Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? 318

Do as I say, not as I do.

318 – Weren’t we friends!?

Good evening everybody. Welcome to the deciding match to determine the number one in this other world. The reigning champion is Administrator Gyurigyuri. The challenger facing him is the Demon King. God Vs the Demon King might be a common development, but precisely because it is common this is a traditional bout. Will god be the winner here? Or will the Demon King manage to overthrow him? Don’t miss it.

Well now, the Demon King attacked before the gong signaled the start of the match! How dirty! However, this is the Demon King after all. Calling the Demon King dirty is a compliment!

The champion takes a solid hit from the surprise attack, and is blown back! A straight right to the head! The champion is unable to endure and stumbles! How did you view that exchange, spider commentator B-san?

Well, I believe that the champion intentionally took that blow just now, spider reporter A-san.

Meaning?

The champion was completely aware of the Demon King’s surprise attack. However, he received it on purpose without dodging or guarding. This surely indicates that the champion believes that he has that much of an upper hand.

I see! By receiving the challenger’s first attack on purpose, he aimed to flaunt just how big a difference there was between them! But oh! The Demon King doesn’t stop there! The neck? Whether or not we can actually call that his neck I’m not sure, but anyway, his neck is grabbed and he’s pulled down to the ground! She’s straddling him now! This is the mount position!

「What is the meaning of this!」

Now the Demon King makes a demand! But while doing so, you can feel her resentment against the unresisting champion! Fight! This is an appeal to fight seriously!

「……Sorry.」

However! The champion still shows no intention of fighting! Just what is going on here I wonder!? Has the champion lost the will to fight!? The Demon King starts punching the champion!

Phew. I’ve gotten bored with pretending to do a live coverage.

「Ariel-san! Wait! Stop that!」

Oni-kun stops the Demon King, who had been pounding Kuro in the face, by grabbing her arms from behind. Even while in oni-kun’s arms the Demon King still keeps trying to punch Kuro, but she is pulled off by force and is unable to continue. During the battle with Potimas the Demon King lost the majority of her power. She’s become so frail that she’s as weak as she looks, or even more so. When oni-kun used his strength to pull her off, she wasn’t able to resist him at all.

Good job, oni-kun. The current Demon King is like a sick person who needs complete bed rest after all. It’s bad for her body if she gets a bit violent. That being said, without her being able to vent her feelings to some extent she wouldn’t be able to accept the situation, so I thought it best to let her punch Kuro a few times and stayed out of it. He stopped her at a good time. Just what I’d expect of a man who can read the mood.

Eh? What about vampire girl? She’s still trussed up like a bagworm and her mouth is agape since she’s unable to grasp these events, but, so what?

「What is the meaning of this?」
「Sorry.」

When the Demon King lashes out that demand at Kuro while still being restrained by oni-kun, he simply repeats his response of “sorry”. I give him a contemptuous look and go back to reading Potimas’s diary that the Demon King had been looking at until just now.

〈While outside, I came into contact with one of the bodies that Gyuriedistodiez controls. This is unusual. I was asked if anything unusual had occurred, but without doubt he is referring to the sudden drop in MA Energy and the simultaneous occurrence of a dimensional quake. Of course, I have no intention of revealing my own information. Instead I tried to probe him for information, but he himself didn’t seem to know what had actually occurred. In the end we separated without achieving anything. I need to collect information on this abnormal event that even he himself didn’t understand.〉

〈A new Hero has been chosen. He is the second prince of the Anareich Kingdom, Julius. I don’t care about them, but the fact that a new Hero has been chosen means that Hero Dalthsmeig has died. Considering the timing it is likely connected to the dimensional quake from the other day. If Dalthsmeig caused the dimensional quake, then it makes sense. I am unable to confirm if a new Demon King has been chosen, but if the old one had been working with Dalthsmeig then he has probably died as well. And yet, Gyuriedistodiez is still alive. In other words, it means that they failed. Useless.〉

〈One of my newly born substitute bodies began to say strange things using Telepathy. It is implausible for a baby to use Telepathy when their sense of self would be barely developed, but the contents of the conversation was even more implausible. However, the contents themselves were genuinely interesting. Is this person a reincarnator with memories of a different world? When I think about where the MA Energy could have gone from that dimensional quake, I would never have expected it to flow to another world. It is unknown why something that should have been aimed at Gyuriedistodiez would do that, but it has certainly become interesting. Reincarnators, other worlds, souls that are different to our own. If I can use them, perhaps I will be able to achieve a breakthrough in my stalled research? It is worth making an attempt. In which case, I must secure the specimens immediately. Fortunately, the substitute body who had told me about the reincarnators, Firimes, also wishes to secure the reincarnators. I shall grant her that wish.〉

Erm, yeah. What to make of this. Just reading this vile stuff makes it feel like my soul is being shaved away. This is the attitude of a guy who doesn’t think that bad stuff is actually bad and then just calmly carries it out. Whether it’s the Hero from two generations ago or the previous generation Demon King or even sensei, he doesn’t see them as individuals and instead it’s acutely clear from these short articles that he only sees them as tools. Well, I knew it already, but Po-no-ji sure is scummy!

So long as we have this historical data, we should be able to find out what happened with the Hero from two generations ago and the previous generation Demon King, but I guess it’s not necessarily to investigate that far. Or rather, I don’t really want to look in detail. I can already see the basic outline. Well, I knew about it already though.

「You know, I had thought of Gyurie as being a friend and a comrade of my own accord, but, was that simply my misunderstanding?」

Oops. I’d been leaving them alone but the exchanges between the Demon King and Kuro have gotten rather serious. The Demon King seems about to cry at any moment you know. Of all things, to make such a little girl cry, you’re the worst, Kuro! ……. Well, putting such jokes aside, I guess I better intervene huh.

「Loser.」

Ah, I made a mistake. I unintentionally called out to Kuro with my inner voice. Well, whatever.

「If you don’t explain things properly you won’t be understood. Stop apologising and explain things from the beginning.」

Kuro, who was sitting up after having fallen on the ground, opened his eyes wide. Even the Demon King turned around to similarly stare at me in wonder.

「……Eh? Isn’t that a bit rich coming from you, goshujin-sama?」

Vampire girl was talking about something strange, so I kicked her for the time being.