"One person, to start things off," whispered Rodcorte, who had been watching events in Origin.
Kaidou Kanata had died. With his death, unrest had begun to stir among the reincarnated individuals gathered under Amemiya Hiroto's leadership; it was likely that some would begin to leave his organization soon.
And soon, at least a dozen of them, perhaps even up to half of them, would lose their lives.
Rodcorte had taken a lot of things into consideration so that they wouldn't die easily, but he hadn't made them invincible or immortal. There could be incidents where they would die at each other's hands like Kanata had.
At the very least, Kaidou Kanata and Amamiya Hiroto wouldn't be the only two who were unable to live out their natural lifespans in Origin.
"Hmm…? This is… Shit! That damn Mari, she actually killed me, didn't she?!" shouted Kanata, having appeared before Rodcorte and regained his senses.
Come to think of it, he was shouting when he came here, too, Rodcorte remembered.
"Hey, god!" said Kanata, calling out to Rodcorte. "I'm begging you, give me one more chance! I hadn't even turned thirty yet… Wasn't that life just too short?!"
It seemed that Kaidou Kanata was more rational. He was asking Rodcorte to give him another life.
Rodcorte thought that Kanata's two lives of over forty years when combined wasn't that short, however. There were those who died immediately after birth, or even before birth, after all.
And it was almost certain that there was no small number of people under the age of thirty who had been killed by Kanata himself in Origin, including the terrorists he had killed right before his own death.
"Please! I'll do anything!" Kanata begged.
"That cannot be done. It has already been decided that I will have you live a third life," Rodcorte told him as he instantaneously communicated knowledge about the world of Lambda and the circumstances requiring people to be reborn there, just as he had done with Vandalieu.
Kanata stiffened in surprise for a moment, but then began speaking dejectedly. "God, I did ask you to give me another chance, but can't you give me one in some other world?" he asked.
"Do you not like Lambda? It is a world of swords and magic that you all love so much. There are even Dragons," said Rodcorte.
"No, there's no way I'd take a liking to a world officially recognized by a god to be an inferior world, is there?" said Kanata. "I've had enough of being extraordinary in Origin. And 'development of the world?' I don't want to do something as difficult as that, either."
"Hmm… If you make use of your power, you should be able to live life like royalty and nobles, and even acquire a harem," Rodcorte told him. "Do you still feel that way, despite this?"
"Even if I live like royalty and nobles, there's no electricity or internet, is there? I'm not interested in a harem. I'd be satisfied with playing around with a single woman multiple times."
Kanata was more disinterested in being reincarnated in Lambda than Rodcorte had imagined. With that said, he had no choice; his reincarnation could not be prevented at this point.
"Hmm? Wait, does that mean Mari is going to be reincarnated in Lambda as well?" asked Kanata.
Strength had suddenly returned to his voice, but Rodcorte had a bad feeling about this.
"… Yes."
"Then this time, I'm going to kill that woman! I'm not going to let my guard down; I'm definitely going to have my revenge!"
So, this is how it turns out in the end, Rodcorte thought in exasperation. With the memories and personality of previous lives preserved, the grudges of the previous lives seemed to follow them as well.
With that said, if either their previous memories or their personality was erased, their minds would become unstable. If both were erased, there wouldn't be any point in reincarnating them at all. Something as skillful as erasing only the memories of the grudge was difficult for Rodcorte to do. He was a specialist of the soul, not the mind. Although minds and souls are intimately connected, they are deceptively dissimilar.
As Rodcorte had programmed the series of reincarnations when the one hundred people had died on earth, it wasn't even possible for him to take his time to erase memories now.
However, this might be perfect. Unlike Vandalieu, Kanata had only one target for revenge, and Rodcorte had a problem that needed to be taken care of swiftly. Perhaps it would even be easier to request this of Kanata because of his overflowing murderous intent.
"Before that, I have something I want to request of you," said Rodcorte.
"What is it, god? I, Kanata-sama, first casualty of the Bravers, will do anything you wish for, as long as it isn't troublesome."
"No, you are not the first to perish among those who reincarnated in that world," Rodcorte told him. "The first casualty was Amamiya Hiroto."
"Amemiya Hiroto*? That guy died?!"
"No, not him. Not Ame, but Amamiya."
"… There was a guy like that?"
This was the extent of Kaidou Kanata's perception of Amamiya Hiroto. They had been in different classes in high school, and Amamiya Hiroto had always been alone, with as much presence as empty air. Kanata didn't remember him at all.
"Ah… Come to think of it, I did hear that there were two people who declined to be reincarnated and one of them had a similar name to Amemiya Hiroto. I think his woman had forgotten about it for a while."
Naruse Narumi. As she had been popular in her class, even Kanata had remembered her despite being in a different class. She had approached Amemiya thinking that he was the reincarnation of Amamiya, and they had apparently quarreled once they realized that it was a misunderstanding, but after various events, they had ended up together and gotten married.
Remembering the beginning of their relationship, Kanata realized that Amamiya Hiroto was the 'guy with the similar name.'
"I will give you information regarding him," said Rodcorte.
"No, I don't really want it – UOH?! That guy was that Undead?! Jesus!" Kanata shouted.
"What is it?"
"No, not you!"
Receiving a direct stream of information from Rodcorte once more, Kanata couldn't help but scream as he realized that the Undead in Origin, the only being in the world capable of using death-attribute magic, was Amamiya Hiroto, and that he had already been reincarnated in Lambda.
At this rate, wouldn't he killed for revenge before he could take his own revenge?
"Oi, cancel this reincarnation! There's no way I can win against a monster like that on my own, is there?! Or at least wait until the others die and come to this place!" said Kanata.
That Undead, Amamiya Hiroto, was such an abnormal being that Kanata had completely changed his views and taken back his words.
First of all, Amamiya could permanently surround himself with barriers that nullified physical and magical energy while still allowing him to attack from his side. It wouldn't be anything like the comics where a hole in the barrier would appear while he was attacking, either.
And he was even constantly releasing lethal poison, disease and mold. It would be impossible to approach him without something like a spacesuit.
If this was all, Kanata could penetrate these with his cheat-like ability. But in the laboratory in Origin, guards who had tried to run had gone mad and begun clawing their own eyeballs out while laughing, research assistants had been turned into mummies instantaneously and a female researcher who had begged for her life was eaten from the inside out by insect-like creatures. Amamiya Hiroto possessed numerous methods of attacking that were still unknown. Without knowing what needed to be penetrated, Kanata's ability would be useless.
Amamiya Hiroto was a being that couldn't be described as anything other than a natural enemy to the living.
Despite that, there were records that he had conducted a strange rescue mission where he kicked down the doors of the confined rooms of the other experimental subjects and destroyed the control devices that had been implanted into their bodies.
Considering that he had acted like he wanted to be killed by the Bravers in the end, that Undead might have still had some humanity left in him. Though this was accurate, it wasn't the complete truth, either.
That Undead, like Kanata and the others, had been reincarnated from Earth.
"I want you to kill Amamiya Hiroto, who calls himself Vandalieu in Lambda," said Rodcorte.
"I'm telling you, it's impossible!" Kanata protested.
"Currently, he is weaker than when he was an Undead in Origin," Rodcorte explained. "You should be able to defeat him, even on your own."
"… Are you serious?"
Rodcorte told Kanata everything he knew about Vandalieu. But as it was clearly inadvisable to tell a mortal being about the existence of the circle of transmigration system, he kept quiet about Vandalieu's ability to break souls. He decided to use the fact that Vandalieu wanted to kill all of those reincarnating on Lambda as the reason he wanted Vandalieu dead.
Also, it would be problematic if he feels afraid again upon hearing that his soul could be broken.
This was part of Rodcorte's calculations as well.
Kanata, on the other hand, after hearing the gist of the situation though not the whole picture, began to think, "Is this guy an idiot?" regarding Rodcorte.
Instead of doing troublesome things like cursing Vandalieu and trying to drive him to suicide, why hadn't he tried to calm him down after he died in Origin? At the very least, that was what Kanata would have done.
There should have been various other options, such as having Vandalieu reborn into a prosperous family, giving him proper cheat-like abilities this time or offering him a harem like he had offered Kanata.
In any case, Kanata understood the situation. He wasn't particularly enthusiastic about it, and he felt sympathy for Vandalieu. But at the same time, he thought that this was a chance for himself.
"Hey, I don't mind disposing of this Vandalieu, but only on two conditions," he told Rodcorte.
"Conditions?" Rodcorte repeated.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm cleaning up after your mistakes, after all," said Kanata.
"… I believe that this is also for your own protection as well, is it not?" Rodcorte pointed out.
"I don't really mind begging him to spare my life. I'll lick his shoes or feet and say, 'I didn't know anything; nobody could go against what Amemiya Hiroto and Endou Kouya's orders. I'll tell you anything you want to know, so please just spare my life.' If I do that, he'll probably forgive me, right? He seemed quite kind, too."
Vandalieu had rescued the other experimental subjects; no matter how Kanata looked at it, he was probably a softhearted person. Upon hearing Kanata say this, Rodcorte stayed silent for a few moments and then prompted Kanata to continue.
"What are your conditions?" Rodcorte asked.
"First of all, I want a reward," said Kanata. "If I dispose of Vandalieu successfully, reincarnate me on Earth or another world with a similar scientific civilization, a world without magic or monsters, with my current memories and personality. Of course, I mean excluding Origin. Make it so that I'm born into a rich, blessed family. Also, I want to be a man with unrivaled handsome looks this time."
"So, you are asking me for a fourth life?" Rodcorte asked. "But does that not mean that you have to die on Lambda?"
"Then I just have to die, right? After I dispose of Vandalieu, I'll just hurry up and die as well."
I have no interest at all in living a life in an inferior world. Once I do my job, I'll kill myself right away, be reincarnated in a pleasant world similar to Earth, be a son of a rich, distinguished family and live an enjoyable life until I die. I'll take my sweet time, while the others are doing their hardest to live in a piece of shit world.
These thoughts of Kanata's were clear to Rodcorte, but Rodcorte had little interest in his thoughts and didn't feel the need to blame him for having these thoughts, either.
This was because Rodcorte knew that Kanata hadn't contributed much to the development of Origin, so he wouldn't be of much use in Lambda either.
Kanata was simply a single disposable card with nothing other than his abilities in battle; as long as he could solve Rodcorte's problems, his life was a small price to pay.
And the reward that Kanata desired was the kind of reward that Rodcorte could easily give him.
"Very well," said Rodcorte. "I promise you that reward. So, what is your other condition?" he asked.
"Your backup, of course," said Kanata. "Make it so that I'm reincarnated in Lambda in an adult's body."
"Instead of reincarnating normally?"
"Of course. How many years are you planning to wait before having this job completed?"
Even with Kanata's abilities in combat, including his particularly exceptional ability when fighting other humans, it would still be impossible for him to complete this request with the body of a baby or infant. It would take over a dozen years for him to become able to move and act freely away from his parents, possibly even up to fifteen or twenty years.
But if he had an adult's body to begin with, he would have an advantage over Vandalieu who was still a child. He wouldn't have any troublesome parents, so he would be able to act freely.
And having to live for over a decade in such an inferior world was something that Kanata wanted to avoid.
"Very well," said Rodcorte. "I will have to use some of my power, but it is not impossible."
Even considering the aforementioned benefits, this would cause problems for Rodcorte and he would normally be reluctant to do it, but there was no choice.
"Well then, I'll need resistances against poison, disease and the death attribute as well," said Kanata. "Also, if by some tiny chance I get killed, recover my soul quickly so that I don't become an Undead."
"Things have been arranged so that the souls of you people, those that I reincarnated, will always return to my side," said Rodcorte. "Amamiya Hiroto's transformation into an Undead was an exception caused by his own magic. I will make it so that you can acquire resistance skills against poison, disease and the death attribute. As a resistance skill against the death attribute is normally impossible for humans to acquire, the maximum I can give you is a level 5 skill, however."
"Skills?" Kanata repeated.
"In Lambda, there are skills and Jobs, and you can see these displayed on your Status," Rodcorte explained.
"What the hell is that? It's just like a game, isn't it?" said Kanata. "Isn't it because you're playing around like that that the world isn't developed?"
"… So, is there anything else you need?" Rodcorte asked, ignoring these words.
"Equipment, I suppose. A gun, a knife –"
"Wait," said Rodcorte. "It is impossible to take things that do not exist in Lambda."
"Are you serious? I can't even take just one sniper rifle?"
"Why did you think that I would allow this?"
"Tch!" Kanata clicked his tongue loudly, having thought that it would be easy-mode with a long-distance sniper shot. But even Rodcorte had no choice but to refuse this request.
In the first place, if such a thing was even possible, he would have sent items from other worlds to Lambda in large quantities long ago. He wasn't doing so because it was impossible with the power he possessed.
In the end, Rodcorte was nothing more than the god of the circle of transmigration.
"Then can I at least ask for some clothes?" said Kanata. "Surely you're not going to tell me to be reborn completely nude?"
"… Everyone is normally born naked," Rodcorte pointed out. "But I understand, I will adjust things so that they work out. Now then, you must encounter Vandalieu, so your destiny must –"
"Stop right there!" said Kanata, interrupting him. "Adjust that destiny thing, too. Give me something like a radar so that I don't encounter him at a time that I would never expect."
So many requests, Rodcorte thought, but he acknowledged this request anyway. In fact, an adjustment like this wasn't very difficult to make.
"A radar that detects the owner of powerful death-attribute Mana, and an altered destiny so that you encounter him. I shall make that adjustment."
"Alright, there are no more problems now," said Kanata. It seemed that he was out of requests.
"Now then, I shall have you reborn in Lambda," said Rodcorte. "After you are reincarnated, I recommend that you register at the Adventurers' Guild or some other Guild, acquire a Job, and learn how to use skills while increasing your level and Attribute Values."
"I'm telling you, I don't need to play around with that stuff. I'll get rid of him quickly even without doing that," said Kanata as he was reincarnated.
In front of the people of the Second Cultivation Village, with various items prepared in front of him, Vandalieu began cooking. He felt like he was teaching them how to prepare three-minute meals.
"The first things you need to have ready are Goblin meat and Gobubu grass," Vandalieu told them. "You can use any part of the Goblin, whether it be the chest, legs or the heart, and you should try to have at least one whole Goblin's worth. Ah, their livers are fine as well. As for the Gobubu grass, an amount equal to about half the weight of the meat you're using is just right."
As he pointed to the mountain of Goblin meat and Gobubu grass, the villagers let out groans of disgust. Although the meat of humanoid monsters such as Orcs was eaten in Lambda, Goblins and Gobubu grass weren't even considered low-quality products; they were simply garbage to be thrown out. The villagers couldn't be blamed for reacting this way.
"Next, grind the Gobubu grass," Vandalieu continued. "During this process, the grass lets out bad-smelling juices that leave stains on clothes, so take care not to dirty yourself. I have prepared a special mortar for crushing the Gobubu grass in this case, so I will be using this."
There was a stir in the crowd as Vandalieu brought out a mortar that he had made during the night using Golem Transmutation. They were surprised at the fact that this mortar that even an adult would have a hard time carrying around was being lifted easily by Vandalieu, a child. But Vandalieu interpreted this as his mortar being popular.
He mashed the Gobubu grass, the unpleasant-smelling juices gathering in a bucket that he had placed beneath the mortar.
"After that, cut the Goblin meat into appropriately-sized pieces. I don't have a blade, so I'll be using my own claws, but I've cleaned them properly so rest assured," said Vandalieu, cutting the meat with his claws. The villagers groaned once more.
"After the meat is cut, place it in a barrel with the grass juice," he continued. "In this case, let us take care to make sure that the meat is submerged in the grass juice. Place a lid on top, leave it for a day and it is complete. For this demonstration, I have prepared the completed product."
"Eh? When did you do that?" a perceptive villager asked.
"I used my Familiar Spirit powers to prepare it," Vandalieu replied. He couldn't tell the villagers that he had actually used the Inanimate Aging spell to turn it into a one-day-old state, so he deceived them forcibly. "This is the finished Gobu-gobu," he said. "Please go ahead and try some."
He opened the barrel and placed some of its contents, which resembled purple meat, onto plates. Seeing this, the villagers instinctively took a step back. This was the normal reaction for anyone being told to eat purple meat.
"I-is this really edible?" the village chief asked.
"Of course," said Vandalieu. "Shall we eat it together?"
"N-no! Itadakimasu." The village chief took a piece of Gobu-gobu and shut his eyes tightly as he bit into it. But as he continued chewing several times, his frowned eyebrows began to relax. "This is… not delicious, but it is not unpleasant and there is no stink," he commented.
Hearing the village chief say this, the villagers timidly placed the Gobu-gobu into their mouths.
"Indeed, as Oyaji-dono says, this flavor is not inedible."
"No, isn't this much better than the tree bark dango and grass soup that we ate during the winter?"
"You're right. This is much more delicious than those."
They've had some crazy diets in the past.
Hearing the villagers say that the Gobu-gobu wasn't bad and that it was actually delicious, Vandalieu felt sympathy for them from the bottom of his heart. But the substitute meals that they had eaten during the winters with poor harvests… the nutrient-devoid things that they had eaten to stave off their hunger were indeed far more unpleasant-tasting than Gobu-gobu.
"Yeah, it tastes far better than eating Goblin meat as it is," said a villager who, in his hunger, had apparently eaten the meat of a Goblin he had exterminated before. Struggling with poor harvests, these people had really barely managed to survive. If a slave trader had visited the village, they might have even sold their children to avoid letting them starve to death.
It was at this point that Vandalieu had come and taught them how to make preserved food from Goblin meat, which they normally had no choice but to throw away, and Gobubu grass. As it did contain meat, it should provide far greater nutrition than tree bark.
There was no way that the villagers wouldn't be happy about this.
"Umm, if you just build a shrine to Vida now, I'll throw in twenty mortars and wooden barrels, as well as salt that will improve the taste if you apply it before submerging the Goblin meat in the grass juice," said Vandalieu. "What do you say?"
"Gladly! We shall devote ourselves to Vida!" a villager exclaimed.
"No, you don't have to go as far as devoting yourselves –" Vandalieu began.
"To think that you would even give us precious salt. Truly, thank you very much!" said another villager.
One villager was in tears. "I held myself back from building a shrine because of the lord and the priest-sama, but I have still been praying for a long time. My prayers really did reach Vida-sama."
Out of sympathy, Vandalieu had gone and taken out the salt that he had brought from Talosheim to use to pay toll fees. There was still rock salt available there and he had already acquired coins from the bandits, so it probably wouldn't be a problem, however.
Incidentally, Vandalieu had asked the villagers about this, having felt curious about their words, and apparently, in the Sauron Duchy, Vida's religion had been more prominent than Alda's. When he looked at the people of the cultivation villages, he had seen more humans than any other race, and there had been no Dark Elves. But there was quite a number of Beast-people and Titans in the villages.
However, in the Hartner Duchy that had welcomed them, most of the noblemen, including the duke, were believers of Alda and his subordinate gods, and it was the Church of Alda that was flourishing in this duchy. The shrines that had been built by the soldiers in the cultivation villages were shrines to Alda, and it was a priest of Alda, the one in the Seventh Cultivation Village, who came to this area to preach.
While it wasn't expressly forbidden, the people had felt pressure and decided not to build shrines to Vida and other gods as they had done in their lost homelands.
I've learned another unpleasant truth.
This weighed a little heavy on Vandalieu's mind, but what he was more anxious about was the First Princess Levia who was supposed to have evacuated Talosheim as well as the other refugees, including Borkus's daughter.
Would they still be living in this duchy, where the religion of Alda had become so powerful?
Or perhaps they had relocated to another duchy? It would be best to quickly head to the city and investigate.
I'm worried about these cultivation villages, but… I suppose I'll station Lemures around them. Also, I'll bury some Stone Golems nearby. If I carve Vida's holy symbol on their chests, the villagers will think of them as allies… I guess?
This would probably be fine.
"I've finally caught up to you!"
After Vandalieu had spent several days mass-producing Lemures and deploying them to every village, Kasim's party and the priest approached him with haste. They had been in the Seventh Cultivation Village; what were they doing in the Second Cultivation Village now?
"I hadn't thought that you would be going around every cultivation village…" said Kasim.
"Come back; everyone's been worried about you," said Fester.
"The day after you took Kyne and flew off, we headed to the Fifth Cultivation Village," Kasim told him.
Was their friend who had come from the Sauron Duchy like them safe? What about the person who had saved their lives? Kasim's party and the priest, the four of them, had hurried to the Fifth Cultivation Village to find out.
What they had found was Kyne and the other villagers, discussing where in the village a shrine to Vida should be constructed.
"After that, we heard that you'd flown off to another cultivation village and chased you… Seriously, who the heck are you? You're too incredible," said Kasim.
"That's right; we'd been worried that you and Kyne might have fallen down somewhere along the way, but in the end, it turned out that you'd gone around to all of the cultivation villages," said Fester.
"And you did incredible deeds to save people in all of the villages," said Zeno. "We were wondering if we were chasing a saint or something. Right, Priest-sama?"
"You are absolutely right," the priest agreed. He was wearing a strangely stiff expression as he wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. He showed more human weakness than when he was wearing his shallow smile. "The day before yesterday, I said that we should strive to do good deeds together, but perhaps I should be the one asking you for teachings," he said. "How in the world did you cure all of the villagers' of disease, heal a burn that would be difficult to treat even with specialist healing techniques and dig a well in the blink of an eye? I have also heard that diseases were cured by holy droplets produced by your hands. Please tell me."
Wow, I did some amazing things, didn't I? Vandalieu thought, now that the priest was asking him all of these questions. He did think that calling the eye drops that he had secreted from his claws "holy droplets" was an exaggeration, though.
But how should he respond? He couldn't imagine that he could fool the priest by telling him that it was the power of a Familiar Spirit, but he had no intention of telling him the truth, either.
Vandalieu decided to tell one part of the truth, but keep the rest a secret.
"I possess a few special skills," he replied.
The priest and Kasim's party opened their eyes wide.
"By special skills, could you possibly mean Unique Skills?!"
In this world, there are Unique Skills, such as Vandalieu's God Slayer skill. They are various kinds of special abilities and talents, and they are extraordinarily rare. To put it in a ratio, about one in ten thousand people possess one.
The priest and Kasim's party had misunderstood, thinking that Vandalieu's various deeds had been possible through such a characteristic skill.
"W-what kind of skill could that be?!" the priest asked, leaning forward in excitement.
But Vandalieu shook his head. "I'm someone who is planning to establish myself as an adventurer, so I can't tell you," he said.
"Do not say that! Please tell me!" the priest insisted. "I will keep your secret!"
"You can't, Priest-sama!"
Kasim and his friends stopped the priest from persisting in his questioning.
"For us adventurers, we make money through our bodies," said Fester. "Forcibly asking someone to divulge their skills is a breach of etiquette."
"That's right," said Zeno. "I understand that you're curious, but trying to force Vandalieu to tell you his skills after he saved everyone goes against our morals."
Indeed, as they said, the information displayed on an adventurer's status is that adventurer's weakness as well as his strength. If the adventurer himself is unwilling to divulge that information himself, trying to force it out of him is equivalent to saying, "Tell me your weaknesses."
As Vandalieu had declared that he would become an adventurer in the future, this applied to him as well.
"That is… true. My apologies," said the priest. Being held back by Kasim and his friends, he reluctantly stepped back.
"Not at all. It's fine as long as you understand," said Vandalieu.
"But if you are capable of such things, I believe that there are many paths of employment to take without having to become an adventurer," said the priest.
… Why could Vandalieu see a strange look of ruefulness on the priest's face? He doubted that a traveling priest would have the connections to mediate offers with employers.
"That might be true, but I'm still inexperienced," said Vandalieu. "Even if I were to enter employment, I want to do it after first becoming an adventurer, expanding my horizons and gaining experience."
If he were employed by some noble family or merchant, he would become a vassal or servant and it would become difficult to attain a court rank. Also, he wouldn't be able to quit easily if things became inconvenient, either.
He wanted to avoid this.
"I see. Expanding your horizons is indeed important," the priest agreed. "Despite your youth, you have considered this…"
"Yeah, at the very least, he's doing a lot more thinking about his future than Fester," said Kasim.
"Why are you suddenly mentioning me?!" Fester protested.
Having settled things without having to lie (as his Death-Attribute Magic was indeed a skill), Vandalieu accompanied Kasim and the others back to the Seventh Cultivation Village in a good mood.
Suddenly feeling the sensation of having a physical body with no prior warning, Kaidou Kanata felt a deep sense of satisfaction and excitement.
He felt strength filling the limbs that had previously been powerless, as if he had been in a dream, and he could feel his own heartbeat deep in his chest, full of life.
"I did it!" he shouted as he opened his eyes, but a moment later, he let out a scream. "I'M NAKED AFTER ALL!"