Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 2.6

B2 Ruminate: The Lost Angel and The Dragon

If you’re wondering what happened after that impactful first meeting between Sariel and me, the answer is “not very much.”

I sensed the difference in our strength and surrendered immediately.

The humans who were working to rescue the dragon child happened to succeed at precisely that moment, and so we parted without any further clarification.

I had to collect the child from the human rescuers, and Sariel vanished as soon as she judged that the incident was over.

We had no further communication after that.

And I assumed we would never see each other again.

Sariel and the dragons were essentially in a continuous cold war.

We rarely interacted unless one side deliberately tried to contact the other.

In other words, young dragons such as myself had no official interactions with Sariel.

But unofficially was a different story.

I had never been knocked off my feet by anyone but a fellow dragon, you see.

So I was now very intrigued about Sariel.

I suppose our meeting was just that impactful to me.

Of course, at this stage, I hadn’t yet developed any kind of romantic feelings.

I do not believe that I am the sort of person who would fall in love with someone merely because they punched me, or anything so perverse.

If anything, I imagine it was more out of self-preservation than mere curiosity.

Since I had spent my life in the small community of dragons, the being called Sariel was the first enemy I had met from the outside world.

It is a natural instinct to prepare oneself against enemies, is it not?

And so, I investigated Sariel and began observing her.

Much later, a certain someone shocked me by describing this as “stalker”-like behavior, but in retrospect that memory too makes me smile.

I do not know how long exactly Sariel has been on this planet.

She was here long before dragons came to this land, that much is certain.

Poring over human history, one can find images of a Sariel-like figure here and there.

In other words, she was already here by the time humans began to record their history.

So what is Sariel, exactly?

The answer is that she is an angel.

In fact, she is a lost angel who strayed from the rest of her kind.

What is an angel?

I cannot give a clear answer to that question.

What is a dragon? What is a human?

These answers are just as impossible to define.

If I were to put aside such philosophizing and answer more practically, I suppose I would list the traits of the species known as “angels.”

In short, angels are a race that war against the gods.

For some reason, they consider it their mission to destroy any and all godly beings, and thus they are locked in an endless conflict.

I am told that angels will attack any god, no matter their affiliation.

Though this is only hearsay, as I do not know any angels other than Sariel.

Why do angels view gods with such hostility?

This, too, I cannot say.

In truth, there are many mysteries surrounding the race of angels.

Even the angels themselves do not have all the answers, or so I hear.

It is said that angels suddenly appeared in ancient times, long, long before I was born.

Some even theorize based on this sudden emergence, and their devotion to their mission, that perhaps they were created by some higher being.

Even wilder theories suggest they were made by the universe itself as a sort of antibody, a defense against the gods who, despite existing within the universe, could very well threaten to destroy it.

At any rate, I certainly do not know the truth.

That is all I can say as to the origin of angels. But as far as their specific traits, the most notable by far is their awe-inspiring level of power.

Angels are strong enough that their race persists even after making enemies of gods of all kinds, including dragons.

I am told that even the weakest of angels exist in the territory of gods and attack them in groups.

And Sariel was particularly powerful even for an angel.

In fact, the real reason that the elder dragons who once walked this earth as my superiors chose to live in relative obscurity is so that Sariel would not destroy them.

Evidently Sariel was strong enough that she could have chased all the dragons of this world to extinction.

And her mission was to protect the native species of the planet.

This mission is the sole reason why dragons could not carelessly destroy humanity.

Angels are mysterious beings, who are given missions that drive their existence.

They will go to any lengths necessary to achieve these missions.

Indeed, their every action is so purely devoted to their missions that they can be rather inflexible.

Generally, it seems that most angels complete their missions and move on to a new one, but in some very rare cases an angel will adhere to a single lifelong mission.

In those cases, they may attempt to continue a mission they have already completed or continue fighting for a mission that is no longer possible to achieve, in a way that an outside observer would see as completely fruitless.

And these angels who have strayed from the others and act on their own are known as “lost angels.”

Sariel was one such lost angel.

Her mission was to protect the native species of the planet.

Long ago, a non-native god must have attacked this world and attempted to rule it.

Sariel was dispatched in order to prevent that.

I imagine that once she chased this god away, Sariel’s mission should have been considered complete, and she would have taken on a new mission and moved on to another world.

But something must have gone wrong, because Sariel remained here.

And continued her mission of protecting the native species.

There is very little lateral communication between angels.

One could even say there is none at all.

Thus, if an angel is lost, another angel will not come to collect them.

Even an angel with superior strength like Sariel will simply be left alone.

From the point of view of dragons, who communicate with one another and virtually no one else, this is an almost baffling lack of cooperation between members of the same species.

Although that may sound rich coming from a lost dragon like myself, akin to a lost angel.

At any rate, because of this lack of communication between angels, Sariel was left to her own devices for a long time, while the native humans she was protecting spread their influence far and wide.

It was then that the dragons saw this and quietly migrated.

At this point, there is no way of knowing what the elder dragons were thinking back in those days, but perhaps they were hoping they might get the chance to win Sariel over to their side.

We dragons do think of ourselves as the ultimate life-forms, but we do not necessarily ignore other species.

Because we are confident in our place at the top, we feel that it is our duty to guide those below us.

I am sure this would sound prideful to anyone but a fellow dragon, but dragons are very magnanimous toward anyone under our protection.

We show no mercy toward those who oppose us, but for any we have taken under our wings, we promise them the utmost protection.

And because our lifespans are so long, we sometimes take time to gradually strengthen our control over long periods.

Even here, I am sure there was a plan to gradually win over humanity, spread the rule of dragons, and eventually make it so that dragons commanded all of the native species that Sariel was protecting.

Were that to pass, then Sariel would automatically fall under the command of dragons along with those in her protection.

In reality, we only had control over a very small dominion, so this would be a very ambitious undertaking; but to dragons, whose lifespans are near-infinite from the perspective of humans, it would only seem like a moderate amount of time.

The eras of man come and go so quickly from our point of view.

In just a few short generations, people can transform into something else entirely.

If the present humans dislike dragons, we need only improve their view of us gradually through their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on.

Though unfortunately, Potimas turned the world upside-down and ruined everything before we could actually achieve that…

I do think about it sometimes.

What would have happened if Potimas had never changed the way that this world works, and Sariel and the dragons continued their strange equilibrium over time?

Most likely, Sariel would have stayed the same.

I believe a certain someone had high hopes for me in that regard, but I am sure one such as myself could never have caused Sariel to change.

If the world had continued on unchanged all this time, I am sure Sariel too would still be protecting the native species as she always did.

And if that were the case, where would I be?

…I cannot say.

Somehow, it is impossible for me to imagine where such a situation might have led me.

Indeed, had this world not changed so drastically, I would not be who I am today.

It is because of all of those events that my current self took form; had they not occurred, I would be a different person entirely.

Small wonder, then, that I cannot imagine it.

Either way, there is no point contemplating a future that might have come to pass.

In the end, it is only a hypothetical, one that will never occur in reality.

…I seem to have gotten off topic again.

Hmm. Has Dustin’s bad habit rubbed off on me as well?

Well, I suppose that is enough talk of angels, fallen angels, dragons, and the like.

So then, what exactly did Sariel’s protection of the native species look like?

As I mentioned before, depictions of a Sariel-like individual can be found throughout human history, but the details of her arrival and related anecdotes vary greatly.

In some cases, she performs miracles to save people, while in others she is treated as a witch.

Among the earliest of tales, she even warns humans against overhunting animal populations, and eventually punishes them for it.

In these times, Sariel was mindful of the ecosystem balance, keeping an eye on all of the native species equally.

But at some point, her priorities shifted toward favoring humans.

Angels may be devoted to their missions to the point of blindness to all else, but it is not as if they are without their own thoughts and individual selves.

So it is no great surprise that her interest might begin to lean toward humans, who can communicate their thoughts.

Delving further into human history, there are passages that suggest Sariel was trying to determine how best to deal with humans.

Her largest-scale interventions took place primarily in ancient history; over time, these instances became few and far between.

She must have decided that it was more efficient to match her activities to those of humanity rather than use her powers like a god.

By the time I first met Sariel, she was scarcely using her godlike powers in an official capacity at all and had instead formed a charitable organization called the Sariella Foundation, through which she carried out her mission.

The Foundation was active throughout the world, not belonging to any particular nation.

Its activities included general medical care, support for underprivileged regions, establishment of educational institutions, administration of orphanages and nursing homes, and so on and so forth.

The scope of her charity was remarkably broad.

Because the leader of the Foundation sought to protect humans, the dominant native species, she was not interested in profits or anything of the sort.

As a result, the international community as a whole trusted her completely, and because the top brass of a select few nations knew of her true nature, the Sariella Foundation had an enormous presence.

However, even if her goal was not to make a profit, the activities of the Foundation did cost a considerable sum of money.

The funding for their charitable activities was covered by various donations.

And the biggest of those donors was a billionaire by the name of Foduey, feared at the time as the “Demon Lord of the business world.”

Thanks to the vast sums of money he contributed, the Sariella Foundation was able to continue its generally unpaid, essentially volunteer activities.

To the people of the world at that time, I am sure the Sariella Foundation seemed like salvation from a goddess.

Which would not be entirely incorrect, since the organization’s leader Sariel really was a godlike being known as an angel.

Sariel was immensely popular with humanity.

However, at the time, I saw her activities as far too indirect and inefficient.

If she wished to protect humanity, she should have simply ruled over them with brute strength, in my young self’s opinion.

Sariel was powerful enough to do just that, and the Sariella Foundation already had the organizational capability as well.

If a dragon were in a similar position, I am sure they would have enacted such a rule without hesitation. I can say that much for certain, as I too subscribed to the standard thought pattern of dragons at the time.

However, I now realize that such thinking was misguided.

Dragons thought to create peace for lesser races by giving them a life of safety inside of a birdcage; Sariel encouraged humanity to be self-reliant, and only offered a helping hand.

Our fundamental goals were ultimately quite different—perhaps even opposites.

At the time, I failed to understand that.

But even now, I cannot say which goal was correct.

I do not think the dragons’ way of doing things was wrong, even if I have since been estranged from them.

And yet, I do not think Sariel’s approach was wrong, either.

Protection, or independence?

The only answer would lie with the humans of that time, and how they would feel in one position or the other.

But one would likely have to experience both before coming up with a proper answer.

And experiencing both of those opposites would be very difficult.

On top of that, even if one could do so, their ultimate answer would surely vary from one individual to the next.

While humans are all of the same species, their individual thoughts and feelings differ drastically.

Attempting to lump them all together in broad strokes inevitably fails.

I am sure Sariel made that same mistake many times.

For dragons, even if we fail on occasion, we will simply choose to enforce our dominion with sheer strength.

Dragons are soft on those under their protection, but we do not show mercy to those whom we oppose; anyone we have bared our fangs toward even once will never be taken under our wing.

There is a clear line drawn there: dragons are above, and all others are below.

That is the way in which dragons rule.

But Sariel evidently did not approve of such methods.

Rather than oppressing people with her power, she chose to walk alongside them.

Because her goal was to protect the native species, controlling them with force would have seemed a foolish approach.

It would involve cutting off those she was meant to protect, after all.

A politician may have to do just that from time to time, but Sariel’s mission was to protect humans, not to guide them.

Understanding that much explains Sariel’s decisions to a certain degree, even if I cannot agree with all of them.

But unfortunately, I had no way of knowing that at the time, nor did I have any doubt that the way we dragons did things was correct, so Sariel’s methods only frustrated me.

And so, I quite foolishly went to lodge my complaints with her in person.

I suppose this was another mistake of a reckless youth.

But that is how my interactions with Sariel truly began in earnest.