Heh heh heeey!
D, isn't your timing just a little too terrible?
Dropping a bomb like that when I haven't even properly explained our situation to the Reincarnated Ones yet, and trust is still completely shot?
Of course anyone would be suspicious.
If I were in their shoes, I'd be thinking "What the hell is wrong with this guy!" too!
"What does this mean?"
Sensei's lips were trembling as he questioned me.
Given what had happened earlier, his lips had gone completely pale.
Having learned the truth behind the elves, Sensei was on shaky ground right now, unable to figure out what to believe.
Everything he'd seen and heard must have become suspect by now.
In an ideal world, I was planning to spend time building trust with him and having him transfer the Ruler's Authority of Succor to me.
But an already ridiculously difficult communication mission just became even more impossible to accomplish!
Right...
Sensei has one of the Ruler Skills—Succor—and on top of that, he holds the Ruler's Authority too.
In a way, he's even harder to figure out than the Pope.
Let's just be honest! I have zero plan when it comes to Sensei!
I mean, come on! I have no idea what to do!
The Pope is at least straightforward. That guy will never waver.
His strength of will is admirable, but when you can't see eye to eye, you have to clash, no matter how great the person is.
But Sensei is different.
He hasn't been acting with full understanding of everything like the Pope does. Instead, he's been swept along by
Protecting the Reincarnated Ones was certainly his own will, but there's no denying that other wills were involved too.
He'd been warped in various ways by Potimas.
So here was Sensei, holding the Ruler's Authority yet knowing little about this world, having acted solely for the sake of the Reincarnated Ones.
That's why, honestly, I couldn't predict how Sensei would react when it came to discussions about the future of this world.
Which is exactly why I'd planned to take my time, slowly persuade him, and peacefully have him transfer the Ruler's Authority.
That was the extent of my plan!
In other words, I have no plan for dealing with the current situation!
Plan B! Huh!? There is no such thing!
What do I do? Seriously, what do I do?
"Sensei, calm down.
Kushitani managed to calm Sensei down, and while she was at it, me too.
What a capable woman, Kushitani!
Right. Let's calm down for a moment.
First of all, me explaining everything verbally? Impossible!
There's no way I, someone terrible with words, could explain everything from A to Z.
Especially something this important and absurdly convoluted.
Therefore, the idea of verbal explanation is rejected!
If I can't do it, I can't do it.
Knowing when to give up is what matters. I mean, I'm not even human, but hey, who cares about those little details.
It's way more efficient to pivot to a different approach than to keep fixating on something I can't do.
Hmm. A way to convey the situation accurately without misrepresentation, but without explaining it verbally.
Oh, there is one. I'll relay the additional task to my divided bodies working in the extra-dimensional space.
The order was carried out immediately, and the finished product was delivered via spatial transfer.
What ended up in my hand was a single book.
A book made from paper produced through an application of thread-crafting.
The bookmaking had originally started as a way to deliver instructions to the Pope and
I'm confident I could fill an entire library in less than a day now.
Don't call it a useless skill! Look how handy it actually is!
Sensei and Kushitani were startled by the book that had suddenly appeared in my hands.
Fermina, who'd been keeping her presence suppressed, was used to this sort of thing and wasn't fazed.
When I offered the book to Sensei, he accepted it cautiously.
"I just need to read this?"
I nodded.
That hastily made book contained everything—information about the Taboo, and what I was about to do—all laid out without holding anything back.
I'd figured that any half-hearted cover-up now would only lead to bigger trouble down the road.
Whether Sensei would cooperate or refuse—there was no way to know until the lid came off.
But whichever it turned out to be, that would be the path Sensei chose. I would respect that choice.
...And if, even after that, he chose to stand in my way, then I would steel myself as well.
Sensei's gaze darted between the book and me. But when he saw that I wouldn't offer any further explanation, he seemed to make up his mind and opened the book, beginning to read.
It would take a while for him to finish, but I'd wait here in the meantime.
A dull, sickening crack echoed from within me.
All the strength drained from my body, but the hand gripping my neck refused to let me fall.
That hand, which had appeared without warning from behind, had grabbed my neck and crushed the bone.
I recognized it with a strange sense of detachment, as though it were happening to someone else.
"I'm not foolish enough to think you'd die from something like this."
The voice came from behind. A voice I'd heard before. In fact, in this world, only one person I knew of was capable of doing something like this.
My captured neck was yanked backward with violent force. With the neck—the very conduit that carried commands from the brain to the body—already destroyed, I had no way to resist.
God or not, when your physical body is destroyed, you still take real damage. And since I was a newly minted god, that damage was even more pronounced.
Granted, my attention had been focused on Sensei, but to allow a sneak attack like this... Maybe I'd been getting soft without even realizing it.
I was flung backward and tossed aside. But the place I landed wasn't the treehouse in the elves' village I'd been in moments ago—it was the road of some unknown modern-looking cityscape.
Spatial transfer.
No—this probably wasn't the real world. It had to be a field created inside an extra-dimensional space.
I hurriedly began self-repairing my neck as I looked up to see the figure I expected—a man who looked as though he were clad in black armor.
The Administrator, Black, Guardian Distodies.
"Do you remember what I once told you?"
Black spoke, looking down at me. Even if he said that, how was I supposed to know when he'd said it?
"If the path you walk leads to an end that is incompatible with mine, I will stand in your way."
He'd probably read my thoughts, because Black recited those words without hesitation. They were the words he'd spoken when he'd come to visit me right after I'd left the Great Ello Dungeon.
"It seems that time has come."
Saying that, Black assumed his fighting stance.
No, no, no!
Isn't this developing a little too fast!?
There's nothing in my plans about this!
Every last bit of this is D's fault!
Damn you, D!