Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

Chapter 320 - It’s nobody’s fault. However, Po - you’re not included.

「Is that true?」

The Demon King questions Kuro, but Kuro answers with silence. His attitude has already affirmed the question though. The attack that had been aimed at Kuro himself, was diverted by Sariel without him knowing and on top of that it was the cause of the MA Energy decrease, the reincarnators being born, and also caused a difficult situation so it can’t be helped that he feels responsible. If he hadn’t met the Hero from two generations ago and the previous generation Demon King, then he couldn’t have become a target for the attack either.

Dimension Magic is not omnipotent. Dimension Magic, which is the evolved form of the super useful Space Magic, is basically incredibly useful. However, there’s clearly things it can do and things that it cannot do. Well, you could say the same thing about skills in general though. To use a skill beyond the scope of what it was designed for requires a deep understanding of the magecraft underlying the very foundation of skill itself. There’s few people who can use Space Magic, so for the Hero from two generations ago and the previous generation Demon King to be able to use Dimension Magic means they were superior practitioners. Even so, they can’t do the impossible. With Dimension Magic, it is impossible to attack a target that you’ve never met. historical

Just like how it’s true with Space Magic, the first step for Dimension Magic is the specification of the target space. Once the space is specified the next step is to choose the magic to use against it. Such as teleportation or an attack. In addition, what can be used for the first step of specifying the space, is limited to either a place the practitioner has been to before or a person who they have met before. By meeting with the Hero from two generations ago and the previous generation Demon King, Kuro became a potential target for attack. If he had been more cautious and had sent a subordinate instead of going himself or something similar, then Kuro couldn’t have become an attack target. Well, he probably would have needed to meet them himself in order to gain their trust though. It’s just backfired on him.

In the end, Sariel interfered with the System to change the attack target to being D. To be blunt, I don’t really get what Sariel’s purpose was. I can think of several possible reasons, but I can’t comprehend her way of thinking, so I don’t know which of them is correct. Maybe she simply wanted to save Kuro, or wanted to harm D, or had some other expectation. I definitely wouldn’t be able to understand without asking her in person. I don’t have any intention of asking her in the first place though, as I’m just not interested. After all, just by meeting her face to face I become so irritated that I want to punch her.

Well, whatever her reasons, it’s a safe bet that she herself didn’t have any ill will behind it. It was also a situation where she had to act promptly to prevent an unexpected incident after all. I still feel that she’s useless for failing to prevent it entirely though.

On the one hand, what if Sariel hadn’t interfered for reasons unknown and the attack on Kuro by the Hero from two generations ago and the previous generation Demon King had been successful. Kuro would have died or have been weakened due to a severe injury. In that case, Po-no-ji surely wouldn’t have stayed quiet and the situation would have gotten chaotic. In the worst case, Po-no-ji would be reigning supreme. However, a portion of the MA Energy used to attack Kuro could probably have been recovered and for the MA Energy aspect that would likely have been better than the current situation. After all, if it had been used in this world, it would have been possible to recover some of the MA Energy, just not all of it. In addition, if Kuro had died the amount of MA Energy would probably have increased. It wouldn’t be strange if the possibility to attack an administrator was inserted into the System for that reason. To increase the amount of MA Energy by absorbing a god, basically.

On the other hand, there’s our current situation. Kuro got off completely unharmed and instead there was a massive decline in MA Energy. The reincarnators go “hi, nice to meet you” and the world is plunged into an era of upheaval. I guess whichever route was taken, the situation would have gotten chaotic. However, Po-no-ji was successfully erased. He was like a pus or cancer on the world, and well, the removal of the one we needed the least has been achieved, basically.

Hmm. Thinking about it this way, both routes have their merits and demerits so it’s hard to clearly say which one would have been better. However, if Po-no-ji had survived things would have definitely turned out for the worse, and considering only the future the current route is the better one I guess, right? Yeah, let’s leave it at that. It’s been a real nuisance for the reincarnators though.

Ah, except for me. See, if I hadn’t been reborn in this world I would have stayed an ordinary spider and probably ended my life like that. By some kind of fate I’ve ended up becoming a god though, so I’m basically glad that I reincarnated. Oh? Thinking about it that way, good job Sariel? …… I’ll offer her a prayer later.

「Gyurie. It’s not your fault.」

「No. Either way it’s my fault. Since I was even unaware that it was my responsibility that things turned out this way, I can only think that I’ve been carelessly passing the time until now.」

The Demon King, after briefly turning her thoughts to Sariel, returns to comfort Kuro. Against that, Kuro can only smile like a glutton for punishment.

Yup. Kuro-san here hadn’t known about the sudden drop in MA Energy for a start, and had been under the impression that the cause was entirely due to Po-no-ji after all. Once he then found out that he’d been unknowingly involved, this loser felt responsible. I bet a certain evil god carefully considered his feelings… then informed him all about it. If he hadn’t been informed, he wouldn’t have known about what was going on in the background either. Thus, in the end, about the only one around who could have informed him about everything would be that evil god. That evil god is seriously an evil god.

Eh? How do I know about all this you ask? I’d rather you don’t take my intelligence gathering abilities lightly! I had clones specialised in intelligence gathering directly observing all over the place for a start, while the analysis squad pulled out all sorts of System related information when hacking the System, and on top of that I also developed an Evil Eye of Past Sight, though it has limitations. This new Evil Eye can peek into the past and by using circumstantial evidence and what-not I can make successive conjectures and reach the truth. It is now possible for me to solve any unresolved incidents no matter what - I’m far beyond your typical “great detective”. Well, in practice, Past Sight is really hard to use, so I rarely use it though.

「If you think you’re at fault, then you just need to take action in order to make up for it.」

He’s starting to get annoying with his feebleness, so I’ll conclude things by saying that.

「That’s… true. I shall do that.」

Yep, yep. Yes you shall. Later I have a big project waiting for you after all.

The incident caused by the Hero from two generations ago and the previous generation Demon King are preceding down the current route due to Sariel’s actions. Now then. In response to the incident that I am about to cause, what route will the inhabitants of this world choose I wonder? Well, whatever route they choose, the ending won’t change though.

Notes:

“However, Po - you’re not included” - this is a meme from the Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo manga.

“the first step for Dimension Magic is the specification of the target space” - See chapter 110 for the first example of space specification.