Chapter 52: Let’s Goooo, Kumoko~!
Freya spent the following hours rereading the chat, unable to stop herself from going back to it over and over out of sheer boredom, until the dungeon finally started to wake up.
She then joined everyone in the chamber and sat her little troop down around the table the moment they were up, before setting her haul out in front of her.
Laïa, eyes already shining, was quite literally drooling.
"I bought all of this last night," Freya announced, lifting the little glass vial where the brilliant violet grains rolled about. "Starting with this."
Aldric sat straight up.
"Where did you find that?! That’s literally one of the rarest delicacies there is, even the high nobility fight over it!"
So I was right to cave, price and all!
Except the information was worth far more than the satisfaction of having gotten a good deal.
Because if the high nobility itself fought over this pepper, then she was holding a commodity capable of opening doors no weapon would ever force, a product she could put to use later on if she played it right.
She filed the information away in a corner of her mind, and the pieces immediately began slotting into one another.
"I see... Anyway, Naïa, you’ll be able to season the dungeon’s meals with a bit more flavor from now on~~"
"Thank you, Madam, I’ll put it to good use," she replied, swatting away Laïa’s hand as it made its discreet way toward the mangoes.
"Next, I got these."
She rolled one mango per person across the table, and smiles lit up all around, each of them discovering a fruit none of them had likely ever seen in their lives.
Aldric, for his part, only dared ask under his breath.
"Even for me? Even though I’m your prisoner?"
"Don’t make a fuss, please, it’s normal to share, isn’t it? Isn’t that supposed to be one of the great values of heroes?"
"But you’re a—" He stopped short before finishing his sentence, as if he’d just realized himself what he was about to say.
It was Naïa who answered him.
"Be quiet and accept Madam’s kindness!"
And so they began their breakfast in good cheer.
Well, almost, because Laïa, far too impatient, bit straight into hers without peeling it, then froze, mouth full, pulling an absolutely magnificent grimace.
"Wait, wait!" Freya burst out laughing and gently took the fruit back from her hands. "You don’t eat the peel, you poor thing. Here, let me show you."
She scored the peel lengthwise with the tip of her nail, popped it open with a thumb, and freed the deep blue flesh underneath, still steaming with cold, before cutting it into wedges she passed back around the table.
Then she finally bit into her own.
It was exquisite. Simply exquisite. The flesh was reminiscent of Earth’s mangoes, but sweeter, riper, with a fresh note on top she couldn’t quite name, and above all, above all, it was frozen through to the core.
Ice! Mango ice cream! I never thought I’d taste anything like this again in this world!
Around her, silence had fallen, each of them discovering that taste in turn, and even Aldric, who had grown up in a noble house, stared at his wedge of fruit as though he’d never eaten anything like it.
Then, as they were finishing their meal, she slid the five remaining mangoes over to Laïa.
"Here, this is your mission for the day, Laïa. Divide these up evenly among all the Mycofoxes, can you do that for me, please?"
"Yes!!"
Delighted to be given a mission, the little one hurried off to cut them into equal portions, while Naïa was already reminding her not to sneak a single one for herself, to which Laïa nodded vaguely as she vanished into the dungeon’s corridors.
"As for the rest of you," Freya went on, "today we begin Aldric’s internship! Which consists quite simply of turning him into a real hero!"
She let the sentence hang a moment, savoring the puzzled looks, then pulled out her fountain pen, which came to hover calmly above the table.
Aldric flinched at the mere sight of it, which amused her greatly, since he obviously had no way of knowing the Herculean enchantment had worn off long ago.
"Mei, you’ll be watching Aldric along with Pen-chan, while sculpting. And whatever you do, don’t ever stop sculpting, understood?"
"Yes...!" the giant agreed with clumsy vigor.
"Perfect. Then we start with the first part of his internship, he’ll be accompanying and learning from the Breeder Mycofox!"
The girls exchanged a surprised glance, and Aldric, true to form, understood absolutely nothing, but Freya was already sending Mei to escort him down there.
Once alone with Naïa, she laid out her plan in a low voice, along with what she intended to get out of it, and Naïa began to laugh as she grasped everything it implied.
"I understand, Madam. Allow me to supervise this."
"I’m counting on you, Naïa."
And so Freya found herself alone in the chamber, seated at the table, looking over her reserve.
[ Mana: 214/10,000 ]
It’s time, then, isn’t it...
She stood, dragging her feet, and made her way despite herself toward the deepest, most remote spot in her dungeon, the one she’d been dreading for some time now.
The Silkweaver Nest was by far the largest room she owned.
Stepping through the entrance, she had to tilt her head back to make out the ceiling, so high did the cavity rise. The whole of the rock had been carved into terraces stacked one above the other, with wide ledges and recesses everywhere, linked by narrow passages, so that the whole thing looked like an enormous stairwell hewn into stone. Long beams crossed the empty space from one wall to the other at several heights, clearly meant for something to be strung across them.
For now it was all empty, clean, and silent, which reassured Freya only halfway, because she knew perfectly well what it was going to look like before long.
She took a few steps forward, stopped, and murmured barely above a whisper.
"System... summon the six Silkweavers..."
[ Please speak louder. ]
"Seriously? You can’t read my thoughts, can you? Are you messing with me right now?"
[ ... ]
That’s it, run away, like always.
She drew a deep breath, closed her eyes, and forced herself to enunciate.
"System, summon the six Silkwea—"
[ Please speak louder. ]
"YOU CAN HEAR ME PERFECTLY WELL!"
[ ... ]
"FINE! SYSTEM! SUMMON ME THOSE BLOODY SPIDERS, ALL SIX OF THEM, RIGHT NOW, THIS INSTANT, THERE, I SAID IT!"
[ Summon x6 Silkweaver for 180 mana points? ]
"YES! YES AND YES!"
Light burst forth at the center of the nest, and Freya flinched, eyes snapping shut, unable to bring herself to look.
"Skriii~"
"Skriii! Skrii~"
She cracked open one eye, then the other, very slowly.
...Huh?
There in front of her, lined up side by side in the middle of the vast room, stood six spiders slightly smaller than she was, all looking straight at her at once.
"Ooooh! Aren’t they a little bit cute after all?"
She took a better look, and her apprehension eased a notch. Their bodies were a milky white, run through with fine pink stripes, with big round shining eyes that were nothing like unsettling, and they rubbed their front legs together while letting out clearly delighted "Skrii~"s.
And it was while lingering on the one in the middle that she noticed their backs, where a sort of pink, downy cushion grew, so plush it looked like a pillow set there on purpose for someone to settle into.
That said, they’re still spiders, Freya, meaning your single greatest fear across both worlds!
And yet, without even realizing it, she was already stepping toward them, one pace at a time.
~~
At the other end of the dungeon, Naïa was watching a scene she couldn’t have begun to imagine a few days earlier.
A little fox, a Breeder Mycofox to be precise, a touch rounder and more waddling than the others, with his thick, almost woolly fur and his placid gaze under heavy lids, stood in the middle of a good fifty slimes. He raised them, had them multiply through mana, and sent them off to die with a tear in his eye every single time.
Beside him stood a hero. Or more precisely an apprentice hero, in his underwear.
Naïa couldn’t help wondering how on earth this man had ever been marked out as a future hero. How could someone like that ever save the world, or accomplish anything at all, when he couldn’t even manage with his own people? She found him stupid, idiotic, detestable, and thoroughly repugnant.
A little further off stood Mei, the black knight her lady had summoned shortly after their arrival. She was terrifyingly shy despite her size and her strength, but she was no less endearing for it, a woman with a good heart who knew how to do her part when it counted, whatever her personality.
And in the shadow of it all, lying in wait, she could see him, the one she considered the most terrifying in the whole dungeon, the one who absolutely mustn’t be underestimated despite his appearance. Roku.
All these people were gathered here for a single purpose, to turn this hero into a real one, following a plan her lady had devised during the night, and which Naïa found nothing short of brilliant.
She already knew it, but every day brought her fresh proof, beneath her cheerful airs and her almost naive way of carrying herself, her lady concealed an outright monster. Whether it came to calculating or maneuvering, she knew how to lead people exactly where she wanted them, how to read a situation and make the right call, and the best proof of it remained that she had defended this place against a monster called the Winter Calamity, alone.
And despite all of that, despite this new life that fascinated her more with each passing day, Naïa would be lying if she said she didn’t miss her old, peaceful routine.
Well, it was mostly her mother she missed, something she couldn’t allow herself to show in front of Laïa, who was already suffering more than enough. She had to stay strong, whatever it cost, despite the death of that mother who had sacrificed herself for her two daughters, trying to save them from a situation she’d rather not even bring back to mind.
She would also be lying if she said she felt no satisfaction knowing all those people she’d grown up with were dead.
It was perhaps a cruel thing to think, but those people had looked away, never once lifting a hand to help her, or her mother, or Laïa, when everything happened, and that after all those years spent together. So yes, somewhere deep down, she was glad they were all dead.
Her gaze drifted up despite herself toward the ceiling of the room, as though she could see through the rock all the way to the sky.
Mama, I miss you so much... but I hope you can see, from up there, how well your daughters are doing and how well looked after they are now. I’ll do anything for Laïa, so please don’t worry about that.
It was Aldric who pulled her out of her thoughts.
"Is Lady Freya truly kind by nature?"
Lady? Why did he add "Lady"? Does he actually respect her now that she’s given him a frozen mango? Is he that pathetic, or—
Why think so hard about it when I can simply ask?
"Why are you calling her ’Lady’?"
But just as he opened his mouth to answer, a sound began rising from the corridor leading here.
A rapid clicking of legs against stone, distant at first, closing in fast.
"Skriii~! Skrii! Skriii~"
Mei dropped what she was sculpting and immediately reached for the sword on her back, ready to draw.
And then Naïa saw something her mind at first refused to accept.
A milky white spider striped with pink, as tall as Laïa, came tearing across the ceiling of the corridor, its legs clacking against the stone in a frantic clatter. And on its back, comfortably settled into the downy cushion, was her lady, clinging on with both hands, laughing like Naïa had never heard her laugh, a great, completely unhinged laugh.
"Aaahahahahah! Letssss gooooo, Kumoko~~!"
And just as she had appeared, she vanished off the other end of the corridor, the sound fading away into the distance.
What the hell just happened?
Naïa turned back toward the others and found every jaw hanging open, including Roku’s, disciplined and rigorous as he was, and she was honestly more surprised to see him show an emotion at all than by the spectacle her lady had just treated them to.
She cleared her throat to bring everyone back to the present, then carried on as if nothing had happened.
"Anyway, what was it you wanted to ask me again?"
"No... nothing... never mind..."