Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? 255

Surprise! A double release today. Don’t expect this to happen very often though – like, maybe never again.

More fun with a spider and a little lost lamb oni.

255 – Three sentences is my limit!

Q: What happened while I was unconscious?
A: The guy called Kuro beat you up and by making you waste your energy, the power that was sustaining Wrath was completely used up. That’s why you can now stay sane. To confirm that you really wouldn’t activate Wrath for now, I quarantined you safely in another dimension.

Q: Who is “Kuro”?
A: A god of this world. However, he’s an indecisive loser.

Q: What connection does he have with you, Shiro-san?
A: For now he’s cooperating with us. For the sake of convenience he’s expected to be placed under the Demon King.

Q: The Demon King?
A: The Demon King.

Q: Umm, by “Demon King” you mean the king of the demons?
A: Literally no, but you can think of it like that for now.

Q: What about that girl I was fighting?
A: She’s a vampire. She’s currently pretty much living in the demon country. Incidentally, she’s a reincarnator.

Q: What’s her name in the previous world?
A: Negishi Akiko.

Q: Her attitude has really changed.
A: She’s been through a lot.

Q: Is Negishi-san okay?
A: She’s okay. She’s been punished a bit for recklessly fighting you though.

Q: I, I see. I’ve done something bad then I guess.
A: That’s not the case. You don’t need to worry about it.

Q: What are the other reincarnators doing?
A: Most are under protection of sensei with the elves. Some of the others are at a human academy though. Yamada-kun and Ooshima-kun are among the academy group.

Q: Is it far from here to that human academy?
A: It’s far.

Q: What will happen to me now?
A: Nothing. Since your sanity has returned you can do what you like.

The end – question and answer session is complete. Well done me, really well done me. Incidentally, as for how much time it took, I’m not going to say. Yeah, I became hungry in the middle and left the room once to go get some food, but it didn’t take that long, really. Yes, really. Let’s just leave it at that.

When I told oni-kun that he can do what he wants, he got a troubled expression instead as if pondering something or other. Well, suddenly being told you can do as you like and being abandoned, I guess you’d be troubled. Should I hand him a lifeline perhaps? We’re basically both reincarnators, so I won’t be stingy on lending a hand.

「If you have nowhere to go, then stay at my place for now?」

I called it “my place”, but it’s really Balto’s. Alternatively I can lend you this other dimension as well. Ah, but, if I’m not here then it’ll become impossible for him to come and go, and he’ll die.

「I could, I guess. To be honest, I really don’t know what I should do from now on.」

And thus, rather than taking in a lost lamb, I’m taking in a lost oni-kun. First of all since him being half-naked is a bit out there, I returned to Balto’s mansion and had the servants pick out some suitable mens clothes, and had him try them on. Because oni-kun under the influence of Wrath had lost his reason, he had the style like an oni out of a fairy-tale with just a single pair of pants to his wardrobe. Him at least just wearing the pants, was perhaps due to the last remaining sense of reason he had.

Then, after he put on the clothes, wafting in the air was this “something ain’t right” feeling. Oni-kun’s face is the same as in his previous life, a Japanese person’s face. Even if his species is an oni, that’s still Japanese style. Japanese clothes or for the sake of argument perhaps some Chinese style armour would be better, but there’s a huge sense of unease with him wearing western clothes. Rather unusually for me, I unthinkingly muttered out loud that “it doesn’t suit you” though. It sure seems that he heard that mutter, and oni-kun seemed to be plainly shocked at it.

Hrm-mm. Somehow it just doesn’t match. After all he’s an oni swordbearer with a purely Japanese face, so try imagining him wearing the clothes of a western aristocrat? Ah, Balto is basically like that, amongst the demons he’s at the very upper echelons, so I guess they only have suits for noblemen stored there. An oni clothed in a nobleman’s suit. Somehow, while the person himself might be able to accept it, I cannot. Oni-kun’s original face has quite well balanced features anyway, and on becoming an oni he’s gotten taller, so he is by no means unattractive. He’s not at all, but there’s this uncomfortable feeling.

Yeah. Let’s go with Japanese clothes. However, Japanese clothes don’t exist though. On the long journey to the Demon King’s castle, we went around all sorts of places, but there were no Japanese clothes. Or rather, Japanese culture itself doesn’t exist. It’s another world so it’s just natural though. I somehow thought that if it’s D then it wouldn’t be strange for her to forcibly establish a fake Japanese culture, but there was none.

If there’s none then I can just make one then. Muhaha. There are no clothes that my threads cannot make! What kind of Japanese clothes would suit him best I wonder?

Ah, before that I gotta talk with Balto. For now, I’ll have oni-kun wait in my own room. When I had asked the servants who went to get the clothes about if there were any available rooms, I heard that half the rooms in the mansion are available. Ah, well, it’s extremely spacious but there’s surprisingly few people after all. The master, Balto, doesn’t come back often either.

There no problem in terms of available space for oni-kun to stay here. I just need to get the OK from the mansion’s master. I teleport to the Demon King’s castle, and knock on the door of the office that Balto uses everyday. Even I have some common sense. As for suddenly teleporting into the middle of a room, it’s not like I’ve never done it but I can’t say I rarely do it either.

「Come in.」

I got permission to enter the room, so I open the door. This really is the Demon King’s castle at the summit of the demons, so normally I should pay attention to how I open the door too, but unfortunately such trivial manners are beyond me. I open the door trying to be as careful as possible. Besides, whenever I’m forced to open my mouth, being helpless with things like tone or number of words are a far bigger problem than mere manners.

While thinking such things I enter the opened door, and there my prey Balto is fighting with documents. That’s fine. It’s always the case that Balto seems about to die from being buried in documents. However, at the reception table in the office, his younger brother also being there looking over documents is unexpected.

「What do you want?」

The hoodlum glared! The spider guards the door!

「Oi! Don’t just up and leave without stating your business!」

Ugh. Why is this guy here? What a blunder. Since I teleported and knocked on the door immediately, I didn’t pay any attention to the possibility of others being there. If I’d known he was here I wouldn’t have wasted my time. Argh, what a pain.