Chapter 324: A discussion of the past, and an ideal land
Chapter 324: A discussion of the past, and an ideal land
Katie was aware at an early stage that Vandalieu – or rather, the members of house of Honorary Countess Zakkart – would be staying for an extended period of time in the royal realm, often referred to as Orbaume Central.
Vandalieu and his companions hadn’t exactly kept that a secret, and given that he had enrolled at the Hero Preparatory School, it wasn’t something they would have been able to hide even if they wanted to. Katie learned of this by listening to her father’s conversations through ‘Urðr’… her cheat-like ability that allowed her to see and hear events that had previously taken place in the space she used it on.
With this knowledge, Katie pestered her father to let her go to Central while Vandalieu and his companions were there, under the pretense that it would be for her education. Now that she had regained her memories and personality from her previous life, it was impossible for her to simply live as an ordinary little girl as she had done so far. Those around her believed her to be a child prodigy, and she made use of that.
Of course, Katie’s father, Lucas Hartner, was wary of Vandalieu, and he didn’t agree to Katie’s request so easily. Katie had the new Guild Master of the Mages’ Guild in the Hartner Duchy to write her a letter of recommendation addressed to the Guild Master of the Mages’ Guild in Orbaume, then sent it along with a letter that she had written herself.
Just as Katie hoped for, the new Guild Master, who was an honest man but poorly informed when it came to politics, wrote a letter of recommendation with passionate praise for her talent. The Guild Master in Orbaume replied that his Guild would gladly accept Lady Katie if she wished to study there, so Lucas was left with no choice but to let his daughter have her way.
Of course, she would be accompanied by one of her father’s administrators who would act as her guardian, as well as some bodyguards, and she would be residing in a residence belonging to the Hartner house, but she didn’t mind. She was the daughter of a duke; she had assumed from the beginning that her freedom would be restricted to some extent.
She patiently waited for her chance, and when she attended a party hosted by the house of Duke Alcrem, she found Vandalieu and bravely charged ahead.
She had learned magic and combat techniques to some extent in her previous life, so she felt pressured because she could tell that Eleanora and the others were overwhelmingly powerful in more ways than just beauty, but she pressed forward before she could hesitate.
On the other hand, for Vandalieu, Katie’s actions were a complete surprise attack.
“… It’s nice to meet you. My name is Vandalieu Zakkart. I have heard rumors about you for a long time,” he said.
He had heard her name; she was well known as the daughter of Duke Hartner, and for being a genius at magic despite her young age.
But despite knowing about her, he had not deemed her as someone that he needed to be wary of. After all, even her reputation as a genius was prefaced with ‘for her age.’ And most importantly, Vandalieu and his allies were currently most wary of Rikudou Hijiri and the reincarnated individuals that were his direct subordinates.
Katie Hartner was turning six years old this year; there was zero chance of her being one of Rikudou Hijiri’s subordinates. Thus, Vandalieu had paid her almost no caution at all.
“I’m surprised to hear that you were known as ‘Urðr,’” said Vandalieu, recovering from his shock.
It’s all right, Vandalieu said to Eleanora, Bellmond, and the invisible Ghosts who were lurking around the party venue using ‘Telepathy.’
“I was hoping that I could have the opportunity to discuss things with you in the near future. Magic, or past events, for example,” said Katie.
“I would like that. I think we could have a very interesting conversation about history and such,” said Vandalieu.
It was indeed true that he didn’t need to be overly cautious about Katie. Eleanora had very slightly extended her claws towards her. Bellmond was very slightly flexing her tail. Eisen’s branches were creaking quietly. A single swipe from any of them could easily cut her down.
And from the short conversation that had just taken place, Vandalieu knew that she had no hostile intent, and that she didn’t intend to discuss anything important here at this party. The eyes and ears of the other guests were around; Vandalieu was grateful for her discretion, as he had not anticipated for ‘Urðr’ to make contact with him.
“I bid you a good evening, then,” Katie said with a bow before walking away.
She was satisfied with making contact with Vandalieu, informing him that she as an individual had no hostile intent, and asking for him to make time to discuss some important things.
Incidentally, she had shaken off her guardian and bodyguards, and by the time they spotted her again, she was already talking to Vandalieu, so they had been unable to approach.
“Yes. I hope to see you soon,” said Vandalieu.
He didn’t go after her. But although he said ‘soon’… he wanted to talk to her today if possible, so he had Kimberley, who had been a scout when he was alive, follow her.
After Katie left, the noble ladies who had been watching their conversation came back to their senses. Because Katie was a noble lady herself, they hadn’t been able to interfere, of course, nor had they been able to imitate what she had done. But now, they were free to move.
Having seen what had happened after Katie charged in, they started thinking that as long as they spoke to Vandalieu, they could have a conversation. They began struggling to stop one another from approaching him, then the victor began to make her move.
But before she could, Darcia returned.
“I’m back, everyone. That was really difficult! I almost started to feel a bit dizzy,” she said.
In high society, it was normal to interact with people who were accompanied by their parents in order to deepen friendly relations. Or rather, there were almost no underage (under fifteen, in this world) people who were not accompanied by their parents or guardians.
But the dress worn by Darcia… or rather, her transformation equipment that had been arranged to be like a dress was so spectacular that every single one of the noble ladies got cold feet about approaching Vandalieu.
After her transformation equipment was activated, Vandalieu had added laces and frills woven with liquid metal to cover up the more exposed parts, creating a splendid appearance. And because the fabric was made of liquid metal, there was a luster to it; the dress was on a different level from those worn by the young noble ladies and the noblewomen attending this party.
“Welcome back, Mom. I hope there weren’t any weird people?” said Vandalieu.
“It was alright, Takkar… Duke Alcrem’s administrator chose the guest list very carefully. And everyone complimented this equipment that you altered for me, Vandalieu. I’m sure it’ll become well-known around Orbaume, too,” said Darcia.
“I’m sure it’s because you’re the one wearing it, Mom,” said Vandalieu.
“Indeed,” Zadiris agreed. “I was not given any compliments, after all.”
“Yeah, everyone’s just watching us from a distance,” said Pauvina.
Incidentally, Darcia wasn’t the only one wearing transformation equipment altered to be like dresses; Zadiris, Pauvina and Eisen were as well.
“I can’t blaaame them,” said Eisen.
From the perspective of the people attending the party, Zadiris and Eisen were familiars, not guests at the party. They didn’t know how to approach these familiars that had human-like intelligence and almost-human appearances.
In high society, it was polite manners to compliment women. But the way compliments were said depended on the social position of the compliment’s receiver. It was fine to enthusiastically compliment a young, unengaged woman, but enthusiastic compliments directed at women who were already engaged or married could be seen as an attempt to seduce them, so such compliments were a violation of manners.
The reverse was also true. Giving an unmarried woman the same compliments as engaged or married women was equivalent to telling them, “I’m not interested in you,” and thus considered to be very rude.
One needed to consider the power balance between their own family and the woman’s family, as well as other factors such as their political positions.
This was the complicated society that nobles lived in, and they had no idea how to categorize the female familiars. It was certain that they were not free, but would it not be rude to treat them the same as women who were already engaged or married?
No matter how sweet and charming they were, the nobles were hesitant to voice their compliments to them directly.
“To begin with, we’re guarding Van-sama so that troublesome people don’t come close to him. Why would you want to attract troublesome people to us?” said Eleanora, who was wearing a dress because her transformation equipment was too armor-like to be concealed with just minor alterations.
“I am not very good at judging nobles by their faces… I would cause much trouble if I were to say something strange to them, so I feel more at ease being treated as I am now,” said Bellmond, who was also not wearing her transformation equipment for the same reason as Eleanora.
She was wearing her usual steward’s tailcoat. Dressing in male clothes made her stand out in social events such as these, but nobody criticized her for it, as she was attending this party as a familiar.
“Come to think of it, Vandalieu, did you have any encounters with strange people? Pauvina-chan and Bellmond-san, is everything alright?” Darcia asked.
“Yeah. Alex-kun won’t be at an event like this, so I’m fine,” said Pauvina.
“I appreciate the concern, but why are you including me?” questioned Bellmond.
On top of everything else, Vandalieu’s family was having a friendly conversation that left no room for anyone to join in. The noble ladies had simply been told to make contact with Vandalieu and gather information about him; it wasn’t like they actually had any interest in him themselves. Deciding that this was impossible, they gave up and dispersed.
The noble ladies had intended to do as their parents had ordered them to, but they didn’t have the determination or ability to carry out their mission like a real spy would.
“Huh? In Morksi, your tail was…” said Darcia.
“Mom, there wasn’t anyone trying to touch Bellmond’s tail,” said Vandalieu.
“Darcia-sama, Danna-sama, I do not believe my tail attracts quite so much attention,” said Bellmond, her cheeks reddening. “And the incident in the city of Morksi was due to my own negligence. A grave failure on my part. Please forget it ever happened.”
“We’re sorry,” Darcia and Vandalieu said together.
But they were under the mistaken impression that Bellmond didn’t want them to mention her tail because she was traumatized by the last incident where a stranger touched it.
“Ah, there weren’t any strange people, but Lady Katie Hartner did come to greet us,” said Vandalieu. “Apparently, she’s ‘Urðr.’”
“Oh my! That is very shocking… but it seems like there’s no need to panic,” said Darcia with a sigh of relief, sensing from everyone’s relaxed behavior that Katie, who was apparently a reincarnated individual, had no hostile intent. “I hope you can get along with her like Kana-chan and the others.”
For her, the reincarnated individuals were the ones who had killed Vandalieu during his previous life, but she didn’t have any particular feelings towards them other than those who were clearly hostile, like Inui Hajime had been.
There were those she treated like family, like Kanako, Doug, and Melissa, and there were others that she wasn’t so close with. That was just how it was.
“But the Hartner Duchy is… What are you going to do?” Darcia asked.
“I’m sure she made contact with me because she wanted to talk about that,” said Vandalieu. “I’ll try talking to her.”
“I see, then… can I stay here until the dance begins? I somehow managed with Chipuras-san’s help, but I think I’m really starting to get dizzy,” said Darcia.
She had succeeded in exchanging greetings and empty compliments with the nobles that struck up conversation with her without offending them, but she hadn’t done it on her own.
“Good work, Chipuras,” said Vandalieu.
“I am not worthy of such praise. Your words honor me, Vandalieu-sama,” said Chipuras with a bow.
Chipuras was a former spy for the Vampires who worshiped an evil god; he remembered the names and faces of many royals and nobles. And because he had infiltrated human society as a merchant, he was good at remembering people’s names and faces.
On top of that, he already had plenty of experience in social exchanges with nobles.
He had floated around behind Darcia, whispering the names of the nobles and what they were known for in her ear.
“Alright. Once the dance begins, let’s pass the time by dancing with everyone in turn,” said Vandalieu.
It would be better to pass the time dancing with family members repeatedly in turns than to be forced to dance with some strange nobles. And when the dance started, he did indeed dance with Darcia and Pauvina over and over.
That evening, finally free after having been given a long lecture from the administrator acting as her guardian, Katie entered the room that she used as her bedroom.
“I know how they feel, but did it really have to be that long?” she muttered to herself.
“You are an underage child to them, after all.”
Katie almost screamed as she saw Vandalieu sliding out of the space between her closet and the wall behind it.
“H-how did you hide yourself in such a narrow gap?” she asked.
“I wasn’t hiding inside the gap. I just had a teleportation gate opened for me inside the gap,” Vandalieu replied.
He’d had Kimberley tail Katie and report her location, then asked Gufadgarn to open a teleportation gate somewhere inconspicuous… though he was a little surprised himself, as he hadn’t expected her to do so in the gap between a piece of furniture and a wall.
“So, what is it that you wanted to discuss?” Vandalieu asked.
“Ah, yes. About the Hartner house –” Katie began, dropping her noble lady’s tone of speech and returning to her own manner of speaking.
She explained how she had used her ‘Urðr’ ability to see the things that her family and her father had done. She promised him that she would make the Hartner house make a public apology and pay reparations to the full extent possible, and asked him to wait until then.
Vandalieu’s reply to that was very simple. “Very well. I’ll wait.”
Katie had been prepared to be shouted at or even have a killing intent directed towards her, but Vandalieu said nothing else.
However, Katie felt a freezing chill run up her spine.
Vandalieu had already given up on the Hartner Duchy… It would be appropriate to say that he had abandoned it. Thus, he didn’t intend to do anything to Duke Hartner’s house or the region he ruled.
He wouldn’t bring harm upon them. That alone might be something to be relieved about, but… at the same time, it also meant that he wouldn’t save them.
If Lucas, Katie’s father, or Belton, her uncle, were about to fall off a cliff and Vandalieu happened to be walking by, he would do nothing.
That was why Vandalieu agreed to Katie’s request very easily. He didn’t intend to do anything to begin with, so it was only natural.
And as he said, he would wait. A decade, a century, a millennium, or even an eternity.
“U-umm! I’ll definitely, definitely persuade my father!” Katie shouted, as if pleading. “If he absolutely refuses, then I’ll take over the duke’s house and apologize and pay the reparations myself! So please –”
“Please calm down, Katie-san… I can call you that, right? Katie-san, your personality and actions have left a favorable impression on me. I may not support the Hartner house, but I want to support you as an individual,” said Vandalieu.
He found it admirable that Katie wished to persuade her father rather than eliminate him.
He thought it was only natural to be unable to discard their loved, blood-related family.
He wouldn’t trust anyone who could easily discard their loved, blood-related family and betray them. After all, there was no telling when they would betray him next. The only way to trust such people would be to kill them.
“So I shall support you in your ‘persuasion’… though I won’t do any more than that,” Vandalieu said. “It’s not like you have deemed Lucas Hartner to be an unfit father and only want to save your family members other than him, is it?”
“Of course,” said Katie. “Father loves me. Mother, too. My uncle… I’m not so sure about him.”
“Well, we don’t need to concern ourselves about your uncle, do we?”
“Yes, well… I suppose not.”
Katie’s father Lucas and his half-brother Belton had gone through a conflict over the succession of the Hartner house several years ago; back then, their relationship had consisted of plotting conspiracies against one another.
Even though Belton had yielded the position of duke to Lucas, there was no doubt that he was coming up with various schemes to make his own son the next duke.
In any case, it seemed that this discussion with Katie would come to a fruitful conclusion that both of them were satisfied with.
“Leaving that aside, do you know anything about Rikudou Hijiri or his subordinates? If they haven’t managed to be reincarnated in this world, then that would be fine with me,” said Vandalieu.
“Rikudou Hijiri…?” said Katie. “No, I don’t. I heard that he died in Origin, but I haven’t been told anything about him. I thought that maybe his soul was too damaged for him to be reincarnated, or maybe Rodcorte doesn’t intend to reincarnate him at all…”
Things became murkier all of a sudden as the conversation had shifted to the topic of Rikudou Hijiri.
“That’s strange,” said Vandalieu.
Rikudou Hijiri’s soul had not been damaged. Vandalieu had tried to devour it, but failed. It might not be completely unharmed, but the damage on it would be far from affecting his personality and memories in a way that might prevent his reincarnation.
What was even stranger was that Katie hadn’t been told exactly how Rikudou had been dealt with. If Rodcorte didn’t intend to reincarnate him… If he intended to keep Rikudou close by and under his supervision, then there was no reason that Katie, who was one of Rikudou’s victim’s herself, shouldn’t be told.
“Since you’re living in this world, whether Rikudou is reincarnated in this world or not is something that affects you, too. It’s possible that he might be reincarnated here and inflict tremendous damage on the Hartner Duchy with death-attribute magic,” said Vandalieu. “If there’s no chance of that happening, then Aran and the others would have told you, considering what I’ve heard about their personalities from Kanako.”
Vandalieu wasn’t particularly close with Aran, Izumi, or Kouya, who had become Rodcorte’s familiar spirits, but Kanako and the others had told him what they were like.
They had been cold towards the companions who had betrayed them, which included Kanako and the now-deceased Murakami, but they were friendly towards Asagi and the others, and were trying to dissuade the reincarnated individuals from fighting Vandalieu.
Murakami was the one who had killed them, and Vandalieu could understand why they would distance themselves from Kanako and the others, who had allied themselves with Murakami at the time.
But Katie hadn’t betrayed them; they should still have considered her to be an ally. And because she was an ally, they should have told her how Rikudou had been dealt with.
“Then maybe Rodcorte forbade them from telling me because he was afraid that I would leak information to you… because he wants you to stay wary of Rikudou,” Katie suggested.
“That’s certainly possible. We are indeed wary of him and gathering as much information as we can,” said Vandalieu.
Perhaps Rodcorte was forcing Vandalieu and his allies to be wary of Rikudou Hijiri to keep them busy while he plotted something else. It certainly seemed feasible to Vandalieu. Other than Rikudou and his subordinates, the only other reincarnated individuals that could become Rodcorte’s pawns were Asagi’s group, but it was possible that Rodcorte was using the potential heroes that had been chosen by Alda, the God of Law and Fate, and the subordinate gods that served him… though if Vandalieu could witness the discussions between Rodcorte and Alda, he would see that their fragile cooperative relationship was full of cracks and realize that this was unlikely.
“But I think it’s best to prepare for the worst-case scenario,” Vandalieu said.
“Does that mean… Rodcorte really reincarnated Rikudou?!” Katie said in surprise and disbelief.
Rikudou Hijiri had become a death-attribute mage and almost inflicted fatal damage to Origin in order to try and defeat Vandalieu, another death-attribute mage. Why would he send him to this world?
No matter how Katie thought about it, destroying the world in order to defeat the Great Demon King trying to rule it seemed like a poor plan of action.
“I don’t know if Rikudou can destroy souls by breaking or devouring them like I can. If he can’t, then perhaps Rodcorte doesn’t consider him to be a problem,” said Vandalieu. “Just because we can use the same attribute of magic doesn’t guarantee we have the ability to do the same things.”
Theoretically, all users of a given attribute had the ability to do the same things. However, that wasn’t always the case in reality, due to differences between individuals. Indeed, Rikudou hadn’t been able to charm and control spirits like Vandalieu and Mei.
So Vandalieu believed it possible that if Rikudou couldn’t break souls, and because of that Rodcorte had decided to use him.
“But if a huge number of people died because of that –” said Katie.
“Maybe Alda and Rodcorte are thinking that as long as the world… As long as this world continues to exist in a form that they desire, then even if a lot of people die, it won’t be a problem because the population will recover after a century or a millennium passes. Or perhaps they believe that humans who side with me shouldn’t be considered as humans,” said Vandalieu.
Katie became speechless for a moment. “Then Aran and the others didn’t tell me about Rikudou because…!” she whispered, completely pale from the shock of the thought that her trusted allies had abandoned her.
“No, perhaps that’s the message that Aran and the others wanted to send you,” said Vandalieu, trying to calm her down. “It seems that familiar spirits are unable to disobey the gods they worship, so if Rodcorte told them not to give you information about Rikudou, then they’d become unable to do so. But maybe Rodcorte told them to make sure you wouldn’t suspect anything, and they deliberately chose not to say anything to you, knowing that telling you nothing would be unnatural of them, because they wanted you to realize what was happening.”
Vandalieu didn’t know what kind of conversation had taken place between Rodcorte and his familiar spirits, but he suspected that this might be the case.
If Aran had provided Katie with false information saying that Rodcorte would seal Rikudou away without having him reincarnated, she would have believed it. And if Katie had relayed that information to Vandalieu, Vandalieu wouldn’t have completely believed her, but he might have been less wary.
Vandalieu believed that the fact that Aran, Izumi, and Kouya hadn’t done this was a message in and of itself.
Why am I defending them? he wondered. Well, I did just say that I would support Katie, and if she were to become shocked and depressed now, it might affect her ability to persuade her family.
Vandalieu justified his actions to himself, and Katie recovered from her shock.
“You’re right. That might be the case,” Katie said. “But what are we supposed to do now…”
“Well, I consider the probability of Rikudou being reincarnated to be higher than I did before this conversation, so I will continue to be cautious, but as for any new measures I need to take… There aren’t any in particular,” said Vandalieu.
He was gathering information using the Adventurers’ Guild’s network and staying alert for attacks on the Demon Empire of Vidal, the Alcrem Duchy, and Orbaume.
It was difficult to be any more cautious than that.
As for keeping an eye on the Amid Empire on the west side of the Bahn Gaia continent, he was reliant on the villages that the Dark Elves kept maintained for use in emergencies, as well as Schneider and his party, but… Vandalieu and his allies weren’t the protectors of the entirety of Lambda. Even if the Amid Empire suffered heavy damage, they didn’t care, as long as they weren’t friends or acquaintances of Schneider’s.
The safety of the Amid Empire was the duty of the government that ruled it; it had nothing to do with Vandalieu.
The same could be said for the Hartner Duchy, with whom Vandalieu had not formed an alliance, but… he had just told Katie that he would support her. Feeling reluctant to do nothing for her duchy, he decided to hear his companions’ opinions.
“What do you think I should do?” he asked.
In response to his question, Princess Levia appeared. “How about giving her a Goblin communication device?” she suggested. “Or you could have several Ghosts accompany her so you can stay in touch. If you do that, she can contact you immediately if there’s an emergency.”
Katie opened her eyes wide in surprise at the sight of this beautiful, dark-skinned Titan woman. Her legs were invisible from the thighs down, and flames were coiling around her.
Princess Levia smiled at Katie. “It’s nice to meet you. I wonder if you know who I am?”
“Y-yes. You’re Princess Levia-sama, aren’t you?” said Katie, feeling the blood draining from her face at the intensity of Princess Levia’s appearance.
Katie had witnessed Princess Levia being burned alive in images of the past created by ‘Urðr.’
She could not sense any killing intent or anger – only an overwhelming difference in power… in Mana. The difference in Mana between her and Vandalieu had been so vast that she hadn’t even been able to perceive it, but… like Eleanora, Bellmond, and Eisen, she could sense that Princess Levia was an overwhelmingly powerful being.
“Yes… Like His Majesty, I will be rooting for you. Good luck,” said Princess Levia, her crimson-black flames swirling as she gave Katie words of encouragement.
Her tone was very gentle, and there was even a sincere friendliness in her smile. But Katie could sense something blazing fiercely in the depths of her eyes.
“Y-yes. I’ll do my best,” Katie stammered, her face white as a sheet.
Vandalieu produced a Goblin communication from his shadow to hand to her… a Magic Item made from the shrunken head of a Goblin.
“It’s alright,” he said, trying to make sure that she wouldn’t panic and do anything rash. “I’ll wait for years or decades if necessary, and even if your attempts to persuade your father fail, I won’t hold you or your siblings responsible.”
Vandalieu had meant for this to be reassuring, but Katie interpreted this as an implication that if she couldn’t convince her father, her parents were as good as dead.
“I’ll do my best!” she said again, nodding her head in panic.
And so, a hotline was created between Vandalieu and Katie Hartner.