Tsk tsk, look at this man, not even considering the idea the kraken could be the next part of Van's harem. That's racism is what it is. For shame, sir, for shame.
He has more than one vampire, why limit himself? Also calling scylla octopus women is actually racist in universe, amusingly enough. Clearly Kraken are the only ones who can be known as true squid girls.
I'm sorry sir, but food takes precedence on romance. And his grand-parents will faint again if he has to introduce a kraken. It's better to introduce it as a new item of food carts.
Sigh, I guess even in another world those damn old people always get in the way of mixed marriages. It's so sad to see this shocking reminder of reality.
Let’s not get the story twisted. Main reason his grandparents kept passing out was quantity and quality of his brides. That and the fact that their “commonsense.exe” had not been upgraded with the “Vandium” expansion. Crashing people at Van without that upgrade is gonna overclock their CPU’s every time.
Also as an aside super far behind and only read the new chapter today. And laughed so freaking hard at the Knight of Insight. I mean he made a new brick wall(brown, stinky, and populated by dung flies) and left a small pond at his bench. If the king takes any form of aggressive stance against Van I’ll be amazed.
Reading this chapter, a thought occurs to me. Van is far better at obeying Alda's laws than even Alda himself is. Alda's own laws state that when someone comes forward, admits wrongdoing, and genuinely atones and repents, then he or she is no longer a criminal and is instead a trusted ally and comrade in arms. Van accepts people like Isla, Elanora, and even the flame blades, because they admit their wrongs and repent, or in the case of the flame blades, have had their will taken from them by Fitun and his bunch, so they've suffered enough as genuine victims. Heinz, Riley, Gordan, and the rest of the Five Colored Blades are not only completely unrepentant (though Heinz continues to try and delude himself otherwise), but continue to remain antagonistic and refuse to stop trying to hurt those who have repented and joined Van's fold. By Alda's own laws, Van is right to try and end Heinz by any means necessary, and if Heinz was honest with himself, he'd realize that. But because he deludes himself into genuinely believing that he's "atoning" by preaching and speeching, as he actively kills Vida's races every time he sets foot in the villages or cities of Vida, he's doomed to destroy himself, and it's just a matter of time.
Isla hasn't actually done anything to atone or repent for her past crimes. Atonement, redemption, repentance and rehabilitation are all different things. Isla has only really achieved the last of those. Miles Rouge, in comparison, explicitly regrets his past actions. I mean, I guess you could argue that being killed was being punished, but that's not the same thing as atonement either. Jennifer and Diana are repentant. Heinz... kind of is, but it doesn't matter, because he hasn't actually done anything about feeling bad, so it's a moot point. Which is one of Van's beefs with him. Also, I'd argue that Heinz actually has been atoning for his actions in that he was working to make up for past crimes. He could have been doing a lot better, but he was trying.
She was also in that situation for what 30 millennia, Isla has a lot of indoctrination to get rid of. IIRC the others are no where near as old as she is, and have seen no where near as much of humanities darker side. They were also never on the "to destroy their soul" list. If you think Heinz is genuinely trying to make up for his past crimes, then you are delusional. All Heinz ever does is token efforts with no lasting impact that can be trivially undone by the next spokesman to come along. He is all pretty words and 0 substance. To actually make amends he needs to address the cause of the issues, but the most he ever does is place a band aid on an open sore.
Isla isn't really trying to atone, though. I don't hold it against her or anything, she just isn't doing it. Rehabilitation is kind of enough in her case. I could argue about Heinz, but strictly speaking, it doesn't matter. You've pointed out the difference between redemption and atonement. I am not arguing that Heinz is redeeming himself, I am only saying that his current actions are an attempt to make up for past transgressions. That is all atonement is. It doesn't actually matter that much that his motives are a little tainted. Redemption is a lot harder than atonement, which is in turn a lot harder than rehabilitation.
I’m confused. Where are we getting the “atonement makes allies,” thought process? Alda condemned the creation heroes for even thinking about swiping forces from Gudaranis. Then Alda further condemned anyone that tried to honor the promises of asylum to the Evil Gods that had deserted. All of that is taught in the church of Alda as part of why Vida and kin were considered fallen Gods needing to have their powers stripped. Or did I misunderstand something vital? I know Alda is supposed to represent all the worst of Christianity. But honestly there some pretty big gaps in ideology that make the disparagement bearable for me.
It started with a person stating that Van was better at fulfilling Alda's rules on returning criminals to normal citizens and forgiving them than Alda himself. As you said. The criminal invaders turned sides and tried to live as normal gods peacefully and Alda refused to honor the deal.
I dunno about atonement makes allies thing, but Alda is actually going against his own teachings in order to pursue his current agenda. His teachings include the idea that once a criminal has atoned for their crime, they are no longer a criminal. Alda is going against this belief because the evil gods out of a combination of them being inconvenient to him and straight up racism. Technically, Alda never agreed to any such deal. Zakkart kind of promised on his behalf. Not that the distinction matters that much.
It was no on Alda'a behalf, it was on behalf of the Greater Gods as a whole and mostly they agreed. Alda was just the lone objector amount them. Same way he objected to summoning heroes.
Zantark was also against it, as were the combat champions and a significant number of subordinate gods. They were certainly outvoted because desperate times and all, but it's not like it wasn't a controversial subject at the time. But frankly, Alda's opinion doesn't even matter because any crimes they committed they made up for by putting their lives on the line to help a bunch of strangers.
I'm sorry, but where do you get that idea? Heinz may feel bad about his actions in Evebejia, but he sure as hell hasn't been trying to make up for them, though he lets people he sees as a friendly face convince him otherwise. You do not make up for robbing a liquor store at gun point, killing the Latina clerk, and dropping the gun in the stroller of her infant son, putting a bounty on his head, by going around knocking over banks to fund "community outreach" preaching and speeching. This is what Heinz has been doing. He's "making up" for his actions in Evebejia, capturing a dark elf woman to be horrifically and publicly tortured for three solid days and then set ablaze in the town square, which he knew in advance was going to happen, at the request of a noble with a dubious background and a dubious moral character. Once the execution's been carried out, that is when he starts "feeling not so good about this" and just flees the area. Over the next ten or so years, after he sneaks into Orbaume, through the Scylla territory (completely ignoring their plight, which he admits, since he loudly decries that they are not people), taking up requests from dubious sources to wipe out villages of Vida's races, even ignoring his own first hand and eye witness accounts that the information he received was, at best, extremely dubious, thus compounding what he did in Evebejia, but pointedly ignores the evidence that his targets might have been innocent, or even victims, just to keep his own sense of guilt quiet and so he can yell out "HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?!!!" when called out on it. That is pointedly not atonement. That's not even trying. That's just fleeing your own guilt and letting yourself be told that you're trying, which is a pretty sad moral compass. Granted, his preaching and speeching has done some good, even if it is easily reversible, and extremely fragile, being dependent on his reputation, but it is in no way atonement, or even an attempt at atonement. It's just feel-good "charity."
Arguments on morality sure can get strained. Here’s me playing Devil’s Advocate for a second. Alda pursues the destruction of the Evil Gods not only for their origin. But for the fact that their very existence creates what is the magical equivalent of nuclear waste fields with mutated violent wildlife. These equivalents are the Devil Fields. Even Vida has admitted that their mere presence pollutes lands which is part of why they build the Barrier Mountains to contain everything and everyone that would cause harm to the outside world. Alda looks to purge a force that, no matter how much they atone, will always cause more death and suffering by simply existing. One exception is notable for her presence in Schwartz’s party. His Evil Goddess companion contained herself by taking a risk to her own life and reincarnating. As far as I’ve been able to figure out she doesn’t spread miasma anymore. If then we want to argue that the Evil Gods of Vida’s faction seek redemption then we can show that despite the grave dangers there is a way for them to stop being a threat to existence. The trade off is simply very, very risky to them personally and they haven’t the courage to try. In the above we could possibly see a validation of Alda’s purge campaign of the Evil Gods because it shows that their demise and removal from the planet is the only option to stop the spread of miasma at its source. Do I agree it’s the right decision? Well not really. Vida built a sanctuary that contains the fallout of Evil God existences and some Evil Gods will take the steps needed to stop forming Devil’s Nests around themselves. These Evil Gods seem to be trying all that is possible to stop being harmful. Other Evil Gods? Feed ‘em all to Van and stop sealing them. It’s a waste of resources to create the seals and a waste of a good meal to not let Van eat them lol. Though Van eating them is more extreme. That is the moral argument of “life in prison vs execution.” But I choose execution because in the context of the story it does less harm and is funnier. Yep I said it. God executions by way of meals for Van is funny.