as far as manga only readers know, this is the first time its confirmed that ariel/demon king is not future kumoko. Author really pushed that idea as a red herring until basically this moment, even in the LN. i still dont really understand why, but regardeless im rly happy granny has arrived to be illustrated here. artist's weakpoint is drawing humans so some readers are worried about the future humam characters we'll be seeing, but im satisfied with what weve seen so far.