Chapter 248 – The god of reincarnation’s relatively honest ploy

The Demon Empire of Vidal. This new name for the nation suggested by Vandalieu and his companions was accepted by nearly everyone.

“We expected you to be even more opposed to renaming the nation than you were to the construction of the enormous statue, but to think that you would accept the renaming within the day!” Chezare said delightedly. “Now then, we must do the necessary paperwork and make preparations for the ceremony before His Majesty changes his mind!”

“That was quicker than expected. I was sure you would be protesting for a while,” said Kurt.

It seemed that Chezare and Kurt accepted it not because of the name, but because Vandalieu had suggested it himself. The actual new name of the nation didn’t seem to be too important to them.

Of course, many of the citizens were properly happy about the new name of the nation. The fact that it had been derived from Vandalieu’s name and Vida’s name was a positive factor.

And those who grumbled as they reluctantly accepted the name did so for reasons other than the name itself.

“Why is there no tournament?! I can’t agree with this!” shouted Godwin in a tantrum.

“Father, don’t say such selfish things! And you’re even drunk?!” said Iris, but her words seemed to be rather ineffective because of the alcohol that Godwin had consumed.

“Then let’s all do some sparring instead. Please be satisfied with that,” said Vandalieu.

“Really?! Alright! I’ve been interested in how strong you’ve become, in your skill that brought down a god of war!” Godwin said.

“Hey, that sounds fun!” said Borkus, joining in.

Vigaro let out a happy roar. “Everyone who’s free, gather round! We’re sparring with Vandalieu!”

A sparring battle royale with Borkus and Vigaro joining in as well. Everyone was unarmed, but it was an intense fight; shockwaves flew through the air every time their fists collided, and spectators were left confused as their eyes tried to keep up with the figures that looked like blurs because they moved so quickly.

The paperwork for the renaming of the nation continued quietly during the battle royale, and the city of Talosheim formally became Talosheim, the capital of the Demon Empire of Vidal.

The victor of the battle royale was Braga.

“Everyone is too aggressive. If all the strong people defeat each other, they can’t win in a battle royale. And King, you’re too passive,” he commented.

“The Demon King’s fragments and ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique’ aren’t suited for sparring, after all,” said Vandalieu.

However, the ceremony to commemorate the renaming of the nation would be held on a later day. This was because the parade to celebrate Vandalieu’s victory in Morksi had taken place just the previous day, and everyone had expected Vandalieu to resist the nation’s renaming for months or years, so no preparations had been done.

Thus, it was decided that the ceremony would be held in conjunction with the ceremony to commemorate the completion of the enormous statue.

Incidentally, the cola-manufacturing Golem factory was still in the planning stage. Golems would function as long as they had Vandalieu’s Mana, but they could not simply be made like machines. After Vandalieu created them, he needed to command them to perform the required tasks and have them train to become proficient at those tasks.

It was a unique problem to Vandalieu’s Golems, as he created them by having spirits inhabit humanoid-shaped masses of inorganic matter instead of corpses.

However, using magic and the help of his spirits, he established a method of creating a cola with sufficiently strong carbonation.

“Thanks to Kanako’s ‘Venus,’ I understand how carbon dioxide works now, but… it takes quite a lot of effort to extract just carbon dioxide,” said Vandalieu.

“Manipulating the liquid with ‘Fluid Manipulation’ might be easier,” said Orbia.

Zadiris would gather carbon dioxide from the air with wind-attribute magic, and Orbia would manipulate the liquid.

They couldn’t produce large quantities like a proper cola factory, but this was enough for them to drink.

There was also Seris and Vestra’s surgeries, but it seemed that they still felt apprehension towards surgery, so it was decided that the surgeries would not be conducted during their current stay in Talosheim. Vandalieu just made note of the extent of their burns and prepared the skin and Blood Potion that would be used.

In the meantime, Seris and Vestra received guidance – not from Bellmond, who had already undergone surgery before, but the former Pure-breed Vampires who were now Abyssal Pure-breed Vampires.

Erpel and the others were enthusiastic to convince them that becoming an Abyssal Vampire was nothing to be scared of, and something that they would never regret, but…

The other business that needed taking care of was the creation of Artifacts bearing spirit clones of the gods, but there wasn’t enough time for that, so Vandalieu decided to return to the city of Morksi and make preparations to head to Alcrem, the capital of the Alcrem Duchy.

《The Levels of the ‘Strengthened Attribute Values: Ruling’ and ‘Strengthened Attribute Values: Worshipped’ Skills have increased!》

《You have acquired the ‘Strengthened Attribute Values: Demon Empire of Vidal!’ Skill!》

Having returned to the city of Morksi with Gufadgarn’s teleportation, Vandalieu and his companions visited the merchant Edmond to consult with him about buying horses.

“Horses? Not a carriage?” said Edmond, with a slightly puzzled look on his face.

Perhaps he couldn’t be blamed. Vandalieu had apparently spent the two days after receiving decorations from the earl holed up in his house to recover from his fatigue, and then he had suddenly come to Edmond to buy horses, which were not a commodity that Edmond was specialized in.

“Yes, I would like at least one horse, but three if possible. Of course, I’m not asking you to hand over the horses that are used by your merchant caravan,” said Vandalieu.

Edmond was a traveling merchant with no fixed location, but he was the head of a merchant company, leading a caravan of ten or so carriages that traveled from city to city. In addition to the horses that pulled the carriages, there were also the horses ridden by the caravan’s guards and spare horses as well, so he had several dozen horses in total.

However, these were not a commodity that Edmond and his company traded; they were a means of transport that was necessary to conduct their business.

“That is helpful, but it’ll be a matter of luck that determines whether I can prepare horses for you in a matter of days. If you can wait until next month when I move to another city, I should be able to acquire quite a few horses, but… it’s possible that I’ll only be able to get donkeys in the timeframe that you need them,” said Edmond. “Is there a problem with simply hiring a carriage and a coachman?”

At the Tamers’ Guild, there were coachmen that did not have fixed employers. Their carriages were pulled by ordinary horses rather than monsters, but they were powerful and had exceptional stamina, and the coachmen themselves were very skilled. As a member of the Guild, Vandalieu had the required connections, so he would certainly be able to hire a coachman as long as he was willing to pay.

And yet, Vandalieu and his companions were not choosing this option.

“Yes. Vandalieu and his familiar Fang are shy around strangers. And we already have a carriage and coachman in mind,” said Darcia with a gentle smile.

Edmond responded with a smile of his own that looked like it had been glued onto his face. “You are saying that your son is shy around strangers, and you have a carriage and coachman in mind but no horses?”

Vandalieu, who was standing next to Darcia, remained expressionless as ever after having explained his request to Edmond in a calm, matter-of-fact tone. Edmond couldn’t imagine that he was shy around strangers at all.

“Yes, we’re just lacking horses. We could have Fang and the rats pull the carriage, but since they’ll be attached to the carriage, they won’t be able to guard the carriage properly during the journey,” said Darcia, continuing to give excuses.

You liar! Edmond screamed in his mind. The fact that your son is shy around strangers is definitely a lie!

But he did not voice his suspicions. “I see. You intend to have your tamed monsters act as your guards for the journey. That would guarantee mobility and keep you safe even if you’re attacked by bandits on horseback,” he said.

Edmond was a merchant, not a journalist, in pursuit of profits, not the truth.

Prying into the secrets of Vandalieu and his companions would certainly lead to profit. But Edmond was aware that he was not trusted. Forcibly trying to pry into such secrets now would simply result in the end of his interactions with Vandalieu.

Secrets were not supposed to be known until a relationship of trust was formed for the secrets to be shared. Edmond told himself this and restrained himself from asking more questions.

… Although the fact that Vandalieu was shy around strangers was actually true.

“I don’t mind using donkeys. As long as they’ve been trained to pull a wagon, I’m sure the coachman we hired will have no problems in having them work,” said Vandalieu.

Naturally, the coachman that Vandalieu and Darcia had in mind was the Dimension Lord Carriage Sam, the Undead whose spirit inhabited a carriage.

Vandalieu wanted to use Sam as his transport method to go to Alcrem, as he was convenient in various ways. However, there was a big problem with that. Sam’s main body was the carriage itself, and the man sitting in the coachman’s seat and the three horses that pulled the carriage were all a part of him.

The man in the coachman’s seat had the exact same appearance as Sam did himself when he was alive, except for his skin being paler and his eyes being crimson in color. He would likely be able to pass for an ordinary coachman as long as he wore a hat low over his face.

However, it would be more difficult for the horses. The pale horses had blood-crimson eyes, didn’t breathe and gave off no warmth when touched. It would be a big problem if the guards at the gates of this city or the guards at Alcrem noticed that the horses were cold and didn’t breathe.

Thus, living horses were needed to pretend to be pulling the carriage.

Any workhorses or even donkeys would do. As the carriage was Sam’s main body, he was able to turn his carriage’s wheels on his own, even without anything pulling it. The living animals would be needed simply to put up an ordinary appearance.

“Hmm, I don’t know how large your carriage is, but… wouldn’t it be too heavy to be pulled by donkeys? They are more suited for pulling wagons such as the ones you use to move stock for your business,” Edmond pointed out.

Indeed, donkeys could not even be used to put up an ordinary appearance. It wasn’t difficult to imagine that people would find it strange to see Sam’s three-horse carriage being pulled by donkeys.

“I shall sell you the spare horses from my caravan. They are just the spares, so rest assured that this will have no impact on my business,” Edmond said.

“Oh my, we can’t have you do that. We would feel terrible if some emergency situation happened because you sold us your spare horses,” said Darcia.

“Do not worry, even if something happens. We devote ourselves fully to our customers no matter what, and pride ourselves in doing business without any deceit,” said Edmond.

“Well, I think it’s only been a month since you came to me with ‘that business proposal,’ you know?” Darcia said pointedly.

Edmond gave a nervous laugh. “I have ‘turned over a new leaf’ since that incident.”

“That’s good. But we politely decline. It would be terrible if something were to happen, after all,” said Darcia, firmly refusing Edmond’s sudden offer of his caravan’s horses.

By offering his own horses, Edmond was aiming to have Vandalieu owe him a favor. The ‘even if something happens’ scenario he spoke of wasn’t referring to something happening to the horses. He meant a scenario where he and his caravan experienced inconvenience due to having given out their spare horses.

He most certainly had an ulterior motive in this; he knew that if Vandalieu later learned of any inconvenience caused to the caravan, his personality would not allow him to simply let it go.

“Darcia-sama is firmly refusing because she has seen through these motives,” explained Chipuras, whose voice couldn’t be heard by ordinary people.

“I see,” Vandalieu said with a nod.

Merchants sure come up with a lot of ideas, he thought.

“I don’t mind sick, injured or old horses, so could you please search around? I’ll pay healthy horses’ prices for them,” Vandalieu said, joining in on the negotiations.

“If you are willing to go that far, then of course,” said Edmond, withdrawing his offer of his own horses. “But if you really need horses that desperately, you could always take them from bandits, or perhaps you could challenge yourself to tame a horse monster?”

“Edmond-san, we aren’t seeing too many bandits around here these days. And there aren’t any horse monsters in these parts, either,” said Rodriguez, Edmond’s former-B-class-adventurer personal bodyguard, who had remained silent up until this point.

Indeed, the safety of the area around the city of Morksi had increased dramatically in recent times… thanks to the activities of Braga and his squad of Black Goblin ninjas, under Vandalieu’s instruction. Bandits had not appeared for quite a while.

And even if Vandalieu wanted to tame a horse monster, there weren’t many horse monsters living in this area. The only ones around were Shine Horses, cowardly creatures that possessed light-attribute Mana with which they blinded threatening predators in order to escape.

“Now that you mention it, that is true,” said Edmond. “But a Tamer as capable as Vandalieu-san would surely be able to tame one, would he not?”

“No, I think it would be difficult. Tamers are not liked by all monsters, after all. They simply tame monsters that they are compatible with and do their best to get along with them. I’m no exception,” said Vandalieu.

He had encountered Shiny Horses in Devil’s Nests while hunting for meat for his skewers, but… they had been hopelessly poorly compatible with him.

There were no signs indicating that he would be able to tame one.

“I see… Outstanding Tamers are not those who tame many different types of monsters, but those who get along well with the monsters that they are compatible with. That is good to know,” said Edmond. “Well then, I shall reach out to my acquaintances right away. Please give me a little time.”

And so, Edmond went around to talk to his acquaintances who ran stores in the city. Vandalieu had offered extraordinary terms for a deal, so he was able to procure one horse right away.

“The horse I can get for you right away is an old horse. The owner was apparently looking to part ways with it once he was finished with his current business,” said Edmond.

He led Vandalieu to a barn where an old horse was tied up. It quietly looked at Vandalieu and the others with suspicious eyes. Vandalieu, Maroru and the others gave a satisfied nod.

“The fact that he is glaring back without looking away shows that it is quite brave,” said Vandalieu. “As expected of a horse that has plenty of work experience.”

The rat sisters squeaked happily in agreement.

“Vandalieu, I think he’s just scared. Its breathing is a little heavy,” said Darcia.

The old horse instinctively understood how threatening the rat monster sisters were, and it had simply become immobilized by fear… Incidentally, Fang was now so large that he had been unable to enter the barn, so he was waiting outside.

The old horse might have entered a state of panic if Fang had entered as well.

Vandalieu gently reached out towards the old horse.

“Ah, that’s dangerous! He’s gonna bite your hand!” the man who owned the horse shouted in warning.

But the old horse, frozen in fear, was entirely incapable of biting Vandalieu’s hand.

It breathed heavily through its nose and simply stared at the white hand approaching its jaw with bloodshot eyes.

“It seems that this horse is more compatible with me than Shine Horses,” said Vandalieu. “He’s behaving so well.”

As he petted the old horse, its breathing and gaze calmed down and became more normal. It was as if it had realized its death was certain and it had given up on life, like the behavior of an animal with its throat was in the jaws of a carnivorous predator.

“Huh? Was he always such a friendly horse?” the owner wondered. “Well, if someone’s going to buy him, it’s a good thing that it’s someone he can get along with. By the way, are you really sure you’re willing to pay the market price of a young horse for him? As you can see, he’s haggard, his fur’s coming off in places and he looks unsightly. He’s going to have less power and stamina than a young horse, too.”

“Yes, it’s fine. I’m sure he’ll get along with all of us just fine,” said Vandalieu. “Does he have a name?”

“No, I wasn’t really told his name. I bought him a few years ago from someone else, you see.”

Vandalieu looked at the old horse, whose fur was thin and patchy in places. He looked up at its mane, and gave a nod.

“Let’s name you Mähne,” he said, naming the horse for a word for ‘mane’ in a language of Origin.

TLN: Mähne is the German word for ‘mane.’

Having awoken from his spell of unconsciousness, Rodcorte brooded in anguish as he resumed Edgar’s treatment.

Now that Murakami’s group has been destroyed, there are no more reincarnated individuals who are following my instructions to kill Vandalieu… What in the world am I to do?

When it came to reincarnation, Rodcorte possessed a vast power that extended across multiple worlds. He was capable of having individuals reincarnated in other worlds, giving them an adult’s body upon reincarnation and even granting them special abilities… also known as cheat-like abilities.

However, he was unable to interfere with living humans. It was also impossible for him to override their wills and force them to obey his commands.

He was able to send commands to living recipients in the form of Divine Messages, but… giving them commands was all he could do. Even if he sent commands telling them to kill Vandalieu, there was no force that compelled them to obey, so they could simply ignore him if they wanted to.

Murakami’s group had listened to Rodcorte’s request because he had prepared a reincarnation into a fourth life for them as a reward, but… such a reward was meaningless to individuals who saw no value in a fourth life.

Thus, he was unable to kill Vandalieu using the remaining reincarnated individuals who had already refused his request.

Asagi Minami is already wary about Vandalieu, but he does not seem to have any intention of killing him. I let him be because I thought that he would at least help weaken Vandalieu, but… No, he and his companions are currently weaker than Murakami was. There is no point in making them fight.

Asagi and his companions were researching the Demon King’s fragments, but they were yet to produce any results. Well, they had produced non-research-related results, such as sealing away some rampaging fragments of the Demon King, but even so, they were currently less capable than Murakami.

There were only three in the group, the same number as Murakami’s group. Even if they were to battle Vandalieu, they would simply be killed.

With that being the case, I have no choice but to wait for more reincarnated individuals to die in Origin and become reincarnated in Lambda, but…

Unfortunately, there were no signs of this happening anytime soon, either.

Rodcorte did not have the power to snuff out the reincarnated individuals’ lives like candles, nor could he create a truck accident to kill them. He had no choice but to wait for them to die, whether it be by accident, disease or murder.

Now that the battle between the Bravers and the Eighth Guidance was over, Origin was currently in a state of peace, at least on the surface. The ‘Avalon’ Rikudou Hijiri seemed to be continuing his research into the death attribute and plotting conspiracies, but Rodcorte could see that the consequences of those actions would not come for some time.

He had taken various steps to make sure that the reincarnated individuals would not die very easily, but he hadn’t imagined that it would come back to bite him.

“Even if I sent a Divine Message instructing them to kill each other, nobody would listen. Telling them to commit suicide would have the same result, or… ‘Metamorph’ might have obeyed if she still had a mind of her own, but… Hmph, she’s showing slight signs of recovery? No, that isn’t good news right now,” Rodcorte muttered to himself.

It would be more helpful if she were to die of starvation, he thought as he quickly checked the current states of the other reincarnated individuals.

As he was only checking them very quickly, he did not notice that reincarnated individuals such as ‘Metamorph’ and ‘Druid’ had received Vandalieu’s divine protection, and thus did not investigate how that had come to be.

And since Rodcorte was not interested in anything other than the reincarnated individuals, it didn’t occur to him to look into Amemiya Hiroshi and Mei.

If he had investigated them – he would have been enormously troubled as to how to deal with them.

The fact that he could not directly interfere with living people was just as true in Origin as it was in Lambda.

Rikudou Hijiri is continuing his unsightly research, but he will surely be unable to harness the death attribute. That is fine, but it will still be some time before he makes a move, Rodcorte thought. To think that I would be anxiously waiting for the reincarnated individuals to kill each other…

Rodcorte would be able to send them a message in the form of a Divine Message, but none would die after receiving the message saying, “Please die right now.” If he were to pretend that his voice was that of an omnipotent god, he might be able to coerce some of them, but he was too ignorant regarding human psychology to do something that clever.

It could even have the opposite effect of making the reincarnated individuals suspicious, which would cause a troublesome situation when they really died.

With that said, it was unbearable for Rodcorte to simply twiddle his thumbs and watch things unfold. Thus, he thought of two plans – both of which were possible for him to carry out right now.

The first was to create new reincarnated individuals. He did not have the time to prepare new cheat-like abilities for them, but he would select dead individuals who could potentially form a force to kill Vandalieu, from all the worlds whose reincarnation he controlled – including Lambda, Earth and Origin – and send them to Lambda.

However, I do not have the time to send them to another world to gain experience first, like I did with Amemiya Hiroto and the others. They must be individuals who are already considerably strong after just one lifetime. Considering that, Lambda is very troublesome. Blasted, primitive world whose inhabitants have no good qualities but the ability to fight.

Reincarnated individuals from worlds like Earth that had no Statuses, Skills and magic would not be able to defeat Vandalieu or even his subordinates.

Lambda was a world where any person with average athletic ability would be able to defeat a Rank 3 monster if they worked hard… the equivalent to defeating a grizzly bear with a primitive weapon like a sword or a spear. Even a genius warrior of a world like Earth would be on the same level or even worse than a mediocre adventurer in Lambda.

Considering that Murakami had stood no chance against Vandalieu even after being strengthened by Rodcorte’s divine protection and spending over a year to prepare, it would be impossible for someone reincarnated from Earth even if they were trained for a long period of time.

There were several other worlds whose reincarnation Rodcorte controlled where magic existed, like Origin, as well as worlds with Statuses and Skills. Sending strong individuals from such worlds could yield some hope of victory.

“But there are no worlds in which individuals strong enough to stand up against Vandalieu and his allies die on a regular basis,” Rodcorte lamented.

The most powerful individuals in such worlds would not simply die conveniently. This would require Rodcorte to wait until it happened, but it would at least serve to distract him from his own sense of powerlessness.

“But distracting myself will not solve the current situation. I suppose my other plan is the most realistic thing to do after all… Giving my divine protection to the heroes being trained by the gods of Alda’s forces.”

In Lambda, the divine protections of gods had the effect of lowering the hurdle for overcoming periods of time where growth was difficult – otherwise known as ‘walls of growth’ – thus shortening such periods of time. Rodcorte’s divine protection was no exception to that.

“The heroes being nurtured by the gods of Alda’s forces will become even stronger with my divine protection. That will make them owe me a favor, and in the near future, I will be able to request them to give their divine protections to the reincarnated individuals I send to Lambda. Unlike cheat-like abilities, divine protections are simply power given by gods to mortals. I am capable of giving my divine protection to dozens of individuals… though I require some ingenuity to ensure that what happened when Murakami’s soul was devoured does not happen again.”

Rodcorte didn’t even want to imagine the worst-case scenario where Vandalieu devoured the souls of dozens of heroes, but… this scenario could not be ruled out.

It would be best to grant his divine protections, and prepare familiar spirits or spirit clones that would serve to take on the damage that would come about from such events. However, there was a process that he needed to carry out before that.

“Before I do that, I suppose I must lay the groundwork for granting the heroes my divine protection – by making them aware of my existence.”

Gods possessed the authority to grant divine protections, but they were unable to grant them to people who did not know of their existence. Rodcorte was known to the region in the Boundary Mountain Range… the Demon Empire of Vidal, as an enemy. But he was not known to the people of Lambda’s human societies.

In order to grant the heroes his divine protection, Rodcorte would need the gods of Alda’s forces to inform them of his existence.

“They might bring up the incident with Hajime Inui, but that was the doing of the God of Thunderclouds on Alda’s side. And even if they do bring it up, I can get away with it by telling them that now is not the time to discuss past events, and we must overcome our differences in principles and work together. I am certain that they are feeling threatened by Vandalieu and desiring power,” Rodcorte told himself.

All preparations for traveling from the city of Morksi to Alcrem, the capital of the Alcrem Duchy, were complete – except for one.

There had been no real problems with the registrations at the Commerce, Adventurers’ and Mages’ Guilds. Vandalieu had been wary in the Hartner Duchy as well, but no events like delinquent adventurers picking a fight had occurred here, either.

However, Vandalieu had put his attendance of adventurers’ school on hold, so he was F-class at the Adventurers’ Guild. According to Berard, he could not bend the rule of not allowing underage adventurers to progress to E-class or above without attending adventurers’ school, as he was just the head of a Guild branch of a somewhat large city.

“I know that you are certainly as capable as an E-class adventurer… or to be more precise, at least as capable as a B-class adventurer. I know that, but… we are an organization, and there are rules that cannot be broken,” Berard said with an apologetic expression. “And you’re too much for our adventurers’ school to handle. You should speak to the Guild Master of the Alcrem Duchy Adventurers’ Guild headquarters about it.”

“No, I don’t mind, since I do intend to attend the school. And even if I can’t accept dangerous commissions from the Adventurers’ Guild, I can still go into Devil’s Nests and Dungeons,” said Vandalieu.

He didn’t think that he would have a lot to learn from adventurers’ school.

But if not attending would cause a problem with the system, he thought it would be best to attend the school, earn his credits and graduate as fast as possible.

In the meantime, Vandalieu would be able to do various things at the same time – he would continue spreading the religion of Vida in human society, secretly teleport back to the Demon Empire of Vidal and conduct investigations into the movements of Heinz and his party to see if they had made a return.

And it was possible that he would meet promising individuals at the adventurers’ school.

Thus, he didn’t consider it to be a waste of time.

There were also various other things to do, such as having meetings with the owners of the food carts on Vida Street, organizing for Starving Wolf Security employees to acquire supplies for his business when he wasn’t around, and sorting out security measures for various places including the orphanage… and he wouldn’t forget to secretly position Demon King Familiars in the Starving Wolf Security company building and the orphanage.

And also…

There was the matter of the Dungeon rampage caused by Hajime Fitun. Earl Morksi had requested an investigation into the Dungeon used for the rampage and named Kanako, Melissa, Doug, Simon and Natania to carry the investigation out.

“Investigating whether there is a new Devil’s Nest or Dungeon that has appeared near the city, and if there is, investigating inside?” said Simon.

“The city was attacked by a monster horde of that size, so I suppose it’s normal to think that a Dungeon might have appeared, but…” said Kanako.

“These kinds of requests are normally handled by C-class or even B-class adventurers, right? I wonder why we were specifically named when we’re just D-class,” said Melissa. “Well, I supposed I could guess the answer to that.”

“Yeah, I know the answer too. He couldn’t name Vandalieu because he’s F-class, and Darcia-san isn’t even an adventurer. He only named us because we’re his companions,” said Doug.

“Don’t complain so much,” said Kanako. “Considering the earl’s position, I don’t think we can blame him for requesting an investigation. He’s likely aware that you’re more capable than D-class adventurers, too.”

With that, he finished his registration at the Tamers’ Guild. The next day, he had Mähne, who had become a Rank 2 Lesser Demon Horse overnight, pull Sam’s carriage in the direction of the nearest Devil’s Nest.

Skill explanation:

Strengthened Attribute Values: Demon Empire of Vidal

A Skill that strengthens the Attribute Values of the user while they are inside any territory administered by the Demon Empire of Vidal, while they are with its citizens, while they are performing government or military duties, and while they are doing something for the benefit and safety of the empire.

Monster explanation:

Lesser Demon Horse

Horses that have become monsters. They are Rank 2. Horses that have a smaller size closer to that of a pony and horses that are very old tend to become these monsters.

Physically capable horses such as military horses usually become Rank 3 Demon Horses, and in some occasional cases, other kinds of horse-type monsters.