The soldiers closed in, presumably to seize and interrogate him. So Kanata muttered the word “Fire” and activated a fire magic attack all around himself. The soldiers and adventurers had likely considered him no more of a threat than a regular bandit; they paid for that mistake by burning to death, along with the unlucky elf at reception, all while Kanata used Gungnir to pass through the building, ground, and castle walls to escape.
Those back in the town would probably still be looking for him, locking down the gates with the assumption that he couldn’t have left the town so quickly. Kanata got back on the road and stole another wagon from the next merchant who came along. The women in back were the adventurers who had been protecting that merchant.
“That was a bit of a surprise back at the adventurers’ guild, sure, but it wasn’t any trouble in the end. I was one of the Bravers, for all my faults. I guess I can handle myself.”
Kanata had the stats of a Grade D adventurer, the skills of a Grade C, and the magic of a Grade B or A; he certainly wasn’t invulnerable. Without Gungnir, it would have been bad. Indeed, even with it, if he had stuck around in town to fight, the Grade C adventurers or knights would have picked him off once his MP ran out. He didn’t know anything about battle techs, non-attribute magic, or the effects of different skills.
“No reply for me, ladies? Oh, crap, did I kill you all? I don’t remember killing that one . . . ah, I guess she bled out after I cut her ligaments to stop her from fighting back. Should’ve tried harder to stop the bleeding.”
All the adventurers had expired. Kanata had already enjoyed his time with them, anyway. Fur and beards and whatnot aren’t so bad when you don’t pay, he thought.
Kanata would already be a wanted man and considered a dangerous criminal. He had unleashed powerful fire magic inside of the adventurers’ guild and left a trail of carnage in his wake. The guild would be highly invested in hunting him down. Even with Gungnir, it was only a matter of time before he was caught and killed.
There was a question of why Kanata acted this way. Why he didn’t feel guilty or scared of being punished for his crimes. Why he could be unthinkingly vicious at the drop of a hat.
It was because he had literally just been reborn into this world and saw no value at all in his third life here.
Previously, Vandal thought that if he obtained a certain social standing in Ramda, it would shield him when Hiroto Amemiya and the others were eventually born here. That thinking assumed that the newcomers would have families and their own place in society on this world and would have to live their entire lives on Ramda. They wouldn’t be able to afford to do anything too extreme if they had family, friends, and partners to worry about.
But someone without any attachment to Ramda had directly appeared here, fully formed. Such a person could kill people who pissed them off on a whim, steal whatever they liked if they needed money, and rape and kill anyone they pleased, without any cause for concern so long as they could make their escape into the next life. Even if they were caught and executed, they didn’t have to worry about upsetting their friends, or ruining their family name. No one in this entire world could emotionally leverage anything against such a person.
Kanata was, strictly speaking, one of the reborn. But as he had arrived on Ramda at the same age, in the same body from his previous life, it was much more like he had been teleported over. That also meant he didn’t know anything about the social norms and values of this world, which the other reborn would naturally absorb as they grew up here. That was how they would learn that the people of this world were, for better or worse, the same as them. That they had the same humanity. Kanata didn’t understand that, and he had no desire to learn it.
For Kanata, this third life on Ramda was nothing but a bridge into his fourth one. He thought as little of the people on this world as the dirt on his boot. They were primitives, living on a ball of mud far inferior to Earth or Origin.
Indeed, he may not have even considered them as living things. Not in the same way as himself. All this status and skill stuff, the elves and beastmen and dwarves—Ramda felt more like a video game to Kanata than real life.
“If he’s heading to the capital, hopefully he’ll settle down for a little while rather than fly off again. I don’t need the hassle of trying to work out how he’s getting around,” Kanata muttered.
Rodocolte’s information was full of holes. So while Kanata knew that Vandal’s base of operations was on the other side of a large mountain range, he had no idea how Vandal had crossed those mountains to get here. He also knew almost nothing about that base of operations itself.
“I’m fated to kill him or whatever all that stuff means,” Kanata sighed. “It’ll be fine. First, I need to dispose of this wagon and these corpses.”
The capital of the Heartner Domain, Neinland, was basking in the hot summer sun. The marketplace of the sprawling city was bustling with life despite the heat.
Heartner was landlocked, so almost all seafood products were dried, salted, or pickled. There was a small amount of fresh goods, the transport of which required magic items. But aside from seafood, the overall range of produce was exceptional.
“I’ve never seen these spices before,” Eleonora commented.
“I’d think not! They are special to our country! You won’t find them on sale in any other domain!” The storekeeper sounded very pleased with himself, to which Eleonora responded with a smile and then a purchase. “Great! Thank you. Don’t you want them powered up, though?”
“No, thank you. I’ll take the seeds.”
“You sure know your stuff,” the merchant said with a smile. Eleonora took her bag of spices and moved to another stall.
“Hey there, pretty lady! Take a look at my wares?” A merchant selling accessories tried to strike up a conversation, but she didn’t even glance in his direction. Vandal had asked her to buy spices, vegetables, and fruit. That was it.
She chuckled to herself. “Lord Vandal’s magic will have us growing your special spices before you know what hit you!” Death attribute magic could push away the specter of death from even the most difficult-to-cultivate plants. They would still need water, of course, but such magic would even allow alpine plants to grow in a desert.
On Origin, while death magic was successfully used to get plants to grow, it had been a lot harder to make them flower or fruit. On Ramda, living creatures were far more prone to mutation. If they planted these seeds in Talosheim, they would definitely turn into monster plants or Immortal Ents and provide fruit. Once the bags carried by Eleonora passed to Vandal and returned to Talosheim, the Heartner Domain would lose its agricultural edge forever!
Of course, such schemes would only really play a role once Talosheim started to trade with ducal domains besides Heartner. So Eleonora didn’t really understand exactly how terribly what she was currently doing would one day impact this domain.