The Death Mage Who Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time

as she stepped back.

With Vandalieu being her guider and Darcia being her race’s ancestor, it seemed that she had no choice but to live up to their expectations.

“Well, there’s no guarantee that I’ll use them again,” Vandalieu added.
“By the way, do you know where Miles, Eisen and the others went?” he asked as he looked around, realizing that more than half of the companions that were supposed to gather here were absent.

“Vandalieu-sama, it seems that they are in the back garden.
Look,” said Eleanora, pointing at the part of Pete’s tail that was visible in the shadow of the fake orphanage.
“It seems that they were thoughtful enough to stay hidden there so that they don’t scare the children.”

“… I see,” said Vandalieu.
“Well then, I’ll help calm the children down and explain the situation –”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Melissa.
“It might be better to leave the orphanage’s head and the nuns deal with that for a little longer.

According to Melissa, the ones who had taken action first immediately after the brainwashing was undone was Holly, the head of the orphanage, and the nuns Seris and Vestra.
Confused, they had burst into tears and started blaming themselves.

But upon seeing the children burst into tears as well, they had come to their senses and put their own emotions aside in order to take care of the children.

That was why Melissa and Gufadgarn had waited for Vandalieu rather than try to help calm the children down.

“Well, even if I were to try and help, I’ve never taken care of children before,” said Melissa.

“I could have made them stop crying,” said Gufadgarn.

“… You mean you would have just told them, ‘Please stop crying,’ right?”

Despite these words, Vandalieu did doubt whether watching silently was the right thing to do, but one of the children, Marsha, noticed them.
Still crying, she came running over.

“Onii-chan, I ate some weird wobbly stuff!” Marsha wailed.

“… That would be the spirit form I put in your mouth so that you wouldn’t bite your tongue.
It’s fine, you didn’t swallow it.
I just undid my ‘Embodiment,’” Vandalieu told her.

“I didn’t swallow it?! Really?! I won’t get sick or anything?!”

“You won’t, you won’t.”

Relieved, Marsha burst into tears again, louder than ever.
“I’m so glad!”

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It seemed that to her, this was the most serious thing that had happened today.

Vandalieu was relieved that the brainwashing had been undone without any side effects like memory loss.

Matthew ran over next.
“Vandalieu!”

“Matthew, if you’re wondering about the wobbly stuff in your mouth, you didn’t swallow it,” said Vandalieu.

“That’s not what I want to talk about, you dummy! There’s something I want to tell you,” Matthew said, lowering his head with a serious look on his face.
“I’m sorry.
It’s all my fault!”

Vandalieu opened his mouth, intending to tell Matthew that he didn’t need to worry about having been controlled by Birkyne and luring him here.

But Matthew meant something else.

“I’m sorry about tomorrow’s festival!” he said.

Vandalieu had visited the orphanage today to help with preparations for tomorrow’s festival.
But apparently, the festival had never existed to begin with.

“That stupid Birkyne guy came and told us to invite you over to help prepare.
So, we invited you over, but he appeared again this morning and… you know the rest,” Matthew mumbled.

From this explanation, it seemed that Birkyne had thought of numerous events to shorten the distance between Vandalieu and the orphanage in order to make the orphanage’s people function as hostages.

Of course, this had all begun from the time when Matthew attempted to steal from Vandalieu’s food cart and Vandalieu subsequently made donations to the orphanage.
It seemed that Birkyne had used the Demon King’s shadow to move in and out of the city more frequently than Vandalieu had thought.

Birkyne had likely decided that the orphanage’s people would serve as hostages after the incident in which Aggar and the other corrupt guards attempted to kidnap the children.
It seemed that he had decided not to go ahead with the fake festival and simply lay his trap for the day of the preparations.
But that wasn’t the important part.

“In other words, there were no preparations for any festival…” Vandalieu muttered, staggering in shock.

He had never expected that Birkyne would have left such a cruel parting gift after his soul was devoured.

“Yeah, sorry.
We never expected you to be so excited to make preparations,” said Matthew.
“By the way, why were you looking forward to it so much?”

“… Even if I was alone in my real childhood, I would be able to feel a sense of unity and accomplishment if I helped prepare, right? That’s why,” said Vandalieu.

“Huh? I don’t get what you’re saying.
It’s too complicated.”

Matthew had lived at the orphanage for as long as he could remember, so it was apparently difficult for him to imagine the loneliness that Vandalieu had felt as a school student on Earth.

But even Darcia, Vida’s incarnation, didn’t know about the festival.
This now made sense, as the festival had been made up to begin with.

“The Communal Church’s Priestess Paula didn’t know about it either, so I was sure that the peaceful faction and fundamentalists held different festivals on different days, but I guess that wasn’t the case,” said Darcia.
“Umm, Vandalieu, how about we have a celebration for defeating Birkyne and Hihiryushukaka instead of the festival? If everyone at the orphanage is okay with that.”

“Seriously?! Will there be tasty food?!” Matthew exclaimed, immediately clinging onto Vandalieu.

The rest of the children, who had now calmed down, heard ‘tasty food’ and looked at Darcia, their eyes shining with expectation.

“Yes, of course.
The festival will be tomorrow, though,” said Darcia.

“Yay!”

Around half of the children cheered loudly in excitement.

Despite recently having become able to eat until their stomachs were full, the words ‘tasty food’ seemed to have an effect on the children.

The other half of the children were telling Vandalieu and the others about what they had seen.

“Onii-chan, do that thing again where you turn black and fly through the sky!”

“Hey, Vandalieu-oniichan, where did those shiny old guys go?”

“Darcia-neechan, there was a huge centipede, a centipede.
I’m telling the truth!”

“More importantly, there were a bunch of bee-women! And the ‘Starving Wolf’ Michael!”

Rather than the fear they had felt while being manipulated by Birkyne, it seemed that they were more interested in Vandalieu sending Birkyne flying with a kick using ‘Soul Destruction Fighting Technique,’ Pete, Quinn and Miles, also known as the ‘Starving Wolf’ Michael who ruled over the red-light district and the slums.

The children also seemed to be interested in the others.

“Ah, this old woman is scary!” one of the children cried, looking at Isla.

“W-what?! I was hiding in the little girl’s shadow so that I would not scare the children… It seems that the children of human societies are more delicate than I thought,” Isla muttered.

“Who are those girls? Are they new girls at the orphanage?” asked another child, looking curiously at Gufadgarn and Melissa.

“I do not live at the orphanage,” Gufadgarn said in a flat tone.

Birkyne had tried to order the children to commit suicide, but before that, he had ordered them to be silent.
Perhaps their emotions had been paralyzed at that point.

… But perhaps Isla, half of whose face and body could still be seen behind Eleanora, was still very scary for them.

“I’m Eleanora, and the one behind me is called Isla.
It’s alright, she’s not scary,” Eleanora said gently.

“I am known as Bellmond.
Nice to meet you, everyone,” said Bellmond.

Seeing how the children were, it seemed that Birkyne had been telling the truth.
He had only ordered them to approach any Dhampirs they encountered, and had not brainwashed them to force any other large changes in their behavior.

As most of the children had calmed down, the orphanage’s head and the nuns were now free of work.
The three of them bowed to Vandalieu.

“Vandalieu-san, everyone…” the orphanage’s head murmured.
“Thank you for saving our children and nuns.”

“Thanks to you, all of us were saved, Vandalieu-san,” said Vestra.

All of them had swollen, bloodshot eyes, but it seemed that they were no longer filled with the confusion and emotions that Melissa had described earlier.

“No, Birkyne’s target was me,” said Vandalieu.
“Don’t blame yourselves too much… but that said, you seem to be handling it better than I expected.”

With Birkyne’s brainwashing undone, they had remembered who they truly were, and the fact that they had been offering orphans to an evil god on the Vampires’ behalf.

It wasn’t that they had offered every child in the orphanage.
However, Seris and Vestra were actually Subordinate Vampires, and had lived longer than their appearances would suggest.
Many children had been sacrificed to Hihiryushukaka over that time.

“Yes.
We were very confused immediately after our memories returned, and I was so filled with regret that I thought of using these claws to end my own life, but… the children were right in front of me,” said Holly, extending her claws.

Vandalieu and the children were all shocked to see this.

“Are you a Vampire as well?” Vandalieu asked.

“No, I am a Dhampir, though I had forgotten this fact until moments ago…” murmured Holly, who looked to be somewhere in her forties or fifties.

Apparently, as one of his experiments to create special Vampire servants who could operate in daylight, he had conducted an experiment where he turned pregnant women into Vampires.

He had likely thought that under these special conditions, the women would give birth to a special kind of Vampire who did not possess the typical weaknesses, such as the weakness to sunlight and silver.

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But the majority of the women had miscarried, and Holly, the only successfully-born baby, had been born as a Dhampir, not a Vampire.

The reason he had not disposed of her after that was because… perhaps Birkyne had not wanted Ternecia and Birkyne to know that his own plans had created a Dhampir, even if it were unintentional.
Or perhaps he had refused to write the experiment off as having achieved nothing…

In any case, Birkyne had destroyed the orphanage’s head’s crimson eye and brainwashed her, making her watch over the other children in the orphanage when she was a child.
As Dhampirs did not age, he had created wrinkles and saggy skin on her face using drugs when she was an adult, then made her the head of the orphanage in Morksi.

“That was why you always wore gloves, never showed any skin other than your face and only talked to my mother instead of me,” said Vandalieu.

It was currently January, the coldest time of the year with snow falling periodically.
And although Vandalieu hadn’t noticed anything strange as he had always been actively playing with the children, now that he thought about it now, Holly had always kept her distance from him.

Birkyne had likely been afraid that his plans would be exposed if Vandalieu had somehow noticed the mismatch between the appearance of Holly’s face and the age of her body.

“Indeed, though when I was under his command, I didn’t think to question why I was doing that…” Holly murmured.

“Even I didn’t notice.
Your back is unusually straight, but I thought it’s not that rare at your age,” said Darcia.

As Birkyne had planned, nobody had noticed that Holly was a Dhampir.
But perhaps thinking that this distance from Vandalieu had decreased her effectiveness as a hostage, Birkyne had made Seris and Vestra stand in front instead during the negotiations in the chapel.

“Vandalieu-san, until this morning, I thought that I was three times as old as Seris and Vestra, but the truth is that the two of them have lived for twice as long as I have.
I must add ‘-san’ to everyone’s name from now on,” said Holly.

“Director Holly, you don’t have to worry about our age! Please speak to us as you always have,” said Seris.

“Up until now, we’ve also been under the impression that we were eighteen years old.
Even though we’ve now remembered that we’re over ninety, we still don’t really feel that way,” said Vestra.

As the two of them were Subordinate Vampires, they did not age.

Even if Birkyne had tried to apply drugs to their faces to make them look older like he had done to Holly, there was a large difference between a Dhampir’s ‘Rapid Healing’ and a Vampire’s ‘Rapid Regeneration.’ While Holly had to apply the drugs once a month to maintain the aged appearance of her face, Seris and Vestra would have needed to apply them every day.

Acquiring such large quantities of drugs may have caused suspicion.
That was why the two of them had been rotating around the various orphanages operated by Birkyne under the setting of being freshly-trained nuns sent from a nearby monastery.

It seemed that their memories were sealed away every time they moved between orphanages, resetting them to being freshly-trained nuns.

“… Sorry for the stupid question, but how did he trick you about your Statuses? You can see them yourselves, can’t you?” asked Melissa.

Vestra sighed.
“Yes, we were able to see our own Statuses.
But we couldn’t perceive them correctly.
We were fooled into believing that our ages, races and Skills were all exactly as Birkyne had told us.
That’s true for both of us and the director.”

It seemed that the brainwashing of the children that were used as livestock had been simple, but Birkyne had been more careful in the brainwashing of the orphanage’s head and the nuns, who were his tools.

“Knowing him, he probably did not erase your memories entirely because he wanted to see you suffer in self-hatred one day when you regained them,” said Gufadgarn.

“Probably.
I mean he was the Demon King’s shadow all along, but that was the kind of guy he was,” said Eleanora.

This probably wasn’t wrong; after all, Holly and the nuns had wanted to kill themselves when the brainwashing was removed.

“More importantly, we need to discuss what to do from here on out… Can I believe that you no longer intend to commit suicide?” Vandalieu asked.

Holly and the nuns nodded quietly.

“When we started crying, the children burst into tears as well.
We were then busy desperately trying to comfort them, so we missed the timing for killing ourselves.
No matter what we do, the sins that we have committed will not change, but… the goddess forbids suicide,” said Holly.

Darcia, Vida’s incarnation, gave her an approving smile.

“Vestra and I were desperately trying to stop each other from harming ourselves, so I don’t really know what’s going on anymore,” said Seris.

“The children were telling us to stop fighting… It’s hard to believe that we’re in our nineties, isn’t it? And… now that we are in a calm state of mind, you people don’t intend to let us atone for our sins through death, do you?” said Vestra.

“Of course not,” said Vandalieu.

If the three of them had been intent on trying to atone for their sins through death, Vandalieu had intended to brainwash them through ‘Mental Encroachment’ or turning them into Undead after their deaths to have them remain in this world.

They were innocent; the one at fault was Birkyne, the one who had been controlling them.
And since there was no heaven or hell in this world, death would only atone for one life’s worth of harm.

Furthermore, Vandalieu was no protector of the law or impartial judge.
He was a ruler whose decisions were guided by his emotions.

“If you believe that you have sinned, then I will accompany you for your atonement.
For decades or centuries, until you are satisfied that you have completely atoned.
I will stop all who may try and kill you, including yourselves,” said Vandalieu.
“With that out of the way, shall we get started right away?”

“Huh? Straight away? Where are we going…?” Holly asked.

“To Birkyne’s hideout.
I got the location from his confidants.
After that, we’re going to some orphanages, mines and brothels.
We can go around very quickly using Gufadgarn’s power to travel,” said Vandalieu.
“There are some facilities that are likely to continue operating as normal even if abandoned, but there are others that are in danger.”

“See you later, Vandalieu.
Leave the food cart and tomorrow’s feast to me!” said Darcia.

“Nee-chan, where are you guys going?!” asked Matthew.

“It’s alright.
We’re going to bring some new friends,” said Vandalieu.
“Now then, first of all, we’re heading to Birkyne’s base.”

With the three confused adults of the orphanage accompanying him, Vandalieu and his companions began teleporting around the endangered facilities that were now abandoned with Birkyne’s death.

 

 

 

Name: Eleanora Age: 14 years old (20 years old at time of Vampire transformation, 34 years old in total) Titles: Eclipse Emperor’s Loyal Dog (NEW!), Leader’s Mistress (NEW!) Rank: 13 Race: Abyssal Vampire Princess Knight Level: 0 Job: Transforming Sword Princess Job level: 0 Job history: Slave, Servant, Apprentice Mage, Apprentice Warrior, Mage, Demon Eye User, Vassal Warrior, Slave Warrior, Vassal War Princess, Time-Attribute Mage, Magic Swordsman, Blood-sucking Swordsman, Life-Attribute Mage, Great Magic Swordsman, Demon Combat Swordsman Passive skills: Dark Vision Super Self-Enhancement: Subordination: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!) Superhuman Strength: Level 10 Rapid Regeneration: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!) Status Effect Resistance: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!) Intuition: Level 6 Mental Corruption: Level 3 Automatic Mana Recovery: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!) Detect Presence: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!) Sunlight Resistance: Level 5 Allure: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Mana Enlargement: Level 4 Self-Enhancement: Guidance: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!) Self-Enhancement: Transformation: Level 1 (NEW!) Strengthened Defensive Power while equipped with Transformation Equipment: Small (NEW!) Active skills: Mining: Level 1 Bloodwork: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Time-Attribute Magic: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!) Life-Attribute Magic: Level 8 No-Attribute Magic: Level 4 Mana Control: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!) Time Combat Swordsmanship: Level 1 (Awakened from Swordsmanship!) Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!) Silent Steps: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Steal: Level 1 Housework: Level 4 Shield Technique: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!) Armor Technique: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!) Surpass Limits: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!) Chant Revocation: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Magic Combat Technique: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!) Surpass Limits: Magic Sword: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!) High-speed Flight: Level 1 (NEW!) Unique skills: Charming Demon Eyes: Level 8 Vandalieu’s Divine Protection

 

Name: Bellmond Age: Approximately 10,000 years old (18 at time of Vampire transformation) Title: Eclipse Emperor’s Loyal Dog, Leader’s Mistress (NEW!) Rank: 13 Race: Noble-born Abyssal Vampire Imperial Butler (Forest-Monkey-type Beast-person) Level: 0 Job: Transforming Kunoichi Job level: 0 Job history: Apprentice Hunter, Apprentice Thief, Thief, Assassin, Servant, Thread-user, String Master, Tailed Beast Warrior, Mage, Executioner, Kunoichi, Kunoichi Master, Kunoichi Butler Passive skills: Dark Vision Superhuman Strength: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!) Rapid Regeneration: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!) Status Effect Resistance: Level 9 (LEVEL UP!) Super-Self-Enhancement: Subordination: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!) Super Mana Recovery: Damage: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!) Detect Presence: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!) Intuition: Level 5 Mental Corruption: Level 7 Enhanced Physical Ability (Tail): Level 7 (LEVEL UP!) Strengthened Attack Power while equipped with Thread: Very Large (LEVEL UP!) Mana Enlargement: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!) Self-Enhancement: Guidance: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!) Self-Enhancement: Transformation: Level 1 (NEW!) Strengthened Defensive Power while equipped with Transformation Equipment: Small (NEW!) Active skills: Archery: Level 2 Throwing: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Dagger Technique: Level 9 Bloodwork: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Wind-Attribute Magic: Level 4 No-Attribute Magic: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!) Mana Control: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) High-speed Flight: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Silent Steps: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!) Trap: Level 7 Dismantling: Level 4 Transcend Limits: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!) Housework: Level 10 Illusion Thread Killing Technique: Level 2 (Awakened from Thread-reeling Technique!) Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!) Assassination Technique: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Magic Fighting Technique: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Unique skills: Offering Petrifying Demon Eye: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!) Vandalieu’s Divine Protection

 

 

 

Name: Isla Rank: 11 Age: Approximately 30,000 years old Title: The Eclipse Emperor’s Hound, Leader’s Mistress (NEW!) Race: Vampire Chain Lord Zombie Level: 0 Passive skills: Dark Vision Status Effect Resistance: Level 10 Monstrous Strength: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!) Rapid Regeneration: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!) Mental Corruption: Level 8 Slaughter Healing: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!) Intuition: Level 6 Strengthened Attribute Values: Loyalty: Vandalieu: Level 10 (LEVEL UP!) Detect Presence: Level 2 Self-Enhancement: Guidance: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Self-Enhancement: Transformation: Level 1 (NEW!) Strengthened Defensive Power while equipped with Transformation Equipment: Small (NEW!) Active skills: Bloodwork: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Water-Attribute Magic: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!) Fire-Attribute Magic: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!) No-Attribute Magic: Level 4 Mana Control: Level 6 Corpse Massacre Swordsmanship: Level 2 (Awakened from Swordsmanship!) Transforming Chain Armor Technique: Level 1 (Awakened from Armor Technique!) Transcend Limits: Level 2 (Awakened from Surpass Limits!) High-speed Flight: Level 5 Pursuit: Level 9 Torture: Level 6 Commanding: Level 4 Housework: Level 2 Coordination: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!) Mount: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!) Unarmed Fighting Technique: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!) Unique Skills: Transformation: Level 7 Vandalieu’s Divine Protection

 

 

 

Job and Race description (Written by Luciliano):

The Job changes and Rank increases experienced by Eleanora, Bellmond and Isla on this occasion have, of course, resulted in new Jobs and race titles.

It can be assumed to be related to Master’s transformation staves… or rather, transformation equipment.

Incidentally, the Job changes were done after the battle against Hihiryushukaka.