Special Chapter - The Demon Lord Left Behind
“Sorry, he says…”
I gaze at the spot where Gülie and White disappeared.
I’ve known Gülie for a very long time, yet as he addresses me in what might be our final farewell, his last word to me is…“sorry.”
It’s so typical of him, I can’t help but laugh.
He’s always been like this.
Always looking apologetic, always feeling so responsible for everything that he takes on guilt for things that aren’t even his fault.
Such a stubborn, inflexible, awkward lug of a man…
I just hope this won’t be the last time we meet…
Sparing a small prayer for the safety of my old friend turned enemy, I shift my attention elsewhere.
“Well. Things have taken an unexpected turn, but that doesn’t change our course of action.”
Even if that world quest thing threw a wrench in the works, our ultimate goal remains the same.
Which is to say, we’re still going to bring about the destruction of the system and set Lady Sariel free.
We haven’t laid the groundwork all this time only to stop now.
Although most of that was thanks to White, and she’ll be taking care of almost everything from here on out, too.
That said, Gülie taking White away from us is a serious loss.
“Um, even if our course of action hasn’t changed, what do we do now?”
“I don’t think there’s much we can do at the moment…”
Unfortunately, we can’t do anything right away.
There are a few reasons for that.
The first is that there’s no telling what’s going to happen with this so-called world quest.
It wasn’t Lady Sariel who made this announcement.
I can’t imagine she would do anything like that to voluntarily meddle with the system, or that she even has the ability to do so.
It wasn’t Gülie, either.
So by process of elimination, that only leaves one possible culprit.
It must have been D.
I’ve never even met this administrator in person; frankly, I can’t read her at all.
It would be dangerous to make any moves when we don’t know what she might pull next.
I think our best bet is to wait things out and be ready to adapt on the fly.
The second reason is to feel out how the rest of the world is going to react to the world quest.
Certainly, it’s safe to assume that Dustin will turn against us like Gülie.
But what is he going to do?
I want to wait and see his reaction before I decide how to deal with him.
It’s a much more passive strategy than making the first move, but it’s the best I can do.
After all, our original hope was to destroy the system before the likes of Dustin and Gülie even caught on.
And before they realized that the backlash from destroying the system will kill around half of humankind.
If all went well, they wouldn’t have realized that until after it was already done.
Then that half of mankind would already be dead, and there’d be nothing they could do.
Now that the world quest has ruined that plan, it will be near impossible to keep things moving along in secret.
Dustin is sure to make a move; the only question is whether he has any means of preventing us from destroying the system or not.
If he doesn’t, we can simply ignore him.
But if he does, we’ll have to head him off with all our strength.
That’s why I need to wait and watch Dustin’s reaction to figure out whether he’s a threat.
The third reason is that we’ve just ended our fight against Potimas, and we haven’t even finished dealing with the aftermath yet.
It would be difficult to drop everything and leave here right away, especially with the reincarnations.
And then there’s the fourth reason.
This one is the most important of all: White’s absence.
White is the one in charge of actually destroying the system, and she’s got all kinds of other jobs, too: using her clones to monitor the situation across the world, teleporting us around, and so on, not to mention that she’s the one who actually came up with the plan in the first place.
In any event, White carries too much weight in this plan to go on without her.
There are so many things we can’t do if she’s not here that we’re basically stuck, and that’s the truth.
I explain all this to Wrath and Sophia.
“So realistically, all we can do is finish dealing with the aftermath of this battle and keep an eye on everyone else.”
Basically, all we can do is stick to the original plan.
“I see. That makes sense to me.”
Just as Wrath nods, Phelmina comes rushing into the room.
“I have a report.”
“Okay, let’s hear it.”
“Communications with Master have been cut off. Right after the world quest was announced, the reincarnation ‘Shunsuke Yamada,’ also known as Schlain, was suddenly teleported away. A witness stated that a white spider dropped onto his head before he disappeared.”
“That sounds like White’s work, all right.”
I’m guessing the reason communications with White have been cut off is that she doesn’t have the time or energy to spare for that.
If she’s fighting Gülie, not even White would be able to multitask.
But based on this report, she must have made some moves in the short time after the world quest announcement went out, right before her battle with Gülie began.
I do have some idea of where she might have sent Yamada.
“I see. She must have sent him to the love nest ahead of schedule…”
I actually feel a little bad for Yamada.
His half-sister Suresia, also known as Sue…
She was working with us under threat from White, but instead of simply using her, White decided to offer her a reward.
When we asked what she might want, she responded “a love nest where I can be alone with Brother.”
White readily agreed and prepared this “love nest” in some far-off place.
From her perspective, she was killing two birds with one stone: fulfilling Sue’s wish and sending the wild card known as Yamada far away as an added bonus.
Even I don’t know where this love nest is, exactly, but apparently, it’s so remote that it would be difficult to reach civilization from there without teleporting.
Now that she’s put Yamada there, he’s unlikely to make it out before we destroy the system.
Evidently, the place does have a small farm, weak monsters nearby for possible meat, and plenty of edible wild plants, so they won’t have any trouble surviving.
Even once the skill has been destroyed and his stats and skills are gone, he should still be fine.
This is all according to White’s standards of living, which of course makes me a little suspicious, but Sue and Yamada will have to contend with that themselves.
“There’s one problem, though… How do we explain this to Yamada’s army of admirers…?”
That Yamada is crazy popular with the ladies for whatever reason…
Even if it’s technically a reward for good work, we’re still basically presenting Yamada on a silver platter, regardless of his own wishes. I can imagine all too clearly how that’s going to turn out.
And I doubt the other girls will be very happy about it.
I mean, we just gave him away in some remote place without their knowledge…
But whether they accept that or not, there’s nothing we can do—even I don’t know where this love nest is.
All we can do is tell them the truth and let them decide whether to give up or leave no stone unturned in their search for him.
In fact, we’re not actually obligated to tell them anything. It might even be better for everyone involved if we cover it up.
“Well, that’s the long and short of it. I’ll leave it up to your discretion how much you want to tell them, Phelmina. But could you please tell them that his life isn’t in danger, at least?”
“Of course.”
I drop the responsibility of dealing with Yamada’s fan club on Phelmina.
His life isn’t in danger, and we don’t have time to put too much effort into this part of the plan anyway.
…Although I suppose his chastity might be in danger, if not his life.
Just then, I notice that Phelmina still hasn’t left.
She’s an exceptional soldier, who normally acts as soon as she’s given orders, but she hasn’t moved an inch…
Ah, I know why.
“If it’s White you’re worried about, she’ll be fine.”
“I see.”
The relief on Phelmina’s face confirms my suspicion.
She was worried about White because their communication got cut off.
I guess White’s pretty popular, too…
Shocking, I know.
White has been pretty awful to people like Sophia and Phelmina, yet they still seem to admire her.
…Then again, I guess you could say the same about me.
I used to see White as an enemy, but now I’ve become quite fond of her.
Maybe she’s just a naturally charismatic person.
Except everyone but me sees her as silent and mysterious…
I don’t think there’s anything charismatic about being so awkward that you have to keep all communication to a bare minimum.
Is she a genius at making people admire her, then?
Well, I guess that’s a silly thought to have when she’s probably locked in a life-or-death battle with Gülie at this very minute.
Here I was, hoping that Gülie won’t die, yet I’m not worried about White in the slightest.
But that’s only because…
“White is definitely going to win.”
I believe that with all my heart.
“So you don’t need to worry about her at all. We just have to do whatever we can on our end and welcome her back with a smile when she returns. It’s our job to keep her work from piling up any more than it already has.”
“Understood, ma’am.”
Phelmina looks relaxed now that her worries have been put to rest.
The situation isn’t actually over yet, but it seems like my words reassured her, at least.
“By the way, what is that thing doing?”
Phelmina’s eyes cool to absolute zero, as if she’s looking at some particularly disgusting garbage.
She’s looking at Sophia, who’s still wrapped up like a pupa.
“Ah… That’s right, I suppose she’s still tied up. What to do…?”
White…
If you had time to think about Yamada, you could’ve at least freed Sophia before you left, too…
A long time ago, when Wrath was wrapped up in White’s thread like this, we were having so much trouble cutting it that we had to set it on fire to get him out, with him still stuck inside…
Based on that example, I’m guessing we won’t be able to get Sophia out unless we set her on fire, too.
“Hmph.”
As we examine her, Sophia gives out a huff and turns her body into red mist, easily freeing herself from her bonds.
Wrath, Phelmina, and I all stare at her with wide eyes.
“You could’ve gotten out on your own all this time?”
“But of course.”
She puffs up her chest, as if stating the obvious. Why didn’t she just escape sooner, then?
“If I escaped in front of Master, she would have given me an even worse punishment, don’t you see?” Sophia clarifies.
My thoughts must have shown in my expression.
Now that she mentions it, that certainly makes sense.
Considering White’s personality, she would definitely get mad if someone escaped her beloved thread.
No doubt she would have come up with some needlessly elaborate method of ensnaring Sophia even more thoroughly so she couldn’t escape again.
When I think about it that way, she really is such a child at times…
Just as the mood in the room is starting to relax, something else happens.
<World quest sequence 1. Installing Taboo in all humanoids.>
“Huh?”
“Oh?”
Wrath and I are the only ones who manage to respond.
Sophia and Phelmina both collapse, grimacing in pain, even though they both have the Faint Nullification skill.
But thanks to the announcement that preceded this, I already know why.
“Well, that’s a bold move…”
I guess D doesn’t do things halfway, either.
Installing Taboo in all humanoids…
That’s the information that the Word of God religion has worked so hard to hide.
But this will render all their hard work moot in a matter of seconds.
Ha-ha… Yikes!
Boy, what I wouldn’t give to see Dustin’s expression right now!
The Word of God church must be in an uproar, or at least Dustin himself must be.
Most of the other humans have probably collapsed just like these two.
Only people who have already maxed out their Taboo skill, like Dustin, Wrath, and I have, will be unaffected.
The greatest strength of Dustin’s Word of God religion is that it’s a huge organization.
While Dustin is an exceptional leader, there’s only so much he can do on his own.
His power comes from being able to command such an enormous group, with believers all over the world, as he sees fit.
But right now, most of the humans who make up that organization are unconscious, due to the Taboo installation.
In other words, the Word of God church is more or less out of commission.
Naturally, that means Dustin’s defenses will be weakened, too.
This is the perfect chance to take him out.
Now, killing Dustin normally wouldn’t make much difference.
Thanks to the effects of his ruler skill, Temperance, he reincarnates with all his memories intact after he’s been killed.
It takes a few years for him to come back after dying.
Then it takes several more years for his new body to grow, but while he’s gone, the massive organization of the Word of God will fill the hole left by his absence and keep the world in its proper state.
Dustin’s absence creates a large void, but not so big that it can’t be filled.
It’s small wonder that Potimas could never destroy the Word of God organization.
Even without Dustin, their strength is scarcely affected.
But this situation is different.
If Dustin disappears at this crucial moment, the Word of God religion will become a headless, directionless mob.
Not only that, but it’ll create an opening for the ruler skill, Temperance.
We could clear up one of the all-important keys for destroying the system.
It wouldn’t end up in our hands necessarily, but this would at least even out a situation that’s currently to our disadvantage.
So this would be the perfect time to take Dustin down.
…But unfortunately, I have no way of doing so.
The only way we could make contact with Dustin right now would be through White’s teleportation…
Our truce with Dustin was only temporary until we defeated Potimas.
Now that we’ve finished that fight, White’s white-robed subordinates who were there as liaisons have already withdrawn from Dustin’s side.
Like Gülie, we knew that Dustin would oppose us if he found out the cost of destroying the system.
It would be like leaving pawns on the enemy side, which would be pointless as long as we have White.
I’m sure White could have easily erased Dustin herself, if need be.
His actual strength is no different from the average human’s, after all.
But since White is gone right now, we have no way of getting to Dustin.
It’s a perfect chance, yet I have no choice but to let it slip away.
Maybe we should have left someone in Dustin’s camp in case of a situation like this?
But we needed all hands on deck to fight Potimas, too…
Oh, well. I suppose there’s no point regretting what’s already done.
We might be missing a golden opportunity, but the installation of Taboo for all of humanity isn’t a bad deal for us, either.
If anything, it might work out in our favor.
The contents of Taboo could easily shake the foundation of the Word of God religion.
I imagine Dustin’s closest associates have been informed about it, but the average priests and believers don’t know anything, of course.
Once they awaken, the Word of God church won’t recover—it’ll only get more chaotic.
Perhaps Dustin will be able to settle them down in a short period of time, but it’ll still prevent him from reacting right away.
So it would be great if we could take advantage of this chaos…
But we still don’t know what developments the world quest will bring next, you know?
It said “world quest sequence 1,” after all.
That means there will be a “2,” and maybe more beyond that.
It’s very concerning that we have no idea what those might entail.
Especially when the first one was a large-scale move like installing Taboo information in all mankind.
The others might be just as big.
In fact, it’s probably best to assume they will be.
This is D we’re talking about, after all.
The Taboo installation alone is going to have untold consequences for humanity.
Once they all awaken, I can easily picture the hellish scenes of pandemonium that might unfold.
I wouldn’t be surprised if “sequence 2” forced all these panicked masses to start killing each other or something equally insane.
That would actually be ideal for our purposes, but I doubt it’ll be that easy.
So the best plan for now is to watch and wait.
Really, there’s nothing else we can do.
We can’t take very quick action in the elf village from here, anyway.
With White gone, our mobility is greatly limited.
It’s a painful reminder of just how convenient her teleportation abilities are.
Although even if White were here, it would probably be a tall order to move the remains of the demon and imperial armies, plus the reincarnations, all in one go.
If we could do that, things wouldn’t be so…hard?
It’s at this moment that I remember exactly where I am.
I’m on the spaceship that Potimas created.
A giant vessel that was designed for a long journey to search for a habitable planet, complete with residential quarters and manufacturing facilities.
Couldn’t this spaceship accommodate everyone who’s left in the elf village?
And since Potimas activated it yesterday in order to escape when he knew he was about to lose the battle, that means it has already accumulated enough energy to travel.
“Miss Ariel, I’m going to check on things outside. If everyone fainted all of a sudden, someone might have gotten injured.”
Wrath’s voice pulls me out of my reverie.
“Ah, good point. That may be necessary.”
Now that he mentions it, it’s very possible that someone could’ve hit their head when they fell unconscious.
They might have been carrying something heavy and gotten trapped underneath, or even passed out in the middle of washing their face and drowned.
“At any rate, we shouldn’t just leave them all lying around. Let’s take this opportunity to carry them all aboard.”
“Aboard?”
“Mm-hmm. Aboard this ship, that is.”
I give a slightly mischievous grin, and Wrath looks surprised for a moment, then nods with understanding.
“I get it. That’s a brilliant idea.”
“Right?”
Wrath’s sharp intuition is very useful at times like these.
Even if I get the feeling White also takes advantage of that usefulness.
“I’m going to stay here and figure out how to make this ship move. Wrath, you check up on everyone and start carrying the men aboard. For the women, Fiel should be hanging around outside somewhere.”
For some reason, Fiel’s been hanging around an old man from the imperial army by the name of Ronandt.
It’s a waste to have her just messing around at a time like this, so I might as well put her to work to make up for it.
“All right.”
“Thanks. I know it’ll be a lot of work, but I’m counting on you, okay?”
Wrath smiles wanly as he leaves.
Now then…
“All that being said, I’ve never even driven a car. Am I going to be able to operate this thing?”
We’re about to find out whether or not I can fly a spaceship.
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