The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time

Side Story Chapter 23: Reincarnated individuals here and there, and the god of thunderclouds

But through the records from the humans and members of other races who had been killed by Bugitas, Gargya and the other usurpers out of anger or amusement, Rodcorte had become aware that a large-scale conflict had occurred in the nations south of the wetlands.

And after that, the humans, Dwarves and Elves of the Zanalpadna kingdom, the High Kobold kingdom, the High Goblin kingdom and finally, just a few days ago, the Noble Orc empire, had begun disappearing from Rodcorte’s circle of transmigration system.

It was possible for souls in Rodcorte’s circle of transmigration system to be moved to Vida’s system through Vida’s races that originated from monsters converting humans and other races into members of their own race.

But the difficulty of the ritual required for this differed between the races, and it was almost impossible to convert large numbers of humans into members of Vida’s races within a short period of time.

The only other explanation was Vandalieu, who could guide souls to Vida’s circle of transmigration system without any need for a ritual.

However, this had not been confirmed. The humans, Dwarves and Elves of the nations south of the marshlands were not combatants, so once they had stopped being killed by Bugitas and his subordinates, no new information had come in.

Thus, Shimada Izumi and Machida Aran had needed to put the limited evidence together to draw the conclusion that Vandalieu had intervened in the war among the nations south of the marshlands, resulting in a victory within a short period of time, and the souls of the humans were being guided as a result of the processes of colonization and post-war recovery.

But they also guessed that in order to keep up these political measures, Vandalieu would have to keep pouring power into the southern region of the continent for a while… for the next few years or perhaps over a decade.

This conjecture had been made based on the history of wars and colonial policies on Earth and in Origin.

And the deceased reincarnated individuals from Origin had spent almost the entirety of their time limit in thought, taking this conjecture into account as well. Pressed by the thought that Vandalieu would be focused on the inside of the Boundary Mountain Range for the next few years to a decade if they were to reincarnate now, they had each come to their own decisions.

The ‘Oracle’ Endou Kouya chose not to be reincarnated, but to instead become Rodcorte’s familiar spirit like the ‘Inspector’ Shimada Izumi and the ‘Calculation’ Machida Aran.

This was because his ability in combat only met minimum standards, and although his Oracle ability had been almost completely comprehensive in Origin, he thought that in the world of Lambda where monsters and Vida’s races that were not a part of Rodcorte’s circle of transmigration system existed, it wouldn’t even be of use as a reference.

With that being the case, he had decided that he could contribute more by not being reincarnated and supporting his allies from here rather than try to train himself in battle when he wasn’t suited for it, and he had also decided that this was what was best for him as well.

The ‘Mage Masher’ Minami Asagi, the ‘Ifrit’ Akaki Akiko and the ‘Clairvoyance’ Tendou Tatsuya had chosen to be reincarnated in adult bodies.

Asagi and Akiko had chosen this option to stop Vandalieu, while Tendou had chosen this option so that he could tell Vandalieu that he had no intentions of showing hostility towards him.

Tendou had merely been used like a tool when the ‘Death Scythe’ attacked Vandalieu directly from the Divine Realm. But Vandalieu himself was not aware of that.

It was likely that Vandalieu only knew Tendou Tatsuya’s name and ability, assumed that he had cooperated with Kyuuji to try and kill him and it wouldn’t be strange if he thought of Tendou as a dangerous person, a target that needed to be eliminated with top priority.

With that being the case, it would be even more dangerous to run. That was what Tendou thought. The reason he hadn’t accompanied the ‘Noah’ Mao, who had been reincarnated before everyone else, was because he had been afraid that he would get her caught up in things and expose her to danger.

But the three of them had named one condition after deciding to be reincarnated.

“Being reincarnated after us is… petty, isn’t it?” the ‘Chronos’ Murakami Junpei said in an exasperated tone.

“Why don’t you give it some real thought?” Asagi said in response, looking just as exasperated.

“It’s only natural for us to want to protect ourselves,” said Akaki.

“It’d be no laughing matter if you guys saw where we’re reincarnated and what we look like,” said Tendou.

It was a terrible way to say it, but Murakami had betrayed Asagi and the other Bravers in Origin, they couldn’t be blamed for feeling this way.

“So, it’s fine for you guys to see where we’re reincarnated and what we look like, then? Where’s the proof that you won’t come to kill us later?” Murakami grumbled, but the truth was that he thought the chances of Asagi and the others coming to kill him and his companions were low.

His group outnumbered Asagi’s, and more importantly, based on their personalities, it was difficult to imagine that they would do something like that.

“We told you that we won’t as long as you guys don’t try to kill us or our other friends, didn’t we? Our powers would be revealed to the humans of Lambda,” said Asagi.

Most importantly, there was the fact that they would not be able to live freely if their cheat-like abilities, which were named Unique Skills in Lambda, were revealed. The reincarnated individuals wanted to avoid conflict with each other as much as possible so that they could avoid that.

Nobody would guess that they were reincarnated individuals just from having the fact that they possessed Unique Skills revealed. But those who possessed Unique Skills in Lambda were few in number, and possessing them would cause them to gather attention.

If those Unique Skills were special Skills that hadn’t existed in Lambda, before… If it became known that they were Skills that forcibly manipulated the timings of the user’s own spells and martial skills and even the timings of others, or Skills that nullified all attributes of magic in an area, there was no telling how much attention they would get.

Of course, the reincarnated individuals would be given a Skill that kept Unique Skills hidden from Guild registration forms and such. And they would normally keep these abilities hidden and make sure that they weren’t seen even if they did use them, though they wouldn’t be able to do this in life-or-death situations.

And Rodcorte had reminded them of something.

“I understand that there will be situations after you are reincarnated where things cannot be helped. But as I have said many times before, I do not want you to crush each other for no reason.”

Even though he reminded them of this, Rodcorte had no way of directly interfering with the reincarnated individuals while they were alive. However, for Murakami and his companions, Rodcorte was an employer who had promised them rewards. Directly going against his will was a bad idea for them.

And several limits had been placed on them before their reincarnation.

The cheat-like abilities of the ‘Chronos,’ ‘Mage Masher’ and the ‘Venus’ Tsuchiya Kanako had been altered so they would not work on other reincarnated individuals other than Vandalieu.

“I wish you’d placed those limits from the beginning,” said Aran.

“Completely agreed,” said Izumi.

But Rodcorte had never even imagined that the reincarnated individuals would end up in circumstances where they would be killing each other, so it couldn’t be helped that he hadn’t thought of doing this until now.

“About that crushing each other for no reason, the conditions regarding Vandalieu are just as we agreed on before, right?” said Murakami.

“Whether we kill Vandalieu or you stop him, we won’t interfere with one another. If either of our groups get to him first, the other won’t contact Vandalieu until the first is done trying. And if you guys succeed in stopping him, we’ll give up on killing him. Right?” said Kanako.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Asagi nodded, and then looked at Rodcorte. “You don’t have any problems with that either, right?”

“I do, but I shall respect your intentions,” said Rodcorte.

There were several methods to accomplish Asagi’s task of “stopping Vandalieu.” One was to convince Vandalieu to accept committing suicide, forcibly returning his soul to Rodcorte’s circle of reincarnation system and living a fourth life, but there was also a way for Vandalieu to relinquish his death-attribute magic while alive… to seal it away.

Asagi intended to persuade Vandalieu to do this… though Aran, Kouya, Mao before she was reincarnated and even Akaki and Tendou who were going to be reincarnated with him had all tried to talk him out of it, telling him that it would fail.

No matter how I look at it, I can only see a future where things break down and they end up trying to kill each other, Murakami thought.

I wonder why this person believes that he can come to an understanding with Vandalieu in the end when they were nothing more than classmates? thought Kanako.

Murakami and his companions hadn’t tried to stop Asagi, but they were certain that things wouldn’t go well and he would fail.

And it was clear that Rodcorte was also thinking, “He is going to fail and they will end up fighting either way, so I shall leave him be.”

… It was possible that Asagi himself knew that the chances of persuading Vandalieu to do this had an extremely small chance of success. But he probably thought that because they were both from Earth and had the bond of being former classmates, there was hope as long as he didn’t give up.

“I don’t give a sheet, so hurry up and go!” the ‘Marionette’ Inui Hajime shouted, seeming irritated.

He had parted ways with Murakami’s, but he had declared he would not join up with Asagi’s group or with Mao, and that he would be reincarnated last of all.

It seemed that his paranoia hadn’t been cured, even up to the very end.

“Yes, yes, we know so please be quiet. Well then, please take care of the seven of us,” said Kanako.

And so, Murakami’s group, which had been reduced to seven with the loss of the ‘Gazer’ Minuma Hitomi and the ‘Death Scythe’ Konoe Kyuuji as well as Inui Hajime, were reincarnated.

“Kahah… A heartbeat and breaths. It’s good to be alive,” said Murakami, testing the condition of his new, young body.

He was unusually sentimental at the sense of completeness that he hadn’t felt in the pure-soul state that he had been in before being reincarnated.

He hadn’t even noticed this feeling when he lived on Earth or in Origin. He now understood the truth in the words, “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.”

“Status… Alright, my name has changed properly from ‘Murakami Junpei’ to Junpei Murakami*.”

Note: His name is now written in katakana and in first name, surname order like western names.

In Lambda, names were generally not written in kanji. The Japanese language had been spread by the champions, but this was the case for a number of reasons, such as the fact that most commoners could only read hiragana and katakana.

That was why Murakami and his companions had asked Rodcorte to adjust their names while he was adjusting their Statuses.

Rodcorte hadn’t been able to change their names completely, however; he could only make their names be displayed in katakana. If they wanted new names, they apparently needed to be reborn normally and be named by their new parents.

“Leaving that aside… How are your bodies?” Murakami asked.

“At least try and cover yourself up a little. How come you’re so bold?” said the ‘Odin’ Hazamada Akira… or rather, Akira Hazamada, complaining about Murakami’s complete lack of effort to cover his nether region despite being completely naked.

“… We should have asked him to separate us by gender and have us placed a short distance apart,” said the ‘Sylphid’ Misa Anderson, pressing a hand to her brow.

Note: Everyone’s names are in katakana now, which makes the readings of their names clear. I had previously translated Hazamada’s name as Hasamada Aki (I’ve gone and fixed this in previous chapters). It’s possible that Rikudou Akira’s name is read differently; not sure how likely it is that they both have first names read ‘Akira.’

“We’re past the age where we should be embarrassed, aren’t we? Though our bodies are those of teenagers again,” said Murakami.

Though they had reincarnated with adult bodies, their new bodies had the appearances of humans in their mid-teenage years. At this age, it was just barely not too unnatural for them to not have had any Jobs before.

This was yet another change that had been decided by Aran and Izumi after they looked into information about this world.

“How are your appearances?” Murakami asked.

“I’m just like how I was in my younger days in my previous life,” said Hazamada.

“There’s nothing really different… Isn’t it strange that humans look the same, even in another world?” said the ‘Hecatoncheir’ Doug Atlas.

The three men of the group had all chosen to be reincarnated as humans.

Because the appearance and physique of their bodies were influenced by their souls, there were thick traces of their appearances from their previous lives. If they told people who had known them in their previous lives that they were younger brothers of their previous selves, they would be told that they look too similar even for siblings.

Their objective was to kill Vandalieu, so why had they not chosen to be reborn as a race that would have a very different appearance from their previous selves, like Mao had done? That was because Asagi and the others were certainly looking at their new forms from Rodcorte’s Divine Realm.

They had promised not to crush each other unnecessarily, but Asagi’s goal was to persuade Vandalieu. It was unlikely that he would hesitate to give Vandalieu information on Murakami and his companions, whom he didn’t consider allies in the slightest, in order to gain Vandalieu’s trust.

Even if they were to be reborn as Dwarves or change their skin color to white or black, it would be meaningless if Asagi and his companions were to give that information to Vandalieu. Not only would it be meaningless, it would actually be a drawback, as they would need to take more time to get used to the vastly different size and biology of their bodies.

With that being the case, it was best to choose bodies that were similar to the bodies they had in Origin.

“Hmm, I get the feeling that I can hear really clearly,” said Kanako.

“My Mana has increased, and it seems that elemental magic is easier to use than in the previous world,” said Misa.

“Status! I see, this is just like a game,” said the ‘Super Sense’ Kaoru Gotouta.

Note: I mistranslated Gotouta’s name as Gotouta Kaori before. Close enough.

“Aegis… my power feels the same as it did in the previous world,” said the ‘Aegis’ Melissa J. Sautome.

The four women had all chosen to be reincarnated as Elves.

“Why did you all choose to be Elves?” Murakami asked them, seeming fascinated not by their naked bodies, but their ears.

“Because we heard that they’re a race of people with long lifespans that don’t age easily,” Kanako replied. “My skin had already gone past its turning point in my previous life.”

“Because Elves have more Mana, so I thought that it would be easier to use Sylphid and elemental magic,” said Misa. “Not that I’m denying that they look good.”

Elves were a race that were inferior to humans in physical strength and stamina, but superior in Mana and qualities for using magic. And as Kanako said, they were a race of people with long lifespans, living up to around five hundred years.

They had a handicap compared to humans in terms of physical strength and stamina, but once they increased their Levels and acquired multiple combat-related Jobs, their Attribute Values would increase and the difference would become negligible.

Normally, undergoing multiple Job-changes in itself would require a lot of hard work and effort, but… for these reincarnated individuals, who possessed Rodcorte’s divine blessing, it would not be difficult.

“One of you should have chosen human or Dwarf. Four Elves will stand out too much,” said Hazamada.

“I don’t want to age faster on my own~” said Kanako.

“… We’re going to be reborn in another world once we kill Vandalieu, so isn’t it irrelevant?”

“Cut the chit-chat,” said Murakami. “Let’s slaughter the group of bandits ahead and get clothes, money to get by for now and Experience Points.”

At Murakami’s command, the reincarnated individuals moved out.

Bandits… even if they were criminals, they were people, and the act of killing and looting them was unimaginable for Japanese people. But Murakami’s group felt no resistance or discomfort towards their actions.

Until they betrayed Bravers, they had chased down fiendish criminals and terrorists all over the world. They had experienced numerous missions where they needed to kill.

And after they betrayed the Bravers… the truth was that they had been investigators for the federal state, but they had also worked with the Eighth Guidance as terrorists. It hadn’t been unusual for them to kill their enemies and plunder their belongings.

There was nothing different now other than that they would be killing bandits rather than researchers and soldiers.

And after acquiring crude clothes, money and supplies, Murakami and his companions began moving towards a nearby town.

They wouldn’t attack merchants and adventurers recklessly as the ‘Gungnir’ Kaidou Kanata had done. Murakami and his companions had no intention of living out long, fulfilled third lives here in Lambda, but they couldn’t imagine that they would be able to kill Vandalieu within a few months.

They anticipated that it would be a long process of gaining the strength they needed to oppose the Demon King’s fragments that Vandalieu possessed, as well as gathering the things they would need to seal the fragments as they would no doubt go berserk after Vandalieu was killed.

This would take time measured in the scale of years, so they had no intention of giving into short-sighted desires and committing evil deeds that would create more enemies for themselves.

Things were progressing without any particular problems.

But a few days after reaching the town, a situation arose that Murakami had not anticipated.

Kanako, Melissa and Doug disappeared.

“Those guys… of all the things they could have done, they betrayed us!”

Kanako, Melissa and Doug, who had left the town that Murakami and the others were staying in, were proceeding through a forest that was distant from the highway.

“According to the homeless former-merchant-san that I gave a silver coin to and used my Venus on to steal his memories, we should come out onto another highway in about three days if we keep going this way,” said Kanako, who was leading the way. “If we go from there into another forest, we should come out into the neighboring duchy. Ah, the journey will be quite dangerous, so please prepare yourselves, you two.”

“Even if you say it will be dangerous, it’ll just be bandits, right? They won’t be good for anything except killing time,” said Doug. “Well, I have two Elf women with me, so they’ll probably attack us with a lot of spirit, so it probably will be quite a pain.”

“Don’t let your guard down,” said Melissa. “We’re still not accustomed to the methods of using Skills and martial skills.”

Within the space of a few days, the three of them had already registered at the Adventurers’ Guild and equipped themselves decently.

Their armor and weapons were apparently cheap items suited for new adventurers, but each of them was equivalent to a B-class adventurer in terms of Skills and Levels alone, and they possessed cheat-like abilities on top of that. If their enemies were washed-up mercenaries who had become bandits, there would be no problems even with leather armor and knives that were incredibly unreliable compared to Origin’s military body armor and combat knives.

But the reincarnated individuals were not accustomed to the martial skills that didn’t exist in Origin, and there was plenty of reason to believe that they would be defeated if they were to fight enemies who made exceptional use of them.

Such masterful users of martial skills would almost never stoop low enough to become bandits, but it was still best to be careful.

“So, what are we going to do from now on?” Doug asked.

“Of course, we’re going to get away from Sensei… Murakami,” said Kanako, correcting herself. “For now, I think we’ll be fine after we go to another duchy. I did ask Aran and Izumi not to tell him where we are, after all~”

“Won’t they chase after us?” asked Melissa, looking worried.

“We should be fine after we get far enough away,” Kanako replied. “It’s become harder for us reincarnated individuals to use our abilities to kill each other than it was in Origin. Murakami should avoid us as well.”

But it seemed that Melissa and Doug were still anxious.

“But it’s that Murakami we’re talking about here,” said Doug. “Won’t he do things like use money to hire assassins to kill us once things calm down?”

“I can’t say that there’s no chance of that happening, but those assassins hired with money aren’t reincarnated individuals, so we’ll be able to use our abilities on them,” said Kanako.

“Ah, that’s true.”

“And Murakami isn’t so all-powerful, either,” Kanako continued. “Right now, he’s only just been reincarnated, so he doesn’t own anything but the clothes on his back. He doesn’t have the money or the connections to the underworld that he needs to hire assassins.”

“But couldn’t they acquire those right away if they wanted to?” asked Melissa.

Indeed, Murakami and his companions would likely be able to acquire money and connections within a few months if they wanted to.

Their skill in magic was equivalent to that of B-class adventurers at this point, and there were all kinds of ways that they could make money if they chose to do so, and people on both the surface side and underworld of society would want to have connections to them.

“That’s true, but that would make them stand out a lot. New adventurers earning large amounts of money within months would be really conspicuous, and they would be promoted in the blink of an eye as well,” said Kanako.

Murakami’s objective was to kill Vandalieu, so he would certainly want to avoid attention. But adventures of B-class and above would be showered in attention no matter what they did. They would have to come up with clever ways even to move from city to city.

If they didn’t want to stand out, they would stop promoting once they became Class adventurers, acting in moderation while keeping their true strength hidden.

“Then it seems that things will work out until we make contact with Vandalieu, Kanako,” said Melissa.

“It does, doesn’t it? There are no phones and no internet in this world, after all. It seems that the names of Class adventurers won’t spread as far as other duchies, too,” said Kanako.

“Yeah, I’ve started to see hope in living,” said Doug.

Kanako and her two companions had separated from Murakami’s group in order to make contact with Vandalieu and migrate to his nation.

There were two reasons for this. The first was that they were absolutely certain that they would not be able to kill Vandalieu.

Even if they cooperated with Murakami’s group, even if the ‘Avalon’ Rikudou Akira and the ‘Braver’ Amemiya Hiroto were to come to this world, they would definitely not be able to win.

Kanako, Melissa and Doug were certain of this because they had lost their lives when death-attribute Mana had gone out of control.

It didn’t matter if they had cheat-like abilities. The effects of Aegis and the telekinetic power of Hecatoncheir hadn’t worked at all. The same would be true of Kanako’s Venus.

In fact, they couldn’t understand how Murakami could possibly think that he could kill Vandalieu when he had died to out-of-control death-attribute Mana just like them.

“Also, we need to make sure to not be noticed by Asagi and his group, either,” said Kanako.

And as for the things that Asagi and his group would try to convince Vandalieu of… Perhaps negotiating for him to not have reckless conflicts with the reincarnated individuals might work, but she was certain that persuading him to abandon death-attribute magic would fail.

It was clear that the bond of being former classmates between Vandalieu and them that Asagi believed in without a doubt did not exist. In fact, it was the same former classmates who had killed Vandalieu in Origin.

Even if a bond like that did exist, what kind of fool would relinquish his vast power of his own accord?

Hopes of persuading him with ethics and righteousness were slim, too. Even from the small amount of information available, it was certain that Vandalieu was living with his own sense of values, so it was difficult to imagine that this method would be very effective.

Akaki and Tendou would have no choice but to somehow talk Asagi into giving up on this.

If Kanako’s group was accompanying Asagi’s group during this process, Vandalieu’s impression of them would become worse.

And in the worst-case scenario, it was possible that Asagi wouldn’t back down and they would begin trying to kill each other. Kanako’s group wanted to avoid getting caught up in that at all costs.

“Well, I don’t think Asagi and his friends would trust us anyway. There aren’t any bonds between us, after all,” said Doug.

“You’re right, there aren’t any bonds,” said Melissa.

“Even though we were former classmates too,” said Kanako.

The three of them agreed with each other as they walked on.

The second reason they had left Murakami’s group was to migrate to Talosheim, which was probably the most culturally advanced civilization in the world of Lambda.

Incidentally, Rodcorte had no intention of carefully monitoring Kanako’s group for the time being. If they actually tried to join Vandalieu, he might warn them through a Divine Message or strip them of their divine protections, but at this point, he was probably hoping that Kanako’s group would have a change of heart once again.

“But I wonder if he will accept us,” said Melissa. “We’ll kneel on the ground and beg if we have to.”

“I would object if he asked us to lick his shoes, though,” said Doug.

“There is hope,” said Kanako. “When that ‘Death Scythe’ idiot went and made that blunder, I was desperately signaling to him.”

Kanako had been making crosses with her arms and shaking her head furiously to signal to Vandalieu. Back then, she had noticed that he was properly looking at her.

“Let’s give up on reckless dreams of a fourth life and focus on living stable, pleasant third lives. I’d like to become an idol again if I can, though,” Kanako said.

“Work hard on that by yourself,” said Melissa.

“Yeah, I’ll cheer you on,” said Doug.

“… I never suggested that we should be a three-person idol group, did I?”

Asagi’s group of three was reincarnated after Murakami’s group of seven. And after them was the ‘Marionette’ Inui Hajime.

Vandalieu was scary to him, but having a greatly different size and biology was scary as well. So, he had chosen to become a human, similar to the humans of Earth and Origin, for this new life.

And he had also avoided being reincarnated normally as a baby. Considering the possibility of other reincarnated individuals or Vandalieu coming to kill him while he was still an infant or child who couldn’t act freely, he had no option other than to be reincarnated in an adult’s body.

“… Now, I suppose I’ll spend the rest of my life in a forest or mountain. No, but it’s not like I’ll be able to use the same methods for survival as Origin… I guess I’ll live in a town for a while after all.”

Inui Hajime - Hajime Inui, put on the clothes and equipment that he had stolen from bandits like Murakami’s group and began walking.

He had received training in the army, so he had learned ways to survive out in the wild, but he wasn’t confident that they would work in a foreign world.

“Villages have small populations, but since I’m an unfamiliar face, I’ll stand out. So I suppose it has to be a town after all… No, how about earning a large amount of money and buying a house and field in a village somewhere to live a self-sufficient life on my own? I doubt I’d stand out if I said that I’m a retired adventurer or something,” Hajime murmured to himself.

“Quite the feeble-hearted one, aren’t you?” said a voice other than Hajime’s, echoing inside his head.

“Rodcorte?! Or is it you, Aran?!” Hajime shouted, putting himself on guard.

“Don’t be so frightened. And I’m not Rodcorte or one of his familiar spirits. I am Fitun, god of thunderclouds. A god who expects great things of you, Hajime Inui.”

Hajime’s eyes opened wide upon hearing the name of a god that he had never heard of before. “A god of this world?!”

He had heard from Rodcorte that there were many gods with different personalities in Lambda, and they took action in the world far more frequently than the god of Earth and Origin. He had also gained fundamental knowledge regarding the gods from the main myths and legends told by Aran and Izumi.

But why had such a god spoken to him directly, and what did he mean by ‘expect great things?’

“I’m sure there are endless questions that you want to ask, but I am not able to come to a mutual understanding with you unconditionally, either. It takes quite a lot of power to send my spirit clone to descend upon the world, you see,” said Fitun. “For now, accept my familiar spirit into you.”

“What?! Accept it for now, you say! There’s no way I’d be able to do that, is there?!” Hajime shouted.

It was only natural that he rejected Fitun’s request. There was no way he could simply nod his head when he didn’t even know what kind of god Fitun was.

“What? Do you not want power?” Fitun asked.

“There’s no way I want it! Even if someone like me were to obtain power, there’s no way I’d be able to do anything with it anyway!”

“Do you really not need it? Are you fine with being a defeated dog, running away with its tail between its legs? Do you not care if you are killed by Vandalieu?”

“?!” Hajime was lost for words after having the future he feared the most put into words.

Fitun’s voice continued whispering inside his mind. “Have confidence in yourself, Hajime. You have qualities and talent. I, Fitun, whose name echoed across this land and have now become a god, guarantee it. Hajime, you are fit to become a hero.”

“Me, a hero…?” Hajime repeated.

“Of course. You met a miserable end in your previous life, didn’t you? I understand the pain of lost battles. But think about it. Was the life of hermit the thing that you have always desired? A quiet life of ploughing a field in a peaceful village until all of your hair turns white? Do you intend to curl up in fear your entire life so that you are not caught by Vandalieu’s eye?”

“Th-that’s…”

“That’s wrong, isn’t it?” Fitun continued. “You were born as a man, and you have qualities and talent. You want to be served by good women in a mansion, eating good food and living a life of luxury with no discomforts. You want to look down on the pitiful commoners from above as they praise you. Isn’t that right?”

“But in my previous life…”

“You couldn’t do that in your previous life. That’s why I’m saying that I will grant you the power to make that possible in this life. Or are you more comfortable being a defeated dog? Do you want to treasure a meager happiness, the likes of which can be trampled over by the strong on a whim? Will you choose to kill your true self and live a worthless life?”

“…” Hajime stood stock-still, with no words to say.

His mind had been broken ever since his death in Origin, but he had originally had the personality of someone who craved the limelight and had a desire to control others.

That was exactly why he hadn’t been able to bear being just another person among the Bravers… among a group of heroes, and accepted Murakami’s invitation.

For Hajime, Fitun’s tempting words sounded so very sweet. Accepting this offer would be right, and refusing it would be wrong, wouldn’t it? He felt agreement towards Fitun’s words.

“Can I really… become a hero?” he asked.

“Yes, you can,” Fitun said. “You can defeat Vandalieu, become acknowledged by every person in this world and be praised by all of the gods as well, not just me, becoming a true champion.”

“I, defeat Vandalieu… that’s right, come to think of it, everything is his fault, isn’t it?”

Vandalieu had been an ordinary student, just like Hajime… but despite that, he had awakened to death-attribute Mana, and even tried to help others pointlessly before dying, leaving behind the troublesome Eighth Guidance. Wasn’t it all his fault that things had become a mess in Origin?

To begin with, if Vandalieu had noticed that Rodcorte had confused his name with someone else’s and properly received his cheat-like abilities before being reincarnated, Amemiya Hiroto wouldn’t have become so powerful.

Once Hajime began thinking about this, he began to think that all of the misfortune that he had experienced in Origin… even the misfortune that he had brought upon himself, was all Vandalieu’s fault.

“A huge amount of Mana, death attribute magic, and now he’s ruling his own nation, served by multiple women and doing as he likes… and he even has those Eighth Guidance, even Isis! So, why should I live my third life cowering in fear of him?! Alright, I’ll accept you!” Hajime shouted.

“V-very well. I shall now give you my divine protection and an Artifact. Hajime Inui, from this moment forth, you are my champion,” said Fitun.

Even though he was the one who had fired Hajime up, these reckless thoughts made Fitun hesitate for a moment and wonder if he should give up on this plan. But it would be troublesome to wait for another reincarnated individual, and there was the possibility that the existence of the reincarnated individuals would be found out by Alda before another one came.

And it was also uncertain whether there would be a reincarnated individual that would be more convenient to make use of than Hajime.

And so, he decided to give Hajime his divine protection and Artifact.