Chapter 318: A not-so-peaceful school life

Rikudou had attained vast power. He was supposed to be the one person standing on top of the world, with the difference between himself and any other being like the difference between the sky and the earth.

But he had been defeated by the ‘Undead,’ his split entity, and Amemiya Hiroto. Not only that, but he had even suffered damage at the hands of Amemiya Hiroshi, a mere child who wasn’t even a reincarnated individual.

More than ten years of scheming, all his efforts and perseverance, all the studying – all for naught. Despite being driven into a corner, he had believed that he had achieved his ambitions… only for it to come to this.

It was so absurd, like something out of a nightmare – Just how had he been supposed to take notice of the ‘Undead?’ How had he been supposed to have prevented his interference in advance or defeat him in battle?

And why had he been unable to command spirits like the ‘Undead’ and Amemiya Mei?

No matter how much he thought about it, no matter how many simulations he ran in his head, he didn’t come to any conclusions that he could accept as correct.

Inside these simulations, he screamed as he was killed over and over again.

“Why, WHYYYYY?!”

The blade of light wielded by Amemiya Hiroto cut him down. Banda’s claws and tentacles impaled him. The black beam fired by Hiroshi destroyed his skull.

This wasn’t reality, so there was no pain, but each time he was killed in these mental simulations, he could feel an unbearable sense of humiliation and despair eating away at him.

Why am I doing this? Rikudou asked himself. No, I don’t want to think about it! But… I can’t help but think about it!

Why had he failed? How could he have won? He was completely unable to move, as if he were trapped by something. But because he was perfectly conscious, he couldn’t help but think about these things.

Why am I not dead?! Could it be… because I became a god, I can’t even die?!

“No, I don’t know much about other gods, but you’re definitely dead,” said a voice.

A familiar face became visible for a moment, and then Rikudou Hijiri’s consciousness awakened inside himself.

Rikudou hadn’t come back to life, nor had he returned to Origin.

“This place is… Could it be, the place from back then?!” Rikudou exclaimed, looking around.

His surroundings reminded him of the space that he had found himself in after his death on Earth, before he was reincarnated in Origin.

“Yeah, it’s a little different from how it was back then, but you’re right.”

“You?!” Rikudou wanted to scream at the sight of Aran and the other familiar spirits, but quickly put up a composed appearance. “Machida, Shimada, and Endou, huh. To think that you would be the ones welcoming me. But your appearances are…?”

He couldn’t hide his confusion at seeing these reincarnated individuals, who were supposed to be dead, being here with white wings on their backs.

Aran and the others gave exasperated sighs.

“Enough with the act. We already know what you really are,” Aran said.

“You trying to act all calm when you’re in that form gives me the creeps…” said Izumi.

“You’re quite the sight to look at yourself, you know,” said Kouya, producing a mirror from somewhere and holding it in front of Rikudou.

“This form is…!” Rikudou murmured.

He looked at his own reflection – completely hairless and three meters tall, with pallid skin and a muscular body like a well-proportioned statue that didn’t look like that of a human at all.

Realizing that he had the form of ‘Arch-Avalon’ rather than the human known as Rikudou Hijiri, he understood the nature of the state he was in.

“I see… So, I did die after all. And since you died first, you’ve been sitting here and watching what was happening… What are those wings? Have you become that god’s servants?” Rikudou asked.

“… It’s very helpful that you’re quick to understand, but your shamelessness is quite unpleasant,” said Izumi. “Well, not that I expected you to earnestly apologize for what you did when you were alive.”

“You’ve been watching me the whole time, haven’t you? It’s too late to make amends. In fact, I’d like to charge you a fee for the show,” Rikudou said with a smirk.

Having remembered that he had become ‘Arch-Avalon,’ Rikudou’s mind had regained its composure. He wasn’t shaken, despite learning that his former companions were aware of his true nature and that he had brought about their deaths.

“Yeah, we’ve been watching. We saw you get blown into a wall by Hiroshi. We saw you rip off your own limbs to escape from Banda. We saw you getting killed by Amemiya. We saw all of it,” said Aran.

“Stop! Don’t make me remember it!” Rikudou shouted.

His mind was still deeply wounded by the memories of his defeat and his death. His former self might have deflected Aran’s cheap provocation with a cool expression. But his handsome face was now twisted with humiliation, rage, and fear.

“Why did you come here?! To condemn me for my crimes? To laugh at the traitor before he gets sent to hell?!” Rikudou screamed.

Kouya signaled for Aran to step back. “No, neither of those are the reason we’re here,” he said. “We were checking your current state. Checking whether there are any deficiencies in your memory, whether there are any problems with your consciousness, whether you’ve become unable to act because your mind has collapsed. From what we’ve seen, it seems that you’ve got some trauma, but no major problems. Unfortunately.”

“What?” Rikudou muttered. “Why would you go out of your way to…?”

“And one more thing – a warning,” Kouya added. “You’re probably going to be asked to fight Vandalieu again… the ‘Undead.’ But you should refuse.”

“Your two companions’ sacrifices allowed you to avoid being destroyed, unfortunately for us, so you should take better care of yourself. You shouldn’t take any more risks,” said Izumi.

Kouya and Izumi stepped back to join Aran, putting some distance between themselves and Rikudou. Rikudou tried to take a step towards them, to ask them what they were talking about, but he couldn’t.

“It seems that the evaluation is complete,” said a voice.

The ground that Rikudou was standing on began moving. Five towers… No, fingers, curved inwards to surround Rikudou.

“This is… I see. I’m on your hand,” said Rikudou, realizing that what he had assumed was the ground was actually Rodcorte’s palm. “It’s been a while, God,” he said, looking up at Rodcorte with a defiant gaze. “Is this a show you’re putting on to show me my place because I declared that I became a god? You want to tell me that I’ve been dancing on the palm of your hand the entire time, right?”

But the truth was that Rikudou’s soul had been shut within him, trapped inside Rikudou’s hand. Rodcorte had simply regained his consciousness and opened his hand, set Moriya’s soul aside, and ordered Aran and the others to wake Rikudou up and evaluate his current state.

The reason Rikudou hadn’t been able to move before was because Rodcorte had lost consciousness while clutching his soul in his fist.

“… Interpret it however you wish. But your deeds have caused me a great deal of trouble and damage, and it is true that I am very angry,” said Rodcorte, deciding to express his animosity for Rikudou while omitting the embarrassing truth.

If Rikudou hadn’t done anything in Origin… If he had never researched the death attribute and betrayed the Bravers, if he had just lived an honest life as one of the organization’s high-ranking members, Vandalieu and his allies would have been significantly weaker than they were now.

Perhaps the Eighth Guidance were always destined to become Legion, but perhaps Murakami Junpei and the others wouldn’t have died and had their souls devoured by Vandalieu. Tsuchiya Kanako and the others wouldn’t have been reincarnated in Lambda and joined Vandalieu’s side.

Amemiya Hiroto and the others wouldn’t have met Vandalieu again and reconciled with him.

That was what Rodcorte believed – setting aside the fact that he was the one who had ordered Kaidou Kanata and Murakami Junpei to eliminate Vandalieu.

“So, what do you plan to do with me?” Rikudou sneered. “Are you going to send me to hell for the sin of trying to destroy humanity, or are you going to imprison me somewhere?”

“No, I do not care what happens to the humanity of that world,” Rodcorte replied. “If their souls were destroyed, then it would be of concern, but simply killing them all like you tried to do wouldn’t be a problem.”

“… What do you mean?”

Rikudou had never been the religious type on Earth, but when he was reincarnated, he had seen Rodcorte with his own eyes. Thus, he didn’t doubt that gods existed, and he had linked Rodcorte to the general idea of ‘God’ that was accepted by the world.

That was why he had believed that Rodcorte intended to punish him. And yet, Rodcorte was saying that he wouldn’t hold him responsible for attempting to commit mass-murder on a global scale and destroy humanity. Rikudou was bewildered by this.

“Are you not God?” he asked suspiciously.

“I am a god. But there is no reason for me to protect humanity, is there?” said Rodcorte. “Still, this conversation is getting nowhere. I suppose I have no choice.”

Suddenly, information related to Lambda and Vandalieu flooded into Rikudou’s mind.

Rikudou was bewildered by this unfamiliar sensation, and Rodcorte felt a little satisfaction to see him squirm.

“I see… Becoming ‘Arch-Avalon’ wasn’t a problem for you, but the system I used to reincarnate myself as ‘Arch-Avalon’ was. Who would have thought,” Rikudou murmured, putting a hand on his forehead, his head spinning as he became aware that he had incurred Rodcorte’s displeasure in a way he would never have imagined. “But more importantly, you intended to have us reincarnated in yet another world after our deaths? What the hell is the meaning of this?! If I had known, then I would have chosen another way… No, I suppose that would have been impossible if the other reincarnated individuals knew as well.”

If Rikudou had known that he would live a third life in Lambda, he would likely have never become obsessed with researching death-attribute magic. Perhaps he would have planned to commit suicide after acquiring knowledge and skills in Origin in order to be reincarnated in Lambda before the others so that he could become a god there.

Of course, as Rikudou had noticed mid-sentence, it was likely that many of the other reincarnated individuals would have done the same, so being reincarnated in Lambda before the others would have been impossible.

The reincarnated individuals with ailing minds, such as Minuma Hitomi and Joseph Smith, would have likely committed suicide.

“I feared that if you knew in advance that you would live a third life, you would not live your second lives to the best of your ability,” said Rodcorte. “I did send Divine Messages to you and your subordinates to let you know… starting from about a year ago. Did they not reach you at all?”

“I don’t know what conditions need to be met for these ‘Divine Messages’ to reach us, but I do have a good idea of why they didn’t,” said Rikudou.

In the process of betraying his companions to carry out research into the death attribute, he had subconsciously begun to fear God… Rodcorte. Unaware of the truth of what kind of god Rodcorte was, he had believed that Rodcorte matched society’s general view of God. Thus, he had assumed that God would find it disagreeable when he carried out human experiments and betrayed his companions.

For that reason, he had shut off his mind from God and aimed to become a god himself.

“But if you’re going to tell me to fight the ‘Undead’… Vandalieu, then it’s simple! Return me to Origin again! I’ll make a plan that takes his existence into account, and I’ll definitely defeat him this time!” Rikudou said.

“That is futile,” said Rodcorte. “There is not even the tiniest chance that you will succeed, and you will certainly have your soul devoured and destroyed.”

“W-what?!”

Rikudou was astounded at being told that he had no hope of winning at all.

“Due to the incident you caused, a part of Vandalieu has become a part of the God of Origin. If you return there, no matter how clever a plan you come up with and execute, Vandalieu will know about it, and he will crush you,” said Rodcorte.

Because a part of Vandalieu had become a part of the God of Origin, he could see the memories of every person who prayed to him or feared him. He could even send Divine Messages and grant his divine protections to those who worshiped him.

And most importantly, Rodcorte believed that Vandalieu himself could descend upon Origin once more.

The girl named Amemiya Mei, to whom he had bound a split entity of himself that was created from his own soul, had moved to Lambda, so perhaps it was impossible for Vandalieu to return to Origin.

But he was a part of the God of Origin now; it wouldn’t be strange to think that he could move between the two worlds even more freely than before.

Rodcorte had no intention of testing which of these two possibilities was correct.

“But then, why are you planning to give me another chance?” Rikudou asked. “Even if I’m reincarnated in this ‘Lambda,’ I don’t have any hope of winning, do I?”

Rikudou Hijiri had failed to defeat Vandalieu and his allies in Origin; if one were to ask whether he could defeat Vandalieu and his allies in Lambda, the answer would naturally be that he couldn’t – not as he was now. Amemiya Hiroto and the other Bravers weren’t in Lambda, but Vandalieu’s main body was, and he had his own allies.

On top of that, without the authority Rikudou had in Origin, he would never have been able to gather subordinates to carry out tasks for him, nor would he have been able to take advantage of organizations and nations like the Chinese Republic and the Nordic Federation.

In fact, there were plenty of powerful enemies in Lambda, even if Vandalieu and his allies were excluded.

If he were to try and carry out a mass-murder to increase his own power after he was reincarnated in Lambda, like he had in Origin, he would need several times the amount of time.

Origin had a total population of several billion, while Lambda had a total population of less than a hundred million. That number was over a hundred million if one included Vida’s races, but it was still far smaller than Origin’s population.

And while he was taking the time to carry this out, heroes would gather to eliminate Rikudou. If he was reincarnated in the Amid Empire, he would be facing elite enemies such as the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords, as well as A-class and B-class adventurers. It was even possible that the Storm of Tyranny, led by Schneider, would join in to stop Rikudou’s indiscriminate slaughter.

And in the Orbaume Kingdom, there were Vandalieu and his allies, of course, and Randolf ‘the True.’ There were the Five-colored Blades, led by Heinz. And in both nations, there were the potential heroes being nurtured by the gods serving Alda, the God of Law and Fate. These enemies would all join forces to defeat Rikudou.

If he were to attack the Demon Empire of Vidal directly, only despair would await him. The ‘Sun Giant’ Talos and the former Majin King Godwin would come from the Boundary Mountain Range. The Moon Giant Deeana, the Mountain Queen Elder Dragon God Tiamat, and Bakunawa would come from the Demon Continent. The guardian deities would come from Gartland. They, and countless other enemies who possessed power equal to that of gods, would all gather to defeat Rikudou.

By becoming ‘Arch-Avalon,’ Rikudou Hijiri had indeed become a god. If one were to express his strength with a Rank, he would be equivalent to Rank 13. But one could also say that he was only Rank 13 – equivalent to Fidirg, the Dragon God of Five Sins… No, even less than that, given the differences in experience and physical strength.

The shockwave of death Rikudou had unleashed in Origin could be survived by adventurers in Lambda of C-class or above. Adventurers of A-class or above with plenty of Vitality might only feel a light jab.

If Lambda were a world that could be conquered by any Rank 13 being, the remnants of the Demon King’s army and the Pure-breed Vampires would have conquered it long ago.

The most Rikudou could do was maybe destroy a single nation before he was killed.

Vandalieu had defeated Rikudou using limited methods in Origin because he only had a split entity with far less Mana than his main body and his soul that didn’t have a physical form. And the biggest reason was that he wanted to prevent Rikudou’s indiscriminate slaughter of humanity.

Rikudou’s face was twisted in humiliation, but even after explaining all of this, Rodcorte still had more to say.

“In addition to this, I am unable to reincarnate you as a human,” Rodcorte said.

“W-what?!”

“I am a god who rules over the reincarnation of living things, including humans. Although you have fallen, you did become a god, and I cannot reincarnate you with your powers, memories, and personality from your previous life. The scope of your soul is different.”

A reincarnated individual ascending to godhood in Origin was a situation that Rodcorte had not foreseen. Thus, there was now a big problem with reincarnating Rikudou in Lambda.

If he were to try and reincarnate him in Lambda, the body he was reincarnated into and the body of the mother that carried it wouldn’t be able to contain him; both would likely die before he was born.

But it was also impossible for Rodcorte to directly create a body for him to be reincarnated into, like he had for Asagi and Kanako.

In order to reincarnate Rikudou, he would need a body equivalent to that of a demigod, and Rodcorte was not capable of creating a demigod’s body.

If he really pushed himself, he would probably be able to create a body that Rikudou could be reincarnated into, but it would likely be an extremely distorted and fragile one.

And even if Rodcorte went to these lengths, it was unclear as to whether Rikudou would benefit from the blessings of Lambda’s Status System. As Aran and the others had previously discussed, there was no telling how the Status Gods would treat a person reincarnated from another world who had previously become a god in that world.

However, Rodcorte believed it unlikely that the Status Gods would consider Rikudou to be human, given that it wasn’t even possible for him to be reincarnated in a human’s body… With that being the case, it was questionable as to how they still considered Vandalieu to be human, but there was nowhere for Rodcorte to direct his questions and objections, so there was nothing to be done about it.

“So, what are you telling me to do?” Rikudou asked. “Stay here and be one of your servants like Aran and the others?”

“Well, I did consider that as an option,” said Rodcorte.

He had considered having Moriya and Rikudou’s other subordinates reincarnated in Lambda, then have Rikudou support them as a familiar spirit. This would allow Rikudou, who had become a god, to make full use of his power through Moriya and the others, who would benefit and improve themselves with the blessings of the Status System.

“However, I decided that facing Vandalieu using this method is too dangerous,” Rodcorte said.

It was possible that Vandalieu would attack Rikudou directly before ‘Familiar Spirit Descent’ was successfully used. This plan could work if a Magic Item could be created to store Rikudou’s soul in the mortal world, but it was possible that this was difficult, as there was a chance that the soul of Rikudou, a former god, would be different from that of a familiar spirit or heroic spirit.

And it was difficult to imagine that Moriya and the others could improve themselves enough to close the gap in strength between them and Vandalieu’s forces.

“But this does not mean that there is no way at all for you to be reincarnated in Lambda and defeat Vandalieu,” Rodcorte continued. “It is a desperate measure, and it does not come without risk, but… it does provide a chance to defeat Vandalieu.”

Given the possibility that no more reincarnated individuals would fight for him, Rodcorte was faced with circumstances that forced him to use Rikudou Hijiri, no matter how difficult it was to do so.

Alda’s trump card was Heinz, who had awakened Bellwood. But even if he could defeat Vandalieu, it was unlikely that he would exterminate every citizen of the Demon Empire of Vidal. In the past, Bellwood would have slaughtered them all, down to the last pregnant woman and tiny child, as if they were bacteria being sterilized. But it didn’t look like Rodcorte could depend on him to do this now.

That was why he needed Rikudou Hijiri. He would do as Rodcorte wished. Of course, he would need to take safety measures… by cursing him so that he couldn’t destroy souls.

“Is that true? There’s a way for me to defeat him? A way for me to surpass him? Then… I’ll do it,” said Rikudou.

Rodcorte’s circumstances were of no consequence to him. He simply couldn’t bear to let things end with his defeat to Vandalieu. On Earth, he had regarded Amamiya Hiroto as being more insignificant than air, like a living piece of the background. In Origin, he had looked down on him as the loser who had died first. He simply couldn’t accept that his carefully-crafted plans had been ruined and that he had been defeated by such a pathetic person.

And the thing that Rikudou refused to accept most of all was that Amamiya had become special, not him, the one who was supposed to be superior. As a human, he had possessed perseverance and an ability to keep up a composed appearance, but he had lost these when he became a god. And the warnings of his former companions were completely forgotten to him.

The big news that Vandalieu Zakkart had become one of Elizabeth’s followers spread around the school so fiercely that it drowned out the news of a complete breakdown of negotiations between Alex and Elizabeth.

“I would expect nothing less of you, Elizabeth-sama!” one student exclaimed.

“When did you invite him to join you? Or was it him who approached you?!” asked another.

“I’ll leave the finer details to your imagination. Well, all I’ll say is that it’s only natural for someone like me,” she said proudly, still sitting in her seat as she answered the students that were gathered around her.

The students made noises of admiration.

But in truth, Elizabeth was actually on the verge of a panic attack. Why did he become one of my followers?! I understand that he was already in the classroom when we started talking, but why does he think that makes him one of my companions?! What does he want?! Why, just why?!

Her attendant, Mahelia, was the only one who could see how shaken she was, and she was worried about her.

Meanwhile, Alex was in another classroom, sitting in his own seat, desperately trying to keep his cool – he had just seen the Status of Pauvina, the person that he was hoping would become his newest party member.

I could… barely read anything!

Letters and numbers on her Status had been censored, making it impossible to make sense of.

The ‘Demon Eyes of Great Appraisal’ had a flaw – the greater the difference in ability between the user and the target, the less of the target’s Status could be read.

Thus, when Alex was young, he had been unable to read the Statuses of the adults of the village and the adventurers who visited. But now that his skills were equivalent to those of a C-class adventurer, this didn’t happen very frequently.

The exceptions were some of the teachers, such as Meorilith and Dandolip (Randolf), and some of the higher-ranking adventurers he happened to come across at the Adventurers’ Guild.

But this phenomenon had occurred when he tried to look at Pauvina’s Status.

Then that means she’s at least as powerful as an A-class adventurer…?! That’s not possible… But if I can’t read her Status, there’s no other explanation! And why does she have so many Skills?! I can’t read them, so I don’t know what Skills they are or what Level they are. But an underage person having so many is totally abnormal! And she definitely has multiple Unique Skills…?!

Alex wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Pauvina was overwhelmingly more powerful than him… to the extent that he couldn’t understand why she was a student at the same school as him. How was he supposed to invite her to join him?

If Pauvina’s skills had been as he had expected, he would have been able to rely on her. But with this much of a gap between their skills, there was no benefit for Pauvina in joining Alex.

There could be some benefit if he were to confess that he possessed the ‘Demon Eyes of Great Appraisal,’ but given the risk of that becoming widely known, he wanted to avoid having to do that.

But what’s even worse is… I picked a fight with her older brother, Vandalieu! Given the results of the entrance examination, it’s possible that Pauvina’s the only one who’s amazing, and Vandalieu might just be a guy who was born as a member of an unusual race, but… there’s no way that’s possible. If Pauvina’s hiding her true skills, then even if he’s not as strong as Pauvina, he still must be really strong.

Should he go and apologize tomorrow, and look at his Status while he was at it? Nothing dangerous would happen if he did it at school.

With these thoughts running through his mind, Alex gave a heavy, gloomy sigh.

Meanwhile, Vandalieu was waiting for Pauvina so that they could go home together. In the meantime, his attention was on one of his ‘Inner Worlds.’

“Everyone, can you see your Statuses?” he asked.

He had begun explaining the Status System to Mei, Hiroshi, and the others who had come from Origin.

“About the numbers that are displayed on your Statuses, they aren’t absolute. Someone who boasts about their strength and has a Strength value of 100 can still lose to someone with less than 50 strength if they let their guard down. The same goes for the Levels of Skills,” Vandalieu explained. “And just because you don’t have a Skill doesn’t mean you can’t perform actions related to it. You can swing a sword even without the ‘Swordsmanship’ Skill, and you can cook and do housework even without the ‘Cooking’ and ‘Housework’ Skills. It’s just that people who do have those Skills will be able to do those things better than you.”

Everyone had already been given a brief summary, but they nodded and took notes as they listened to Vandalieu.

“Does anyone have any questions?” Vandalieu asked.

“I do!” said the ‘Echo’ Ulrika, raising her hand energetically. “My Status says ‘None’ for Jobs and ‘None’ for Job History… Is that because I’m currently unemployed?”

“No. It just means that you haven’t gone through any Job changes. It doesn’t mean that you’re unemployed or a shut-in,” Vandalieu replied.

Ulrika looked visibly relieved to hear this.

“Hey, the maximum Level of a Skill is 10, right? Does that mean I’m really weak…?” asked Hiroshi.

“Is Mei weak, too?” asked Mei.

“Hiroshi and Meh-kun, you’re very, very strong compared to other children of your age in this world. It’s not even a contest,” Vandalieu assured them.

Even without his transformation equipment, Hiroshi was strong enough to attend the Hero Preparatory School that Vandalieu was currently enrolled at. There was the issue that his Skill with the highest Level was ‘No-Attribute Magic,’ something that wouldn’t normally be evaluated highly, but considering that he was only eight years old and hadn’t acquired a Job yet, he was certain to improve even further.

With his transformation equipment, he would be able to defeat Alex with ease.

As for Mei… She was still a toddler who would be turning four years old later this year; the fact that she had any Skills at all was unusual. It wasn’t a matter of being strong or weak.

“Meh-kun, you have me and all your other friends, don’t you? And Hiroshi, if you’re weak, then Rikudou Hijiri is lower than weak,” said Banda.

“I see,” said Hiroshi.

The two of them seemed to cheer up.

The other children started asking questions that had nothing to do with Statuses.

“So, what’s the outside world like?”

“Are there Dragons? What about fairies and tiny people?!”

“What are monsters like? Are they scarier than Demon King Familiars?”

It seemed that the curiosity of children knew no bounds.

“Very well. I’ll show you some of my memories and give an explanation,” said Vandalieu.

Several film-projector-type Demon King Familiars, which consisted only of an enormous eyeball, tentacles, and wings, gathered around him.

His eyes and the eyeballs of the Demon King Familiars began shining with all sorts of colors, projecting his memories onto a white wall that he had created with ‘Golem Creation.’

“First, here is the school that I am attending,” Vandalieu said.

The children chattered excitedly as they looked at the images.

“Wow, there are people with all kinds of hair colors!”

“Hey, is that short girl one of those ‘Dwarves?’”

“The principal is a woman, huh. Her ears are pointy.”

As Vandalieu thought about how delightful this was, Pauvina approached him in the outside world.

“Welcome back. Did you form a party?” asked Vandalieu.

“Yeah!” Pauvina said with an excited nod. “I discussed things with Reinhardt-kun and came to a decision!”

Incidentally, Reinhardt was the noble’s son that had picked a fight with her during the entrance examination. He was currently one of her underlings… or rather, one of her party members.

Vandalieu was relieved that Pauvina, unlike him, had managed to get along with the people in her class.

“But…” Pauvina continued in a gloomy voice. “There was a boy I don’t know, staring at me from around the corner in the corridor. He didn’t say anything, he was just staring with his eyes wide open and sweat all over his face. It was kinda creepy.”

“… I see,” said Vandalieu.

“Since he was just watching, and didn’t call out to her, we didn’t do anything, but… there was something strange about him,” said Orbia, who had been following Pauvina along with Princess Levia.

“I didn’t sense any hostility, but it did bother us, since he didn’t seem to just be someone who had come to see the unusual newcomer at the school,” said Princess Levia. “His appearance was –”

From Princess Levia’s description, Vandalieu had a very good idea of who the student in question was.

“… It might be a senior student called Alex,” Vandalieu said. “Come to think of it, he mentioned something about having someone in mind to invite to his party. Maybe he was talking about Pauvina?”

But if that was the case, why had Alex behaved so rudely to Vandalieu, Pauvina’s older brother? There was no telling what he was thinking. Perhaps they needed to be careful around him.

That was Vandalieu’s impression of him.

Note:

Because there is a significant difference in ability between Pauvina and Alex, Alex was unable to read much of the above Status.

Title explanation:

Vandalieu’s Saintess

A Title that can be acquired by someone in a special position among a god’s worshipers. In this case, the Title indicates that Mei is a saintess who worships the god named Vandalieu.

This Title makes it easier for the bearer to gain the respect and good will of those who worship the same god, and it also makes it easier to acquire and improve Skills related to whatever that god rules over. It also increases the chance of receiving a divine protection or Divine Messages from that god (though it came too late, in Mei’s case).

Skill explanation:

Banda

As the name suggests, this is a Unique Skill that indicates that Banda is bound to the user. However, that does not mean that she is able to control Banda.

Banda (Vandalieu) accompanies Mei of Banda’s (Vandalieu’s) own free will.

Thus, even if this Skill were to be stolen, Banda would likely kill the Skill’s new owner immediately in order to return to Mei.

Of course, the thief of the Skill would have a part of Vandalieu embedded in their soul, which could cause them to immediately lose their sanity.

Skill explanation:

Etiquette

A Skill that indicates that the Skill’s owner is well-versed in the etiquette of multiple regions or countries. Those who possess this Skill at a high Level are often scholars who research such culture or instructors who teach etiquette to royals and nobles.

An absence of this Skill does not mean that one does not know any etiquette at all.

For example, someone who has only learned the etiquette of nobles in the Alcrem Duchy might not possess this Skill, but someone who understands the subtle difference in history and manners in high society between the Alcrem Duchy, the Sauron Duchy, and the Hartner Duchy, and can interchangeably use the correct manners for the correct situation, is likely to possess this Skill.