Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

Chapter The Elf Leader’s Miscalculation

Author’s note: Po-no-ji’s point of view.

Note: This is referring to Potimas

The war between the humans and demons has come to an end. The result, is more or less a draw. Both sides suffered enormous damage.

Several of the forts that form the cornerstone of the human territorial borders were taken, and the situation has become one where it’s unclear when the demons will invade again. Not just that, but while the forts being taken was bad enough, the damage to the humans wasn’t limited to just that. The death of the Hero in particular, could be said to be the hardest blow for the humans. While I didn’t have much expectations of this Hero, I won’t deny that I did have some faint hopes that maybe he could achieve something. Him and Ariel killing each other would be too much to ask for, as that would be the sort of dream a child who cannot face reality would have.

While the demons were able to successfully capture several forts, both at the places where they failed and where they succeeded, naturally they did not come away unscathed. Purely in terms of the number of casualties, there probably wasn’t much difference between them and the humans. So, from the perspective of the demons who have fewer numbers than the whole of humanity, the damage they took is great. Because they conscripted soldiers without considering the consequences, if they manage their losses poorly then it could even cast a shadow over the continued existence of the demons as a species. But then again, since she was well aware of that possibility, by pressing ahead with the unreasonable conscription of soldiers anyway, I guess you could say it’s going as Ariel planned.

Yes, as planned. The war on this occasion has been entirely within the palm of Ariel’s hands. That ability of hers to cause all this damage to the humans and demons, and eradicate the one person who needed to be dealt with. Maybe it would better to call it completely magnificent. Or perhaps even artistic. At any rate, even I was lead around by the nose after all.

Since before the war began, I sensed that it was becoming hard for the elves within the demon territory to carry out their activities. While I had thought that Argnar had been spotted as being one of our collaborators, I still feel ashamed of having our movements entirely understood and being one-sidedly crushed. It was a surprise in itself that Ariel would have someone under her capable of conducting such information warfare. I had looked down on Ariel’s strength as purely being in her fighting ability.

Probably this Shiro or whatever individual, the one who has recently been serving beside her, is an expert in intelligence gathering. Although there is no reliable information due to all the interference, it seems there are rumours going around saying that the army that Shiro is commanding are specialised in such things. Where did she find a group with such skills? Because of them moving around behind the scenes, I’ve been at the limits of my irritation at not being able to shape events as I wish. The information warfare within the demon territories has been a complete loss. It’s already impossible to tell what information is fact and what is fake.

For this reason, after Ariel had departed for the war, at the time when I gained some information that one of the reincarnators, the girl vampire, was alone, I suspected that it might well be a trap. Being cautious, I intended to crush the trap itself, and intentionally answered the invitation. Thinking of the worst case, I used an old model body that it wouldn’t hurt to lose. Even though it was an old model, it was a body with plenty of combat ability.

It was crushed by that girl vampire with trivial ease. From the sensations I felt during the battle, I think that if she got serious she could be equivalent to a top ranking dragon, or perhaps her true power is even beyond that. Compared to the other reincarnators I know, her fighting strength is different by a whole order of magnitude. Clearly Ariel has trained her in the fundamentals of combat. Otherwise, I don’t see how some mere girl could possess such combat ability.

Furthermore, that same mere girl has since been appearing frequently in places all across the world over the last few days, making raids on elf positions. That one mere girl, just by herself, has destroyed elf positions across the world, and whittled away the personnel. To think that it wasn’t only elf positions in the demon territories that was smashed, but even ones in the human territories - I can only describe it as a miscalculation. I don’t even have the slightest idea how they were located.

The combat ability of that girl vampire, is not something that ordinary elves can handle. To kill that, there’s probably no option except to deploy the anti-magic model Gloria. Or otherwise use the anti-god Gloria in the elf village. I certainly don’t intend to use that on some mere girl though.

Besides, there’s not just that girl vampire, but there’s probably some other troublesome individuals around. The one who deduced the location of the elf positions. The one with a high level in Space Magic, based on the fact that they’re teleporting instantly around the world. At least, there is someone with those two abilities. I expect that this girl called Shiro is involved, but I don’t have any proof of that. The worst case scenario, would be that all those abilities are possessed by that girl vampire, but even though she is a reincarnator, it is hard to consider that a single person could have so many different abilities. Either way, even with what she has shown so far there’s no mistaking that she is a nuisance.

I regret not being able to kill her as a baby. Also, seeing the possibilities that reincarnators have, I have confidence that my choice wasn’t wrong. As I thought, reincarnators are the embodiment of possibilities. A strange existence that contradicts the common sense of this world. If I can have that, then I……

If nothing else, this is surely a declaration of war from Ariel. If only she had kept quiet until her life span had ran out, she would have died an easy death. Does that mere girl seriously think she can beat me just because she’s gotten somewhat strong due to the assistance of the System? How ludicrous. Both now and in the past, the only ones I fear are the gods. And there’s now only one god left remaining on this planet. If I can finally get rid of Gyuriedistodiez, all that would be left is the practically dead Sariel.

If it comes to pass that Ariel invades the elf village, then she’ll be exterminated. There’s many anti-Gyuriedistodiez weapons that have been developed. It may be going somewhat overboard to use them against that mere girl, but I can consider it to be some break-in testing before the main event.

「Prepare a thorough inspection of every Gloria model. Make sure they’re ready to be used at any time.」

「Yessir!」

Now then, be prepared to receive recompense for doing whatever you like outside.

Sorry bud, that whitey is a god, okay.

Notes:

“Po-no-ji” - written ポ字 this is a rather unusual way to turn Potimas’s name into a nickname. Shortening someone’s name to just one character (normally one kanji character for Japanese names) and adding 字 (letter of) is something you might see in an old style yakuza story. Though it seems this style has had some broader use in the internet age and ポ字 seems to have some reference to Pokemon, for example. Anyway, just think of it as the author being playful with Potimas’s name.

“Girl vampire” - the term Shiro uses to refer to Sophia is 吸血っ子 (kyuuketsukko), short for 吸血鬼子 (kyuuketsuki no ko), which is a bit like saying “vamp-girl” or “vamp-child”. While Potimas refers to her as 吸血鬼娘 (kyuuketsuki no musume) which is more literally “vampire girl” or “vampire young lady”. To help distinguish the terms I used “girl vampire” instead for Potimas.

“Gloria” - this pretty much a direct phonetic translation. Whether there’s any deeper meaning is hard to say. The “anti-magic model Gloria” is probably the type that Shiro faced just before her apotheosis.

The line at the end is from the author, lightly mocking Potimas.