to him as an equal heck if he was on Origin he could easily take over the world but run it better than any nation could, he is just that dude.
WholesomeAF
Wow we are blesses today. Thanks for the chapterand also to the sponsors.