Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? Volume Chapter 10

“Did the machines in your world run on MA energy, too, young miss?”

“Of course not. Most machines in my old world used electricity. You know, like lightning? The energy from that, basically.”

“You were able to manipulate the power of lightning?”

“Mm, not exactly. The energy that forms the basis of lightning, I guess? I’m sorry—I can’t explain it very well myself.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. Whatever you know will be more than enough, young miss.”

“All right. But explaining it to someone else makes me realize I actually didn’t know much about how these things worked, even though I used them all the time in my old world. I really didn’t study enough.”

“I’m certain you had far more to learn in your old world, so much that you couldn’t possibly remember all of it. The more you tell me, young miss, the more painfully aware I am of my own ignorance. If you say you did not study enough, then residents of this world like myself have not studied at all.”

“Thank you for comforting me. But I don’t think being truly wise is based on the amount of knowledge you have.”

“How do you mean?”

“I think it’s all about whether you can make the right decisions or not. That shows how wise you are. Of course, there’s certainly no harm in having more knowledge on which to base your decisions. But if you ask me, wisdom is about what you come up with on your own, not how much you’ve learned.”

“To have pride and confidence in what you feel is right…”

“Hmm? That’s a nice phrase.”

“Indeed. A certain someone once said it to me while admonishing me.”

“I see. If you have pride and confidence in your beliefs, maybe that does make you wise.”

“I certainly hope so.”

“I wonder what in the world those people were thinking when they decided to harness MA energy all those years ago.”

“Nothing at all, most likely. They probably just set out to take whatever the world would give them, never thinking any further than that. Otherwise, I doubt they could have gotten their hands on MA energy in the first place.”

“I don’t think you need to be that hard on them. They didn’t know what MA energy really is, after all.”

“Perhaps, but they must have at least felt that something was strange about it. Yet, they ignored that intuition, fell prey to the allure of MA energy, and went on using it.”

“True. I mean, it’s a boundless source of energy that never runs out no matter how much you use it. I understand why they would want to keep using such a dreamlike source of energy.”

“Even though limitless energy is the stuff of dreams alone.”

“Well, that’s why they were woken up from the dream eventually. And when they did wake up, reality was waiting with the truth of the energy they’d been using.”

“That must be when they found out. That MA energy is the life force of the planet, and the more you use it, the closer the planet comes to destruction.”