Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 6.7

B6 Ruminate: Ragnarok

The battle between humans and dragons had begun.

That in itself was no surprise.

Humans matter little more to dragons than garbage.

Intelligent life or not, from our perspective they are no different from any other animal.

Especially once they continued draining the planet’s life force in the form of MA energy, ignoring our countless warnings.

Inevitably, dragons came to see humans as parasites that were bleeding the planet dry.

So of course they felt no hesitation about exterminating said parasites.

Perhaps it would be different if humans were under the protection of dragons, but that was not the case for the people of this planet.

Yes, there were a handful of humans who worshiped dragons, but their numbers were incredibly small compared to the total human population.

Perhaps there was some intention to offer those few worshippers salvation in the very end, but unfortunately that never came to pass.

At the time, I was only one low-ranking dragon, in no position to be privy to the thoughts of the elders.

I no longer have any way of knowing what the highest-ranking dragons intended for the future.

The only order I was given was to persuade Sariel.

Dragons could no longer overlook the humans’ actions, and would have to exterminate them.

Their hope was that Sariel could tolerate those actions.

That is what I was meant to negotiate with her about.

From my point of view, there was no way that would ever succeed.

They must have chosen me for the role because I was acquainted with her, but honestly, I was far from enthused about the notion.

Who would want to attempt a negotiation knowing it would fail?

Much less when the other party in question is one for whom I had unrequited feelings?

…It did not sit well with me, but I had no choice.

However, it is a mystery to me what the elder dragons expected.

Did they think the negotiation would succeed, or did they know, as I did, that it would fail?

I have no idea.

Theoretically, from the standpoint of an average dragon, there was reason to believe that it might be a success.

Sariel’s mission was to preserve the native species.

If the humans continued to use MA energy, the planet would inevitably be destroyed.

Which would also mean the end of any native species.

In that case, it was conceivable that Sariel would agree to turn a blind eye to the dragons’ actions long enough to let humans be exterminated.

Of course, that logic falls apart when one realizes that Sariel wanted to protect not just the native species, but humanity in particular.

It is possible that the dragons in power did not realize this, in which case they might have truly hoped that the negotiation would succeed.

But what if they knew from the beginning that it would fail?

That would certainly explain why the attack on humanity had already commenced while I was negotiating.

If that were the case, then my role as “negotiator” was really to buy time, to stay Sariel’s hand.

I would prefer not to believe that, since it would essentially make me a sacrificial pawn…

The fact remains that the attacks began while I was mid-negotiation, but it is…theoretically possible…that they were simply overeager and assumed I would succeed…

…I must admit, that excuse sounds feeble even to my own ears.

At any rate, I will never know for sure what the elders were thinking, because I did not rejoin the dragons afterward.

Knowing the truth now would make no difference anyway.

As I expected, negotiations with Sariel broke down, and Sariel and the dragons did battle.

That is all.

I am sure the battle was a fierce one.

I cannot say for sure, as I was not there to witness it.

But Sariel was alone, against many dragons.

A single dragon is more than enough to destroy a nation.

On the defensive, Sariel could certainly defeat an individual dragon, but in the meantime the other dragons could wipe out the nation below.

The dragons trying to destroy humanity, and Sariel chasing the dragons to destroy them…

It must have been quite a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Naturally, the battle went on for some time.

Which gave the humans enough time to start defending against us.

I am sure they did not want to go down without a fight, even if it was utterly hopeless.

Just the other day—no, I suppose it was longer than that from a human point of view…

That weapon appeared from beneath the land of the wind dragon Hyuvan, the one that was designed by Potimas and built by some nation or other.

It was made by humans to fight against us dragons.

Of course, they were unable to finish it in time to fight us in the end; even if it had been finished, it would not have been enough, anyway.

The human armies resisted the dragons’ attack, of course, but that did not last for long.

But we made a miscalculation: The humans stole even more MA energy for those armies.

For making and operating their weapons…

Truly ironic, that a battle to force them to stop using MA energy would result in the use of even more MA energy.

Worse yet, Potimas was behind it, selling the plans for these weapons.

Even after he was made a wanted criminal, he was still sheltered as the leading expert on MA energy.

He must not have wanted for places to hide; I am sure there were plenty of humans who were desperate for the fruits of his research.

And even as he was in hiding, he still devoted himself to research, living his life as he pleased.

Why did I leave him be at the time? There is little that I regret more.

When Foduey was caught up in Potimas’s plot and turned into a vampire, when I grew to know the children of the orphanage and learned the depth of Potimas’s sinfulness…

If only I had given in to the impulse to hunt him down and destroy him on the spot…

At any rate, I doubt things would have gotten as complicated as they have now.

I should not have rationalized that a human criminal should be judged by human hands, and other such convenient excuses.

I suppose the lesson here is that while failure is often the result of acting on one’s emotions instead of listening to logic, there are times when it is best to let one’s emotions decide instead.

But of course, it is inevitably easier to judge these things after the fact, and in most cases one cannot tell at the time what will be for the best.

Still, if I had known, I would have killed Potimas right away.

Even now, I dearly desire to kill him.

But that role is not for me, nor do I have the right.

Though it feels shameful, I cannot refuse to leave that duty to another.

I suppose a human criminal will be judged by human hands after all.

Although it certainly took a long time for that judgment to fall…

Well, he has certainly built up even more charges in the meantime.

I am sure any punishment will be more than acceptable—at least, I will gladly accept it.

She should savor her revenge to her heart’s satisfaction.

Thinking back, there have been many sins in this world, and all have been carried by someone.

Individually, the people who live in this world have probably paid off a fair amount of their penance by now, although Ariel would be angry to hear me say so.

Still, I feel that they have been punished more than fairly.

Think of it: they have been reincarnated in this world over and over, unable to properly return to the cycle of death and rebirth, the power of their souls being squeezed dry all the while.

They themselves are not aware of it, since they do not retain their memories from one life to the next, but it has certainly seemed a sufficient punishment from my point of view.

At this point, their souls have been worn down to the point that even reincarnating is becoming dangerous for some of them.

The wear on the souls of the demons has been especially harsh; there were already so few of them, and in spite of their long lifespans, their cycle of death is hastened by the constant war against humanity.

Perhaps that is punishment for the sin of using so much MA energy in the past in order to evolve, but when I see their race driven to the brink of extinction, I cannot help but feel that perhaps they have suffered more than enough in penance.

Even for humans, it is not as if all of them were in thrall to MA energy.

Many of them were simply caught up in this world’s problems by chance.

Dustin, especially, was not originally in such a position that he should blame himself so harshly as he does.

Certainly, I still cannot accept his final decision.

But the fact remains that it was the only choice he had.

When I think of it that way, I can’t help but feel that he drew the short end of the stick.

Yet in spite of that, he still continues to blame himself for drawing it as if it were of his own volition and take responsibility accordingly, which is honestly rather impressive.

Not that I would ever say this to his face.

Of course not.

Even if I do think him impressive in a way, I cannot agree with the direction of the Word of God religion.

That is another story entirely.

But I suppose I do feel a bit indebted to Dustin, and that is what prevents me from criticizing his final choice too harshly.

I feel guilty because of what my fellow dragons did, even if I did not help them do it.

That feeling is all the stronger because, unlike the humans of this world who have been atoning for their sins these many long years, the dragons did not stay to do just that.

Instead, the dragons did something truly unthinkable in the final hour.

Namely: they drew out the last drops of MA energy from this world, and ran away with it.

What would happen if they did such a thing after the humans had already spent so much MA energy?

The answer was obvious: The world would end.

This was undoubtedly the beginning of the end.

That is the real reason that the world suddenly started trending toward destruction so rapidly right after the conclusion of the battle between Sariel and the dragons.

That was exactly what the dragons were trying to do.

I am sure the humans who lived on this planet thought, How could the dragons do such a thing?!

Even I felt the same way.

But from the perspective of the dragons, it was not such a strange notion.

It might seem irrational to humans, but to the dragons it was in fact a perfectly logical conclusion.

Essentially, the dragons wrote this world off as hopeless.

Humans would not want to stay aboard a sinking ship for long, would they?

No, they would escape from the ship as soon as possible.

And if there was any valuable luggage aboard, they would take as much as they could carry.

Since the ship was sinking anyway, there would be no reason not to take it.

This is the same logic the dragons followed.

There is another reason, too: They wanted to sink it themselves, to ensure that it would never surface again.

As far as the dragons were concerned, the humans of this world were pests who drove their own planet to destruction, heedless of the many warnings they were given.

Naturally, they wanted to ensure that such vermin would not leave their planet and infest other worlds.

The dragons sought to wipe out all the pests at once so they would not have to worry about them again.

Not exactly an appealing concept to the humans being wiped out, I am sure, but that is the truth of how dragons saw humans.

They were reluctant to use an inhabitable planet, but they could not rule the place anyway, since Sariel was already there when they arrived.

Since the planet did not belong to dragons to begin with, it was not a difficult decision to let it go.

In other words, they gave up on ruling the world and opted to destroy it instead.

Though putting it that way sounds rather harsh…

But it is not incorrect, and I do harbor resentment about this final decision of the dragons myself, so I do not care to amend it.

Yes, from the point of view of a dragon, it was the correct decision.

It had advantages for them, and no disadvantages: A planet they could not rule was destroyed, and in exchange they gained what energy that planet had left.

Cruel as it sounds, the fact that all of the humans still living there would be eradicated was also an advantage as far as the dragons were concerned, since it meant that vermin had been exterminated.

They had no pity for humans, even if they were intelligent life.

In fact, I am sure the fact that they were intelligent made it even harder for the dragons to forgive their actions.

It was as if a child who never listened to warnings finally made a foolish mistake they could not undo.

Could you blame the adults for being angry and refusing to help such a child?

…Whose side am I on, you ask?

Why, I am on Sariel’s side, of course.

I am not necessarily on the side of the humans.

Before I struck out on my own, I saw humans from a dragon’s perspective.

I too was angered by their foolishness.

It was the dragons who pulled the final trigger on this world’s destruction, but humans are still unmistakably to blame for paving the way up to that point.

So given a choice between humans and dragons, I will indeed defend the dragons.

Though I cannot say that I am truly on the dragons’ side anymore, either…

I was indeed an unimportant dragon in the first place.

I am lost to their side now, but I will admit that I am still reluctant to speak ill of the race into which I was born.

I cannot fully forgive them for taking the MA energy and fleeing in the end, but there is a part of me that would endorse that course of action from their point of view.

Would you laugh at me for flip-flopping between sides?

…Yes, I suppose you are right.

In the end, I was never able to make a firm decision one way or another.

Even now, I am still struggling in the same way, am I not?

……

…You could at least attempt to reassure me.

………Fine.

My being pathetic is far from a recent development.

I know that much.

But it was still the most painful decision of a lifetime to go begging D for help.

Even now, I myself am amazed that I had the nerve to do something so drastic.

I had never actually met D in person before.

Of course not. D is far too powerful a god.

Even the dragons, who have a great deal of influence among all gods, refrain from clashing with that one.

Did not the dragons also refrain from clashing with Sariel, you ask?

Our dealings with Sariel and D were very different.

Yes, Sariel was a powerful lost angel, and the dragons were reluctant to deal with her.

But we lived in the same world and hoped we might be able to win her over to our side over a long period of time.

We were attempting to gradually encircle her, not refraining from interacting whatsoever.

But D is a different story entirely.

We would never even go near that one.

Do not touch, do not interact, and if she should ever approach you, flee without hesitation.

That was how D was described among dragons.

For such prideful creatures as us, it is rare indeed to make such a statement.

That should tell you how much dragons feared D.

In fact, discussion of D was largely considered taboo among our kind.

We were reluctant to even speak that name.

Truth be told, some of the younger dragons did not even know of D’s existence.

I was one of the younger dragons myself, but I was only made aware of her because I happened to excel at spatial abilities.

These spatial abilities allow one to travel anywhere at all, which is precisely why those who can use them must be informed of the places that are forbidden to tread.

And of course, one of those places was D’s abode.

The dragons boast a great deal of influence even compared to other gods, but it must be said that even then, they are not invincible.

There are many gods that will retaliate if they are offended, no matter who the offender might be.

Even the great dragon god, the highest ranking of the dragons, is said to have been injured once long ago by the god that reigns over hell.

Legend has it that the dragon god had never truly been wounded before or since.

Hm?

Have I ever met the dragon god?

Me? Of course not.

Just to be clear, this world is a very remote region by dragon standards.

Think of it as a puny village in the farthest-removed countryside of an obscure territory.

On the other hand, the dragon god is akin to a king living in the capital, understand?

Someone who was born and raised in obscurity of some far-off countryside would never get a chance to have an audience with someone of such high standing.

In this comparison, I suppose D would be the king of another kingdom.

So even though I had never met my own king, I went to the king of a foreign land to quest their aid.

It was incredibly brazen of me, to say the least.

Honestly, I am still amazed that I did such a thing.

I suppose you could say I was grasping at straws.

Although the “straw” I ended up grasping was something far more sinister…

…Was it really the right decision to turn to D for help?

I still don’t know the answer to that question.

If I hadn’t gone to D and convinced her to interfere in this world, Sariel would no longer be alive.

Far from it: Her very soul and existence might have disappeared entirely.

If her soul was still intact, she could at least be reborn and live out another life.

I do not know what sort of life it would be, but if she could forget everything and be happy, at least…

But if her soul was spent, that possibility would be no longer.

I wanted to save Sariel’s life.

If nothing else, I wanted to at least ensure that her soul would not disappear.

That wish was granted, and the system D created kept Sariel and this world alive.

But it was not the salvation I had hoped for.

For every wish granted, there is always a price.

There was no perfect outcome where Sariel and this world could go on in peace as I wanted.

D might have been able to do that, but she had no reason to.

Things might have been different if I had been able to offer a satisfactory payment, but of course a mere whelp of a dragon like myself had no such thing to give.

Thus, in exchange for saving Sariel and this world, D made the world into her plaything.

She made game-like features such as stats and skills into reality.

The real world was turned into a game for her amusement.

That may have seemed unbearable to the humans of this world who were trapped in the game, but it was their actions that led to this consequence.

Since there was no way to save the world except to play the game, they had to do it, in order to atone as well as survive.

But I do wonder sometimes.

Did I not offer up the humans whom Sariel laid down her life to save, as a plaything for D’s amusement?

And did I not force Sariel to endure constant suffering as a result?

Yes, her life was indeed preserved.

And this world continues to exist, if in a different form than before.

But in both cases, is this not simply prolonging their agony for no reason?

Have I done something completely unnecessary, or even cruel?

I cannot help but get caught up in such negative thoughts.

It is an inevitable effect of watching this world from behind the scenes for so long, unable to do anything more, I suppose.

My melancholy feelings have built up immensely over the years.

But then again, perhaps that is part of my punishment, too.