Oka-chan's Perspective I gaze at my unique Skill—the Student Roster.
The Roster contains each former student's past, present, and future cause of death, all listed in brief.
For the past, it records where they were born, and that entry never changes.
The present and future, however, do change.
And the critical item here is the future cause of death.
I have been acting all this time to avert the causes of death written in this list.
Most of my former students were fated to die young.
And the cause of death listed for many of them was: "Death from Skill confiscation."
When that World Quest was issued and we obtained the Taboo Skill, we finally understood what that meant.
Having your Skills confiscated meant having the System taken away.
And when the System was ripped out—when the Skills forcibly bonded to the soul were torn free—the resulting shock was too much to bear, and they died.
The reincarnators whose future cause of death read "Death from Skill confiscation" were the ones with many Skills.
The more Skills they had, the higher the risk.
In other words, to ensure those students survived, we had to prevent the collapse of the System.
That is what I believed.
"As I expected… they've come."
I look at the image on the monitor, and my shoulders slump.
I had wished it wouldn't come to this, but this sight confirms that reality has done exactly what I feared.
"Teacher, there's no time for moping!"
"I know."
Kudou-chan's words snap me out of my gloom.
"I never imagined we'd be fighting a space-battle type scenario."
"It does get the blood pumping, huh?"
"'Enemy fleet spotted!' and all that."
"The enemy isn't a fleet, and we're not in space, though."
The students we'd been sheltering in the elf village chatter excitedly among themselves.
But I can tell they're just cracking jokes to ease their tension.
For them—having lived sheltered in the elf village, far from the threat of Monsters or anything else—this was their first life-or-death battle.
"Everyone, you all remember how to operate your stations?"
"Of course."
"OK."
The students, seated at their respective positions, reply to Kudou-chan's check.
Before each of them is a monitor, configured so they can carry out operations suited to their assigned roles—controlling the guns mounted on this UFO, or piloting unmanned fighter craft, and so on.
We are currently inside a UFO—an alien spacecraft that had been hidden in the elf village.
The Demon King
So we left surveillance behind and were flying in the sky near the Great Ello Dungeon.
And that's when the enemy appeared.
The enemy's silhouette materializes on the monitor.
Numerous shadows, soaring through the sky, heading straight for us.
They are creatures I never could have seen in my previous life—creatures that existed only in fantasy.
Dragons.
"Death caused by dragon."
That was the changed cause of death for the reincarnators here, the one that appeared after the World Quest was issued.
The reincarnators sheltered in the elf village—the ones with few Skills—had their future cause-of-death entries wiped blank.
And the cause of death that appeared in their place was this one.
Conversely, for the reincarnators with many Skills—the ones who had gone off to fight—their cause-of-death entries had gone blank.
What that blankness meant, I didn't know.
I wanted to believe it meant the System would be gone and nothing further could be recorded, and that the blank was therefore a good sign.
If that was the case, then the students with blank entries would survive.
I wanted that to be true.
But I can't afford to dwell on it now.
First, I have to overcome the death that is bearing down on us right before my eyes.
I recall the conversation I had with the Demon King Ariel before all this.
"…You're saying we'll be killed by dragons?"
"That's right."
There is a restriction that prevents me from revealing the existence of the Student Roster to other reincarnators.
That means I also cannot directly convey the information obtained from it.
However, that restriction no longer applies if a third party is involved.
So I informed the Demon King Ariel—who counted as a third party—that the students would be killed by dragons.
"
The Demon King Ariel listened to my explanation and pondered for a moment.
"…I can't say for certain that he's targeting you specifically. I can come up with a few hypotheses, though."
And then the Demon King Ariel seemed to stop thinking about it further.
"I understand. So you're saying you'll be on our side?"
"Yes. I have no other choice."
"And in return, you want us to repel the dragons and protect you."
"Yes."
"I see, I see~"
The Demon King Ariel nodded as if satisfied.
"Well, protecting the reincarnators was part of the plan from the start, so no issues there."
"! Thank you so much!"
"But!"
The Demon King Ariel cuts me off sharply, raising her voice to stop my celebration.
"Even though we intended to protect you from the very beginning, your cause of death still says you'll be killed by dragons. That means there's a high probability we can't protect all of you."
"…Yes."
She was right about that.
"And honestly, we don't have much in the way of extra forces to spare on our end either."
"No way!?"
"That's why you yourselves have to fight. This is about your own lives, after all."
And so it was decided that we would fight.
And now.
We are using this secret weapon of the elves—the UFO—to intercept the dragons.
This UFO, I'm told, was originally built as a migration ship so that Potimus could fly off into space and colonize another star.
And the cautious Potimus had installed what could only be called an excessive number of defense systems on this UFO.
We will use those systems to repel the dragons with our own hands.
Fortunately, this UFO is supposedly carrying enough energy to do just that.
Since the energy has already been extracted from the star, we're free to use it however we like.
There's no returning it now that it's been pulled out.
The Demon King Ariel sent over a girl named
She looks like a small child, but she possesses power rivaling that of an elder dragon.
Alongside Ael, there are four others of the same type—children called Puppet Taratects.
Including Ael, that makes five.
Originally it was only supposed to be Ael, but after hearing my explanation, the Demon King Ariel had additional personnel sent over.
The Demon King Ariel and her people are stretched thin as it is—I can't thank them enough.
"Alright! Everyone, let's move out!"
A chorus of "Yes!" answers me.
I had sided with Potimus and confined everyone in the elf village.
They probably haven't forgiven me yet.
But I'll deal with that later.
Right now, I will do what I can.
I launch the unmanned fighter I'm responsible for.
And I send it hurtling toward the swarm of dragons.
I am their teacher, after all—I won't let the students fight on the front lines!
In the book version, only four Puppet Taratects survived, but in the web version, ten are still alive.