Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

289 – TAS

Wow. Yamada-kun is totally going for it. He’s more aggressive than I had expected. Shockingly so.

As for what happened, Yamada-kun’s party arrived at the elf village before our Demon King’s Army – they got ahead of us, basically. Like, I don’t really get it. After all, the Kingdom that Yamada-kun was in is in a different continent to the elf village, you know? Just moving around should be pretty time consuming, especially now when Yamada-kun and co are currently on the international wanted list for being the masterminds behind the coup d’état in the Kingdom. In a situation where normally you wouldn’t be able to move, taking the quick decision of “let’s go to the elf village!” seems a somewhat unbelieveable route to go down. Aren’t you a bit too decisive?

Or rather, stop him already, Kuro. Consider what I wanted to achieve by restricting Yamada-kun’s movements. It was to prevent the worst case scenario where the Hero Yamada-kun defeats the Demon King, right. What the heck is with you going along with the mood and saying “Alrighty, I’ll go too!”, eh? That jerk, I bet he knowingly induced Yamada-kun. Next time we meet I’ll smack him down.

Still, I have to be impressed I guess. Yamada-kun’s Divine Protection of Heaven is amazing. After all, normally there’s no way he could have made it in time. It’s not just that there wasn’t enough time, but with all the obstructions around them even just getting to the elf village shouldn’t have been possible. Despite all that, Yamada-kun and co arrived at the elf village before us. They couldn’t have achieved that without taking the shortest and best route. In addition to combining all their abilities, they would have needed good luck piled on top of good luck. I’m sure that’s all down to Yamada-kun’s Divine Protection of Heaven.

There was practically no time to spare. Even with using teleportation, it should have taken a minimum of 10-odd days to reach the elf village. For our Demon King’s Army and for the Imperial Army lead by Natsume-kun it would also take 10-odd days to arrive, or perhaps a bit more. It felt like even if they could take the shortest route they shouldn’t have made it in time. In addition, that was only provided that they would be able to take the shortest route. If they had started moving just a day later they would have failed, and if they had taken more time than planned while travelling they would also have failed. It was like a chess problem where they couldn’t afford a single mistake. However, it’s not like Yamada-kun actually realised just how tight a situation he was in though.

Moreover. To be able to cross from one continent to another, there is a place that you must go through. As I’m sure you’ve realised, that’s the Elro Great Labyrinth, the world’s largest labyrinth, where I was born and raised. As might be expected from it connecting continents, the scale is on a whole other level compared to ordinary labyrinths. Having to take the shortest path while conquering that Great Labyrinth readily indicates the degree of difficulty.

If they hadn’t chosen to come through the Elro Great Labyrinth then the result would have been obvious. Via the pope the teleportation rings in each country have already been blockaded. A particularly strong watch had been placed on the country where Yamada-kun’s half-sister had gone to. If Yamada-kun’s party had gone there then he would likely have been captured as easily as a moth lured by a flame. Considering that his first choice amongst his options was to plunge into the Elro Great Labyrinth, it felt like he already knew somehow.

Moreover, they chose a good guide. I was fascinated by the guide who is a nice guy oji-sama who I somehow remember seeing somewhere before, but this person is amazing. As for what’s amazing, his route selection is mega. He selected the shortest and very best routes like it was natural as they pressed forwards. Even if Yamada-kun’s Divine Protection of Heaven was assisting, it would still be impossible if the oji-sama himself wasn’t an outstanding guide. It wouldn’t be possible to to achieve such a feat without accurately memorising the complex paths of the vast Elro Great Labyrinth.

Thanks to the oji-sama’s precise guidance, Yamada-kun were able to break through the Elro Great Labyrinth without even having to experience a genuine hard fight you know. When I think just how much of a hard fight it was for me to be able to leave the Elro Great Labyrinth, yeah, I better stop this line of thought. Just stop it. If I think about it too deeply a wave of murderous rage will awaken.

The one time when the Earth Dragon appeared resulted in a real battle, but I bet that Kuro instigated that anyway. Considering that an Earth Dragon that was weak enough for Yamada-kun and co to beat just happened to turn up, no matter how you look at it I can only think that it was something that he set up. Maybe he wanted to let Yamada-kun and co to level up a bit or something.

Well, for me, the bigger surprise was just after that when the babies turned up. They said a bunch of super profound sounding stuff and scared Yamada-kun and co, but what were they really up to? They might be my kids, but their thought process can’t be understood. When I went to ask them what they were up to immediately after they came into contact with Yamada-kun and co, they snuggled up to me while somehow totally giving off an aura of “praise me, praise me” though. Umm, yeah. Based on that attitude, I can’t tell them off without giving them an opportunity to explain their side.

Apart from the chance meeting with the babies, Yamada-kun’s party was able to conquer everything smoothly. Considering the abilities of Yamada-kun and co they conquered it in the shortest time possible. Thus they reached the elf village without any problems.

It’s strange, I guess. The Empire via Natsume-kun and the Divine Word Religion via the pope – there were all sorts of dragnets put in place to stop Yamada-kun’s party, yet he bypassed all of them. For them to be able to bypass such a thorough setup, I can now only laugh about it. Dah-hah-hah-hah! Erm, yeah. I know that it would have been best if I had tried to give guys from those places some instructions, but this is me we’re talking about here okay! There’s just no way I could suddenly turn up and give orders to some unfamiliar guys, right? Besides which, I’m not in the chain of command for those guys in the first place – it’s Natsume-kun and the pope. If I just casually turned up to give them orders, it’s obvious that they’d respond with something like “who the heck are you?”

Let’s stop with the excuses. In short, this is a case of “don’t talk to strangers”. That feels slightly off though, but it’s not wrong.

Still, it’s like this. Considering how much I suffered to be able to leave the Elro Great Labyrinth, seeing it conquered so easily gives an indescribable feeling. Humph! Even if you call that a conquest, Yamada-kun and co only passed through the upper layer anyway! I conquered the middle and lower layers as well! It seems that the upper layer has weakened. However, that was already the weakest layer in the Erlo Great Labyrinth. For it to be conquered so easily is a disgrace to the Elro Great Labyrinth. Or something like that! If you want to boast about it you better at least conquer the middle layer! ……I feel so empty. Nai wa. Yeah, nai wa……

Sigh. Well, since they’ve arrived already there’s no helping it. I’ll take action to prevent them from coming into contact with the Demon King as much as possible. To be honest, though Yamada-kun and co are scary in the sense that they might cause an unexpected situation, in terms of pure combat strength they’re nothing special. I’m sure even Natsume-kun would act as a decoy if they run into each other.

There is just one person that the Demon King and I are in conflict with. Potimas Hyphenath. For the first time since I became a god, I’m about to get serious too.

Translation notes:

“nice guy oji-sama who I somehow remember seeing somewhere before“ – naturally this is Basgas who she saw in chapter 127.

According to volume 5 of the LNs, the English romanisation of Potimas’s name should be “Potimas Harrifenas” – I’ve used the previous romanisation for consistency.

“I’m about to get serious too” – in the sense of using her true/full power.