Kumo desu ga, Nani ka? Oshiete D-sensei! Lesson 4

You cannot escape from the Evil God…

Oshiete D-sensei! Lesson 4

D「Today again we bring you an episode of Oshiete D-sensei.」
M「Today again…… Now that I notice, we are already at the 4th one, huh. With a series like this……」
D「It is my precious time to shine after all. It is absolutely wonderful for the number of occasions to increase.」
M「Yeah. Sure, sure.」
D「Well then, let us go through the disclosure of information step by step this time.」

Q: Regarding ｎ％Ｉ＝Ｗ

D「This is a support skill for the exclusive use of the reincarnators. In practice it is an aid in order to allow the reincarnators to receive the blessings of the System, despite them being outside of its normal operation.」
M「What would happen if it was not there?」
D「They would have been tossed into that world without status values or skills or anything, merely as humans.」
M「Merely as humans, huh.」
D「Without the support of status values and skills, their physical strength, stamina and mental capacity would all be PLAIN human. From the point of view of the natives who receive the blessings of the System, they would seem extremely feeble I am sure. If they were unfortunate they could even be beaten up by children I guess.」
M「And there are monsters and the like as well. Normally, they would just die huh.」
D「In addition, there is also a function included to translate the System messages into Japanese. The reason why the Appraisal results and Voice of Heaven (temp) are displayed or spoken in Japanese is because of that.」
M「Without that, they would not be able to make sense of anything until they learned the local language, naturally.」
D「Incidentally, while small there is also a bonus applied to the rate of skill acquisition and the rate at which status values rise. Well, it is barely noticeable though.」
M「Is that really so? I had thought that the reason why the reincarnators were vastly superior was due to that skill though.」
D「Rather than it being the reincarnators were particularly superior, it is the natives who are inferior. On the one hand are the souls of the natives which have deteriorated due to the exploitation of the System. On the other hand are the souls of the reincarnators who quickly grew up into high school students without any such issues. If you ask which ones would be superior then the answer is obvious I am sure.」
M「Yeah. That is certainly true.」
D「If we imagine things in the distant past immediately following the activation of the System, then there would have been natives who could compete with the reincarnators all over the place I am sure, but now that things have declined, the reincarnators have become stronger only in relative terms. If you recall the status values of the Demon King Ariel who has lived since that distant past, I am sure you can guess just how brutal the world was in the past. Well, she has become like that after many years of diligent training, so obviously such extreme examples were not found all over the place. At most, status values in the thousands were found all over the place.」
M「But even so, there were people with status values in the thousands all over the place huh. That is rather scary in itself.」
D「That was a side topic, but basically the ｎ％Ｉ＝Ｗ is a skill to support the reincarnators. If the reincarnators die then their soul will return to the normal cycle of reincarnation and the role of that skill will be finished. Well, before then I will mumble mumble……」
M「Eh? What was that?」
D「Nothing at all.」
M「How suspicious……」

Q: D-sensei, if the reincarnators came to Earth, would you accept them?

D「Of course. I am ready and waiting!」
M「I am sure that you are thinking that it would likely be interesting. Sheesh.」
D「Well, to put it more precisely, in my case it is a matter of anybody who comes will be welcomed and anybody who leaves will be prevented. So those who come will not be refused.」
M「Don’t you mean “anybody who leaves will not be pursued” there?」
D「Oh come on! How could I possibly allow such interesting material to get away?」
M「For the reincarnators it would be happier for them not to go to Earth huh.」

Q: Various things about the gods.

D「There are factions and so on amongst the gods as well and I would say that there were hints of there being conflicts over territory previously. Well then, why are there conflicts over territory at all? Since we are talking about gods here, is it not strange for them to bother with something so trivial? This is something I believe everyone has been pondering.」
M「Since they are fighting over planets, it can hardly be called something trivial though.」
D「Nevertheless, I feel that the scale is small considering that this is something done by the incredible beings known as gods. Perhaps that is so, but either way, planets assume an important role for us gods you see. This is because planets expel a type of energy that is essential to gods.」
M「You can imagine it as being similar to the relationship between animals and plants. The carbon dioxide expelled by animals is absorbed by plants and oxygen is expelled. That oxygen is absorbed by animals again and expelled as carbon dioxide. Likewise, gods absorb the energy emitted by planets and planets absorb the energy used by gods. In fact, that is the symbiotic relationship that exists between planets and gods.」
D「However, although we have been talking about “energy” here, in fact there are many different varieties. The energy expelled by planets also comes in varieties and in turn different gods are able to adapt to those varieties. Basically, biological type gods seem to have good compatibility with planets like the Earth that are comfortable environments for biological creatures. It is not the case that all planets are the same, in other words. Which leads us to the situation where fights break out over planets with various types of compatibility.」
M「The gods living on planets that they compatible with are peaceful. In the Past Arc, the dragons had remained for that reason, despite them being scared of Sariel.」
D「In addition, the planets are always emitting this energy. It is something unnecessary for the planet, but it is something essential for gods. Even if it is some incompatible energy, it is still possible to process it, so there are hardly any gods that would destroy planets that emit energy. In the Past Arc, although the dragons stole the planet’s entire energy, that can be thought of as a rare and exceptional measure. Even though a vast amount of energy was gathered in the short term, if the planet is gone then of course no more energy will be produced after that, so it was a minus from a long term point of view.」
M「Well, I have a feeling that a certain someone would destroy planets relatively easily though.」
D「That is true indeed. There was a certain someone who would rip them apart without a care after all.」
M「……」
D「……」
M「Let us end this discussion here.」
D「Indeed.」

Q: Isn’t the mental age of the reincarnators too low?

D「It is hard to say anything definite with regards to this. I can think of several causes, but only at the level of a hypothesis.」
M「It is unlike you to be vague.」
D「It is not like I know everything of course. If anything, I actually strive not to know. If you know too much then things become boring, right?」
M「Is that how it is then?」
D「That is how it is. Now then, I believe the reason why the mental age of the reincarnators feels low is probably because they are being affected by their physical bodies and by their environment.」
M「For their physical bodies I can somewhat understand it, but what about the environment?」
D「Indeed. For the reincarnators, particularly the ones pent up in the elf village, like birds in a cage, they were living a life without any change after all. Change is an important factor for people to mature. Without anything new occuring people stagnate, and stagnation basically inhibits people maturing into adults. In Japan, people go to kindergarten, then they go to primary school, then they go to middle school, then high school and university, then finally emerge as full members of society, with their position changing as their physical bodies grow. I consider this change to be an important factor for people to mature. When change occurs people work hard to match that change and they also take lessons from it. However, if a life without change carries on and on, then they cannot grow. Especially for the reincarnators who were pent up in the elf village with others that they knew from their past lives, as that relationship provided no stimulus. It would not be a surprise for them to treat their new lives like an extension of their previous high school lives and stagnate like that. And that is how my pet theory goes.」
M「Whether they did or not, it has a certain persuasive power indeed.」
D「Afterwards, it will be a matter of whether or not they put in any effort to truly mature. If people do not consciously put in any effort to mature, they stay surprisingly childish. It is not like children simply turn into adults after a certain amount of time. If children are in an environment where they cannot mature or where they are unable to have the desire to mature, then they will stay children no matter how much time passes. You could also say that they are unable to forget their childlike innocence. Even grown adults can stay childish on the inside without maturing. They have no desire to mature. They do not even have the awareness that they have not matured. So perhaps the reincarnators were unable to mature due to their environment. You could also consider it being a situation where due to their environment their intention to mature was blocked.」
M「How unusual for you to be seriously discussing theories of education!?」
D「How rude. I am always completely serious, okay?」
M「Eh?」
D「Eh?」

D「And with that, I would like to end today’s episode of Oshiete D-sensei here. Until next time.」
M「It is already decided that there will be a next time…?」

Translation notes:

“anybody who comes will be welcomed and anybody who leaves will be prevented” – this is a variant of a proverb that is normally written “anybody who comes will be welcomed and anybody who leaves will not be pursued” (ie people are free to come and go). Meido attempts to correct D on this with her following line.