Chapter 54 - side story

Side Story Chapter 11: Those squirming in other worlds (Earth, Origin)

"Therefore, I -"

"On this occasion -"

"GRRRRR!"

"Following the precedent -"

Zuruwarn, the god of space and creation, the god with the form of a grotesque, four-headed lion, was busy negotiating with a god of another world.

… Though these were supposed to be negotiations, Zuruwarn himself had started to wonder whether this really was negotiating at some point.

Could a repeated exchange of persuasive words, humble requests, trading offers, provocations and verbal abuse be called negotiating?

If the overall goal is to negotiate, then it could be called negotiating regardless of the way words are spoken in the process, I suppose? Zuruwarn thought.

The one he was negotiating with was the god of 'Earth,' the world in which Vandalieu of Lambda and the Bravers in Origin had lived their first lives.

Though the appearance of this god was grotesque even in Zuruwarn's eyes, it was also tremendous.

At a glance, it looked as if every single god, hero, divine servant, fairy, ghost and deified historical figure from every religion, every legend and every myth had been gathered in a single room.

And yet they were all a single god.

There were countless worlds, and there were numerous ways worlds and gods could come into existence.

The most common way was the pattern of a god existing in the beginning and creating a world. The world that Zuruwarn came from, 'Lambda,' fell under this category.

The second most common was a god from another world leading his followers and migrating to an already-existing world. The Demon King Guduranis had led the evil gods in an invasion on the world of Lambda; if he had emerged victorious, Lambda would have fallen under this category.

And the least common was the one that applied to 'Earth.'

Living organisms would spontaneously arise in an already-existing world, evolve, and then the god would be created by the religions of those organisms.

In a way, it was the purest form of religion.

"Judging from this -"

"We must also consider our position -"

"You are too noisy! Silence!"

"I want to request you to do something about it, just like this, I beg of you."

That was why the 'god of Earth' was troublesome and complicated in various ways.

It could be bluntly described as someone with a huge number of personalities, with all of those personalities constantly displaying themselves at once. And his divinity only grew as the people of Earth prayed to new gods.

And because there were so many of these personalities, this god rarely influenced what happened on the world's surface like the gods of Lambda did. It was in a state of gods and demons of different degrees of divinity being right next to each other. Their individual divinities interfered with each other, and in the end, it was only able to produce small miracles from time to time.

The gods who had lost their believers and whose legends and myths had faded away would slowly disappear as if melting or fuse with other gods, but it seemed that recently, the birth of all kinds of new gods was faster than the rate at which the older gods were disappearing.

Seeing that even the subjects of fearful urban legends and characters from anime, comic books and games were being added to the god, Zuruwarn wished he could share some of that creativity with the people of Lambda, but couldn't the god suppress its growth a little?

The negotiations between the god of Earth a hundred thousand years ago and negotiations with the god of Origin went smoothly, but… I will not have many opportunities to experience such complicated negotiations, so perhaps I ought to enjoy this.

Zuruwarn, who was able to find enjoyment at any time, continued his negotiations with the 'god of Earth.'

Murakami Junpei was sitting on a bench, eating a sandwich that he had bought while listening to the news coming from the radio at a food stall.

"Sensei, why are you still listening to that radio?" asked Tsuchiya Kanako, who was sitting opposite him.

"I told you before, didn't I?" said Murakami. "If we use the internet, there's a chance of being hacked, but if we use a radio, we can't be hacked. Also, stop it with the 'Sensei.'"

"Eh, but Sensei is Sensei, right?"

On Earth, Murakami had been the teacher in charge of the field trip. Also, he was the homeroom teacher of the class that Amamiya Hiroto, who was now Vandalieu, Naruse Narumi, Minami Asagi and Tsuchiya Kanako were in.

It wasn't wrong for Kanako and Murakami's other former students to refer to him as 'Sensei' even after being reincarnated in Origin, but Murakami himself didn't like this.

"I've never taught you guys anything in this world," said Murakami. "We're even mostly the same age, aren't we? I'll tell you this now because I have the time to say it, but just because I was a teacher in my previous life doesn't mean you should force that title on me now."

"Ah, come to think of it, you wanted to be a professional athlete instead of a teacher in your previous life?" said Kanako.

"That's right," said Murakami. "Being a pro tennis player and playing internationally was my dream. I didn't have enough talent to push through my parents' opposition to it, though."

If the salesperson at the food stall or other customers were to hear Murakami's words, they might have been bewildered. A sport by the name of "tennis" didn't exist in Origin.

However, there was a sport that was played all over the world, involving hitting a ball between two people using racquets. But as the use of certain types of magic was also allowed, it was a battle of both physique and magic, so it was a sport with quite different rules from the tennis of Earth.

After being reincarnated in Origin and experiencing his second youth, Murakami had aimed to become a professional in that sport. Rodcorte had given him an aptitude and talent for magic, as well as physical abilities, reflexes and perception of moving objects that were superior to those that he had possessed on Earth. And by secretly using his cheat-like ability as well, despite having been an average tennis player during his school days on Earth, Murakami had become such a good player as a student in Origin that even professionals had reached out to him.

… But that was all in the past now.

"But you used to be an idol as well, right?" said Murakami.

"Uwah~!" Kanako gasped. "You're going to bring that up, Sensei?"

"I'm not your Sensei," said Murakami. "And don't make up that tone, you middle-aged woman."

On Earth, Tsuchiya Kanako had been an ordinary high school girl, but in Origin, she had been a well-known idol. But rather than this being due to reasons such as her having a far superior physical appearance to the one she had on Earth, being exceptionally talented at singing, dancing and acting or being powerfully promoted by her producers, it was all due to her cheat-like ability.

And this was all in the past for her as well.

The reason that their dreams had been cut short was because of Amemiya Hiroto's activities. He had founded the nonprofit organization of the reincarnated individuals, the 'Bravers,' and openly announced to the world that they had special abilities. Because of this, it had become clear that Murakami and Kanako possessed powers that were different from magic, powers that couldn't be explained by the principles that existed in Origin.

There was no way of proving that these two had used their powers during their matches and auditions, but with the existence of their powers widely known, they had become unable to work in their respective industries.

At the time, Amemiya Hiroto had said, ��If we continue to only misuse our powers and that misuse becomes known, we will have too many enemies to survive in this world." Reluctantly, Murakami and Kanako had agreed. It was true that there had been some people trying to investigate Murakami and Kanako to try and figure out the secret behind their success. Murakami in particular had been suspected by other players to be using some special magic that they didn't know of.

Even if Amemiya hadn't established the Bravers, it might have only been a matter of time before Murakami's cheating was discovered.

And for a little while afterwards, the two of them satisfied their vanity through the Bravers' activities. They received attention by doing things like disaster relief work, and the attention and applause they got when they put on shows displaying some of their cheat-like abilities was, in a way, similar to the attention that a professional athlete and idol would receive.

But two incidents shook the world and changed these circumstances.

The first was the death attribute extinction incident, in which the Undead at the secret laboratory in a military nation, which was now known by a different name, that had been exporting all kinds of products to the rest of the world. After this incident, the Bravers' activities and nature as an organization changed.

They went from simply being heroes who rescued people from disasters to performing military activities and engaging in the killing of other human beings, things that they didn't want to be involved in. Even if they used hollow justifications like saying that they were solving humanitarian problems, or fighting wars against terrorism, it didn't change the fact that they were engaging in bloody battles to the death.

And the second incident was what the media, tabloid newspapers and talk shows had dubbed the 'fallen hero incident,' where Kaidou Kanata had been murdered by Shihouin Mari.

The crimes that Kanata had been committing were not such light crimes that some might defend him as a 'dark hero' or something of the sort; they were horrid, bloody acts that only scum would carry out.

Fortunately, they had come to light because Shihouin Mari, a fellow Braver, had murdered him. By painting her as the heroine of a tragedy, the public image of the Bravers worsening was avoided to some extent. But many began to doubt the ability of the leader, Amemiya Hiroto, to manage the Bravers. They were no longer the perfect heroes they once were in the eyes of society.

And then, before long, Murakami and around ten other members left the Bravers.

He had invited those who had been his students on Earth, asking them if there was any reason to keep being heroes and deny themselves from the riches they could have for the sake of an organization that had no integrity or innocence.

That was when the radio delivered news that a terrorist bombing had occurred at the Bravers' headquarters.

"By the way, did you manage to kill Aran and Izumi-san?" Kanako asked. "They've still only announced that there were 'many wounded.'"

As Aran and Izumi had concluded after their deaths, this incident was a crime carried out by the Eighth Guidance, the terrorist organization that Murakami and his followers had joined.

"They should be dead," said Murakami. "The 'Gazer' said it as well, didn't he? That those two would be killed by my hands that day. And that 'Enma*' assured us that they were dead as well."

The 'Gazer' was a former member of the Bravers who had left the organization with Murakami… or rather, been kidnapped by Murakami and his followers. She had the 'Future Prediction' ability, and though she couldn't control it, it was a perfect prediction ability unlike the 'Oracle' and 'Calculation' abilities. It gave her premonitions of important, unforeseen events that involved her.

But she had been unable to withstand the grotesque images that she saw in her premonitions with the Bravers and turned to drugs; she was completely addicted and had essentially become a disabled person, long before Kanata's evil deeds had come to light.

She had been kidnapped from the medical facility that she had been placed in, and now she was a puppet of 'Pluto'… perhaps brainwashed, Pluto's devout follower.

And 'Enma' was one of the Eighth Guidance's members. For some reason, he apparently knew the names and faces of people who had died in the past. Since he wasn't one of the people who had reincarnated from Earth, it was likely to be the effect of some kind of spell, but Murakami and the others didn't know the exact details.

"There wouldn't be any reason for Gazer and Enma to lie," Murakami continued. "And we even used Kanata's memento that we went to a lot of effort to preserve. If we failed to kill them it would be a big loss."

"Definitely," Kanako agreed. "Still, I wonder what Pluto-san and the others want to achieve? I thought it was revenge at first, but they seem too indifferent for that. But then, they don't seem to be doing things out of a strange sense of justice, either. They kill people for reasons that I can't figure out, but then they go and do charitable work as well."

"Who knows," said Murakami. "I don't know what goes on in the heads of fanatics. Well, it's fine as long as they keep letting us use them until our work is done."

Having finished eating his sandwich, Murakami scrunched up the wrapping paper and threw it in a random direction.

"Is that a disrespectful act to avoid the Oracle?" Kanako asked. "Was littering a crime in these areas?"

"Yeah, you get fined for it," said Murakami. "Well, you would if there was anyone enforcing it."

The 'Oracle' answered the questions of its owner, Endou Kouya, but Murakami knew that the way it answered the questions was very inflexible.

That was why these two had killed Shimada and Aran with a bomb right after committing some minor crimes, and committed minor crimes again before disappearing.

And the two of them disappeared into the crowd now as well.

The international terrorist organization, the Eighth Guidance, was quite different to other terrorists.

Their actions were entirely focused on destroying institutions conducting research on death-attribute magic and murdering the researchers. And the murder of the Bravers. These were selectively-conducted crimes.

Yes, selectively.

No matter what political or religious objectives terrorists may have, the reason the amount of support that they could receive was limited was because their crimes were carried out indiscriminately. Bombs, biological weapons, poison and, in Origin, magic. The victims caught up in the tragedies caused by these methods could be elderly people, children, pregnant women and even the friends, acquaintances and relatives of terrorist supporters who happened to be within the vicinity of such incidents.

In some cases, the terrorist supporters themselves could become victims. This was the reason.

However, the Eighth Guidance was extreme in the selection of its targets. The only people it had directly killed were the employees of research institutions and the security guards, bodyguards and soldiers defending them. Only Shimada Izumi and Machida Aran of the Bravers had been killed, along with staff members who worked for the Bravers. Not a single scratch had been caused to anyone uninvolved.

And in addition to business with sponsors to secure funds to keep the organization going, the Eighth Guidance also engaged in philanthropic work that wouldn't yield them a single cent in profit.

Most importantly, they did not desire new members.

Thus, the Bravers and people of the criminal investigation organizations who were specialized in dealing with the Eighth Guidance considered them to be something like a very peculiar cult rather than a terrorist organization.

"According to them, we're a cult and I'm the woman who founded it. An interesting way of putting it, isn't it?" said Pluto, a young girl with long black hair, wearing a white one-piece dress.

She was sitting on a sunbathing chair at the poolside, talking to the white-skinned man lying on the one next to her.

The man's glasses gave him an intellectual appearance, but his beard and chest hair made him look wild. At a glance, he looked like an elite businessman being served by his young Asian lover.

But the index finger of his right hand was curled loosely around the trigger of a gun.

"Yeah…" he murmured quietly.

Ignoring him, Pluto continued. "What's so interesting, you ask? Because I've never explained anything, warned against anything or given guidance to anyone," she said. "There's no such thing as a religious leader who doesn't give instructions, is there? And I'm not a leader or guide or anything in the first place. I am treated preciously because my body is frail, and I am relatively attractive, so there are simply a lot of opportunities for images of my face to be sent to the media and displayed on the internet."

"And because you're so free, you do some work using your brain and have your say in all kinds of things. Then you're a leader," a man said as he appeared. His head from his forehead to the back of his head appeared to be swollen, and he was carrying a baby that seemed to be unconscious. There was a severed tube hanging from the child, swaying back and forth.

"Jack, that child is next?" Pluto asked.

"Yeah, I suppose it has cerebral palsy? I don't know the details, but just like Jack*, it's a friend that is neither dead nor alive."

"Then say farewell to that friend," said Pluto.

As Pluto pointed her white hand towards the baby, something resembling black smoke rose from it and was absorbed by Pluto's hand.

"Yeah, I'll say farewell. See you," said the man called Jack before disappearing silently with the baby still in his arms.

Taking no notice of this, Pluto touched the face of the man next to her. As her skin made contact with his, life rapidly drained out of the man. His skin was losing its tone, his eyes were sinking into their sockets and his cheeks were becoming hollow.

"Stop it…" the man gasped. "We won't get involved with you people, the Eighth Guidance, anymore. I'll turn over a new leaf, I won't kill anyone ever again, I swear, so please don't suck any more… from… me…"

He was an assassin hired by a certain rich person, with orders to kill Pluto and retrieve her dead body.

The man had been known to be a capable assassin, but now he was a weak man in the position of begging Pluto for his life.

Pluto burst into laughter, as if she had heard a very entertaining joke. "Fufufu, when I asked you if you felt guilt over killing people, didn't you answer that you're just a tool to be used? Since you're a tool, you don't feel guilt. The one who paid money to use you is at fault, you said. Since you admitted that you're just a tool, you can't just stop working of your own will, can you?"

Despair spread across the man's eyes that were watching Pluto's happy laughter, and then they became hollow.

"That's right, you're dead. Good night," said Pluto.

"Oh, he died?" asked Jack as he reappeared, showing his white teeth in a smile. "But that's perfect; it looks like that child just now was the last one."

Jack was known as 'Jack-o'-lantern.' Just like the Jack who tricked the devil and wasn't accepted by Heaven or Hell*, he wandered the world… or rather, he moved around the world as if he could use the space-attribute spell, Teleportation.

However, his teleportation destination could only be beside members of the Eighth Guidance or those who were seriously ill in unconscious states, with not long left to live.

However, he was also able to teleport with the patients, and then return them to the place they originally were.

He had just done that, bringing a terminally ill baby here before returning it.

"That was the last? But I wanted to gather a little more 'death.'"

Pluto. By stealing the 'death' and vitality of others, she could heal those who were on the verge of death and push the cost of this act on another person's vitality.

The truth was that most of the philanthropic work conducted by the Eighth Guidance, as well as the medical treatment that gained them funds from its sponsors, was done through this power of Pluto's.

"Still, you're horrible. Did you forget that I said that I'll be using it later so you shouldn't suck up so much?" complained the man who was supposed to be dead as he got up. And then he moved his neck and shoulders around and made clicking noises, as if checking the condition of his body. "Ah, my body's so stiff. The black assassin that I was in before, the one who used to be a marine, was in much better condition."

"I'm sorry, 'Shade,'" said Pluto. "That one is white and has bad eyes, so I didn't think you'd like him anyway."

"His eyes? I don't think they're that bad, but… these glasses are just for show, huh. They're a prop for his disguise."

The assassin… or rather, Shade, who had possessed the assassin's corpse, put his glasses down on the poolside table.

Shade had once been 'protected' by the Bravers and then later accommodated at a laboratory, where he was turned into a life-form consisting of a mind without a body, similar to a spirit. He was capable of possessing very freshly-deceased corpses and use their bodies as his own.

Pluto let out a disinterested noise.

"You don't seem very interested," said Shade. "So, what you said just now is an excuse after all?"

"More importantly, what about the other people here?" asked Jack. "Did you kill them properly? Jack is curious."

"Yeah, Berserk and Baba Yaga worked hard," said Shade. "Valkyrie was happy, too. I suppose she'll be staying inside with Isis for a while?"

This mansion that included a pool did not, in fact, belong to the Eighth Guidance; it was the property of a boss of a certain criminal organization. This boss, whose organization was known to be a militant organization, had tried to seize Pluto's power, so Pluto and her allies had retaliated.

"Jack thinks that he should have stayed satisfied with paying money and having his illness cured by Pluto," said Jack.

"It's because of that greed that he was running a criminal organization," said Pluto.

"That's a narrow way of looking at it, Pluto," said Shade. "After all, we're a criminal organization, too."

"In that case, it's not a narrow way of looking at it, it's the truth," said Pluto. "We're greedy, after all."

The objective of the Eighth Guidance… was to die.

After living hellish lives in the laboratory, they had been saved by codename: 'Undead'… Amamiya Hiroto, who had gone on to become Vandalieu. Everything the Eighth Guidance did was to act in accordance with his will.

But Pluto and her companions had only been in direct contact with the 'Undead' for a few minutes, and they hadn't even exchanged any words. They had simply been saved; their wounds had been healed, their missing limbs restored and even the side-effects of the experiments had been removed to some extent, and then they had been set free. During all of this, the Mana surrounding the 'Undead' had flowed into them, fusing with them and becoming a part of them. That was all.

From these few actions, Pluto and her companions had guessed the will of the 'Undead,' combining even their own desires and delusions with it to produce what was the compass guiding their actions.

They had attacked death-attribute magic research facilities so that there wouldn't be any more victims like themselves.

The reason they were so thoroughly selective about their targets was because the 'Undead' had limited its victims to those that it had desired revenge upon.

They targeted the Bravers because they had treated the 'Undead' as a monstrosity and disposed of it arbitrarily.

And finally, they would die.

They would die and go to the same place as the 'Undead.' That was their wish.

Pluto and her companions had no idea what kind of intentions the 'Undead' had when it saved them. They didn't know whether it had felt sympathy for them, felt some kind of sense of justice or whether it had intended to use them as pawns afterwards; they didn't know anything.

The reason that Pluto and her companions were offering everything they had to the 'Undead' that had already been destroyed despite this was because for them, there was no higher being than the 'Undead.'

None of the members of the Eighth Guidance had any blood-related family members. They were all orphans and children who had been sold, gathered at the laboratory for the purpose of carrying out research into death-attribute magic.

As guinea pigs, they had suffered cruel experiments, been assigned numbers and isolated in cage-like rooms. They felt grief over the changes that their bodies had been forced to undergo. No matter how much fear they felt or how much they begged for mercy, they could only listen to the footsteps of those who would ruin them.

After the annihilation of the 'Undead,' they had been unable to do anything, and the Bravers had sent them to international organizations to be protected. Yes, protected.

They had been managed by numbers, separated from their companions that they were now aware that they had, locked up in cage-like rooms and had their bodies tampered with by researchers who repeatedly said, "This is all to help cure you,�� as if these words were some kind of incantation.

And it was only because of the Mana that the 'Undead' had given them that they had been able to escape this new hell.

Justice was never applied in relation to Pluto and her companions; only unrelated people were punished and unrelated people were saved.

But love was only ever poured elsewhere; no hope shone for them. Despite that, despair was always lurking nearby.

Despite them being exploited for humanity's sake, they hadn't been included as members of humanity.

It was as if they were foreign objects in this world, wasn't it?

The sole exception was the 'Undead.' Even if him rescuing Pluto and her companions had been a foolish act in the literal sense of the word*, it was the greatest sign of love that they had ever received.

If they could become closer to such a being, even death would be bliss… no, death was the only bliss.

"But we can't simply die," said Pluto. "Because that would mean throwing away the lives that person gave us. So let's fight as much as we can and kill the Bravers who killed him."

"That's why we accepted Murakami and the others as well, isn't it? Jack hates them all except Gazer," said Jack.

As Jack said, the reason they had welcomed Murakami and the other former Bravers into the Eighth Guidance was in order to fan the flames of hostility between them and Amemiya Hiroto's remaining Bravers.

There wasn't anything happening behind the scenes; it wasn't a complicated, large-scale conspiracy. There was nothing of the sort.

This was just the Eighth Guidance's plan to drag as many down with them as possible.

"Jack and Gazer get along well, you know," said Shade. "What will we do? Are we going to spare her?"

Gazer hadn't been directly involved in the incident with the 'Undead,' and though she had essentially been in a half-dead state, Pluto had even gone as far as to regenerate her dead brain cells. Shade thought it possible that Pluto wouldn't mind sparing her.

Considering that she was suicidal, even if they let her go, it was likely that she would go and hang herself or cut her own wrists.

But Jack shook his head. "Jack doesn't want to. Jack wants to take her with us; that person will definitely like her, too. He'll forgive us."

It seemed that Jack wanted to take her with them because they got along well.

"I see, then let's take her with us," said Pluto. "But you have to tell her properly that she mustn't commit suicide until then."

"Yeah, alright! Jack will tell her not to cut her wrists anymore!" said Jack.

Jack had said that the last time as well… Incidentally, Gazer had made her tenth suicide attempt yesterday. Pluto and her companions were actually impressed that she hadn't died for real yet.

"Has Enma confirmed that the one who died is the real boss and not a double?" asked Pluto.

"He has," said Shade. "It's the real one, he said. The double died in a struggle three months ago."

"I see. Then shall we go back? After we choose a souvenir for Ereshkigal* who's been waiting for us," said Pluto.

"Maybe the dry-cured ham that was in the fridge will do?" Jack suggested.

The final day that the Eighth Guidance desired was drawing closer.

"When that time comes, we'll definitely know if that dream was just a dream or something that will come true. Ah, I'm looking forward to it," said Pluto.

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Chapter 113: Target Booking

Vandalieu and his companions returned to Periveil's village, explained that they had captured Raymond alive and spread this news so that the village would be wary of the Reborn Sauron Duchy Army.

And while Periveil and the others were comforting Orbia, who had become a Ghost, Vandalieu headed to the village's Job-changing room.

"So you're the child that Privel chose. Children are so precocious these days," said a man who greeted Vandalieu at the boathouse where the Job-changing chamber was. This man was Privel's uncle, the younger brother of Periveil's most recent husband who possessed the blood of King Sauron.

He was a human with green hair and eyes that were unusual for his race, around his late middle-age years. Vandalieu had the feeling that his eyes and features resembled those of Privel and her cousin Orbia, but he was a gentle-looking man and it was difficult to imagine that he possessed the blood of a royal family.

"Rather than being chosen, I didn't know about that ritual," said Vandalieu.

"That is also a rather classic way to meet," said Privel's uncle.

It seemed that approaching and calling out to Scylla while being unaware of the Scylla courting ritual was a classic beginning to a romance. Using an example from Earth, it was a cliché equivalent to a transfer student turning a corner and colliding with a girl who was on her way to school.

"Those are just old folk tales now, though," Privel's uncle added. "Adventurers who come around here to complete requests and merchants who come to do business all know about it. But if you came from the other side of the Boundary Mountain Range, I suppose you couldn't help not knowing. By the way, this is a bit late, but please take care of Orbia-nee."

"Isn't she your niece?" Vandalieu asked.

"Yeah. I personally thought it would be better to tell her that later, you see," said Privel's uncle. "Even my brother was mindful of it, because she was a daughter who came so late. But Orbia-nee doesn't have anyone other than you now, does she?"

In fact, now that Orbia had become a Ghost, the only ones who could keep her company other than Vandalieu were other Undead. Normal Spiritualists apparently made sure not to get too involved with spirits and Undead.

By becoming a Rank 4 Water Ghost, Orbia had already become unable to return to the circle of transmigration of her own will. She could only linger in this world, or be purified… exterminated.

And most importantly, Vandalieu's Mana was essential for her to maintain her sanity. Vandalieu had never explained this, though. Perhaps Privel's Uncle had somehow sensed that this was the case.

"I don't know what she was to the resistance, but to me, she was like a kind older cousin," Privel's uncle continued. "She played with me a lot when I was a child. I want you to support her in the years to come."

"I think I'm the one who will be supported by her, but I will do my best for as long as I'm alive," said Vandalieu.

"Yeah, I'm counting on you. As I thought, children these days are precocious… no, dependable."

The two of them exchanged a handshake and then Vandalieu entered the Job-changing room.

Perhaps because the pattern stayed the same despite a difference in races or perhaps because the Scylla had made it easy to use for the men as well as the Scylla, the Job-changing room was the same as the Job-changing rooms in other places.

"Now then… will there be new ones?" Vandalieu wondered. With the Experience Points from the Rank 10 Hurricane Dragon and the Reborn Sauron Duchy Army, Vandalieu had finally leveled his Demon Guider Job to level 100.

Vandalieu reached out and touched the crystal.

『Jobs that can be selected:[Archenemy][Zombie Maker][Corpse Demon Commander][Disease Demon][Spirit Warrior][Whip Tongue Calamity][Vengeful Berserker][Dead Spirit Mage][Dark Healer][Labyrinth Creator][Demon King User][Magic Cannoneer][Golem Creator][Dark King Mage]』

"Dark King Mage, huh. An upgraded Job for Death-Attribute Mage, maybe… From the way it's written, I get the feeling that it seems more normal than Death-Attribute Mage. Not that I think there's much difference. So then, what should I choose for my next Job?"

The only remaining Jobs were dangerous-sounding Jobs and upgraded Jobs like Golem Creator and Dark King Mage.

One of the upgraded Jobs would likely offer him more bonuses to everything. However, being upgraded Jobs, it seemed that they would be difficult to level. And the other Jobs were almost certainly Jobs that were related to Vandalieu's current skills.

And Vandalieu was planning to register at the Adventurers' Guild in a way that his Status wouldn't be seen, by using the Commerce Guild. It probably wouldn't be a problem to take a few dangerous-sounding Jobs.

"Change Jobs to Archenemy."

『You have changed Jobs to Archenemy!』

『Strengthened Attack Power while Unarmed has increased to Medium!』

『You have acquired the unique skill 'Hostility!'』

Name: Vandalieu

Race: Dhampir (Dark Elf)

Age: 8 years old

Title:��Ghoul King],[Eclipse King],[Second Coming of the Demon King],[Guardian of the Cultivation Villages],[Holy Son of Vida],[Monstrosity],[Scaled King][Tentacle King](NEW!)

Job: Archenemy

Level: 0

Job history: Death-Attribute Mage, Golem Transmuter, Undead Tamer, Soul Breaker, Venom Fist User, Insect User, Tree Caster, Demon Guider

Attributes:

Vitality: 1566

Mana: 1,061,886,667 (+212,377,333)

Strength: 729

Agility: 648

Stamina: 928

Intelligence: 1,909

Passive skills:

Superhuman Strength: Level 5

Rapid Healing: Level 8

Death-Attribute Magic: Level 9

Status Effect Resistance: Level 7

Magic Resistance: Level 5

Dark Vision

Demon Path Enticement: Level 1

Chant Revocation: Level 6

Guidance: Demon Path: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)

Automatic Mana Recovery: Level 6

Strengthen Subordinates: Level 6

Venom Secretion (Claws, Fangs, Tongue): Level 5

Enhanced Agility: Level 3

Body Expansion (Tongue): Level 5

Strengthened Attack Power while Unarmed: Medium (LEVEL UP!)

Enhanced Physical Ability (Hair, Claws, Tongue, Fangs): Level 4

Thread Refining: Level 3

Mana Enlargement: Level 2

Active skills:

Bloodwork: Level 3

Surpass Limits: Level 7

Golem Transmutation: Level 8

No-Attribute Magic: Level 7

Mana Control: Level 6

Spirit Form: Level 7

Carpentry: Level 6

Engineering: Level 4

Cooking: Level 5

Alchemy: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)

Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 6

Soul Break: Level 8

Multi-Cast: Level 5

Long-distance Control: Level 7

Surgery: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)

Parallel Thought Processing: Level 5

Materialization: Level 4

Coordination: Level 4

High-speed Thought Processing: Level 4

Commanding: Level 4

Plant Binding Technique: Level 4

Thread-reeling: Level 5

Throwing: Level 5

Scream: Level 4

Dead Spirit Magic: Level 4

Insect Binding Technique: Level 4

Blacksmithing: Level 1

Artillery Technique: Level 3

Unique skills:

God Slayer: Level 6

Grotesque Mind: Level 6

Mental Encroachment: Level 5

Labyrinth Construction: Level 6

Demon King Fusion: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)

Abyss: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)

Hostility (NEW!)

Demon King fragments:

Blood

Horns

Suckers

Ink Sacs

Curses

Experience gained in previous life not carried over

Cannot learn existing jobs

Unable to gain experience independently

"Finally, my base mana has surpassed one billion. And I keep gaining more unique skills. Hostility… Is it a bad pun? What should I do if it's a skill that makes lots of people hostile towards me?"

As Vandalieu hesitantly left the room, everyone was no different from usual, so this seemed to have been a needless worry.

Jobs that sound bad are bad for the heart after all, Vandalieu thought.

"You mustn't swindle people," said Vandalieu.

"You can't!" said Pauvina.

The two of them were scolding Haj and the other fake resistance members, who were trembling in fear.

Vandalieu and his companions had returned to the camp. They were waiting for Rick, Orbia's murderer, to be drawn out by Raymond, whom they had taken hostage. Meanwhile, Vandalieu had turned Mardock's extermination force who had attacked the fort while he was away into Undead while brainwashing the survivors.

The other reason they had returned was so that Vandalieu could use the small Dungeon to return to Talosheim and bring Luciliano here, who would be doing some work on the captive Raymond.

After quickly turning the dead into Undead and brainwashing the survivors, including Mardock himself, Vandalieu had gone to hear the stories of Haj and his companions… and finally discovered that they were fakes.

"It's true that you people are different from bandits; you didn't forcibly take money and goods from the villagers and supporters, nor did you kill them. You just accepted what was offered to you," said Vandalieu. "But what those villagers offered you were certainly not excess things that they had in reserve. Am I wrong?"

He was lecturing Haj and his companions in an indifferent tone. He hated swindlers in general. It was true that those who were fooled had left themselves open, but it didn't change the fact that the ones who were doing the fooling were the most at fault.

Before he learned to use death-attribute magic, Vandalieu had simply been someone with a large amount of Mana. Haj and his companions reminded him of the researchers in Origin who had whispered sweet-sounding words to him, saying that they would set him free if he put in more effort.

But do I have the right to speak badly of swindlers now?

Vandalieu wasn't without his doubts. And these people being petty swindlers was better than them being bandits. However, they had fooled Yamata and Rapiéçage, so Vandalieu didn't feel like settling things for free.

But Haj didn't have the eyes to see through the inner thoughts behind Vandalieu's expressionless face and flat tone of voice.

"You brat, getting so full of yourself just because I stayed quiet! We didn't become fake members of the resistance because we wanted to!" Haj shouted as he got to his feet without thinking, enraged by the morality speech that was being delivered to him indifferently. "A brat like you wouldn't -"

"What~?" Pauvina stood up, towering over Haj and giving him a gaze that pierced right through him.

Despite her height of two and a half meters, she was just a girl, less than ten years of age, if one ignored her size. She wasn't very intimidating. However, her hand was gripping the handle of a steel mace that would likely crush Haj's head like an eggshell.

"What were you going to say~?" Pauvina asked, giving her mace a few practice swings while eyeing Haj's head.

"I-it's nothing!" Haj squealed.

"Then sit down, okay? Or do you want me to make you sit down?" Pauvina was still continuing her practice swings.

"I'll sit! I'll sit down!" With his words being misarticulated because he was trembling so much, Haj sank down onto the ground.

But Pauvina didn't stop her practice swings.

The reason Haj and the other fake resistance members were trembling violently was because they were scared of everyone, including Pauvina, but excluding Vandalieu.

Vandalieu wasn't impressive; in fact, his presence was hollow. The eyes of Haj and his allies couldn't measure him. However, everyone else's anger was very easy to see.

"Van~ let's just clobber them~!" said Pauvina, angry that her close friend Rapiéçage had been tricked by these people, swinging her mace that would clearly make a splatting sound rather than a clobbering one.

"Fakes~♪"

"No good…?"

"No, no…"

"Imposters, no… no…"

Yamata and Rapiéçage were burning with a sense of guilt over their failure.

Yamata was groaning and slithering around Haj and his companions while Rapiéçage produced physical sparks loudly with her Ogre hands and feet.

"Hahaha, there, there, everyone. Let us be amicable about this. Bocchan, may I hold their hands and take them for a run?" asked Sam, his shining crimson eyes glaring at Haj and his companions.

"You are the one being the least amicable, Father," said Saria. "If they held your hands and went for a run, they would be smashed and scraped all over the place, wouldn't they?"

"Well, I get the feeling that he wouldn't really care about that, though," said Rita.

Though Sam's daughters were stopping Sam with their words, they didn't really seem to have any desire to defend Haj and his companions.

Haj and his companions realized that Vandalieu, who had been scolding them indifferently, was the calmest of them all, and the only reason they were alive was because he was the one in charge.

Incidentally, Bellmond seemed to think that apologizing to Vandalieu was more important than giving Haj and his companions a harsh glare; she wasn't even looking at them.

"My apologies, Danna-sama," she said. "It is all my fault for not being able to see that they were imposters. I am willing to accept any punishment."

"Then as punishment, I'm going to brush your tail," said Vandalieu.

"Th-that sort of thing is not something that you should be doing, Danna-sama. Punishments are -"

"Then change Jobs to be a maid."

"Danna-sama! Anything, anything but that! I cannot dress myself in such a way!"

"… It would definitely suit you, Bellmond-san," said Rita.

"Rita, that's not the problem here," said Saria.

In the end, Bellmond received her punishment of having her tail brushed while in tears. As Vandalieu performed this task skillfully, Darcia, who was visible through the Visualization skill, began persuading everyone regarding Haj and his companions.

"Calm down, everyone," she said. "There are a lot of things that we've learned by saving Haj-san and his friends. And I think that these people had their own circumstances, too."

It seemed that Darcia felt sympathy for Haj and his companions and wanted to bring things to a peaceful conclusion. At the very least, she wanted to avoid an extreme ending like simply disposing of them.

As a matter of fact, Vandalieu felt the same way. He hated swindlers, but not enough to kill them without reason.

Even in Lambda's societies, swindlers would not be sentenced to death unless they were swindling nobles or royalty. Though it depended on whether they could pay the required fines to their victims, they would normally become criminal slaves for a set period of time.

It didn't seem as if Haj and his companions had been making money in a vicious manner, and apparently, their punishment would normally be becoming slaves for one to three years.

The Amid Empire's army that currently ruled the Sauron Duchy had treated them as resistance members before swindlers, so they might execute them to set an example, however.

"Well, we've learned that Chezare's younger brother is actually at the nearby fort… and since you went through hard times because you had no jobs, it's not like I don't feel any pity for you," said Vandalieu as he continued brushing Bellmond's tail with a brush made of his own threads.

He looked over her trembling shoulder and directed his gaze at everyone who wasn't participating in the argument.

Not at the unconscious Raymond, but at Privel, Orbia and the others who were a little further away. They were discussing something with serious expressions on their faces.

"What should I do, I'm seriously lacking in fighting strength," said Privel. "The only one smaller than me is Pauvina-chan, you know?"

"I'm… Hmm, maybe a little smaller than Saria-chan and Rita-chan, I suppose~?" said Orbia. "Ah, but now, if there's water, I can make them as big as…"

"It's alright, Privel," one of the Scylla guards reassured her. "You still have a future ahead of you, don't you!"

"Even with a future, it's impossible~ that person called Bellmond or something, she looks bigger than Mother!" said Privel.

"Don't lose heart, Privel! You have the prided lower bodies of us Scylla, don't you!"

"Oh yeah! Even if I can't win with my upper body, I have my lower body!"

Each of the Scylla were bending their eight tentacles back and forth as they talked. Vandalieu and the others were a little concerned over the topic of their conversation.

"Vandalieu, those Scylla people? I can somewhat understand the Ghost girl, but what's your relationship with the living ones?" Darcia asked.

"That's Privel, whom I carelessly proposed to due to cultural differences, and her guards that protect her," said Vandalieu.

Come to think of it, he had forgotten to ask the names of the Scylla guard onee-sans.

"I see," said Darcia. "After your father and I met, he said he'd done bad things to girls in the past and regretted it, so make sure you don't have regrets like that."

"Yes, Mom," said Vandalieu, nodding to his mother's educational advice.

"Before that, I think you should stop getting more," said Pauvina from behind him, offering a reasonable opinion.

However, she didn't really seem to have much desire to stop him.

Meanwhile, Bellmond slipped away from Vandalieu's brushing and called out to Privel. "Excuse me, it seems that Danna-sama has something that he would like to ask."

"Ah, yes!" said Privel. "Nice to meet you, I'm Privel, please treat me well! But I won't lose to you when it comes to the number of legs!"

"… Yes, I am completely defeated," said Bellmond. "Leaving that aside, it seems that Danna-sama has something that he wishes to discuss."

"Mhmm," said Privel. "What is it, Van-kun?" She approached Vandalieu with a bright smile on her face, twisting her tentacles in circles.

"Do you have anything on this Haj and his friends?" Vandalieu asked.

"These people? Hmm, nothing in particular, I suppose," said Privel. "Even if they were acting as fake resistance members in nearby villages and towns, they never came into our territory until now, did they?"

For the Scylla, who divided the world into the land within their territory and the land outside it, even nearby villages and towns might as well have been in another world. It seemed that they didn't think much of the actions of Haj and his companions.

"Well, we do think that it's troublesome that they fled into our territory, but that's because they were being chased by those guys from the extermination force," said Privel.

"Hmm, if it was up to the chief, wouldn't she just let them go and pretend it never happened?" said Orbia. "Since she probably wouldn't want to end up technically handing the resistance over to the Empire's army."

"I see. That's an excellent way to not make any poison or medicine out of it*," said Vandalieu, turning his gaze back to Haj and his companions.

For now, it didn't seem as if they would be killed, so they looked quite relieved. Their trembling and cold sweat subsided.

"Then let's make some medicine, shall we?" said Vandalieu.

As he spoke these words, Haj and his companions' faces snapped upwards again.

"Medicine?!" Haj shouted. "No way, I'm begging you, our livers and hearts can't be used as medicine!"

"No, no, it's just a figurative expression," said Vandalieu. "I'm going to assign you instructors and turn you into great, real resistance members."

"I-instructors?" Haj repeated. "For people like us? I feel bad for saying this, but we don't have combat-related Jobs, and even when it comes to fighting skills; some of us only have level 1…"

"It's alright," said Vandalieu. "There are a lot of exceptional instructors in our kingdom."

If Haj and his companions wore the Living armors of the former Red Wolf Knights' Order in Talosheim and trained diligently, they would probably be born anew within a few months.

Ordinary citizens had raised Spear Technique and Archery to level 2 within ten days; with several months of strict training, wouldn't they become at least as strong as D-class adventurers? If not, they would just need to patiently keep at it.

"That's like a dream come true for us, but is it really possible?" Haj asked. "Can people like us become real resistance members?"

"Unfortunately for you, you have no say in the matter," said Vandalieu. "You won't be able to return home for a while. I'll prepare paper for you, so if there is someone you would like to write letters to, please do so. What do you think of this?"

As Vandalieu looked around at Rapiéçage, Yamata and everyone else who had been angry at Haj and his companions, it seemed that they didn't have any particular complaints. They seemed satisfied; it was kind as far as punishment goes, but Haj and his companions would be forced to go through strict training forever as long as they were unable to improve, which would possibly be a harsher lifestyle than that of some slaves.

With a timing as if it had been waiting for the problem to be resolved, a red fruit was offered out to Vandalieu.

"Eat…" groaned a green-skinned woman.

"Ah, thank you. By the way, who are you?" Vandalieu asked, looking up at her in confusion. He couldn't tell whether what the woman was wearing was clothes or textured armor.

"You don't know?!" Privel cried incredulously. "She's been there the whole time, so I thought she was your friend, Van-kun!"

Vandalieu thought that the green woman could do with some more muscle, but she had the kind of attractive figure that would cause men to ogle her and reach their hands towards her.

Her face was well-featured; she was a seductive, beautiful woman in between her mid-twenties and early thirties with slightly drooping eyes.

With this appearance, one might assume that she was a popular prostitute who had painted her skin and put on strange clothes to match the taste of a customer with peculiar tastes.

However, her back was covered in bark instead of skin, and branches were growing from it. Those branches were growing red, apple-like fruits, one of which was now in Vandalieu's hand.

Vandalieu tried eating the fruit that had been handed to him by this beautiful woman who was clearly not a normal person.

"Mmm, judging from this super-hard texture and abundance of sweet juices, it's Eisen, isn't it?" he said.

"Oooh… Eat," Eisen groaned.

The truth was that the spirit of Daene, a middle-aged woman who had sold apples in the city of Niarki, had gone through all kinds of changes to become Eisen. Seemingly happy that Vandalieu had known who she was, she wagged her cow-like tail from side to side, plucked another fruit and offered it to Vandalieu.

"Munch munch… By the way, why do you look like this now? Did your Rank increase?" Vandalieu asked.

"Yes, it seems that she transformed during the battle," said Bellmond.

Incidentally, Mardock, the captain of the extermination force, had been struck by the fruit during the battle. He was currently still unconscious, with his nose and both his upper and lower front teeth horribly broken. Perhaps his jaw had been crushed as well?

"So, everyone was wondering what Eisen-san has become after her Rank increased," said Darcia. "Since she has separated from her tree completely, she seems to be different from a Dryad."

"She clearly does not appear to be an Ent-type monster, and even if we ask Eisen herself, she only says, 'eat,' so we cannot figure it out," said Bellmond.

"Don't you know something about it?" Rita asked.

"Hmm, even when I cast Appraisal, I can't figure out her race title. It's probably a new race," said Vandalieu.

With that being the case, I need to give it a name. What should I name it? Vandalieu thought, and then he suddenly remembered a story about fairies that he had heard from a researcher's spirit in Origin.

Looking at Eisen again, Vandalieu thought that many features of her appearance matched that of those fairies. Some parts were different, and those fairies didn't have fruits growing from their backs, but that didn't really matter.

"Well then, Eisen, your new race title is Skogsrå*," said Vandalieu.

Having been given this race title, Eisen wagged her tail happily.

"Why, why isn't there even anyone watching the base?"

A man of the resistance, the last surviving subordinate of Rick Paris, was breathing heavily as he looked around in shock at the temporary hideout, which was empty.

This was only a makeshift hideout of tents, with traps set all around in place of camouflage and alarms, but there should have been at least two people staying behind to watch it at all times.

The plan was to set up the hideout here so that Raymond could go around to persuade the chief of each Scylla village. The plan was for Rick and his men to stop their sneaky acts and hide while that was happening; there was no mistake about it.

Despite that, not a single person was here, let alone Commander Raymond Paris.

There were no signs of damage, so it didn't seem as if the hideout had been abandoned after being attacked, but…

"This is bad!" a voice shouted.

A man rushed towards the hideout, looking badly injured. Rick's subordinate thought it was an enemy at first, but seeing that it was an ally that he knew, he gave a sigh of relief and stopped his hand that had been reaching for his weapon.

But in the next moment, that feeling of relief stopped.

"Commander Raymond has been taken captive by a Dhampir!" said the wounded man. "They said that if we want him back, Vice-captain Rick and all of the people involved in the conspiracy against the Scylla must come to a designated location! If we don't hurry, Commander Raymond is going to be killed!"

"What?! Vice-captain Rick has been abducted by Vampires! They said that Commander Raymond needs to come alone to a designated location if we want to save him!"

"… What are we supposed to do?!" the two men shouted simultaneously.

It was an unbelievable turn of events. Each kidnapper had requested the other hostage in return for their own.

Unbeknownst to the two surviving resistance members, the Vampire serving Gubamon, who had been tailing one of the men, and Vandalieu, who was watching through the Lemures that had been tailing the other, were both very troubled by this development.

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Chapter 114: The Trojan horse plan and the one whose left hand I have

A strange scene was unfolding in a vast underground church with rows of thick pillars.

"Kuh, kill me! Wasn't that your goal!" Iris Bearheart spat at the old man before her.

She had been forced to wear only a thin piece of cloth that would have reminded Vandalieu of a surgical gown.

"Hmm… for someone who was called the Liberating Princess Knight, leader of the Sauron Liberation Front, this is quite the cheap show of courage," said Gubamon, one of the Pure-breed Vampires who worshipped Hihiryushukaka, the Evil God of Joyful Life.

He was an old man who was as thin as a dried tree, with his bulging crimson eyes as his only large feature.

Hearing Gubamon's words, Iris shouted at him in rage. ���I do not fear death! Even if I die, my companions will definitely achieve the Sauron Duchy's freedom!"

She was someone who would have received a knighthood long ago if the Sauron Duchy hadn't become occupied by the Amid Empire.

Given the social status of the Bearheart family, she was supposed to become the kind of knight who commanded soldiers and defended towns and villages from bandits and monsters, rather than the kind of knight who took part in tournaments to entertain lords and escorted high-class ladies.

Iris had been trained and educated by her now-deceased father since she was child, so that she could one day fulfil this role.

And though she had acted as a leader of resistance activities, she had constantly been fighting on the frontlines. She had crossed blades with bandits and the soldiers of the Empire's army countless times, and her body bore scars from numerous wounds inflicted by blades and arrows. She had faced dangers that could have claimed her life and had passed through many battlefields. She had even walked close to the line between life and death in many of them.

Her courage towered above that of others, so much so that it was impossible to imagine that she was just a girl, less than twenty years of age.

However, Gubamon, who was now caressing her neck and arms, had seen through her.

"Considering that, the muscles of her arms and legs seem quite tense, don't they?" he remarked. "This is the same response that I would expect from a child trembling in fear, you know?"

His words struck true, and Iris let out a groan. She was aware that she was afraid of Gubamon and the things that he would do to desecrate her.

Of course, she wasn't scared of being wounded or killed. She was frustrated at the fact that she had been defeated before achieving her goals, but she had become the Liberating Princess Knight with the determination to face this. She wouldn't start feeling fear now. If the Empire had captured her, they would have tortured her; depending on her captors, her chastity might have been taken from her.

She had been prepared for all of this, but what Gubamon was going to do to Iris was on a completely different level.

She knew this from the heartburn-inducing stench of blood, from seeing the fates of the ones who had produced this stench. She knew it even though she didn't want to know.

There were several dozen Zombie Giants that were even larger than the largest Titans, watching over the area while letting out deep groans.

And there were Vampire Zombies who looked just like bats, hanging from the pillars and ceiling of the underground church with their fangs bared.

Some of them were the Vampires who had brought Iris here. After Iris's abduction, Gubamon had brought them here with space-attribute magic, thanked them for their efforts and then promptly slaughtered them all.

"Well done. As a reward, I shall add you to the bottom of my collection," Gubamon had said to them.

Iris had been unable to believe her eyes at the scene that unfolded afterwards. Not only the Subordinate Vampires, but even the Noble-born Vampires that she and her companions had been unable to land a single blow against, had been unable to do anything to defend themselves as they were slaughtered one-sidedly.

And with hands that were used to handling corpses… very used to handling corpses, Gubamon had turned them into Undead.

He had combined the corpses of the weak Subordinate Vampires, which had fallen to pieces, to form a Zombie Giant with ten Vampires incorporated in it, and turned the Noble-born Vampire corpses into Vampire Zombies.

Iris could see a countless number of Vampire Zombies just by glancing around; she felt a chill as she imagined just how many times this madman had carried out this process.

But the most repulsive were the Undead that the madman had lined up proudly, the ones he referred to as his 'collection.'

Three groans rose from one of the Undead in that collection.

Iris had been reunited with the person she had wished to meet one more time in the worst possible form.

Her father, Lord Bearheart, who had died in battle during the war against the Amid Empire. His corpse had never been recovered. Iris had seen him as a part of an enormous Zombie with three heads, three pairs of arms and three pairs of legs.

"How dare you trample the dignity of the dead, the pride of my father who risked his life to defend his nation! You scum! You intend to kill me and toy with my corpse, just as you did with my father's, don't you! How about you just get on with it?!" Iris began shouting at Gubamon once more, unable to endure having to gaze at her father's lifeless, cloudy eyes and ashen face as he let out a noise that was something between a groan and a scream.

But against her expectations, Gubamon's expression changed for the first time, in response to these words that she had shouted at him.

He showed regret and remorse, as if he had made a mistake. "I have already reflected upon what I did to your father. That was a mistake," he said. He stopped caressing Iris's body and clutched his head as if in anguish.

Gubamon hadn't shown the slightest sign of guilt after killing his subordinates that he had shared his own blood with, nor after turning them into Undead. But there was a deep sense of regret in his eyes now.

Iris was rendered speechless in surprise, and before she could say anything, Gubamon continued.

"During that war between the Amid Empire and Orbaume Kingdom, there were two other corpses of well-known knights alongside your father's. A playful mood took over me and I created a Zombie by combining the three corpses. The resulting Zombie was powerful, but its movements were sluggish. Lord Bearheart had made his name known for his splendid, agile swordsmanship, and I went and put him to waste."

"Wha-?!" Iris's surprised expression turned gradually into one of rage, but Gubamon took no notice of her.

"It cannot be helped that his personality and intelligence was largely damaged. The true pleasure lies in resurrecting famous heroes in wooden-doll-like states," said Gubamon, going on and on about his obsessions. "But there is no meaning to it if the heroes' special characteristics are not preserved. When creating composite Zombies such as that one, the correct practice is to gather materials of the same type, or decide on a principle material and then add other materials that supplement it."

What Gubamon was lamenting was not the act of turning Bearheart into an Undead itself, but the dissatisfactory result.

It seemed that Gubamon had created his Undead with a different sense of art to Ternecia's; he was fixated on the practical use of the Undead, not just the materials used to create them.

Iris's anger showed itself once more. "You bastard! How much do you have to toy with my father before you're satisfied!"

"Hmph… that is why I am apologizing for not making good use of his materials. I have no idea what young people are thinking these days," Gubamon sighed.

Most old people in the world had this thought occur to them at least once, but Gubamon was looking at things from a completely impossible angle.

"Well, it does not matter," he continued. "It will be amusing to see you become a corpse doll with hollow eyes, yelping as you obey my commands. But I must wait to see the results of the others before I decide what kind of Undead I shall turn you into."

Iris gasped. "You are planning to abduct someone other than me? Could it be -"

"Hoh, quite perceptive, aren't you? I am talking about the commander and vice-captain of the other resistance organization, the Reborn Sauron Duchy Army."

"Raymond-dono and Rick-dono…!"

Iris's head, which had been hot with anger, suddenly became cold. There should be someone who could take her place as the Liberating Princess Knight. Her companions should do fine without her.

However, there was no replacement for Raymond, the illegitimate child of Duke Sauron. His face was quite well-known throughout the duchy, and although he had abandoned his right to succeed the family, his bloodline had a large influence now that the continuation of the Sauron family's lineage was in jeopardy.

And unlike Iris, who had kept her true identity hidden from others apart from her companions as much as she could, Raymond had used his appearance, charisma, ability to speak and his own birth as weapons to gather the Reborn Sauron Duchy Army under his command.

He probably had a plan for his own rise to power after the Sauron Duchy was retaken, but that was precisely why Raymond's organization had become the largest resistance organization.

But if Raymond and his younger brother Rick who had been supporting him all this time were to disappear simultaneously, the Reborn Sauron Duchy Army would break up at best, turn into a disorderly gathering of people and collapse at worst.

If that happened, all rebellion activities would be set back tremendously.

"You bastard, how far will you go to ruin our Sauron Duchy…!"

"I do not know whether you can call it yours, but I do not care what happens to the Sauron Duchy," said Gubamon. "After all, the world of you creatures who do not even live more than a few hundred years is like a fleeting dream. Your nations are created and destroyed numerous times during the time it takes me to admire my collection; they are but sandcastles at the shore, are they not?"

For Gubamon, who had lived for a hundred thousand years since the age of the gods, the nations of people who lived for less than a thousand years were, just as he said, like dreams or sandcastles.

"Curse you!" Iris muttered.

"Now then, it is time," said Gubamon. "I am looking forward to seeing whether you become an Undead on your own or part of a resistance trio Undead."

The Vampires who had captured Rick were taking care of his basic needs while keeping him bound, blindfolded and gagged.

"He probably won't die within a day or two, but it would be problematic if he gets weaker by the time we take him to Gubamon-sama," Miles Rouge had told the Subordinate Vampires.

Rick was treated quite roughly, but thanks to the treatment that he was receiving, he wasn't suffering from dehydration. The food he was given was a liquid made by boiling cut-up pieces of dried meat and vegetables, and it tasted worse than anything he had ever eaten, however.

And after a short while, Rick noticed that the Vampires were arguing fiercely over something.

"How did it come to this?! Why?! Why at a time like this?!"

"Miles, what do we do, what are we supposed to do now?! I've only lived for two hundred years; I don't want to die!"

"It's obvious what we're going to do, isn't it!" said Miles. "That plan, we're going to pull off that plan! We don't have any other choice!"

"What?! I don't want to do that; how can we discard our pride as Vampires?!"

"Then do you want to die?! You want to die, don't you?! Whether you want to be killed by Gubamon-sama, killed by the Dhampir or killed by me, decide right now, you selfish boy!" Miles shouted.

The chaos that looked as if it would develop into full-blown discord between the Vampires reached Rick's ears. They were being so conspicuous about it that Rick wondered whether it was some kind of trap, but after this conversation, it seemed that all of the Vampires had gone somewhere except for a few left behind to watch him.

It seems that you've done well. As expected of you, Ani-ue. Now as long as you get away from these Vampires' 'plan'…

Rick held these expectations of his brother, but half a day later, those expectations were betrayed.

"It's almost time," said Miles. "Bring that little-brother-kun over here."

With only his blindfold removed, Rick was taken somewhere else, where he saw the Vampires and his older brother, who was bound like he was.

No, Ani-ue! It's not a fake. It's real…!

Rick had hoped that it was an imposter, but there was no way that he would mistake someone else for the older brother he respected and loved. Though the monster leather armor that he normally wore hadn't been taken off, he had been disarmed and tied up with rope, and he was casting his eyes downward. And this man was Raymond without a doubt.

He didn't have any visible wounds and his face didn't look pale, but he was limp and lifeless; perhaps he was fatigued, or perhaps he had only recently recovered from injuries with healing magic or Potions.

I have to somehow at least let Ani-ue escape.

Rick hardened his resolve to make this happen. But that resolve wavered as he heard a harsh sound, as if something hard was creaking loudly, and he suddenly noticed an old man in front of him.

"Oh, to think that you have captured two of them! And they are still alive!" cackled Gubamon, his eyes so wide open in delight that it looked as if his eyeballs would fall out of their sockets.

Rick was an exceptional individual, but he wasn't a superhuman like an A-class or an S-class adventurer; he could only fall to his knees at the sight of this sinister being.

"Well done, Miles! I am proud to have you as my subordinate," said Gubamon.

"Ha, haha! It is an honor to receive your praise!" said Miles.

"But… Hmm, there is a faint smell of blood coming from Raymond. It seems that his Vitality has been depleted a little, too."

"Th-that is… I am terribly sorry! When we captured him, he put up more of a resistance than we expected, but we have healed all of his wounds!" Miles said hastily, his face remaining stiff as he spoke.

"Well, it does not matter," said Gubamon. "He does not seem to have any visible injuries, and I did not expect you to capture him without harming him."

If he were to punish Miles and those under him for their ineptitude, it was possible that some of them might escape. He would have to bring them to the underground church before using them as materials.

"Now then, we will be teleporting. Stay still." Gubamon recited an incantation, and with another harsh, creaking sound, they were in the underground church that contained countless Undead and the restrained Iris.

Still bound, Iris turned around and hanged her head in resignation. "Rick-dono, and Raymond-dono as well…"

"Her as well," Rick muttered as he shook his head, seeing that Iris had been captured first.

And Raymond didn't show any reaction to speak of; his head continued to hang low.

"Now then, I suppose I will connect the materials with chains. I must figure out what kind of Undead you will become before I kill you," said Gubamon as he approached Raymond first. "Kihihi, I cannot leave this to anyone else. This moment, the moment of the first taste of the sense of accomplishment from having a hero offered to my… hands?"

Feeling an impact, Gubamon looked at his own stomach. To his disbelief, there was a black, horn-like object piercing into it, penetrating all the way to his back.

But the most unbelievable thing was that this horn was protruding from Raymond's own stomach.

"I-impossible!" Gubamon screamed, coughing blood from his mouth. Obeying the warnings of his survival instincts that he had not heard in a long time, he tried to step backwards.

But he could not remove the horn that was skewering his stomach; he could not move from where he was.

And then several more black horns appeared from the inside of Raymond's body and closed in on Gubamon.

"Gih, Iron Slash!"

Gubamon severed the horn with an Unarmed Fighting Technique martial skill and somehow managed to retreat and run away, suffering cuts all over his body in the process.

"Raymond-dono?"

Iris and Rick, who was still gagged, opened their eyes wide in astonishment and stared at Raymond's grotesque body, which was covered in blood from the horns that had been produced from his body.

He raised his face upwards ominously; it looked like the face of a hollow puppet.

"You bastard, why, why do you have the Demon King's horns?!" Gubamon shouted at the grotesque Raymond, blood and saliva flying from his mouth.

As if in response, Raymond convulsed gruesomely, and then his stomach split open.

"Ah, it was cramped in there."

Several screams resounded in the underground church as the white Dhampir, Vandalieu, crawled out of Raymond's stomach.

After taking Raymond hostage, Vandalieu had been trying to draw out Rick, the criminal responsible for tricking Orbia and murdering her. After finding out that Rick had been taken captive by Vampires, Vandalieu discussed the upcoming change of plans with everyone.

If possible, Vandalieu wanted to have Orbia settle things personally, and he wanted to gain information from the Vampires.

As Vandalieu and his companions wracked their brains to figure out what should be done to achieve these goals, the Vampires gathered at the location that Vandalieu had designated, the open space that he had created in front of the camp.

… While waving a white flag.

"We surrender, we surrender! Please listen to what we have to say!"

Vandalieu's mind stopped working for a few seconds at the sight of the Vampire with a wild-looking beauty to his appearance at the front, calling out with an onee-style tone of speech while waving the white flag in front of the other Vampires.

"That person is… a man, isn't he?" said Darcia.

"He definitely looks like a man to me," said Privel. "Is he not a man?"

"… The minds of many Vampires who have lived for a long time undergo changes. How very embarrassing."

Bellmond, who was aware that she herself was a 'strange person,' explained this phenomenon to the bewildered Darcia and Privel.

"Bocchan, what will we do?" asked Rita.

"For now, I suppose we'll hear what they have to say," said Vandalieu. "There's no sign of enemies waiting to ambush us, and even if they're planning something, we can slaughter them all whenever we want."

The Rank 10 Bellmond and Rank 9 Knochen were present. And Vandalieu himself was here, too.

A dozen or so Vampires was no match for them.

Of course, I don't mind killing them without listening to them and then extracting information from their spirits afterwards, but since Rick isn't here, it's probably best to deal with them peacefully for now, Vandalieu thought as he stepped outside Knochen's walls with Bellmond to hear what the Vampires had to say.

And then the Vampires - Miles and his followers - all began begging for their lives and explaining the situation.

"Please spare us; at this rate, we're going to be killed by that crazy bastard Gubamon! We weren't involved in the incident where your father was killed, we're telling the truth!" Miles pleaded.

"We offer you Rick Paris, whom we've captured alive! We'll tell you information about Gubamon and whatever else you want to know! So please, just spare our lives!" said another Vampire.

"We'll offer you anything else we can; we'll become your subordinates or servants or anything!" Miles added. "We just don't want to die!"

The 'plan' that Miles had mentioned was, to put it plainly, for the Vampires to "offer everything and plead for their lives." It was a horrible plan that involved trampling over their own pride as noblemen of the night. It was no wonder that some of the other Vampires had objected to it.

However, the reality was that they were in a position that they wouldn't survive if they did not do this.

Since Vandalieu had already captured Raymond, Miles and his followers would need miracle after miracle to occur if they wanted to abduct Raymond. They would be killed first.

In fact, since they had already abducted Rick, whom Vandalieu and his companions were targeting, it had been highly likely that the Vampires would be attacked and killed if they didn't run away.

But if they gave up on acquiring Raymond, Gubamon would see them as having failed their mission and kill them.

They couldn't rely on getting an ounce of support from the other Vampires who served Gubamon, and asking for help from Birkyne's group would have been downright stupid. They were Vampires who worshipped the same evil god, but since they belonged to different factions, they were competitors. They couldn't expect kind treatment from each other.

But with that said, abandoning everything and fleeing was dangerous, too. They would probably be able to hide for a while, but the connections in the underworld that they had been using up until now would become unusable, so it would be difficult to survive for a long period of time.

Even if they were lucky and could find a place where they could settle down, if Birkyne or Gubamon's subordinates found out where they were one day, they would be murdered for being traitors.

So then, perhaps fleeing the Bahn Gaia continent altogether and moving to a different continent was a better choice, but this would be a reckless decision as well.

Other continents had Vampires worshipping other evil gods marking their territory. Miles and his companions would be outsiders; hoping that there would be a place for them to survive there was a gamble with unfavorable odds.

That was why the option with the most hope for Miles and his followers, the option that they would never choose under normal circumstances, was to surrender to Vandalieu and beg for their lives.

"I see. I understand the situation," said Vandalieu. "Depending on your cooperation with us and how you work for us, we might take you in."

This choice had actually been quite effective for Vandalieu.

The things that Miles and his followers were offering, namely Rick and information on Gubamon, were things that Vandalieu could obtain even after killing them. However, the plan that had just occurred to Vandalieu had a high chance of failure if Miles and his followers didn't cooperate.

But on the other hand, if they cooperated, it had a high chance of success.

And Vandalieu believed that he shouldn't kill people if there was no reason to. To him, Miles and his followers, who had begged for their lives with everything they had, were not people that he should kill. It seemed that they hadn't been involved in the execution of his father Valen, either.

Vandalieu had already heard the story from the Vampire responsible for that before breaking his soul, and there certainly hadn't been a Vampire with an onee-like tone of speech mentioned.

Sparing their lives in exchange for their cooperation was probably the right thing to do.

"Really?! Leave it to us, we'll cooperate with you on anything you need!" said Miles.

"Now then, I'm going to give you an outline of my draft plan for killing Rick Paris and Gubamon, and taking back Talosheim's heroes who were stolen by Gubamon, Zandia and Jeena," said Vandalieu.

The Vampires, including Bellmond, choked in disbelief.

Miles and his followers knew that Vandalieu had already defeated Ternecia, someone who was Gubamon's equal. Bellmond had been present at the time. But even they were surprised by Vandalieu's declaration.

Killing Ternecia was the result of an elaborate plan that took a long time, involving the use of the A-class adventurer party, the Five-colored Blades.

Now, he was going to improvise some additions to his plan, which had initially been just to get revenge on Rick, in order to slay a Pure-breed Vampire who had lived since the age of the gods. Given this announcement, Bellmond and the other Vampires couldn't be blamed for choking in disbelief.

Some of Miles's subordinates seemed worried about the fact that Bellmond had reacted the same way.

But Bellmond returned to her usual, courteous self.

"If you say that you desire it, Danna-sama, then it is my duty to obey," she said. "I do not have any objections, but please think about what kind of plan this will be."

Seeing this, Miles and his followers seemed to have decided to suppress their trembling.

"Now that it comes to this, I'll follow you all the way," said Miles. "There's no problem with this, is there, guys?!" he added, looking at the other Vampires.

And so, the plan to kill Gubamon began.

"But with that said, the one who must suffer the most trouble is me, is it not, Master?" said Luciliano. As he said, he was the one who had to work the hardest.

"It's fine, isn't it? After I kill Gubamon, I'll bring back a lot of Undead that he created," said Vandalieu.

"Then I suppose it cannot be helped. I would have liked to follow you like I did last time, Master, but it seems that you have many people to protect this time. I shall pass on this one," said Luciliano.

All Vandalieu had to do after that was quickly help Luciliano with the surgical procedure with his Surgery skill, and then arrange to meet up with Miles and the other Vampires.

And those events had led to the current situation.

Covered in blood, Vandalieu exhaled as he crawled out of Raymond… the special Live-Dead that Luciliano had made surgical adjustments to.

Despite being smaller than other boys his age, it had been difficult for Vandalieu to hide inside Raymond, whose build wasn't particularly large. Luciliano had secured the required amount of space; he had increased the room to work with as much as possible by making it look as if Raymond was wearing leather armor, reduced his heart and lungs to compact sizes, removed all of his digestive organs and rearranged his blood vessels. Vandalieu had forced himself into this space by dislocating his joints and turning some parts of his body into spirit form, and stayed hidden inside.

All of this had been so that he could avoid using magic as much as possible, allowing him to go unnoticed until he was right next to Gubamon.

The result of this effort was that Gubamon was standing in front of Vandalieu now, blood spurting from his mouth and veins popping out over his head in anger.

"Curse you! How dare you… ruin my… materiaaaals!"

Gubamon was on his knees, still struggling to remove the Demon King's horns that were protruding from his body. He was a Pure-breed Vampire like Ternecia, who had regenerated her internal organs and spine despite being reduced to a mere severed head. Normally, having a large hole opened in his stomach wouldn't be a fatal wound.

It would heal within a few minutes at most. However, each of the piercing wounds caused by the Demon King's horns had gouged out a large amount of Gubamon's Vitality.

Gubamon gasped in pain. "I-I can't pull it out?!"

The Demon King's horns couldn't be removed, even with the superhuman strength that didn't match his thin arms that resembled withered branches. The surface of each of the Demon King's horns had numerous Demon King's suckers growing on it.

The suckers had attached themselves to Gubamon's flesh, organs and bones, firmly fixing themselves inside his body. Even a nearly-invincible Pure-breed Vampire wouldn't be able to easily tear out his own organs and spine.

But it seemed that the Undead-obsessed old man was far more displeased with the fact that the materials that he had almost obtained had been ruined than the damage he had suffered.

"You bastard, how dare you turn my corpse, my hero, into such damaged goods!" he screeched.

"MMMPH! MMMMPH!"

Rick, who was still gagged, was screaming something. Tears were flowing from his bloodshot eyes, and though his screams were muffled, they sounded pleasant. It seemed that he was incredibly shocked by the sight of his older brother, who had collapsed onto the ground now that the inside of his body was hollow… just as Vandalieu had planned.

But disposing of Rick would come later.

"Miles," said Vandalieu.

"Yes! We're falling back, guys!" said Miles.

He and the other Vampires had been dumbfounded at the sight of Gubamon, someone who had always been an absolutely powerful figure to them, vomiting blood and suffering. They snapped into action in response to Vandalieu's words.

"Ah, take that woman with you," Vandalieu added, pointing at Iris.

"Certainly!"

The Vampires picked up Rick, who was thrashing around, and cut the chains binding Iris with their axes and claws to carry her off as well.

"You bastards, you betrayed me! Prepare yourselves! I will kill every last one of you and turn you into Undead!" Gubamon screamed upon realizing that his subordinates had betrayed him.

"Shut up, you crazy old man! Looking at all the Vampire Zombies around, I can tell that we would have met the same fate whether we betrayed you or not! We couldn't keep up with your silly nonsense anymore!" Miles shouted back.

His words were completely reasonable, but it seemed that all logical thought had already fallen out of Gubamon's mind.

"Curse you, splitting hairs over such a trivial matter!" Gubamon cursed Miles over something completely unreasonable before turning to give orders to the subordinates that would never betray him. "Undead, slaughter them all!" he commanded.

Gubamon had lost half of his sanity, but he didn't expect Rank 5 and 6 Undead to be able to do anything against Vandalieu, who used the fragments of the Demon King. As long as they could slow him down a little, that would be fine.

His subordinates were simply products to be recycled, so he would feel no loss even if they were destroyed.

The Zombie Giants and Vampire Zombies groaned as they began moving. Vandalieu stayed where he was.

Gubamon's improvised, handmade Undead approached Vandalieu, but then they turned around.

And then they bared their fangs at Gubamon and roared at him threateningly.

"Wha-?! Why, why are my Undead, even if I did improvise their design, why are the Undead that I created myself…?!"

"I can tame Undead," said Vandalieu.

"What did you say?!"

This fact was common knowledge for those who knew Vandalieu, but for Gubamon, this was an astounding situation.

He had killed most of his subordinates in fear that they would betray him, but he had been betrayed by the Undead who should have been completely obedient to him.

It was as if he had simply supplied Vandalieu with more forces of his own will.

"But it doesn't seem like I can tame all of them," said Vandalieu. "This is a rare situation, so I'm a little surprised."

There were some Undead who hadn't left Gubamon's side.

Undead that emanated a presence that indicated that they weren't ordinary Undead, equipped with Magic Items.

"Yes, that's right! My beloved ones are here! Now then, lend me your strength!" Gubamon commanded.

Lord Bearheart, a handsome young man wielding a spear, a female Titan priest and a female Titan mage girl. And there were several other Undead heroes with them.

Their power was much less than when they were alive, but the average Noble-born Vampire would be no match for them. Even Miles was watching with a pale face, holding his breath.

But rather than feeling threatened, Vandalieu felt happy at the fact that he had found the ones that he truly needed to protect.

"Zandia and Jeena located."

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