Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

Chapter The Third Informal Conference ②

I watch over the pope as he reads through the document intently, sweating nervously on the inside as he does so. Will he go along with it I wonder? To be blunt, I’m aware myself that it’s quite an unreasonable set of demands to be making.

The plan is as follows: first of all, for Natsume-kun to systematically brainwash the humans around Yamada-kun. Then, starting from that base, to brainwash those humans who are close to the higher-ups within the Kingdom. Using those brainwashed people, to murder all those who were corrupted by Potimas. Then, make sure Yamada-kun gets labelled as the ringleader for that. It’s a plan that blatantly screams “this is atrocious!”

Working from the same script, the Divine Word Religion will declare that Natsume-kun is correct and that Yamada-kun is the criminal. The Divine Word Religion is a religious organisation with strong influence amongst the humans. If such an important organisation makes a declaration, then every nation will accept that declaration as correct, regardless of the truth. Yamada-kun will become the equivalent of an internationally wanted criminal, which will severely hamper his ability to move about. It’s fine if he gets caught during all the turmoil, as I believe I can deal with it on an ad hoc basis. Even in the worst case it shouldn’t result in him being immediately executed or something though at least.

Because Yamada-kun has become the Hero, he has to be kept away from the Demon King no matter what. However, I have no intention of killing him. Even if he’s killed, the next Hero will simply be born. In order to prevent such developments, I killed the previous generation Hero who was Yamada-kun’s onii-san, but due to some unnecessary interference the whole situation has become a mess.

The overthrowing of the Kingdom is a done deal. As such, something has to be done about the reincarnators who are there. Since Yamada-kun will be placed right in the middle of that turmoil no matter what, on this occasion he will completely be the victim. So, for the other reincarnators, I’ll have Natsume-kun temporarily brainwash them, compelling them to work for our side. It would be annoying if they clumsily sided with Natsume-kun anyway. With regards to removing the brainwashing, it won’t be too late even if it’s left until everything is over.

So, that’s the plan I eventually came up with after thinking about various options to smooth things over after an unexpected situation occurred. Geez, seriously, that pair sure screwed things up.

「Because she pissed me off by getting all flirty with him.」

「Because her snuggling up to onii-sama annoyed me.」

After I made them sit in a seiza, that’s what that fucking pair of criminals insolently said. That’s just totally your personal grudges, right!? Uh, yeah. I had worried that maybe I was making a mistake in the selection of personnel this time, but since this incident I’ve inevitably been drawn into feeling that both Natsume-kun and imouto-chan were a bad idea from the start. Such irresponsible personnel were just never going to do well.

They’re now under the supervision of vampire girl, so now they should be following my instructions properly. They should be! Vampire girl is also like that as well, so I’m seriously uneasy though! There’s nobody else who’s suitable so there’s no other way though! historical

That’s the reason why vampire girl isn’t here. I brought Mera along as a substitute, but that might have been a mistake. When vampire girl’s hometown was destroyed, she was still a baby. Although she had a sense of self due to being a reincarnator, because the place was destroyed before she had developed any deep feelings for it, her resentment towards the Divine Word Religion is not actually that deep to be honest. I think her feelings are something like “They were nasty to me in the past so I hate them.”

However, Mera is different. Compared to vampire girl, Mera’s hatred towards the Divine Word Religion should be on a whole other level. So far he seems to be calm, but I can’t tell what’s going on in his innermost thoughts. It would be better if he was as easy to understand as vampire girl, but he’s not as simple as her. Since it’s Mera, I can’t imagine him losing his temper, but I’ll keep a lookout on him just in case.

Sigh. In my original expectations, I hadn’t been intending to force this matter onto the Divine Word Religion you know. But well, it’s not like it was completely unexpected either. The reason why I wanted to form a collaborative relationship with the Divine Word Religion, was because they have a lot of influence amongst the humans. If something happened, my calculation was that I might be able to settle the matter by using the power of the Divine Word Religion. It’s better to have as many usable options as possible. Though I had reached out for them for some additional insurance, that judgement was proven to be correct.

But then, I don’t know whether the pope is going to simply agree to this or not. Since it was due to our mismanagement after all, I think they might make some kind of demand from us. In the worst case, the collaborative relationship may even collapse.

Well, if that happens then it’s no big deal. It just means that from the Divine Word Religion’s point of view that the tragedy will become greater. If there’s going to be a problem, it would be whether Kuro would overlook that or not. He wouldn’t overlook it, I’d guess.

However, it surely won’t come to that. The pope wants to work with us. For the sake of taking down the elves and saving the world, and consequently the humans, he’ll do anything. Yes, anything. Even an outrage against humanity. If he judges it to be necessary, any atrocity is possible. That’s who this pope is. A wolf in sheep’s clothing amongst the humans, a monster in a different sense to the Demon King. Such a monster, isn’t about to drive us away over this. Even if he has to sacrifice his protege reincarnator, I’m sure he’ll do it in an attempt to achieve his objective.

Also, there’s one more thing. This incident was due to our mismanagement. That being the case, it is necessary to show our sincerity. If we make an offer that is beneficial to the Divine Word Religion, then they should take the bait.

「If this plan does not meet with your approval, then we shall immediately release the brainwashing from those affected. However, if it does meet with your approval, then we will return one of the forts captured by the demons during the recent war. In addition, we will hand over to you all rights of possession for the elf village that we are due to jointly invade soon. Naturally, we will retrieve the Queen Taratekt that we have in the vicinity of the elf village.」

Noticing my prompting, Felmina-chan says that to the Divine Word Religion members. Returning one of the forts that the demons grabbed during the recent great war, and giving over all rights of possession of the elf village. While the Demon King had tossed a Queen Taratekt into the forest around the elf village, if that is also retrieved then they’ll be able to do as they like.

To the humans, from a defensive point of view they should be quite pleased to be able to regain one of the taken forts. Also, the forest around the elf village is a treasure of natural resources. On top of that, the elves will definitely have some things of a dubious nature in their village. The pope should understand just how exceptional a condition it is to be offered everything there. Simultaneously, it shows that we aren’t concerned about the power balance between the humans and demons afterwards either.

For us to return the fort is like we’re throwing down the drain the results achieved by the demons in the recent great war. In addition, even though we’ll have to make sacrifices in order to invade the elf village, we won’t obtain anything from it. It’s like we’re saying that the demons will literally be working for free and dying for nothing.

For the humans, they will be able to effortlessly regain a fort, and gain everything resulting from borrowing the strength of the demons to attack the elf village. It’s deeply unequal. To be blunt, this is too much as recompense for the mere brainwashing of a single girl.

「We shall go along with this plan.」

Sure enough, the pope responded immediately. As I thought.