Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 15 Chapter 5.3 Interlude Katia

Shun disappeared.
Shun…disappeeeeared?! “Huh?! what?!”
The shock from hearing that world quest thing goes up in smoke.
My mind went blank for a second there, but I quickly come to my senses
—there’s no time to waste.
Time to take action.
First, I run straight to Yuri’s room. “C-can I help you?”
Yuri looks startled that I’ve charged red-faced into her room. But! I’m here for the other person in the room, not her! “Shun disappeared! This is your master’s doing, isn’t it?!” “…Pardon?”
I bear down on the girl in the white robes—I believe her name is Phelmina.
She works for Wakaba and is currently one of the only people left in this building with any ties to her.
I noticed a few other white-robed agents hiding around here, too, but based on the exchange between Wakaba and Phelmina earlier, I think she must be the highest rank here.
I think Wakaba’s people must be behind Shun’s disappearance. In fact, I don’t see how it could be anyone else.
With those white-clad agents keeping a close eye on him, I doubt anyone could have gotten past them to teleport Shun somewhere unless they were on the same side.
And judging by the timing, it has something to do with that world quest.

The world quest announcement came totally out of nowhere. If the culprit acted after hearing it, they would’ve had even less time to get past the secret agents.
After all, Shun disappeared right after we heard that world quest thing. Wakaba and her people have to be behind this!
But we’re basically their prisoners of war right now.
I’ve got to get this Phelmina girl to connect me to Wakaba so we can talk things out peacefully!
“Where in the world did you send Shuuuun?!” “Yikes, another crazy one…”
Aaaaaah!
In spite of my intentions to remain calm, I grabbed her collar and started shaking her!
Ever since I got the Parallel Minds skill, my thoughts and actions sometimes get out of sync like this.
I suppose that means I haven’t mastered the skill yet.
Generally, I keep the Parallel Minds skill turned off, but sometimes it turns on at the slightest provocation and starts running wild.
I imagine this means there are still traces of my more masculine self inside me.
Sometimes my mind and voice alike can get rather mixed up.
Oh, but this is no time to stand around thinking about such things! All right, stay calm.
I-is it too late to settle things peacefully now, I wonder? “Oh, dear Katia…”
While I stand there internally screaming, Yuri gently removes my hand from Phelmina’s collar.
“If you’re going to grab her, you ought to do it here.” Then she guides my hand to her neck instead.
“It’ll be fine. If you give a little squeeze here, most people will start talking.”
“I don’t see anything fine about this…,” Phelmina remarks.
…Yuri’s words disturbed me so much that I’ve calmed down.
In fact, Phelmina seems rather calm for someone who’s being grabbed by the throat.
She’s still looking at Yuri coolly, and despite saying that it’s not fine, she

hasn’t moved.
Her dignified demeanor is so impressive that I suddenly feel embarrassed at my own panic, and I quickly withdraw my hand.
Phelmina quietly rearranges her disheveled collar.
“…Now then. Would you mind explaining what’s going on here?”
Phelmina’s remarkable composure makes me picture her as a businesswoman dressed smartly in a pantsuit.
Urgh. This is a woman who can get things done!
Even though she doesn’t look that much older than I am!
While I feel strangely defeated, I can’t afford to lose any more face, so I explain the events that just occurred as calmly as I can.
Although there’s not much to tell: We heard the world quest announcement, then immediately a white spider (or something like that?) dropped onto Shun’s head, and Shun vanished.
“A white spider…? Please give me a moment to confirm.”
With that, Phelmina pulls something out of her sleeve: a small white spider.
So this group really was behind it.
“Did you hear that, ma’am? We have a complaint here… Master?” Phelmina speaks to the small spider, but it doesn’t respond at all.
For the first time, her expression changes, turning a bit paler.
“I’m terribly sorry, but there appears to be an emergency. As soon as I’ve determined the situation at hand, I will explain. Please give me a moment.”
Then, before I can even try to stop her, she swiftly leaves the room.
In addition to her speed, her movements were so smooth that it was as if she slipped through my blind spot.
Even without looking at her stats, I can tell from the way she moves that Phelmina is strong.
I guess she didn’t get agitated about the fuss Yuri and I made because she knew she had nothing to worry about.
She must have concluded that we weren’t a threat, even if we attacked her two against one.
I might’ve been in danger if I was careless enough to antagonize her more.
But thanks to Yuri’s strange statement, we avoided that worst-case scenario.

When I think of it that way, perhaps Yuri actually said such a bizarre thing to bring me back to my senses.
“So how shall we wring the life out of the people who kidnapped Shun?”
No, I take it back. She’s still making disturbing threats with a sunny smile.
“We’re not going to wring the life out of them.” “Really?”
“Certainly not.”
Yuri tilts her head in confusion; given her lovely features, I have to admit it’s a little adorable, or at least it could be.
But her eyes seem to be missing any highlights…
I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something unnerving about her.
Yuri always had a bit of a spooky side, but today it feels like her creepiness has been cranked up a notch or two.
…I think I’d prefer not to look into it too deeply. Let sleeping dogs lie, and all that.
So forgetting about Yuri for now, what shall I do…?
I’m not going to “wring the life out of” Wakaba and her people, that’s for sure.
If I even tried, no doubt I’d be the one getting throttled instead.
But I don’t wish to simply sit around and wait, either… “Ah! Shun was teleported away somewhere, right?” While I’m lost in thought, Yuri speaks up.
“Erm, yes.”
“Then I think I know just the right person!” “The right person?”
“Oh, yes! Elder Ronandt, the master of Spatial Magic!”

“Hrmm. No, I think not!”
Yuri and I were able to meet this Elder Ronandt right away.
As I suspected, Wakaba’s side seems to be preoccupied, such that we were able to leave our area of confinement without any trouble.
We didn’t know where to find Elder Ronandt, but we happened to run into Natsume and Fei as soon as we left the building, and the former knew his whereabouts.

After all, Natsume is still technically the prince of the empire, and Elder Ronandt is the top imperial mage of the court.
So we asked Elder Ronandt if he could help us go after Shun, but his response was as immediate as it was unfavorable.
“Why not?”
Yuri drew closer to Ronandt.
“You do not know where Prince Schlain is now, correct? Even I cannot help, without the slightest inkling of where he’s gone. Though perhaps we could follow his trail if you had an idea.”
“So we just need to find out where he is?!” This time, Fei bears down on the old man, too.
As Yuri and Fei press close to him urgently, Elder Ronandt gracefully steps back and calms them before continuing.
“Even then, we may not be able to follow. Teleportation only works for places that the user has been before. I have certainly visited all manner of places, but if Prince Schlain is somewhere I have never been, then I still cannot help you.”
So we’re out of options?
If the man said to be humanity’s greatest mage, a better Spatial Magic user than anyone, says there’s nothing we can do…
“Ah!”
Just as I was thinking that we’d have to wait patiently like Phelmina told me, Fei suddenly smacks her fist into her palm.
“What about summoning?” “Summoning? …Oh!” After a moment, it hits me.
Fei has a contract with Shun!
Though she’s in human form now, she’s still a wyrm—essentially a monster—considered to have been “tamed” by Shun.
With that contract, Shun can summon Fei at will.
It’s a one-way street, but at least Fei would be able to go to wherever Shun is.
“But are you able to summon yourself to him, Fei?” “…No, I can’t.”
Well, that’s no help.
It sounds like only Shun can summon Fei from his end, not the other way

around.
“If Yamada hasn’t called Shinohara yet, doesn’t that mean he ain’t in any real danger?” Natsume grumbles.
He has a point, but…
“Shun may have forgotten about summoning entirely, I’m afraid.” Shun has never actually summoned Fei before.
He always treats her like an equal, never like a servant or a familiar.
It’s possible he’s forgotten about the contract entirely, including his ability to summon Fei.
I had forgotten, too, after all.
“Besides, it’s also possible that he’s in such a predicament that he hasn’t had time to think of such things.”
“Would they really do somethin’ so indirect?”
Natsume’s doubts are valid; I also suspect that Shun’s life is not in danger.
If Wakaba and her people wanted to kill Shun, they could have simply done so without bothering to teleport him anywhere.
It’s safe to assume they moved him for some other reason. “Hrm? You have a contract with Prince Schlain, missy?” “Mm? Yes, what of it?”
“Hrmmm…” Elder Ronandt thinks for a moment. “Might I Appraise your status for just a moment, then?”
“My status? If you must.” “Pardon me, then.”
Fei grimaces for a second, probably because of the discomfort that comes with Appraisal.
What does Elder Ronandt hope to find by Appraising her stats, though? “Summoning… Teleport…hrmm. Perhaps if…oh? Oh! Could this work?
Is it possible?”
He mutters to himself as he does goodness knows what.
“Oh-ho-ho! It just might work! It will! But of course! One must never assume something is impossible! Yes, I can do this!”
Um, hello?!
What’s with this guy, getting all excited out of nowhere?!
“Right here and now! A new chapter in the history of teleportation is about to unfold!”

Elder Ronandt spreads his arms wide.
“If you can be summoned, that means there is a pathway for teleportation there! We can use that pathway to teleport to where Prince Schlain is now!”
Wait, is that really possible?!
So that’s why Elder Ronandt was looking at Fei’s stats! I guess he really is humanity’s strongest mage.
At first I thought he might be a bit off his rocker, but he’s amazing after

all!

“Now then, let us go! To Prince Schlain!”
A moment later, the scenery changes around us. “Nwha—?!”
I stumble backward at the sudden turn of events, but luckily, I manage to

grab on to something that keeps me from falling.
But when I see what’s happening before my eyes, my relief quickly drains away.
What I grabbed was the edge of a bed.
And on top of that bed is a boy with his arms and legs tied, in the midst of having his clothes stripped off.
A naked boy who happens to be Shun!
And the girl taking his clothes off happens to be his sister, Sue! “Wh-what in the world do you think you’re doiiiiing?!” I shriek. How could I not shriek about that?!
“You mustn’t have relations before marriage! First, you must proclaim your betrothal to God!”
Yuri shouts, too, albeit with slightly unusual logic. “Besides, you’re his sister! You can’t marry him!” And now even Fei is flying off the handle…?
And I don’t think marriage is what’s important right now! “Get away from him! Right now! How indecent!”
I give Sue a hard shove away from Shun.
She topples off the bed and breaks into a roll before quickly getting back on her feet.
“Katiaaaa… Things were just getting good… Why did you have to go and…interfeeere?!”
Her voice isn’t very loud, but somehow, it’s dripping with resentment and rage.

“It’s obvious! Because you haven’t declared your marriage intentions to God yet!”
Yuri, again, that’s not the problem here…
“You know that’s not it, right?! Siblings shouldn’t do something like that, period!”
“Another woman I don’t knooow?! Why must my brother be so faithless?!”
“Whaaa?! Oh, right! You haven’t seen me in this form before!” Sue blows her lid at Fei.
Come to think of it, Fei didn’t learn to take human form until after Sue had gone.
I suppose since Sue only knows her as a little wyrm, it makes sense that she’d assume she’s a new woman.
Although she might still be angry even if she knew who Fei was.
When Fei was a small wyrm, she was quite close with Shun, staying in his room and sitting on his shoulder and such.
“At any rate, Shun is to declare his marriage with me to God, so I’ll be taking him back now.”
While Sue is baring her teeth at Fei, Yuri hops in and scoops Shun up. “Stop right there! Why should he go with you?!”
How dare she take advantage of all this confusion?! What a thing to say!
She’s always tried to convert Shun to the Word of God religion, but now she’s showing her true intentions, it would seem!
Her attempts to convert him were already quite brazen. Does she no longer care what it takes?!
I grab Shun’s arm and try to pull him away from Yuri. But Yuri latches on to him and refuses to let go.
“Get away from him!” “Nooo!”
“Brother belongs to me!”
Sue joins in on the tug of war, too.
Shun looks pained as he gets yanked in three directions. “Wait a minute! You’re going to tear him apart!”
Now Fei has jumped into the battle.
She’s right, of course, but I simply cannot back down!
“…Damn, Yamada. Looks like you’ve had it rough in your own way.”

“Ho-ho-ho. What a popular lad. But you must choose only one, okay?” Natsume and Elder Ronandt are watching from the sidelines.
Shun looks to them as if pleading for help, but they’re both pretending not to notice.
But since Shun has yet to speak or move on his own in spite of all this, doesn’t that mean he’s been drugged?
“Sue! You drugged Shun, didn’t you?!”
“Just a mild anesthetic! I thought this would make it a done deal, but nooo!”
“Even if it was a done deal, God wouldn’t allow it!”
“Aaargh! Enough of this, all three of you! Shun’s body is making snapping sounds I’m quite sure it’s not meant to make, so let goooo!”
Things were truly getting out of control, with all four of us making a fuss. But then…

We heard the Word of God again.
I’d forgotten all about it in the chaos since Shun disappeared. But this was a divine revelation far too important to be ignored.
Immediately, an unbearable pain filled my head, and my vision went black.