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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
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“…Yes, it’s been a while.”
I met Arachne’s gaze, then quickly checked on Isaac.
He seemed unharmed, physically. But he was bound tightly in spider silk, a captive. I had to negotiate with Arachne.
“I-If I’ve done anything to offend you… I apologize…”
“Oh, really? Just a moment. Before we chat, let’s take care of some… distractions, shall we?”
Arachne smiled, and with a flick of her wrist, the spiders surrounded Aria.
“What are you doing?! Get away from me! Get away!”
Aria struggled and yelled, but
A fish out of water could only do so much.
Even though she could breathe air,
Her heavy tail hampered her movements.
“Aaaaagh! Let go! Let go of me!”
Aria glared at Arachne and me, screaming, but she was quickly enveloped in a thick cocoon of spider silk.
“Mmmmph! Mmm!”
Isaac and Aria,
Both bound and gagged, reduced to mere trophies.
“So, what were you saying? Where were we?”
Arachne finally turned her attention back to me.
Her condescending tone, her air of superiority, intensified the tension.
I racked my brain, desperately searching for a way out of this situation.
“…I-I said I’m sorry. Will you accept my apology?”
But there were no easy answers.
Trapped in her web, both literally and figuratively,
I could only sweat and plead for my life.
“Pfft!”
Arachne, as if reading my mind, covered her mouth with her hand, stifling a giggle.
“Hee hee…”
It was a strange feeling.
Her laughter, somehow, felt familiar.
“It’s always amusing to see you so terrified. Juho, don’t be such a scaredy-cat. You make me look like the villain.”
Arachne was difficult to read.
A faint blush colored her usually cold and aloof face, and I couldn’t decipher its meaning.
“You’re the villain here, aren’t you?”
Arachne smiled, tracing her fingernail across my chest.
“Let’s go. We can talk on the way.”
While her words seemed amicable, there was a sharp edge to them.
I couldn’t trust her.
Especially not after seeing how she treated Isaac and Aria.
“Mmmmmm! Mmm!”
Isaac struggled against his restraints, his body twitching,
But to me, he was just a bundle of spider silk, wriggling helplessly.
The spiders carried Isaac and Aria like sacks of potatoes.
“…Let’s discuss what to do with them later.”
I was an exception.
Arachne patted my backside, a gesture indicating I should walk beside her, instead of being bound.
“…Alright.”
I knew.
I had no choice but to follow her.
But I still had one weapon left.
A variable Arachne wasn’t aware of.
Jenny.
She was watching me, I knew it.
She was clever and perceptive, and she would have hidden herself. Or perhaps she was still in the lake, retrieving Amy’s body-
“…”
Yes, the lake.
While everyone else was focused on the events unfolding in the forest, the water rippled silently.
A headless body, barely visible in the dim light,
It was dragged away, leaving a trail before disappearing.
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Returning to the spiders’ territory, I was once again assaulted by the familiar, cloying scent of decay.
This place reeked of death.
While I had grown somewhat accustomed to it, it must have been overwhelming for Isaac and Aria.
“Ugh- retch-”
Aria, especially, was struggling.
She had vomited inside her cocoon, and the spiders, despite their disgust, had to re-wrap her.
But a mermaid’s suffering on land didn’t end there.
Her beautiful tail and scales, removed from the water, began to dry out.
“Aaaaagh! Kyaaagh!”
I didn’t know how painful it was, but Aria screamed and thrashed, her body convulsing.
If they gagged her to silence her screams, she would vomit and choke,
And if they left her mouth uncovered, she would continue screaming and struggling…
“Tsk. How undignified.”
Arachne clicked her tongue, watching Aria’s struggles with disdain.
While Aria writhed and moaned, her appearance a picture of misery, Arachne sat calmly, sipping tea, like a queen on her throne.
And I sat before her.
We were enjoying a quiet tea time, the smooth, round surface of a tree stump between us.
Honestly, it wasn’t very relaxing for me. I had too much on my mind.
I had to rescue Isaac,
I had to calculate and predict when Jenny would arrive,
And…
“Aaaaaaaaagh! No! Kyaaagh! It hurts…! It hurts…!”
…I had to watch Aria suffer.
Even though I considered her an enemy, seeing her cry and writhe in pain filled me with a strange sense of unease.
“Does it bother you?”
Arachne’s sharp eyes seemed to read my thoughts.
“You’re such a fool, Juho. Look at your arm. And you still feel sorry for her?”
Aria had bitten me, trying to prevent my escape. I hadn’t forgotten.
I wanted to hate her, to see her as nothing but an enemy.
“J-Juho… Juho… sob, sniff… it hurts…”
But,
Hearing her cries, her tearful pleas, made my head pound.
The spiders’ territory, near the Ancestral Tree.
Arachne and I sat facing each other, beginning our negotiations.
Behind her, Isaac and Aria hung suspended in the air.
Isaac, gagged and bound, could only make muffled sounds, while Aria cried and thrashed, her body wracked with pain.
“Are they really that precious to you? I should have just killed them. It would have been easier for everyone.”
I knew this was a hostage situation, but Arachne seemed to think she was being merciful.
And perhaps she was right.
In this world of predator and prey, Aria and Isaac were simply trophies, spoils of war.
“Honestly, I don’t care about them. I’ll release them if you want. But you understand my position, don’t you? I’m the Queen now. I have to rebuild the spider society, which, thanks to you, is in shambles.”
This was a negotiation.
Between the newly crowned Queen Arachne,
And the male who had escaped her clutches, leaving chaos in his wake.
“…I’m trying to decide what to do with you. Should I just cut off your limbs and lock you up, like Mother did with Father? And then feed those two to my offspring?”
Sip-
Arachne took a sip of her bitter tea, her red eyes fixed on me, studying my reaction.
I forced myself to remain calm, lowering my head.
I had no leverage in this negotiation.
“…Do whatever you want with me. But let them go.”
This was my best offer.
Jenny would come for me, and I just had to hold on until then.
I would sacrifice myself to buy time.
“Please.”
Isaac and Aria,
They were innocent bystanders, caught in the crossfire of my and Arachne’s conflict-
“Pfft!”
But then,
Arachne laughed.
She seemed amused by my plea, her eyes softening, a hint of affection in her gaze.
“Ahahahaha!”
The tension dissipated.
I didn’t understand what was happening.
Just moments ago, she had been threatening me…
“Wh-what…?”
I stared at her, bewildered,
And Arachne reached out, stroking my hair.
“You’re so cute. Fine, let’s forget about it.”
Arachne hadn’t been angry with me.
While I had tricked her,
I had also inadvertently paved the way for her ascension to the throne.
“I’m leaving soon anyway.”
Arachne took my hand and led me through the spider kingdom, her home, this decaying forest of rotting trees and sticky webs…
“I’m looking for a new place. I don’t want to live like Mother and Father. I’m going to create my own kingdom, far away from here.”
And there, in a small clearing, was a tombstone.
Carved with Arachne’s fangs,
A small stone marker, slightly shorter than me.
“We erect tombstones for our dead. I considered placing him with the other ancestors, beneath the Ancestral Tree, but I decided to leave him here.”
A solitary tombstone now marked the spot where [he] had embraced the Queen and detonated the explosive.
At first, I had assumed it was a memorial for the Queen. It didn’t make sense otherwise.
“…It’s Father’s tombstone. I thought… you were closer to him than I was.”
But it was [his] tombstone.
A tombstone Arachne had made for her father.
“Say your goodbyes.”
I felt a pang of sympathy for her.
Perhaps Arachne wasn’t inherently cruel. Perhaps she had simply been raised by dysfunctional parents.
“I’m going to burn it all down.”
…Perhaps?
It should have been.
“You and I can rebuild it, can’t we? It’s better to start fresh, to erase the past.”
But I wasn’t so sure anymore.
I couldn’t quite decide…
It was complicated…
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Still his best option other than escape