The Arachne Queen's Nest
The guild—no, all of Kubel—had been in a restless mood lately.
Ominous rumors about the newly chosen Saintess and Hero were spreading through the city.
"Did you hear? This new Hero used to be a famous criminal back in the capital."
"How does a guy like that become a Hero?"
"They say he slapped a bishop across the face."
"Please. That's the least of it. I heard he spat in the Knight Commander's face."
Just how much of a degenerate was this guy, for rumors like that to be going around?
Honestly, I'd lost all interest in the Hero the moment Narration certified that I was absolutely, definitely not one. But new and increasingly bizarre rumors about him kept rolling in day after day, and nobody seemed to tire of them, so I ended up knowing about him whether I wanted to or not.
"Lately it's nothing but Hero talk, isn't it," I said, handing Tina today's request form.
"Well, the demons have been acting strangely too."
"...I don't think that's really the issue here."
"Anyway, your request has been registered—"
Tina processed the paperwork with practiced ease, then offered me her professional smile.
Watching her these days, it was hard to imagine she'd ever been Saintess Sistina. Back then, she'd been the very picture of what a Saintess ought to be—holy, compassionate, radiant as light itself.
Well. She hadn't been wearing any underwear, but still.
Now the dark circles under her eyes had deepened, and even her customer-service smile carried a hint of something shadowed. She handled documents so fast she didn't even need to look at them, making her the undisputed ace among the receptionists. It really drove home how much a person could change once their environment did.
"By the way, Yunoa, aren't you going to take the Silver promotion exam?" Tina asked as I was about to turn away.
"The promotion exam?"
"There's a request available right now that qualifies for a Silver promotion."
The truth was, I'd been more than satisfied working as a Bronze adventurer, and the thought of promoting hadn't even crossed my mind. I didn't plan to stay Bronze forever, of course—but I also hadn't bothered looking into it.
Content with his currently stable income, Yunoa had settled into the present and sought nothing more than a comfortable life.
He was, in short, a man without ambition or dreams—nothing more than Adventurer A, a nameless extra just passing through.
Okay, it wasn't that bad.
Was it just me, or had Narration been mixing agitation with outright fabrication every time it came after me lately? It usually offered reasonably accurate information, but the moment the subject was me, it attacked like that. If it had a physical body, I'd hang it upside down and drill it until it learned to say something nice.
Anyway, there was a request that qualified for a Silver promotion, and I had no particular reason to turn it down.
An adventurer's promotion typically happened by joining a party on a request ranked higher than their current grade. Because the work was more difficult than what they usually handled, the system had been designed with safety in mind. A Bronze looking to promote to Silver, for instance, would party up with a Silver adventurer on a Silver-rank request. A Silver looking to promote to Gold would join a Gold adventurer on a Gold-rank request.
Once the job was done, the higher-ranked adventurer who'd served as party leader would submit an evaluation of the promotion candidate to the guild, and the guild would make the final decision based on that report.
The monster subjugation party I'd joined back when I was still a Novice had worked much the same way. After the request was over, Mireia, the subjugation commander, had submitted an evaluation to the guild, and that was how I'd made Bronze. Never mind that she'd only found out about the promotion exam after the fact, hadn't even known who the candidate was, and had slapped together a passing evaluation on the fly.
"If I can take the promotion exam... well, I'd like that. What's the request?"
"Subjugation of the Arachne Queen's Nest. The party should come to three people, including you."
Three people. Not too few, not too many—just right. Back when I'd joined that monster subjugation as a Novice, I honestly hadn't even felt like I'd participated. The undead attack in the middle of the night hadn't even been part of the original request.
"Sounds good. I'll take it."
"Of course. I'll get the paperwork done right away."
Tina finished filling out the documents at blistering speed, stamped them with a heavy thunk, and that was that.
I met the two adventurers who'd be joining me for the Arachne Queen's Nest subjugation in front of the guild. This was my first time properly taking a party request through the guild, so I figured first impressions mattered. I greeted them the moment I saw them.
"Hello. I'm Yunoa. I'll be joining this request as a promotion candidate."
"Ah—! N-nice to meet you! I-I'm Silphy! I'm a promotion candidate too!"
A girl whose short hair was so round it looked almost like a mushroom bobbed her head at me, fidgeting restlessly. The blade at her hip was short. So was her skirt. A dagger user, then. Given that the overwhelming majority of registered adventurers were swordsmen, it was a bit of a novelty.
"Hmph. So I've got to drag two deadweights along, is that it."
A man who'd been looking at Silphy and me with open displeasure spat the words out.
"And you are?"
"Nigel. Party leader for this request. Silver-rank adventurer."
"Ah. Right..."
"Don't do anything flashy that gets in the way. Just do as you're told."
Nigel narrowed his eyes like a snake as he said it.
What is this guy's problem.
He looked younger than me at a glance, but he was making absolutely no effort to hide his contempt. Well, maybe that was just how it went. People always said that in working life, rank came before age. If his adventurer rank was higher than mine, I supposed that made him my senior... except he was just too punchable for that.
Still, there was no need to match his rudeness. He was Silver, which made him this party's leader, and he was the one who'd be submitting evaluations for Silphy and me.
Ugh. Cheap and petty as hell.
"I-I'll do my best! P-please take care of me!"
Silphy, the Bronze adventurer with the mushroom hair, bowed at a full ninety degrees to Nigel as well.
At least this Silphy girl seemed like a decent person. In a three-person party, if both of the others were insufferable, I'd lose all motivation myself.
The Arachne Queen we were supposed to take down was a massive spider-type monster. Given the request's rank, I'd heard it was incomparably more dangerous than slimes or Ratmen. For someone like me, who'd been grinding Bronze requests day in and day out, this was also a chance to test whether all the Mana Conversion training and sword practice I'd been putting in would hold up at a higher rank.
And even if the monster turned out stronger than expected and we got into trouble, we had a Silver-rank adventurer along as a safety net. His attitude was infuriating, but Silver was still Silver. He had to have the skills to back it up, right?
With introductions out of the way, we set off immediately for the Arachne Queen's Nest.
I'd hated spiders since I was a kid.
That unpleasant experience of walking along in summer without a thought in my head, only for an invisible strand of web to stick to my face. The grotesque, creepy appearance. Even knowing they were beneficial insects that ate pests, I felt a visceral revulsion.
And that was ordinary spiders. Arachne weren't even beneficial insects. How much worse could they be?
"Eek! Th-there's webs everywhere!"
Silphy, whose hair looked more like a mushroom the longer I looked at it, clutched a dagger in each hand and trembled.
The forest where the Arachne Queen's Nest had been discovered was a sight to behold. The surrounding brush and trees were draped entirely in white webbing. Even walking slowly, staying alert to our surroundings, invisible strands kept clinging to us from somewhere, ticklish and persistent.
"Don't start shaking over something this small. Do you even actually want to promote?"
Nigel, that insufferable lump, clicked his tongue at Silphy as if she were pathetic.
"But the webs keep sticking to me..."
"It's an Arachne nest. Of course there are webs. Making a fuss over something like—ptoo, ptoo, ptoo!"
Nigel suddenly grimaced and frantically wiped at his lips. A strand of web had gone into his mouth mid-sentence.
Talked a big game, and look at him now.
The forest grew darker the farther we went in. It wasn't because the day was ending. The webs had climbed so high into the canopy that they were blotting out the sun.
We kept pushing forward.
Then—
Fsshk—!
"Kyaaaaah—!"
A sticky white strand of webbing shot out from the undergrowth and wrapped around Silphy's ankle.
"Arachne! Watch the webs!"
Nigel dropped into a low stance, sword in hand, and shouted. At the sound, I focused immediately, flooding my body and blade with mana.
"Kyaaaah—! Help meeeee!"
Silphy had fallen onto her back, one ankle bound in webbing, and was being dragged across the ground. Her pale, slender legs kicked frantically at empty air, finding no purchase.
Fsshk—!
Another strand shot from the brush, this time aiming for my ankle. I pulled my foot back and, filling my sword with mana, sliced the web before it could touch me. Then I ran to Silphy, who was still being dragged, and cut the strand wrapped around her ankle.
"Th-thank you!"
"Get up! More webs incoming!"
I grabbed Silphy's wrist and pulled her to her feet. Webs were still flying from the undergrowth; there was no time to dawdle.
Fsshk—! Fsshk—!
This time, several strands shot out at once. Nigel was handling them well enough on his own, as befit his rank. I figured I didn't need to worry about him, so I stayed by Silphy, whose reactions were still shaky, and covered her.
"Silphy, can you react before the webs hit you?"
"I-I'll try!"
Silphy nodded at my words and drew her daggers.
At first she couldn't cut the webs properly, and I had to intercept the ones coming her way as well. But after a few repetitions, she started to get the hang of it, dodging and slicing with increasingly agile movements.
"Oh..."
So that was how a dagger-wielding adventurer moved.
Silphy planted a hand on the ground to dodge a web, tumbled like a gymnast, and sprang up—slicing through several strands on the ground as she landed. It was a display of flexibility and sharp agility. It almost looked like a gymnastics routine, and I found myself watching despite myself.
Even in a situation this urgent, Yunoa was admiring the body of a young, pretty female adventurer.
In the midst of her dazzling movements, he did not miss the brief flashes of underwear that appeared for a split second.
A shameless, bottom-tier pervert if there ever was one.
The Narration in my head chose this of all moments to dump a completely baseless accusation on me.
I'm busy dealing with spider webs right now. You think I have time for thoughts like that?
God, this damn Narration...
...
...White.