Slime Goodwill Ambassador*3
When I finished explaining my “great idea,” Laperesiana-sama laughed heartily and gave us the go-ahead.
That said, actually putting this plan into action right away would obviously be dangerous, so the first step would be to talk with five elves and gather information from them. Apparently, they also planned to consult with the royal castle while they were at it.
… Which is why I was currently running small-scale experiments.
“Hey, Asuma-sama, what’s this?”
“Well, let’s just say it’s something that produces poison gas.”
Going into too much detail felt… ill-advised, so I gave a vague answer like that.
… Yes.
Right now, I was developing poison gas weapons!
“There’s no chemical weapons prohibition treaty in this world, after all…”
“Chemical weapons? What’s that?”
“Uh, well… it’s like, ‘don’t use weapons that are too efficient,’ sort of a thing…?”
While talking with Mishisia-san, I kept steadily making poison gas weapons. Even if we could already build bikes and automobiles were just about practical, transporting stuff was still a pain, so this would be the type that reacted on-site.
“Efficient…? So large-scale weapons are a no-go?”
“Yeah, well, something like that.”
It was probably a pretty unfamiliar topic for Mishisia-san. Even with elven magic, the area you could affect in one shot was probably limited to what you could see. And the idea of something that could “make people suffer for decades after it’s used” might not even occur to them.
“… You know, just from what I know, there are bombs out there that can kill millions of people with a single blast.”
“Eh? What’s that? That’s amazing!?”
“Yeah, well… humans really are incredible. Science, too…”
I let my thoughts wander to the history of science humanity had built up. No, seriously, it’s incredible. Humanity has genuinely made the impossible possible. You could even call it a kind of magic.
“… Well, that’s not what I’m making this time. I definitely won’t touch that kind of thing, I don’t have the knowledge to make it and use it safely. But, well… just the theory, at least, I understand.”
“E-ehhh… Asuma-sama, you really are amazing.”
“Oh, knock it off, you’re making me blush. Anyway, this time, I’m making something that does have a fair bit of killing power, even if it’s not that extreme.”
“… Yeah…”
By now, Mishisia-san seemed to be getting a sense of what I was trying to say. Maybe it was my awkward expression rubbing off on her, but her face started to look a little troubled too.
“… Since it’s gas, I don’t think it’d be easy to capture, analyze, and reproduce it. But if someone did manage to copy it, it’d be a real nightmare. If a town got ambushed with gas, there’d be basically no way to defend against it.”
“Waaah… y-you’re right… yeah…”
“Exactly.”
… Well, yeah. I don’t think it’ll happen. Probably. But if the enemy used the same methods I did, it’d be incredibly annoying and dangerous. That’s why chemical weapons prohibition treaties exist, seriously… like, really…
“See, I think being able to do things is a good thing. I think everything should be possible. And I believe that expanding what we can do is how humanity becomes happier.”
Since I was personally smashing through the lack of such treaties in this world, I couldn’t help but have mixed feelings.
“But… just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should, right? Like, even if you’ve got an insanely powerful weapon, you’re not supposed to just use it all over the place. And there are always people who don’t get that.”
“Ah, yeah. I get that.”
Mishisia-san nodded with a serious look. Maybe she had her own thoughts on the matter too… She probably did. Even among elves, I bet there were similar problems.
I mean, it’s not limited to science. You could find the same kind of issue anywhere. Magic could cause just as many headaches.
“… As long as there are people who’ll use things in ways they shouldn’t, there’s an argument that it’d be better if those things just didn’t exist in the first place.”
Especially in another world… in a world where I was probably the only practitioner of science, I was right on the front line of that problem.
Were there technologies that should be brought into this world, and ones that shouldn’t?
Knowledge that should exist here, and knowledge that shouldn’t?
… I found myself thinking about that.
“Am I being arrogant?”
When I looked to Mishisia-san for her reaction, she had a conflicted expression.
“Umm… I’m not really good at these kinds of topics, but ideally… it’d be best if ‘bad people never learn about it, and only good people can use it,’ right?”
“Yeah. But then you have to define where the line for ‘good people’ is. Someone who’s kind but not very smart and easily tricked would probably have to be classified as a ‘bad person.’ And then it turns into ‘only people we know personally are good people.’”
“Aaaahhh…”
Both of us grabbed our heads. This was bad. Really bad.
“… In the end, if all humanity had a certain level of intelligence and ethics, that’d solve everything. But that’s not reality. So when you think practically, there are times when ‘don’t create it in the first place’ or ‘don’t tell anyone outside your inner circle’ end up being the right answer…”
“This time is one of those, huh…”
We sighed in unison.
… Human ethics and intelligence just can’t keep up with technological progress. And so humanity keeps having to face this problem over and over.
Is technology evil?
… Well, I still don’t think it is. Which means I’ve just got to keep doing all sorts of things, things that would normally be pointless, just doing my best.
Anyway, while I was moving ahead with preparations on all sorts of things besides poison gas, Laperesiana-sama returned. Lisas-san, who’d been with her, came along as well.
“We’ve reached an agreement with the elves.”
“Oh! How’d it go?”
“They seem willing to agree, provided we offer ‘dungeon conquest support.’ We’ll also provide technical assistance for slime agriculture. In return, they’ll hand over the former Grand Cathedral faction, and they’ve agreed to side with us if it comes to war.”
Ohhh. As expected of Laperesiana-sama. Lisas-san beside her had a that was incredible… look on her face. Well, yeah~ she is our princess!
“The elves are quite interested in learning how to manipulate the dungeon itself, but we’ll be responding with ‘we don’t know.’ … Which is the truth, given how many unknowns there are.”
“Much appreciated!”
Yeah. Even if I was the dungeon master, there were still tons of things I didn’t understand. I still didn’t even know how to get back to my original world. Giving the elves information like that felt like a terrible idea. “We don’t know” was definitely the right answer.
“… In short, that means we’ll need to conquer the dungeon without setting foot inside it, elves included. Incidentally, the dungeon in question is apparently a ‘cave-type that leads underground.’”
“Ohhh, that’s great. In that case, I think we can manage somehow. We just need to sort out transportation… but that should be doable, right?”
“Yes. We’re currently developing an ‘automobile.’ It should be ready for practical use soon.”
Fantastic. Then we could handle anything. Fantasy might be strong, but science isn’t losing either.
… When it comes to merciless first-encounter kills, science might even have magic beat. The poison gas thing was a perfect example. In this world, people don’t even have the basic knowledge. And to counter science, you naturally need scientific knowledge…
“… However, please understand that this weapon will not be used going forward. Especially not in combat against people.”
“Understood. We will follow the will of the dungeon’s guardian deity.”
I made sure to get clear agreement on that point too.
… I don’t know what the future of this world holds, but that part still worries me.
Please, let chemical weapons not leave lasting scars on this world…
Alright. With that settled, we headed for the elven village.
I disassembled, absorbed, and reconstructed the freshly developed automobiles to make several copies. Well, it was an emergency, so this much should be fine. Right?
Along with the elves, the Royal Third Knights Order, Mishisia-san, Lisas-san, and me made up the group.
… Incidentally, we’d been given the wildly out-of-place title of “Advisors to the Royal Third Knights Order.” What an honor…!
“By the way, Laperesiana-sama.”
There was something I just couldn’t ignore.
“Are you truly planning to sortie as well?”
Despite being a genuine princess, Laperesiana-sama was planning to join the dungeon conquest, riding alongside our vehicle.
“Of course. If this involves negotiations and diplomacy before and after the conquest, having royalty present will make things smoother… Besides, we’ll only be hunting the monsters around the dungeon. That much is trivial.”
“Well… that may be so, but…”
If Laperesiana-sama got hurt, it’d be a disaster, so I’d packed the car full of potions just in case. Better safe than sorry. Once we were far from my dungeon, I probably wouldn’t be able to use my dungeon powers, after all…
And there was one more thing bothering me.
“… Um, also… are you really going to sortie like that?”
“Yes. It offers more flexibility than a horse.”
… Laperesiana-sama was astride a large motorcycle, holding a cavalry lance.
A huge bike. A cavalry lance. She was probably planning to fight with a lance while riding the bike around…
This was… uh… was this okay? Well, she looked brave, dignified, and beautiful, so I guess that made it fine. Yeah…
“… And, Asuma-sama. As for you… is that really alright?”
“Huh? Oh, yes. The slimes are going to be used afterward, so…”
… Meanwhile, our car was… well… a bit strange.
Because the entire back seat was filled with slimes! Thanks to that, I was driving, Mishisia-san was in the passenger seat, and Lisas-san had to ride alongside us on a bike! Sorry!
“… There appears to be an elf buried in there.”
And along with the massive slime in the back seat, that slime-loving elf lady was riding with us. Or rather… “riding” wasn’t quite the word, she was more like embedded in slime…
“She insisted on it…”
“I see. Hmm… indeed…”
… Yeah. That’s the expression you’d make. I’d make it too. I mean, uh…
That slime-loving elf lady really does love slimes. She looked blissfully happy, packed tightly inside a car stuffed full of a giant slime…
… Is this journey going to be okay? Is it really going to be okay? I was starting to feel extremely worried…
What do you think about this chapter?
