Vandalieu gave a small cough and forced himself to ignore the taste of blood mixed with his saliva as he continued speaking. “I have a favor to ask of the two of you.”

Gordan and Riley gave a respectful bow.
“Please instruct me as you wish,” said Gordan. “I offer you all that I have.”

“Tell me to do whatever you want, hihi, my spear, as long as I have my spear, I can kill anyone,” said Riley.

Ah, it was really impossible.

“Be destroyed.”

Vandalieu used Spirit Form Transformation on both of his arms and plunged one into each of Riley and Gordan’s spirits. The two of them screamed and froze in astonishment.

“GYAAAH! W-what are you, why?!”

“GUAAAAAH! G-God! Why, you said that you would forgive, forgive my sins – OOGYAGAGAAH!

“… Yes, I did forgive you for your sins ‘this time.’ But I haven’t forgiven you for what you did to my mother.”

As their faces twisted in despair and agony, Vandalieu swallowed the mixture of saliva and blood in his mouth as he continued speaking. “I did consider it. I thought about enduring it. I did my best. But in the end, it’s impossible.”

“AAAAAH, i-i-it wasn’t my FAAAUUULT!” Riley screamed.

“I-I, simply obeyed my teachings!” Gordan gasped.

“I understand that,” said Vandalieu. “I’ve known for a long time that you aren’t to blame.”
Riley wasn’t at fault. He was simply an adventurer. Joining the extermination force to wipe out the Ghouls in the Devil’s Nest forest, joining this expedition army, using his criminal slaves as shields, capturing and handing over a woman who had given birth to a Dhampir to religious fanatics, none of it was his fault.

None of them were crimes in the society that he had lived in. They were deeds that were not punishable by law.

The fact that he made deals with Vampires was the one serious crime that would be worthy of capital punishment, but it wasn’t as if Vandalieu was obligated to execute him in place of the Empire and Mirg shield-nation.

Gordan wasn’t at fault, either. He had simply followed Alda’s doctrine and exterminated Vampires and those obeying them.

Trying to kill a Dhampir, using whips and brands to inflict gruesome torture on a woman who had given birth to that Dhampir and making a show of burning her alive in public, he couldn’t be blamed for any of these.

In fact, these were good acts that deserved praise from the people of the Empire and its vassal nations.

Indeed, the society he had belonged in and his position had simply been different to Vandalieu’s.

An Undead Gordan and Riley would be useful. They didn’t have bodies, but if Vandalieu provided them with new ones, they would become capable fighters.

That was why he had thought about various things and tried to endure his emotions for four months, but… it was impossible.

“It’s so impossible that my Status Effect Resistance skill’s level has increased because of the stress it’s caused me,” said Vandalieu. “Just by thinking about forgiving you, a hole opened in my stomach and I even threw up a little blood earlier.”

“I-it cannot be…!”

“AGEGAAHGAGAGAGAGAH!”

When Vandalieu stopped to think about it, it was only natural that the perception of good and evil would differ in different societies and positions. He remembered that even on Earth and in Origin, those in different societies and positions killing each other was something that happened every day.
So then, was there a need for Vandalieu to try to endure? Perhaps if he was planning to enlighten the people of Lambda with some kind of knowledge, then enduring it might be best. He should forgive these two.

But what Vandalieu wanted to do was pursue his own happiness. He had no intention of going through the trouble of enlightening the world in a self-sacrificing way.

If forgiving them and accepting them was impossible, there were other options such as using them as Golems, burying them somewhere or releasing them. But the more Vandalieu thought about these options, the more they became out of the question.

Riley and Gordan were far more dangerous than Orbie, the hunter who had ratted out Darcia, whose spirit Vandalieu had abandoned underground in the forest near Evbejia. If he abandoned their souls in random places and they were recovered by Rodcorte, Alda, Yupeon or Hihiryushukaka, it was possible that Vandalieu would have to face them again.

That would still be fine, but it was also possible that they would cause harm to everyone from some faraway place where Vandalieu couldn’t see them.

Vandalieu didn’t know what gods were capable of. However, he believed that gods were malicious. He knew how cruel and vicious they were.

As Gordan had used the skill called Familiar Spirit Descent, a skill that allowed what would be called an angel on Earth to possess his body, there was no doubt that Alda had taken notice of him.

That was why Vandalieu couldn’t take that risk.

“And most importantly, I hate you,” he said.

“GYAAAAAH!”

Gordan and Riley’s unpleasant screams that sounded like shards of glass grinding against each other stopped with a clear, cracking sound.

Their spirits collapsed, and the fragments of their souls that resembled particles of light began to fade away.

The moment he saw this, Vandalieu felt joy from the bottom of his heart. The exhilarating, cool, refreshing feeling of having made the world a little cleaner that he had felt when he had broken Sercrent’s soul.

“– Now then. Five enemies left to take revenge on.”

Heinz and his companions, Earl Thomas Palpapek and the Pure-breed Vampire Gubamon. Even though he had omitted Alda and Yupeon, as he wasn’t sure whether the gods existed in a place he could kill them, this was quite a prominent list of enemies.

Vandalieu had a long road ahead of him.