Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter 8

LET’S WRAP THINGS UP 

Team Send Ms. Oka Home: Mission complete! 

Boy, sometimes things really do work out for the best. 

Even if we wound up agreeing to defeat the elves somewhere along the way. 

It’s not like we have to do it right this minute, though. And since it’s Potimas we’re up against, I think our best bet is to collect a bunch of information, figure out a thorough battle plan, and generally take our sweet time getting completely ready. 

This is to save Ms. Oka, after all, and to save the Demon Lord. 

Defeating the elves would be a huge help to her, since they’re basically like cancer cells to this world. Since the Demon Lord’s ultimate goal is to save this world from destruction, she’s gonna have to take them down sooner or later. 

Hrmmm. 

Elves, elves, eeelves. 

To be honest, as much as I hate Potimas’s guts, I’d never really thought about wiping out all the elves entirely. 

I mean, up until pretty recently, my only plan was to just lazily train and study. 

How do you lazily train? Sorry, I’m not taking questions right now. 

Really, as far as the whole end-of-the-world thing goes, I kinda didn’t care that much as long as it could wait until AFTER I leave this planet. 

But y’know. 

If I really want to help the Demon Lord, that attitude’s not gonna fly. 

The Demon Lord wants to save the world. 

I get the feeling that she’s fully prepared to die to achieve that goal. 

Sure, the Demon Lord’s strong, but there are still limits to what she can do. 

Take the elves, for instance. If Potimas gets serious, he might bust out some crazy weapon like that UFO we took down a while back. 

Okay, not “might.” He DEFINITELY would. 

And it’d probably be even worse than that UFO, too. 

Like, Potimas himself said that he was ashamed of ever designing that thing. 

There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s invented a much better weapon since then. 

And if that’s the case, the Demon Lord can’t beat him. 

She’s definitely one of the strongest individuals in the world, but she can’t exactly take on a UFO carrying a bomb that could obliterate an entire continent—never mind a weapon even WORSE than that—all by herself. 

She can’t save this world without getting rid of the elves, but she’s got no way of doing that. 

That means this is already a mission that’s impossible to clear. 

So I bet the Demon Lord is planning to do everything she can and then entrust the future of the world to the next generation. 

…Little does she know that there won’t BE a next generation. 

Ughhh. 

Man, this world is the biggest piece of crap ever! 

Hmph. All right, let’s do this. 

Dying along the way? Nope, I’m not gonna let that happen. 

An eye for an eye, a life for a life. 

I swear on my mother’s grave that I won’t let the Demon Lord die as long as I still breathe. 

Okay, technically I’m the one who killed my mother, but that’s not important right now! 

Either way, at this point, I’m gonna see this thing through to the end. 

And I’m aiming to make it a happy ending, too. 

Just you wait—the epilogue’s gonna be the Demon Lord smiling and saying, Thanks, White! You’re the best. I love you sooo much! 

“Um, I’ll say Thank you for sure, but I dunno about that last part.” 

“Whaaat?” 

“Wow, why do you look so disappointed? Are you interested in me that way?” 

“Yeah, right.” 

“Then why is that your idea of a happy ending?” 

So yeah, I’ve been chatting about all this with the Demon Lord this whole time. 

“By the way, is it just me, or did you drop a huge bombshell in the middle of your little monologue?” 

“What? You mean my undying love for you?” 

“Okay, seriously, why do you always have to take it in that direction? Huh?” 

C’mon—it’s just a joke. Really. 

“What do you mean, ‘there won’t be a next generation’?” 

Oh, thaaat bombshell. 

I think there’s a more qualified person who should explain that, not me. 

In fact, considering all the crazy stuff I’m plotting to do from here on out, I should probably have a little chat with this person anyway. 

“Okay, let’s call Güli-güli.” 

“Do me a favor and never call him that to his face, okay?” 

“Don’t worry—I won’t be able to talk once he’s actually here, so it’s not a problem!” 

“Um, I’d say that’s definitely a problem, but whatever.” 

The Demon Lord sighs and gets up from her chair. 

Inspired by the comfy sofa we sat in when we met with the pontiff, I used my thread to create a brand-new, ultra-comfortable chair that’s guaranteed to ruin you for life. That’s just how nice it is to sit in. 

It’s definitely not my imagination that the Demon Lord took a little bit longer than usual to get up just now. 

I know, pretty awesome, right? 

Yeah, I get it. It’s tough to get up from a seat that comfy. 

The Demon Lord’s turning into even more of a couch potato! 

“Why do I feel like you’re thinking really rude thoughts about me right now?” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

The Demon Lord squints at me for a moment, then shakes her head, shrugs, and starts walking. 

I follow behind her to the basement of the castle. 

At the bottom of a crazy-long staircase is a small, seemingly empty room. 

But while it looks like that at a glance, there’s the faint presence of conjuring on one wall. 

The Demon Lord places her hand in the center of it. 

Right away, the wall disappears like it was never there, and a space around the same size as the original room appears. 

…This isn’t just a hidden room behind the wall, huh. 

The new room is an alternate dimension. 

It’s just temporarily connected to this reality right now. 

So even if you were to break down the wall that was just there, you wouldn’t be able to reach this room. 

There’s a pedestal-like thing in the center of the room, and someone is sitting on top of it. 

To sum that person up, it’s basically a black lizardman. 

No, I guess draconian would be more accurate. 

They’ve got a dragon head, but the body is definitely that of a human. They’re even wearing a suit and a silk hat for some reason. 

“HEY THERE, SIS.” 

The dragon addresses the Demon Lord in a hard-to-understand voice, like they’re forcing their vocal cords to produce humanoid language. 

I can’t tell from the voice if they’re male or female. Do dragon people even have genders? 

“Since when are you and I related? My only siblings are the others from that orphanage.” 

“OH, DON’T BE LIKE THAT. GENETICALLY SPEAKING, WE’RE TECHNICALLY SIBLINGS, NO?” 

“Maybe, but it’s not like our parents would acknowledge that.” 

“FWA-HA-HA! FAIR ENOUGH.” 

I listen to the conversation between the Demon Lord and the draconian in silence. 

Obviously, it raises a lot of questions, but it’d probably be rude to ask. 

I’ve got a vague idea of the Demon Lord’s early life thanks to the contents of Taboo, but it seems like an invasion of privacy to pry about it. 

Everyone’s got a few secrets they don’t want to talk about. 

I’m not exactly eager to tell anyone else about being D’s substitute, so I’m not one to judge. 

I have no intention of digging into the Demon Lord’s past unless she decides to share it with me herself. 

“WELL? WHAT BRINGS YOU HERE? OR DID YOU JUST STOP BY FOR A CHAT?” 

“Of course not. I wouldn’t summon you for no good reason.” 

“I THOUGHT NOT. BUT LIKE I TOLD YOU BEFORE, THE SWORD OF THE DEMON LORD ISN’T HERE ANYMORE.” 

Sword of the Demon Lord? Huh? 

Hmm, come to think of it, I might’ve seen something about that in the Taboo information. 

It’s not like I read the whole thing from start to finish, and now that I’ve become a god and lost my skills, I can’t call that Taboo stuff back up anymore. 

But I guess this draconian must’ve been guarding the sword in question. 

So this Sword of the Demon Lord was being kept in a hidden room protected by spatial conjuring—the kind you probably couldn’t reproduce with skills, no less. 

If it was mentioned in the Taboo information, it must be an important system-related item. 

Although it could also be an item D stuck in just for her own amusement. 

But wait, it’s not there anymore? 

Isn’t that kind of, like, bad? 

“No, I’m not here about that, either. I came to ask you to call Gülie for us.” 

“CALL MASTER? IS IT AN EMERGENCY?” 

“It’s not that urgent, but there’s something we definitely need to ask him.” 

“ALL RIGHT. JUST A MINUTE.” 

The draconian’s eyes close. 

Are they communicating with Güli-güli telepathically or something? 

“White, this is the dark dragon Reise. They’re one of the oldest of the dragons.” 

Ooooh. 

A dark-attribute dragon, huh? 

Plus, if it’s one of the ancients, that’s the same category as the wind dragon Hyuvan in the southern wasteland and the ice dragon Nia in the Mystic Mountains. 

A dragon like that was guarding this Sword of the Demon Lord? 

It’s gotta be a super-important item, then. 

“What’s the Sword of the Demon Lord?” 

I lean close to the Demon Lord to mumble a question in her ear. 

“It’s a weapon that only the Demon Lord can use. I don’t know if the rumors are true, but they say it can unleash a blow that could even kill a god, except it can only be used once, basically.” 

Um, that sounds super-dangerous! 

The Demon Lord said it might not be true, but since that name showed up in the Taboo info, it’s almost certainly D who made it. 

Knowing D, she might’ve seriously made an item that could kill a god. 

And this super-dangerous weapon is just floating around somewhere out in the world? 

Are you for real?! 

“No need to worry. The Sword of the Demon Lord is practically a single-use item. Once it’s been used once, it can’t be used again for another couple hundred or maybe even a thousand years. And according to Reise, it’s already been used.” 

Whew. I guess I don’t need to worry about anyone trying to use it on me, then. 

But…it’s already been used? 

A weapon that can kill a god. The explosion that crossed a dimension into that classroom to try and kill D. Only the Demon Lord can use it. 

Yeah, the pieces all seem to match up. 

So D was attacked with an item that she made herself…? 

You can’t help but feel bad for the reincarnations who got caught up in that explosion, then. 

Though in my case, this version of me didn’t really exist until I was reincarnated here, so I can’t really complain. 

Anyway, while I’m talking about that with the Demon Lord and stuff, there’s a sudden disturbance in space. 

Someone’s about to teleport here. 

Well, not really “someone,” since it could only be Güli-güli. 

“I heard you wished to speak with me.” 

As soon as he appears, Güli-güli immediately cuts to the chase, and the Demon Lord responds equally abruptly. 

“Yeah. White told me there’s not gonna be a next generation? What’s that all about?” 

At that, Güli-güli’s face twists bitterly, and he glares at me for a moment. 

C’mon! Don’t look at me like that. 

All you actually asked me to do last time was to not tell the Demon Lord about that hidden valley beyond the Mystic Mountains, okay? 

I didn’t mention that part, and besides, it was more of a request than an actual promise anyway, so it’s not like I took a vow of secrecy or anything, okay? 

Nobody told me that what you really wanted to keep secret was that there’s not going to be a next generation after this, okay? 

Okay? Okay? Okay. 

Güli-güli heaves a sigh, evidently giving up, and starts to explain. 

“The people who live in this world are reincarnated in this very same world over and over. Normally, this wouldn’t be possible, but the system has warped the natural order of things. And this unnatural occurrence only distorts things further, until eventually the seams begin to tear. The souls of this world’s residents are slowly being worn down by the weight of these repeated reincarnations, all because they’ve been forced to take on unnecessary burdens like skills. If their souls continue to deteriorate, they will eventually be destroyed, which of course means they can no longer reincarnate. And there are signs that this has already begun to occur.” 

It’s like when you wash clothes over and over, until they eventually get too worn down to wear. 

If you keep dyeing, bleaching, and re-dyeing them on top of that, they’ll wear out even faster. 

By that same logic, the souls of people who keep reincarnating are beginning to weaken. 

Skills are like the dye: It might look great right after you first add it, but if you keep bleaching it out and dyeing the same piece of clothing over and over again, you’ll shorten its life span. 

Each time a soul reincarnates, the skills it had in the previous life are ripped away. 

Obviously, if you repeat that enough times, the soul’s eventually going to break down. 

And the signs of that breakdown are already beginning. 

The valley Güli-güli wanted to keep secret from the Demon Lord is a place where he protects people whose souls are reaching their limits. 

It’s like a little sandbox where he keeps out monsters, forbids fighting, and tries to keep people from taking on any more skills, all to try and extend the life spans of their worn-out souls. 

After Güli-güli’s explanation, the Demon Lord’s mood seems heavy. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“What good would have come of me telling you?” 

Both of them fall into a still-heavy silence. 

“Tell me the truth. If I keep acting as the demon lord, will I be able to recover enough MA energy?” 

“No.” 

Güli-güli responds right away. 

The Demon Lord lowers her head, her shoulders trembling. 

She became the demon lord with the willingness to lay down her life to save the world. 

With the unshakable conviction that she would do what had to be done, even if it meant reluctantly playing the role of a villain and being hated by all demonkind. 

But Güli-güli just said that still won’t be enough. 

This world is in such big trouble that the Demon Lord’s difficult decisions amount to almost nothing. 

Yeah, the world’s seriously in danger of ending. 

To the point where there’s no logical way of saving it. 

So why not save it in an illogical way? 

“Let’s just break the system.” 

Güli-güli and the Demon Lord both look at me incredulously. 

Even Reise, who’s been listening in silence, turns to stare at me. Although I can’t tell what kind of expression that lizardy face is making. 

“What do you mean?” 

Güli-güli asks what they’re probably all thinking. 

This world is sustained by the system, so I can’t blame them for looking at me like I’m out of my mind for suggesting we destroy it. 

But think about it—like, really think about it. 

The system was made by none other than D. 

You know, the super-nasty, self-proclaimed evil god? 

That rotten jerk is the one who designed this whole system. 

It doesn’t make sense to try and tackle it head-on. 

No, there’s got to be some kind of dirty trick we can use. 

Knowing D’s personality, I’m sure there’s another way out, something hidden in an underhanded way that you could never normally find. 

I swore to save the Demon Lord, remember? 

So I’ve been thinking about how to go about saving this world. 

And eventually, the conclusion I reached was that we have to break the system. 

I swallow and attempt to calm my nerves before speaking again. 

With a mega-serious topic like this, even I know that keeping it short because I’m not good with people isn’t gonna cut it. 

Not when the Demon Lord’s fate is riding on this sales pitch. 

“The system is a giant conjuring technique that supports this world. It regenerates this ruined planet, distorts the laws of life and death, and grants supernatural powers called skills.” 

The system is just one big conjuring. 

Its main function is to keep this ruined planet alive. 

But it also has several other functions. 

Honestly, if all you’re trying to do is restore the world, you don’t really need all that complicated stuff. 

The system forces people to be reborn in this world over and over, confining them here. 

It encourages them to install lots of soul expansion packs known as skills, then collects those skills when they die and get reborn, turning them into MA energy to help keep the world alive. 

Basically: The system is really a machine that uses people as fuel. 

But like I just said, if you only want the planet to recover, you don’t really need to do it in such a roundabout way. 

“Do you know how much energy it takes to keep all the system’s complicated functions running?” 

The only person who can answer that accurately is probably Güli-güli, since he’s a god who can actually use conjuring. 

But it looks like what I’m trying to say is getting through to the Demon Lord, too. 

“If you used that energy for the restoration instead, would it be enough?” she asks. 

The system distorts this world’s natural order of death and rebirth, enhances people with the ridiculous conjuring known as stats, and even piles on skills as a way of stripping more energy from souls. 

Obviously, operating such a ridiculously complicated conjuring must consume a corresponding amount of energy. 

We just need to break down those unnecessary parts of the system, take the energy freed that way, and put all of that into the part that restores the planet. 

The system keeps us alive, but now we’re gonna kill the system. 

Normally, no sane person would even suggest that approach. 

But we’re talking about D here. I wouldn’t put it past her to include such an obscene method that nobody should be able to find or accomplish. 

Unfortunately, though, the Demon Lord’s only half-right. 

“Not in our current state. Not yet.” 

That’s right. When I calculated the amount of energy in the system and compared it to the current state of the planet’s disrepair, I determined that it wouldn’t be enough to completely restore the planet. 

If we break the parts of the system that recover energy, then we won’t be able to produce any more energy for repairing the planet, so the restoration will never be complete. 

In other words, this secret method will work only once we’ve saved up enough energy to completely restore the planet. 

“We just have to supply the rest.” 

This world still has skills, a method of producing energy using the power of souls. 

We need people to improve their skills, store up more energy and then let the system collect it—in other words, we need them to die. 

“I see. Then I guess that doesn’t change what I’ve got to do.” 

What the Demon Lord has been trying to do is start a war between humans and demons, forcing both sides to improve their skills, and then recovering more energy for the world when they die in battle. 

Since we need to get even more energy, this plan still works out great. 

The only difference is that while the Demon Lord planned to return that energy to the energy-deficient system in the normal way, I’ve got different plans for how to use it. 

“Wait a minute. That may be possible in theory, but D will never stand by while someone attempts to intentionally break the system.” 

A protest from Güli-güli. 

Makes sense. Since he’s technically in charge of maintaining the system as an administrator, he probably can’t accept this plan easily, even if he understands the logic behind it. 

And I’m sure he thinks that his boss, D, would get mad if we did something like that. 

But I can say this for sure. 

“That won’t be a problem.” 

I mean, this is D we’re talking about, y’know? 

She’d have no problem with the system getting broken as long as she thinks it’ll be more entertaining that way. 

If anything, I kind of suspect that D’s been waiting for Güli-güli to make a dangerous move like that, just for the drama of it all. 

A crazy plan like breaking the system is possible only for a god like Güli-güli. 

If D actually baked that option into the system on purpose, then I think it’s safe to guess that she was hoping Güli-güli might go for it. 

“But…” 

“It’ll be fine. I promise.” 

Besides, now that D’s been dragged away by Miss Maid, she can’t interfere with us either way. 

When the cat’s away, the mice will play! 

She might get mad later, but I don’t care. 

And I’m pretty sure she won’t anyway. 

So I’m just gonna insist it’ll be fine. 

“But still—” 

“To be honest, this is basically because of your negligence as an administrator.” 

At that, Güli-güli’s face falls. 

Boy, am I mean or what? 

It’s true, though! If Güli-güli had done a better job, we wouldn’t be in this situation. 

Even if saying it out loud makes me the worst, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s true! 

Especially since what I’m suggesting in the first place is that he basically abandon his post as administrator so we can break the system. 

“I won’t ask you to help. But don’t try to stop us.” 

The biggest obstacle to this plan is the potential of Güli-güli interfering. 

The only people in this world who could possibly defeat me right now are the Demon Lord, Potimas, and Güli-güli. 

And that last one is the only one who I can say without a doubt is way, way stronger than I am. 

If Güli-güli tries to stop us, our plan is doomed. 

“HEH-HEH. SEEMS LIKE YOU’VE LOST THIS ONE, EH, MASTER?” 

Reise picks this moment to finally speak up. 

“I suppose so.” 

Güli-güli heaves a deep sigh, looking for all the world like an exhausted office worker. 

“Very well. I won’t try to stop you… No, it’s because of my failure that we’re in this predicament. I cannot use my power directly for this purpose, but I will help you as best as I can.” 

He smiles grimly. 

Oh? Ohhh! 

I would’ve been happy just to have him agree not to interfere, but he’s actually gonna help. 

Did my sarcasm work a little too well? 

Either way, I’m counting it as a win! 

“Oh, for real? Then can you, like, round up a bunch of dragons and wyrms and stuff who can turn into humanoids and make an army?” 

The Demon Lord hits him with a massive request right out of the gate. 

Whoa! She’s totally planning to work not just Güli-güli but even his subordinates to the bone! 

Now, THAT’S evil! 

She uses everything and everyone she can, puts them all to work, then holes up at home herself. 

The ultimate NEET! 

“You could be the Ninth Army. I’ll strip the current commander of the title and put you in charge instead.” 

“As you wish. I shall follow your orders, within reason.” 

Whoa, her unreasonable request actually got accepted. 

Seriously? Is an administrator even allowed to take sides in stuff like this? 

Well, I guess that just goes to show how indebted Güli-güli feels to the Demon Lord. 

“Reise. You come, too.” 

“OH?” 

“If the Sword of the Demon Lord is no longer here, then you need not stay, either.” 

“I SEE. I’VE GROWN ACCUSTOMED TO THIS SPACE WHERE TIME STANDS STILL, BUT IF YOU BID ME COME, I WILL FOLLOW MY MASTER.” 

Huh. I guess time is normally stopped inside this room? 

That would explain how Reise’s been living in this empty space, I guess. If you’re frozen in time, unless someone summons the room up like this, you wouldn’t need food or anything. 

Although, leave it to D to casually conjure up something as ridiculous as a room where time stands still. 

Reise’s shape begins to change into that of a person, using some kind of technique. 

The resulting person form has dark skin and androgynous looks. 

The suit and silk hat seem like something a man would wear, but they could just as easily pass for a gorgeous woman. 

So even in person form, you don’t have a clearly defined gender?! 

“Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am the dark dragon Reise. Since I’ve been living in stopped time for so long, I’m absolutely overflowing with youth compared to the other ancient dragons. You may rely on me whenever you like.” 

Reise gives this introduction with a crooked grin. 

Is it just me, or do dragons tend to have really over-the-top personalities? 

Or have I just so happened to meet the weirdest ones? 

Also, I guess they can speak normally when they’re in humanoid form. 

“I shall go and gather dragons and wyrms from each land who can transform. I won’t bring all of them here, since they still need to watch over their respective territories, but it should still be a considerable number. Ariel, if nothing else, please make arrangements to receive them before I return.” 

“Sure.” 

Oh boy. I can totally tell that the Demon Lord has no intention of doing that herself. 

She’s probably gonna dump that task on Balto. 

Hang in there, buddy. 

“Master, I’ll accompany you. I’d like to get a fresh look at the outside world.” 

“If you wish. You were given the unpleasant role of being left frozen in time for so long. From now on, please do as you wish, within the scope of the role you are next assigned.” 

“Why, thank you.” 

Reise looks genuinely pleased. 

I have no way of knowing how it felt to be alone in a small room where time stands still. 

But I doubt anyone would want to do that. 

And yet, Reise had no choice, because that was the role they were given. 

This world has a way of sacrificing people like that in order to carry on. 

That includes the Demon Lord and Güli-güli, too. 

I’m gonna destroy that crummy way of life. 

“All right, team! Let’s save the world!” 

The Demon Lord shouts in a deliberately energetic voice. 

Since they’ve found a way forward after being unable to see the light for so long, she and Güli-güli both look more cheerful than usual. 

I… 

I didn’t lie. 

If we use the system as compensation, we can get the amount of energy the world needs. 

The thing is, breaking the system means getting rid of skills and stats. 

Which means they’ll be forcibly removed from the souls they’ve been attached to. 

So when we collect all that energy, it’ll be especially hard on the souls of people with lots of skills and high stats. 

I didn’t lie. 

If we break the system, we can save the world. 

It’s just that, in exchange, a ton of the people who live in this world will die. 

I just kept that part to myself, is all. 

If it means saving the Demon Lord and Ms. Oka, I don’t care if I have to sacrifice most of the people of this world to do it. 

That’s all there is to it.