So I’m a Spider, So What Vol. 14 — Part 1 of 8

Part 1 of 8

So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 14

Okina Baba

Translation by Jenny McKeon

Cover art by Tsukasa Kiryu

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

KUMO DESUGA, NANIKA? Vol. 14

©Okina Baba, Tsukasa Kiryu 2021

First published in Japan in 2021 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through TUTTLE-MORI AGENCY, INC., Tokyo.

Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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First Yen On Edition: June 2022

Edited by Yen On Editorial: Payton Campbell

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Baba, Okina, author. | Kiryu, Tsukasa, illustrator. | McKeon, Jenny, translator.

Title: So I’m a spider, so what? / Okina Baba ; illustration by Tsukasa Kiryu ; translation by Jenny McKeon.

Other titles: Kumo desuga nanika. English | So I am a spider, so what?

Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2017–

Classification: LCC PZ7.1.O44 So 2017 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017034911

ISBNs: 978-1-9753-4175-6 (paperback)

978-1-9753-4176-3 (ebook)

E3-20220518-JV-NF-ORI

Contents

Cover

Insert

Title Page

L1 The Lord Who Had No Name

1 Before the Battle

B1 Reminisce: First Meeting

Interlude Potimas’s Beginning

2 The Starting Bell of the Final Battle

L2 The Lord Who Was Once a Lab Rat

Interlude Potimas’s Experiments

B2 Ruminate: The Lost Angel and the Dragon

3 Showdown: Annihilation

L3 The Lord Who Had Friends

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

Interlude Potimas and Conjuring

4 Showdown: Spider vs Robot

L4 The Lord Learns a Lesson

B4 Ruminate: Vampires

Interlude Potimas and Vampires

5 Showdown: Spider vs Mega-Robot

L5 The Lord Looks On

B5 Ruminate: MA Energy

Interlude Potimas and the Popularization of MA Energy

6 Showdown: Chance Meeting

Interlude The Old Man and the Witchy Little Ladies

L6 The Lord, Alone

B6 Ruminate: Ragnarok

Interlude The President’s Decision

Interlude Potimas and the God’s Sacrifice

7 Showdown: Countless Spider Eyes

L7 The Lord, Avenged

B7 Ruminate: Thus History Moves Again

8 End of Battle: She Who Walks with the Lord

Afterword

Yen Newsletter

Every day was spent lying in bed.

I could never get up and leave.

Twenty-four hours a day I was connected to several tubes that provided me with essential nutrients.

I was just a laboratory animal, with no apparent reason for living.

That was all I was, nothing more.

But then…

“Hello. My name is Sariel. And what is your name?”

…that person reached out her hand to me.

“…A…riel…?”

“Ariel? What a coincidence. Your name sounds just like mine.”

I was only trying to repeat her name, but since my voice was raspy, she misunderstood what I had said.

That trivial reason was how I got my name.

But I’m fine with that.

Because it’s the name she gave me.

Off in the distance is a huge expanse of trees.

The Great Garam Forest.

As the name implies, it’s a ridiculously large forest.

Even from this far away, it stretches in either direction as far as the eye can see.

We members of the demon army, disguised as the imperial army, are currently marching toward that forest.

Or more specifically, toward the elf village at its heart.

It’s time to settle the score with Potimas, our longtime enemy.

Natsume and the imperial army have already arrived at its border, where they’re cutting a path for the rest of us.

Thanks to an, um, expansion pack that I generously added to his brain, Natsume now does whatever I say.

And with his handy-dandy Seven Deadly Sins skill “Lust,” he’s brainwashed the top brass of the empire into doing whatever he says.

So he’s been able to bring the imperial army all this way, and we in the demon army are basically going along for the ride, disguised as part of the imperial army.

Demons don’t really look any different from humans, after all.

Since we’re all decked out in imperial army duds and boldly marching in broad daylight, it’s been surprisingly easy to get away without being found out.

Besides, we already got our story straight with the people who would normally be the biggest pain if they did find out: the Word of God religion, which has encompassed most of humanity.

They also happen to see the elves as a mortal enemy who must be destroyed at all costs, after all. Nothing would make them happier than the demons and elves fighting it out.

I’m sure they’re not thrilled that we’re borrowing the imperial army, humanity’s main defense force, in the process, but they obviously decided that it was worth the possible sacrifice if it meant crushing the elves, or more specifically their leader Potimas.

So we don’t need to worry about the Word of God turning against us in this battle.

We’re not perfect allies now or anything, but it’s a temporary truce, and an equally temporary alliance.

The enemy of my enemy…you know the rest.

Which means we can focus all our energy on destroying Potimas without worrying about anyone else.

It’s finally time to settle things once and for all.

…And yet.

Even with this crucial showdown looming before us, the mood is weirdly relaxed.

“Ooooh~”

“Right here? Is this the spot?”

In our horse-drawn, or rather spider-drawn carriage, my voice cries out as the Demon Lord mercilessly attacks my weak spots, sounding like she relishes it immensely.

Just to make things clear in advance, we’re not doing anything dirty!

It’s just a massage!

And I don’t mean that kind of massage, I mean a literal, health-related, perfectly normal massage!

It’s not dirty in any way!

IT’S NOT DIRTY IN ANY WAY!

I’m saying that twice to stress how serious I am!

Look, I’ve been putting in serious overtime setting the stage for this showdown for ages now, really busting my butt.

So as a show of gratitude, or something, the Demon Lord is personally giving me a massage.

And I gotta tell you, it feels great.

“Ahaaa~”

As the Demon Lord’s hands skillfully find the spots that feel best, I can’t help but let out a few noises, okay?

You’d never guess it, but the Demon Lord is actually super multitalented.

She’s a great cook, too.

Since she’s lived such a long time, she’s picked up all kinds of tricks, much like you’d from a wise old granny.

“Hiyah!”

“Guh?!”

“Who’re you calling an ancient hag?!”

“I didn’t say—gwuh?!”

As if reading my mind, the Demon Lord hits me with a shiatsu attack!

I didn’t call her a hag!

I called her a granny, but that’s all!

Besides, it’s true she’s lived a long time! That’s just a fact!

“Hiyah!”

“Hoomph?!”

Her fingers apply even more pressure!

Excuse meeee? Miss Demon Lord?

You know your stats are around ninety thousand on average, right?

If you really wanted to, you could crush a person into a pulp with your fingers alone. You do realize that, don’t you?

So please don’t go poking at my pressure points with that kind of strength!

If you hit anyone else with those Fingers of the North Star, they’d probably go “HIDEBU!” and explode into a puddle of blood, manga-style!

So basically, we’re messing around in our spider-drawn carriage, but I imagine most people would question if we should really be acting like this before such a major battle.

But hey, we’ve taken care of all the setup we could manage, and since the demon army is currently on the move, there’s not much else we can do.

Sure, we could try and speed the army’s progress along, but Natsume’s imperial army is stuck up ahead because of the forest anyway.

We can’t very well march through the whole forest in such huge numbers, so they should be in the middle of clearing a nice path for us right about now.

Normally I imagine it’d be pretty tough to cut a path through this massive forest big enough for a whole army, but with the stats and skills that exist in this world, logging is a relatively simple task.

If I really wanted to, I could unleash a killer fist or two of my own, and blast the trees out of our way easily, roots and all.

Even without going that far, the imperial army is using its various strengths to cut through the forest faster than would ever have been possible on Earth.

Still, it’s obviously gonna be a lot slower than marching across level ground.

In other words, there’s no point rushing the demon army when the imperial army is still in that process anyway, because we’d just catch up to them.

Which would be a problem.

Because the majority of the imperial army doesn’t know that we’re the demon army.

Natsume’s brainwashing is really only in effect on a small amount of the top brass; most of the soldiers are just doing as they’re told.

Naturally, there’s no reason for those soldiers to know that the other unit following behind them is actually the demon army.

They just think we’re a normal part of the imperial army.

Now, given that the demon army really is wearing the imperial army uniform and everything, I don’t think anyone would figure it out from far away.

But if we actually met up with them, we wouldn’t be able to hide that something is off.

For one thing, the demon army doesn’t normally wear this uniform; we just threw them together in a hurry for this particular campaign.

Up close, I’m sure it’d be clear that our troops aren’t used to it, like when you can tell a new employee is wearing a suit for the first time.

But there’s a way more obvious discrepancy than a minor detail like that.

Demons speak their own language, after all…

As soon as they overheard a single word of that language, it’d be game over, man…

Not to mention that we’re riding in a spider-drawn carriage right now!

I’m pretty sure they don’t have those in the empire!

What kind of a carriage uses arch taratects instead of horses…?

Using something this ridiculous looking is definitely gonna give away that we’re not a normal army.

So yeah, we have to make sure we don’t catch up to the imperial army.

Which is why we’re taking our time with the march.

Besides, it’s safe to assume that the battle we’re heading into is going to be a tough one. It’s not a bad idea to relax while we can instead of wearing ourselves out for no good reason.

What would be the point of showing up physically exhausted and mentally drained?

That’s why the Demon Lord and I are taking it easy and encouraging the demon army to do the same by slowing their pace: to conserve energy.

So what about the imperial army up ahead, you ask? Well, they’re basically sacrificial pawns, sooo…

All we really need them to do is thin the elves’ numbers and disturb their ranks a little bit.

There’s no way an army of ordinary humans can contend with the elves’ real strength, anyway.

As long as the imperial army can thin out the surface part of their forces, then they’ve done their duties well enough.

If they can draw out the elves’ real strength, namely the mechanical weaponry Potimas is hiding, that would be even better.

And sadly, if they accomplish that, the imperial army’s gonna get decimated…

To be totally honest, I think most of their soldiers are gonna die.

If they’re already doomed, what’s the point in worrying about their exhaustion and all that, y’know?

Nope, we just need them to part the waters for us, so to speak.

Or the trees, in this case.

“Mm…”

At that moment, the Demon Lord’s hands stop their massaging.

“…Again?”

“…Mm-hmm. So it would seem…”

The Demon Lord pulls away from me and takes her seat, looking somewhat annoyed.

Then she starts talking to herself.

“Hello? Ah, okay… Mm-hmm…”

To an outside observer, it might look like she’s lost her mind, but she is actually conversing with someone.

It’s not like she’s receiving some weird signal that only she can hear.

…Although I guess it might be, in a way.

But, well, you know…

The Telepathy skill lets you have a sort of phone-like conversation with someone far away, but in this case…she’s talking to Vampy.

At the moment, Vampy is traveling with the imperial army, and apparently she’s reeeally bored since they’re stuck cutting through the forest.

And since she’s bored, she’s started sending us Telepathy calls at incredibly frequent intervals.

Not only to the Demon Lord, but to Mera and Mr. Oni and so on just as frequently.

If you calculate based on how often she’s been talking to the Demon Lord, doesn’t that mean she’s been talking to someone with Telepathy at every waking moment?

How needy can you get?!

Sure, Vampy probably doesn’t know anyone in the imperial army, and she’s not exactly the type to try and make friends on her own. So I’m sure she’s bored with no one to talk to, but still…

Phelmina’s with her, but those two get along like cats and dogs.

…Hmm?

Wait a second.

Wasn’t there one more person traveling with Vampy?

That guy who fell madly in love with her at the demon academy, chased out and screwed over his own fiancée Phelmina to make himself a bachelor, and on top of that begged and pleaded with Vampy until she finally made him a vampire, and thus her underling?

His name’s Wald, but hoo boy.

According to my calculations, Vampy is spending most of her time using Telepathy to bother the rest of us, which means that she’s refusing to converse with Wald, who’s presumably right next to her…

That’s rough, buddy.

He threw away all kinds of things to become a vampire out of his love for Vampy, and this is how she treats him…

Then again, since Phelmina is one of the things he threw away, maybe this is just karma?

Hrmmm…

His attachment, or rather obsession, is certainly a bit stalker-y, and someone who’s secretly super antisocial like Vampy wouldn’t know how to handle someone coming on so strong.

Even though she comes on super strong to the people she likes…

Luckily for me, I’ve lost all my skills, so she can’t contact me with Telepathy.

The Demon Lord, Mera, and Mr. Oni are just gonna have to deal with Vampy’s boredom on their own.

They’re all really nice deep down, or they wouldn’t answer her in the first place.

…Although maybe they’re just using that as a distraction, too.

After all, we’re about to face Potimas himself.

To be totally honest, there’s no way of knowing if all of us will survive.

I definitely don’t think we’re gonna lose, that’s for sure.

I’ve made an almost unnecessary level of preparations to ensure our victory.

But there’s no such thing as an absolute guarantee.

Just like I’ve been preparing for all I’m worth, I’m sure Potimas has been doing the very same.

In fact, he’s been doing that for ages and aaaages, since long before we reincarnations were born into this world.

I still don’t know all of Potimas’s secrets.

So there’s no telling what might happen.

Just to be extra clear, I seriously don’t think we’re gonna lose.

But I can’t say for sure that there won’t be any losses.

In the worst-case scenario, I might be the only survivor.

That’s how intense this fight is probably gonna get.

Maybe Vampy has picked up on that, too…

“Demon Lord.”

“Hmm?”

“Give Vampy a message for me.”

“What is it?”

“Don’t worry, we’re gonna win.”

The Demon Lord blinks back at me for a moment, but then she grins and starts talking again.

“Message for ya from White. ‘Don’t worry, we’re gonna win,’ she says. Aww, isn’t it nice of her to try to comfort you in your time of need, widdle Sophia?”

Excuse me.

Did I ask you to say that last part?

Judging by the smirk on her face, this is obviously a premeditated crime, that jerk.

“Oof.” The Demon Lord winces and tilts her head. “…She yelled at me and hung up.”

I can absolutely picture Vampy spewing a rapid-fire volley of insults and hanging up in a huff.

She’s so easy to read, that one.

In spite of her high stats, Vampy is pretty simple-minded deep down.

No idea how she turned out like this…

I’d like to have a word with whoever raised her.

“Aww, she’s sooo cute.”

The Demon Lord barely stifles a laugh.

…Come to think of it, she was basically Vampy’s substitute parent in her infancy, huh?

That totally explains how she ended up such a weirdo.

“Hiyah!”

OWWWW?!

The Demon Lord flicked my forehead!

Again, if you did that to anyone but me, their head would fly right off!

“You were thinking something insulting again, weren’t you?”

Grrr!

I can’t even claim that’s a false accusation because she’s right!

“Y’know, White, at a glance you seem hard to read, but it’s actually very easy.”

The Demon Lord gives an exaggerated sigh.

…It’s not like I try to be particularly hard to read, but it’s still kinda surprising to hear that.

“What are our chances of winning this next battle?”

Her expression turns serious as she asks this.

I guess that means we’re done joking around.

So I give her my honest assessment.

“One hundred percent.”

“…Then what are the chances that we survive?”

“……”

By “we,” I assume she means herself, Vampy, Mr. Oni, Mera, and the puppet spider sisters.

The rest of the masses probably don’t count in this case.

“Since you didn’t answer right away, that must mean the chances aren’t 100 percent. See? Easy to read.”

I don’t know how to respond to that.

“You really are too soft on the people you care about, White.”

The Demon Lord smirks.

But her expression quickly turns serious again.

“But you’ll have to drop that softness for this battle in particular.”

“……”

“This is war. There will be casualties on both sides. And we’re betting our own lives on this, too. If we die in the process, that just means we weren’t strong enough.”

“What, so you don’t need my help?”

“I didn’t say that. But you shouldn’t go overboard trying to help us. Just focus on making sure we win.”

…It’s not like I don’t understand what she’s trying to say.

But even so…

“If I can help you, I will.”

“…Then I’d better make sure I don’t cause you any such trouble.”

I don’t think I can bring myself to abandon the Demon Lord and the others.

I know she thinks I’m being soft, but if anything, this is for my own sake.

I don’t want to be left with regrets or anything like that.

So I amend my statement:

“Our chances of winning with everyone surviving are 100 percent.”

I won’t accept any other kind of victory.

Let’s do this.

The beginning of my romance with Sariel wasn’t terribly interesting.

No, I suppose it was a rather impactful encounter, enough that it might be interesting to some.

But I feel the need to state in advance that there was no romantic element present in our first meeting, just in case that is what anyone was interested in.

Unfortunately, it was not love at first sight, or any such flight of fancy.

My first meeting with Sariel was impactful in a very different way.

Not in a romantic sense, but rather, a more literal sort of impact.

A direct impact, if you will.

Since she knocked me to the ground the very first time we met.

Impactful, is it not?

The world before the system was implemented was a very different world entirely.

Its appearance, its inner workings, and everything in between.

Perhaps this is obvious, but without the system, there were no skills or stats.

This meant that people were weaker on the whole, but as there were no monsters or any such thing either, they did not need to be strong.

As they could not use magic, science developed instead; buildings were constructed tall enough to pierce the heavens, smooth and solid streets connected across the natural ground, and automobiles filled those streets to bursting.

If the people of those times could see how life is in this world today, I imagine they would think that time had gone backward.

With the help of skills, people whose knowledge still remains, and so on, we have not gone entirely backward, but I am sure such differences are only tangible to those of us who knew the time before, like Ariel, Dustin, and me.

No doubt Potimas pays no attention to such things.

Other than that, I suppose reincarnations might notice.

Before they were reborn here, it seems they lived on a planet with a fairly advanced civilization as well.

Perhaps some of them have also noticed the occasional remnants of the technologies we once had, which do not seem to fit with our current way of life.

The system was programmed to make books and other such recording mediums deteriorate faster to eliminate such things, but it cannot erase what has been handed down over generations by word of mouth and so on.

As if to prove that even a species as weak as humans can resist a powerful god like D…even in the tiniest of ways.

Although I doubt that was the humans’ intent. This is just wishful thinking on my part, I’m sure…

Ah, but I digress.

At any rate, things changed so drastically that one might doubt that this is the same world as before.

And it was not just the world that changed, but myself as well.

I was a prideful person at the time, though it may be strange to say so myself.

I firmly believed that humans were inferior creatures, and never doubted that for a second.

In my defense, I will clarify that the same could be said of all dragons.

I do not mean the monsters that are called such in this current world, but true dragons, such as myself.

We true dragons are a powerful species, promised that we can reach godhood from the moment we are born.

As a result, we tend to genuinely believe that dragons are a superior race, and all others are beneath us.

Now that I have encountered the ultra-powerful god known as D, I no longer believe this with such confidence, but at the time there was never a doubt in my mind.

Thus, it did not amuse me to see the inferior race of humans spreading across the world as if they owned the place.

Why did the top-ranking dragons not use their overwhelming might to subjugate these humans?

I did not understand.

For a dragon, I am still relatively young, but back then I was even younger.

I suppose you could call it the arrogance of youth.

So when a dragon child was kidnapped by a measly human, of all things, you can imagine that I was extremely displeased.

In those days, dragons kept to themselves in a small dominion.

Of the ruling dragons, many of them were dissatisfied with this way of life.

But for dragons, the rule of seniority is absolute.

If an elder dragon gives an order, younger dragons must obey it.

We suppressed our displeasure and obeyed the commands of the older dragons.

The years a dragon has lived directly correspond with their strength.

Unlike other creatures, the strength or weakness of a parent does not determine that of the child.

Which is why all elderly dragons were respected, and children were treasured and treated equally.

Dragons live so long that their average lifespan cannot be predicted, and individually strong dragons hardly ever have children.

Because it is such a rare occurrence, dragon children are raised with great care.

And stealing such a priceless treasure from us was bound to invoke incomparable wrath.

I had no personal connection to that child; we had never even met.

But even I felt my blood boiling.

So you can only imagine the parents’ rage.

It would have been no surprise if they went about destroying human villages indiscriminately, searching for their child.

Perhaps that is exactly why I, an unrelated individual, was assigned to keep watch over the child.

Observation only, not rescue.

According to the elder dragons, “As the child was stolen by man, it stands to reason that man must do the rescuing as well.”

Otherwise, there would be no more justification for dragons to tolerate humans.

Upon hearing this, my honest reaction was, “Is there really any need to tolerate them?”

At the time, I thought we should simply destroy a human town or two to set an example.

But I could not disobey the elder dragons’ orders.

Instead, I was to monitor the kidnapped child, as a safety net just in case any danger might befall them before humans could rescue them.

It was a criminal syndicate that had kidnapped the child.

Dragons are a skillful race. As soon as we realized the child had been kidnapped, we immediately found out the culprits.

Then we contacted the nation where those criminals were hiding and demanded that they rescue the child themselves.

Humans know how terrifying dragons can be.

And they know what it means to steal a child from dragons, too.

Back then, I thought of the kidnappers and the rescuers alike as mere humans of the same ilk, but in retrospect, the kidnappers must have been out of their minds.

Any human with the slightest good sense would know better than to kidnap a dragon child.

It was only because this group lacked any sense at all that they were able to resort to such madness.

The humans who kidnapped the dragon child were, simply put, idiots.

Which is why they were being used.

As I would learn much later, the mastermind behind this foolish kidnapping was none other than Potimas.

He was using the crime syndicate to research the transcendent race known as dragons.

He was even careful enough to put several other organizations and individuals between himself and the perpetrators, so that we would not identify him as the one behind it all.

That man knew perfectly well what happened to those who incurred the wrath of dragons.

Otherwise, he would not have taken such care to ensure that we wouldn’t find him.

It is hard to say whether this makes him bold for meddling with dragons, or a coward for taking such cautionary measures to hide from us.

Either way, because of this incident, he was able to get his hands on a bit of body tissue from a dragon: hair and scale fragments from the kidnapped child.

He used the tissue to create a chimera, but that is a story for another time.

I could not pardon the perpetrators, even if they were being used by Potimas.

That is what it means to lay a hand on a dragon.

Desperate to avoid being caught up in the consequences, the nation where the crime syndicate was hiding hurried to take countermeasures.

They had to recover the stolen child safely before anything terrible happened.

But if anything, I was hoping that the perpetrators would try to harm the child.

If they did, I would have good reason to blow them away, and this entire nation along with them.

I was ordered to keep watch in case any danger befell the child. If it looked like any harm might come to them, I was to protect the child by any means necessary.

If those conditions were met, I would be permitted to use force.

I excel in spatial conjuring and could easily teleport to the child’s side in an emergency.

Unless anything highly unusual occurred, I should have no problem getting there in time.

So rather than the incident ending peacefully, I hoped that I would have the chance to show these humans what would happen if they tried to harm a dragon.

That is how much irrational, pent-up anger was in my mind at the time.

And to add to that…

“Hey, buddy. Don’t you know this is our turf?”

This encounter only added fuel to my burning rage.

My mistake was choosing a dark, inconspicuous alley from which to keep watch.

Disguised as a human, all alone in such an alley, I must have looked like perfect prey to those ill-bred buffoons.

Soon I was surrounded by good-for-nothing human youngsters.

Groups like this seem to exist in any world, any era.

An inconvenience, though I did not think so at the time.

My hand moved before I could think.

My anger was already at its boiling point, and in those days, I did not distinguish between humans.

The ones who kidnapped the child, the ones attempting to recover them, and the ones who surrounded me at the time were all just “humans” to me.

And now those humans were threatening me.

I needed no further reason to attack them.

The young delinquents were probably only thinking to threaten me and steal my wallet and must not have imagined that I would suddenly try to kill them.

Certainly, they would never have dreamed that I was actually a dragon.

And before they could realize any of that, my fist was already swinging toward them, about to rip them to pieces faster than they could even realize they were dead.

But my fist never reached them.

Because someone grabbed my arm from behind before I could strike.

“…?!”

Instinctively, I tried to hit whoever had grabbed me with my free hand.

But they blocked my backhand chop, producing a shock wave.

It sent the delinquents flying, but I had no time to worry about that.

Because the shock wave knocked me off my feet as well.

For a moment, I didn’t understand what had happened. I simply found myself on the ground, looking up at the sky.

“Warning. I cannot permit physical interference with the native species.”

The person responsible looked down at me and spoke in a flat, mechanical voice with no audible trace of emotion.

“Hostile action detected from dragon toward native species. Such actions would conflict with the authorized mission. Further attempts will result in elimination.”

It was a merciless declaration.

The speaker knew I was a dragon yet stated that she would eliminate me if I took action.

And she was powerful enough to make good on those words.

This is the reason that dragons did not attempt to rule the world, even though they considered themselves a superior species.

Because there was an even stronger being that protected the native life.

Namely, the one they now call a goddess: Sariel.

During our first encounter, we immediately attacked each other, and I was knocked to the ground and informed that I would be eliminated.

That was my first meeting with Sariel.

See? Not romantic in the slightest, is it?

I cannot accept this.

Why must people die?

Why is there no way to avoid it?

Death is the end… The end of one’s very existence.

I find it hard to accept such a thing.

I do not want to die. Indeed, I am afraid of dying.

Why do the other humans accept death so readily?

Because it cannot be avoided? Because it is our fate?

Foolish. Absolutely foolish.

They go on living their carefree lives, making no effort to avoid death.

Their indolent ways make me sick.

I refuse to simply accept fate and wait for my death.

I will find the key to eternity.

An immortal life in which I need not fear death.

I swear it.

No matter what it takes.

In the midst of the dense forest stands a huge barrier, completely out of place in nature.

The Demon Lord, the puppet spider sisters, and I—six people in total—stand in front of that barrier, away from the rest of the demon army.

Ahead of them, the imperial army has finally reached the outer edge of the barrier that covers the elf village.

All we need to do is get rid of this barrier somehow, and we can invade.

Although that’s kind of the problem.

This barrier is ridiculously tough!

How tough, you ask? Tough enough that it wouldn’t even budge if it took a full-force breath attack from a queen taratect.

What, you think that example is oddly specific?

That’s because I’ve actually tested it out, of course.

See, the Great Garam Forest is known for one other thing besides being home to the elf village.

Namely: it’s inhabited by a queen taratect.

Yep, a member of the very same species as my infamous mother, who lived in the Great Elroe Labyrinth, lives right here in this forest.

It’s easy enough to guess why, though.

It’s here to keep watch on Potimas, the Demon Lord’s mortal enemy.

The barrier prevents it from doing any harm to the elf village, but by staking out the territory of a giant monster right next door, it can apply pressure nonstop.

Thanks to this queen taratect, Potimas can’t drop the barrier even if he wants to.

And in order to avoid walking right into the queen taratect’s habitat, the elves have no choice but to depend on long-distance teleportation by way of teleport gates.

Incidentally, the queen taratect in question has currently been evacuated to avoid getting in the way of the imperial army’s invasion.

It’s on the other side of the elf village, of course!

In other words, the elves are currently surrounded on both sides by the imperial army and the queen taratect’s swarm of spiders.

Sweet!

But wait! In order to carry out that pincer attack, we’ve gotta get rid of the barrier, which even the queen’s breath attack couldn’t crack.

This barrier was apparently made with full use of Potimas’s stupid forbidden knowledge, and produces a ridiculous level of defense at all times by draining an exorbitant amount of MA energy.

Which means it’s been wasting tons of the energy the system has been slowly and steadily collecting. Man, that pisses me off!

Ughhh, I wanna break this stupid thing to bits.

But not now. It’s not time for that just yet.

Right now, we’re still waiting for our signal.

Because there’s something else we have to do before we break the barrier: destroy the teleport gates.

Teleport gates are a long-distance transportation method that anyone can use.

In the case of the elf village, which is cut off by the barrier, it’s also their only connection to the outside world.

If we don’t destroy the teleport gates, the elves can still escape, even if we’ve got them physically surrounded.

And then they’ll be in some far-off land on the other side of the gates.

Even if we tried to chase them down, we’d be out of luck if they destroy the teleport gate after they’ve gotten away.

Now, thanks to tracking and investigation by the Word of God religion over many years, they know about a handful of teleport gates.

But we can’t say for sure that there aren’t more gates we don’t know about.

So our plan is to use the teleport gates we do know of to invade the elf village, and destroy the teleport gates from the inside.

Luckily for us, the teleport gates in the elf village are apparently all built in one place since they have to have a way around the barrier.

Because of the way the barrier is built, they have to make all the gates in one spot, where they temporarily make a hole in the barrier that connects to the outside to send the elves on their merry way.

I discovered this while I was investigating the barrier.

Since this is Potimas we’re talking about, I can’t say for sure that there aren’t more teleport gates elsewhere, but I didn’t find any other weak spots in the barrier, which makes me think those are the only ones.

Which means it’s possible to destroy all the teleport gates in one go.

So yeah, the signal we’re waiting for is a report that our guy has successfully infiltrated the barrier and destroyed the teleport gates.

And who’s leading this secret mission? A reincarnation named Kusama.

His full name in our old lives was Shinobu Kusama.

And his unique skill as a reincarnation is apparently “Ninja”…

That’s totally just based on his name, right?

Isn’t that a little cheap?

Damn D, slacking off on the job as usual…

Anyway, turns out Kusama was reborn into the family that runs the Word of God religion’s secret service.

They’re basically ninjas who serve the Word of God.

Even Potimas couldn’t extract Kusama from a house with such a strong influence from the church, which means he’s the one and only reincarnation who hasn’t had any encounters with the elves in his life.

Although considering the unique circumstances he was born into, I doubt he’s had a particularly peaceful time, either.

For instance, he was thoroughly trained as a member of the secret service, and his unique skill Ninja is a perfect fit for that, making him surprisingly strong.

Well, strong by human standards, anyway.

But it’s enough that a little breaking and entering to blow up some teleport gates should be a piece of cake for him.

By the way, we’re using Mr. Oni’s handmade exploding swords for the “blowing up” part.

They’re called magic swords, but really they’re just bombs.

Plus, they’re explosive enough that just one of them could wipe out all of the teleport gates without issue.

And Mr. Oni is just mass-producing those, y’know?

He looks like a swordsman, but he’s more like a demolition expert, huh?

That’s quite a scam if you ask me.

I even used my threads to make him a classic Japanese-style getup that would go with his katana and everything.

A sword-wielding samurai with horns!

But he actually just blows things up.

No waaay.

Anyway, turns out Kusama and Mr. Oni were pretty good friends back in their previous lives; when we were meeting with the Word of God church, they met up a few times and renewed their old friendship, I guess.

Maybe Mr. Oni gave him the exploding sword as a parting gift kinda thing?

I wouldn’t know, since I have no old friends to get reacquainted with!

Not that I’m jealous or anything!

As I get weirdly defensive in my own internal monologue, I peer inside the barrier.

It’s transparent enough that you can see through it from the outside.

That means visible light rays must be able to pass through, and I assume oxygen and stuff too, since it’s presumably not airtight.

You’d think that would allow for a certain amount of shenanigans, but I’m sure the Demon Lord and the Pontiff and such have already tested out any theories I might come up with, meaning there must be some kind of countermeasures in place for that sort of thing.

Man, what a pain-in-the-ass barrier.

Although busting it open will be a walk in the park for yours truly!

This is the plan for once Kusama successfully destroys the teleport gates:

First, I’m gonna pop the barrier around the elf village like a balloon.

We’ve set it up to look like the imperial army used some new kind of massive magic to destroy it, which should make for a good distraction.

Then Natsume and the imperial army will advance.

He’s pissed off more than a few people, so I’m sure the elves will rush to destroy him right away.

At the very least, I’m guessing Yamada and friends will head over to fight him.

In fact, I kind of need them to do that.

I’ve got to avoid letting Yamada run into the Demon Lord, no matter what.

Hopefully, though, I can count on Güli-güli’s clone Hyrince to take care of that.

Hyrince, you’ve got this, right, buddy?

I’m counting on you to steer him in the right direction, mm’kay?

At any rate, while the elves have their eyes on the imperial army, the demon army will start advancing, too, and attack the elves from the side.

Mera and Mr. Oni are in charge of directing the demon army, and Vampy is up ahead with the imperial army. No problems there.

Phelmina’s with the latter, too, just in case anything goes wrong.

Even if the elves have more forces than we were expecting, that crew can stick it out and destroy them without any major losses, I’m sure.

Frankly, I’m pretty sure Vampy and Mr. Oni could handle it all on their own.

And then, while the elves are forced to fight the imperial army and the demon army on two fronts, I’ll throw in a taratect troop free of charge.

It even comes with a queen!

One queen alone is a force to be reckoned with, and then there are fourteen archs.

And fifty-one greaters.

Plus a whole bunch of others.

Honestly, wouldn’t that lineup alone be enough to take out the elves?

That’d kill most people for sure.

I’m expecting a nice horrific battlefield straight out of hell itself, during which the Demon Lord and I will sneak into the heart of the elf village.

Mostly to scoop up the reincarnations, murder the real Potimas once and for all, that kinda thing.

If we can take out Potimas’s real body, then this war is as good as won.

We’ve already gotten rid of all the fake bodies he had outside the elf village.

I’m pretty sure the one Vampy destroyed in the kingdom was the last of them.

We had to do a little coup d’état in the kingdom and put Yamada and friends through hell just to get at that last Potimas clone, but hey, what choice did we have?

It’s Potimas’s fault for getting up to no good in the kingdom.

Blame him, not me.

Anyway, it was worth all the trouble, because we were able to get rid of Potimas’s influence there, including his clone body.

Even if we missed one, Potimas can’t transfer his main self into a substitute body like I can.

He’s only got one real body, and the rest are just fakes that he operates from afar.

So if we can just kill the real thing, any extra clones won’t make a difference anymore.

The imperial army, the demon army, and even the taratect troop are all decoys.

As the first decoys we’re sending in, the imperial army will probably take a considerable amount of losses, but they’ve been disposable from the beginning anyway.

All we really need them to do is bait out the elves.

Then we just use the demon army and the taratects to keep them busy.

Amid all that chaos, the Demon Lord and I will make our move, the real objective.

The two of us are honestly stronger than all those other armies combined, anyway.

And at the moment, we’re glaring daggers at each other.

“No matter what you say, White, this is the one thing I won’t budge on.”

“I told you, no deal.”

The air crackles with tension between us.

The Demon Lord’s puppet spiders, who are riding in the same carriage, are trembling with terror at the electric atmosphere.

We continue staring down each other, neither willing to give up.

What are we arguing over, you ask? The question of who gets to finish off Potimas.

I wanna beat that guy to a pulp, especially after what he’s done to Ms. Oka.

That bastard fooled the teacher who saved me in my previous life, worked her to the bone to gather the reincarnations for him, and even put a parasitic piece of his soul in hers so that he can use her as a host body later!

You think I’m gonna let him off easy after all that?

As another point in my favor, I’m also stronger than the Demon Lord, making it safer for me to dispose of Potimas since we still don’t know what he might be capable of.

On the other hand, the Demon Lord knows that full well, and still insists she wants to fight him.

Sure, she’s got a very long history of Potimas screwing her over at every turn.

I’m sure her feelings run far deeper than mine in that regard.

But this is Potimas Harrifenas we’re talking about here.

The guy who’s been opposing the entire world on his own behind the scenes, all this time.

Based on our battles thus far, I predict that Potimas’s power is at least as strong as the Demon Lord’s.

If there’s even a tiny chance of the Demon Lord getting killed over something this stupid, I’d much rather take the safest route possible.

But even after I explained all this, the Demon Lord still refuses to budge.

Now, if that were the whole story, it wouldn’t be such a big deal.

I’m certainly dying to rip Potimas apart with my bare hands, but I’m sure the Demon Lord feels the same way, and probably much more intensely.

I wouldn’t mind letting her deal the final blow.

If she would let me help before then.

“At least let me lend a hand.”

“Nope. This is my fight. No one else is allowed to intervene. Sounds pretty cool, right?”

This is the problem.

The Demon Lord insists that she’s going to settle things all on her own.

Without an ounce of my help, or any of her subordinates’.

She wants to put an end to their long-standing enmity, one-on-one.

Even though she just said earlier that it’s not like she doesn’t need my help.

“I know I’m being unreasonable. But I won’t change my mind on this. I’ve got to settle things with Potimas all on my own. He’s the one who…”

The Demon Lord trails off, but there’s grim determination in her eyes.

When she gives me that look, it makes me feel like I’m the one in the wrong.

Part 1 of 8

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