239 – Spiderlings

“Gaaaaaaaaaah!”

In the morning I am woken up by the sound of an earnest roar.
I rub my eyes and stretch my neck.

The light leaking in from the entrance is still dim.
It must be quite early in the morning.
I would have liked to have slept in another two hours or so.

Well then.
After checking the entrance I look towards Aro in the back of the shrine.

Though her facial expression is as unreadable as ever, she’s waving her arms and legs in a hurry.
She looks at me through her empty eye sockets, then as if to get me to check, glances over to my partner.

“Gaah! GaaaaAH! GaaaaAAH!”

She’s howling as if she’s lost her mind, her head twisted to the side.

Stuck to her forehead there’s the burst remnants of the egg sac.
Crawling over her face, there are eight fist-sized spiders.

“Gaaaaaah!”

Ah, they’ve finally hatched.
They’re covered in green fur, the same colour as the fur on leg of their parent that was waving around.

Spider-san, your children have hatched.
I look towards the corner where the spider’s corpse rests.

…I should get around to burying it soon.
For that matter, I should give the whole shrine a clean.

“Gaaaah! Gaaaah!”

Ah right, first off I should check their species.
I concentrate on one of the spiders crawling on my crying partner.

【[Baby Araenie]: E-rank monster】

【A species of furry spiderlings.】

【Though its potential is diverse, because it has many enemies only a few individuals are able to become an adult.】

【It has a bitter flavour, but is surprisingly tasty.】

The parent spider was also an araenie, if I remember correctly.
Many enemies, huh.
Don’t worry you guys, that person you’re crawling all over is a full-fledged carer who’s going to raise you all.

“GaaaaaAH, AaaaAAAaah!”

…I suppose it’s about time I rescue her.
I lightly tap her face with my foreleg.
The spiderlings crawling over her drop to the ground.
Some get stuck upside down, and some quickly right themselves and start crawling through the shrine.

My partner limply rests her chin on the ground.

“Guua…” 

Groaning softly, she looks up at me.
Tears are welling up in her eyes.

…With how she had the egg sacs stuck to her face, I could tell something like this was bound to happen.
Perhaps I should have stopped her after all.

Shasha, shasha.
Shasha, shasha.

I thought it was the spiderling’s cry, but it’s the sound of their hairs brushing against each other.
The rustling sounds are echoing throughout the shrine, making a rather creepy effect.
If a human entered a den of these to fight them, even though the adults are only D-rank monsters, they’d be too scared to do anything.
Araenie are meant to be docile though.

I hear a clip-clap sound of bones.
Taking care not to bump my head into the ceiling, I turn around to see Aro surrounded by the spiderlings.
Her head rotates as she looks around at the slowly gathering spiderlings.

Just as I think they’ve stopped moving, in the next moment they all rush forwards towards her.
A terrific number of footsteps echo.
I stretch my head out, and Aro desperately climbs on.
Before the spiderlings can follow, I raise my head. 

The spiderlings quickly lose interest in her, each of them scattering away to explore the shrine.
These guys, they really are free-willed.

From my forehead, I feel a vibration.
Aro is shivering.
She must have been quite scared… I’ll let her down after she’s had some time to calm down.

Discipline them properly, partner.
It’s regrettable, but depending on the situation, we might have to force them out.

“Gaa…”

Traumatised by the experience of them crawling over her, she is being more docile than usual.

Hey, the one who said they wanted to keep them was you, you know? Pull yourself together and look after them properly.

Noticing my gaze, she averts her eyes.
Th-this girl…!

But seriously, I don’t know if we’ll be able to handle this.
They’re E-rank now, but as they develop they’re going to get bigger and bigger, right? Monsters grow up stupidly fast; if I were to mess up when they’re all B-rank, I could be killed.
If they were to rebel against me, I’d lose.

Rather than raising them poorly, releasing them into nature wouldn’t leave as bad an aftertaste.
Thinking about it normally, monsters aren’t something you keep as a pet.

While I’m wondering what to do with them, I notice the spiderlings gathering around the remains of their parent.
At first there’s just one, but then a second and a third join it.
Soon all eight of them have assembled.

…hmm? What are they doing? It’s not like they’re grieving for their dead parent.

The eight of them quickly disperse again.
The remains have disappeared.
Only a few strands of green fur are left behind.

…Th-they’ve gone and eaten it.
That might be normal for a spider, but still! They’d just hatched so needed the nutrients, I get it, but still!

With their stomachs bulging, the satisfied spiderlings gather in a comer of the shrine and start falling asleep.
These guys really are free-willed.
Oi.

What do I do here.
Should I really keep them?

I turn to look at my partner.
She’s timidly stretching out towards the spiderlings, drawing her head closer.

“Gaa…”

Then, as if satisfied, she lets out a breath of relief.
She turns to face me.

『Keep! Me, keep!』

S-seriously.
Just a moment ago, weren’t you terrified of them?

『It’s okay! No problem!』

…R-right, well, I’ll wait and see a bit longer before deciding.
Aro’s also scared of them after all.

Leaving the spiderlings behind, I exit the shrine.

Noticing me, a tree growing in front of the shrine opens its eyes, uproots itself and starts moving.
It’s the lesser treant.
It seems that treants can rest and heal by spreading out their roots.

…But an evil dragon, a skeleton, spiders, and a treant.
It sure has gotten lively, or rather, I’ve completely started down the demon lord route.

For now, my objectives are raising Aro’s levels and securing a food supply.
Well, for the food supply issue, I expect that I’ll be receiving another tribute soon.

There’s one more thing I’m concerned about.
What happened to the manticore after it ran away? I could imagine it attacking the village any time soon, so ideally I want to bring our fight to a close.

Also I’m curious about what the dragon-god’s miko meant by 『Because it fled in that direction, it should be fine』.
There must be something in that direction.
While I’m grinding levels and securing food, I might as well investigate it at the same time.