The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time

Chapter 123 — They’re coming! But let’s prioritize going south for now

Chapter 123: They’re coming! But let’s prioritize going south for now

“A number of the guys who will possibly become my enemies… the reincarnated individuals, have died in Origin. About ten of them.”

Upon hearing Vandalieu’s words, everyone’s eyes suddenly sharpened and became tense.

“Ten people like that Kaidou Kanata person… Your Majesty, we must kill them as quickly as possible!” Princess Levia exclaimed.

“Please calm down, we don’t know where they are yet. I understand how you feel, but it’s impossible to go and search the entire continent,” said Eleanora.

These two were the only ones who had seen a reincarnated individual other than Vandalieu in person.

That reincarnated individual, Kaidou Kanata, had been quite the degenerate; he had repeatedly committed senseless murders and rapes before he showed himself before Vandalieu. On top of that, he had used extremely dirty methods, such as getting on his knees to try and make Vandalieu let his guard down.

However, in the end, he had been tormented and killed without being able to land a single blow back against Vandalieu, and he had been extinguished by having his soul broken.

But the ability that Kanata had received from Rodcorte, Gungnir, had been powerful. It was a penetration ability that allowed the user to choose objects to phase through; it was theoretically possible for attacks to be one-sided, passing through any kind of armor, walls or spells. Depending on the object to be phased through, it could consume large amounts of Mana, but the ability itself didn’t have any weaknesses.

The reason Vandalieu had been able to defeat Kanata in a one-sided fashion was because Kanata had completely underestimated Vandalieu, and because he had used Gungnir recklessly when committing his crimes, giving information regarding the ability to the spirits of Hannah and his other victims.

In other words, if the other reincarnated individuals possessed cheat-like abilities as powerful as Kanata’s but were careful, cautious and patient unlike him, they could become formidable enemies.

“Hmm, special life-forms that have acquired the divine protection of the god of reincarnation… Master, once you kill them, could I please receive pieces of their flesh or their hair, or even their ashes if that is not possible?” said Luciliano.

“Luciliano, you’re being too hasty. We don’t know where they are yet, either,” said Vandalieu.

“Umm, for now, let’s think about things after we hear what Van-kun has heard from this… Legion-chan? I don’t really understand these cheat-like ability things,” said Privel.

“It’s a long story,” said Vandalieu.

He told everyone everything that he had heard from Legion. Because he’d gained almost no information from the previously-defeated Kaidou Kanata, this was the first substantial information that he had received regarding the reincarnated individuals.

And for Vandalieu himself, this was the first information that he had gained regarding what had happened in Origin after his death.

Honestly, he didn’t care about what had happened after he died in a world where he had spent his whole life as an experimental animal until he turned into an Undead and went on his rampage. However, the fact that the entire world had fallen into chaos after the loss of death-attribute Mana, and the fact that the military nation in which the research laboratory was had been dismantled, was good news.

But the fact that the other experimental animals that he had saved were secured by Amemiya Hiroto and the others, only to be handed to a different laboratory to become experimental animals again later, was not good news.

According to Legion, Amemiya Hiroto and the others had formed something like an international rescue team, just as Vandalieu had predicted. Weren’t they a little too incompetent?

“Well, when I saved them, I accidentally gave them some of my death-attribute Mana, so I’m not entirely irresponsible for the fact that they became experimental animals again - buh.”

“Oooohhh…” Legion groaned.

“Wait, Legion! I know you’re trying to say that it’s not his fault, but Vandalieu’s going to be buried!” Darcia cried.

Leaving aside the question of how effective Amemiya Hiroto and the others were as superheroes, it was difficult to say that the deaths of the reincarnated individuals that followed was good news for Vandalieu as well.

“The three who died after Kaidou Kanata… The ‘Skanda’ Tanaka, the ‘Urer’ Mackenzie, the ‘Perseus’ Sameshima. What happened to those three? If they died within a few months after Kaidou Kanata, then almost two years should have passed after they were reincarnated here,” said Basdia with a puzzled expression, referring to the reincarnated individuals that Legion had mentioned to Vandalieu.

One had an ability that accelerated time around the user to enable high-speed movement; one had an ability that allowed the user to look into past events that had occurred within a designated space; the other had an ability whose principles were not known, but could stop the movement of any target the user was aware of.

… Vandalieu didn’t know what criteria were used to decide the Bravers’ codenames, so he thought that Sameshima should have been named Medusa rather than Perseus, but thought that Sameshima might have been opposed to that, as he was apparently a man.

“Unlike Kaidou Kanata, I can imagine that they were reincarnated normally as babies, but it’s possible that they were reincarnated into adult bodies, found out that Kanata was killed and then decided to change their plans. It’s possible that they are gathering their strength in preparation to kill me… they’re a fearsome group of people,” said Vandalieu from among Legion’s arms and legs, urging his companions that these enemies could be a threat in a serious manner.

“Umm… Your Majesty, is there a possibility that they fear you and are in hiding or have escaped to another continent?” asked Princess Levia.

The truth was that her suggestion was quite close to reality.

As a result of the chaos in Origin caused when Kanata’s evil deeds became known and the ‘Metamorph’ Shihouin Mari took things into her own hands, Tanaka and the other two had been on missions on their own, where they were forced into extremely unfavorable situations and made fatal mistakes on top of that. Even the fortunes that Rodcorte had given them hadn’t allowed them to survive.

The truth was that the ‘Avalon’ Rikudou Akira had manipulated information to have these three sent on solo missions in order to experiment and find out what it would take for reincarnated individuals to die. However, only Rodcorte, the three individuals themselves and those who had died after them knew of this.

And after learning about all of this, Tanaka and the other two felt not anger and hatred, but fatigue from a life full of fighting.

And the ‘Gungnir’ Kaidou Kanata had been one of the most capable reincarnated individuals when it came to combat. After finding out that even Kanata had been defeated by Vandalieu one-sidedly, Tanaka and the other two had decided that they couldn’t defeat Vandalieu, so they had refused to get involved with him and were reincarnated normally as babies.

But Kimberley, a former soldier, and Basdia, who had strong warrior-like thoughts after she learned how to use magic, didn’t seem to think that this would be the case.

“No, no, it’s not wrong to assume the worst-possible situation,” said Kimberley.

“And they’re self-named heroes with titles of heroes from other worlds, aren’t they? It seems that Kanata was quite the low-life, but there is no guarantee that the others will be the same,” said Basdia.

The two of them had images of the Bravers being a fearsome group of warriors with a persistent fighting spirit and a conviction of steel.

Legion didn’t make any attempts to correct them.

Neither the members of the Eighth Guidance nor the ‘Gazer’ Minuma Hitomi knew what kind of personalities Tanaka and the other two had.

Back when they died, the Eighth Guidance had begun their activities and started collecting information, and they were ‘Gazer’ Minuma Hitomi’s former allies, so they at least knew their names and abilities. However, this was information that had already been announced to the world. Thus, they didn’t know what kind of people they had really been.

And even Murakami and his group hadn’t deemed it necessary to gather information about dead people, so they hadn’t been investigated in detail.

… In addition, as it had only just been reincarnated, Legion was not particularly adept in understanding the Japanese that was being used in Lambda. It was the language that the Bravers used primarily, so the Eighth Guidance had learned it to some extent, but only to a certain extent. They could read the characters, but they could only gain partial understanding of conversations when words were spoken too quickly.

“Indeed… I do not know what kind of a world Origin is, but if they are all degenerates like that Kanata, then they could hardly call themselves heroes, could they?” said Princess Levia, convinced by the theory that they were a threat as well.

It was common for people to have natures that were different from what their appearances would suggest. Levia had experienced being tricked and murdered two hundred years ago by Duke Hartner, so she knew this all too well.

However, it seemed that she thought there wouldn’t be too many people as evil as Kanata. In reality, there were some who were not so different from Kanata, like Marionette and Death Scythe, but… since they had been told by Rodcorte just how Kaidou Kanata died, there was a chance that they would act cautiously and hide their true natures.

“So, what kind of people are the reincarnated individuals other than those three?” Eleanora asked.

“It seems that Legion knows a little about their personalities in addition to their names and abilities,” said Vandalieu. “Legion allied itself with them, though it was under the assumption that they would be betrayed. Until they started killing each other.”

“… Considering its appearance, it seems that it can express itself quite well,” said Eleanora, impressed despite Legion having an appearance that made it doubtful as to whether it was intelligent.

“It has a lot of stomachs, after all,” said Pauvina.

“That’s not what I meant, Pauvina.”

Note: The word for “express oneself” that Eleanora used includes the kanji for “stomach.”

Pauvina started hugging Legion. It seemed that Legion didn’t dislike being hugged.

“For now, I’ll explain things through words. Ah, Yamata, please hand out the documents.”

As Vandalieu explained verbally, Yamata handed out documents that contained the same information that he was explaining. She was a Patchwork Hydra Zombie, created by decapitating the heads of a mutant Hydra and replacing them with the upper bodies of nine beautiful women of different races.

“Distribute~?”

“Many, lots…”

“Strooong?”

She seemed to be interested in Legion, who had many upper body parts like she did.

“Auuuh?” Legion was simply bewildered by the fact that it was gathering interest.

Meanwhile, Vandalieu continued his explanation.

The ‘Inspector’ Shimada Izumi, who sees through any falsity that she perceives through her five senses.

The ‘Laplace’s Demon’ Machida Aran, whose Calculation ability was greater than a supercomputer.

The ‘Noah’ Mao Smith, who could store and transport a great amount of materials and personnel in a special space.

The ‘Oracle’ Endou Kouya, who could receive prophecies from a god.

The ‘Marionette’ Inui Hajime, who could take control over the body of anyone he touched.

The ‘Death Scythe’ Konoe Kyuuji, who could stop the heart and cause instant death in anyone whose face he could see.

The ‘Sylphid’ Misa Anderson, who could transform her body into gas.

The ‘Super Sense’ Gotouta Kaori, who could strengthen her five senses at will.

The ‘Odin’ Hasamada Aki, who could see a few seconds into the future.

The ‘Clairvoyance’ Tendou Tatsuya, who possessed numerous vision-related abilities such as X-ray vision.

The ‘Mage Masher’ Minami Asagi, who could erase the effects of all kinds of magic.

The ‘Ifrit’ Akaki Akiko, who could manipulate heat and flames.

These were the deceased Bravers that Legion was aware of.

In reality, four more - the ‘Chronos’ Murakami Junpei, the ‘Venus’ Tsuchiya Kanako as well as Hecatoncheir and Aegis - had died as well, but Legion didn’t know about this because the last Eighth Guidance member to die, Pluto, had died before any of them.

Also, the information that Legion had provided Vandalieu regarding the functions of some of the Bravers’ abilities was not accurate. This was because the Eighth Guidance that made up Legion didn’t possess the correct information regarding those abilities.

After hearing this explanation, everyone present had a mutual opinion.

“Van-sama, I don’t really understand what the Calculation ability is,” said Tarea, mentioning what was on everyone’s mind.

Of course, the concept of computers didn’t exist in Lambda. The field of physics was underdeveloped as well, and the mathematics level of the average person didn’t go beyond basic arithmetic.

“As I thought. Umm, it’s an ability that allows super-fast calculations,” said Vandalieu.

“That might be amazing, but… what use does it have?” asked Basdia.

“Anyone can calculate how many times they can cast their spells and use their martial skills with their remaining Mana,” said Borkus, looking perplexed.

Everyone else had similar expressions.

It wasn’t that they thought that a calculating ability would be useless. However, they couldn’t be blamed for thinking it strange that it would be an ability given by a god, worthy of being a unique skill.

A professional architect might have understood how valuable it was to some extent, but the only such person in Talosheim was Vandalieu.

And since Vandalieu had been nothing more than a high school student on Earth, he didn’t possess advanced knowledge in physics or mathematics, so it seemed that he couldn’t explain this in detail.

“It’s probably useful for advanced construction and public works,” he said with a vague memory of past knowledge, still not knowing exactly how it was used.

“Is that right?” said Borkus.

He and the others seemed convinced by this explanation.

Well, they did have some doubts as to why someone with such an ability was considered a ‘hero.’ But they quickly decided that there were some who played roles other than in battle.

“If the others have only one power each, then it seems like things might work out. As long as we’re not taken by surprise,” said Eleanora.

“Yeah, and some of them are clearly inferior versions of Vandalieu-kun,” said Privel.

“No, my abilities are magic,” said Vandalieu.

“The fact that you can easily recreate the effects of unique skills using magic is amazing,” said Princess Levia.

Just like the previously-exterminated ‘Gungnir’ Kaidou Kanata, if the reincarnated individuals only possessed a single cheat-like ability each, then it seemed like something could be done about them.

Especially for Vandalieu.

Even if Death Scythe’s instant-kill cheat-like ability stopped his heart, he could simply fight while using Out-of-body Experience. After that, he would just need to resuscitate his cardiovascular system before any fatal damage was done to his brain.

The same applied for Marionette; it was apparently an ability that manipulated others by controlling their neurons, so it wouldn’t be a problem with Out-of-body Experience.

And these two abilities would have no effect on Bone Man, Rita and Saria, who were made of nothing but bones or armor, nor would they be useful against Princess Levia and the other Ghosts.

The Mage Masher that erased magic would be problematic, but against him, Vandalieu could activate the fragments of the Demon King and kill him through physical means. Of course, he wouldn’t mind letting Borkus and Bellmond beat him to death, either.

In that regard, the Oracle and Clairvoyance would be problematic to find if they devoted themselves to running and hiding, but if they did that, Vandalieu would just leave them be.

“But they are likely aware that Danna-sama has erased Kaidou Kanata, so would they not cooperate with each other if they were to attempt to take Danna-sama’s life once more?” said Bellmond.

“That would immediately increase our problems,” said Darcia.

It would be immediately problematic if the Bravers formed a team and combined their abilities when fighting Vandalieu. And they weren’t a group of people that were completely reliant on just their cheat-like abilities, either.

Rodcorte had granted them increased physical qualities and, more importantly, a talent for magic.

“Ooauuugh.”

Seeing everyone’s reactions, several of Legion’s heads hung downwards in apology. It was probably regretting killing so many reincarnated individuals at once.

It wasn’t that it was suffering from the pressure of being hugged by Pauvina.

“From what I heard from Hannah and the others, Kaidou Kanata tried to register at an Adventurers’ Guild and tried to acquire a Job, though he was stopped partway through. Thus, I do not think they can acquire Jobs naturally, even after reincarnating in this world. However, he was apparently quite a capable magic user, with numerous other skills as well,” said Princess Levia.

The Bravers had all been first-rate magic-users in Origin, and had even received military training. But in Lambda, gunpowder-based firearms didn’t exist, nor did Origin’s state-of-the-art miniature magical media that could be fit into a glove, so it would likely be difficult for them to display their abilities right away.

Using Kaidou Kanata as a reference, if they were adventurers, they would be between Class and B-class.

“It’s amazing that there are a hundred of them, but are they really great enough to be called heroes?” asked Eleanora.

In Lambda, there was a tough hurdle to make if one wanted to be known as a hero. Even if one became an A-class adventurer capable of cutting down mountains and splitting the sea, they would not be called heroes. One would have to become an S-class adventurer to call themselves a hero.

“But if their base abilities are between Class and B-class, if they acquire Jobs and spend time training in Lambda, they’ll become A-class within a few years, and S-class within a decade,” said Vandalieu.

Lambda had bonuses from the Jobs and skills that didn’t exist in Origin, as well as monster materials and metals that didn’t exist in Origin either. If the reincarnated individuals used those to gather their strength and equip themselves fully, it was possible that they could indeed gain the strength of A-class adventurers.

And if the reincarnated individuals cooperated with each other, they would become an extremely dangerous fighting force.

“Well, it doesn’t seem that all of the reincarnated individuals are on good terms with each other,” Vandalieu added. “Apparently they betrayed and killed each other back in the other world. Well, considering that, it’s still uncertain as to whether they will try to kill me.”

Even if Rodcorte promised them rewards, it was unlikely that they would form a party to challenge Vandalieu without facing risks of conflict.

“Speaking of which, couldn’t you predict what they’ll do since you know what they’re like, Your Majesty?” said Kimberley.

“What are they like?” asked Orbia.

“I don’t know,” said Vandalieu, shaking his head. “I was never close enough to them to know what kind of people they are. And almost thirty years have passed; it wouldn’t be strange if they’ve changed… in fact, it would be more normal if they have.”

Vandalieu had been a loner without a single friend, but he at least remembered the names and faces of the classmates and teachers that had stood out.

But looking at it another way, he couldn’t remember anything other than that. And Legion’s information had made it clear that since they had already been reincarnated once, there were some whose names and races had changed.

Who in the world were Mackenzie, Misa Anderson and Mao Smith? If there had been students with those names at his high school, Vandalieu wouldn’t have been able to forget them, no matter how much of a loner he was. It was difficult to imagine that the passengers and workers on the ferry had these names, either. Though Vandalieu’s memories were faint, he had the feeling that everyone on the ferry had been Japanese.

And, of course, there was no way that Vandalieu knew the names and personalities of the ferry workers.

“Ah! That’s right, what will we do if those reincarnated people are reincarnated as babies born here?!” said Privel.

Everyone was startled by this idea. The gods who knew of the secret of the circle of transmigration systems would be able to assure them that this couldn’t happen, but that was a secret of gods.

The people and monsters living in Talosheim had been guided to Vida’s circle of transmigration system by Guidance: Demon Path, and Rodcorte couldn’t interfere with them. But nobody knew this.

“It’s fine. Everyone loves Van,” Pauvina declared, and the tense atmosphere diffused immediately.

“That’s true,” said Basdia.

“There’s no problems there,” said Borkus.

“I suppose you’re right,” said Eleanora.

“You did it, Vandalieu! It’s because you behave well,” said Darcia.

The truth was that this was due to the Demon Path Enticement and the Guidance: Demon Path skills, however. All of Talosheim’s citizens were currently under the influence of Vandalieu’s Demon Path Enticement skill.

If any foreign beings not under the effects of these skills were to appear among the citizens, Vandalieu would be able to know right away.

“Behaving well is important, isn’t it,” said Vandalieu.

Of course, this was a needless worry as the reincarnated individuals were in a different circle of transmigration system, however.

“Returning to the original topic, I think Legion knows more about the reincarnated individuals’ natures than I do,” Vandalieu said.

Legion had considered the ‘Chronos’ Murakami and the other nine reincarnated individuals under him as targets for revenge, so it hadn’t colluded with him much at all, but they had been on cooperative terms for over a year.

It was aware of their personalities to some extent.

“According to Legion, Marionette is considerably different from Kanata and Death Scythe is a little different, but both are similar to him,” said Vandalieu.

“I see… they are serious enemies of women,” said Princess Levia; she was close to Hannah and the other Ghosts who had fallen victim to Kaidou Kanata.

“Van-kun, if they are scum bastards like Rick, we have to proactively go and kill them,” said Orbia, a victim of a conspiracy involving sham marriages and serial murder.

“Danna-sama, it seems that they possess dangerous abilities, and as these two ladies say, I believe they should be disposed of immediately,” said Bellmond, who had been a victim of a gang rape.

It seemed that their past traumas were provoking their emotions, causing anger to well forth.

“Indeed, if we can kill them, we should,” said Vandalieu.

The ‘Marionette’ Inui Hajime had apparently spoken to the female members of the Eighth Guidance about the sex crimes he had stained his hands with using his cheat-like ability during his time with the Bravers, telling the stories as if they were tales of his own bravery. It had been serious harassment.

The ‘Death Scythe’ Konoe Kyuuji was similar. Since Vandalieu only knew that Kyuuji’s ability could cause instant death by stopping the hearts of his targets, he assumed that Kyuuji had threatened his victims with death, or perhaps killed them and defiled them afterwards.

… The truth was that Death Scythe was an ability that could stop any moving objects, like limbs and engines, not just hearts. Konoe Kyuuji’s method had been to use this ability to stop the movements of his victims to commit his crimes.

Because of his own behavior, the evilness of his crimes had been exaggerated. He had gotten what he deserved.

“Also, the ‘Oracle’ Endou Kouya… Legion doesn’t know what his personality is like, but due to various reasons, it’s unclear as to whether he’ll hear us out,” said Vandalieu.

“Aoohhh…”

One of Legion’s faces was changing shape as it let out its voice.

The ‘Oracle’ Endou Kouya had set up the way Vandalieu had died in Origin, and for that reason, the Eighth Guidance member Shade had taken over his body and killed him.

He seemed logical in nature, but Shade didn’t know what he’d been thinking when he died. It was possible that he felt that his own death would offset what he had done to Vandalieu, or even cancel it out.

“On Earth, Shimada Izumi-san was a person of firm character and a strong sense of justice. A class representative - kind of like a stubborn government official,” Vandalieu recalled as he patted one of the grieving Legion’s heads.

Borkus and the others looked confused at first, but then seemed to understand once he gave the comparison.

“I don’t really get it, but… is that bad?” said Basdia.

“It doesn’t seem good, Basdia-neechan,” said Kimberley.

“It means she has the kind of personality who would feel opposed to how fearsome Vandalieu-sama is,” said Eleanora.

Kimberley and Eleanora were frowning; it seemed that they had only negative impressions of stubborn government officials.

If one thought about it using the common sense of someone from Earth, the things that Vandalieu had done were nothing but evil deeds. Vandalieu didn’t know how much Shimada Izumi had changed in Origin, but wouldn’t his past actions cause her to grimace now?

The truth was that Endou Kouya and Shimada Izumi were both people who would be relatively willing to discuss things with Vandalieu, but… as long as Rodcorte was the way he was, Vandalieu’s ways of gaining information about what was happening on Rodcorte’s side was horribly limited. Because of this, he had actually ended up concluding that the opposite was true.

“Well, her ability is apparently the ‘Inspector’ which allows her to see through falsities, and she’s apparently not good at fighting, so she won’t even be a threat if she appears before me,” said Vandalieu. “The other one that I know about is Minami Asagi… to describe him in a word, he’s annoying.”

“Annoying as in he’s a troublesome person?” asked Pauvina.

“They’re all really troublesome people, aren’t they? Van-kun, you suddenly seem really tired,” said Orbia.

Indeed, Vandalieu’s impression of Asagi was that “troublesome” or “annoying” would describe him in a word.

He was a sports-oriented person in the sports club, enthusiastic in everything he did and constricting in his friendships, with a hot-blooded personality. And he forced his sense of values onto others… no, he was a man who believed that it was a good deed to force others to do what he thought was right, and believed it was his duty to do so.

To those with the same or similar senses of values as Asagi, or those who found comfort and happiness in companionship, Asagi was probably a good person.

However, in the past, he had been nothing more than a nuisance to Vandalieu.

Vandalieu didn’t care about the fact that he had organized a signed card to be given to a reserved teacher in training when he returned to his university.

But what about the fact that he would force students who weren’t in any club to join as a trial, and then give a fervent speech about the significance of high school life to those students when they quit?

Back then, everyone liked him except for our homeroom teacher, and he was respected among the class, so nobody stopped him and it was really troublesome.

Back on earth, Vandalieu had always become caught up in the arguments that Asagi started. It wasn’t that Asagi had been really targeting him, but because he had been living a completely opposite school life to Asagi, he had always been given instructions by him.

“Time has passed since then and he should have gone through a different environment, so I don’t think he would have the same personality that he did back then, but… including his time on Earth, he should have lived a total of forty-seven or forty-eight years. If I lived in that environment the whole time, I might have died of mental fatigue,” said Vandalieu.

He got an unpleasant feeling just remembering Minami Asagi. That was the kind of person Asagi was.

However, from the actions and words of Asagi in Legion’s memories… Vandalieu got the strange feeling that he had become even worse.

“Vandalieu, die of fatigue?!” Darcia exclaimed.

“For Van, who is fine after doing three days’ worth of work in a day, to say that he’d die of fatigue…” Pauvina muttered.

“Quite the troublesome person, isn’t he…” said Princess Levia.

“Danna-sama, could that not be considered a unique skill?” Bellmond asked.

“No, it’s not that bad,” said Vandalieu.

Everyone was shuddering; they seemed more shocked than Vandalieu had expected they would be. Vandalieu had told them what kind of a world Earth was, but it seemed that they couldn’t help but to think of it in terms of Lambda and the current Vandalieu.

“Well, it’s fortunate that Murakami-sensei didn’t die,” said Vandalieu.

Murakami Junpei, the homeroom teacher of Vandalieu’s high school class on Earth. From Vandalieu’s memory, Murakami had done his duties as a teacher in an ordinary way, but outside of that, he was an extremely troublesome person.

He had completely left the task of guiding the students to Asagi, and he was certainly not the type that students could consult regarding their family situations or their futures.

Vandalieu’s uncle and aunt wouldn’t give him the money needed for the school trip. He still remembered what Murakami had said to him when he came to school with the documents he needed to be allowed to work part-time in order to earn his own money and pay for the trip himself.

“It’ll make no difference whether or not you’re there; do you really want to go on this school trip that badly?”

And then he had shown great annoyance as he signed it for approval.

Vandalieu’s life on Earth had ended as a result of participating in the school trip, so he didn’t resent Murakami for this, however.

What I’m concerned about is that Murakami-sensei is the one who changed the most after reincarnating in Origin.

It wasn’t too difficult to imagine someone in his teenage years like Kaidou Kanata, drowning in his suddenly-acquired power in his second life and recklessly committing crimes.

But Murakami Junpei had been an adult at the time of his death, and though he hadn’t been a good teacher, he hadn’t been a criminal or a low-life, either.

He had betrayed, tricked and killed his fellow reincarnated individuals, the students of the class that he had been the homeroom teacher of. How had he fallen so far? Vandalieu found this strange.

Therefore, he couldn’t imagine how Murakami would think or act when he reincarnated in Lambda.

It would have been fortunate for Vandalieu if Murakami had stayed alive in Origin, giving him time to gather more information about him from the other reincarnated individuals.

That was what Vandalieu thought, unaware that Murakami had already died.

“Now then, that’s the complete report for the present situation,” said Vandalieu. “If Legion remembers any new information, please listen to me as I explain it once more. Also, I’m going to publish this information on the front page of the ‘Eclipse King Post.’”

The Eclipse King Post. This was the newspaper that had recently started to be published in Talosheim. It was generally published monthly, and contained news of events in the various regions of Talosheim, events being held and information of the outside world delivered by the Sauron Liberation Front that was led by Iris.

Incidentally, the editor-in-chief and reporter was Vandalieu himself. There was an open position for people worried about the unification of the government and the press.

“Hmm, that thing has too many kanji, so I don’t do well with it. Can you use more hiragana?” said Privel.

“And Your Majesty, I accidentally burn it sometimes, so I would like you to make the Eclipse King Post more fire-resistant!” said Princess Levia.

“Ah, I’d like it to be more water-resistant!” Orbia added.

“Van, add more crossword puzzles!” said Pauvina.

“Privel, you should learn more kanji. But it might be true that it’s not really well-suited for the general population, so I’ll take that into consideration. Princess Levia and Orbia, please put a little more effort into controlling your flames and water. If you really can’t, then I’ll consider your suggestions. Pauvina, I’m planning to publish a compilation of the crossword puzzles that you like. Please wait a little longer. Ah, incidentally, the second page will be an introduction of Legion,” said Vandalieu.

“Indeed, if you don’t introduce it and someone were to encounter it, they might mistake it for a new species of monster,” said Basdia.

“Aaaahhh.”

And so, the head of the nation and those close to him determined the newspaper’s contents. Nobody had the role of monitoring the authority of Talosheim’s information source.

And then just as Vandalieu tried to end the morning debriefing session in a peaceful manner, Chezare came to deliver some news.

“Your Majesty, there has been a report from Bone Man, who has been patrolling the marshlands. It seems that there is something strange occurring at the southern end of the marshes,” he said. “It is likely that there is something unusual going on in the Noble Orc Empire. I believe we should deal with it immediately.”

“Indeed, it seems better to deal with that than the reincarnated individuals, since we don’t know when they’ll arrive,” Vandalieu said. “Station guards at the southern end of the marshes. After that, let’s form a squad to see what’s going on.”

There was the possibility that the reincarnated individuals had reincarnated in Lambda in adult bodies like Kaidou Kanata, but even if they did, their abilities would be around B-class level. With abilities on that level, it would be difficult for them to cross the Boundary Mountain Range, even if they formed a party.

Thus, Vandalieu thought that it was best to leave the Sauron Liberation Front to stay on guard while he and his companions dealt with the neighboring Noble Orc Empire.

“Now then, I’ll announce the criteria for being selected for the squad,” he said.