Chapter 247 (1/2)

Beings that served Alda, the God of Law and Fate, as well as familiar spirits sent by other Gods, visited his Divine Realm one after another to report information

Many of these reports were related to Vandalieu

“Fro who defeated Fitun, and his coant and luxurious festival in his capital, boosting morale”

“My lord Zaress, God of Soldiers, believes that the festival was funded by money extorted froally froanization in the city of Morksi”

“To still not be satisfied after forcing his people to construct an enorant person he is He is an e, Guduranis himself”

Faes, were beings who had been created by the Mana of the Gods that were their masters Thus, their words and actions were those of the Gods that had created the over the region within the Boundary Mountain Range fro hostility for Vandalieu without knowing the true circu in Talosheim

Even though it was a result of the God's own ra of a God, it was a fact that Fitun, a God of La Gods could not be bla with animosity towards Vandalieu

But Alda thought differently fro Gods that you serve: 'Maintain your co about the De Vandalieu is that he is compassionate towards others, a trait that the first De, Guduranis, did not possess'”

All of the familiar spirits were bewildered by Alda's words of reprimand

“It is certainly true that Vandalieu is evil There is no doubt that he s that oppose our teachings of the correct order of the world and the way that the people ought to live He ant, and it is likely that he is vain as well But he does not lack a heart of mercy,” Alda continued

“Aldsama, do you mean to say that he is not evil?!” one of the familiar spirits uttered in shock

“That is not what I a But even wicked people who break the law and coood That is all”

Even the wicked had parts of theood, just as virtuous people also had dark sides to their minds

Many of the things Vandalieu had done in the city of Morksi had likely been done in order to bolster his own strength and the strength of Vida's religion But not everything had been done in Vandalieu's own self-interest

The Vida that Alda kneas the Goddess of Life and Love, even if she had lost her iven birth to, i the principles of the world, as her own children She preached to theht before Guduranis's appearance in this world

That had likely not changed, even after she was impaled by Alda's 'Stakes of Law' and then freed from them by Vandalieu

With that being the case, she would have taught the sa those teachings

And that was precisely why Vandalieu was so dangerous If he possessed the same personality as Guduranis, he would be forced to speak and conduct hiance and vanity A ruler who reigned using only power and fear had a strong control over his subjects, but even ss could create cracks in that control

Conducting himself in a way that ensured that he would not be looked down on would require Vandalieu to continuously display hireater than would otherwise be necessary

If Vandalieu were ruling in this way, Alda's forces would have likely been able to make Vandalieu's subordinates betray him even more easily than the chao Unlike the De's army, which was con worlds, many of Vandalieu's subordinates were people of Lambda

But Vandalieu was ruling over his subordinates with so that was not power or fear But to Alda, this was so that contradicted the order that had existed in this world thus far, and so that could never be accepted

“I a Vandalieu But if we mistakenly believe that he is full of only hatred si, ill have our feet knocked out from under us Tell your masters that we must be cautious,” said Alda

“V-very well,” said the familiar spirit that had spoken up

With that, the familiar spirits returned to their masters to relay Alda's words to them After them ca over the Demon Continent and the Alcre's Continent was, protecting Botin and Peria

Many of the was out of order, but some reports were not of this nature

“My lord Arkum-sama, God of the Blue Sky, requests so Talosheim,” one familiar spirit said

“Arkum? What is the matter? Has he been attacked?” Alda asked

Arkuht-attribute God who ruled over the weather He was one of Alda's younger subordinate Gods, and carried out his duties with passion, but…

“No, he has not been attacked However, there are repulsive patterns that are so blasphemous that they cannot be described ords, painted on the roofs of Taloshei my lord Arkum'shis duty mostly carried out by another in his place, and it would cause more trouble if this were to continue, so he would like to excuse himself from this role”

“I see I knew that the Dees that eat into the minds of humans, but to think that they can also eat into the minds of Gods It is likely that Arkum is simply not suited to this task Instruct Arkum to step away fro of his heroes,” Alda told the fa over Taloshei that perhaps this God was relatively resistant to Vandalieu's attacks on the mind

“It is one of Nineroad-sama's subordinate Gods – Bashas-sama, the Goddess of Rain Clouds”

If he were to be honest, Alda was not particularly familiar with that name He did recall that she had been a woman as a foreteller of the weather, and she had ascended to beco

Unlike Fitun, she was obedient and in no icked Alda did not have much of an iet involved in any problems

But because of those qualities, and the fact that she was a Goddess of ill omens, she was not very publicly worshi+pped by the people Most statues of her were fearsoe of purity

And she was not thought of as a Goddess with mental fortitude or valiance

Perhaps it is a matter of compatibility with the task rather than ht and the God of Evil-Crushi+ng, whom Bellwood left in my care, have reported dizziness and headaches frohts and the God of Shadows have been unaffected

The Goddess of Dark Nights and the God of Shadows had oht attribute In this world, darkness was not an attribute of its own Rather, it represented a state or a space in which there was no light, so it was considered to be a part of the light attribute

There was even a light-attribute spell called 'Darkness,' which ht did not shi+ne

In the sahts of pitch-black darkness and shadohich could be created as long as light were present, were ruled over by light-attribute Gods

Having thought up to this point, a thought suddenly occurred to Alda “… Wait, is this situation alright?”

There were souiders who could influence not only mortals, but Gods as well – Just like the champion Bellwood, who had spoken of the correct state that the world should exist in, and the 'Fallen Champion' Zakkart, who had convinced nu's army and corrupted Vida to insanity

Was Vandalieu not one such individual? The second Deuidance had misled not only Vida and the evil Gods corrupted by Zakkart, but Ricklent and Zuruwarn as well Would this guidance not affect other Gods?

Basha, the Goddess of Dark Nights and the God of Shadows looked like they were not underaffected by his guidance?

Ans ofaffected by his guidance, I may be able to read the minds of mortals, but I am unable to peer into the hearts of Gods I would not be able to tell unless they were to show concrete signs, Alda thought to hiate the state of their heroes As they are Gods, if they were to try and make contact with Vandalieu, they would use their believers rather than do so themselves

With these thoughts in mind, Alda inquired as to whether anyone knew of the whereabouts of the heroes of Bashas as well as the other two Gods in question, but there was not a single fa nurtured by these Gods

The reason for that was, Bashas knew that she was feared as a Goddess of ill omens, so she had told her potential heroes to keep the divine protection she had given them a secret for a while

As for the Goddess of Dark Nights and the God of Shadows, it wasn't clear if they were even nurturing heroes or not nobody knew, as they avoided contact with other Gods even more than Bashas did

While the heroes of other Gods were perforlorious deeds under their watch, Bashas's heroes were out there so in secret

“… I must quickly choose Gods to send out in order to replace them And I suppose it would be best to hear what they have to say,” Alda muttered to himself

Carelessly suspecting his allies would bring about the downfall of his faction, but he could not simply leave them be

Talosheim would be renamed Or to be precise, the name 'Talosheim' would continue to be used, but only to refer to the city rather than the entire nation

The new name would be used not only for Taloshei all lands ruled by Vandalieu, including the Demon Continent, the former Scylla territory and the entire area inside the Boundary Mountain Range

This large project was taking place behind the scenes, unknown to Vandalieu, the emperor of the nation

It was also kept a secret froeneral and priston, the military officers and civil officials that served thedew, the people ere once leaders in the separated territory that was the Demon Continent, and the Gods and leaders of the nations within the Boundary Mountain Range

As if it were so by exclusion, all possible efforts had been made to ensure that Vandalieu never learned of it

The construction of the enormous statue of Vandalieu was, by coincidence, the perfect cover to distract Vandalieu's attention away from the project

“But you know, I don't think 'Great Vandalieu Deotta be other options,” said Matthew, having heard this suggested naested by Talos

Incidentally, Matthew and the others frorate to Talosheim in the future, so they had come to Talosheim to see it before it actually happened – and also to have them participate in the parades and festivals, and to eries

“I agree,” said Vandalieu in response to Matthew's opinion, nodding more quickly and more enthusiastically than usual

Seeing Vandalieu's reaction, Matthew suddenly gave a forced smile “So, how many people did you talk to before you came to me?” he asked

“… More than ten Half of the of the nation's naave unexpected responses,” said Vandalieu

Gufadgarn, who had been present when Talos suggested changing the nation's naht was problematic at all This was likely because she was the Evil God of Labyrinths, and there was already a nation that was naion, Zanalpadna

“Someone as lowly as reat Vandalieu,” she had said co was off

Darcia had said, “Yes, they should play around with it a littlethat the na itself

Most people other than those who had been taken to the city of Morksi were aware of the rena However, Luciliano, as perround workshop other than for meals, and Kasim, Fester and Zeno, ere Vandalieu's friends but ordinary explorers otherwise, had been unaware

Luciliano had casually brushed the : “More importantly, Master, I believe that we should e”

Kasim, Fester and Zeno, on the other hand, had been happy for Vandalieu and congratulated him

Vandalieu was grateful for everyone's support, but all of theiven different reactions fro for

Thus, he had begun to wonder whether it was hi the nation named after himself, and that hy he had come to hear the opinions of Matthew and the others who had been secretly brought here from Morksi from the parade

“You've come at the perfect time! Vandalieu-dono, Iabout these impertinent brats!” shouted Luvesfol's voice

A hands-on 'interaction with a fa held in the plaza for the children, using Luvesfol as the subject with Pauvina's supervision

But Vandalieu and Matthew ignored his pleas and continued their conversation

“But why are you asking me? Wouldn't it have been better to ask your disciples, old man Simon or Natania nee-chan?” Matthew asked

“Simon and Natania are currently very tired, and are asleep Borkus and Vigaro got a little too excited while training them,” said Vandalieu

Wanting to train the newco weapons to have fights against Si that was quite close to a real battle

The two of theor that was not at all inferior to physical incarnations of heroic spirits, and Vigaro had been particularly into it, as Simon and Natania were both users of 'Spirit Form' like him Thus, Simon and Natania see environ like logs

“I see… But you're this country's first king, right? So wouldn't it be normal to name it 'Zakkart Empire' rather than Vandalieu?” said Matthew

Indeed, most nations in the human societies of this world were derived from their founders' surnames

This was true for the A shi+eld-nation, one of its vassal states It was a little different in the case of the Orbaudom It was named after the Free City of Orbaume, where the nation's founder united twelve independent nations and devised the syste an elected monarch This city was at the center of as now the capital realm

However, even the Free City of Orbau one character from each of the surnames of its five founders

TLN: 'Orbaume' is five characters in japanese: オルバウム

Considering this convention, there would be nothing strange about using Vandalieu's surname as the name of the nation