So I'm a Spider, So What? - Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

[Kraco]

We could say the same about the pontiff or Ariel.

But I kinda don't want to believe the elves. Mostly because Potimas was shown to be a racist on top of all his shadiness to the half-elf servant now in Shun's adventuring party. Oh, and the fact that his routine method is assassination and kidnapping. Sophia beheaded him specifically for a reason, we just haven't seen it yet.

The pontiff controls the masses of people, and Ariel just uses straightforward brute force.

I don't believe the pontiff knows everything, though. He was already shown not to even know why Potimas is collecting kids, even though he was smart enough to realise there must be something significant behind it. I also feel like trying to murder masses of fellow humans because of a simple doctrine difference is exceedingly stupid. Even though in RL it's a problem in the Middle East now and was a problem in Europe some hundreds of years ago. However, unlike us, the pontiff lives in a world with horrible monsters led by a demon lord and also non-human humanoids, who aren't necessarily friendly, like the elves. Kind of strange to have massacring other humans as his first priority.

I do admit your other points about Potimas are quite solid. He has some flaws that make it hard to believe he's only interested in saving the world, for example, instead of saving the world by making others than his own people pay the price. It's still a bit weird the teacher has been so willingly going along with it. Do you think she's evil as well?

[Ryllharu]

I do admit your other points about Potimas are quite solid. He has some flaws that make it hard to believe he's only interested in saving the world, for example, instead of saving the world by making others than his own people pay the price. It's still a bit weird the teacher has been so willingly going along with it. Do you think she's evil as well?

I think Oka is just stupid and naïve. She wants to believe the best in people because she's a teacher. She may have punished Hugo because he was trying to kill the others, but maybe in her mind, stealing his skills was punishment enough, like standing in the hallway with buckets. In a sense, she forgave him for trying to outright murder others, and it was obviously her mistake that led to others being killed, including Shun's father, probably his brother, potentially his other brother, and her elf father.

We still don't really know why she reacted the way she did to Sophia. Did she not expect one of her former students to be on "the bad side"?

I think she's the one who told her father about the reincarnations. But I also think she had good intentions, not knowing the means he would employ to find them.