95. Solitude (2)
95. Solitude (2)
'It was a familiar species of paper.'
The species of the spiders I had only thought of as 'Blue Tarantulas' when looking at the subordinates, I was finally able to properly identify only after seeing their king up close.
'Was it because their bodies were too simplified for combat, or were they truly a different species?'
After all, the spiders on the battlefield had taken on a considerably 'simplified' appearance.
Black carapace with black or brown fur. Blue points here and there.
It was barely enough to recognize them as some kind of tarantula-related species, I suppose.
And though I had seen the king this time, it was from a distance, and he had been spewing so much fate and dust that there was no proper chance to observe him either.
'But to see that species here, and in the form of a spider-human at that.'
At the sudden fragment of memory that surfaced, I briefly recalled old times.
I felt inwardly glad.
Blue carapace, beautiful blue fur, and white patterns.
Other than the pattern resembling the one often found on a tiger's forehead, this spider's appearance was familiar to me.
For among my few acquaintances, there was someone who liked raising spiders, arthropods, insects, and the like.
[Why do you look for this? Huh? A gift? Of course I'm happy!]
[Don't touch her right now because she's sensitive. She's a species that gets stressed easily.]
The name of that species was 'Gooty Sapphire Ornamental.'
It was a species I had gifted several years ago, and one that person had cherished and raised dearly ever since.
On Earth, it was an endangered species, so it was naturally hard to find in the wild, and even arranging to trade privately bred specimens required procedures that were far from simple, as I recalled.
Before I came here, individuals might have put effort into breeding, making them far more common and driving down their value, but it would still have been a species that was not exactly cheap.
'Of course, no one would buy one with a human upper body attached like this.'
Unless they had truly peculiar tastes, or were a rich person obsessed with rare things.
I looked up at his upper body with displeasure once more.
'It really does look strange.'
"Your gaze is insolent."
"It must be your imagination. What reason would I have?"
The object of those peculiar tastes was looking down at me with considerably insolent eyes.
Still, it wasn't as if he had chosen to be born that way, so persecuting him for it would not be right.
"I don't know. They did say all dungeon kings and queens were eccentrics."
"And you say that in front of me?"
"Haha! You don't seem to live up to the rumors, though. I do know a thing or two about Dungeon Lords."
Following behind the Spider King as he let out a hearty laugh, I took in his dwelling.
There was not a single trace of anything human in that place.
Only natural caves, baby spiders growing rapidly in swarms, a few spiders bringing food to feed those young ones, and some natural insulating materials spread on the floor to warm the eggs.
Among that food were ant monsters and ant-humans as well.
In other words, it was the exact opposite of the Ant Queen's cave.
"Is it awkward because it's different from the other monster kings of this region?"
"How could it be? Is it not the most natural appearance?"
"That it is! What good is there in monsters clumsily imitating the ways of humans!"
Unexpectedly, the state of this place seemed to reflect the Spider King's philosophy, or something of the sort.
So he wasn't entirely thoughtless, I supposed.
"Sit. Since you bear a human form, is standing not uncomfortable?"
"So you knew how to show consideration."
The act of bringing something like a cushion and offering a seat.
Since I truly had not expected to see such a thing from him, I looked at him with surprised eyes, and he twisted his expression and spoke curtly.
"Hey, you disregard me far too much. Though I may look like this, I am a properly intelligent being."
Whether he said that or not, I touched the straw cushion once with my finger and solidified a shadow.
I had hardened darkness into the form of a chair.
"Oh... how refined you are."
"From now on, at least provide a chair."
"Hmph. Human things like that..."
The Spider King twisted his face but then opened his eyes wide in astonishment.
He too could use dark magic, but it seemed he had not known it could be used in such a manner. Well, since our fundamental ranks differed, it was only natural.
Sitting on that chair, I answered the king's first words. A response to his remark that I 'disregarded him too much.'
"In any case, it was because I hardly saw you use that head of yours on the battlefield."
"Ah, you saw that?"
The Arachne king's eyes grew cold and sank.
Since he had been unable to gain the upper hand in the fight against the Ant Queen, I had wondered if his self-esteem had died to some degree...
But it seemed that was not the case.
"Those ones are weaklings."
He raised his fist, flexed his forearm to show off his bulging muscles, and spoke while glaring strongly at me.
In other words, it was time for self-promotion.
"Those ones. The Ant Queen and her limbs were complacent in their situation. Even after becoming the ruler of this land, they could not even unite the monsters. They are unfit to be rulers."
"Continue."
When I gestured with my chin and urged him on, he put a fierce smile on his lips.
He seemed to have quite a lot he wanted to say.
"I watched for quite a long time after coming to this region, and it wasn't that they couldn't do it—they simply wouldn't! They had power but did not use it! Even though gathering all the power of this entire region and someday striking the humans is the way for us monsters to survive!"
And I sympathized with those words.
This world was a place where the right of monsters to live was endlessly threatened. Even for monsters, if they possessed intelligence, the situation demanded that they endlessly ponder and examine their own ways of survival.
But in the Ant Queen's nest, there had only been ants and an anomaly that had failed to establish a proper vision.
"The other monsters are the same! They just hide and watch our movements! They should be actively siding with the strong to solidify the tide, or siding with the weak to aim for greater power!"
I had said before that I sensed the presence of other monsters in this region yet saw neither their figures nor traces in the Ant Queen's nest—had they indeed been hiding all along?
"Is that so? They are feeble things."
"Yes!! They are not even monsters. They're just beasts!!"
With just that small agreement, the Spider King raised his spirits even higher and poured out a passionate speech.
The subject of his argument had, at some point, circled back to the Ant Queen.
"In the end, because the one holding power as the region's representative was in such a state, the entirety of this region's monsters maintained that pathetic state! Ultimately, the representative was threatening all our survival! So I rose up!"
"And you are different?"
"Different! At the very least, I will not simply die helplessly like this! While being bred by humans, missing the chance to build a greater force!"
He was a remarkably fiery one.
But even so, I could see that this one possessed his own will and vision, of a sort.
"Those who hold power bear the duty to wield that power and the responsibility to rule!"
Though I saw some disagreeable thoughts here and there...
As long as he had a direction in which he intended to advance, he might be a better one than the Ant Queen.
At least, as a leader.
"Therefore, Queen of the Dungeon. As one who holds power, take me under your command! I shall become the king of this region and aid you and your dungeon!"
He also seemed to possess the ability to recognize that his own power was insufficient.
That was a more important ability than one might think.
For if one failed to properly recognize the relative strength of friend and foe, there were many cases of being swept away and killed by threats that could have been overcome.
If I considered only the points I had seen so far, he earned a passing grade.
"I have heard your argument well."
His loyalty had yet to be verified, but this spider force would never overwhelm me or my forces in the future, so there was plenty of time.
Before that, the binding force of the contract would tie him down, so perhaps I needn't even pay much mind to it.
"If so?"
"If I am to command you, it would be best if you learned a bit more courtesy going forward."
"...I am dissatisfied, but if I can have the dungeon's power at my back, then!"
"And you are too honest. Never mind. It can be fixed gradually."
"Keuha...! You won't regret it! Now then! Come in!"
The moment he heard me say I would promise to form a contract, the king gestured toward one side and shouted loudly.
Had he prepared something?
If it was something like a welcome party, I was worrying about how to refuse food prepared by spiders when, at that moment—
Jageuk-jageuk...
Dalkak-dalkak!
From the place the Arachne king had pointed to, dozens of presences were felt.
Not the orderly footsteps of soldiers, but a disorderly tangle of walking sounds, though they moved in a straight line.
A short while later, when the owners of those sounds revealed themselves, I could not help but harbor puzzled feelings.
"...These are?"
What appeared were spider-humans who, at a single glance, one could tell bore some kind of relationship to the Arachne king.
Blue bodies and blue fur, white patterns, human upper bodies, and fourteen appendages.
They resembled the man before me to a degree impossible not to recognize.
Only, unlike the king who maintained a consistently confident and jovial expression, they were different in that they were full of gloomy spirits.
- Dalkak.
Cheok.
I saw Eve and Shue step slightly ahead of me to stand guard.
Since members who had not yet fully become allies were being added to a meeting of kings, it was only natural for the escorts to move.
The Arachne king paid it no mind and answered my question.
"Would an appropriate tribute as a token of promise not be necessary?"
A certain premonition came over me.
A bad premonition that what I was about to hear would not be pleasant in the slightest.
"...Tribute?"
"They say that the ruler of a dungeon grows stronger the more strong ones they turn into kin of their dungeon. Am I correct?"
"That is true, but."
When I readily affirmed it, the king laughed loudly and spoke while gesturing toward his kin.
With words that confirmed my premonition.
"These shall become tribute for your dungeon. You may reforge them into your subordinates, or devour them—either would be fine."
My expression naturally furrowed, and 'Nobility' did not prevent it.
This was a first.
Meeting an opponent who, at a glance, appeared to be in a relationship of no small weight with these beings, yet offered them first as sacrifice.
"No matter how I look at it, they appear to bear a likeness to you."
"Indeed. For they are my children."
Only then could I properly see the emotion that was the source of the dark presence emanating from the king's children.
Something I had not recognized until now because I had deemed it impossible for them to be feeling such an emotion.
Fear and powerlessness.
That was the identity of the emotion commonly spread among the Arachne who had appeared.
...And it was something intensely familiar to me as well.
"Children... you say."
My insides boiled.
It felt as if magma had been poured inside me.
"What could be recreated as a more powerful essence of magical power than my own bloodline, the strongest thing I possess? Choose up to half of them! I'll give anything!"
"Ha..."
All children in the world resemble their parents.
What's more, the more they detest that parent, or the more a trait they dislike appears in that parent—the more they come to resemble it.
Because to the degree you dislike, to the degree you detest, you become all the more fixated on that element.
And because humans are creatures who, even after putting a lid on what they dislike, must deliberately open it and observe that detestable aspect to feel at ease.
To rationalize the thought, 'Ah. This is so detestable, so avoiding it—or removing it—is right.'
The more you take it out and look at it, the more you come to resemble it.
Just as the saying goes, 'The heart fate watches over me.'
To me, it looked like something ambiguously treading the line between 'affection' and 'possession,' but in truth, it was the sort of emotion that leaned steeply toward 'possession.'
[Didn't I tell you to look presentable outside? You useless thing! What is that outfit, huh! Are you trying to disgrace me!]
That was what the emotion of that father toward his family was.
A man who, in his youth, ran a business, failed at it, soon turned his hand to gambling, and after that, was tricked by a swindler, ruined, and finally laid hands upon his own family's wealth, utterly destroying my mother.
That man who, even after I threw him in prison, made me struggle for a long time to put an end to the frenzy he had brought about.
[Are you even a human being, acting like this!!]
[You're a dog. So I, the child of that dog, would be a son of a bitch, I suppose.]
[What!!]
Because of that, I, the child of that son of a bitch, could not separate possessiveness from love.
I was made unable to.
And as a result of barely emptying out all the rotten things he and his excretions had wrought and ending up alone.
I had become a person who, if I wanted to have something, had to have it at any cost to feel satisfied.
[Let's break up.]
[It would be best if you do not approach.]
So on Earth, I had tried to empty myself of everything.
[You'd be better off meeting a good man rather than a guy like me.]
[What? ■■-ssi. Breaking up like this is right...?]
[That guy's nice. How about you keep seeing him?]
Dalkak.
It was obvious that if I loved someone and things went wrong, I would become a murderer or a stalker.
[Your talent is truly outstanding. Would you care to work with me once?]
[The gift should have arrived by now.]
[A gift? What is it? I'm looking forward to it. ...Hi, hihik...!!]
[You loved your beloved concubine too much, you see. I trust you know what will happen if you make further contact.]
If I became obsessed with wealth or power, I would be a person who'd sink his body into even deeper places.
"These are my children. So they are the finest tribute to give to a Dungeon Lord."
And from the same vein as him, there was something I detested most of all.
"Do you love your children?"
That was gaslighting carried out within a given situation.
"Are they not the greatest assets, who might become my successors in the future! If not, they can become the finest nourishment! Of course I love them!"
"Is that so. That's regrettable."
Precisely, parents treating their children as possessions while brazenly manipulating them with the word 'love.'
So to what degree did I hate it...
Seukak! Kagak!
...It was to this degree.
"...Keuheok!!"
Before my eyes, the Arachne king's head flew off.
Not by my hand, but by another's.