The Spider Queen's Tutorial
Before finalizing his contract with Erzsébet, Simon laid out a series of conditions for her.
She was not to kill humans without authorization. When she needed to consume bodily fluids, she was to hunt monsters instead. She was not to harm the people around him in any way, and she was to obey his orders without question. Clauses like these.
It was precisely to insert such terms into the contract that Simon had rejected her once before. In his assessment, Erzsébet was more emotional and impulsive than any human — far from a trustworthy mentor like Pier, she seemed all too likely to become the Legion's resident lunatic. He had to keep her firmly under control.
And now, instead of him begging her to join the Legion, she was the one pleading to be let in — which meant the initiative was squarely in Simon's hands.
"Let me say it again. If you come with me to Roc Island, life might feel a little cramped. Your entire range of movement would be Pier's ruins and the Forbidden Forest, and you won't be as free as you are now."
[Yes. I am well aware.]
Erzsébet lowered her head as she spoke.
[Bind me as tightly as you please. To remain at your side, I will endure anything.]
"……"
Had this undead just become unreasonably docile? It certainly made things easier from Simon's perspective, but he couldn't help feeling a little bewildered.
[My body and my heart are both yours. In exchange for my absolute devotion, I ask for only one thing.]
Her eyes gleamed.
[Your affection.]
"……"
…A crushing weight of obligation settled over him.
"I'm a human, and you're an undead. If you mean, well, you know… something, um, physical… then—"
[If it were something you desired, who can say — but I would never force it upon you.]
She smiled sweetly.
[For now, simply cherishing this girl will be more than enough.]
…The burden had just increased a hundredfold.
Affection? Being doted on? Simon had never once, in his entire life, received a request like this from anyone.
[Tsk, tsk.]
Pier clicked his tongue.
[You've fallen completely for her.]
"What?"
[Nothing at all.]
Awkward as it was in every possible way, Simon decided that this much of a price was acceptable in exchange for her loyalty. In the end, he agreed to make the contract with Erzsébet official.
[Then, by all means — proceed.]
She gripped the top of her dress with both hands and threw it wide open.
"Wha—! Whoa! What are you doing all of a sudden?!"
Caught completely off guard, Simon yelped and clapped his hands over his own eyes. At his reaction, Erzsébet tilted her head.
[Did you not say we were to make a contract?]
Her chest had split open, revealing a black core pulsing like a beating heart. Simon parted his fingers just slightly and peered at it.
'Oh, how utterly adorable she is.'
How could anyone look that cute while being embarrassed? This was truly the same person who, mere minutes ago, had demanded an unfair contract with a shameless smirk on her face!
She felt her heart flutter more and more.
[Come, quickly!]
"……Ngh."
Simon had no choice but to approach her.
Then, drawing a deep breath, he placed his hand on the core opened between her breasts. The moment he did, both of their jet-black erupted, raging wildly like things gone mad.
"Ugh!"
[Aaaagh!]
It was an agonizing stretch of time, but unlike the first time he had contracted with the Legion, it was over quickly.
As the jet-black stabilized, he could see his own bluish-black energy flowing out from her body as well.
[Kahaha! Welcome back to the Legion, Erzsébet!]
Pier declared. She slowly rose from where she had been kneeling.
[It has been a long while since I was undead bound by contract.]
As Erzsébet extended her fingertips, spiderwebs spread outward and clung to the ceiling.
When her jet-black washed over the webs, they transformed into faintly shimmering, blue-black threads of light. They no longer looked like monstrous webbing — they could have passed for a beautiful, glowing indoor decoration.
From Simon's perspective, it was fascinating.
The sensation that she had truly become his undead was so strong that she somehow felt closer to him than before.
[Well? Erzsébet!]
[Mmmm.]
She retracted the webs and smiled serenely.
[I have become astonishingly weak. You really are a beginner, my lord.]
"……Ugh!"
Simon slumped against the wall with a wounded expression, and Pier snickered at the sight.
[To enter the Legion and end up weaker than when she was a natural undead — there's a certain irony in that, wouldn't you say?]
Undead of the Legion were linked to their Legion Commander's jet-black, growing stronger as the commander grew stronger. And of course, the reverse was equally true.
Simon's face burned redder than it ever had. Pier, meanwhile, was laughing so hard he was practically doubled over at the waist.
"I-I'm sorry for being a beginner! But I'm attending Kizen right now, so in another month or two, I'll definitely—!"
[Even so.]
She raised bluish-black energy at her fingertips once more, her cheeks flushing.
[It is a gentle jet-black. One that puts my heart at ease.]
"……"
But the wound dealt to a seventeen-year-old boy's pride had already failed to heal.
Simon strode over to the bed and flung the covers over himself.
"I'm going to sleep."
[Kahahahahaha! sulking! Are you sulking, boy?!]
"It's a fact that I'm weak, so what is there to sulk about?"
[Oh dear — I have wounded my lord's heart. Allow me to apologize at your bedside tonight.]
"Both of you, get out of here!"
Pier's and Erzsébet's laughter filled the room to bursting.
A fifty-gold mission — one even Jane had balked at — and he had cleared it a single day after teleporting in.
If he returned to Kizen right away, someone was bound to question how he'd managed such a feat in just one day. So Simon decided that since he was already out here, he'd stay in the fief for a while and train his Legion to his heart's content.
Simon, Pier, and Erzsébet entered the northern mountain range of the Arnish Fief, where a massive orc habitat was said to sprawl.
[Now then, my lord! Let us begin the tutorial for the spider undead you will soon be commanding — the Corpse Spiders.]
Erzsébet declared, one hand resting on her hip.
Around her, legionified spiders scuttled to and fro with faint clattering sounds, converted for Simon's training.
They didn't burn with jet-black in their eye sockets the way skeletons did — instead, bluish-black light flickered at the tips of their eight legs.
Just then, Simon raised his hand.
[Oh my, my lord. A question already, before the lesson has even begun?]
"No, it's unrelated to the lesson."
Simon scratched his head.
"Are you planning to keep calling me 'my lord' and all those weird titles?"
[Hohoho! Does it embarrass you?]
When she covered her mouth and laughed, Simon turned his head away, blushing.
"It's not that, it's just… kind of…"
[If that's how you feel, I shall simply call you Legion Commander. Let us continue.]
She snapped her fingers and gave a signal. One of the Corpse Spiders spewed a long stream of webbing from its mouth.
[The Corpse Spider's most essential ability is, without question, its webbing — what we call Web. It is both a binding technique and a means of locomotion.]
"Hmm."
[Now, control the two Corpse Spiders before you and have them shoot webs at that tree.]
Simon nodded and connected to the thoughts of the two spiders. Then he commanded.
'Web.'
Splat!
Spurt!
The Corpse Spiders fired webbing from their mouths, striking the tree dead center. The webs flared slightly open the instant they launched, and on contact with the tree they wrapped around it like a loving embrace.
[Well done! Generally speaking, webbing fired from the mouth is used for binding, while webbing fired from the rear is used for movement.]
This time, the two Corpse Spiders that had demonstrated earlier fired webbing from their rears.
The strands shot high and anchored themselves to a tall tree, and the spiders walked forward a few steps before lifting off their bodies.
Like climbers on a rope, the spiders' bodies swung in pendulum arcs.
'Whoa! I knew that's how it worked, but they're way faster than I expected!'
The spiders then latched onto a target tree and drove their fangs in. The bark caved inward, and green fluid oozed down in rivulets.
[That concludes the basic combo. Would you care to try it yourself?]
"Obviously!"
[Then for targets…]
As she scanned her surroundings, her gaze settled in one direction. She smirked.
[Good. Those orcs will do nicely.]
Behind the trees, two orcs were approaching, grunting low in their throats.
They had gray skin, pig-like flattened noses, and abnormally enlarged molars jutting out past their lips.
Gray Orcs — the monsters that ruled this mountain range.
A threat so dire they had once driven the Arnish Fief to the brink of annihilation.
'Straight into live combat, huh.'
Still, with a stage like this set for him, there was no reason not to perform. Simon connected to the thoughts of his two Corpse Spiders just as the orcs spotted him and began charging.
'Fire webbing from the rear.'
The two Corpse Spiders pivoted and anchored their webs to the trees on the far side of the charging orcs.
'Lift the bodies slightly — then dash!'
Twang.
Zip.
The Corpse Spiders swung forward in pendulum arcs. But their control slipped just slightly, and by a hair's breadth they sailed past the charging orcs.
[Oh my, so close!]
Erzsébet stepped in front of Simon, raising her jet-black. But Simon grabbed the shoulder of the advancing spider-spirit and pushed her back.
'Fire!'
Splat! Splat!
Cross-control. Connecting to the spiders on the opposite side, he had them shoot webbing from their mouths, sealing off the orcs' movements.
-Kruk! Kururuk!
The orcs thrashed about, trying to tear free of the sticky webs.
At that moment, the spiders that had swung to the very end of their pendulum arcs came flying back around and slammed into the backs of the two orcs. Their fangs buried themselves into the napes of the orcs' necks, and with strangled shrieks, the orcs collapsed.
"Got 'em!"
The orcs, already stumbling, soon had the venom spread through their bodies and stopped moving altogether.
[Magnificent! Your control is already at quite a high level, Legion Commander.]
"That's just the basics."
-Kruk!
-Kurururuk!
Then it happened. There must have been an orc village nearby, because more Gray Orcs kept emerging from the forest.
"That's quite a lot of them."
[I judge this to be an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the might of the Spider Legion.]
[Oh? A fight? Then get me out of there, boy!]
Pier's shard, still clinging to Simon's uniform, spoke up. Simon opened a subspace, and out poured Pier and the Legion's skeleton forces in a rush.
"Well, since it's come to this — shall we make ourselves worth the five hundred gold we ate?"
[What?]
"Let's wipe out every orc village in this mountain range, then head back to Kizen."
Pier grinned, as if he'd been waiting for exactly those words.
[And we'll replenish the Legion's ranks with their corpses!]
[This should be fun.]
Training and troop replenishment all in one — this was what necromancers lived for.
-Kurururuk!
The orcs, having lost their kin, came charging with terrifying ferocity.
Pier and Erzsébet each took their battle stances, while the skeletons and Corpse Spiders let out threatening hisses and rattles as they awaited the order.
"Now, let's go."
Simon smiled, baring his teeth.
At long last, for the very first time, a stage worthy of revealing the Legion's true power had been set.