(L) The Undead Lord of the Palace of Darkness

[Meera]

Original Title: 昏き宮殿の死者の王
Author: Tsukikage (槻影)
Artist: Merontomari
Publisher: ASCII Media Works
Status: 4 vol + 2 extra (WN - on going), 4 chapters (Manga - on going)

Spoiler for synopsis:

...I don't want to die. I want to be free.
If a monster is what I have to become to be free, then that is what I will resign myself to.

Striking the infected with incessant pain that runs throughout the body, a strange, debilitating, and deadly illness. The life of the boy who had suffered several years with this affliction had come to end with little time for him to despair as he died without an attendant by his side. When he awoke again, he had been made into the lowest ranked undead by an evil necromancer. Though the boy rejoiced at having obtained a body that could not feel pain, he immediately realized that he was still at the mercy of others. There was no large difference between his present situation and being confined in bed. However, because the boy wished for peace, he couldn't leave the world as it was.

With freedom as his goal, what he needed was prudence and power. Occasionally running, fighting, fearful, and hesitant, this is the story of the cowardly King of Undead as he seeks to be free

EDIT THE TRANSLATION OF THE NOVEL

This is my 1st web novel post so I'm a little nervous in making it cause I don't want to run into trouble.
The translation of it has begun.
Its manga version is being serialized in Comic Walker and it's a monthly release.

[Meera]

From what I can tell, the author release at least a chapter of two each week.

[wuhugm]

I read the manga
Seems nice

[sasuke706]

I actually like this one a bit. I like this author's stuff in general, with Tamer's Mythology having won me over—now unfortunately reduced to once a year updates.
The author is pretty amazing at building a fantasy setting in general, and does battles and ability growths nicely. He's good at setting up anticipation, in that sense.

This is probably the only novel on Narou that has a vampire MC that plays it pretty straight. As in he doesn't conquer the sunlight weakness. Undead exist through curses, and like actual curses. So strength and weakness comes in bundles. Like vampires can't enter homes uninvited, can't stand garlic, are weak to silver, and die in sunlight—and there's really not much they can do about these glaring weaknesses. There's also tiers to vampires—lesser vampires are of course weaker than normal vampires, but have more resistance to their weaknesses in exchange due to the vampiric curse being weaker.
MC also has a fun and satisfying personality. As in he actually has a personality and isn't a blank slate.

Anyway it's a fun read. I don't know why exactly but I associate this novel with 冥王様が通るのですよ！, so if you like this one you'll probably like 冥王様が通るのですよ！ too. Has a good monster-protagonist with a decently detailed setting. It's also like the one novel that makes use of the MC not aging and has substantial time skips.

[zztop]

Originally Posted by sasuke706

I actually like this one a bit. I like this author's stuff in general, with Tamer's Mythology having won me over—now unfortunately reduced to once a year updates.
The author is pretty amazing at building a fantasy setting in general, and does battles and ability growths nicely. He's good at setting up anticipation, in that sense.

This is probably the only novel on Narou that has a vampire MC that plays it pretty straight. As in he doesn't conquer the sunlight weakness. Undead exist through curses, and like actual curses. So strength and weakness comes in bundles. Like vampires can't enter homes uninvited, can't stand garlic, are weak to silver, and die in sunlight—and there's really not much they can do about these glaring weaknesses. There's also tiers to vampires—lesser vampires are of course weaker than normal vampires, but have more resistance to their weaknesses in exchange due to the vampiric curse being weaker.
MC also has a fun and satisfying personality. As in he actually has a personality and isn't a blank slate.

Anyway it's a fun read. I don't know why exactly but I associate this novel with 冥王様が通るのですよ！, so if you like this one you'll probably like 冥王様が通るのですよ！ too. Has a good monster-protagonist with a decently detailed setting. It's also like the one novel that makes use of the MC not aging and has substantial time skips.

Have there been any major plot developments so far?
Last i browsed the WN,

Spoiler for Spoiler:

MC was afraid of being found out by an order of demon-slayer knights whose policy is to exterminate all dark beings.

[sasuke706]

I mean, there's been several I suppose? Depends on your definition of major. Plus he's typically always been afraid of that thing in particular so that doesn't actually tell me how far you got.

Spoiler for Randomly organized garbage:

-He travels with the heroine who is one of those undead-slaying knights. She's also his exclusive blood bag.
-Gets targeted by vampire hunters, very skilled and morally loose individuals. MC learns that the Necromancer who created him gave him the ability to suck others' curses and make them his own. Not as convenient as it sounds.
-MC is infrequently daunted by the Necromancer's soul dredges inside him left from his attempt to steal the MC's body, and typically doesn't give any useful information but the MC usually can reason something useful out of his appearance itself.
-Temporarily joins a Demon Lord community lead by a giant dragon/lion hybrid (there are many demon lords) and they have a falling out, so they fight and the MC kills him.
-Starts getting targeted by minions of a vampire Demon Lord.
-Goes to severe anti-vampire town situated by an ancient deceased demon lord castle in order to get some helpful goodies where mysteries pop up one after the other.

And it looks like he might have a clash with with the paladins again soon.
Right now he and the heroine are exploring a dungeon designed to kill paladins.

[zztop]

Originally Posted by sasuke706

I mean, there's been several I suppose? Depends on your definition of major. Plus he's typically always been afraid of that thing in particular so that doesn't actually tell me how far you got.

Spoiler for Randomly organized garbage:

-He travels with the heroine who is one of those undead-slaying knights. She's also his exclusive blood bag.
-Gets targeted by vampire hunters, very skilled and morally loose individuals. MC learns that the Necromancer who created him gave him the ability to suck others' curses and make them his own. Not as convenient as it sounds.
-MC is infrequently daunted by the Necromancer's soul dredges inside him left from his attempt to steal the MC's body, and typically doesn't give any useful information but the MC usually can reason something useful out of his appearance itself.
-Temporarily joins a Demon Lord community lead by a giant dragon/lion hybrid (there are many demon lords) and they have a falling out, so they fight and the MC kills him.
-Starts getting targeted by minions of a vampire Demon Lord.
-Goes to severe anti-vampire town situated by an ancient deceased demon lord castle in order to get some helpful goodies where mysteries pop up one after the other.

And it looks like he might have a clash with with the paladins again soon.
Right now he and the heroine are exploring a dungeon designed to kill paladins.

I'm currently at Arc 1, Chp 13.

Spoiler for Spoiler:

How'd he get the female knight to join him? Forced, coerced or done willingly?

[sasuke706]

Originally Posted by zztop

I'm currently at Arc 1, Chp 13.

Spoiler for Spoiler:

How'd he get the female knight to join him? Forced, coerced or done willingly?

Spoiler for :

Empathy. The heroine is used to fighting and killing monsters, but she's not used to killing 'people'.

She caught the protagonist burying an innocent slave forced to attack them that her teammates had killed, and showed her he still has his memories from when alive. Normally undead lose their living memories. This made her question and doubt whether or not the MC is her enemy. So she decides to leave him be since he promises to be good (which he was fully capable of doing as he wasn't a vampire yet).

Later her comrades find the MC and attack him, cutting off his head and leaving it in the open for a Sunlight Execution, a particularly cruel and disparaged method of their order to kill undead. Their order teaches all fights to be quick and efficient. Senri finds him like this and ends up choosing the MC over her order, letting him drink her blood and turning him into a lesser vampire. From there they leave together.

They actually have somewhat of a complicated relationship. The MC intentionally made Senri empathize with him as he saw the weakness in her and it was really the only method he had. He also keeps things from her, like he plans on building a fancy castle with plenty of traps in the far future, and that the Necromancer's soul fragment and knowledge is inside him.

Likewise, Senri also keeps things from the MC. She generally doesn't teach him anything about being a vampire unless he discovers it himself somehow or it becomes relevant in some way. She also considers it her role to make the sure MC doesn't harm any innocents and plans to destroy him if he does, which the MC is also aware of.

That said they both do like each other. The MC is much more forward about it than Senri is, however. They also manage to cover each other's weaknesses. The Paladins specialize in undead—they're not nearly as effective against living or inorganic creatures. That said their holy abilities do make them stronger than the average knight and gives them an edge, it's just that edge typically isn't enough to overcome a Demon Lord still. So the MC covers her weaknesses and she his, such as in the latest chapter the MC beats up poison-coated golems and Senri invites him into doors and carries him over rivers.

While Senri left her order, she still typically follows its rules and basically acts as a solo knight of her order. So if she sees or hears about undead she'll typically go try to deal with it.

I suppose the part I like the most about the series is you get to know the MC. He typically lets the reader know what he thinks about things and has his own motivations and interests. Much more interesting than guys who want to 'slow life' or 'return home'. Characters who build rapport are the best.

[Meera]

Spoiler for characters:

End is quite a smart tenacious MC and I like that about him. All he wanted was his freedom however due to his resurrection through the evil necromancer, he was deemed as a dark entity by the Knights who sworn to rid of monsters from the world. We see him struggle to prove that he wasn't a threat to humans but the knights are like bush rightist crusaders who dedicate in their beliefs and refuse to acknowledge that he's different from other undead beings.

Seiren is a calm rational young woman who just became a knight. Despite her upbringing, she sees End is different as he retained his human memories and traits. When she found him about to be burn by the sun, she made the ultimate decision in betraying the knights and saving Ends with her blood turning him into a lower vampire. Seiren is brave and insightful when it comes to danger and teaches Ends his new abilities when the time is right.

I like their appearance looked in the manga after the announcement its adaptation. I think Seiren will soon appearing in couple of chapters more

Images

manga adaptation

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[Meera]

Originally Posted by sasuke706

I mean, there's been several I suppose? Depends on your definition of major. Plus he's typically always been afraid of that thing in particular so that doesn't actually tell me how far you got.

Spoiler for Randomly organized garbage:

-He travels with the heroine who is one of those undead-slaying knights. She's also his exclusive blood bag.
-Gets targeted by vampire hunters, very skilled and morally loose individuals. MC learns that the Necromancer who created him gave him the ability to suck others' curses and make them his own. Not as convenient as it sounds.
-MC is infrequently daunted by the Necromancer's soul dredges inside him left from his attempt to steal the MC's body, and typically doesn't give any useful information but the MC usually can reason something useful out of his appearance itself.
-Temporarily joins a Demon Lord community lead by a giant dragon/lion hybrid (there are many demon lords) and they have a falling out, so they fight and the MC kills him.
-Starts getting targeted by minions of a vampire Demon Lord.
-Goes to severe anti-vampire town situated by an ancient deceased demon lord castle in order to get some helpful goodies where mysteries pop up one after the other.

And it looks like he might have a clash with with the paladins again soon.
Right now he and the heroine are exploring a dungeon designed to kill paladins.

Spoiler for fun info:

There's cute moment like:
-End's transformation into puppy (later into a huge black dog)
-Seiren being called the vampire's bride
-A touching moment when End reunite with his father in his mansion and he accepted him so he decides to hide his identity as his father's 3rd son,"End Baron".

[Meera]

They look so awesome in the manga. Can't wait

Images

Seiren and End's upcoming looks

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[Meera]

Found the site who just started to translate the novel here

[Meera]

Lou's introduction in the manga

Images

Lou's intro

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[wuhugm]

^Is she a sex slave?

[Meera]

Originally Posted by wuhugm

^Is she a sex slave?

No, a weak abusive slave

[wuhugm]

Originally Posted by Meera

No, a weak abusive slave

She's a dominatrix? That's new

[Meera]

Originally Posted by wuhugm

She's a dominatrix? That's new

Spoiler for Lou's fate:

Lou plays a small significant for in the 1st act for the MC. She's been tortured and abused for so long that she wants to die. She discovered End's secret and tried to rat him out to Homus so she could be treated better but due to End's act, her situation became worse. Once the MC learned what she desired, he asked her for some minor errant that would attract the End Knights which consist of holy knight specialized in exterminating dark entities like End. Lou dies in the end by their hands but End made a grave for her and gave her a last named on her stone, Lou Carmen. Right now End is a ghoul in this act but he'll become a lower vampire after the 2nd MC saved him

[Meera]

After two weeks, the new chapter has appeared in the web comic version. the manga version will be out on the 22nd . Due to my limit of understanding Japanese, I use my translating system. Feel free to correct me.

Spoiler for New web chapter:

So the latest chapter talks about the difference btw the End holy knight and the Vampire hunter. The Hunters became more savage and ruthless as the monsters they hunt and loosing their sanity. End, Senri and Navira possibly team up against a common enemy?

[Meera]

I'm glad that the series' web novel chapter is resuming after two weeks break

[Meera]

Something must have happened at the last minute since the manga version changed the release date to next month