Chapter Five: The Guy Who Finished on his Third Life
“Haah . . . oooh . . . this is nasty stuff! Unforgiveable. Punishable by death!”
“Lord Vandal, whatever is the matter?”
Vandal was currently in the middle of digging a tunnel from the house of the magicians’ guild master to the crypt beneath Duke Heartner’s castle via the simple method of turning the ground into golems using Golem Creation and having them open a path. Braga, the other black goblins, and their girlfriends were staying behind in the house. Meanwhile, the members of the guild whose minds Vandal had already broken were preparing something of a parting gift.
The guild master’s mansion was home to some pricy artifacts, such as magical staves, but Vandal was still empty-handed. If he tried to use wands or staves created for human magic, he had to be incredibly precise and careful or the item would simply tear itself apart, rot away, or crumble to dust. Using a wand to help him cast magic required concentration akin to writing on grains of rice, so Vandal hardly cared to try. He did wonder, though, if there might be a wand out there more suited to his needs.
And although he was unarmed, he did have an extra hand along in the form of Lefdia, although he could hardly be said to have equipped her.
Regardless, in the middle of these earthworks, Vandal suddenly started to mumble to himself.
“A party of adventurers called Western Calm. The receptionist Aria. Hanna and her father.”
Zulan, undead himself, could see the spirits that were crowding around Vandal. “They are some of the countless spirits around the Child. All of these seem like folks who died recently.”
It had been just like when they arrived in Niakki: a horde of spirits almost overwhelmed him as soon as they entered the capital of Neinland. There were so many, Zulan couldn’t make out what any individual one of them was saying. However, the spirits that were currently talking to Vandal seemed a little different from the others.
“Eleonora, Zulan,” Vandal said. “If a man who looks around thirty, black hair and eyes, by the name of Kanata Kaito should appear before us, I want you to let me handle it unless I say otherwise,” Vandal said.
“Kanata Kaito? That name sounds like—”
“One of the scum who killed you in your previous life, Child?! If he does appear, perfect! We can kill him, turn him into a zombie, and pump him for information!”
As it turned out, the spirits of the people Kanata killed had already tattled on him. They told him that Kanata was in Neinland and closing in on Vandal. They had no idea how, but it seemed like he was aware of Vandal’s location.
The spirits told him that their swords, spears, and magic hadn’t been able to so much as touch him, while his own attacks simply passed through their bodies and armor. He was also skilled in Brawling and Dagger Proficiency and had powerful fire and wind attribute magic.
This ignoring-defenses trick must be the cheat ability Rodocolte gave him, Vandal thought, along with his affinity for fire and wind, clearly enhanced on Origin. I guess his combat skills come from his experiences there too. This is what happens when you don’t curse a guy, Rodocolte! He thought about how painfully unfair it was that he had been forced to start over from scratch.
But he also needed to talk down Zulan and Eleonora, who looked ready to kill the guy on sight. They were tough enough to handle reasonably strong adventurers or knights, but when a cheat ability was thrown into the mix, it was hard to tell what the outcome might be. That was why they were called cheats, after all.
“You need to let me handle it,” Vandal said. “If we’re going to kill him . . . okay, we’re definitely going to kill him; the guy is a sick jerk, but I want to do it.”
“I can tell from those spirits that he’s not a nice guy . . . but is he really that dangerous?” Zulan asked.
“He really is. I think he might be insane.”
Upon first learning about Kanata, Vandal had felt confusion more than hatred. To put it briefly, he wondered what the hell the guy was playing at.
Everything he did was inhuman, for certain, but also completely reckless and unthinking. He immediately resorted to killing, raping, and pillaging the second things stopped going his way. Even with his cheat ability, he wasn’t going to last long if he kept that up. There were other, more pressing issues as well: Vandal was supposedly the first of them to die on Origin, and yet, this guy was showing up as an adult much older than him. And how did he seem to know exactly where Vandal was? Vandal could only assume that it was Rodocolte’s doing.
“In any case, he’s definitely coming to try to kill me. I’m going to keep Detect Life running on a regular basis going forward.”
Vandal heard that Kanata was talking about a “job” that he needed to do, presumably killing Vandal. He wasn’t sure why it was happening now, but it was still something he had to deal with. If Kanata was coming straight for Vandal, at least it meant Braga and the others waiting back in the house wouldn’t be in danger.
“I thought they were all heroes on the side of justice in their world,” Eleonora said.
“Hardly what I’d call them,” Vandal replied. “It’s like how Bellwood is a hero to the faithful of Alda but not to us. Same thing.”
“That makes sense.”