「O Prophesized Holy Son, thank you for gracing us with your presence and descending upon the【Capital of the Sun】, Talosheim. Please grant salvation to us, who only await to return to dust!」(Mysterious Undead)

As the mummy-like Undead pressed his hands together in prayer with these words, Vandalieu was dumbfounded for a short while. He quickly came back to his senses when Darcia called out to him.

『Hey, Vandalieu, are you alright?』(Darcia)

「! Ah, yes. I'm fine, I was just a little surprised. Could you please explain? Err...」(Vandalieu)

「Of course, o Holy Son. I am the Lich Nuaza.」(Nuaza)

A Lich. These were people with magic-related skills that retained their knowledge and techniques after death and became Undead monsters. This Lich, named Nuaza, continued speaking.

「The tragic sight before the Holy Son right now is the Titan race's fortress city-nation of Talosheim, renowned as the【Capital of the Sun.】This city flourished through the secrets left behind by the fallen champion Zakkart and the blessings of the goddess Vida. But as you can see, due to the destruction in the wake of the sudden invasion by the Mirg shield-nation two hundred years ago, it is now a Devil's Nest. Please grant salvation to us, who only await –」(Nuaza)

「I'm sorry, but could I have you explain the details further?」(Vandalieu)

Conversing with this Undead required patience, but it was also important to interrupt it and guide the conversation from time to time.

To summarize Nuaza's explanation, the Titans had participated in the battle between the goddess Vida and Alda a hundred thousand years ago. Though they were defeated, the surviving Titans gathered here and built this city-nation.

This place was in the middle of the Boundary Mountain Range that was mostly made up of Devil's Nests, and the hours of the day that this place received the sun's light were short. But thanks to the secrets and knowledge left behind by the champion Zakkart, the city received abundant blessings from the sun.

And then the Titans used their naturally robust bodies to open up the land, cultivated it, made affluent fields of crops, used the name of their ancestor to name the city Talosheim, the【Capital of the Sun】and worshipped the goddess Vida and the champion Zakkart.

They trained their bodies, improved their martial skills, stepped into Dungeons in search of materials they lacked to find an abundance of stone to use in building, and then erected a sturdy, beautiful, white fortress.

The Titans obtained stone, metal and meat by fighting monsters.

And then they discovered a tunnel in the eastern mountain range that had been built in ancient times, so they constructed a highway leading to the Orbaume Kingdom and began commercial trading.

The products of their Dungeons sold for high prices in the Orbaume Kingdom, bringing prosperity and wealth to Talosheim.

However, that prosperity was laid to waste by the sudden appearance of military forces from the Mirg shield-nation.

「With no prior notice, an army simply appeared one day over the mountain range and marched onto Talosheim.」(Nuaza)

The following is what could be deduced from the stories told later to supplement Nuaza's explanations by Sam and his daughters who had been employed by noblemen of the Mirg shield-nation in their past lives, and Kachia who was waiting for Vandalieu and his party's return.

About two hundred years ago, the Mirg shield-nation was ordered to wipe out the nation of the Titans in the name of the Amid Empire and the Church of Alda.

To preserve the relationship between the shield-nation of Mirg, which had been building up its power as a nation, and the Amid Empire. To remove some of the power that the nation had gathered by forcing it into conflict with the Titan nation. To act in accordance with their religious worshipping of the champion Bellwood*. These were the reasons behind the Mirg shield-nation's invasion.

TLN*: This champion was the one who founded the Amid Empire, mentioned in chapter 8. I incorrectly translated his name as Berud back then (fixed now).

Bellwood was the representative of the three champions that had fought on the side of Alda, the God of Law and Fate. Vandalieu learned for the first time that Bellwood had constantly said that the champions being carelessly brought here to share the knowledge and technology from other worlds was robbing the people of this world of the opportunity to make progress on their own. He believed that while it might produce good results in the short-term, it would have disastrous effects in the long term.

Because of this, Bellwood had frequent disagreements with the champion Zakkart, who was doing his best to spread the knowledge, technology and culture from his own world, such as finding rice seeds and using magic to selectively breed them to advance the cultivation of rice, before Zakkart was revived as an Undead by the goddess Vida.

And so with the battle between Alda and Vida as an opportunity, Bellwood and the other champions went around and destroyed as much of the technology and culture that Zakkart had built as possible.

The Amid Empire that considered themselves Bellwood's descendants and the Church of Alda that praised him as a saint lived with policies and doctrines based around him and his beliefs, even today. Of course, only the champions and the god that summoned them could tell which technologies were from other worlds and which were developed in this world, so the Amid Empire used ambiguous criteria to determine which technologies were left by Zakkart and which were not.

Incidentally, this is the justification that the Amid Empire used for its attempted invasions on the Orbaume Kingdom, whose civilization utilized the cultivation of rice.

With these political and religious reasons, the Mirg shield-nation's forces, led by the military personnel of the Amid Empire, completed the difficult task of finding a safe route across the Boundary Mountain Range and marched on Talosheim with an army of over ten thousand.

It was certain that the Amid Empire wanted to take the riches of Talosheim for itself, in addition to the above-mentioned reasons.

And for the reluctantly-dispatched troops of the Mirg shield-nation, the Titans were not humans, but a race inferior to humans birthed by the corrupted goddess. There was no doubt that they pillaged and slaughtered the Titans with no mercy.

A large number of Talosheim's villages were burned and taken, but their warriors' bravery and excellence didn't shine only when fighting against monsters.

They didn't have any experience in large-scale battles against other civilizations, but their warriors' swords cut down the Mirg shield-nation's soldiers with ease, and their knights' shields crushed the flesh and bone of the Mirg shield-nation's knights, along with their thin spears.

Best of all, there were numerous heroes in Talosheim.

The【Sword King】Borkus, who could defeat any monster, no matter how powerful, with a single sword.

The【Saint of Healing】Jeena, the young leader of the Church of Vida who excelled in the use of life-attribute magic.

Ogbahn, the【Hungry Wolf】who preferred solitude and had solo-cleared every single Dungeon in Talosheim.

Barigen, the【Dual-Halberd】who held a halberd in each hand and swept through his enemies like a windstorm.

Zandia, the young Second Princess who possessed an affinity for every attribute of magic in spite of the Titan race's general inaptitude with magic, the one renowned as the【Tiny Genius.】

『Do all of their names contain dakuten because Titans are a race created by Vida, just like Ghouls?』

TLN: Dakuten are the dash-things in hiragana and katakana that I've already mentioned. Like the Ghouls' names, all of these Titan heroes' names contain at least one pair of dakuten.

So Vandalieu thought, but reading the serious mood, he didn't mention it out loud.

Because of these heroes, Talosheim was able to push back the Mirg shield-nation's advancing army, but the enemy had a hero as well.

The hero that participated in the war to reinforce the Mirg shield-nation's forces, the A-rank adventurer who was a candidate for the next ascendancy to S-rank – the【Divine Spear of Ice】, Mikhail. With him joining the fray, the scales tipped in the Mirg shield-nation's favor once more.

「The legendary magic spear of ice that was one of the Mirg shield-nation's national treasures,【Ice Age】, was a legendary-class Magic Item said to have been created as a weapon for heroes by an ice god who served Peria, the goddess of water and knowledge. With this weapon in the hands of Mikhail, the Titan warriors fighting alongside the heroes fell, one by one. The fortress walls were finally broken and the savages of the Mirg shield-nation poured into the city.」(Nuaza)

The only thing the people of Talosheim could do was to have the women and children who couldn't fight escape through the trade tunnel to the Orbaume Kingdom with their First Princess and her bodyguards.

「Though I was but an apprentice, I fought until the very end as a member of the Church of Vida. However, without being able to send a single arrow flying into the detestable Mikhail or defend Jeena-sama or Zandia-sama, I died.」(Nuaza)

And the Mirg shield-nation didn't stop their destruction and pillaging after Nuaza died. Mikhail attempted to destroy the treasure of the goddess Vida that had been hidden deep beneath Talosheim's royal castle.

But the goddess had personally stationed a Dragon Golem underground to protect the treasure. Even Mikhail, whose ascendancy to S-rank had been all but confirmed, could not destroy the treasure.

In fact, the Dragon Golem's right arm and wings were destroyed, half of its tail was cut off and its head was crushed, but at the cost of all of Mikhail's companions being slaughtered. Mikhail himself sustained a serious wound; all he was able to do was to throw his magic spear at the still-moving Golem to imprison it briefly, and then use that opportunity to escape with his life.

Though the Mirg shield-nation was victorious, they were exhausted due to the fierce resistance of the Titans and the hero that led them was on the verge of death. Unable to maintain their occupation of Talosheim, they decided to make a retreat.

Even if they slaughtered every last Titan in Talosheim, there would be no end to the monsters attracted from the nearby Devil's Nests to the city by the smell of blood.

Nuaza didn't know what became of the victorious Mirg shield-nation and Amid Empire after that, but it wasn't a victory that they could have celebrated.

The desperate medical treatment of Mikhail was unsuccessful; he died several days after his return to the Mirg shield-nation. Many of the Mirg shield-nation's other elite individuals had also perished in the battle, and many had become unable to continue serving as soldiers.

On top of that, since Talosheim's First Princess had escaped with the truly valuable treasures and all of the city's funds, the amount of money and goods that the Mirg shield-nation gained were lower than the estimate that they had made before the war. It didn't even compare to the enormous cost that they had paid for their victory.

And since the First Princess had made it to the Orbaume Kingdom, the Kingdom learned of the invasion of Talosheim and dispatched soldiers against the Mirg shield-nation and the Amid Empire as divine punishment for the immoral, unjustified attack on the nation of Titans that it had been allied with.

During the battle of Talosheim, the Mirg shield-nation had sent reinforcements from border due to the unexpected difficulty of the battle. The border's defenses were easily broken through because of the lack of soldiers; many of Mirg's fortresses fell and its cities were occupied.

The Amid Empire was forced to hastily dispatch soldiers in order to protect the country that was supposed to be its shield.

The Amid Empire had been steadily invading the Orbaume Kingdom and expanding its territory, but with this defeat, all of the land that it had conquered was taken back in one movement. Most of the wars that had occurred in the last two hundred years were apparently the Amid Empire's efforts to recapture that land once more; it had finally gained some new territory in the most recent one.

The population of monsters in the Boundary Mountain Range had been controlled by the adventurers of Talosheim, but with Talosheim's destruction, their numbers suddenly multiplied and monsters overflowed from the Dungeons now that there was nobody to clear them.

As a result, the Devil's Nests expanded and it became difficult for the Mirg shield-nation to even go near the Boundary Mountain Range, let alone find a safe route back to Talosheim to take back the national treasure lost there.

In summary, the invasion of Talosheim was a historical failure for the Amid Empire and the Mirg shield-nation in particular.

When Nuaza learned this, despite having the face of a mummy, he broke into a smile that covered his whole face –

「Serves them r–!」(Nuaza)

He accidentally overdid it and almost passed on to the afterlife.

Since his nation had fallen and he had lost his own life, it was only natural for him to feel this way.

Vandalieu was exasperated at the foolishness of the Amid Empire and the Mirg shield-nation.

They shouldn't have attempted a sudden, brute-force invasion. Talosheim had a tunnel in the mountain range to the east that allowed safe passage to the Orbaume Kingdom. They should have instead maneuvered between Talosheim and the Orbaume Kingdom, formed a non-aggression pact with Talosheim without necessarily having the intention of breaking it and then passed through the tunnel and launched a surprise attack on Orbaume.

If they had done that, they could have purchased materials, including provisions, to maintain a supply line while taking an advantageous battle.

As they had prioritized their strange national policies and religious beliefs, the Mirg shield-nation had lost far more of their strength than expected and suffered a counter-attack from the enemy nation instead. Even Vandalieu, who didn't even possess any experience with military simulation games, could come up with this plan. Was the Amid Empire run by idiots?

It wasn't as if Vandalieu agreed with Rodcorte, but he really thought that this could only be expected from the Empire of an inferior world.

「Mhmm, mhmm. The Mirg shield-nation and the Amid Empire never do anything good. They should just all die out.」(Vandalieu)

「Boy, I do believe that Sam-dono and his daughters were humans of the Mirg shield-nation...」(Zadiris)

『Bocchan, there are some humans like Kachia-san in the Mirg shield-nation, so I don't know about killing all of them.』(Saria)

『That's right. Well, we were chased out of that Devil's Nest by the Mirg shield-nation, but that doesn't mean that all the people there are bad.』(Rita)

『We were born in the Mirg shield-nation, but if you were to order it, Bocchan, I would not hesitate to run over and kill my fellow countrymen. But please do not forget to keep your views open.』(Sam)

「Holy Son, even we only feel hatred for the Mirg shield-nation and Amid Empire of two hundred years ago. For us Titans, that is long enough for parents' and grandparents' generations to have passed; for humans, it is long enough for even their great grandparents' generations to have passed. Even the goddess tells us not to direct our hatred towards their descendants.」(Nuaza)

『That's right, Vandalieu. Don't forget the kindness that you showed in Evbejia. I'll be happy as long as you don't forget how to be kind.』(Darcia)

As the hatred that had been gathering at the bottom of Vandalieu's heart like sediment was dragged out and manifested itself in his words, he received remonstrations from every direction. Incomprehensible. No, he could comprehend it, and he knew that what everyone was saying was right.

「Yes, I'll moderate myself. By the way, what is the Prophesized Holy Son?」(Vandalieu)

Putting a lid on the hatred in his heart, Vandalieu pressed Nuaza to continue. Nuaza explained what had happened to the Titans after the war.

Half of the Titans revived as Undead within a month from the hatred of being killed and the fact that their bodies weren't buried. Seeing the soldiers of the Mirg shield-nation who had also revived as Undead, they began killing each other again, even though they were already dead.

And they were victorious. However, their feelings of wanting to protect their home country were strong even after becoming Undead, so they didn't leave on an expedition to take revenge on the Mirg shield-nation.

However, they were anxious about whether the First Princess and the people had managed to safely escape to the Orbaume Kingdom, so some of them headed towards the tunnel.

But the tunnel had been collapsed with its entrance sealed. They had planned right from the beginning to use a hidden mechanism to destroy the tunnel to prevent the Mirg shield-nation's army from giving chase once the Titans had already traveled through.

The fact that the tunnel had been sealed meant that the First Princess and the others had made it through. The Titans had no way of knowing what difficulties she and the others were facing in the Orbaume Kingdom, but they decided to trust in the Kingdom that was their allied nation and Duke Hartner, with whom they had done business directly.

They were Undead, and though they believed that they had retained their sense of reason, they didn't know if that was true or how long it would last. If they were to chase after the First Princess and the other Titans in this state, they would be more likely to hinder them than to be of any help.

The great majority of the Undead Titans thought this way.

Even so, some left to cross the mountain range and never returned. A few dozen of the Titans that didn't chase after the First Princess lost their attachment to this world and faded away.

And so when Nuaza and the other Titans returned to the city of Talosheim that no longer had living citizens, they simply spent their days guarding the ruins.

『That was the slow road that led to our ruin.』(Nuaza)

There were numerous Devil's Nests surrounding Talosheim, and Dungeons that the adventurers used to venture into day after day in search of materials.

But Nuaza and the other Undead gathered at the center of the ruins, at the royal castle and in the area around it, never venturing outside. Of course, they didn't go out to hunt monsters themselves or venture into Dungeons.

Because of this, the monsters continued to multiply and the corrupted Mana released by those monsters, the source of evil, accumulated and expanded the Devil's Nests for two hundred years and finally even reached this place, the center of Talosheim.

If any monsters other than the Undead Titans entered the central area of Talosheim, Nuaza and the others would exterminate them. Their skills... their Ranks as monsters were quite high. They were monsters created by the spirits of elite Titan warriors inhabiting the remains of their own bodies, and their memories and personalities from while they were alive were preserved to a certain extent, as Nuaza's were.

For them, killing a hundred or two hundred of the monsters overflowing from the Devil's Nests that they used to hunt in and the Dungeons that they used to clear was nothing but a way to pass the