16. The Restraints of the White Spider

Synopsis of the previous chapter:

From Kato-san’s perspective, the mid-boss seems to be Lily.

To challenge the boss, start by hunting up the ranks of (tentative) comrades.

Chapter 16.

“My ‘Family of Monsters’…?”

The White Arachne that attacked us, kidnapped me, splendidly kicked Rose on top of it and successfully escaped from Lily, was a part of my ‘Family of Monsters’.

“No way, that’s…”

At first, I doubted my senses, ‘what’s with that’, but the instinctive part of me could not deny that this one was a part of my family as well.

Then, I doubted my own sanity, but it didn’t seem to be an illusion sprouting from my despair.

“If you were part of my ‘Family of Monsters’… ...Why did you attack me?”

Everyone in my ‘Family of Monsters’ thinks highly of me.

And I respond in kind to their feelings.

What we have between each other, is trust and love.

From a stranger’s point of view, our relations.h.i.+ps might appear weird.

But to us, that is the most important thing, that’s why, the acknowledgement of others don’t matter.

I love Lily and Rose.

As their Master.

That is the meaning of a family.

That’s why, I thought that I would be able to cherish new members that join in the future as well.

Unconditionally. Instinctively.

That was what I thought.

“Why…”

“Surprise indeed, that thou art poor in thy perception of others, Milord”

In a mocking tone, the White Arachne said.

“Since a while ago hath I said ‘I fancieth thee’, there is naught a reason aside.”

“I… You want... me?”

What’s that supposed to mean?

What value does she think I have?

As expected, I don’t get it.

But, thinking about it, it didn’t kill me and brought me all the way here, to its own nest.

That, the aim of the white spider in front of me, is not my life, but in my person.

It doesn’t seem like I would be killed for now.

Although that’s a rea.s.suring point…

“Thou art not aware of thine own worth.”

‘Kukuku’, the white girl laughed.

Looking at that expression, I remembered a sight.

――Children, observing bugs in a box.

If I reverse the roles of the spider (bugs) and humans, it would be exactly the same scene.

Sweat ran down my cheeks unpleasantly.

I wouldn’t be killed this minute.

Was that supposed to be a rea.s.suring point?

I’m an idiot. I’ll die while wrapped in her spider threads. There is no way that I’ll be saved from that dark future.

I must... somehow... escape from this place.

But, how?

The most logical way would be to wait for help from Lily and the others. But, that’s the most unrealistic one as well.

They are most likely... No, they will definitely be coming to save me. They will arrive. But, in reality, the result would probably be harsh; they cannot win with that White Arachne as an opponent.

Before they arrive, I must escape the hands of this White Arachne with my own efforts.

If I don’t, it’s the end. It’ll be all over.

But, how can I escape from her hands? Good ideas can’t seem to come to mind.

The arachne who’s oblivious to my inner turmoil, drew closer to me with her eight spider legs.

Then, a bewitching smile broke out across her face.

“In regards to thine own worth… ...Milord appears to be in need of education.”

The woman spoke while tilting her head, her silky white hair fell from her shoulder.

Filled with excitement flowing through her entire body, under the transparent and soft chiffon-like material, two soft-looking bulges that looked as though they could crush something, can be seen.

The word ‘malicious’ came to mind. Her every single gesture, had an obscene feeling to it.

Originally, the sight of a devilishly beautiful young woman being fixated on a grotesque monster, such as a spider, would be enough to make anyone avert their sights away from reality.

Rather, I thought that for her, it only served to accentuate her delicateness and beauty as a young woman.

Fighting a wave of dizziness that hit me as I started to remember the abnormality of the situation and coquetry of the girl in front of me, I had to fight to keep my sanity.

I had the belief that if I just let down my guard for a little, I’ll be completely ‘swallowed up’.

“Educating…?”

I can’t afford to offend her for now. I’ll try to stall for time while looking for an opening. ...I don’t know if such a thing is possible, but I have no choice except to believe in it for now.

“What on earth are you trying to teach me?”

“Let us see. Firstly, thine meaning of monsters that Milord calleth Miladies. Doth thee knoweth?”

“Monsters… ...you mean what they are?”

“Forsooth.”

“That is, monsters with magical power, right?”

As I thought about the intention behind those words, I moved my mouth to answer.

"Due to possessing magical powers, monsters hold abnormal strength. For example, Fire Fangs can spit fire, Magical Puppets can move like humans, Slimes can maintain their half-liquid state, plant monsters like Treants can move like animals, all of it, is because they have magic."

“Aye. Henceforth, doest thou knoweth why monsters absorb magic?”

“That is… …To store the magic in the atmosphere in the body, if I’m not wrong?”

Previously, Lily had spoken on that subject as well. The one with the example of heavy metals, but it doesn’t seem like it will work on the White Arachne, so I remained silent.

The White Arachne had a face that was slightly bored.

“Thou knoweth well. …It cometh to mind, Milord had a wooden puppet didst thou not? Hath it spoken of it to thee?”

The wooden thing should be referring to Rose. Speaking of that, I hope she's alright. She seems to gotten done in badly, so I'm feeling worried.

“Then, thou should hath known that ‘Miladies’ of thine hath not awareness?”

"Previously, I remember hearing a little of that matter…"

Lily seemed to have told me something like that during a bedtime story.

Before meeting me, those girls had no self-awareness. They were simple existences that wandered around the forest.

“I heard from my comrades that the moment they became my Family, they had attained their awareness for the first time.”

“Oh, oh. Twas that case indeed!”

The girl looked ecstatic and said in a cheerful voice.

Then, simultaneously, those spider legs on her lower half started kicking up a storm.

Almost destroying the floor with her trampling.

As well as the various trees aligned together that were used as pillars and connected by spider threads to the ceiling, producing sounds as though they were about to fall.

“Then, doth thee perceive? Thine own worth, Milord!”

Now, I am troubled by this spider.

Realization hit me strongly. I bit my lips lightly.

After her outburst, the White Arachne finally stopped her feet.

But, perhaps some excitement still remained, the smooth cheeks of the woman sensationally reddenned.

“Thou dost not comprehend. That incomprehension is endearing.”

The Arachne drew even closer, bending its legs.

Already, she was within touching distance. The surprisingly smooth white hairs of the spider brushed against my arm.

The girl stretched her arm and patted the area around my shoulders. ――With a tearing sound, my wreckage of a s.h.i.+rt was suddenly removed.

The slender fingers of the Arachne touched my upper body, slowly stroking it.

The red eyes of the girl looked up at me as the gentle pressure gave me pleasurable gooseb.u.mps.

”This hath naught to conversation prior, but before becoming part of thine Lords.h.i.+p’s Family, I hast awareness of mine self.”

“...What?”

My eyebrows shot up from the Arachne's words.

That's... different from what I heard.

“Even so, it was a pittance. Compared to Milord, twas something too incorperal to call a person’s ego.”

The White Arachne spoke words of self-deprecation.

Yet, on the contrary, the girl atop the white spider let out ecstatic breaths. It was evidence that she was in a good mood.

That was supposed to be something favorable for me.

Since it doesn’t seem like my heart will be impaled by the hand that was currently drawing a circle on my chest.

Yet. I couldn’t be honestly happy with her good mood.

In fact, I felt a chilly feeling. A premonition that the happier she was, the more possible it seemed that she could fall into a dark mood.

“Living for long, long years, I hath attained the awareness of mine self. However, twas such a thin and fleeting thing. My awareness hath always, always, lived at the depths of slumber, this night, for the first time I hath ‘awakened’. Doth thine Lords.h.i.+p conceive this joy of mine?”

“Was the cause of your ‘awakening’, me?”

That would be probably my cheat ability to be exact.

My cheat ability, [Monster Tame], is to produce monsters in my Family.

However, it can never manipulate them like mannequins or tools of fighting power.

The monsters that became a part of my ‘Family of Monsters’, Lily and Rose, have a strong sense of self-awareness.

And so, emotions as well... ...On one hand, love. On the other, loyalty. No matter which, they hold such strong emotions towards me.

Self-awareness.

Emotions.

Those were definitely, what this White Arachne had been pining for, for the longest time.

“Most likely, the wooden thing in thine possession, also had a faint self-awareness… ...Possibly, it means that ‘Special Monsters’ hath the capacity for sprouting egos.”

“Special…”

Come to think of it, in fact, Lily was a ‘Unique Monster’ and Rose was a ‘Rare Monster’.

After knowing those facts, I had a hint of suspicion that it might have been a condition for being a part of my ‘Family of Monsters’.

It was just that I had too few samples to base my judgment on and confirm them as truth.

However, the White Arachne standing in front of me is a ‘High Monster'. As expected, monsters with special abilities was the condition.

The 'uniqueness of monsters' is also linked with their 'potential magical power'.

On the other hand, the White Arachne had said that the monsters in my ‘Family’, have the potential to gain self-awareness in the first place.

Then, possibly, the amount of magical power one has, affects the development of one gaining awareness.

Even I felt that it was a sudden, outrageous idea, but the more I thought about it, the more likely it seems.

For example, monsters like Magical Puppets, are just wooden dolls without magic.

Even corpses of once living beings can become Undead Monsters and move with magical power.

They are unable to have distinct wills like humans, but they at least hold the faint intelligence to attack other monsters. From my point of view, their movements seem to be autonomous.

Magic is an unfamiliar and mysterious power to me, but, it’s possible that it might have existed fundamentally as a part of nature, from the start.

If so, the existences that we, transfer students, call ‘monsters’, are closer to what we call ‘yokai’ in j.a.pan.

Over the years, foxes and old items who gained their own will.

Similar to monsters who acc.u.mulate magic over time.

In front of me, all of the members of my Family, Lily, Rose and the White Arachne, are cla.s.sified as females; therefore, the explanation for this can be understood.

When monsters have sufficient self-awareness to acc.u.mulate magic on their own, the ‘Monsters of the Family’ will have a certain level of magical power without exception.  Also, monsters that have large magical capacities are those who perform reproductive activities――in other words, females.

“Art miladies a.s.sociated with thine Lords.h.i.+p?”

Dropping the shaking hand slowly, the Arachne questioned. I wanted to stop her hand at that moment, but I was unable to. Sometime while I was not paying attention, my uninjured side has been glued to the floor by the spider threads.

“...Is it about the ‘path’?”

“Aah. That is, the essence of Milord’s power.”

Knowing my fragile resistance, the girl closed the distance in a single move and――laughed in a strange voice.

The Arachne dropped the crushed and broken belt’s buckle on the belt on the floor, licked her rouge-coloured mouth and once again, stretched out her hand.

“Through the path, Miladies toucheth Master’s heart. With that, they can learn of thine heart. However, if one’s heart fundamentally lacks the suitable conditions in the first place, even by touching Milord’s heart, naught can be conceived.”

I, as the Master, and the other monsters in my ‘Family of Monsters’, are connected together in our hearts.

I just thought of it as a simply convenient ability. But, the Arachne said that it was the source of my power.

For example, in that cave, Lily connected to me by the path, and touched my wish. In other words, she touched my heart. It became the decisive point for Lily’s humane personality.

Thus, monsters that are born in the ‘Family of Monsters’ are, of course, different from the normal image one would have of monsters from [Monster Tame], they are not ‘domesticated’. Even if I, who is like a parent to them, the Master, who gave them their self-awareness, they willingly try to save me out of their sincere adoration, not obligation.

Technically speaking, I don’t have a strong authority that can bind the girls.

The worst characteristic of my ability is being revealed in this situation right now.

“Fufufu.”

Endearing――The spider laughed with the admiring of eyes of an animal inside a cage.

“Forthwith, the moment of shock I hath recieveth from discovering Milord, is something Milord will never conceive.”

The girl on the spider expanded both her hands to the sides.

“The world hath been lit, painted anew! I, indeed, doth exist hithermore!”

Her voice, directed towards me, was filled with obsession as thick and sticky like spider’s thread.

Facing that for the first time, even though I was much more shaken than Lily and Rose was, I suddenly realized that this White Arachne held extraordinary feelings towards myself.

Still, that girl is, a member of my ‘Family of Monsters’.

“I hath power. Might that conceeds not to any other. I shalt wield this as I will! With this ego I hath attained!”

My Family is somehow childish or more… innocent and simple in some areas.

That’s because they just gained self-awareness before they were supposed to, it’s inevitable I guess.

Furthermore, in this White Arachne’s case, there is an added obsession that has been acc.u.mulated over many years.

All of these――The desire to monopolize everything of her interest, tying them up, are boosted by the instincts of a spider. It has already gone out of hand.

“Prithee, conceive, Milord!”

“Meaning…?!”

The hand that has been stroking me, tightened around my throat at the same time.

“The value of Milord to me!”

“Ah…”

Haa, a sweet, troubling breath fanned over me.

Looking at my face filled with suffering, the girl looked on with flushed cheeks and a smile in her eyes.

“The one who gave me ‘mine self’, was Milord. Therefore, I cannot help mine self from loving thee.”

My sight starts to flicker.

There is insufficient oxygen flowing to my brain. My consciousness starts to fade.

“I desireth all of milord.”

Through my weak consciousness, a muddy stream of intense feelings flowed through the link.

A torrent of violent thoughts bleached my mind white.

Iit grew in intensity, blotting out my vision as colours started disappearing.

“Become mine, Milord. I shall keep thee for long.”

I feel a strong sense of loneliness.

My heart seems to be breaking into pieces.

I cannot bear it.

I am weak.

My heart is weak.

If I was alone, I wouldn’t have been able to withstand this violent torrent.

“...Hither they cometh.”

The White Arachne muttered softly.

In my blurry vision, I barely made out the girl who was frowning with her eyebrows.

Just as I started to doubt the Arachne’s words, a dignified voice called from the other side of the white spider.

“Is that the reason why you’ve kidnapped Master?”

Was.h.i.+ng away the muddy stream of emotions from the spider, a warm stream of emotions flowed into my heart.

Even I can tell.

The girls have finally arrived.

“Release that hand.”

If you turned around to look, on the other side of the Arachne, there stood two silhouettes illuminated against the moonlight.

“Lily. And, Rose…”

There stood my strong-hearted comrades.

AUTHOR’S NOTES

◆ If Lily and the rest came just a bit later, it would have been all over.

That was dangerous!