EP.19 House of the Spider -2
EP.19 House of the Spider -2
On the way to the government building.
The director and agents already inside had said they would take a brief rest before commencing the operation, so we were likewise heading to the government building at a relaxed pace.
While we were taking it easy, I filled the fox and the rabbit in on the current situation, and thankfully, both of them were more than willing to cooperate.
In Kor's case, Yata had already spread the word beforehand, and she was apparently waiting in front of the government building.
It was a lineup that gave me a reassuring sense of security. The only one missing from this was the baby dragon, sleeping peacefully at home...
"Would it have been all right, leaving her behind?"
"Are you speaking of Tia?"
"Yeah."
Tia was deep in her growth phase. I would've felt bad just waking her up by force and dragging her here, and even if I brought her, she'd have stayed half-asleep the whole time, so I couldn't count on her as fighting strength anyway.
That was why I'd excluded Tia from this operation. Though, of course, that was exactly why I was worrying like this.
"You're worried even though I've cast an illusion over the whole house?"
"She's the youngest Divine Beast mentally, so I can't help being anxious."
Would she be able to stay quietly at home alone while we were gone? It worried me.
As far as safety went, as Miho had said, there was no issue at all.
I was simply worried that when Tia woke up, she'd realize no one was left at home and get uneasy.
"Boss, want me to stay and guard her then?"
"Hmm..."
"Dear husband, I'm saying this just in case, but pulling the rabbit out is a bad idea. The best thing would be to wrap up this whole situation fast, before Tia wakes up."
"I guess that really is the only way..."
If Yata was saying this much, then removing the rabbit was a losing move.
In that case, the right call here was to trust Yata and follow her lead.
"Seon-juu...!!"
Right as we were getting close to the agency building, a woman came toward us from the entrance, waving her hand and wagging her tail.
In all my life, I'd met exactly one woman with a chest that was that magnificently huge.
"It's been a while, Kor."
"Yeees...! It really has been so looong...!!"
The wolf woman threw herself at me in a hug.
Normally the unexpected gesture would've flustered me, but right now, I could just take it in stride and understand.
Because ever since the day we returned from En Varg, we'd been apart thanks to Yata's errands.
Kor had been assisting all along with Yata's plan to transform Fenrir's fang into a weapon.
And since that period had now crept past nearly four days, she must have been lonely in one way or another.
"Kor, that's quite enough. Can't you see you're troubling my husband?"
"Ah...! I-I'm so sorreee...!!"
"No. I wasn't really troubled..."
"Dear husband?"
"Nothing at all."
Realizing that my current words would only be pouring oil on the flames, I quietly resolved to shut my mouth and stay that way.
It was only because it was Kor—the one person the fox had accepted—that the jealousy ended at just this.
If it had been anyone else, a huge fight would have broken out already.
"Oh, right! Alice, Kor's a wolf—will you be okay being around her?"
"Yep. She's a wolf, but she looks like a gentle wolf, so I'm totally fine."
"I-I see..."
So a jealous fox was bad, but a gentle wolf was fine...
Alice apparently judged like or dislike not by species, but simply by individual.
Given that Miho was the one and only person she disliked, that was a dead giveaway.
"All right, all right, that's enough chit-chat! Now that everyone's gathered, I'll explain the operation I've planned out."
"Oh! It's finally time."
"Dear husband, don't get your hopes up too much, even so. It's not anything all that grandiose, even if I call it an operation."
"Got it."
"But before that, for a moment... Kor, hand the rabbit the thing we prepared this time."
"You mean that weapon you asked me to bring, Yataa...?"
"Yes. That weapon wasn't made to give to my husband in the first place—it was made for the rabbit."
There was probably no one else in the world but Yata who would know the rabbit was joining and prepare for it in advance.
Yata's foresight. By now I should have been getting used to it, but I still found myself frequently surprised.
"What's this weapon you prepared?"
"Wait and see. You'll find out soon enough."
I didn't know what the weapon was, but I now understood the reason she'd said Alice couldn't be excluded.
Just what kind of weapon was it, to be given to the rabbit?
While I was burning with curiosity, Kor lifted the steel case that had been behind her and passed it straight to Alice.
Alice took the case. Since a person she'd just met had suddenly said she'd prepared a weapon for her, her face was full of flustered energy.
But either way, it amounted to receiving a present, so without hesitation she opened the steel case and checked the contents.
A moment passed like that, and Alice's ears, having seen the contents... began to flap again.
***
"Quick, get the people bitten by the spiders to the hospital first!!"
"Everyone please stay calm and evacuate this way, please!!"
"Somebody help block the entrance! We can't hold out much longer!!"
"This is an emergency! Get those cameras out of here!!"
As I'd already known, the front of the government building was already in a state of utter panic.
From people languishing in the throes of spider venom, to people fleeing in a frenzy, agents entrenched in a standoff with the spiders at the entrance, and even broadcast crews who'd come out to film.
It was a scene of pure chaos, but I knew perfectly well why things had gotten so chaotic.
Because this was the first time ever, since the agency's founding, that the government building alone had been attacked by a Divine Beast.
It was only natural they couldn't get a handle on what to do.
"Hey, you! I told you to stop broadcasting!!"
"Oh, come on! If you control even stuff like this, what exactly are we supposed to live on?"
"Does this look like a joke to you? It's an emergency; if the public watches the news, they'll be anxious, won't they?"
"That's exactly why we're broadcasting! Don't the people have a right to know?"
"Look here! If terrorists go on a rampage after seeing this mess, who gets hurt? Only innocent people suffer!! If you've got even a lick of sense, shut it down right now!"
The broadcast staff and the agent were deep in a shouting match, but neither side would back down, and they wouldn't even compromise.
It really was pathetic that they were waging that kind of pointless fight in an emergency.
Still, just this once, I emphatically agreed with the agent's opinion.
No matter how much someone was giving their all to the job they were tasked with, if it ended up harming other people, it was garbage behavior.
"Alice, take care of all those cameras."
"Okay."
Three seconds later, lines were sliced across every single broadcast camera and mic, and they were cut clean in two.
The broadcast people recoiled in shock as all the equipment they'd been holding was bisected.
The journalist who'd been in the thick of the yelling match also stopped his arguing at the inexplicable phenomenon, his eyes flying wide in alarm.
"D-Do you have any idea how much this equipment costs?! Words weren't getting through, so now you've gone and wrecked the equipment too?!"
"N-No! We know nothing about this! How can you claim we did it when the equipment just got cut all of a sudden in the first place?!"
"The only people who'd pull something like this are you agents!"
The journalist still hadn't come to his senses.
Left with no choice, and thinking I had to step in myself, I donned the Illusion Mask Miho handed me and inserted myself between the two camps.
"What? Who're you?"
"I'm sorry, but this area is access-controlled! Civilians are—"
"Both of you, cut the crap."
"Wh-What?!"
"What's that supposed to mean, out of nowhere to a stranger...!"
I took a deep breath, let it out in a sigh, and then pointed my finger at the agent first.
So I could point out each person's faults, one by one, step by step.
"Hey, don't you see your fellow agents back there struggling? I said quit the bickering and go help them, even a little."
"And just who are you to..."
"Me? A special agent under Director Edwiner's direct command. In other words, your superior. So cut the yapping and get moving to help your colleagues. Or what, you planning to strut around later after you've gotten reamed for the whole argument?"
Half of it was the truth, half of it a lie. The position of special agent, unofficial and under Director Edwiner's direct command, was accurate—but I was absolutely not his superior.
Judging by his start date, he'd probably been here before me; if he probed even a little, my lie would be exposed in an instant.
However, thanks to the illusion effect of the Illusion Mask and my own shamelessly confident attitude, the agent seemed to be taking me for a real superior anyway.
"N-No, sir! I'd never think of..."
"Then don't talk back and get moving, you bastard!"
"Yes, sir!!"
The agent went rushing off, huffing and puffing, to help the other agents.
One dealt with. Now it was the turn of the most damnable prick of all.
When I shifted my gaze that way, the broadcast staffer was pointing at the wrecked broadcast equipment, seething with fury.
"Look here, Mister Special Agent! How are you people going to take responsibility for that ruined equipment?"
With the agent he'd been arguing with gone, now he'd wheeled straight onto me, furious and demanding answers.
This asshole still hadn't gotten his head on straight, apparently.
"How should I know? Pissed off? File a claim with the government agency, then."
"Wh-What...?!"
"While we're at it, let me ask you one thing too. If the public gets hurt because terrorists go on a rampage thanks to your reporting, how're you gonna take responsibility for that?"
"H-Huh? Th-That's the government agency's job to..."
"Something wrong with your eyes? You not seeing the situation right now? The government agency itself is already fucked, so how do we help the public? Do you really not get that what you people are doing right now is helping the terrorists?"
"B-But, the public has a right to know about the current state of affairs...!"
"What the fuck! People are about to get hurt because of the terrorists, and you're talking about some goddamn right to know?! They'd be better off not knowing, wouldn't they! And thanks to the victims protesting to the government, we'll naturally cite your broadcast as the cause, and we'll be moving to detain every single one of you here. You just itching to eat prison food?"
"Urgh...!!"
"If you get it now, then pack up your gear and fuck off this instant!!"
When I bore down on them hard, shoving them without a sliver of room to argue and roaring at them, the broadcast people reluctantly withdrew.
In the midst of that, one staffer was secretly snapping a photo of me with their phone, but I didn't bother taking any separate measures against it.
There was absolutely no way to identify me while I wore the Illusion Mask, and it didn't matter even if word later got around asking who I was.
Anyway, since I'd introduced myself as an agent under the director's direct command, all the annoying fallout would get dumped on Director Edwiner.
So all I had to do was trust the director and, once this was over, kick back and relax. Sweet.
"Yata, I've put out all the urgent fires. Is it all right to start moving in soon?"
"Yes, you held them off quite well, for you, dear husband."
"'For me'..."
Was that even a compliment? As I was wondering, dissatisfied, Alice came up to me this time and raised a thumbs-up.
"Boss, that was a niiice objection!"
"R-Right..."
Not that it was exactly a courtroom, but...
Anyway, with the annoying problem handled, I now shifted my steps toward the building.
Countless spiders were visible across from the entrance door. Most of them were human-sized spiders, which made them disgustingly creepy.
So from here on out, I'd have to slaughter every last one of these gross, grotesque things and fight a Divine Beast...
My head was spinning. Once this was over, I felt like I wouldn't want to even look at a spider for a good long while.
In any case, I sent the director a text message saying we were moving in now, and just as I was about to try entering the building.
One hand grabbed me by the shoulder.
"Hey, Boss? Is it okay if I clean up the spiders at the entrance on my own?"
"Huh...? You'll be fine?"
"Yep, I wanna test this thing out quick."
"Ah..."
The weapon that Yata and Kor had prepared for Alice.
Crafted from the material that was Fenrir's fang, obtained the other day—that weapon was glinting and gleaming in Alice's arms.
"Sure, then I'll leave it to you."
"Yep!"
I could understand the rabbit's desire to try out the weapon as soon as possible.
After all, Alice's new weapon was built from the finest materials, shaped into the strongest form.
A weapon whose very name was famous...
A crowbar.