Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 3.2

B3 Ruminate: Blocked by The Demon Lord of The Business World

If we are to discuss my relationship with Sariel, there is someone else I must mention.

Ariel?

No.

I have certainly known her for a very long time now, but in those days, I was only dimly aware of her as one of the children Sariel cared for.

Not to mention that all of the children at that orphanage were very distinctive individuals.

There was the first hero, the first saint, the beast lord, the agitator lord…

All of whom ran the riot shortly after the system was instituted.

By comparison, Ariel was of little note.

After all, she was only a powerless little girl at the time.

It is akin to a miracle that she survived that chaotic period at all.

Though it may be difficult to imagine that for anyone who knows her now.

At any rate, Ariel did not leave much of an impression at the time.

…Let us return to the main topic.

Before Sariel and I began to interact more frequently, there was one man who stood in my way.

To be frank, he made it difficult for me to meet with her at all.

That man’s name was Foduey.

Yes, the very same man who donated huge sums to the Sariella Foundation, and was known as the Demon Lord of the business world.

Still, by the time we first met, Foduey was already getting on in years.

His heyday of being feared in the financial world was long since past, and he was spending his remaining years putting a portion of his wealth to use, from which some even smaller portion was donated to the Sariella Foundation.

Even that tiny percentage of his profits was enough to fund a majority of their activities, which should give some idea of just how vast his overall assets must have been.

If he willed it, he could accomplish almost anything with the power of that wealth.

And he had connections not only in the business world, but the world of politics as well.

It would be no exaggeration to say that his backing was the reason that the Sariella Foundation had such power.

Of course, all that being said, the wealth of a mere human was the most trivial of details to a dragon like me.

Such things only held meaning within human society, after all.

What would a roll of banknotes mean to a dragon?

Nothing at all.

So to me, Foduey was no more than one insignificant human among many.

Until I actually met him, that is.

The first time I encountered Foduey face-to-face was when I went to tell Sariel exactly what I thought of her methods in person.

As I said before, Sariel’s way of doing things greatly displeased me.

For a time, I contented myself with observing her, but the more I watched, the more my frustration and irritation piled up, until one day I hit my limit.

Thus, I decided to go straight to the source to lodge my complaints.

I marched straight into a hospital run by the Sariella Foundation, right as Sariel was in the midst of inspecting the place.

Unfortunately for me, she was accompanied by Foduey.

Yes, this was a great misfortune indeed, at least at the time.

When I consider our later interactions, I suppose I would no longer describe it as such, but that is only because of what I know now.

But back then, our meeting was nothing short of a disaster.

In all my life, I have never been mocked so thoroughly by any human, not before or since.

The fact that I was more dumbfounded than angry is really quite humorous in retrospect.

Really, there was good reason to mock me in those days.

Considering my attitude at the time…

“Why must you do things in such a roundabout way?”

Those were the very first words I spoke to Sariel when I found her.

Anyone would take that as an attempt to pick a fight, no doubt.

Or at the very least, the beginnings of some troublesome encounter.

In truth, Sariel simply ignored me and kept walking.

Foduey, who was alongside her, slipped past me as well without sparing me a glance.

“Hey! Stop!”

Naturally, my young self took being ignored as an unbelievable insult, and shouted out to stop them.

Even though I was the one who acted rudely in the first place.

However, at this point I imagine Foduey was only surprised, and not yet furious.

My next words were what sparked his rage.

“You could have saved that child! Why did you let her die?!”

What did I mean, you ask?

This was a hospital operated by the Sariella Foundation.

Sariel herself regularly inspected the place.

And there, she learned that a child she had spoken to during her previous visit had succumbed to illness.

I saw their last interaction by way of clairvoyance.

“Thank you, Miss Sariel.”

“No need to thank me. It is part of my mission.”

“See you next time.”

“Yes, see you then.”

But after they parted ways, Sariel and that child would never meet again.

The child had an incurable disease.

But that is only speaking in terms of human standards.

With Sariel’s powers, she surely could have healed the child completely.

This was the reason that my impatience with her indirect way of doing things finally reached a breaking point.

There were many lives that Sariel could have saved, even without running hospitals and such.

But she chose not to do that.

And yet, she still had the gall to wear a faintly saddened expression when she heard that day the child had died.

How could she react like that when she could have saved the child’s life and didn’t?

I found it terribly disagreeable, which is why I yelled so angrily.

“Please keep your voice down in the hospital.”

But the response to my shout was completely unrelated to its contents.

Though in retrospect, I suppose it was a perfectly sensible way to react.

But at the time, it was the last thing I had expected to hear in response to my question.

Sariel is the only angel I know, but I think I realized at that moment just how impossible those beings are to understand.

“I don’t care about that!”

I shouted all the more, trying to cover up my confusion about our interaction.

Then I moved closer to Sariel, and I believe I made some vehement declaration that she could have easily healed the sick if she chose to do so.

“I will warn you one more time. This is a hospital. It is common sense to be quiet in a hospital.” Sariel was unmoved. “In addition, this hospital specializes in internal medicine and surgery. Mental illness is outside of our area of expertise, so I recommend that you try a different hospital.”

Not content to tell me to be quiet, she calmly insulted me as well.

Even I was stunned into silence by that.

“Pfft!”

Then one man dared to snicker at my stricken reaction.

As you may have gathered from the context, this man was Foduey.

I glared at him. “You inferior creature.”

“Ah, excuse me. Though I must say, which of us do you think appears inferior in this current situation?”

…I was very young at the time.

So young that I would openly call a human being an “inferior creature” to their face.

But in this case, Foduey’s response was an even harsher criticism.

It was then that I realized I had attracted the attention of the people around me.

A natural result of shouting in a hospital, I suppose.

All of the doctors, patients, and so on within hearing range were staring at me, and looking very put out.

If I may defend myself, at that time, the attention of humans meant nothing to me.

…Not that this is much of a defense.

But in those days, I thought of humans as insignificant creatures.

So I felt no need to waste my time paying any mind to whether they were looking at me.

Then I realized the differences in our perception.

From my point of view, Sariel was a god.

Not a human.

And of course, I myself was a dragon, and not a human, either.

I was speaking with the assumption that humans were of no consequence, but what would those humans think if they heard me without knowing what I was?

Blathering on about gods and claiming that this woman could heal a disease that no doctor could cure.

An incredibly irrational, inconsiderate man.

It would make perfect sense for them to see me that way.

These were the actions of someone who might be better served going to a mental hospital, just as Sariel said.

Since I was disguised, both Sariel and I looked like ordinary humans.

It was only natural that the humans who didn’t know any of this would see us that way.

This was my mistake for not paying attention to humans.

But I couldn’t very well smooth things over at that point, and I felt no need to do so for a mere human, anyway.

“Such insolence! Do you wish to die?!”

So, I decided to stick to my attitude as a dragon.

“What’s this? If you can’t win with words, you’ll win with violence, hmm? Does a fool who calls his adversary inferior yet cannot outwit him truly think himself the better man? Oh, I see. It’s because you don’t understand that you are a fool, hmm? Please, pardon me. I have a bad habit of using myself as a standard. It makes it hard for me to understand people whose minds are so much slower than my own. Do forgive me for that. I’m ever so sorry.”

…That man was always like this.

It wasn’t just that he had a comeback for everything—for every word that was spoken to him, he would return it tenfold.

When it comes to verbally mocking other people, I have never known a human more talented than Foduey.

…Although I question whether that should really be considered a “talent.”

However, his remark about resorting to violence if I couldn’t win with words did injure my pride.

If I raised a hand against him after that comment, I would become the fool he claimed I was.

And I was determined not to let that happen.

…Although I didn’t realize until much later that I had already lost the argument when he convinced me to think that way.

To think that I allowed a human whom I scorned as inferior to manipulate me with words so easily… I cannot help but laugh at my own absurdity.

“I will hear you out if you’ll step outside with me. This is indeed a hospital. As Lady Sariel says, it is no place for outsiders to barge in and cause a ruckus. Or is your mind really so inferior that you cannot grasp such a simple concept?”

“Nngh!”

Then he used my pride to force me to cooperate with his will.

At the time, I really felt I had no choice but to do as Foduey said.

A dragon like me, being commanded by a mere human like him?

It is hard to say whether that reflects more on Foduey as terrifying, or myself as pathetic.

I would like to think that it is not the latter…

…No, I suppose it does not matter now.

There would be little point in my putting on airs of importance now when I am already revealing such unsightly sides of myself.

So, compelled by Foduey, I left Sariel and went outside with Foduey, whose words drove home that fact.

“I must say, you put other stalkers to shame, really.”

“Huh?”

I could not help but gape at him in response.

A stalker?

A human was calling a mighty dragon such as myself…a stalker?

How could one not laugh at this?

“I am asking you to restrain yourself from such excessive stalking. Or didn’t you hear me? It appears that ‘superior creatures’ such as yourself tend to be hard of hearing. That doesn’t seem to make much sense from my perspective, but let us assume it is one of the many mysteries of the world. There must be some culture that takes pride in poor hearing that I was simply unaware of, I’m sure. Though I fail to understand the reasoning behind it.”

That was my reward for giving a dimwitted response to Foduey’s initial statement.

Knowing now that he was actually holding back quite a bit only makes it worse.

“Do not tarnish my reputation. I am not hard of hearing, nor am I any sort of stalker.”

“Is that right? Then you must really be a fool if you aren’t even aware of it yourself.”

“Excuse me?”

A prideful dragon such as I could never blithely accept an accusation of being a stalker.

But Foduey only continued to provoke me.

Were it not for his earlier comment, I would have undoubtedly killed him.

“Oh dear…”

Foduey heaved a dramatic, mocking sigh, as if to test the limits of my rationality.

I very nearly lost control.

But his next words stopped my thoughts in their tracks.

“If you consider yourselves so superior, you should at least learn the basics that we inferior humans consider common knowledge. Wouldn’t you agree, Sir Dragon?”

That stunned me into silence.

I had assumed all this time that Foduey was operating with no idea that I was a dragon.

That he could only be so foolish as to act this way because of his ignorance.

But that was not the case.

He knew I was a dragon, and mocked me nonetheless.

This may seem like a small difference, but it was quite significant.

“You insulted me knowing that I am a dragon?”

“But of course. If there is a reason to mock someone, I will be sure to mock them, no matter who they might be.”

My honest impression at this point was that he was very eccentric indeed.

Humans at the time knew dragons as beings not to be trifled with.

This was likely only a dim awareness, since most of them would never meet a dragon in their lifetimes, but it was still a view common to all of humanity that it would be incredibly foolish to make an enemy of a dragon.

He had treated me as a complete fool all this time, but he was the one being foolish by the standards of human knowledge.

That is the kind of man Foduey was.

Difficult to understand, is it not?

“At any rate, we cannot have a productive conversation as you are now. Please leave for the time being. And do try to study human society at least a little bit before you next return. Perhaps then you will understand why I called you a stalker and insulted you. If you still can’t figure out that much, then I suppose there’s no hope for you. In which case, I must ask that you refrain from ever showing yourself in front of Lady Sariel again.”

He spoke of human understanding in spite of being such a strange enigma himself.

Was it arrogance or just foolhardiness…?

But I suppose only a man such as he could successfully deal with a dragon like me.

At the very least, his words did make me think that I should at least hear him out.

Otherwise, I might never have listened to the words of a human.

If he had calculated all that when he challenged me, I suppose Foduey really was victorious.

This was how I first met Foduey.

It was certainly a rather impactful meeting, as well.

In fact, between this encounter and the one in which Sariel knocked me out cold, it would still be difficult to say which first meeting was more impactful.

That is how much of a shock this was to my system.

If my association with Ariel has been long yet sparse, you could say my association with Foduey was short yet deep, I suppose.

Though while it was “short” by my standards, it might be considered rather long in comparison to the lifespan of a human.

…Was Foduey not already aged when I first met him?

He was, it is true.

Considering the lifespan of humans at the time, it would not have been surprising if he died of old age before the system was constructed.

But in fact, he carried on vivaciously even after the system was made.

In fact, he went on such a wild rampage that it is still fearfully spoken of in some circles even to this day.

After all, he was the progenitor of vampires in this world.

Hmm? No, when I first met him, he was undoubtedly an ordinary human.

He became a vampire some time later.

And not of his own will, either.

It was an unfortunate incident indeed.

You could say that he was just caught up in a bigger disaster—man-made though it was.

And the man who caused that calamity was none other than Potimas.

Potimas was behind most nasty incidents at that time.

Since Foduey was contributing to the Sariella Foundation, he was bound to come up against Potimas eventually.

It simply happened at a particularly poor time.

But let us discuss the events that led to Foduey becoming a vampire next time we are able to talk.