Chapter 36
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Bugs are a great source of protein, right? (1)
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"...Should I just run away now?"
"Deserting in violation of military orders carries a maximum penalty of execution."
"That was just me talking to myself, why are you answering? And what military orders? I'm not even a soldier."
"You've received orders for this operation, so as of now, you're part of the territory army."
"Huh? By whose authority? I didn't hear anything about that."
"Military law isn't meant to be understood. It's meant to be obeyed. And you're still talking back like that?"
"Whatever. Die here, die there, same difference."
"Tch."
Dominic was panting as he barely kept up through the pathless forest, endlessly pouring out complaints and gripes.
The ground was so muddy it had him worried at first that they'd wandered into a swamp by mistake.
Normally, Ian would have scolded him harshly for such irreverent talk, but he was holding back quite a bit, understanding Dominic's feelings to some extent.
"Why'd you have to go and say something unnecessary..."
"That was just me talking to myself too. The problem is that you lords have such sharp ears."
The reason Dominic—who'd probably never properly held a sword before—was included in the operation and trudging through the forest with the knights was all because of that loose tongue of his.
[Spiders serve centipedes? That's weird. Centipedes' favorite food is usually spiders, after all.]
Hearing that there might be a giant centipede on the verge of metamorphosis in the spiders' cave, Dominic had unwittingly voiced his thoughts aloud.
[Is that true?]
[Y-Yes? Ah, yes, my lord. Monster habits can differ from regular creatures, so I can't say it's absolute... but normally, centipedes eat spiders to survive. That's why there are no spiders where centipedes live.]
The attendants and workers serving the high lords nodded in unison at Dominic's words.
What was common knowledge to some could be utterly alien to others.
[Hearing that, it does seem odd. But one thing is clear: the possibility is very high that the Gruut Spiders are gathering prey for the giant centipede that's about to awaken. They've even dragged it out of the cave.]
An experienced knight stepped in to summarize.
[Um, but... since I don't know much about monster habits, may I ask something? About the spiders gathering prey for the centipede queen...]
[What about it?]
[That prey... do they wrap it in webs while it's still alive, or do they kill it first?]
Some lords and knights looked baffled at Dominic's question.
Dead or alive—what difference did it make?
[What's the point of the question?]
[When I was attacked earlier... it tried to bite my calf, but it didn't spin any webs.]
[...I've never seen it myself, but from what I heard at the academic conference, they definitely kill the prey and pile it up like a mountain. The stench of rotting meat and blood is so thick it numbs your nose even outside the cave.]
[Then it's definitely strange.]
Dominic shook his head.
[Centipedes don't eat rotting meat.]
He knew this well from his military service experience.
Centipedes went crazy for live bugs, small reptiles, and even fresh meat.
They especially loved chickens, swarming near the chow hall whenever they were on the menu as scraps.
'The supply officer once stopped them by grinding powder on them, but we caught centipedes with chicken bones that still had meat on occasion.'
But they didn't flock to decayed stuff much. One or two might cluster, but they ignored truly rotting meat.
He clearly remembered chuckling with the veterans about how picky these bugs were.
[Is that true?]
[Yes. They'd eat it if they had no choice, but with live, wriggling spiders—their favorite food—everywhere, why would they go for rotting meat? Ah! Assuming they have the same habits as regular centipedes, of course...]
As Dominic tried to pull back his foot, the Sinclair Count spoke faster.
[If the cook's words are true, it is odd indeed. If the centipede queen is the spiders' natural predator, why offer tribute instead of fighting?]
Once again, the command tent filled with silence.
Later, Dominic reflected that he should have covered his mouth even then.
He had no desire whatsoever to be a hero. He didn't even meet the bare minimum qualifications. Yet he couldn't control his itching mouth and ended up driving himself into this hellhole.
[Um, my lord.]
[Speak.]
[What if that mountain of prey isn't for the metamorphosing centipede?]
[What?]
[What if it's not tribute to the centipede, but an offering to someone else who'll drive out their natural enemy?]
[...!]
It was a shift in perspective.
Gruut Spiders were rare, and the giant centipede known as their queen even rarer.
'It could have been misunderstood from the start.'
What if the first discoverer got the relationship between centipedes and spiders wrong?
It was entirely plausible.
They themselves wouldn't have known about the food chain without the cook mentioning it.
[Good. We'll immediately select elite knights and form a new reconnaissance team. The mission: clarify the relationship between the spiders and centipede. And if possible, slay the centipede!]
Any creature that could disrupt the mountain's food chain needed to be eliminated before it stretched its legs.
Only then would the humans below the mountains be safe.
[Evergreen's Village Chief and temporary cook of the Sinclair territory army, Dominic—hear this.]
[...Yes?]
His casual response earned him a slight glare, but etiquette wasn't the priority now.
[You will deploy with the knights and inform them of any bug habits they might miss!]
[......]
[Your response?]
[...Yes...]
And so Dominic found himself awkwardly—and arduously—trudging through the forest amid the knights.
"The Count went too far. You can tell at a glance he's never even killed a goblin."
"Exactly. What do I know about centipedes anyway... I already told them pretty much everything. Sigh."
A knight from another territory who'd eaten quite a bit of Dominic's smoked dried meat on the way there spoke up in his defense.
"But how will we find the spiders' cave?"
"There should be an entrance linking to the cave not far from the camp. They have to drag the hunted prey back, so they wouldn't have gone too far to begin with."
Ian answered.
"Ah, right. But do we have to take this path? Looks like there's a better road over there."
Dominic grumbled as he slogged through the muddy path where decayed leaves sank up to his ankles like compost. His oiled leather boots were thankfully waterproof, but each step was still quite taxing.
"No choice. Spiders prefer damp caves full of moisture, so the odds are higher in shaded spots like this than sunny ones."
"Guess fire's off the table then?"
"We'll have to make do with rations."
Kieeeek!
Just as Dominic sighed, a piercing screech echoed from far off in the sky, where a flock of birds—or something like it—circled.
"Eagles?"
"Wyverns."
"...Wyverns?"
"Probably heading to the mountains for mating season soon."
"Wait, hold on. With things that dangerous around, is it okay to enter the forest with just this many people?"
"Didn't you say it? 'Eagles?' If wyverns look like eagles, how far away do you think they are?"
"Ah... So we're only clearing the outer monsters then?"
"Yes. We're just handling the ones pushed out from deeper in the mountains like dominoes."
As Dominic learned various things about the mountains, the knights diligently spread out to search for the cave entrance.
"Over here!"
They'd braced for a few days of camping, but they found the cave quicker than expected.
Dominic was a bit surprised, having inwardly thought it'd be like finding a needle in a desert.
'Good thing. Let's check quick and head back. Giant centipede? They didn't seriously send just a few knights to kill it. No way. That wouldn't be a death sentence or anything. Our lord isn't that thick-headed.'
Dominic desperately spun happy thoughts in his mind as he headed toward the young knight who'd shouted.
"Knight, sir... Doesn't it smell weird? Not sweat... more like something rotting..."
The closer they got to the cave the knight had found, the more a nose-stinging stench spread. Even against the headwind, it was this bad—unbelievable.
"...So that's why we found it so fast."
Even Ian, who rarely showed agitation, furrowed his brow at the sight before them.
Rats, rabbits, pheasants, deer—prey animals at the bottom of the food chain—mixed haphazardly with kobolds and goblins, small monsters, all piled up.
A literal mountain of corpses.
With no distinction between species, beast or monster, Dominic and even the knights froze in place, faces pale with disgust.
"Looks like some inside are already rotting."
"Yes, this stench confirms it."
"...The academic conference materials didn't mention a pile this massive."
The knights began chattering among themselves.
"Know anything about this?"
The knights looked to Dominic like he was a lifeline.
'What would I know?'
But what could he do under those gazes? His centipede knowledge was limited to military days—and that was his past life, not this one.
[Heh, I told you, not dirt centipedes—we need king centipedes for the medicine. How many times do I have to say they're more effective? Look, dirt ones are only finger-sized at best. King centipedes? King in the name means big—like this! A full handspan!]
Suddenly, he recalled the supply officer grumbling about types while planning to catch centipedes for herniated disc medicine.
"Ah! Centipedes vary a lot in size by type. Some are just finger-length, but even in the same area, others can be bigger than a palm."
The supply officer had said some country had centipedes over thirty centimeters long.
Back then, he'd thought it sounded more like a legged snake than a centipede, but maybe...
'No way. No way something that unlucky happens here.'
He tried to push the uneasy thought away, but it kept resurfacing.
"...If it's much larger than what was presented at the academic conference..."
Thud-.
No sooner had the experienced knight finished speaking than the ground rumbled with a boom.
"...Earthquake, right? Tell me it's an earthquake, sir?"
Dominic turned to Ian with a desperate look.