Gentle Hands and Family Worries
"Assistant-kun~"
"..."
"Assistant-kun?"
Only after feeling something with a hard shell tap my shoulder twice did I snap out of it. I realized I'd been blankly groping around the empty sink. I'd been helping rinse cooking tools and load them onto the tray, but apparently everything was already finished.
"Ah... I'm sorry. What did you say?"
When I turned, Arachne was looking at me with a puzzled expression, as expected. But the moment our eyes met, she smiled brightly.
"It's nothing. More importantly, you're still out of it, aren't you? I usually prep the ingredients early in the morning, but once a few orders come in, things get busy like this in no time."
"I'm just glad I could help at all."
After shaking the water off my hands and removing the apron, I checked the time left until Lavender's counseling session in the afternoon. There was still plenty of time.
"On weekdays like this, I can help you out as long as nothing urgent comes up. I already mentioned it to the President, too."
"Thank you so much. It's not always this busy, though, so I'm happy enough if you just drop by sometimes."
She'd said she needed an assistant, but the help I'd given today was probably minimal at best. It wasn't that I hadn't tried hard—it was just that while I was handling one task, she'd already finished dozens at once, from prepping ingredients to everything else.
'Still, I hope you'll come by every day... It's lonely when I'm alone, and even just having someone to talk to would be nice...'
Arachne... Despite her appearance, she was surprisingly lonely. That was unexpected.
"More than that, is something wrong? You were spacing out again just now... and you look drained."
"Ahaha... Was I that obvious?"
"Was the snack I prepared last time not well received?"
"No, no! She loved it, so you don't have to worry about that at all."
I'd already spent the morning being spoiled in Harpy's arms, but the real reason I still couldn't shake off my low spirits was the phone call I'd received yesterday.
"Actually... I got a call from my father saying my mother was hospitalized. It happened two days ago, but she told him not to call me because she thought I was still busy preparing for job applications."
"Oh... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."
"No, it's fine. What bothers me is that I started working here and couldn't call them first."
I'd already sent the hospital fees, and after speaking with the Team Leader, I planned to take tomorrow off and head to the hospital during visiting hours. I had no idea how she'd ended up hospitalized... and the fact that she'd come to a major hospital nearby only made the worry fill my head completely.
"She'll be fine, so don't worry too much. You'll be taking tomorrow off, then?"
"Ah... yes. I'm really sorry that it's only been a day since I started helping as your assistant... Ah...?"
Swish, swish...
"Don't worry and just go. I hope your mother recovers soon, and that you cheer up too, Assistant-kun."
I didn't understand at first, but then I realized her hand was resting on top of my head, moving gently. It wasn't one of the hard, armored legs attached to her spider body—it was clearly the pale arm of a woman.
Her hand really was soft... and a little cold. No, cool. There was a slight sense of dissonance, but...
"Ah... sorry. I did it without thinking."
'Your head was at just the right height...'
When we stood side by side, her height was much greater because of those long, armor-like legs and her large spider body. My head happened to be at the perfect height for her to reach. Being the one who usually patted others, receiving it in return didn't feel bad at all. And more than anything...
Maybe it was because this was only the second time we'd met, but I was starting to get used to her.
"It's fine. It's not every day you get your head patted by a beauty like you, Chef."
"..."
Arachne really was an ordinary beauty. Even just the way her upper body looked in that single black tube top—slim, smooth lines without a trace of fat, and well-defined abs—was enough to make anyone say she had a great figure. Her sharp eyes and the intense atmosphere created by her pitch-black sclera and crimson pupils made it hard to approach at first glance. In the past, I probably wouldn't have even been able to speak to someone this beautiful. Of course, I still couldn't help but flinch whenever I heard the sound of her spider legs' joints creaking or saw that dark blue carapace, and especially when all six of those bright red eyes on her forehead turned toward me at once. Still...
"Thank you for worrying about me. Thanks to you, I feel a bit better."
More important than her beauty was the clear fact that she was a good person. After talking with her a few times, I'd realized her personality was nothing like her appearance.
But my sincere reply seemed to catch her off guard. All eight of her eyes twitched at once, and then—shhhk, shhhk, shhhk—she quickly shot up to the ceiling on a thread and disappeared from sight. Only her trembling voice came from the darkness.
"...Good work today. All that's left is to take the tray on the left over to Undine's room... Could you do that for me?"
"Ah... yes. Good work today."
She must have remembered that she still had to prepare dinner soon. She was diligent every single day... and such a good cook, too. Whoever ended up loved by her would surely be happy.
I gave a small bow toward the invisible darkness of the ceiling, then grabbed the tray full of food waste and plastic packaging from the cooking and headed for the elevator. Was this really Undine's meal...? My head was full of thoughts, but I soon arrived at the 69th basement floor where Undine was. As I pulled the tray down the familiar white corridor...
"Hi! Big brother guy...!"
There hadn't been anyone around, but the moment I saw the black-haired girl suddenly appear again, I forced a smile and greeted her while hiding my surprise. She'd seen me off at the entrance this morning, and now she was here...
"You're going to see the squishy-squishy one, right?"
It was an oddly fitting description for Undine. Squishy-squishy... yeah, that was accurate. Come to think of it, I'd never heard her call anyone by their actual name. The Team Leader was "that creepy clown," the Field Team Leader was "that tomboy," Nero was "that jealous cat," and I was "big brother guy." The only one she didn't add "guy" to was her little sister, but she still didn't use a name. Was there a reason?
"Hm? No? I'm just bad at remembering names, so I call people whatever I see."
"Huh?"
Her jet-black eyes, like black pearls, looked up at me innocently as she answered the question I'd muttered in my head. I was flustered, wondering if this was what it felt like to have someone use my ability on me, but the girl just kept smiling brightly. This had happened before, too... It hadn't been my imagination back then, either.
"And if I call them by name, they all turn gray, so I'm always careful not to make my little sister mad! Hehe..."
"Gray?"
"We're here! I'll go play with the squishy-squishy one, so see you later~ When you get home, you have to pat me a lot, okay?"
Whirrr... She hadn't used any employee card or anything on the scanner by the door, but the moment she stood in front of it, the door opened on its own. I stared blankly for another reason as her long black hair dragged across the floor and disappeared completely into the room. The door didn't close until every strand had passed through. Once her hair was fully inside, I caught a glimpse through the slowly closing door of her jumping into Undine's arms with a splash.
"The tray... She said to just leave it in front of the door."
Come to think of it, Undine could heal not just wounds but illnesses too. And if it wasn't just my imagination, even stress and negative emotions seemed to stabilize in her embrace... It felt like even my soul was being healed. If only I could take her outside...
No, no. I'd already sent the hospital fees. If she just received proper treatment, she'd recover normally. That's what hospitals and doctors were for.
"..."
...Still, if Undine ever came out into the world, it would be a place where no one suffered from diseases or injuries. A world where no one got sick... That sounded like a utopia. But the chaos her existence would cause couldn't be ignored, either. Besides, she saw true purification or healing as becoming one with her, so there was no guarantee things would turn out ideally.
"Hah... What am I even thinking?"
In the end, this was nothing more than me trying to rationalize my impulse to take her outside right now. Glad I came to my senses before doing something pointless, I finally pried my hand off the tray's handle and forced myself to turn around.