Side: Yuki
"Well~ well~ Congratulations on defeating the Demon King."
The person responsible for dragging me into this other world was sitting right in front of me, casually munching on the leftover cookies in my home's banquet hall.
"The fact that you came to talk to me means something happened."
I sat across from her, poured myself some tea, and faced the useless goddess.
Ever since the whole Lilishe affair, this useless goddess had started showing up normally. But she was still busy—usually she'd just appear briefly, steal dinner, and leave. Apparently she chatted with my wives from time to time and even listened to their concerns.
But she rarely has a proper conversation with me. Well, we did talk occasionally, but the subjects were things like how busy Luna herself was, or what was happening in other worlds—topics that absolutely couldn't be discussed in front of my wives.
That's why her coming here specifically to shower me with praise can only mean trouble. She's definitely plotting something.
"What's the catch? If you're praising me this much, does it mean I get some kind of bonus?"
"Yes, indeed! I'm going to give you one."
"Don't tell me it involves launching me to some completely different region."
"Ehh!?"
Bullseye, huh.
"How did you figure it out?!"
"Because that isn't a bonus at all. It's a complete and utter nuisance."
"Hey, answer my question! I mean, you're going to gain possession of an entirely new territory under your control, you know? How could that be anything but a bonus?"
"What are you talking about? You already know my stance. Going out of my way to increase the number of territories under my direct jurisdiction is just tedious. Besides, things on our end haven't even fully stabilized yet. Expanding our reach any further than this would just be idiotic. Now, to answer your question, Luna: you're basically telling me that since I've amassed a massive pool of DP over here, you want me to go and disperse it elsewhere, right?"
"Ugh, you've even figured it out that far?"
"It's just a hunch. In the first place, if simply creating a dungeon is enough to make the world's magical energy circulate, there wouldn't be any need to explicitly install a Dungeon Master. You could just place dungeons all over the world based on your own judgment, gather magic naturally, and disperse it. Yet, you show your face around here this frequently. It's a bit too late for you to use the 'I'm too busy' excuse."
Now then, the reason I was brought to this world was to make the magical energy of this planet circulate. According to Luna's original explanation, dungeons gather magical energy, and that energy is then redistributed back into the planet. I'm actually running a dungeon myself, so I understand the gathering part.
But what about the method of redistribution?
I used to think it was handled entirely within the dungeon itself, but each dungeon is completely independent. Or rather, every dungeon has its own individual master controlling it.
Because of that, I formulated a certain hypothesis.
"Originally, didn't you want all the dungeons to be able to communicate with one another? Like a parent company and its subsidiaries?"
"...Yes, exactly. The plan was for the region that successfully generated DP to share it with other DP... I mean, to send magical energy to regions running low on it, thereby dispersing the energy."
"You tried to implement a system based on a Japanese corporate concept over here, and you completely botched it, didn't you?"
"...Alright, fine, I messed up! My projections were too optimistic. Since the title of 'God' carries absolute weight over here, I thought I could just hand down a directive from above and be done with it. But in the end, long before any cooperation could take place, every single master on both sides was blinded by their own personal greed. It became a disaster before collaboration was even on the table. The ideal scenario was to turn whoever gathered a fixed amount of magical energy into the headquarters, and treat the rest like branch offices. But now, everything is completely tangled up."
"And that is exactly why I dragged you into this!"
Right.
Because I managed to secure a massive amount of DP and magical energy in an incredibly short span of time, Luna has officially designated me as the parent company.
"Well, even though we're calling it a bonus, accepting it this time is pretty much mandatory, isn't it?"
"Yes. The magical energy of that continent is practically on the verge of complete depletion. If we don't establish a dungeon immediately to make the magic circulate, trying to disperse magic from absolute zero is going to take an astronomical amount of time, effort, and energy."
"Ah, like how it's insanely difficult to reforest a desert?"
"Exactly. I need you to move as quickly as possible. I'm going to connect a gate to the deepest depths of this dungeon ahead of time."
"Hey, hold on a minute, don't just link things up on your own. Could you please refrain from connecting dungeons when I don't even know the situation on the other side? It's incredibly troublesome."
"There's no need to worry. Though, I suppose I can't expect you to just nod along given your current position."
"Obviously. I have absolutely no intention of putting my wives or the citizens of Weed in harm's way."
"That's why, since this is an explicit request coming directly from me, I will make sure you receive solid support."
"If that's the case, then solve it yourself with divine powers."
"You know perfectly well that would only postpone the problem!!"
"Fair point. The important thing is for the people living there to recognize the issue and execute the solution themselves. But let me call you out on something—the moment you say you're going to provide 'support,' you're openly admitting that this isn't actually a bonus, aren't you?"
"...I'll prepare something else, so please forgive me."
Something else, huh?
There really isn't much left that I actually want at this point... Even if she gave us modern weapons for free, looking at the state of this continent, that would probably just escalate warfare.
If that happens, we would have no choice but to strictly monitor and manage everything ourselves. And that would result in us ending up like Roumel—becoming the focus of suspicion from other nations and making it difficult to act freely.
At present, our modern weapons weren't publicly known. The only time we'd used them in military operations was during the annihilation of Rankus. Even then, their effects could be explained away as magic. To the outside world, Weed was merely a small nation with exceptionally capable soldiers operating at the same technological level as everyone else.
Therefore, I can't just use my DP to execute a brute-force offensive on this new continent Luna mentioned either. Our military power is strictly for self-defense; if we use that strength to launch an invasion, we could easily end up in the exact same predicament as Roumel. Furthermore, conventional "cheat weapons" that are staples in games and stories are out of the question too. That would fall under the category of excessive force.
Though, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to give them to my wives, of course.
"Ara? What about Mobile Suits or Armored Cores? You don't want those?"
"Those are strictly for personal hobbies. If I actually deploy things like that in a war, it'll just turn into a massive headache."
The same logic applies to MS and AC units. The moment we conquer the continent with that kind of weaponry, we'll end up with countless nations that do nothing but blindly submit to our military might, forcing us to practically steer the course of their governments. As if I'm going to let myself get any busier than I already am.
"Well, I'll think about the bonus later. For now, tell me about this continent that's on the brink of magical depletion."
"Alright, I understand."
With that, Luna spreads out a single map. Actually, calling it a map is wrong—it's a photograph. The kind taken by an artificial satellite...
"I took this photograph from space, you see."
You absolute monster...
Apparently, this useless goddess is fully capable of atmospheric exit and re-entry all on her own. Or perhaps it's some form of teleportation.
"Right here is the location of the continent you currently live on. And if you travel across the ocean to the west from here, you'll find this continent."
Luna points to the spot. The continent in question is smaller than the one we are currently on, but it's still overwhelmingly larger than Japan.
"So, what's the geopolitical situation on that continent?"
"To put it simply, it's a state of warring factions. Because the depletion of magical energy is quite advanced, the number of people who can actually use magic is extremely low. You'd be lucky if one out of every thousand people can cast offensive magic."
"Hey, hold on. We're not going to go over there and drop dead from magic deprivation, are we?"
"There's no issue on that front. It's not like the magical energy inside living beings is vanishing. Rather, because the continent's environmental magic has dried up, manifesting a magic spell requires twenty times the usual amount of energy. Well, as a consequence of that, the birth rate for creatures that naturally possess large pools of magical energy has plummeted severely."
"Ah, so that's how it is. The fuel efficiency is terrible, which triggers a vicious cycle."
"The continent itself is desperately trying to absorb magical energy, which is why the environment has turned out that way. Because of that impact, monsters born purely from magical energy are exceptionally rare. Creatures of the dragon line are nothing short of legendary beings over there. However, beastmen live there normally. Though their birth rates have dropped as well."
"Ah, so beastmen really are born through the influence of magical energy after all?"
"Yes. If they were born through normal biological means, it wouldn't be strange for them to exist on Earth too, right? Or rather, the paradox of animal traits manifesting on a human body is likely made possible entirely by magical energy."
"What do you mean, 'likely'...?"
"It's not like I've conducted a genetic analysis on them. Still, given that their birth rates drop in areas where magical energy is depleted, I'd say that hypothesis isn't far off the mark."
"Well, I can't exactly deny that. But more importantly, if there are so many living creatures over there, why is the magical energy depleted compared to our continent? If we don't investigate the root cause of that, there's no point in going."
"That is precisely what we don't understand. Despite the abundance of living creatures, the magical energy of the entire continent is on the verge of drying up. I believe there has to be a specific cause behind it, and I want you to investigate that as well."
"Ah, so that's what you meant. No wonder you brought this to me so early."
"Exactly. If you are able to step in, I want you to investigate immediately. If left unchecked, there is a possibility that the depletion of magical energy could accelerate."
Good grief, what a pain.
What are we supposed to do about Weed and our current continent...?
But fundamentally, the management of Weed has already been entrusted to the hands of its citizens, and the respective nations are handling their own affairs, so I suppose it'll work out somehow.
"This dungeon will allow you to return to Weed instantly anyway, so there won't be any issues regarding administrative work."
"No, it's still going to double my workload regardless. At any rate, I'll have to inform my wives and consult with them first."
"I'll leave that part to you."
Given the nature of Luna's request, it's not something I can just ignore. If the magical energy depletion of this new continent is something that can be observed in a tangible form, it might allow me to advance my own goals at an earlier stage.
"By the way, where exactly is the dungeon that our gate connects to located?"
"Oh, it's right here."
The spot she points to is dead center in the middle of this new continent, which is supposedly trapped in a state of constant warring factions.
Hey, wait a minute...
Doesn't that mean we're going to be entirely surrounded by enemies on all sides?
Figuring out who is an ally and who is an enemy is going to be an absolute nightmare.
"Wait, what happened to the original owner of that dungeon?"
"Ah, well, once the magical energy depletion started, the maintenance cost for the dungeon also multiplied by twenty, so they died."
The maintenance cost is multiplied by twenty over there too!?
Oh man, my wives are going to be furious about this. It's going to make it incredibly difficult to launch offenses or provide assistance by relying heavily on DP.
Sigh... it's a massive pain, but I guess I have no choice but to do it.
