Note from the translator:

I've done a big cleanup with the series, tidying up the text a little and fixing some translations. Many skill names were introduced before introducing what the skills do in detail, so they were initially mistranslated or given unsuitable names. Most of this has been fixed!Death Mage v2.0 changelog

The following changes have been applied to all previous chapters and will be applied to all chapters from now on as well.

Orkas -> Orcus, due to popular demand.

Job and Experience Points are now capitalized.

X-attribute, X-attribute magic and X-attribute mage are no longer capitalized unless referring to a skill.

In Vandalieu's status pages, endurance -> stamina. More accurate, and I've been translating the word as stamina everywhere else. Also, Stamina is now capitalized.

Limit Break -> Surpass Limits. I initially named this Limit Break because Final Fantasy 7 and 8 were a big part of my childhood, but it doesn't really fit what the skill actually does, sadly.

Golem Creation -> Golem Transmutation. More accurate and suitable as Vandalieu uses this for more than just making the Golems.

Magic Mastery -> Mana Control. More accurate for what the skill actually does, even though it's a slight deviation from the raw.

Spirit Body -> Spirit Form. This one's bothered me for a while. Spirit Form is a far more suitable name for what the skill actually is, especially since it's not necessarily the whole body turning into Spirit Form at once.

Vandalieu/Undead's Night Vision -> Dark Vision. This is to distinguish it from the Ghouls' Night Vision skill, which is a different skill. I'd never noticed because the first kanji in both skills are extremely similar and both mean "dark/darkness". 闇視 = Dark Vision, possessed by Vandalieu, the Undead and the Ghouls' monster babies (Black Goblins, Anubises, Orcuses). 暗視 = Night Vision, possessed by Ghouls. Thanks to trueAntiSanity for pointing this out.

Demon Light -> Demon Fire. More accurate and suitable for the skill.

While Vandalieu was in the royal castle with Nuaza to recruit the【Sword King】Borkus, the main members of the group that knew Vandalieu well, except for Sam, were gathered in a certain room in one of Talosheim's buildings.

「It seems that everyone has gathered here besides Sam-dono who cannot leave his carriage.」(Zadiris)

「So, Zadiris, what were you planning after gathering us all here?」(Tarea)

「If I'm not mistaken, nobody called for you to be here, though.」(Basdia)

Elegantly hiding her mouth behind a folding fan that she had made herself from Ent wood, Tarea gave a small laugh in response to Basdia glaring at her through half-closed eyes.

「I cannot miss this meeting after hearing that we are gathering to form a plan to comfort Van-sama, after all.」(Tarea)

「Muuh, I do not recall saying anything of the sort, just where did you hear this? Well, it is fine.」(Zadiris)

Zadiris had planned to have a discussion with only those who knew about Vandalieu's circumstances... His past lives, the god, the one hundred people who would be reincarnated here. But since Vandalieu seemed to trust Tarea considerably, Zadiris decided that there would be no problem long as she was careful with her words, and started the meeting.

「Now then, the reason I have gathered everyone here today is to make you aware that the boy needs rest, and because I wish for you to cooperate with me in making the boy rest.」(Zadiris)

Zadiris brought up the topic of discussion, but this only caused confusion to stir among the people in the room.

『Rest, did you say? Bocchan is sleeping well every night.』(Saria)

『Yeah, he's always sound asleep.』(Rita)

Saria and Rita, who were attending the meeting on Sam's behalf, spoke their opinions. Vandalieu was in fact sleeping well as the two of them said. He didn't even turn over in his sleep, and his breathing was soft.

There had been more than a few instances where they checked his pulse to make sure he hadn't suddenly died.

「That's right, Zadiris. Vandalieu hasn't shown any sign of being tired, and if he was tired, he'd definitely say so himself that he needs to rest.」(Vigaro)

「You're right. When he was making sauces and preserved food, he didn't seem any different from usual.」(Basdia)

As Vigaro and Basdia said, neither Vandalieu's behavior nor his facial expression showed any signs of fatigue. He had never even said,「I'm tired」, or,「I want to rest.」

He sighed often, but that usually because things weren't going his way rather than because he was tired. Because his breaths were so quiet in the first place, there were also a lot of times where nobody could even notice him sighing.

『And everyone is treating Vandalieu with care. He really is a hard worker, but I don't think we're forcing him to do anything unreasonable.』(Saria)

Darcia, who was awake at this time, was also participating in the meeting by having Saria relay her words.

In response to the trust that Darcia expressed through Saria, Zadiris gave a small groan and shook her head.

「I am sorry to betray that trust that you have in us, but we are demanding the unreasonable of the boy. Recently, I massaged the boy's shoulders half-jokingly, but they were... stiff. He didn't dislike it; he called it『heaven』and almost fell asleep.」(Zadiris)

「I was wondering what you were going to say, but you just wanted to boast that you are skilled at giving shoulder massages? Anyone would feel sleepy after having their shoulders massaged.」(Tarea)

「The elderly should at least take five seconds to think before opening their mouths. Remember that the boy is only just about to turn three years old.」(Zadiris)

Everyone was taken aback by Zadiris's words.

Vandalieu was an infant who felt pleasure from having his shoulders massaged, in other words, his shoulders were stiff... No normal child of that age would have stiff shoulders.

「And just think. Think about how much the boy does in a single day. Incidentally, he does not stop his lessons in Alchemy until he has completed at least four hours.」(Zadiris)

Vandalieu spent four hours a day in lessons where he would crush materials in a mortar, mix them together, knead them and pour Mana into them.

「... He also makes sauces from walnuts and herbs, and cookies with acorns and other tree fruits with everyone. We ran out of salt and he was worried about finding an ingredient to replace it. He did come up with the idea of turning the mortar and pestle into Golems so that it wouldn't take too much time or effort, but...」(Basdia)

Even the work he did while chatting with people took a considerable amount of time.

「He did take care of us during our migration. He used Lemures and Undead insects to watch our surroundings, and most importantly, he created roads for us and then returned them back to how they originally were. Currently, he is making lumber out of the trees and repairing the buildings, isn't he?」(Tarea)

『Also, he is practicing no-attribute magic until late in the night. He performs small tasks with【Telekinesis】while practicing his Mana Control skill.』(Saria)

『Eh?! Bocchan wakes up early in the morning to practice his death-attribute magic, doesn't he?!』(Rita)

『That can't be! Then when is Vandalieu sleeping?!』(Darcia)

「That is what I mean. The boy possesses the【Status Effect Resistance】skill, so he is likely enduring the effects of fatigue and sleep deprivation. He even seems to possess the【Surpass Limits】skill as well.」(Zadiris)

As Zadiris was saying, with the skills that Vandalieu possessed, even an infant's body could endure the effects of fatigue. Even to the point that Vandalieu himself wouldn't really notice that he was pushing himself past his limits.

Because of his resistance skills, even if he was fatigued his body still moved normally, so he would be under the impression that he was still fine. That was why he could endure being sleepy, so even the time that he did spend sleeping so that his development wouldn't be negatively affected grew shorter, as he would always think,「This much sleep will be enough.」

But the resistance skills only allowed him to endure this. They wouldn't remove his fatigue or help him quickly recover from it. And so, in reality, his fatigue was accumulating.

「And... I've only just realized, but Van rarely shows any emotion in his expression. I'm able to tell how he's feeling to some extent from his tone, behavior and the air around him, but...」(Basdia)

And as Basdia said, Vandalieu's accumulated fatigue almost never appeared in his facial expression. His face was always white, almost enough to be called too white.

It wasn't white in an attractive sense; he always looked unpleasantly pale, as if he had smeared candle wax over his cheeks. That was why it was impossible to tell how healthy he was from the color of his face.

And Darcia, Sam, Saria and Rita had all been unaware of Vandalieu's overwork. That was because they were all Undead without bodies of flesh, so they didn't feel fatigue themselves.

Mental fatigue may have been another story, but even though Saria, Rita and Sam had only been Undead for less than three years, they had already become unable to recall the sensation of being physically tired.

In addition, Darcia was spending more than half of each day sleeping in her remains. Nobody could blame her for not knowing how much rest Vandalieu was getting.

「Nuh, then why doesn't Vandalieu try to get some more rest himself? It's true that there might not have been any time for him to rest while we were on our journey. But it's different the past few days. And even on our journey, I'm sure he could have at least rested for one day.」(Vigaro)

As Vigaro was saying, Vandalieu could have rested if he had wanted to. All he would have to do is tell everyone,「I'm tired today so I want to rest.」

After all, he was truly the King of the Ghouls right now, standing at the top of their community.

Of course, Vigaro, Zadiris, Tarea, Basdia – all of the important Ghouls – recognized Vandalieu as the Ghoul King.

If Vandalieu had stopped building roads during their journey across the mountain range, then they wouldn't have been able to continue traveling. But if they had chosen to stop at a spot where monster attacks would be relatively infrequent, Vandalieu could have rested for a day without a problem and nobody would have complained. After all, without Vandalieu, it would have been impossible for the Ghouls to cross the mountain range in the first place.

No, without Vandalieu, the Ghoul women would still be in Bugogan's custody and many of the other Ghouls would have perished after having their villages destroyed by the Orcs. The Ghouls had no reason to complain.

However, words expressing a desire to rest had never come from Vandalieu's mouth.

「Indeed. Why is that, I wonder?」(Zadiris)

Zadiris and the other Ghouls couldn't understand why this was. The Ghouls were a fundamentally lazy race. Though they would often need to tell each other,「Don't rest, keep training, work harder」, they would never need to say,「You can take a rest now, catch your breath.」

Ghouls rested plenty without being told to, and if they were tired, they would say so themselves. In this regard, Ghouls were indeed part-monster.

『Hmm, ever since Father became a carriage, Bocchan has been taking afternoon naps, but...』(Saria)

『I wonder if it's because of the resistance skills after all. I have a feeling someone told me that those born with resistance skills have poor awareness of the status effects that those skills grant resistance to...』(Darcia)

After careful consideration, this was the conclusion Darcia had come to.

As a Dark Elf, Darcia had been born with the【Magic Resistance】skill. This skill caused damage from offensive magic spells to be reduced and status effects caused by spells were less likely to occur and faster to recover from.

As a result, she had apparently experienced more than a few situations where she relied on her【Magic Resistance】skill too much and sustained severe burns, and situations where she was trying to taken an enemy alive in battle and cast a spell thinking,「I'm sure they won't die from a direct hit by a spell like this」, only for the target to be turned into a piece of meat.

Because of this, all Dark Elves were taught about resistance skills while they were children, including how much of an effect certain things would have if one didn't possess these resistance skills.

However, Vandalieu hadn't been taught this. It was very likely that he thought he could simply endure things because of the【Status Effect Resistance】skill, thinking,「I'm surprisingly not tired.」

『That's why he doesn't think to rest. And he might be thinking of the current situation as a state of emergency. Because after I died, a lot of things happened...』(Darcia)

He had been desperate to survive since his mother had died, and he had been doing his best to gain revenge after that. As a result, he had come to work with the Ghouls, but his original goal when he first met Zadiris and the others was to learn certain skills and then leave the Devil's Nest. And so he had worked hard in his lessons.

He had defeated the Noble Orcs, led the Ghouls across the mountain range and helped them find a new home. It had been a series of emergency situations.

Because much of Vandalieu's work hadn't required him to physically move his body, he might not have a good sense of having「done work.」

However, everyone here knew that using one's Mana caused fatigue.

「I understand that Van-sama is tired. So can't we solve this if we simply tell him to rest?」(Tarea)

They were now well aware that Vandalieu needed to rest. But then, wasn't the solution very simple? Tarea suggested that it might be so, but Zadiris shook her head.

「If that were the case, I would have already told him to rest long ago. But he does not really listen.」(Zadiris)

One time Zadiris had suggested for Vandalieu to take a rest, and Vandalieu did stop his Alchemy lesson. But it was with reluctance, as if he felt that he could keep going.

But he would continue practicing death-attribute magic while lying down, and just when Zadiris thought that he was taking a relaxing walk, he was performing needless repairs on the buildings of Talosheim. He was always thinking of the next thing he should do and doing them on his own.

When it seemed like he was playing with the Black Goblin and Anubis children, he was helping them with their studies and taking care of the Live-Dead. He barely rested at all.

He was also performing strange experiments to somehow make Bone Man stronger, as Bone Man was the only one of his Undead who hadn't increased in Rank despite reaching level 100.

「Now that I think about it, Van said that he wanted me to teach him unarmed fighting when he turned three. He said something about stories where one can become a master if he begins learning from the age of three.」(Basdia)

「WHAT?! Why is he asking you, Basdia, and not me?!」(Vigaro)

『Isn't that because your arms are clearly too long, so he would not be able to learn your techniques? You're the one who told us that unarmed combat for Ghouls is completely different for men and women, Vigaro-san.』(Saria)

「Vigaro, be quiet for a moment. Basdia, if you are going to teach him, you must be skillful with your words and make the boy rest. So that is how it is, everyone. We must form a plan to have the boy take a break. I have spent so much time wondering how I could get the youngsters to train themselves diligently. To think that I would also have to strain my wit to have them rest themselves as well.」(Zadiris)

And so Zadiris and the others discussed how to make Vandalieu rest while he was away at the royal castle.

With Nuaza's guidance, Vandalieu passed through the collapsed gate of the royal castle with some difficulty.

「... These tall stairs aren't kind to infants.」(Vandalieu)

The buildings of Talosheim were very rough on Vandalieu, as they had been built for Titans whose average height was 2.7m for males and 2.5m for females.

Climbing the stairs was an athletics exercise.

「My apologies; as you can see, the stairs for the use of other races have been buried in the rubble.」(Nuaza)

As Nuaza said this, he suddenly picked up Vandalieu with his arms that were only made of skin and bones. Even after becoming a Lich – a Lesser Lich, to be more precise – he hadn't lost his【Augmented Strength】skill, a transformed version of the【Superhuman Strength】skill that he had possessed while he was alive.

「We haven't used it up until now so I decided to leave it until later, but it's probably best to repair the royal castle as soon as possible.」(Vandalieu)

If Darcia and the others had heard this, they would have stopped him, but Nuaza replied,「It matters not as long as it is at your convenience, Holy Son.」

「It would indeed be fortunate if you were to repair it for us, but it is a castle where no soldiers or civilians live. And it will likely not collapse for several hundred more years.」(Nuaza)

For Nuaza and the rest of the Undead of Talosheim, the royal castle was an enormous gravestone for their nation. If it were to be repaired, they would be happy, but it seemed that they didn't desire it so badly that it would delay Vandalieu's plans.

Even now, two hundred years after the fierce battle, there were parts of the city that had been destroyed and collapsed, but the royal castle built of building stones originating from Dungeons still stood tall. As Nuaza said, the castle would still be here several hundred years from now. Its impressive presence was enough to make anyone feel certain of that.

「... I understand. I'll do it if there is some spare time. So, where is Borkus-san?」

「He should be in front of the door of the audience chamber, which contains hidden stairs that lead beneath the castle. He has not moved a single step from that spot for two hundred years.」(Nuaza)

Before coming here to recruit the【Sword King】Borkus, Vandalieu had asked the Undead Titans, including Nuaza, what kind of person Borkus was.

According to them, he was the only one of Talosheim's heroes to revive as an Undead, and the most powerful among the Undead Titans right now.

His personality was –

『A heavy believer of justice and virtue; a cheerful, kind person. He loved to buy others drinks but was weak to alcohol himself. He was someone who did not hesitate to say that a woman's charm was in her chest, while a man's was in his muscles.』(Nuaza)

This is what Nuaza, who had apparently been among the intellectual group of Titans, had said.

The other Titans had replied –

『He was bald!』

『Strong! Strong! Strong!』

『His complaints about his wife and boasts about his daughter were too long. So annoying, so annoyiiiiing, but he's a gooood guuuuy!』

In summary, he was apparently a good person.

「I don't have any confidence in my muscles; is there any chance that he'll say,『Come back the day before yesterday*?』」(Vandalieu)

TLN*: This is a Japanese phrase that means something like, "Go away and never come back."

「I am sure he will not. And speaking of muscles, I am only skin and bones myself.」(Nuaza)

「I suppose that's true.」(Vandalieu)

And after proceeding through the inside of the