The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time

Chapter 373: An encounter in a season of encounters and partings

To Elk, the Goddess of the Holy Spear, and the rest of the gods who had granted their divine protections to the potential heroes who had remained in Orbaume, what they were doing right now required them to be ready to die. After all, the person they were facing had every possible motive to harm them, and they were fully expecting him to.

However, Vandalieu accepted them right away. “So, you’ll be a part of Vida’s faction from now on? Thank you,” he said. “Now then, I’d like to talk about the contents of the Divine Messages you’ll be sending to Hendriksen and the others, the required changes to your teachings, the reforms that must take place at your Churches–”

“Wait, is that it?” interrupted Elk. “We came prepared to make a pact, or offer ourselves to you, or whatever else was needed.”

“No, that’s it,” Vandalieu replied simply with a nod.

Staring up at Vandalieu’s grotesque form, several times larger than their own, Elk and the others were unable to conceal their confusion.

“Vida and the others have told me to accept any gods of Alda’s forces who wished to change sides or surrender,” Vandalieu said.

To be more precise, he had been requested to not destroy such gods, but since the conversation seemed to be heading in a positive direction, he chose to use a… gentler expression.

If he destroyed too many gods, the task of maintaining the world’s existence would become more difficult, and that would be trouble for Vandalieu as well. It was only natural that he did not destroy gods when there was no reason to.

“Besides, it’s not like I devour people’s and gods’ souls because I want to. It’s simply a way for me to defeat my enemies. And I don’t consider you my enemies… though, strictly speaking, I should,” Vandalieu said.

These gods had chosen and nurtured Hendriksen and the other potential heroes in order to use them as fighting forces against Vandalieu. That alone was enough to make the judgment that they had hostile intent towards him, but it wasn’t as if they had actually caused him any direct harm… In fact, Hendriksen and the others had fought to protect Orbaume, under Miriam’s command.

They had not hindered Vandalieu from achieving his objectives or declared hostility towards him through a spirit clone like Yupeon, the God of Ice. They had not actually crossed swords and fought deadly battles against him like Brateo, the Colossus of Roaring Thunder, or Madroza, the Great Ocean Dragon God.

Of course, Vandalieu understood that Elk and the others were a part of Alda’s forces. They were gods who had been worshipers of Alda and his subordinate gods since their days as mortals. In other words, they had been on the side that oppressed Vida’s worshipers and the races she had created ever since they were mortals.

But if that was the criteria by which he judged whether they were enemies or not, every god belonging to Alda’s forces would be enemies no matter what they did, even if they surrendered. That wasn’t Vandalieu’s intent.

“I do have my reservations, and it will probably be difficult for the gods of Vida’s faction to accept you as allies right away, so it will be up to you and your actions to win their trust. Of course, since I am taking you in, I will do whatever I can to help you do that,” Vandalieu said.

Perhaps the gods would be opposed to the fact that they were not being demanded to make reparations and that there were no conditions to their being accepted into Vandalieu’s side. But they would have to resolve those feelings on their own. All Vandalieu would do for them was support them… cooperate with them.

“But I don’t fully trust you either, so I can’t reveal my future plans and such to you. Even if gods have worshipers, it doesn’t guarantee that they were worthy of that worship. Even though people that I trust worship you, that doesn’t mean I can trust you,” Vandalieu said.

There were good people even among Alda’s worshipers, just like there were people who discriminated against Vida’s races even among Vida’s worshipers. Although Vandalieu trusted Hendricksen and his companions, their worship of these gods did not mean that these gods could be fully trusted.

Although Elk understood Vandalieu’s point of view, she believed that everything was too convenient for herself and the others. “Acknowledged,” she said. “However, if we do nothing and simply accept the kindness you are showing us, it will be millions or tens of millions of years before we gain the trust of the gods of Vida’s faction. Therefore, I believe it would be best for us to enter a contract and make a definite, binding vow, but that is impossible. Therefore, I shall give you this spear.”

Elk took the holy spear that served as her own symbol and offered it to Vandalieu.

One by one, the other gods who were worshiped by the potential heroes followed her example and offered up their important symbols and sacred treasures.

“I shall give you this staff.”

“I shall give you this pen.”

“I shall give you this divine cow.”

“I shall give you this seedling and seed rice.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, but hold on a second,” said Vandalieu.

Being offered these things only troubled him. After all, he had come into this Divine Realm in a soul-only form, separated from his physical body. He didn’t know if it was possible for him to return to his body after having accepted the gods’ symbols and sacred treasures.

Even if he could, where would he store this great number of sacred treasures. It wasn’t just physical weapons and tools that he was being offered, like the spear, the staff, and the pen – there was an organism (?) that was apparently a divine cow, and even a seedling and seed rice.

It would be a very big problem if he were to fail to keep things properly and something were to happen to these important items.

So rather than accepting Elk’s spear, Vandalieu wanted to overcome this situation safely with a verbal contract.

“… Sorry, I would like to resolve this with a contract if possible. Could you please tell me why we can’t form a contract? What should we do?” Vandalieu asked.

He knew nothing of contracts exchanged between gods.

Elk and the others all responded with surprised expressions.

“It’s only natural that I don’t know anything about a contract exchanged between me, a human, and gods, isn’t it?” Vandalieu said, but that only surprised Elk and the others further.

They don’t need to be that surprised at my lack of knowledge, do they? Vandalieu thought. Though I suppose I’ve met Vida, Zuruwarn and the others in their Divine Realms multiple times, and Mom is an incarnation of Vida, so there are plenty of opportunities for me to gain knowledge. So maybe it’s only natural to assume that I would be knowledgeable about the gods. I did learn about the reincarnation system not long ago, too.

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“Peria, could you please explain?” Vandalieu asked.

Peria, the Goddess of Water and Knowledge, was present as a witness to negotiations.

“Sure,” she said. “Contracts are agreements exchanged between gods who possess no physical body, and originally, they were managed by Alda. He was originally the God of Light and Law, you see.”

It seemed that contracts exchanged between gods had generally been managed by Alda. The gods would make vows with Alda as their witness, and if a vow was broken, Alda would sense it and punish the god who had broken the vow. It was a role that fit him, as he possessed the Stakes of Law, a divine authority that could punish gods.

“I see. I understand what you mean when you say that it’s not currently possible,” Vandalieu said.

In the present day, where Vida’s faction had split from Alda and the two sides were now in conflict, contracts could not be exchanged with Alda as their witness.

“But it would trouble me if you all suddenly leave your sacred treasures with me, so could I have you leave them with Vida instead? The only other compromise would be… Having you fill roles that are currently unfilled in Vida’s faction is the only one that immediately comes to mind.”

“I do not mind. And regarding the unfilled roles, if it is something that I am able to do, then I will gladly accept it,” Elk said in a matter-of-fact tone, believing that she should do whatever was needed of her – both to gain her new allies’ trust, and to atone for her past deeds.

“Then I would like you to be a guardian deity of magical girls,” Vandalieu said.

“I humbly acce…” Elk stopped mid-sentence. “What did you just say?”

“A guardian deity of magical girls,” Vandalieu repeated. “You remember how Miriam and Kalinia transformed?”

There was no god ruling over the magical girls who fought using the transformation equipment that Vandalieu had developed. This was one of the problems within Vida’s faction.

For example, warriors had gods such as the God of Warriors, the God of Swordsmen, and the God of Magic Swords – gods that ruled over various aspects of being a warrior. There were even gods such as the God of Knights and the God of Soldiers – gods who ruled over Jobs derived from warriors.

Of course, even if such gods did not exist, that did not mean that such Jobs would stop existing as well, but it might have an effect on already-existing warriors.

Various gods that ruled over warriors were necessary because those who worshiped them needed them.

If one wanted to achieve great success as a warrior, it was only natural for them to want to pray to the God of Warriors and feel blessed – and if that were the case, one might think that a single God of Warriors would be enough for that. However, in reality, things were different.

As the number of warriors in the world grew, various types of warriors would be born. Those who fought not with swords, but with axes, spears, or other weapons. Those who threw themselves into the midst of enemy lines, and those who held enormous shields to protect their allies. Those who fought with not only combat tactics, but with magic as well. Those who made a name for themselves not only with their sheer valor in combat, but with the charisma with which they led their allies, or their courage to fight to protect the weak no matter how much the circumstances favored the enemy, or their beautifully shining, gallant appearance on the battlefield.

All of these diverse, different types of warriors desired a god to worship that matched themselves.

In other words, the diversity of the gods that existed symbolized the diversity of warriors.

Magical girls were currently increasing in number and gaining diversity. Thfe Jobs acquired by Darcia, the ‘Incarnation of Vida,’ and Miriam, the ‘Heroic Princess,’ had been popular in the Demon Empire of Vidal for a long time, but they were becoming very popular in the Orbaume Kingdom as well – though Miriam had never acquired any Jobs related to magical girls, as she had never actually acquired any magic-related Skills.

And in this world, there was no concept of what magical girls were supposed to be. The use of transformation equipment was about the only requirement for someone to be one. That was likely why people believed that even if the person in question was the emperor’s mother, a Ghoul who had a grandchild, or a princess (who was a two-meter-tall Zombie), a magical girl was still a magical girl.

Even if they fought by combining singing, dancing, and combat techniques in battle rather than magic alone, or mainly used combat techniques, or even fought using combat techniques alone, they were still magical girls.

Transformation equipment were versatile; they served as magical media, but they could also change shape to be used as spears, swords, or axes.

It was only a matter of time before magical girls gained the diversity of existing warriors and mages. Many branches of the Mages’ Guild across the Orbaume Kingdom had already commented that magical girls were different from existing mages, and they would be troubled if people came to them with queries as to how to become magical girls. So it was unlikely that magical girls would come to be considered a mage subtype.

But there were still not many gods who ruled over magical girls.

To begin with, Darcia – the incarnation of Vida, the Goddess of Life and Love – was a magical girl herself, so it was only natural that Vida would be worshiped as a goddess of magical girls. Then there was Ricklent, the Genie of Time and Magic, who was considered to be genderless or to be of both genders and was worshiped as a guardian deity of magical girls.

There was Peria, the Goddess of Water and Knowledge, and Botin, Mother of the Earth and Goddess of Craftsmanship, because of the advanced craftsmanship needed to create transformation equipment. There was Merrebeveil, who was both the Heroic God of Scylla and the Evil God of Slime and Tentacles, and Zelzeria, the Goddess of Dark Nights, who were considered to be magical-girl-related gods because their influential disciples had acquired magical-girl-related Jobs.

Deeana, the Moon Giant, who had recently received her own transformation equipment, was another.

And Vandalieu, the manufacturer of the transformation equipment needed to become a magical girl, was actually being treated as something of a god of magical girls… though, according to Kanako, he was thought of as a fairy-like something that bestowed transforming items to people rather than an actual god.

When people talked to Demon King Familiars in regions under the influence of the Demon Empire of Vidal, they would gain the help they needed, so perhaps it was only natural for Vandalieu to be thought of as such.

However, there were still no beings who were considered to be gods of magical girls in human society. There were many gods who were well-known in the Demon Empire of Vidal but were not worshiped in the Orbaume Kingdom or were only worshiped in certain remote regions.

“It might take thousands of years for humans who are magical girls to naturally ascend to become gods. So that’s why I’m currently recruiting gods to become gods of magical girls,” Vandalieu concluded, as Elk stood there, lost for words.

But even after a few moments passed, Elk remained frozen in place, so Vandalieu decided to go on.

“Of course, I won’t force this on you. I’m only human, so I won’t pretend to understand everything about the circumstances of gods. And even if there aren’t many gods of magical girls, it won’t have a great negative effect. It’s just the first suggestion that came to my mind; don’t think about it too deeply,” he said.

For some reason, the other gods who were watching Elk showed expressions of surprise. Vandalieu interpreted this as surprise that he was trying to withdraw the suggestion that he had made to Elk.

Given that these gods had recently belonged to Alda’s forces, there was no mistake that they had a considerably terrible impression of him.

Relations with these gods and communicating with them is probably going to be difficult, Vandalieu thought, sighing to himself.

“N-no,” Elk uttered, finally recovering from her shock. “I h-humbly accept this important role-” she said, wearing a grim expression as she began her vow to join the ranks of the guardian deities of magical girls.

“Wait, Elk!” another god interjected. “There is no need for you to bear this burden alone!”

“We shall carry out this duty with you!” said another.

I see. It’s only natural that a new role comes with a burden to bear. It was a mistake to ask this of only Elk, Vandalieu reflected.

“All of you…” Elk choked, overcome with emotion as she turned around to look at the other gods.

Would the gods worshiped by the potential heroes remaining Orbaume all take on a new role of being deities of magical girls?

“Ah. I know that I’m just a witness and I shouldn’t be butting in, but may I add something?” interrupted Peria.

“Of course,” said Vandalieu.

“Thank you,” Peria said. “Vandalieu, in this age where gods can’t easily descend upon the physical world, it’s important for things to be done in order for gods to gain divinities… new roles that they didn’t have before. Rather than Elk trying to convince Hendrinksen and her other worshipers that she’s a god of magical girls now, it would be much less of a burden on her for her worshipers to voluntarily believe that she is also a god of magical girls.”

The authorities of gods were determined by the prayers of their worshipers – Gods were beings that were changed by the people who worshiped them.

When she was a mortal, Elk had been a hero who had earned her fame wielding a holy spear, renowned for her valor and her beautiful appearance. After her death, she had ascended to godhood and she was praised as a heroic god and a goddess of spearmanship.

But now, because she had resembled a female knight as a mortal, she was worshiped as a guardian deity of women involved in combat, and as a goddess of princess knights.

Even in Earth’s Japan, there was a god of fruit who had later come to be worshiped as a god of desserts. It was the same as that.

One might think it troublesome that it was easier for gods if their worshipers did the work of spreading news of their divinity, but the burden of a god attempting to acquire a new divinity on their own was equivalent to undergoing reconstruction surgery, and in some cases, it came with the risk of changing their personality.

This had been the case for Merrebeveil, the Evil God of Slime and Tentacles who had once been a part of the Demon King’s army, when she changed to become the Heroic God of Scylla.

Of course, the burden varied greatly depending on the god and the divinity that they were trying to acquire. In Merrebeveil’s case, she had become the Heroic God of Scylla, the race that were her children, so some intense pain was the only price she had to pay. If she had attempted to become the Heroic God of Humans instead, a race to whom she had no racial connection whatsoever, she might have fallen into a slumber for tens of thousands of years and awoken as a completely different being, or perhaps even weakened to the point that she was no longer a god.

In contrast, a god being granted a new divinity by their own followers was a change similar to being given new clothes or weapons. This did not change the nature of the god, and caused almost no burden to them.

It was only obvious as to why Peria was stopping Elk and the others from attempting the former.

“Right now, I think that more people in the Orbaume Kingdom perceive magical girls to be bards who can sing while dancing and are able to use magic rather than as a type of mage. That might not be as true for those who actually saw you and the others fighting in Orbaume, but there is a strong trend for that perception in the other duchies. Elk doesn’t have any of those characteristics, so directly acquiring the divinity of a guardian deity of magical girls would be quite the burden on her,” Peria said.

“To think that the concerts held by Kanako and the others would produce effects like this…” said Vandalieu.

Thanks to the nationwide tour that was ongoing to quickly guide the people in every duchy, magical girls were becoming more well-known. But it was only now that Vandalieu realized it had also caused an explosive increase in the number of people who knew nothing of them other than what they saw on stage.

“Very well. Let’s take the steady route,” Vandalieu said. “First, I’ll give Hendrinksen-”

Elk gasped in shock. “Don’t tell me you plan to make Hendriksen a magical girl?!”

“I’m planning to give him transformation equipment, but the type that transforms into armor, like Simon and Natania’s,” Vandalieu assured her.

“Th-thank you for your kind consideration,” Elk said, looking sincerely relieved.

Vandalieu had never had any intention of making Hendriksen, a handsome young man who was good friends with Miriam and the others and had a noble-like air of elegance about him, wear a fluffy, frilly costume.

But Hendriksen was a hero who was among the most influential of Elk’s worshipers. Vandalieu simply expected that having him use transformation equipment would grant Elk a new divinity.

“Now then, let’s wrap things up and get back to our original topic and the contents of the Divine Messages you’ll be sending to Hendriksen and the others, the required changes to your teachings, the reforms that must take place at your Churches,” Vandalieu said.

Since these gods were leaving Alda’s forces and joining Vida’s faction, they would need to remove the statues and carvings of the gods of Alda’s forces from their churches and replace them with those of the gods of Vida’s faction. It was possible that changes to their teachings would be needed. For these things to happen, Divine Messages would need to be sent to their clergymen.

Vandalieu was able to speak with the gods directly, as he was doing now, and it was certainly possible for him to go and deliver instructions from Elk and the other gods himself, but… this was not the Demon Empire of Vidal; doing this in the Orbaume Kingdom would cause the clergymen of their churches to lose face and create unnecessary animosity.

Of course, each god had different teachings and their main churches were all located in different places, so Vandalieu had to discuss things in detail not just with Elk, but with every god individually.

He succeeded in doing this quickly by producing numerous tentacles and arms, each with eyes and a mouth on the end, to discuss things with all of the gods simultaneously.

“Well, everything has been decided then. There are no influential worshipers of the gods of Alda’s forces except in the Farzon Duchy, so I don’t think there’s any chance for any of your churches to come under organized attack, but please take care,” Vandalieu said. “And we keep referring to Hendriksen and the others as ‘potential heroes’, but I would like to remove the ‘potential’ part.”

“Why…?” Elk asked.

“Because they fought alongside us to protect Orbaume from the Demon King Guduranis and his subordinates. They are already heroes now, not just potential heroes,” Vandalieu replied. “Now then, if you’ll excuse me.”

With that, Vandalieu vanished from Elk’s Divine Realm.

“… So he really is worthy of influencing not only people, but gods as well,” Elk murmured.

She and the others were shocked that he had been completely serious when referring to himself as a human.

As Vandalieu’s main-body-type Demon King Familiar walked down an underground corridor beneath Talosheim’s royal castle, it felt Vandalieu’s main body returning from Elk’s Divine Realm back to the physical world.

“My thoughts and senses really do become duller when my main body is in a Divine Realm,” it murmured.

While more than half of his soul was in a Divine Realm, Vandalieu’s Demon King Familiars felt a burden on their thoughts and senses. They did feel this burden, but this had not caused any actual harm… though it might put them at a disadvantage in fierce battles where they used large quantities of Mana.

“The only way to solve this is to make more main bodies… No, if my soul is the problem, then maybe there’s no point in making more main bodies,” the Demon King Familiar said to itself as it reached the entrance to the workshop.

“Having problems?” a cheerful voice said from above it.

The main-body-type Demon King Familiar looked up to see a young man standing upside-down on the ceiling, beaming down at him.

Behind him was a beautiful girl with skin so pale that she looked ill, and a smiling little girl, both walking on the ceiling.

“No, I’m just talking to myself. Don’t mind me, Bokor,” the Demon King Familiar said.

The young man was not a ghost, but Bokor, one of Rikudou Hijiri’s experimental subjects who had been rescued from Origin. The pale, ill-looking girl was Yukijoro, and the little girl was Amemiya Mei, also known as Meh-kun.

“Van, I’m good at crawling on ceilings now! Banda praised me as well!” Mei said happily.

“You’ve become better at controlling your Mana,” the Demon King Familiar observed.

Mei and the others were crawling and walking on the ceiling to train their ‘No-Attribute Magic’ and ‘Mana Control.’

By using ‘Telekinesis’ to support and balance their own bodies, they were pretending to walk around on the ceiling. Using too much strength would make it difficult for them to move, but not enough would cause them to fall, so it was quite a difficult training task.

“Yes. With this, you should be able to avoid being an imprecise person like me,” said Banda, who was under Mei and the others in case they were to fall from the ceiling onto the floor.

“Hiroshi and Gabriel are sleeping because they used too much Mana. Ulrika… fainted after falling because she made a mistake with her Mana control,” said Bokor.

“Since you’re me, I’m sure you know, but I caught her before she fell onto the floor, so she’s not injured. It seems that she fainted from the fear of the fall,” Banda said.

“No, the main body was in a Divine Realm until just a little while ago, and it seems that our connection became weaker during that time. But I’ve just gained those memories. It seems that creating Banda was the right choice,” the Demon King Familiar said.

Unlike Demon King Familiars and other split entities of Vandalieu, Banda was a special split entity who had been created when Vandalieu tore off a piece of his own main body’s soul. Although this process had decreased Vandalieu’s main body’s Mana capacity by 100,000,000, Banda was a split entity of Vandalieu that was able to stay connected to his main body while being otherwise unaffected by the main body.

Banda felt no burden on his thoughts or senses while Vandalieu’s soul was in a Divine Realm, unlike the Demon King Familiars.

Mei, who was still on the ceiling, giggled happily in response to Banda’s praise.

The main-body-type Demon King Familiar and Banda both felt at peace as they looked up at her.

“I hope Ulrika doesn’t develop a fear of heights,” the Demon King Familiar said. “By the way, aren’t you going into the workshop?”

“We are refraining, as the graduation ceremony is currently taking place… We thought that was for the best, as it is still too early for Mei,” said Bokor.

“… Ah, now that you mention it, you’re right,” the Demon King Familiar said, its shared memory with the other Demon King Familiars finally functioning properly.

It seemed that the dysfunction caused by Vandalieu’s main body being in Elk’s Divine Realm had caused more problems than he had thought.

Though it had only been for a short period of time… It was best that he deal with it before small problems turned into larger ones.

Meanwhile, in the workshop, the event that Bokor had referred to as a graduation ceremony was taking place.

“Congratulations, all of you,” said Luciliano, his prided beard tidily trimmed as always, smiling at the experimental subjects who had once been criminals. “Today, you are graduating from being experimental subjects… guinea pigs. Your efforts have advanced my research… and greatly advanced Master’s goals! It would be fair to say that you have made a great contribution to the Demon Empire of Vidal. Come and receive this. This is what you have all been waiting for!”

Luciliano handed a bundle of documents to one of the former experimental subjects, and the words ‘Human rights’ were written on the top page.