n

nIn the mountain range that towered over the eastern and western sides of Talosheim, the【Capital of the Sun】, the hero Zakkart left behind mercury mirrors that he had created using secret Alchemy techniques. The mirrors of liquid mercury reflected the sunlight towards the city, granting Talosheim the same amount of daylight hours as any place on level ground.

nAnd so the long, thin rice that could be harvested three times a year (similar to the rice of India on Earth) was cultivated, filling the stomachs of the race that needed large amounts of food.

nMore than half of the country’s territory was covered in Devil’s Nests, but because of that, the crops grew quickly and yielded harvests three times as plentiful as crops growing in other lands.

nHowever, during the war with the Mirg shield-nation, the fields became grasslands ruled by monsters and all of the mercury mirrors were destroyed.

nLeaving that sad history aside, Vandalieu was working on making something to play with today as well.

n「King, what’re you making?」(Child)

nBefore he knew it, the Black Goblin, Anubis and Orcus children had gathered around him.

nOnly a few months had passed since their birth, but not a single one of them was smaller than Vandalieu now. He had heard that monsters developed at a quick pace, but seeing it with his own eyes was a shocking thing.

nHearing that the Black Goblins were actually developing slower than pure-breed Goblins was even more surprising.

n「Is it a weapon?」(Braga)

n「Not quite, Braga.」(Vandalieu)

nBraga, one of the Black Goblin children, thought that the wooden disc-shaped object that Vandalieu was shaping with his【Golem Transmutation】might be a throwing weapon like a boomerang, but it wasn’t a weapon.

n「I know, it’s a plate!」(Zemedo)

n「Bugoh? To replace the leaves that Mom has been using recently?」(Gorba)

nZemedo, a young Anubis with the tough-looking head of a dog, and Gorba, an Orcus who was already the size of the average human adult, guessed that it might be a plate, but that was wrong as well.

n「Then what is it? Tell us too!」(Memediga)

nZemedo’s older twin sister… or younger twin sister? Memediga, who was his twin sister either way was curious as well.

n「It’s a toy」, Vandalieu told her.

n『A toy?』(Children)

nAs his friends spoke simultaneously and turned their heads in confusion, Vandalieu adjusted the fine balance of the wooden disc. Finally satisfied with that, the last thing he did was to use what was inside a barrel that he had set aside… Rubber. He turned some of the rubber into a Rubber Golem and covered the disc in it so that it wouldn’t hurt if it hit someone.

nIt was quite unrefined, but it was finished.

n「This is a toy called a Frisbee.」(Vandalieu)

nWhat Vandalieu had created was a Frisbee.

nHe had thrown sticks when playing with Bone Wolf, but he had thought it might be more interesting to use a Frisbee like people did on Earth.

nIn Lambda, sports and toys were underdeveloped. Every country held tournaments for athletics and combat, and there were even dolls and stuffed toys.

nBut there were no Frisbees or sports that involved the use of balls… Well, they might be out there somewhere if one looked hard enough.

nAnd so Vandalieu had decided to try making one himself. Fortunately, there was more than enough wood lying around and even more fortunately, there were rubber trees, so Vandalieu made Rubber Golems from their natural rubber to use it for things like grips and cushioning material.

n「This Frisbee, you throw it –」(Vandalieu)

n「Hit people with it, and then you win by defeating everyone?」(Child)

n「… It’s a toy that you throw, catch and throw back to the person who threw it to you.」(Vandalieu)

nAs Vandalieu’s friends seemed to have dangerous thoughts about the Frisbee, he wondered if he should have made balls first. But he generally disliked ball sports, so he didn’t have much desire to make them.

nBecause he had been a loner at school, to him, ball sports had been nothing but「pain」inflicted onto him during physical education classes. They were nothing but a way to show off the achievements of popular people.

n「For now, I’ll show you the basics. Try throwing it.」(Vandalieu)

nThat day, Basdia thought of calling out to Vandalieu after she got back from her session of monster hunting and training, and happened to come across this scene.

n「Van?」(Basdia)

nVandalieu was chasing after a small disc that was spinning through the air.

nHe caught the disc and then threw it back towards the children, who were standing far away from him.

n「Is this some kind of training? No, he’s supposed to be resting, so are they playing?」(Basdia)

nBasdia thought for a moment that they were undergoing some kind of training where they were learning to catch a thrown weapon out of the air and throw it back at the enemy, but the atmosphere around them didn’t seem like they were training, so she decided to stand there and observe.

nAfter observing a little, she understood that they were playing. But from just observing, she couldn’t understand what could be so fun about it.

n「Here it comes, King –」(Orcus)

nThe Orcus boy holding the disc gave a large swing of his arm and threw it.

nBecause he possessed the【Superhuman Strength】skill that granted him great physical strength from birth, the disc flew high, very quickly.

n「Ah, this is –」(Vandalieu)

nIt was impossible for Vandalieu to catch it. So Basdia thought, but Vandalieu ran at one of the nearby ruined walls and, without slowing down at all, began climbing it like a four-legged animal!

nShe thought that he was using magic, but it seemed that he was using his claws.

n「Van looks thin but he has a lot of strength, and he’s quicker than he himself thinks. As expected of the man I’m expecting to be the father of my second child.」(Basdia)

nGiving a satisfied nod and thinking more positively of Vandalieu, Basdia decided that she would talk to him later and left so that she wouldn’t be in their way.

nAnd thus Frisbees became popular among the Ghouls, Black Goblins and the Anubises in particular. But its popularity was dubious among the Titans and Orcuses.

nThere was currently a large amount of materials that had been brought into Talosheim.

nOver ninety percent of those were the products obtained by the Undead Titans who worked under Borkus to exterminate the influence of the exterior Devil’s Nests from Talosheim.

nThere were large quantities of monster meat, timber, medicinal plants, herbs and goods of Talosheim that the Mirg shield-nation had either abandoned or never found in the first place.

nMost of them were still usable… The rate at which more materials were brought in was faster than the rate at which they could be processed, so Vandalieu had simply cast【Preservation】on them and they were lying in a huge pile.

nAmong the quickly-gathering materials were coins that were used as the Orbaume Kingdom’s currency two hundred years ago… copper and silver coins of various sizes, things that had no use now. The Mirg shield-nation had probably taken gold coins and any coins more valuable than those, but the silver coins and coins worth less than them had been abandoned.

nIf one were to polish these coins and take them to the Orbaume Kingdom, they could likely be used as currency except for the badly damaged ones. The currency might have been revised in the past two hundred years, but they would at least hold the value of the copper and silver that the coins were made of. If lucky, they might be worth a premium the way that old coins on Earth were valued by enthusiastic collectors.

nBut right now, there was really no way to use them.

n「What shall we do with these?」(Vandalieu)

n「There is nothing to do with them. For now, let us store them somewhere until you go to the Orbaume Kingdom, Van-sama.」(Tarea)

nTarea was getting her back rubbed by Vandalieu after having come back from changing her Job to her original Job of『Arms Smith』at the Job-changing room in the ruined Adventurers’ Guild.

n「Currency revisions are quite uncommon, so I believe that there should be no problem, however… I am not knowledgeable about the Orbaume Kingdom. Even if you ask Kachia and the others… Ah, there, harder…」(Tarea)

n「You’re right; they’re enemy nations who have done nothing but wage war against each other, after all.」(Vandalieu)

nNeighboring countries would normally have people going back and forth across the border, but unfortunately Viscount Balchesse’s region, in which Kachia and the other former adventurers had been active in when they were still human, were not adjacent to the Orbaume Kingdom.

nNo, even in areas where the Mirg shield-nation and Orbaume Kingdom shared a border, almost nobody did business across them other than black-market dealers.

nThese two nations had been enemies ever since their foundation, and apparently many of the Orbaume Kingdom’s duchies had been taken back as a result of a ghastly conflict that had occurred only a few years ago, so there was hardly an atmosphere to be doing business with each other.

nBut if one were to question whether the nations still functioned properly, the answer was yes. The Amid Empire covered a third of the continent… Half of the continent if one was to only consider the regions that were inhabitable by humans, and it did commercial business with nearby island nations and other continents.

nThus, the Empire had no economic problems or problems regarding the acquisition of food.

nThe state of the Orbaume Kingdom wasn’t known, but it likely didn’t suffer from any problems for the same reasons. The duchies had originally been individual small countries, and they were likely able to trade with nations outside the continent through the Kingdom.

nVandalieu had thought of taking the coins that he had taken from the bandits around Evbejia to the Orbaume Kingdom and exchange them there, but considering these facts, it would probably better if he didn’t.

nIt felt like a waste, but it was probably best to simply melt them down into metal.

n「I’ll ask Craftsman Datara later.」(Vandalieu)

nDatara was an Undead Titan who had been an elderly blacksmith when he was alive. He had continued swinging his hammer for two hundred years… well, swinging his hammer, but not actually making anything.

nHe had regained a little of his sanity and memories when he met Vandalieu, and now he was struggling to restore his workplace.

nHis various tools had corroded; he wouldn’t be able to work unless he made them all from scratch again.

n「That is a good idea. I am still unable to use metal.」(Tarea)

nTarea was a skilled arms smith with high skill levels. However, she was unskilled in the use of metal.

nArms smiths in the world of Lambda mainly use materials taken from monsters to create their weapons and armor. They do not use metal very often, unlike the swordsmiths and weapon smiths that one would imagine on Earth, who would forge metal to create swords and katanas. Even if they do, they would only use Mythril powder or Orichalcum fragments as catalysts, or use iron to make clasps for armor.

nThe blacksmiths who primarily use metals are craftsmen who create arms using copper, bronze, iron, Adamantite or Orichalcum as the base materials, with materials from monsters used only as catalysts.

nThe skills and tools used by the two types of craftsmen are different.

nIn Tarea’s case in particular, she had trained her skills after becoming a Ghoul in a Devil’s Nest forest, where metal had been scarce. The last time she had used metal in her work was over two hundred years ago.

n「If I had the tools, as long as I am not needed to create something, I think that I would be able to at least melt down coins, you know? But if there is a specialist around, it is best to leave it to him.」(Tarea)

n「You’re right. And Datara would probably be angry if I didn’t ask him to do it.」(Vandalieu)

nDatara was a moody old man. If he were to discover that Vandalieu had given this task to Tarea, who was unskilled in the handling of metal, he would get very angry indeed. And since he was now an Undead, whose emotions often went out of control, there was a chance that this anger would be permanent.

nAnd moody old men in general seemed like they would be scary if they got angry.

n「Still, how shameful of me. To become overenthusiastic and… nnh… cause pain to my back.」(Tarea)

nThe friendly, two-hundred-and-sixty-four-year-old Tarea who looked like a friendly person in her teenage years had been rendered helpless by a back injury.

nBecause the Job-changing room in the Adventurers’ Guild was usable, all of the Ghouls, including Tarea, had acquired Jobs.

nJobs were blessings granted to people by the gods even before the appearance of the Demon King. Obviously, monsters couldn’t undergo Job changes. That applied even for Sam and Nuaza, who had been people before becoming Undead.

nHowever, Ghouls were one of the races that Vida had given birth to alongside the Vampires. They were half-monster, but as the other part counted as human, they could undergo Job-changes.

nThis was certainly the case considering that Tarea and Kachia had retained the bonuses to their Attribute Values and skills of the Jobs they had possessed as humans, even after becoming Ghouls.

nAnd so the Ghouls who had lived in a Devil’s Nest up until now, unable to use a city’s Job-changing room or make one of their own, had used the Job-changing room available to them in Talosheim.

nThus, Tarea was able to change from the Job that she had been forced into when she was sold by her family and had long since reached level 100 in, the『Prostitute』job, to her original Job of『Arms Smith.』

n「Now I can become a『Renowned Craftsman』and『Artisan』that I had dreamed of being as a human!」(Tarea)

nShe had been very happy.『Renowned Craftsman』and『Artisan』would be honorable titles given to skilled craftsmen on earth, but in Lambda, they were the common superior Jobs that all crafting-related Jobs shared, including Arms Smith. These jobs would be displayed as『Artisan: Arms Smith』or『Arms Smith: Artisan.』

nAnd so in order to gain Experience Points and increase her level, Tarea had begun working with unknown materials such as those from Raptors and Flying Sharks, but she had been overenthusiastic.

n「I understand how you feel, you know.」(Vandalieu)

nVandalieu understood the feeling of being unable to acquire a Job. He really did.

nAs he said this, Vandalieu numbed the pain in Tarea’s back with death-attribute magic, used【Spirit Form Transformation】on a part of his body and slipped it into Tarea’s and eased the stiffening in her muscles.

n『If I was able to do this on Earth, I might have been able to open my own store.』(Vandalieu)

nSpirit Form Massages, we definitely understand your muscle pains better than low-frequency massagers! … Probably not.

nAs Vandalieu released the tension in her muscles, he also secretly checked on the condition of her body, but there seemed to be no problems. There were no signs of declining organ function.

n「Ah.」(Tarea)

nHad she noticed?

n「I just suddenly thought of something. Can you not manipulate metal with【Golem Transmutation】, Van-sama? I am sure that there are Golems made of copper, iron and Mythril.」(Tarea)

nApparently not. It wasn’t as if Vandalieu was doing anything bad, but he felt a little relieved as he answered Tarea’s question.

n「I can. It uses up more Mana than when I make Golems from rocks, though. I’ve never had a chance to try it with Mythril, but I think it should work.」(Vandalieu)

nLike Tarea, Vandalieu’s exclusion from human society meant that his opportunity to work with metal was limited. However, he had tested it with small amounts of iron before, and he had succeeded in creating an Iron Golem that could fit in the palm of his hand.

n「But I still can’t do much other than make large changes to their shape. I can do things like make pit dwellings, fix houses made of stone and straighten bent pieces of metal, but for example…」(Vandalieu)

nVandalieu used【Golem Transmutation】to change the shape of some copper coins and turned them into a sword.

n「I see, this is no good.」(Tarea)

nTarea knew that this sword would be useless with a single glance. It was nothing but a lump of copper in the shape of a sword.

nThe blade had no edge at all; it wouldn’t even be able to cut a branch. It was a thin, blunt weapon rather than a sword.

n「This is how it is. I can’t make a statue of stone and earth that resembles a person exactly, or apply fine details.」(Vandalieu)

nAs he spoke, Vandalieu used Golems of earth and stone to make a doll that resembling Tarea, but… while it did have the shape of a woman, the facial features were rough and details like the fingers were very crude.

nUsing【Golem Transmutation】like this, he couldn’t create small details. Even when constructing houses, he could only create pit dwellings; building complicated, tall buildings like houses on Earth would be impossible.

nEven when making weapons, at best he would be able to have molten metal pour itself into a mold… The casting process. Even that was impossible unless the mold for the desired shape was already made for him.

nIn order to become able to create smaller details, he would likely need skills like【Blacksmithing】and【Carpentry】in addition to the【Golem Transmutation】skills. In fact, he had already acquired the【Carpentry】skill by making pit dwellings using【Golem Transmutation.】That meant that he had gained the experience required to learn the techniques of【Carpentry】; in other words, he had actively used the【Carpentry】skill.

n「Well, I can remove impurities from metal… like this.」(Vandalieu)

nThe copper sword began to quiver, and dust-like particles began to fall out of it right before their eyes. And then the sword of copper was shining brilliantly, as if it had completely transformed.

n「Th-this is copper?! It shines like a gem… Van-sama, this is amazing! If you are able to purify copper like this and the same can be done with iron, this is a technique that would be desired all over the world!」(Tarea)

nIn Lambda, raising the purity of a substance to a hundred percent was impossible with technology alone. There were almost no examples of even skilled earth-attribute mages succeeding in doing such a thing. Historically, some mages had produced metal with a hundred percent purity, but only with minute amounts of metal used to begin with. Such techniques could not be used industrially.

nAnd so if Vandalieu was able to create one-hundred-percent pure iron, he would rival those skilled historical mages… no, there was a chance that he would surpass them.

nHowever, Vandalieu showed no signs of pride.

n「That might be true, but this is actually really tiring.」(Vandalieu)

n「Ah, it consumes a large quantity of Mana, doesn’t it?」(Tarea)

n「No, it really tires my brain out.」(Vandalieu)

nVandalieu lay down and rested his forehead against Tarea’s back. Feeling how hot it was, Tarea let out her voice in surprise.

n「A fever?! Van-sama, your forehead is almost hot enough to burn me!」(Tarea)

n「This is known as a magic-fever. If you surpass the limits of your Intelligence to force out a complicated spell, this is apparently what happens.」(Vandalieu)

nThe Intelligence stat displayed on one’s Status governs magic and martial techniques, representing the amount that one’s brain can process, and the speed with which it does so. If those limits are surpassed, a fever is developed, like a computer that has been overclocked.

nUsing【Golem Transmutation】to purify copper as Vandalieu had shown Tarea didn’t consume much Mana. Perhaps it would be different for other mages, but for Vandalieu, who possessed a Mana pool of 100,000,000, it was a truly miniscule amount.

nWhat he was actually doing was middle-school-level science. He was simply transmuting the copper with the image of ejecting all of the non-copper material from within it.

nThough earth-attribute mages manipulated minerals, they were unable to increase their purity. The reason for this was likely because they didn’t understand the molecular structure of metals. Nobody could blame them, as this was a fantasy world with no electron microscopes.

nHowever, Vandalieu understood the concept of molecules. But increasing the purity of a single kilogram of copper to a hundred percent had caused a fever intense enough to make his consciousness hazy, so the technique itself did indeed seem difficult.

n『Or maybe my Intelligence is just too low. I have a feeling there’s a good way around this, but… Fuh, Tarea’s back feels good.』

nAs Vandalieu set heat-absorbing【Demon Fires】around himself and pressed his forehead against Tarea’s back, he suddenly realized something.

n「Come to think of it, Tarea’s…」(Vandalieu)

n「Y-yes, my what?」(Tarea)

n「Upper arms are thick and muscular, aren’t they?」(Vandalieu)

n「That is where you want to touch?! There are plenty of other good places, you know?! If it is you, Van-sama, I would not mind if your hand were to slip a little!」(Tarea)

n「Other places… Your back is muscular too, isn’t it?」(Vandalieu)

nThough arms smiths didn’t swing hammers like blacksmiths, they still used a considerable amount of physical strength. That was why Tarea had more muscle on her arms and back than one would suspect… though few had noticed this due to her wearing clothes and ornaments that covered her back and upper arms to conceal it.

n「NOOOOO! Why are you choosing only places like that?!」(Tarea)

nTarea was covering her face in shame, but Vandalieu had only meant it as a normal compliment. Muscles were splendid things. They were powerful justice, powerful beauty, powerful muscles.

nEven if one didn’t have such extreme opinions, would lean muscles not be considered attractive?

n「I-I don’t need any more massaging- oguh?!」(Tarea)

nBut perhaps squirming around with Vandalieu on her back had been a bad idea. Tarea’s hips gave an unpleasant clicking sound.

n「… There aren’t any problems with the bones. You have a strained back.」(Vandalieu)

nTarea suddenly stopped moving, and Vandalieu used his magic once more to numb her pain and cool down the affected area.

nStrained backs were incredible, to even render a Ghoul possessing the【Pain Resistance】skill to become half-unconscious.

nIncidentally, this was the first time the term『strained back*』had been used in Lambda, and in the years and months to come, the term would spread from Talosheim all over the continent. But right now, nobody was aware of that.

nTLN*: This is notable in Japanese because the term is a rather unusual one, ぎっくり腰

/gikkuri-goshi, where “ぎっくり

/gikkuri” is an onomatopoeic sound (I think) and “腰

/goshi” means hip

/back, so it’s something like “clicked back”? Anyway, it sounds weird if you don’t know what the word means.

n「There you are, boy… So, who is this lying down like that?」(Zadiris)

n「It’s Tarea; she can’t move because she injured her back.」(Vandalieu)

nIt was in the evening, which came early in Talosheim, when a lively-looking Zadiris came to see Vandalieu.

n「She injured her back, you say? As to be expected from an elderly person.」(Zadiris)

n「Kyiiiiih, even though you are thirty years older than I am! I hope you get a strained back yourself!」(Tarea)

n「S-strained?* Well, I do understand that you are cursing me.」(Zadiris)

nTLN*: Zadiris’s reaction to the word is like this because of the above mentioned onomatopoeic sound.

nThough Vandalieu had numbed the pain, the injury hadn’t actually been healed, so Tarea was lying still to recover.

nAs Zadiris looked closely, she saw that Vandalieu’s arms had fused into Tarea’s back.

n「… What are you doing?」(Zadiris)

n「Spirit Form assimilation therapy. If I turn my body into Spirit Form and fuse it with Tarea’s, she becomes able to use my【Rapid Healing】skill. I can’t use healing magic, but I tried to see if there was anything I could do and this is what I came up with.」(Vandalieu)

n「Fuh, fufufu, are you jealous? Van-sama and I have become one… No, you cannot shake me! Stop it, you insolent little girl!」(Tarea)

n「I am only doing this because you show no respect for your elders. Good grief.」(Zadiris)

nSatisfied at making Tarea scream after being teased by her, Zadiris whispered into Vandalieu’s ear with a serious expression on her face.

n「Is it her lifespan that is in danger?」(Zadiris)

n「No, she’s just old. I can’t see a shadow of death, so I think she’ll be fine as long as she doesn’t push herself.」(Vandalieu)

n「… She will, so that is impossible.」(Zadiris)

n「You’re right. I’ll ask her soon if she wants me to use【Youth Transformation】for her.」(Vandalieu)

nTarea hurting her back twice in a row might have just been something unique to Tarea, but Vandalieu and Zadiris suspected that it might be because she was aging. They might have been overthinking it, but it would be best to reverse her age and have her become healthy again long before the shadow of death became visible.

n「Come to think of it, how is your training?」(Vandalieu)

n「Hmm, it is going well. I have become level 100, so I am due to change Job again tomorrow.」(Zadiris)

nThe Ghouls who had undergone Job changes had acquired『Apprentice』Jobs to begin with. All kinds of『Apprentice』Jobs existed, such as『Apprentice Warrior』,『Apprentice Mage』,『Apprentice Arms Smith』and『Apprentice Maid.』

nAs their names suggested, they were Apprentices, so the bonuses to their Attribute Values and skills were weak. However, the bonuses were spread widely over their skills, so everyone could take their own strengths and weaknesses into consideration as they trained and plan out what skills they wanted to obtain.

nZadiris and the other Ghouls had increased the levels of their Apprentice jobs to their limit in the space of just a few days, but they were a special case.

nHumans with Apprentice Jobs were normally not much different from average people. Beginning from this state, they would train with wooden swords and spears, have practice battles, fight Rank 1 monsters such as Goblins, Big Frogs and Living Bones under the supervision of a mentor and slowly gain Experience Points.

nBut Ghouls were at least as strong as Rank 3 monsters to begin with and already possessed numerous battle-related skills. Thus, they were able to kill monsters like Needle Wolves that human Apprentice Warriors would simply be slaughtered by, earning large quantities of Experience Points.

nZadiris had joined the other Ghouls in defeating monsters such as Flying Sharks and Raptors and promptly reached level 100 in the『Apprentice Mage』Job.

nIncidentally, her level as a monster didn’t increase. It seemed that Experience Points were split separately into『Job Experience Points』and『Monster Experience Points.』

n「I know that you are eager to try, but you must be relaxing for now. It should be the date we promised, your birthday, by the time Tarea’s back is healed.」(Zadiris)

n「Well, I don’t know how it’ll go, though.」(Vandalieu)

nWith the【Cannot learn existing Jobs】curse, Vandalieu could not acquire a Job that had already been confirmed to exist in Lambda.

nHe wanted to try, so he was half-full of expectations but also half-full of anxiety at the fact that he might not be able to acquire a Job.

nWell, in the case of the latter, he would simply have to concentrate on making the Undead and Ghouls stronger.

n「Auuh, Van-sama, is my back in such a bad state…?」(Tarea)

nNot knowing about Vandalieu’s curse, Tarea assumed that he was talking about her back, so he had to spend some effort in calming her down.

nAnd then Vandalieu’s birthday came. Vandalieu was brought to the royal castle.

n『Bocchan! Please just think that you’ve been tricked and put this bag over your head!』(Saria)

n『Don’t forget to use the blindfold and earplugs before that, okay?』(Rita)

nVandalieu froze as Saria and Rita approached him with a leather bag and a blindfold made of cloth.

nAt first, Vandalieu thought this might be a gekokujou*, but this seemed to be a planned surprise, so he excitedly put on the blindfold on and the leather bag over his head. From the outside, he looked just like a child being kidnapped.

nTLN*: This is a Japanese term that’s similar to rebellion

/mutiny

/coup d’état

/betrayal where those in lower positions such as vassals overthrow the ones in the higher positions such as lords.

n『He’s here! I took a lot of effort in bringing these here for you!』(Borkus)

n「Me too! I brought in a lot of them as well!」(Vigaro)

n「Stop competing with each other already when we haven’t even shown him yet!」(Basdia)

nAfter a while, things suddenly became noisy. Thinking that a bigger surprise was waiting for him than he’d originally thought, Vandalieu’s heart began throbbing.

n『Happy birthday!』

nThe leather bag and blindfold were removed. Vandalieu saw a great dining hall that had been built after Talosheim began trading with the Orbaume Kingdom in order to hold buffet parties and balls like the higher societies of humans.

nBorkus, Vigaro, Zadiris, Nuaza, Basdia, Tarea and many others had gathered in this vast place.

nThe dining hall had once been magnificent, but now it was ruined, a mere shadow of what it once was. As if to replace the decorations and ornaments that had been lost, a great number of corpses covered in colorful feathers and scales had been lined up around it.

n「These are dinosaurs!」(Vandalieu)

nNobody knew their exact names and they were likely very different from the dinosaurs that had once inhabited Earth, but their bone structures were easily identifiable those of dinosaurs at a glance.

nCorpses resembling tyrannosaurus rexes, with enormous sharp teeth growing in their mouths.

nCorpses resembling pteranodons, clearly different from birds and bats.

nCorpses resembling triceratopses, with large horns growing on their heads.

nCorpses resembling stegosauruses, with sheets of bone growing on their backs and spikes on their tails.

nSome of their horns were chipped and their bellies had been sewn shut; they weren’t unharmed. But they all seemed relatively fresh.

n「This is our present. We heard from Mother that you wanted scaled monsters that weren’t Dragons, Van, so everyone gathered them here.」(Basdia)

n「There were quite a few of them coming out of the Dungeons. Though we’ve taken out their blood and organs, since they would have rotted otherwise.」(Vigaro)

nIt seemed that the information that Vandalieu liked dinosaurs had been leaked by Zadiris.

nWell, perhaps because nobody had known what could be categorized as a dinosaur, enormous crocodile and snake monsters as well as a three-meter-long cat-like carnivorous creature possessing sharp claws and teeth with scales covering its whole body were included in there as well.

nBut this did nothing to inhibit the emotions that Vandalieu felt.

n「Everyone… Thank you…」(Vandalieu)

nHe was moved to tears. He knew how hard it must have been to bring the monsters’ corpses all the way back from the Devil’s Nests and Dungeons, even if their blood and organs had been taken out first. The Cursed Carriages he had made for crossing the Boundary Mountain Range had probably helped, but even so, it wouldn’t have been easy.

n『Vandalieu…』(Darcia)

nDarcia’s spirit appeared from the bone fragment that Saria brought forward.

n『You know, during the time leading up until now, there were a lot of times when I thought that everything was over. Your father was killed, I was captured… But you still turned three years old. Thank you so much. Make sure you become even healthier and stronger from now on, okay?』(Darcia)

nVandalieu had cried so many tears that it would be impossible to count them. Tears of anger, frustration, grief, misery, suffering, hatred, sorrow, resentment, rage, loathing.

nBut this might have been the first time he was crying tears of happiness.

nWhat a pleasant feeling it was.

n「Thank you, Mom. Thank you, everyone. Please keep taking care of me from now on.」(Vandalieu)

nThat was why he would live on.

nAnd he would resurrect his mother.

nThe tears of joy that he would cry after resurrecting her would surely be pleasant as well.

nThere was no way that he would be killed, there was no way that he would die.

nAs for anyone standing in his way, he would kill them – and make them his allies.

n