Page 531

305 – Reincarnator conference
The treehouse that I’m in has four stories. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to refer to it as a house hollowed out of a tree that has four stories? Please don’t worry about that aspect though. Anyway, the first floor is a dining room. There are several tables arranged, with chairs placed around them correspondingly. However, right now the tables have been pushed to the side of the walls and just the chairs are being used, with everyone sitting wherever they like. As it would be hard for us to have a conversation with the tables there, Endou-san gave instructions to move them out of the way.
The reincarnators are sitting in a semi-circle with me at the center, waiting for the discussion to begin. Yep, I’m at the center! Da heck! It would be better for oni-kun to be at the center! Until just now oni-kun had been doing most of the talking on our side, so it would have been better to continue like that! Despite that, oni-kun nonchalantly yielded the center to me, took a step back and sat down to my side. His eyes are telling me – you should be the one to speak.
It’s okay. You don’t have to be attentive over such strange things, okay! Ughh. This is why serious guys are no good! Guys who are strict about the rules are annoyingly inflexible at times like this.
Using Fluoroscopy, I look at oni-kun who is seated beside me without moving my head. He’s not budging an inch. He has no intention of moving until I start talking.
What a pain. I want oni-kun to help, but I look at the seat opposite him as well. There, sitting somewhat sullenly, is vampire girl. She doesn’t show any sign of moving either. This is hopeless. Rather, if I forced her to talk it would likely just make things even more complicated.
I look ahead. There with her arms folded and also her legs crossed is Kudou-san, who is looking at me. In her past life she had a sharp expression, but even in this world Kudou-san is a beauty with slit eyes. If that Kudou-san were to fix her eyes on someone with a glare, it sure would be intimidating. Does she have the Intimidation skill?
Then, sitting next to Kudou-san is sensei, who is restless and won’t calm down. Her gaze is darting here and there, with her body moving around to match. I’m not bothered by the reincarnators being tense due to having almost no clue as to what’s going on. However, maybe she can’t settle down because she knows some strange information so has no idea as to what’s about to happen?
From the point of view of the reincarnators, they shouldn’t be aware of anything really. Since it was said that we were going discuss things, I can understand them wanting to sink their teeth into the explanation. But, from sensei’s point of view, the situation is strange. It seems that sensei knew that vampire girl and oni-kun belonged to the Demon King’s side. But just when she thought that the Imperial Army had been the ones attacking, suddenly there’s two visiting reincarnators who should be on the Demon King’s side. Well, that would certainly be confusing. Sensei had been knocked unconscious in the midst of the fight with Natsume-kun for a start, so there’s too many things that she’s worried about such as the how did the battle end, why are two people from the Demon King’s side here, and so on, so maybe she can’t gather her thoughts. On top of that, because that shithead Potimas had indoctrinated her with all sorts of weird stuff, she’s not able to judge what is correct and what is incorrect. Precisely because she has some knowledge, unlike the other reincarnators, she’s very confused.
It might be just as well that Yamada-kun and Ooshima-kun aren’t here, in a certain sense. Those two aren’t here. Yamada-kun hasn’t woken up yet anyway, and it seems that Ooshima-kun is attending to Yamada-kun. Hasebe-san was extremely disordered, so she was forcibly put to sleep. Those three had continued to fight after sensei had fallen, so they do know some of what happened afterwards. In particular Ooshima-kun, who hadn’t fallen unconscious even to the end. They could be called participants. Unlike the other reincarnators who were simply dragged into the situation, those three know quite a lot more. If they were also here during the explanation, it would inevitably become stormy.
Except for Kusama-kun and Ogiwara-kun who are tied up, the reincarnators have various different attitudes, but they all have a posture of waiting for me to talk. Apart from sensei, it feels like they’re willing to listen calmly. While Yamada-kun and his party aren’t here, this is the perfect chance to win over the other reincarnators!
Despite that though, I feel like I’m surrounded by enemies on all sides. On one side is oni-kun who is as motionless as a statue. On the other side is vampire girl who is simply being sullen. In front of me is Kudou-san who is pressuring me to begin the explanation already. Sensei is occasionally glancing at me without calming down. The other reincarnators are simply staring at me.
Mind if I flee? No good? Do I really have to explain things while having so many people staring at me? Still no good? Oh, okay.
Err, err. Erm, at a time like this should I start with a conventional greeting? How about whether today is a lucky day? That somehow feels wrong.
I mean, just where should I start my explanation? The reincarnators basically know nothing at all, so I gotta explain everything from A to Z. But, what is “A” then? Maybe I should start from explaining this world, or rather how the System came to be? Ermm, but that would be such a bolt from the blue for the reincarnators, and wouldn’t they want to know something else right now? So what do the reincarnators want to know the most right now? Thinking about that, yeah, I guess it would be something like this?
「First of all, at present you are prisoners of the demons.」
「Huh?」
Kudou-san made an astonished looking expression for a moment, and then her face became grim. The other reincarnators were also making noises, and started becoming flustered. Ah, this is the sort of development where things have been misunderstood.
「Silence!」
Oni-kun stood up, and clapped his hands together to quieten the reincarnators.
「Everything is okay. Even though you are prisoners, it’s not like anything bad is going to happen. Rather than prisoners, it’s actually more like protective care after all. Please don’t worry about that. I said this just earlier, but we have no intention of harming any of you. Therefore, even if it sounds strange please at least listen until the end.」
In response to oni-kun’s sincere words, the noisy reincarnators began to calm down. While Tagawa-kun and Kushitani-san are being cautious while still being calm, the others more or less seem like they’re willing to listen. Phew. Well done oni-kun!
Even though they’ve been living amongst the elves, sure enough “demons” sound like the “enemy of humans” and something to be afraid of huh. Suddenly being told that they were the prisoners of the demons would confuse them. Ack, I blundered. I’m glad that oni-kun interceded.
「Umm, so what exactly is this about? Does this mean that you are supporting the demons then?」
Kudou-san asked while clutching her forehand in her hand. Normally I would simply just nod in confirmation here, but even I can tell that simply nodding would be so uninformative that it would be bad. I gotta, I gotta say something! Ahh! Uhh! Ohh!
……Grr, I really hadn’t wanted to do this, but a few sacrifices can’t be avoided. I guess I’ll throw away my pride for the moment, and just do it. Switchover.
「That is correct. Incidentally, all three of us here are not human.」
I open my eyes while talking. So that nothing strange would happen when they look at my eyes, I put my Evil Eyes off completely, but even so the reincarnators gasp when they see my creepy eyes. Incidentally, noticing that my ambiance had changed also made vampire girl and oni-kun gasp, but I ignore them.
「The three of us are cooperating with the Demon King in order to achieve a particular objective. I shall explain about that later. I will review the current situation first.」
The words come out smoothly and fluently. Despite the fact that they’re coming from my own mouth, I’m surprised myself. I have memories that are not my own. Those are the memories of Wakaba Hiiro, D’s temporary guise. Using those memories as a base, I am reproducing Wakaba Hiiro’s personality. This is Wakaba Hiiro Mode. Because I’ve entered this mode, I can put into words the things that I am thinking just like that. After all, since Wakaba Hiiro is not bad at speaking or anything of the sort, it would be more strange for her to not be able to talk. But with this mode, to put it simply it means that I am actually imitating D. Me of all people, is imitating that D! What a, what a terrible disgrace! This is why I didn’t want to do this! But, unless I do this I cannot speak properly! Therefore, I’ll endure it.
「First of all, I believe that you will have already heard that the Imperial Army was invading the elf village. Our Demon King Army attacked the elf village from behind the Imperial Army. The Imperial Army led by Natsume-kun was a decoy.」
At my words, the reincarnators start to become noisy. Amongst them, sensei’s expression looks extremely bad.
「About that matter, could I also hear about it in detail?」
At that time, a person came down the stairs from the second story. Ack. So he came huh.
Appearing with bad timing, was Yamada-kun who was supposed to have been unconscious and sleeping.