Chapter 262: Danger is exactly one of the certain answers

Previous Chapter l Next Chapter-First floor, Entrance.

The place where all the divergences begin, and even though it is the starting place, it is also an important place that heavily influences the difficulty of the next floors.

As always, the venue is like a festival.

The variety of food is crazy, the number of people is also crazy.

If we are talking about a place in the grand labyrinth of Yaso-Katsui where the difficulty level is low and has a lot of tourists, it would be this place.

It is actually to the point that any mamono that appears is pitiful.

-Second floor, Garden.

Each one of the types are not as wide as Entrance, but looking around it, it felt like a space that resembled the outside.

The mamonos that appear and the terrain have their own traits, and the width of the difficulty degrees is incredibly wide.

The number one lowest difficulty is the introductory floor, its name is also pretty easy to understand: Beginner Garden.

In our second day, we left the guiding to Hokuto and the others, and the place we ran past through was the same as the day before, Drake Garden.

Well, if I had to put it in words, it would be like a nest of dragons.

-Third floor, Path.

This place is narrow.

But this floor is practically a highway, where avoiding battle itself is difficult.

The number of encounters increase and the exhaustion grows drastic as well, so they normally have the cooperation of several parties and the sharing of exp.

The denominator gets bigger, so the amount of deaths here is obviously a lot higher than in the previous floor, and it seems to be the first wall that the beginners hit.

According to the information of Hokuto, if you enter this floor from the Beginner Garden, this third floor will be the Beginner Path and becomes a dead end.

Because of the Alt floor, this was my first time in this place, but for Tomoe and the others, this would be their second time here. We passed through the floor called Tribe Path.

It was a straight path with a number of halls; a monotonous floor. At the straight parts, it was a continuous battle with weak mobs, and at the hall parts, you would fight with a boss.

-Fourth floor, Valley.

Just as the name states, a valley. It is a floor that you have to advance through the bottom of a valley, and the field of vision is slightly dark.

The extent of actions you can take are limited like in Path, just that the enemies and traps were coming from all directions.

It was an attack from the sky.

It was mainly mamonos that have wings, and at times, there would be worm type mamonos coming for surprise attacks. It was also mainly traps falling onto us. That’s what I thought, but at the end, the valley itself was narrowing on us and that had quite the impact.

When I heard the name of the floor was Negligee Valley, I can’t deny I wasn’t interested in it.

By the way, there was no pink anywhere, and the whole floor itself had some sort of debuff effect that reduces all your abilities.

…Just what part of it is negligee.

-Fifth floor, Maze.

This was exactly a dungeon.

A maze.

It was a depressing floor, but the pathway and ceiling was pretty wide, so there wasn’t a feeling of confinement. That part alone was a saving.

Also, Hokuto properly constructed a route to the next floor, so we simply had to follow him and didn’t get lost which played a big part in making me feel better.

There were armed goblins and Orcs, Lizardmen and Beast type mamonos appearing here, and the moment they found us, they would attack us with all they had, which made this floor a pretty hostile floor.

The floor’s named Sword Maze, so there weren’t many with blunt weapons.

The Boss-like guy was also a big sword.

A sword that’s floating in the air and swinging at you as if dancing is already close to being a horror movie.

-Sixth floor, Hill.

It wasn’t a hill at all. This is already at the level of a mountain.

I felt like they should change the name to Mountain.

We endlessly climb the unpaved path that was leveled by the steps of previous visitors while surrounded by overgrown trees.

We were being constantly attacked by wriggly mamonos that hide their presence and go for surprise attacks.

Only the Forest Oni, Shii, was more elated than normal in the middle of this arbour space as she spearheads, or more like, bats her way through the mamonos, turning them into minced meat.

Hide Hide Hill.

Just like the name states, it is a floor where it is hard to grasp the presence of the enemies, and that must be why the Hide is repeated twice. It is an important part after all.

But Shii’s compatibility with it was extraordinary.  

For a Forest Oni that can forcefully gather information from the trees, even when the beasts try to hide their presence, it was totally visible in her eyes, or so it seems.

And so, tragedy unfolded upon them.

Now that I think about it, what did Gonzou experience in the fifth and sixth floor that made him feel despair?

It was also the same with the other floors we passed, I didn’t really understand that feeling of his.

-Seventh Floor, Hole.

A floor where if you didn’t buy a map, gathered information beforehand, it would partially destroy your party or even wipe them out.

Well, after reaching this far, there shouldn’t be that many people who are like that.

The moment you enter, there’s a big pitfall.

Nothing to grab onto, there’s not even a portal.

You simply fall.

And you get attacked by flying mamonos.

If you don’t control your fall in some sort of way, you can have luck in passing the mamonos and then go *splat* at the end of the fall.

There’s no device floating around or placed at the walls that can assist you with that either.

Going by the information of the map, there’s practically no Holes where you can find gimmicks that can make you float or scaffolds you can hold onto.

This Great Hole is a place where you totally have to manage on your own.

In my opinion, I feel like it would be a lot scarier to make someone jump on their own will by baiting them with fake scaffolds, compared to having them fall no questions asked.

At any rate, there’s not much problems on our side.

And so, aside from falling into a big hole, there’s nothing special to mention, and we all safely landed.

This time around, it did feel like a big wall you would hit -in a psychological sense.

-Eighth floor, Lake.

Location, a lake.

In other words, the romance of explorers.

I accept all objections you may have towards this statement.

This is a place that made me understand once again that we are deep underground. Ground and rocks in their natural splendor, and the bedrock ceiling that gave out a complete feeling of enclosed.

In that kind of space, the inside of the lake was releasing a gentle light like that of fireflies.

If we look at the whole space itself, it is on the level of being dim, and definitely not a light that you can define as dazzling.

But what was spreading from the lake was giving off a strong sense of presence.

There were a good amount of rocks, big enough for a person to jump on, floating on the lake.

Those were not the top parts of stone pillars, they were floating rocks.

If we take into account all the equipment, Shii, who is the heaviest in the party with weapon and all, would not sink. That’s how much buoyancy it had.

The runner-ups Beren and Hokuto are obviously fine as well.

Just that, because of the size, it is hard to have two people jump on the same rock.

The portal is as always in a place close to the starting location, and at the center of the lake, there’s a teleport formation leading to the next floor.

In these points, this is a simple floor.

It is easy to understand what you need to do.

Must mean that you need to trail the floating rocks and arrive at the center to continue on.

The mamonos were all aquatic type that live in the lake.

There were no attacks at land.

Leaving aside their presence, the mamonos that were jumping to the water surface as if aiming for flying bugs, their bodies were practically transparent.

Is it some sort of camouflage?

With that bad footing, and our actions limited a bit, handling the mamonos was quite the work. Moreover, at the middle of the stage, there were floating rocks that actually sunk the moment you jump on them, and you can’t tell them apart from the others.

Tomoe wanted to go a lot deeper in one fell swoop, so she made a big jump, but the foothold couldn’t stand it and Tomoe ended up dripping wet.

That probably pissed off Tomoe, she dove inside the lake and…after that, the underwater attacks had stopped completely.

Well, I can sympathize with that sentiment of hers, this is a floor that really stresses you out.

Clay Doll Lake.

If there’s a next time, let’s jump towards a correct foothold and finish it at once.

-Ninth floor, Gate.

In other words, a warping floor.

In this one as well, if you know the correct answer, the pathing is manageable.

Really have to be grateful towards the pioneers that cleared this place.

…Like, seriously.

This continuous warping that would make anyone go crazy, I don’t have the intentions of testing every single one of them.

For some reason, Hokuto looked disappointed, but I completely ignore that.

The rooms aren’t big by any means, and there’s 4 teleport formations at the rooms, and each room isn’t much different between each other.

It seems like a switch is what opens the door to the next area.

Name’s Cube Gate, it is a simple floor, but that’s exactly what makes it easy to get lost at and a troublesome place. Moreover, there’s quite a lot of rooms where mamonos lie in wait, and after teleporting, it normally ends up in an instant fight.

It seems like Mio didn’t find this place amusing. The mamonos that were waiting in ambush were mostly used to vent her stress.

After several tens of times, we found a corridor we haven’t seen before, and when I saw that, I sighed in relief.

-Tenth floor, Palace.

This place’s portal was filled with a number of teleport formations incomparable to the floors before.

It was an impressive sight.

It is not on the level of Entrance, but there were a number of groups divided and doing talks and discussions at the portal.

What is going on?

As we got closer, all the people gathered there turned towards our direction at once, and I felt somewhat uncomfortable by it.

This is…it felt like the eyes of someone that was looking at something weird.

The image of the floor is also not like a dungeon at all.

No well, there have been floors like that before, but this place feels somewhat different.

That’s right, we are indoors, and it is pretty luxurious.

If it is to take it relax, then this place is certainly good enough for people to gather.

Since these people were able to come all the way from the 10th floor, that must mean they have a decent amount of experience, so…they may have more useful information than in Entrance.

We register at the Portal as per usual.

And as per usual, the Obelisk emits a red light in return.

It is the sign that the registration was completed.

Okay, with this, we will be able to come to the tenth floor whenever we want.

We have also safely finished the task of Rokuya-san.

Everyone is…it doesn’t seem like they are that tired, but with information gathering in mind as well, it should be okay to take a rest here.

It is already noon after all.

It should be a good time to have lunch.

“Welcome to the communal 10th floor, Palace. It is been awhile since I have seen new faces here. Nice to meet you.”

From within the crowd of people that were looking at us, one of them welcomes us and extends his right hand for a handshake.

Ah I see, it was because it’s been awhile since new faces showed up huh.

I can understand that.

Since they know everyone’s faces here, it is as expected, not a place that prospers much in change.

Leaving aside when someone dies, it is rarer to have people increase huh.

Also, the word communal 10th floor and this many people at the vicinities of the portal, could it be…

I respond to the extended hand of the man and exchange a handshake with him.

At the same time, I send a gaze at Hokuto and he nodded.

In other words, this Palace is a place where no matter what route you take in the previous floor, you will always end up here.

That’s why this is a floor where people gather from every route.

“Nice to meet you. I am the representative of the Kuzunoha Company, name’s Raidou. My companions are all employees, and they are: Tomoe, Mio, Beren, Hokuto, and Shii. It took us time, but we were somehow able to arrive here. Nice to meet you as well.” (Makoto)

“Company? No, that doesn’t matter, you made it all the way here, so you must have actual skills. If you came all the way here in order to do business…”

“No, they don’t have those intentions. Right, Raidou-kun?”

Right after I began the conversation with the man that seemed to have the strongest standing within these adventurers, a person that came from the crowd of people who opened the way for that person to pass, cut into the conversation.

It is a voice I am familiar with.

It is him.

“That’s right. Today I didn’t come here to do business. I didn’t expect you to be waiting for me here, Rokuya-san.” (Makoto)

“…Rokuya?! The one from Apple? You must be kidding, right? He looks exactly the same as the picture I saw when I was a kid. Is he the real deal?”

From what I see, the man that was looking at Rokuya-san with wide open eyes is at least 40 years old.

Rokuya-san’s outward appearance seriously hasn’t changed at all.

Because of Rokuya-san’s arrival, the surroundings get even more rowdy.

“Nah, I arrived just now. I was thinking about coming here early and notify the people here of you guys. It was completely out of my expectations that you would be able to clear all in half a day. Truly abnormal beings, monsters.” (Rokuya)

Rokuya-san seemed like he didn’t care about anyone aside from us as he continues our conversation.

“Haha…” (Makoto)

“It is certainly true that with that level, not only would it be hard for normal adventurers, even the seasoned adventurers that challenge the World’s Border would find it hard to learn from you guys. Even if you were to slowly guide them, instead of them having a strong spirit to learn and reach the level, it would most likely damage them. I see, I see. Now I understand.” (Rokuya)

“…”

For a second there, a light of pity showed in the eyes of Rokuya-san. And on top of that…a small dose of sympathy?

As expected, it is hard to read the emotions of the mild smile of Rokuya-san.

“Now then, you being here is proof enough that you have passed the task, but can you tell me about the floors you passed to reach here? Just as reference.” (Rokuya)

“Understood. Drake Garden, Tribe Path, Negligee Valley, Sword Maze, Hide Hide Hill, Great Hole, Clay Doll Lake, and Cube Gate.” (Makoto)

The surrounding noise gets lower and lower as I tell Rokuya-san the floor names.

“…Was the one who set up this route you, Raidou?” (Rokuya)

“No, it was Hokuto.” (Makoto)

“I see. Was there some sort of *meaning* when he set it up? Ah, I am not talking about *thread*, okay?” (Rokuya) <The two words are said as Ito, but are written differently.>

Hokuto looks at me to confirm if it is okay for him to talk.

I silently nod.

We have already finished our task and can obtain his cooperation.

I don’t think there’s any problem.

But, that Rokuya-san…was he indirectly telling us that he knows Hokuto is an Arke?

How scary.

Even at his first meeting with Tomoe, it seemed like he already knew her identity.

“…I noticed that, in this dungeon, the higher the floor’s difficulty, the higher the possibility of that floor leading to lower ones. Of course, we could have moved through the floors that are not as dangerous, but it is more certain it connects to the next one the higher the danger; in that case, if it’s Waka-sama and us, going through those would be the shortest and best option, that’s all.” (Hokuto)

“So that’s why huh. There were also routes where the main theme is solving riddles and avoiding traps though. Is that a weak point of your group? More than half of the people here arrived here through those kind of routes, you know?” (Rokuya)

Rokuya-san continues on the answer of Hokuto as if he was having fun.

“It is not like it is a weak point of us. But if we were to choose those routes, the amount of times we have to go back and forth is too much; a waste of time. For example, passing four types of second floors and gathering slates in order to challenge a special third floor, and after that, you would have to clear four types of seventh floors as well. In that fashion, we would have to do things like that more than 10 times before arriving here. The amount of floors we would have to pass would be too much. If it’s the route I set on, we would only need to advance and pass the floor once. If we were to choose the route you talk about, it would have been practically impossible to arrive here in 1 day time.” (Hokuto)

“…Well, I am speechless. It was a perfect answer. That is one of the ways to completely clear this labyrinth of Yaso-Maga—I mean, Yaso-Katsui. It seems like you guys will be able to safely arrive at the 20th floor without the need of our advice.” (Rokuya)

Hokuto answered discouraged knowing that he was being tested by Rokuya.

There’s no real problem in that, so I didn’t say anything.

“Well then, Rokuya-san, Just as you promised last night, you will be our ally at the time of the negotiations, right?” (Makoto)

I confirm just in case.

“Of course, I’m okay with that. I will keep my promise. But you see, after our last meeting, I learned about the details of the problem, and I gotta say…this will be tough. Of course, at the negotiation, I will be taking your side. I will, but…I don’t think I will be able to help you in creating the opportunity for that said negotiation.” (Rokuya)

“What do you mean by that?” (Makoto)

A bitter smile comes up from Rokuya-san as if he was troubled, he is stuck in what to reply.

We can only wait for his answer.

Beginning with Tomoe and Mio, I could tell that my companions were slowly getting pissed.

Maybe his side has fallen into some sort of irregular situation.

“Hah… this is no good. No matter how I look at it, this will be difficult. The time is right, so how about lending me some of your time while we have a meal?” (Rokuya)

“…Understood. It is already time for lunch anyways, so okay.” (Makoto)

One person outside our plans has joined the group.

We moved to a corner at the vicinities of the portal and began our preparations for lunch while being poured the fiery gazes of interest from the other parties.

We decided to take a rest as we have lunch.

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0 thoughts on “Chapter 262: Danger is exactly one of the certain answers

  1. . ヽ | |  /  /
    .\ ヽ | | / /
    . \THANKS!! /  _
    . ― /i⌒i⌒i⌒i- ̄
    .三|| | | | ∧..∧
    . _〈_{_|_}_ノ)*•̀ᴗ•́*) Nepu!!
    . /`ー―(_ノ _ノっ
    ./ / | | ヽし(_)
    None shall cook this cat!!!

    1. Actually…. how do you cook a cat?
      I’m enjoy cooking but I’m not in the mood for cooking a cat, I have two of them and are really cute kittens, want to cook for a cat instead.

      1. Well, i guess you won’t be able to survive is some parts of asia. Since they cook all sorts of things there. From dogs, to maggots.

      2. “how to cook a cat” ask a chinese person since the eat cats and dogs (i should know since i have to deal with all there souls)

      3. @death, isnt it the koreans not the chinese that eat cats and dogs?…also are you doing a roll play were your staring as death(as in the grimreaper)?

    2. The biggest question is how can there be a cat in the internet, in the first place? Hmm….??
      The internet can be a really weird place but cats don’t pay internet bills.

      Don’t be fooled. Nepu is not a cat. He’s a pervert cosplaying as a cat who likes to sniff toes !

      Shoo ! Shooo !

    3. . ヽ | |  /  /
      .\ ヽ | | / /
      . \THANKS!! /  _
      . ― /i⌒i⌒i⌒i- ̄
      .三|| | | | ∧..∧
      . _〈_{_|_}_ノ)*T_T*) Spoil!!
      . /`ー―(_ノ _ノっ
      ./ / | | ヽし(_)

      Don’t, and Spoiler-san means DON’T eat Nepus. You become one if you do.

        1. I’ve said it before, but Common Sense-chan’s circumstances really is ripe for the picking as the basis for an H story.

          She seems like the type to act unwilling no matter what, but…

  2. Fight the power? Nah just not worth it when it’s Raidou… He would utterly ruin said power. Or make it moot. Or destroy it’s owner. Or all of the above? Idfk anymore….. Thanks for the chapter 😀

  3. Seriously they are underestimating Makatos group…. Tomoe is basically as strong if not stronger or nearly as strong as root, as she decimated the water dragon. Mio is the same as Tomoe, the onis and others a quite strong. Plus they haven’t realized that Makato is in the strongest slave relationship with them because of how strong he is. He hasn’t even ever fought seriously. Athena was a mock fight, the dragon chick was him just testing powers so was Hibaki.

    1. Well, they don’t really have a way to know all these things aside from experiencing it themselves. I think they are confident because they will fight in their home base and probably have a lot of traps and tricks up their sleeves. Maybe they also think that Tomoe and Mio are the same Shen and Black Calamity they know about.

      1. Think your confidence might be a bit misplaced, Rokuya clearly knows what Shen and Mio are and he got close enough to assassinate Makoto without anyone noticing. What makes you so sure his allies are not as powerful?

        Of course if you’re relying on MC plot armor or common sense bending, then that’s another matter but remember, if Rokuya was hostile, Makoto would have had 2 lines across his neck, then it would be a competition to see if the swords were better or his body is tougher.

        Trash hero is the one that walks around thinking he’s invincible (though technically he is at night), I’m hoping Makoto has more common sense, especially after losing a few fingers the last time.

  4. Thanks for the chapter! You’re spoiling us like this, Reigokai-sama!
    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
    Makoto uses “Arrive Early” on “Rokuya’s Common Sense”!
    It’s super effective!
    Rokuya uses “Allies?” to ward off the next attack!
    Makoto uses “Press for Information”!
    Rokuya is forced to respond with “We Might Have To Fight”!
    The result is ……. !
    Find out in the next episode of Kuzunoha Company Z!

  5. I’m starting to wonder will this side quest even amounts to anything( is it really worth all the trouble ,,,feels like when I play ESO when go to delivering a letter only to end up wiping a demon worshipping cult and saving a village infested with zombies and a hundred battles later. The kingdom is saved! …..I finally drop off said letter….)

    1. IKR? But the thing is, who knows?! It’ll probably end up with Makoto going through some character development and getting some new followers. That’s about it. When the goal is to literally beat the crap out of God, a lot of stuff tends to fall to the wayside.

    2. it’s in the case if makoto decide to leave tsige (for unknown reason, like a war against the goddess), he want tsige to be able to stand by itself and not just fall once they loose kuzunoha’s protection, and recruiting picnic rose garden is how he will do it. it more a “security belt” than a major tactical point, after all if he only wanted them survive, he could just lend them asora’s army

      1. “…he want tsige to be able to stand by itself and not just fall once they loose kuzunoha’s protection, and recruiting picnic rose garden is how he will do it.”

        … hmm …
        He actually cared for the hyumans living there? You know what, I think this is one of the last humane thing left in Makoto (in regards with current mental state of Makoto).

        Else, he turn into a real human hating monster. Daikokuten is right in giving him advice to follow his current path (merchant/teacher).

  6. Late….. meaby not.
    Thanks for the chapter as always, my tribute today is a all mighty Mexican Alambre (steack, onion, bacon, jam, peppers and cheese, all grilled) whit a Mezcal and for desset a citric salad (taste very good whit the mezcal too)
    For a truck-kun this time i have a speciall fuel spaghetti whit a natural organic fuel tea (this don’t have any alucinogen or addictive effect……meaby)

  7. I think he will pity those in 20th floor more. But since he came ro negotiate it will be hard to see battle he just need to force his way through their defence and make them submit. Thanks for the chapter. =)

  8. Thanks for the chapter! I can already see Rokuya saying “You see, I said I would side with the side that had the disadvantage… You guys have the advantage so I can help you in a fight”.

  9. will rokuya be explaining things on the next chapt??? then expect another waste of chapt. Wished the author just compiled all these talks in one chapt, but maybe the author is running out of ideas now

    1. I like this novel bcouse it’s slow progress and tell us detail
      Well it kinda hard finding web novel this good nowaday

  10. I don’t
    understand why people talking about Makoto will fight rokuya, at most next chapter most likely Makoto lamenting his actions killing Trashmoki assassin’s before since that became problem with negotiation with rosegarden members​

  11. Urgh I can’t feel I hate my self or what but hello guys I just joined the waiting game lol(and repeated rage of pushing the TL’s for more lol) Still thanks for the chap~

    And may I ask what’s the schedule of the next chap~

    1. Welcome to one of the many pitholes of the internet, where cats talk and the dead can come back alive.
      Next chap is out Sunday (in my country).

      Nice avatar by the way.

      1. Thanks and yeah Im put in the assembly line lol(a poop shaped emoticon in an assembly line along with a truck…) and what’s the timeline of your country by the way…

  12. ” When I heard the name of the floor was Negligee Valley, I can’t deny I wasn’t interested in it. “. . . ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
    Mio, take notes.

      1. Lies! Those are the honorable uniforms of respectable professions in the Union! That thing you so ignorantly call negligee is the uniform of our brave traffic police!

        PS:reports of accidents rising 25% after their introduction are malicious rumors by people that have a grudge against the police, the increase is mostly due to an increase in requests for heroes to other worlds and a rise in Truck-kun activities and not males being distracted.

  13. Yaso-Maga? So Yaso-Katsui is not the original name of the maze… somehow it feels like Yaso Magatsuhi instead…

  14. I’ve just realized that Makoto has become an entirely unreliable narrator recently. Any little event he experienced feels like it needs to be exaggerated to huge proportions, and he’s pretty dense to reading people’s feelings as well.

    Just about all we can count on him for is for objective descriptions, which in themselves are a bit distorted thanks to the influence of Wise.

    It’s as Rokuya said, he’s already at a monster level that makes it hard for non-monsters to learn anything from him.

    1. Tbh, I’ve never been a fan of Makoto’s POV, I’d much prefer someone else (except for Tomoki, I never want to read that trash thought!) or third person narration.

      1. Agreed. I think that’s part of why I enjoy chapters with the students. Makoto tends to be a bit dull because of his overly simplistic* perspective, reactionary behavior and tendency to brute force everything.

        * ” Treating complex issues and problems as if they were much simpler than they really are. ” – another reason he’s an unreliable narrator.

      2. Makoto’s solutions that is overtly complex is to bash it into pulp using pure magic. Next door neighbor giving Makoto trouble? Nuke their house. That fucker tried to stab ye? Send him flying into the void or crush their skulls. The local goddess giving you trouble? Slowly plot her demise via microwave magic.

        Now to be serious, yea Makoto biggest flaw as a character is to simplify everything and tries not to get into complex stuff. Now granted simple stuff is good and the world would be a better place but there are complex shit to the world. However Makoto is a high school boy with no knowledge of politics and shit just now learning and he probably has an eldritch being sleeping inside him but the solution to every problem is not to tactically nuke it from Orbit even though it is quite funny to us. Makoto is that child in kindergarten playing with the shapes where you are supposed to fit them into the correct hole except Makoto takes a fucking hammer to the toy to make it fit into incorrect holes.

      3. His POV might be simple and dull, but that makes the outsider’s contrasting POV that much more funny/meaningful when we finally see what they see. I don’t see that working as well on a solo POV, it’s like a comedy act, you need to set up the straight man, then knock him down.

        In this case, you might say Makoto is the supporting character for the other’s POV rather than a main character since he adds the spice to their views, even though he is the character the series revolves around.

        This method of writing is very obvious and done pretty well in the series ‘Cook of the Mercenary Company’ if you want an example.

        1. That’s a great way of putting it.

          Makoto gives us a bland “vanilla” perspective which is set up for the comedic contrast when a person with any sort of common sense witnesses the same thing he does and reacts more normally.

  15. Thank you for the chapter Reigokai !
    As always, will always.

    Guys.. sorry for coming late to the fest. I’m sick right now; fever, diarrhea, shivering and all… I blame that (imitation) cat steak I ate for dinner.
    Don’t eat that Nepu guys. Taste terrible.

    1. “It is already noon after all.

      It should be a good time to have lunch.”

      …. that part, I didn’t expect. How can he finish all that in less than 4 hours? What’s the speed they’re walking at??
      And he’s not seriously trying to play speedrun…

    2. Bad gas, huh? Well blow out your carburetor if you have to, and remember to take in plenty of radiator fluids.

  16. thanks for the chapter

    “It seems like Mio didn’t find this place amusing. The mamonos that were waiting in ambush were mostly used to vent her stress.”
    when a deadly ambush become a stress reliever…

  17. well, Makoto narrated about how tough each floor was. but… I don’t feel any sort of “danger” from the way he said it.
    and Rokuya seems like he thought that Makoto would be in a disadvantage at the “negotiation” despite acting like he knows everything. or, is it just me that thought that Rokuya actually underestimated Makoto?

    thank you for the translation

  18. and so rokuya will explain the problem and Makoto would know now.
    “Oh… that’s your friends of friend? I’m sorry I didnt know. They were basically attacking me with the intention to kill and I only respond to it”
    Cant wait for the next. I’m so want to know the makoto team respond.

  19. Thanks for the chapter as always Regokai-san. Well they broke through those level pretty fast, now a wet Tomoe is something that I look forward to seeing one day. If a figth breaks out, is the assasin join with the Kuzunoha company or the Laberinth mercenaries.

  20. Thanks for the chapter, Reigo-senpai.

    Well guys, 12 more before caught up. Also, I got some things that I have to deal with. Still, everyone have a nice day.

  21. “Of course, at the negotiation, I will be taking your side. I will, but…I don’t think I will be able to help you in creating the opportunity for that said negotiation.” (Rokuya)
    So by this it means that he might fight for rosegarden, but depending on the result of the battle he will side with Makoto if negotiations come up.

    1. …er? Think you misunderstood him.

      He will help them negotiate but he can’t make the other side want to negotiate since they clearly want to fight.

  22. I’m prepared to see a battle and these POV situations are just killing this story. As for Rokuya, shouldn’t he not be calling them monsters? That’s like calling the kettle black. Don’t believe they’re immortal, just longevity.

  23. Makoto now is just a killer. He does not hesitate to kill others because they are just enemies. Even if someone is just controlling them he just killed them without hesitation even though he got the power to just subdue them. He does’nt even categorize the people he kill even if its women. He just kill. What a shame to the author. He just lost his reasoning and became a cold bloded murderer. And justifying his action to the reader by being overly concerned to his so called family. Maybe because of the thing in the crack that the priest saw in him thats why makoto is acting that way. Ruthless without reasoning for the so called enemy. (The one being controlled by tomoki) they can be saved right?

    1. once Tomoki’s charm becomes to ingraned its to late. even if you remove the charm they will still be madly in love with him and would still do his bidding. sure its cold blooded but there was no way of saving those girls + they were assassins trying to kill him…

      1. ” once Tomoki’s charm becomes to ingrained its to late ”
        Certain people keep saying this but I have not seen any conclusive evidence to support it.

        1. Well, no. I’m pretty sure there’s been a few mentions of Tomoki’s Charm being irreversibly damaging to his victims.

          …By Princess Lily and Rona, that is. Makoto’s faction has been somewhat silent on whether or not they can treat it. Makotwo also mentioned something to that effect I think, but let’s not count him since he didn’t have Kuzunoha to support him either. Makoto’s attitude towards it was very much a “it’s too late” when he killed them, but whether or not he could actually cure them if he tried hard at it is unknown.

          As it stands, the general consensus of the world is that it can’t be cured-these uber secret society characters were trying to cure it with evidently little success(due to interruption mid-way). But at the same time, the rules of worldwide common sense don’t really apply to Kuzunoha and if anyone could cure it, it would be them.

          From the sound of it, Makoto’s working out countermeasures to protect his people but doesn’t really care enough to try to deal with the affliction otherwise.

      2. The alter-universe Makoto said so in that chapter. While he might not care for their lives, in reverse, he does not care about them enough to make up lies. You only lie if you are concerned with what the other person can do. If he can’t do nuts, then telling him the outright truth won’t matter since he can’t do anything and it’s simpler.

      3. @ Owl – Hmm, nope, not finding it. I re-read chapter 181 and I still see nothing to suggest that the charm effect is the least bit difficult to remove, or even anything that mentions removing the charm outside commenter speculation.

        Interestingly I DO find something to suggest that Tomoki’s charm power in that alternate timeline is incomparably powerful –
        ” I don’t know why you made me increase the power of that charm and why you depended on it. ” (Makotwo)

    2. Thanks a ton for the fast chapter, Reigokai!

      I don’t really see a problem with him killing fighters out for his life. Why should he go easy if the fighters are women or not? In this world, female fighters can be just as capable as males. Also, since they were definitely from Tomoki’s harem and still under Tomoki’s influence, it stands to reason that Tomoki, at the very least, was complicit in having them come after Raidou. If he pounded them into submission, what then? The possibility is high that they’d just come after him again, and he’d have to repeat the process ad nauseum, and possibly endanger somebody else because he failed to get rid of them the previous time(s).

      1. Makoto killed those girls because the of the adventurer that killed the orc and Komoe (beta), he already learned the lesson that even if he is as strong as a God his followers are not, so if he forgives enemies because they are weak then they might target his followers.

    3. If someone came at me with the intention to kill, I’d also blow their heads off without shedding a tear. Legally, I’ve the right to self/private defense and realistically someone who ignores the law just to kill you for his own reasons forfeits the right to protection of his own life.

      You obviously grew up in a very safe country/neighborhood.

      1. If thats me i wont kill women I will just incapacitate them. If men yes will not hesitate at all. And by no means a third world country is no safe place at all.

        1. That’s a bit of an absurd distinction to make, isn’t it? Just because they’re women you won’t kill them for an attempted assassination?

          From both pragmatic and moral standpoints, that doesn’t really make sense to me.

      2. ‘If thats me i wont kill women I will just incapacitate them.’

        And if I’m fighting World War 2, I’ll win it singlehandedly by shooting the enemy while moving away from their bullets.

        What do you think this is, the Matrix? Just because you imagine something does not mean it is easy or practical to do, incapacitating someone is 4 times harder than killing them, so you’re setting a goal 4 times harder for yourself while letting the enemy have a goal 4 times easier (killing you off).

        It’s a miracle you’re still alive if this is how you work.

  24. that was more or less already show many time before
    (not trying to “justify himself to the reader”)

    his dreams (parallel selves) shown him as a ruthless guy without morality. he doesn’t care about killing even innocent and allies.

    his talk with hibiki showed that he didn’t care about the lives of ‘fighters’ because they should be prepared to die, without accounting that maybe they didn’t have the choice. proven in the extreme in his dream with tomoki where he killed his allied and justified it by “they should be prepared to die if they go at war”.
    hibiki saw that makoto didn’t feel any guilt about killing, he mostly hide it by saying it wrong to kill and he felt bad the first time he killed somebody.
    Makoto said he was heavily shaken after his first kill: the adventurer, but the first kill he did was the demon scoots that he killed by accident and it never bothered him, he consider the first person he killed the women adventurer and deny the death of the demon because it was an accident.

    he didn’t care about the fact that he killed around 20 000 persons the first time he stood on the battlefield

    the way he beat own samal show that cruel part of him.

    he doesn’t plan very much on what he is doing, like how he killed the valkyries, they attacked him he assumed tomoki send them and didn’t try to get more intel even though he has a mind-reader. he wondered what tomoki was doing in lorel but killed of the potential intel source.
    same as for the variant-attack, he decide to take it easy for 3 days and come save the day when people are despaired, thought about protecting his students and put them in forced sleep, but forget about the one who had a wife a child in the whole mess, he isn’t thinking deeply to the extend of his action and only see the close situation.

    by what shiva said makoto has a disgusting ‘talent’ that he turned up to by developing his archery and from what chiya saw (a terrifying and disgusting black thing behind a white shell), I think that deep down makoto is a ruthless trash without morality (black thing), but disgusted by itself as a kid, he enclosed himself behind the ethics he learnt (white shell), that’s why he is more attached to Japanese custom than the 2 other hero. that how I understand how makoto is, he is greatly attached to ethics and the concept of family to ‘restrain’ himself, and the reason why shiva want makoto to not take the “military path” is to keep him from becoming the same asshole as in the dreams.

      1. Well said sir 🙂
        With that op power he choose to turn a blind eye on something important and just bulldoze his way in. A teen with so much power dont know how to handle it. Well lets just hope he reflects on his actions later. And do what is right and think what will his actions will do in the future.

        1. well, honestly, I don’t think he was wrong to kill the valkyries, but I feel like he was too hasty and there was better think to do, plus it leave a bad taste that they were brainwashed.

          he always saw things in a very simplistic way, like what he said to the demon loli (forgot her name, was it “sari”?) he said good thing= ally, bad thing = enemy.
          he never bothered by plan on long therm, and is rather short-sighted. IIRC he said that if he could just practice archery forever, it would be perfect.

          on the other hand, he tried to change but at a very slow pace. that’s mostly because tomoe ‘protected’ his naive side, but mio’s recent action on limia changed that, so who could see him change, he is learning by meeting the world’s leaders.
          especialy with hibiki’s talk, when he implied he wanted to kick out the goddess, hibiki pointed out what will happen. he didn’t plan to what will happen to the world after that and how chaotic the world will become.
          I see he recent action to recruit rose garden mercenaries as development of that, since he want to create a support for tsige to survive in case kuzunoha and himself leave it.

          I think we can exxopect a few change in the future.

          1. I think the reason Makoto’s actions are so grey here has a lot to do with his unique position of power.

            By normal standards of pragmatism, having high level brainwashed slaves trying to kill you means you should eliminate the threat as quickly and as efficiently as possible, which Makoto did. if it were Hibiki, Rembrandt, Tomoki, or anyone like that in that position, this is the correct answer.

            …Except with Makoto, he has more than enough power to keep them alive. Either because killing them is needless death or to research the effects of the charm, it’s notably more beneficial for him to merely incapacitate them.
            He acted pretty reasonably, but “reasonableness” isn’t something that should apply to him and he had more than enough leeway to take the “risky” route which brings greater benefit. The consequence is that it looks like Makoto is being thoughtless and made a wrong decision tactically.

      2. Wasn’t there a Chinese saying often in Wuxia?

        ‘Kindness to your enemies is cruelty to yourself’?

        Is there any reason to extend humanitarian gestures to your enemy who would not appreciate it and might even harm you in return? It’s not like Makoto goes hunting for them, in fact, it’s them hunting Makoto to kill.

    1. That’s a good breakdown of Makoto. What caused problems this time is that his ‘superego’ is suppressed when he’s fighting. I think the first adventurer bothered because he engaged in it as a conscious rational decision to commit murder.

      1. yep, that was the point that I wanted to make, what hurt him at that time wasn’t really ‘taking a life’, but breaking the taboo of killing (+ lost trust for hyumans, +the death and wounding of his people because of his naivety that hurt his responsibilities as a leader).
        I don’t someone who accidentally killed a few people would just be okay by saying “it’s okay, it was an accident” without feeling guilt.
        but maybe I am over-analyzing.

    2. @redcolonel Mate I believe you are missing some of context in some situations. The time he killed the demons they were exploiting the orc populace at the time, yes he knew he fucked up when he accidentally killed them but when they revealed the whole entire plan I don’t think he had much to be guilty about. Next the women adventurer he first killed was probably the first time started for Makoto to largely mistrust the Hyuman populace in general and that is understandable given circumstances at the time he killed her as he read her mind and her actions with furthermore the current Hyuman kingdoms that revere the bug. Quite hard to empathize with those who revere an incredible asshole that threw you into a wasteland to slowly die off.

      Also first time he stepped onto a battle field? I don’t know if you are either talking about the first or second time he was abducted to fight in a battle he did not want. In the first time it was at random and was trying to defend his life and largely didn’t know what he was doing thus leading to the death lake and the second time he was hired to save Hibiki’s ass. Both times in a war zone in which he holds the ideology that if you step onto the battlefield then you should be prepared to lose your life and I don’t see what is to be bothered by said ideology in which it is quite damn true. This time’s version has not gone full eldritch being mode yet so he isn’t shooting his own allies.

      Furthermore during the time when the school was attacked by the demons he was largely advised by his followers to stay neutral and it is understandable for several reasons. First he was already being harassed by the Hyuman organizations at the time(The Merchants guild, the church and even a noble family) and wished to take advantage of the situation(Simply nuking the city of every enemy just to be a hero doesn’t get you anywhere at certain times), second he was trying to establish contact with the demons and interfering with their operations too largely would probably impact a negotiation with them later(This decision was later changed by his second time getting abducted to save Hibiki), third he has no obligation to the Hyuman kingdoms to save or protect their people but he provided services when asked or offered them to gain some influence to get former said pain in the asses to back off and the best time to do that is when you take said people out of a deeply dug pit of despair. Was it heartless and cold to a degree to leave the Hyumans to the slaughter? Yeah but again not his problem or responsibility and the Hyuman’s outside of the ones he knew largely did nothing for him before when he playing the nice merchant. Sucks for the lives that were lost but you got to sometimes try to use the situation to your side. That is politics at work people. Granted Makoto sucks at them due to his policy of nuke first ask questions later.

      Now for the alternate timeline Makotos that went full bat shit insane and tried to kill everyone. To a degree it is understandable why the Makotos came to such a state. All of the ones seen were thrown into a shit situation in the first chapter and went on to different paths. One was left in the wasteland with no one and slowly degenerated and went full mad man fully pissed at the bug and its people and another ended up in the company of Trashmoki. I can hardly blame them for going quite eldritch being on everyone given circumstances.

      For the most part Makoto is under no obligation to the Hyumans nor does he see the Hyumans as an effort to worth save unless he truly knows the certain few of them in which it is a good argument and he has a policy of trying to minimize risk to his followers as best as possible since the adventurer incident which results in taking no prisoners back to base. A good criticism of Makoto I mostly agree with is that Makoto way too apathetic towards those outside his own and he is quite damn simple and does not attempt larger scale planning ATM which is understandable given he is just a teenager with no training in it but he is growing little by little(Hopefully not turning into eldritch being this time). Although I have also a theory to the Makoto has a hidden side to him is that the crack in his shell broke when he first killed the female adventurer as that event did have a serious impact on him and when that happened it probably allowed a previous Makoto that went psycho inside. As we all know all the previous Makotos seen in the other time lines were psychotic beings that had powers surpassing the gods in certain ways. It is quite possible one or a few Makotos escaped from their realms and into our current Makoto in some form just biding their time.

      1. A few corrections to your statements.

        Firstly, even if there were justifying reasons for Makoto to not feel bad about killing the demons in the beginning and the woman later on, it’s still not a normal human reaction to feel nothing of it. It’s the same with the destruction of the first(last) town, which was full of seedy characters but shouldn’t be reacted to with “Ah…the rumors I spread were for nothing now.” The battlefield rationalization is something that came up only after Makoto learned he caused the mass death during his first kidnapping too, and he accepted it unnaturally quickly at that point.
        The point is that Makoto, from the start, has exhibited a very disturbing lack of concern for life in increasingly unsubtle ways.

        And for your theory, there’s mainly just one problem; Daikokuten basically stated that Makoto had surpassed all his alternate selves when he achieved creation. Among the various Makotos, he’s also in a league of his own. That doesn’t rule out the dreams actually being them merging their souls into his, but at the very least, I doubt it’s of their own volition. The most likely case scenario for those alter-Makotos are that they’re all dead from the destruction gods wiping out their Bad End timelines.

        1. So no one believes that his apathinc beahvior towards killing is a coping mechanism that he is devolopement from being in the situation that he is, it has been shown that when he can’t reverse a situation he pretty mutch ignores the issue and doesn’t go proving in there in his mind. Like before having any hope of guetting back home and seein his family again he avoided the memories of them and only though of investigating his parents past as a side project, no a priority. Well people died and he can’t bring them back so he will not dwell in it to mutch. Besides was really killing the girls that attacked him with out trying to take the charm of them any diferent that eliminating the variants that attacked the competition without trying to revert them to their previous state, and even using Mondo curse that so far has been irreversible???

      2. I don’t think the first time you kill someone you just think “it’s okay, they were bad guys” without any feeling of guilt.

        “if you step onto the battlefield then you should be prepared to lose your life” isn’t wrong, but the way makoto see it is weird, he see soldier’s life as worthless, they are people that “it’s okay to kill because they should be prepared to die”, a twisted way that is more or less thinking it’s okay to kill a soldier for the sole reason of them having weapon.

        I think shiva implied that every makoto ended up going on killing spree to fight the goddess

        the reason why I think that is because of hos much emphasis the author put on how he can kill without blood lust, how he is feeling nothing when killing.
        especially with hibiki’s pov: she said anyone would ‘feel’ something when killing, even tomoki whose an asshole and ‘acted tough’, but the way makoto said he was feeling bad was a lie and just he doesn’t ‘feel’ any value in life.
        same about how tomoe and shiki was scared of his reaction against samal, and Mio said someone who has no value in live wouldn’t take pleasure in killing
        If makoto think ‘it’s okay to kill him’ he will not feel anything about killing, I think that what the author want to show is how makoto is ‘rational’ and completely lack empathy, that makoto’s wish to help people isn’t something he is born with, but more an ethical code he learned and is following.

      3. @Psychronia @redcolonel very good arguments and thanks for pointing out I was missing a few things. Yeah I do agree with the statement that Makoto has seemingly just accepted killing enemy combatants all too easy and kept it simple even before the he first killed the women adventurer that essentially set towards his ideology. Though to a degree I feel he is justified in some respects over some however I do believe like you guys said Makoto needs to work on himself and he is growing.
        Now to the theory that all the alter Makotos are super dead is that are they all really dead? Sure the destruction gods implied so but you have got to admit that seems really odd for Makoto to develop such a apathetic attitude within such a short time towards killing people. The alter Makotos were said to be quite damn powerful and yes our current Makoto probably surpasses them but who knows if another alter Makoto got away and who knows if they truly did destroy them all? Chiya said Makoto shell was cracked and this just leads me to wonder what this “shell” is and why is it cracked? Granted your theory sounds quite good too but Makoto was oddly off from the start of his adventure and something tells me it was maybe developed on that side.

        @catdatbarks I don’t believe it comes down to Makoto with the “great power comes great responsibilities” or “Should I waste power to save them and are they even worth it”. Makoto doesn’t really like the Hyuman populace at large and for good reason due to their large scale worship of the bug and now granted he understands to a degree not all hyumans are trash but since that incident with the female adventurer Makoto seems adverse towards sparing any hyumans who attack him and bringing them back to base to be taken prisoner to be cured even if they are under effects like the mutants were or the charm trash uses. He probably doesn’t want a repeat of what happened the first time. Also if we are saying he has great responsibilities, technically he is already charge of Asora and by extension Kalaneon and its residents.

    3. hahaha Awesome arguments. Well there will be always that guy that believes that “with great power comes great responsibilities” while others are “Are they even worth the power? or worth to save?” Then again power comes in many different forms.

      1. Well one thing having a huge power imbalance does on a fundamental level is remove the risk to the powerful. When you aren’t actually threatened there’s no real pressure to eliminate someone as a threat. As far as deciding if they were worth saving. . . it seems Makoto didn’t have enough information to be making that call, no?

        @Shad – Makoto could easily eliminate risk by having a Gorgon greeting party turn detainees into lawn ornaments. The adventurer that killed Komoe 1.0 was unguarded and acting of their own messed up volition. He just didn’t spare it any thought.

    4. Well if the theory that the one inside of makoto is his true self and he is building shells to cover it then at least let us acknowledge that makoto dont want “it” to come out. I mean all of us has a bad side or crazy side (just not that crazy compared to makoto) although for makoto added with massive amount of power makes him very dangerous. Let us not become like hibiki or the others that only thinks of his true self or bad side let us instead see how hes trying to become normal even though he isnt because that kind of thinking will only bring disaster for sure its like accidentally waking up a sleeping dragon even though it just want to sleep (kudos to tomoe XD).

      Yes he is careless yes he doesnt care for human lives and yes thats not the thinking of a normal teenager but again makoto is still a mystery to us like is the theory about dying and being alive again in his bow training proven? Who was that said healer who healed makoto when he was still a child? and just like the gods says all has a given talent but how can makoto achieve god level arching if he doesnt have the path to take in the first place.
      And lastly one thing Ive been wanting to ask and hope will makotos student becomes like a full fledged super sentai where all has different color costume that is crazy strong?

      Anywho have you chosen what to translate already reigokai? Cause if you havent then please choose Sayonara Ryuusei Konnichiwa Jinsei good novel.

  25. Thanks for the chapter. This adventure reminds of things when I played Mario and Legend of Zelda games. Great Hole reminds of a Batman game in which you have Batman free fall to catch a falling person. At end of the game the final boss is Joker and you free fall and try to catch him while he is shooting and thrown stuff. The Cube Gate reminds of the N64 “Superman” game near the end you have to go through teleport gates to try to escape from there but I just kept on dying and eventually gave on the game entirely. Later learn that game was one of the worst games ever that year. It is even Watchmojo as one the worst Superhero games of all time.

  26. Makoto should probably say “those assassins were brainwashed especially the friend of Pione by Trashmoki so I have no choice but to eliminate them quickly before it gets out of hand”.
    I think his eliminating the assassins was right and I bet even BUG would do that.

  27. Geez… Makoto has no idea that his reckless murder is what got him into this situation. I still don’t like how he just simply killed without thought or question. If he were smarter or had better foresight then he wouldn’t go around killing anyone he found annoying so recklessly.

    1. I disagree with the characterization of it as a ‘reckless murder’. Even in our laws, what he did was called self defense/private defense and he was within his rights to do what he did. Remember, they were level 400+ assassins, it’s like the SEALs or the Spetnaz coming for you. Common thugs they are NOT.

      Not to mention he did not find them ‘annoying’, they were out to kill him, which makes them potentially lethal aggressors.

      1. More like baby seals. It took a group of lvl 300+ adventurers to take down a single Arke and Makoto solidly kicked the ass of a lvl 1300 superior dragon before his first NG+. Also, funny thing about laws – they don’t account for magical coercion and aren’t a decent replacement for moral intelligence in any case.

      2. Like I’ve said, this is normally the case. It makes perfect sense to eliminate threats to reduce risk to yourself. The problem is that Makoto doesn’t have anything to do with “normally”. His power is so out-of-bounds that nothing about them is lethal to him and it can barely qualify as self-defense.

        It’s reckless murder because he killed them when they posed no threat to him at all, depriving him of a source of information and maybe working out countermeasures for the charm. In essence, he chose to kill them when he could have taken them in as some sort of asset, whether as test subjects, reformed low-level workers, or just released unknowing spies.

        As is the case it turned out to be here, you can go back and kill someone you spared, but you can’t take death back after you’ve killed someone, meaning that the latter is a mistake that can’t be fixed. If Makoto learned about the circumstances he’s walking into, he probably would have wished he spared them if only to make this go more smoothly.

        If I was in Makoto’s position at the time…Yeah, I’d probably kill them since I preferred being left alone. But then again, if I was in Makoto’s position without his priorities, I’d probably much more active in global affairs and thus want to add them to my hand for future plays.

        1. But what would Makoto gain by leaving them alive??? What he knew from them when they appeared was that they were charmed by Yomoki, so if he captured them alive, they would have not giving any usefull information, at leats not more that what he has, and giving that they were brainwashed by Tomoki, knowing what he knows about him he understood that for Tomoki they are just tools, so not even a decent ramson he would have gotten for them, so what would have been the point to spare them then. He isn’t able to look in the future yet to know that leaving them alive would have helped with the negotations.

          1. Well, I was only citing negotiations as a hindsight thing.

            Mostly, he would gain information. If he captured the assassins and locked them up in Asora or something, he could have Tomoe poke around their memories for intel, Shiki experiment with them to get a reliable Charm cure(which I’m not convinced that Makoto currently has), and whether he cures them or not, he could certainly re-release them as unwitting spies. Some sort of spying technique like Root planted in Sophia so that he’d always have an additional channel of intelligence from Gritonia.
            Hell, I feel like he could even pawn them off on Rona as a favor to the demon race and she’d find something useful to do with them.

            …Or he could just kill them and not think about them again, which is what he did. In my opinion, there’s plenty for him to do with them by sparing them and if they really prove to be more dangerous than helpful…well, he can just kill them at that point.

            ….Okay, I need to say this now that it’s in my head. It’s off topic, but doesn’t it feel like Rona is actually a very convenient person now? Because she’s made of job of being so utterly resourceful, you can practically dump any problem you have on her and she’ll find a way to wring some usefulness out of it.

          2. Well problaly someon like Rona would have found a highly usefull endevour for them, principaly as research material. I don’t believe that Makoto would have been able to take mutch more information from them, remember that Tomoe already infiltrated the Empire and got hold of quite a lot of information, even from Lilith memories, I doubt those three girls would hold something more valuable at this poitn, and well maybe they could have helped with the charm, but it would basically been human experimentation on them, I am not sure that would be a better fate that just been killed.

      3. They were still dangerous. Not necessarily to him, Tomoe or Mio, but to the other people in the room or to the rest of his party, yes. And he did weigh his options before killing them, though it wasn’t entirely clear in the narration.

      4. So is this a case of the “draco in leather pants” trope or is it that people who want to come off as rough bad dudes think promoting a lethal force first approach makes them seem like rough bad dudes? An assassin without legs isn’t a much bigger threat than corpse, and is useful as more than fertilizer.

        1. This is most definitely not a “Draco in Leather Pants” trope. That only applies to characters with no apparent room for redemption, regardless of their past. For this story, if anyone, it would apply to characters like Bug and Tomoki which… *gag*

          This also isn’t about endorsing lethal force because it’s cool either. Well firstly, the whole mess has pretty divided response in the comments, but for the “Makoto didn’t do wrong” argument, the main idea is that it’s a necessary and potentially wise move. This is a very hostile world filled with people that are willing to kill or exploit anyone to get their way. When someone is mentally programmed to be out to kill you, it’s hardly unreasonable to just get rid of them without getting rid of anything else.

          Whether or not what Makoto did was the wisest move and how much effort it would’ve taken him to achieve a productive non-lethal solution(that is, curing the Charm effect) is up for debate, but if you take away the complicating factors like Makoto being so strong he can afford to ignore high trained assassins at large and him possibly being able to cure the Charm, then his response was hardly unjust when you look at it objectively-it was just self defense.

          And when you look at the factors that complicate matters by giving Makoto a lot more options, then that’s exactly all they are-options. Makoto had no obligation and clearly no desire to go out of his way to find a solution that protects himself and spares his enemies at the same time.

          Personally, I’m of the opinion that Makoto shouldn’t have done what he did, but rather than on moral grounds, it simply wasn’t the most pragmatic thing to do.

      5. So are you advocating torture? And you don’t necessarily need legs to cast spells, like maybe one that blows yourself up. Tomoki’s harem can very well be fanatical enough to try just that.

      6. ‘So is this a case of the “draco in leather pants” trope or is it that people who want to come off as rough bad dudes think promoting a lethal force first approach makes them seem like rough bad dudes?’

        No, it’s you not getting that other people might have a different viewpoint from you which might be equally valid. And legal too I might add. You presupposed a result and then try to railroad everyone’s morals towards your ‘expected’ result and when you see that not everyone is lining up like you want them to, you start harraging them.

        As for ‘he beat a 1300 level dragon’ = ‘he is invincible’, did you happen to remember, AFTER he beat Shen, he got his fingers sliced off by Sophia? I think some people might have overlooked that while his *offensive* power is high and he has very good magic barriers, his fleshy body is not reinforced? If he’s not actively manifesting his armor, he’s as killable as anyone else? I don’t recall him doing any body reinforcement, remind me if you do know of incidents that he did. This means he’s as vulnerable to a knife in the back like anyone else if his barriers are not up.

        ‘He’s OPed!!’ is not a catchall term, there are different kinds of ‘OPed’. In Makoto’s case, he has strong offensive power and strong magic shields but his body is still his weakness. It was Tomaki that got invincibility, not Makoto.

        1. just 2 points:
          -his physical resistance is far above anyone else. IIRC, he didn’t put any magic defense against sophia’s blow, and “only” got few fingers cut and a light (?, not sure) wound on the head. sophia said her blow could insta-kill a dragon. I don’t know if it rose since that time, but I think it’s unlikely that it stayed the same after all his training.

          -he put to sleep the valkyries with a simple spell before, the first time they meet. I don’t think it was that dangerous to keep them alive.

          I don’t think makoto was wrong to kill them, but it wasn’t the best option either

      7. That may be true, but from Makoto’s point of view aren’t they just the same as nuisances? He’s only been in that world for a short time and excluding the number of people he’s killed out of self defense he’s already killed thousands without sparing a second thought. Hibiki is right about how he takes life too lightly and pushes his own ideals onto other people. For one thing he was perfectly capable of undoing the brainwashing effects of the charm, but instead he practically just thought it would be easier instead to kill them and be on with it. Are you saying there’s nothing wrong with that mentality?

        1. I really don’t see how does he push his ideals into other people, in fact he has been going along with other peoples politics and way of life, he didn’t forced Tsigue to claim independency, not force the hyumans in Rostgard to be more openly aceptable of Demi-hyumans nor does he has forced any of the tribes that reside in Asora to walk away for the devotion to the Goddes. In fact Hibiki is the one trying to abolish the nobelity system of the Kingdom wich is a long standing tradition in there. Besides yes he was perfectly capable of subduing them, but so far Makoto haven’t been able to reverse any curse that he has encountered, he has been able to stop it for affecting something in the initial stages but not reversing. He gained nothing by saving them, so what would have been the point of it at the time????

          1. Oh no, I’m not talking about that. Do you remember the time where he talked with Hibiki about how those who take up their weapons to fight are the ones who are ready to accept their own deaths as if it is natural? That’s what I mean in the case of forcing, or rather it would be better put as painting his ideals onto other people, as if it were common sense. He disregards what others may think over what he thinks in such cases.

            In the case of his ability to remove the effects of Tomoki’s Charm. I’m talking about the time where he fought Sophia to the death. He removed the effects of the charm, but due to him being a bit dense he couldn’t figure out why Sophia hated him so much. Which is something we couldn’t fully understand until we got to hear more about Sophia’s back story. He removed the effects of the charm, that much was confirmed.

            Also I feel it’s important that I should make it clear that Makoto is absolutely and most certainly not perfect. In fact he has quite a few fatal flaws, which if you look at closely enough seem comparable to the bad points of the Goddess. His disregard of other peoples’ ideals, his criticism of the Hyuman race, belittling the value of life and others involved, etc.

            In some ways he’s also been spoiled by Tomoe and Mio; he probably doesn’t realize that he’s lost touch with a lot of the ideals and values of his former world. All in all Makoto is a likeable character, I’m not trying to out right say I dislike him, but rather just some of his actions. Rather I very much like ‘Human’ characters in novels that demonstrate both their strengths and their flaws.

          2. I’m pretty sure Makoto does have a history of fixing curses, actually.

            Rembrandt is one example, through medicine which Kuzunoha only got better at over time.
            After that was the Tree Punishment, which Makoto mentions finding a way to fix.
            And after that was the Gorgon’s petrifying eyes, which were only neutralized during their interview, but Makoto did briefly mention that there’s likely a way to reverse it due to it being a weaker curse than Tree Punishment.

            As for Charm…well, that’s a slightly interesting subject to me. Sophia was charmed and Makoto did manage to remove it, but I’m not actually convinced he’s able to cure it just yet.
            The main reason for this is that the circumstances behind him curing Sophia are too vague. I was under the impression that he actually suppressed her Charm effect with Sakai and that it would return if she left his range. Even if this wasn’t the case, Sophia was very, very recently charmed-it couldn’t have been more than an hour ago when she met Tomoki. It’s been stated that the Charm’s effects get worse and worse with prolonged exposure, so really deeply rooted examples like with the assassins might’ve been beyond saving already.

            Of course, this is all speculation on my part and there is more evidence that he can than that he can’t. All I’m really saying is that, as far as I’m concerned, I’m not convinced Makoto can absolutely cure Tomoki’s Charm yet.

          3. Well yes Makoto has been involved with curses before but the first example as you said was treated with alchemy, now the Tree punishmen I believe he said that is so strong that he hasn’t been able to reverse it, stop it for spreading I think he could do, or block it for tacking effect but not reverse it. I believe he mentioned with the interview with the Gorgons. And he hasn’t try it in a living thing but he did reversed the petrification in the table so yes admitedly that curse is weaker that the Tree punishment. But I think that Tomoki charm is even stronger that the other two cases.

      8. ‘For one thing he was perfectly capable of undoing the brainwashing effects of the charm,’

        For such a repeated claim, I’ve never seen any evidence of this. Have you?

      9. @Paps
        Also it doesn’t necessarily have to be a reason for gaining profit that someone should save another’s life. This is what I mean about Makoto belittling life and losing touch with his morals and values from his former world. Makoto could have saved them just for the sake of saving them, but instead he cold heartedly killed those two girls when he could have taken the higher road of saving them.

        For me personally, I would have preferred to save those two girls because they were nothing but victims to one man’s lust and greed for power and dominance. Truly a pitiful and stupid way to die. 🙁

        1. – Oh no, I’m not talking about that. Do you remember the time where he talked with Hibiki about how those who take up their weapons to fight are the ones who are ready to accept their own deaths as if it is natural? That’s what I mean in the case of forcing, or rather it would be better put as painting his ideals onto other people, as if it were common sense. He disregards what others may think over what he thinks in such cases.- I never saw it that way, she asked a question and he answered at such, so he can’t have his own point of view in that situation? It wasn’t a simple fact of taking an weapon, I believe he parafased it as entering the battlefield, he meant it as if you enter a figth ready to kill your oponent you have no excuse to believe that he hasn’t entered it with the same mindset so yes you hould be ready to die in there.

          -In the case of his ability to remove the effects of Tomoki’s Charm. I’m talking about the time where he fought Sophia to the death. He removed the effects of the charm- I don’t know if you readed the POV of Rona of the battle where the Heroes fough the Demons in the fortress, the demons found a way to remove the charms from the females soldiers that were affected by it, but it was a temporly effect only soon they sucumbed to it rigth away. There is not prove that the same couldn´t have happened to Sophia considering that the charm she was aflicted with was an even stronger one that the used at the fortress.

          – His disregard of other peoples’ ideals, his criticism of the Hyuman race, belittling the value of life and others involved- It is true that he is not perfect but I relly don’t see the “disregard for other people ideals” there and after all he has been subjected and treated by the hyumans is a wonder he still send help and medical care for the less fortunates villages, like they have been doing so far.

          -Also it doesn’t necessarily have to be a reason for gaining profit that someone should save another’s life. This is what I mean about Makoto belittling life and losing touch with his morals and values from his former world. Makoto could have saved them just for the sake of saving them, but instead he cold heartedly killed those two girls when he could have taken the higher road of saving them.- You are rigth there is not need to profit in saving someone to do so, but either way there is no obligation to do it, as you said he could have saved them for the sake of it, doesn’t mean that he had to save them. He made a choice and went through with it, they weren’t damssels on distress or fragile flowers they were assasins coming at him. And I am sure that if Shougetsu and the other bodyguard would have kiled them either way, problaly after trying to torture them for information.

          1. @Paps
            Our view points must really differ then huh. When I read I try to put myself in the world of the story as much as possible and think about how I would personally react in each of the characters’ situations and try to compare those feelings to what the characters may actually feel. From the sounds of it you take on the observers point of view and are detached from reading in depth into the characters’ perspectives (aside from Makoto’s). From that it’s easier to take Makoto’s perspective over what other characters might think or feel.

            Also, anyone going into a battle expecting to die are what’s considered death soldiers (I think that’s the term). According to Makoto anyone who challenges him is a death soldier who expects to die. How realistic do you think that is? Also, would Makoto really be able to lie down himself and just accept death because he was weak? I believe that no one ever wants to die, and no one would ever willingly choose to fight a battle in which they know they would die, even if forced a person wouldn’t truly accept that they have to die as a consequence. I accept that there may be battle maniacs who would accept such outcomes, but there were innocent victims that Makoto killed who originally weren’t willing to fight, such as the brainwashed girls.

            Well in the end what I want to see is Makoto growing as a person, realizing his mistakes and oversights and grow into a better character. As he is now you could consider him a walking time bomb that’s ready to explode and bring disaster to every country. There are so many ways this novel could go and so many ways in which you could spot out the good and bad points of Makoto that would either make him a hero or potentially the worst villain you could imagine. And I think that’s part of what we all like about this story is that we can see all of those possibilities and we want to know where Makoto will go.

            At this point I probably have to say this because I don’t want to say too many contradictory statements. I view Makoto in a negative light. His negative actions stand out to me more than his positive ones. But because I’m aware of his good points is why I ultimately have hope that he will turn out a better person than before. Until then, you’ll probably be seeing more criticisms about Makoto’s cruelty from me.

            P.S. Thanks for replying to my comment. It’s nice sometimes to have a debate over a novel you really like. Also yeah there are probably a few things I’ve forgotten or have glossed over that I can’t remember well, so maybe I’ll go back and re-read some chapters. 🙂

          2. You know I don’t guet to chat with people about the LN or Wn that I read so is indeed good to have this debates sometime, so I will thank you as well for it. – Also, anyone going into a battle expecting to die are what’s considered death soldiers (I think that’s the term). According to Makoto anyone who challenges him is a death soldier who expects to die. How realistic do you think that is? Also, would Makoto really be able to lie down himself and just accept death because he was weak? I believe that no one ever wants to die, and no one would ever willingly choose to fight a battle in which they know they would die, even if forced a person wouldn’t truly accept that they have to die as a consequence.- Indeed we see this topic in diferent ways if not we wouldn’t be having this discussions. I do take in depth others characters but I can’t feel sympathy for characters whose prominent is varely 5 min. in the story, sincerely you say you felt bad for the girls because they were brainwashed, but thats the extent of the information we got for them, we don’t know who or how they were before Tomoki entered their lives, if they were the kind of person that even deserved that pity. We have more background information for others characters and create feelings for them, I guet the general sympatization with the story but I can’t guet indepth symphaty with every single character that appears. What I mean is that if it is presented to us a town attacked by bandidts, I will feel the rage and lost for the general populace of the town, but can’t feel the lost and pain of every townsman because we won’t be presented in the narrative with the feelings of every single one of them. What I stated in the battlefield issue is that acepting death is not suicidical behavior but entering a War zone without considering the posibility of dying it is. Makoto has never stated that anyone that challanges him is expected to die, if that was the case Rona and the Giant Demon General would be death now. But if you went to figth him with the intention to kill him then he will not hold his hand in killing you he feels no obligation to do so nor will he feel bad about it, he is sincere that he considers his live more important that the ones attacking him. And you seem to forguet that he was really fragile when he was little and could die at anytime, so he better that a lot of character in the novel knows what its means to live on edge of dying at any giving moment.

          3. Yeah, you make a good point there. I think I was getting a little too emotional about the whole thing, to the point where my view started narrowing. After some thought about the harshness of that world I can’t pin too much blame on Makoto even if he is very powerful. And I almost forgot why it is I liked this novel even though I’ve already said it before. Makoto is human, so of course he’ll stumble here and there, get a little overconfident, and evidently learn from his mistakes. Now that I think about some of his mistakes are kind of like innocent evils, just going off of what he’s learned about the common sense of that world has changed him a fair bit. For that I should try a bit harder to keep my perspective neutral, because I dont want to miss anything in this novel.

          4. You know what would really throw me for a loop, demonstrate humanity, and ignite a whole new level of furious debates?

            If Tomoki/Bug went through a character arc and got a shot at redemption.

            I feel like this author of all people might be able to pull it off really hugely entertainingly.

          5. You knwo that would be really something to look forward to. I mean I think Tomoki would bomb his chance at redemption, but if the author manages to give him that chance I am sure it would be greatly done. The Goddes I believe she is to far gone to have any chance to change, maybe be forced like the “colar” that she has before but not something that comes from her.

          6. The extensive discussion amongst the community are probably one of my favorite parts of this story.

            Makoto, to me, isn’t really a “good” person, but the thing is that this whole world is filled with awful people that aren’t at all better than him.

            Strictly speaking, I have trouble deeming any character in this story a “good person”. Not Makoto, nor his followers, nor Kuzunoha employees. Not the heroes or their followers. Not Zef or his generals. Not Rembrandt or Raidou’s students. Not Root, Apple, the Wise or any third parties like the gods either.

            I guess Grount, Iroha, and Rinon seem like decent enough people? Though Grount goes on rampages over slights and Rinon chose to rob her benefactor too.

            It’s more like this whole universe is filled to the brim with different shades of grey (with probably Tomoki as black).

          7. @Psychronia
            That’s probably one of the main reasons that guys like us like this novel. It’s painted in many shades of grey where every character has their own circumstances. Still as readers we’re able to identify what we consider to be either black or white thanks to the author, this is honestly one of the best web novels I’ve read and it ranks up there amongst my top ten.

      10. ” Have somebody chop off your legs and tell me what you call it, “mate”. ”
        *Sigh*

        First of all you weren’t making an actual argument with that line, so it’s just a diversionary ploy. ” Accuse the other side of something to undermine their argument. ” is an ugly brand of ad hominem attack that gets old really fast. Still, the politispeak of “advocating torture” made it genuinely funny to me even if that wasn’t your intent. Yes I have a weird sense of humor, guilty.

        Second, I never said ‘ chop off ‘ so that’s all you. The man has access to an unfathomable amount of magic, so he’s got the means to sub-lethally deprive someone of their legs or mobility. Ice magic, wrap them in his giant invisible magic hands, sink them into the floorboards, etc.

        Third, torture means the objective is to deliberately cause someone pain to elicit a response. If you’re willing to call pain incidental to disabling someone torture, then boxing is two people torturing each other.

        Also, you’re tacitly implying that that’s all somehow worse than having your torso blown to gibbets by brids.

        @Owl –

        Sophia was level 920 before she absorbed Waterfall and IIRC she managed to cut off a finger before her blade was stopped by his eldwa clothing. She called his defense ridiculous before he got the magic armor. So no, a knife to the back isn’t much of a threat to him, and is irrelevant to the specific case in question because he had already deployed his magic armor and stopped the attacks directed at him.

        As far as evidence that the brain washing can be removed? Yes, there’s evidence. Makoto removed the brainwashing effects from Sophia.

        That’s not definitive, but if someone is trying to justify murder with “they couldn’t be saved” then the burden of proof is on them. Makoto didn’t even consider it, so it’s something like criminal negligence. Of course if you’re going to use real world law as your central argument then brainwashing doesn’t exist as an extenuating circumstance in the first place and there’s no arguing the point.

        I think it’s fair to suspect some kind of jerkass dissonance is in effect when people are defending murder. It’s not like Makoto’s only guilty of a few murders either. He’s killed a LOT of people directly or indirectly. He let people die to variants, blew up a fortress, ordered a town wiped out on a whim and so on. Sure, he’s saved a people too, but the man’s moral compass points due personal convenience. I doubt his motives were different in this case.

      11. @Dragons33,

        He’s belittling life? I don’t really think so. He’s been pretty clear about who he kills (basically, anybody or anything that attacks him or his companions). He otherwise doesn’t kill people on a whim or if they bother him (note that he suffered major humiliation at the hands of the merchant guild rep, and didn’t kill the man or reduce the building to a crater. Instead of doing something hostile, he took it as a learning experience). OTOH, do you honestly believe that, if Hibiki or Tomoki had the ability to wipe out 20,000 enemy soldiers at little cost to themselves, they would not use it? Are Hibiki or Tomoki bothered by the demons they’ve killed in battle? What people seem to be glossing over is that life is pretty cheap in that world. For instance, it’s not unusual to hunt down sentient creatures for ones owns benefit. As somebody pointed out, Makoto’s actions and beliefs can be considered as a way of adapting to a completely new, and more hostile, environment. He’s extremely powerful, but he’s not omnipotent, let alone omniscient.

        And I have to second the point, removing the charm does not mean he has reversed the brainwashing (in Sofia’s case, he removed the charm, not the brainwashing). Reversing brainwashing is not a simple matter, even today, in this world. How much effort do you think it takes to convert a fanatic? For all of Kuzunoha Co’s resources, the one thing they don’t have is a lot of manpower, let alone psychology experts.

        @a stop sign
        Hey, you’re the one who said “An assassin without legs isn’t a much bigger threat than corpse, and is useful as more than fertilizer.” Now, either you’re thinking, for some odd reason, that the women were legless assassins, or you were advocating Makoto just chop off their legs (which incidentally, as I pointed out, does not render them harmless). That’s still considered a pretty inhumane thing to do, even if you want to “lessen” the impact by freezing the legs solid, merging them into solid matter, etc., as if somehow that doesn’t completely deprive them of their legs in a very painful manner.

        “Third, torture means the objective is to deliberately cause someone pain to elicit a response. If you’re willing to call pain incidental to disabling someone torture, then boxing is two people torturing each other. ”
        Both boxers go into the ring expecting to get hit. If one boxer decides to put a nail in his glove with the express purpose of hurting and disabling his opponent, that, at the very least, is considered highly immoral behavior.

        “Also, you’re tacitly implying that that’s all somehow worse than having your torso blown to gibbets by brids.”
        One is a quick death in combat, which is to be expected in a life-and-death battle. The other is a way of keeping them alive while they’re suffering, for your own purposes. You tell me which one is better.

      12. ‘I think it’s fair to suspect some kind of jerkass dissonance is in effect when people are defending murder’

        Think the one being the jerkass is you when you go ‘you guys must do things my way and no way else, you don’t agree, you’re evil and a murderer’. It’s an elitist mindset and exclusivist and is even worse than any perceived fault of a fictional character like Makoto for one good reason. It actively causes strife like what is happening in chat now. ‘Makoto’s troubles are limited in scope, focused mainly on those that actively goes after him. You on the other hand go looking for people to put down. One is ‘Don’t tread on me’, the other is ‘I’m better than all of you, I’m always right, do things my way or you’re evil and I’ll cause trouble for you’. People might complain ‘Makoto’ don’t care much for ‘hyumans’ but ain’t you the same? You don’t care much of other people enough to give equal consideration to their own mindset or thinking, looking down on others from that throne of your?

        If someone tries to kill another person, that is a matter between the 2 and the law, outsiders do not have the right to come in and dictate a ‘solution’, no private citizen has the right to just waltz in and force a solution and charges of a crime on the others. This is ironically a problem which the US as a country is very guilty of, trying to act like the ‘World Police’ when no one wants them to and in reality never solves the underlying problem.

        tl;dr

        Get off that damn high horse of yours and quit looking down your nose at others, you don’t have either the prestige, authority or wisdom to do that. Don’t ever, ever tell others how they should think or how they should act for your ‘approval’ It’s disgusting and no one cares enough to want to bother about your ‘approval’. Is it edible? Tradable for goods or cash? Nope? Then your good will is pretty useless isn’t it. Especially to trade my independence of thought for it.

      13. @a-non-e-mouse
        It’s just a verbal shorthand, don’t take it too literally. Eg, to “leg” someone does not mean to remove their leg, and it’s still beside the point.

        ” Both boxers go into the ring expecting to get hit. ”
        Injuries are hardly outside the expected results of combat. Hell, Lancer lost a leg when he first fought Makoto. Was Makoto torturing Lancer?

        ” One is a quick death in combat, which is to be expected in a life-and-death battle. The other is a way of keeping them alive while they’re suffering, for your own purposes. You tell me which one is better. ”

        Keeping them alive. You’re talking about a universe with extremely potent healing magic here. And it’s not simply for Makoto’s own purposes, but the argument being made was that Makoto’s interests are not and in fact were not served by killing.

      14. Psychronia wrote, It’s reckless murder because he killed them when they posed no threat to him at all, depriving him of a source of information and maybe working out countermeasures for the charm.

        Actually Makoto already knows how to dispel the charm — he cuts it out of Sofia during their fight. From Chapter 163:

        Even when I dispelled the charm, it just made her not talk about the Empire hero anymore, but her personality didn’t change that much.

        So basically he kills three brainwashed, drugged rape victims who had been commanded to attack him. An argument could be made for that being depraved indifference to human life. It’s just that, as soon as he accepts that he must save the lives of strangers when possible, where do his responsibilities end? Must he protect against every natural disaster? Must he stop the war?

        1. I mentioned my thoughts on that in a post just now, but the basic point of it is “I’m not convinced Makoto’s curing of Sophia’s charm counts as having a cure just yet”.

          It’s slightly unjustified, but I just feel the need to wait for more solid evidence.

      15. @ Owl

        Dude, “jerkass dissonance” is a trope, not an insult. I’m not calling anyone but Makoto a murderer (demonstrably true) and I’m not telling you what to think, I’m arguing on an open forum. That’s not to discourage your independence of thought but to encourage critical thinking. You don’t have to agree with me. I encourage you to argue with me. If you want to make a good counter point that makes me consider Makoto’s actions in a new light I welcome it.

        “If someone tries to kill another person, that is a matter between the 2 and the law, outsiders do not have the right to come in and dictate a ‘solution’, no private citizen has the right to just waltz in and force a solution and charges of a crime on the others. ”

        The laws of our world are hardly infallible, unified, or really applicable to fantasy magic dragon talking pony land. If you actually value independence of thought? Let people think independently of the letter of the law. Laws are only a social construct that works as the consensus of private citizens anyway.

        Seriously, take a step back. We are talking about a fictional universe.

        @dmb

        Not the side of the slippery slope of morality people usually start on, for sure. Actually, didn’t he end up prolonging the war by preventing the demon nation from being evaporated by Root? So preventing the end of the war was some of his best work, ironically.

  28. Lots of arguments…
    So, in simple words, Makoto = Trashmoki Mk2?
    ==========
    IF that assasin girls didn’t have connection with the member of rosegarden, anyone still complain Makoto kill them?

      1. Now that I think about it, all the biggest controversies in the comments for this WN that have fed the many interesting discussions were on whether X character should be condemned for doing or saying something.

        I guess this means that the author is excellent at creating grey characters.

    1. They are qualitatively different. Tomoki’s a self absorbed malignant child who sort of mirrors the horrible selfishness inspired in hyumans by the goddess’s favor. Makoto’s a chaotic neutral force of nature who more naturally embodies the kind of grudging disdain for hyumanity of the races disparaged by BUG. Makoto is far less of a coward than Tomoki, and seems willing to go to great lengths for people he knows even casually*. He also seems equally willing to murder people he doesn’t know**. So Makoto at least values his connections, while Tomoki only seems to value himself.

      * When he stopped Root’s attack, for instance.
      ** Sending his forces to murder a town full of demons.

      Of course some of that may be a product of circumstance, powers, social relationships and so on. Lily manipulated Makoto’s alternate timeline self into reducing Lorel Union to a desert. Hell, even Tomoki might have turned out to be less of a poisonous destructive little turd if he’d been kicked to the edge of the world without powers. I mean, he could have been eaten by a spider.

  29. @ a-non-e-mouse

    The part about life that he is belittling is the fact that he knows that those two girls were being controlled and still chose to kill them. He didn’t think about the fact that there are other people out there who might care for them, or the consequences of killing another human being.

    Even Mio has stated before that Makoto does not view the lives of others as very important. That his words are simply borrowed, and even in regards to the people of Asora that he’s gathered, he doesn’t carry or show strong (emphasize STRONG) concern for all of the residents except the initial immigrants: The Orcs, Arkes, and Mist Lizards, (and some of the wildlife too I guess). It’s true that he cares about those in his circle, but it seems more like he won’t consider anyone to be a potential part of his circle unless they are introduced to him by Mio and Tomoe and have fully submitted to his power.

    It’s the same as how you view the people walking by the street and you don’t give them any thought or care because you’re simply not involved with them. I believe Makoto carries this mindset wherever he goes and weighs others’ lives the same way. In other words ‘it’s just another strangers face and I don’t need to care’. That’s how I view Makoto in terms of what he thinks others’ lives are, aside from those he’s personally made a connection with. (Then again I’m not trying to say he should be racked with guilt and despair over it, but he should at least realize this about himself).

  30. Why is that Shii was so good in the hill with talking with the trees? Makoto should also be able to do the same, or could be that even if he can talk with trees because he isn’t used to it is currently less fluently than Shii?

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