Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

Chapter 287 - This jijii is somewhat unfathomable

I’ve come to the royal castle in the Kingdom. I took up position in a vacant room secretly, so that the humans within the castle wouldn’t notice. Well, there’s only a limited number of people within the castle currently, so it would be fine even if I wasn’t so sensitive about it though.

I had already used Natsume-kun to clear out people from the castle beforehand. Whether it’s the Kingdom’s crown prince or queen or whatever, they’ve been temporarily evicted, leaving it in a mostly empty condition. And so, Natsume-kun has been able to prepare a suitable defense force of his own choosing. Well, since the objective this time is to make Yamada-kun resurrect the dead, it’s not the case that we need to prepare for a proper defensive battle though.

Erm? That was the case, right? Doesn’t there appear to be someone real familiar looking here? Unless I’m mistaken, the strongest person in the Empire is here though. Yep. No matter how I look at him, the jijii over there is someone I’ve seen on several occasions. The first time I saw that jijii was in the upper layer of the Elro Great Labyrinth. He was together with those fucking knights who burnt My Home to the ground. Then afterwards, don’t ask me why but he came to apply for an apprenticeship and so on. Ahh, so nostalgic. At that time he was a real oddball ossan, but in the years since then he’s had a class change to being a jijii.

Hmm-mm. That jijii was the one who shot and killed the shota of the 6th Army in the Great War, right. It should be obvious that he’s currently the strongest person in the Empire, so why is he here? Huhhh? Natsume-kuuun? This isn’t according to plan, surely?

Oh boy. Isn’t this is plainly bad? After all, isn’t that jijii is stronger than Yamada-kun, basically? What to do.

Ah well, whatever. There’s no way that Yamada-kun is going to die anyway. In the worst case he would simply retreat, surely. It’s not like this is a particularly important operation anyway.

If Yamada-kun is unable to get past the jijii then the third prince and other hostages will die. If Yamada-kun does get past the jijii, then providing that he also resurrects the dead quickly enough then the hostages will be saved. Even so, that’s only so long as resurrecting the dead causes Potimas’s parasitic soul to be torn off though.

The third prince has Potimas’s soul attached to him. The thing that Potimas had set up amongst the leaders of the Kingdom. Those such leaders of the Kingdom have already been purged, aside from the third prince. While this does mean that I still don’t know what Potimas had wanted to do with the Kingdom in the end, rather than letting him do whatever he likes, I would rather clean things up with a big purge. Thus, taking advantage of the disturbance in the Kingdom they were all killed off, but then I suddenly had an idea on seeing Yamada-kun resurrect Ooshima-kun. The idea that maybe by dying once could Potimas’s soul be ripped off? After all, once you’re dead it’s the end. With regards to the System, no matter what, once you’re dead the soul is pruned of everything that’s unnecessary. In which case, Potimas’s parasitic soul should also be pruned off.

But well, I can’t say anything for sure without actually carrying out an experiment. Yamada-kun’s resurrection of the dead seems to call back the soul before it’s completely taken away by the System. I think it probably wouldn’t succeed unless the resurrection is performed before the pruning work begins. So, Potimas’s soul might also be resurrected without any pruning being done. Well, if that happens I’ll just have to get rid of them again. The fate of the third prince depends upon Yamada-kun’s resurrection. He might not even get far enough to try that unless he can get past the jijii though!

Really, what the heck is the jijii doing here? This is Natsume-kun’s miscasting right. All he had to do was prepare a reasonably decent force, so why’s he deploying the greatest force within the Empire I wonder. Does he hate Yamada-kun that much?

That Yamada-kun is currently approaching rapidly, riding on a drake. Riiiding ooon a siiilver… ah, I better stop there else it’ll be dangerous. Or rather, I’m impressed that he’s invading by riding on a drake at high altitude. While I can also fly around the sky at will you know, perhaps because I experienced diving into those deep shafts in the Elro Great Labyrinth I’m not really good with heights. If it’s necessary I can also fly up into the sky, but I don’t think I would want to fly too high up. It’s best for humans to have their feet on the ground. Not that I’m human though.

Now then, how is the jijii going to take on Yamada-kun? Answer: anti-aircraft fire. O, oookay. Jijii, you’re unreal. He shot directly at Yamada-kun’s group despite them flying at such high altitude that they would barely be visible with the naked eye.

Just reaching that far is amazing. The effective range of magic depends on the strength of the practitioner’s magic offensive ability, and also how much MP they decided to invest. Also, just how well they have properly mastered casting magic. Simply activating magic while depending entirely upon the skills is no good. It is absolutely necessary to precisely grasp the flow of the activated magic and understand where to invest extra MP. In that regard, the jijii has considerable understanding it seems. Based on status values I remember the jijii having, there’s no way his magic would reach so far. For him to be able to do that means that he must have packed in a considerable amount of extra MP. That ossan who once came to apprentice to me has grown so splendidly. It’s not like I actually made him my apprentice, but somehow I’m feeling rather touched.

But, well, after travelling such a long distance the strength of the attack weakens. The magic flying towards Yamada-kun is easily intercepted and countered. Or rather, it’s amazing that it was countered by Yamada-kun’s magic, even though he’s technically the Hero. Still, despite Yamada-kun and co trying to take covert action it was easily seen through. Jijii, just what are you. Is he really human, this jijii? The pope for one this jijii for another, aren’t the old men amongst the humans quite suspicious somehow? Like, I wouldn’t be surprised if I was told that human old men were actually a different species you know?

Or rather, this is bad. Isn’t he seriously trying to shoot down Yamada-kun?

［Ah, damn. I can’t win this.］

［Hey!? Master!?］

［I quit, I quit. We’re retreating.］

My concerns were betrayed by the jijii himself. He said what were apparently complaints by telepathy to all the people who appear to be his pupils, then activated a group teleportation. They’ve teleported somewhere.

My mouth is agape. Eh, why did he withdraw then? It seems that I’m not the only one who can’t follow the situation - Yamada-kun’s group is also perplexed. Well, I guess?

But still, jijii, if you had continued like that you would have won, right? Since you have enough ability to do a group teleportation without effort. Going by my memory, during the encounter at the Elro Great Labyrinth I think you needed quite a lot of time to be able to activate a group teleportation. In the ten-something years since then, it seems he’s improved his skills considerably. With those skills he should have been able to even take on the Hero and his entire group.

Just why did he withdraw? He’s unfathomable. Well, it’s fine though since it’s convenient for me. I don’t feel satisfied somehow though.

Reference data:

Ronant at the time of “P, please wait!” : status values of 1500 in magic types, 300 in physical types.

Ronant at the time of the elf village war: status values of 4000 in magic types, 400 in physical types.

I published this before as well, but since it’s important here it is again. This jijii, he’s grown too much.