Case 03: The Hedonistic Arachne

CASE 03:
The Hedonistic Arachne

 

Glenn’s trip to the village had lasted longer than he originally anticipated.

There were a number of reasons for the extended stay. One was that they were waiting for Kay’s sprain to fully heal. Another was that there were more patients he needed to attend to in the harpy village than he had expected. The biggest reason, however, was because of all the earthquakes.

“Ungh,” Sapphee said.

“Another one, huh?” Glenn was finishing up some paperwork in the clinic when the desk began to shake.

Ever since Glenn had arrived in the harpy village, earthquakes had come quite frequently. Most of them were only a small shaking, and since Glenn was used to earthquakes, he didn’t pay them any mind. Sapphee didn’t seem to handle them well at all, though, and would tense up at even the slightest tremble of the earth.

On top of that, larger earthquakes shook the land occasionally, as well. They weren’t severe enough to cause damage or injuries in the village, but according to the harpies, the road back to Lindworm had come apart, and some areas were experiencing rock slides, as well.

In other words, they were currently stuck in the village until they could be sure the road down the mountain was safe. As they waited, however, the season grew colder and colder by the day. If the village became blocked off by snow, they’d no longer be able to use the carriage. Glenn’s goal was to get out of the village before the snow started to fall.

“Sapphee, you don’t have to be so scared.”

“There aren’t many earthquakes in monster territory,” she said in response, as if she were trying to simultaneously show off and make an excuse. “Lindworm gets a fair amount itself, but it’s rare to find a monster who isn’t scared of them… I’d say it’s stranger that you’re able to remain so calm, Dr. Glenn.”

“Well, my hometown had a lot of earthquakes, so I’m used to them…”

As for the harpies, they didn’t seem frightened by the earthquakes, either. Well, Glenn thought, they all have their wings. They probably figured that if the earth started to tremble, they could just escape into the air.

At that thought, however, Glenn remembered the village elder’s frown. It was true that the old harpy had a stern expression to begin with, but he had crinkled his eyebrows even further at the frequency of the earthquakes. After all, being the village leader meant that he couldn’t simply relax during situations like this.

“But it is strange, isn’t it? There are earthquakes almost every day here.”

“Honestly,” Sapphee said, “I wish they’d give us a break.”

“I hope it’s not some omen of things to come…” Glenn wasn’t startled by the quakes themselves, but he definitely found the frequency of them abnormal.

Fortunately, Kay’s sprain had completely healed. Glenn knew that if they could just clear the mountain road, they could be on their way immediately. Tisalia shared his line of thinking.

For now, he just wished the earthquakes would let up a little.

“Dr. Glennnn!” The door flew open with a bang.

Illy dashed into the examination room, her wings as dazzling as ever. With her feathers regrown, she had become completely healthy and energetic—but no matter how one looked at it, she had become a little too energetic and was now often scolded by Tisalia and the other harpies in the village.

“Illy! Don’t come barging in—stay in the waiting room!” Sapphee yelled.

“What? But—!”

“No buts!” Sapphee yelled at her. Yet, no matter how much she was yelled at, Illy wasn’t bothered at all.

Illy had all the energy of a gust of wind; she wouldn’t be kept in check from a mere scolding.

“Now, now, Sapphee,” Glenn said. “We don’t have any patients right now anyway, right?”

“There you go, Doctor! You pick up on things quick!” Illy’s crest bobbed up and down. It seemed that she was happy at Glenn’s response.

There was a look in Sapphee’s eyes that said she still wanted to say something, but in the end she let out a sigh, rubbing the scales at the edge of her eyes. Glenn was sure that it meant he would be lectured again when dinner time came around.

That being the case—

Glenn could already see Illy’s reason for barging into the examination room.

“So…what is all this about?”

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t have rushed over here!” Every time Illy raised her voice, the crest on top of her head bounced with it. Glenn and Sapphee weren’t busy anyway, but that was neither here nor there.

Illy’s face down to her chest was covered in something sticky. It was a white, mucus-like liquid. Glenn wondered if she had run through the village looking like this. The unknown substance trickled in thick drops onto the floor of the clinic.

“I was flying through the forest when my head suddenly got caught! Ugh, what is this?! Why does this stuff keep happening to me?!”

“Can I touch it?” Glenn asked.

“Uh-huh.”

After getting Illy’s permission, Glenn touched her cheek.

The mysterious white liquid was stuck to her face from the tip of her nose to her cheek. It clung to Glenn’s finger as he touched it. At first glance, it seemed to be some sort of liquid, but it felt like something different when touched. It was surprisingly hard to free himself from. Less like a liquid… more like a sticky piece of string.

“This feels so gross,” Illy said.

“Wait, don’t—”

Unable to endure it any longer, Illy started to scrub her face clean with her wings. However, this had the opposite effect of what she intended. The sticky substance, reminiscent of birdlime, stuck to Illy’s wings as well. Pulling on the narrow strings made her feathers sticky and tangled.

“Eeeek! It’s sticking to me! Doctor!”

“Come on, stop moving. Just stay still.”

“Ugh… Got some in my mouth… It’s real bitter…”

With her proud wings caught up in the white substance, Illy’s face went pale. In the end, the stuff on her face remained. The more she struggled, the more she was held fast by the substance.

Glenn happened to know exactly what it was.

“This is spider silk… No—arachne silk, maybe?” Touching the viscous threads, impossible to free one’s hands from, had reminded him.

Arachne were a species of monster who had the lower body of a spider. The characteristic silk they produced was actually used in a variety of different ways. Said to be stronger than steel in the right amount, the silk of the arachne could be spun into clothing if processed properly.

“That’s right—your clothes are made from arachne silk, aren’t they Sapphee?” he asked.

“That’s correct,” Sapphee said. “It’s quite hard to find anyone who can make light-blocking clothes other than the arachne.”

Sapphee’s elastic, light-blocking underclothes were the only thing that no other monster species could imitate. Created by arachne who specialized in producing and processing their own silk, it was the finest example of their skill and technique.

Spider silk was quite similar, but arachne didn’t produce just one kind of silk. One type was composed of threads spun with an adhesive substance on it used to catch prey. The other was a thread free of adhesive that they could use to hold their own bodies up. Switching between those types of silk at will, they created traps and webs, or made clothes. Their silk truly had a wide range of applications.

As soldiers, arachne were thought to be the strongest military strategists around. That was how capable they were—the arachne used their own silk to deal with any and every problem they might have.

“You must have flown into the trail left behind by an arachne here on the mountain,” Glenn said. “It’s probably using its webs to get around. How unlucky for you, Illy.”

“Grrr. I won’t fly so low anymore…”

“That’s a good idea. You might end up having another accident.” Using their webs to maneuver between the trees was a signature move of the arachne. By flying up above the trees, harpies could avoid getting caught.

“If it’s silk from an arachne, then it will come off in hot water. You could even jump in the hot springs to wash it off. I’m sure your clothes will be fine if you wash them there, too.

“Really?! All right then, I’ll be off.”

With a spin, she began to run off again. She was truly a restless young girl, but Glenn thought this was simply Illy’s nature. She just didn’t have the personality to sit still inside somewhere.

Illy appeared ready to just sprint straight out of the clinic, but on her way out the door she suddenly stopped. Laughing mischievously, she turned back around.

“Will you come in with me, Doctor? Into the hot springs?”

“Hurry up and get out of here!” Sapphee slapped her tail on the floor with a loud noise. Illy flew out of the clinic after being yelled at, as if she were trying to escape. “Don’t be so foolish, Doctor! She’s still just a child, you know!”

“I didn’t do anything, Sapphee. Calm down.”

“How am I supposed to calm down… Rivals keep popping up left and right… Miss Cthulhy and Miss Tisalia are already more than enough of a nuisance as it is!”

Sapphee covered her face and beat her tail against the floor. She had become quite emotionally unstable ever since they’d come to the village. Glenn thought it must be the exhaustion from their work away from Lindworm, coupled with the cold mountain winds of the village, that had made her so insecure.

“Besides…” Sapphee said. “I have a bad feeling. An arachne’s silk… It can’t be, can it?”

“Do you know something about this, Sapphee?”

“No, I can’t say anything yet, but I have a really bad hunch about it…” Rare for her, Sapphee showed her own unrest clearly in her expression.

Considering how smart and attentive to detail Sapphee was, her bad hunch had a fairly high chance of proving to be true.

“We have to pull ourselves together, then. Right, Sapphee?”

At Glenn’s words, Sapphee kept her face covered and gave a slight nod of her head.

 

***

 

Over the next few days, there was a sharp increase in the number of harpies that came into the clinic.

Most of those who came were like Illy—they’d been flying through the forest, then got stuck in arachne webs when taking off or landing. The silk could be washed off with hot water, but it seemed that the harpies in the village hadn’t come into contact with arachne webs before and came to the clinic because it felt creepy and gross.

The ones who were harmed the most were the young harpies who went out patrolling to make sure the mountain road was safe.

“Huh. This is…a problem,” Glenn said.

“Yes, quite a problem,” Sapphee agreed. Her intuition had been right on the mark.

If the harpies’ wings got even the slightest bit entangled in the webs, they were completely unable to fly. Their wings required a certain degree of subtle, fine operation to work. The young harpies had been clearing the mountain road of any danger, as well as checking the way down to Lindworm for Glenn and the others’ return to the city, but that work was now delayed by the mysterious arachne webs.

It was also easy to think that if a harpy became entangled in a strange position when they were taking off or landing, their struggling in the webs might cause them to drop down to the ground. Fortunately, there hadn’t been anyone injured by such a fall, but with the number of people coming in everyday because of the spider webs, it was only a matter of time until a serious injury occurred.

For this reason, Glenn began to wonder: What should we do?

First, he asked for the village elder’s help and told everyone in the village how to deal with the arachne silk. There wasn’t any fundamental difference between what he said to the harpies at large and what he had first told Illy. If they washed themselves in the hot springs, all of the sticky silk would wash away. They didn’t need to come all the way to the clinic for Glenn’s help.

On the other hand, the threat that the silk posed needed to be taken care of.

Thinking it would be much faster to go himself, Glenn went into the mountain forest. He was confident he could trace the webs and thus track the arachne who spun them. Glenn didn’t know why the arachne was on the mountain, but no matter what the reason, he just wanted them to stop stretching out their webs everywhere so indiscriminately.

It wasn’t an unreasonable request, so Glenn was confident the arachne would listen to what he had to say. The problem was whether or not he would be able to find the arachne in the vast mountain forest.

“You didn’t have to come with me, you know, Sapphee.”

“Not at all. It’s possible this might actually be someone I’m acquainted with.”

Sapphee wore a sun-blocking veil that covered her face. Considering her albinism, Glenn couldn’t help but worry whenever she left the clinic during the day. On the other hand, it was nice having a lamia accompany him through the forest. Lamia had originated in hot, humid tropical forests. They could move easily through the tangled brush with their lower bodies, and they weren’t affected by the variations in elevation. At the slightest difference in steepness, Sapphee would carry him up in her tail, which helped Glenn greatly as he hiked.

It was easy to imagine an inexperienced hiker becoming lost on a mountain they weren’t familiar with, but Glenn had taken measures to deal with that as well. In the sky overhead, Illy frequently circled with her colorful wings. The plan was that if Sapphee and Glenn became lost in the forest, she would fly down and guide them. They had also asked her to let them know if she happened to spy someone that resembled the arachne they were looking for.

Illy’s expression of pride and triumph at being called upon for help had left an impression on Glenn.

Thus, the three of them–Glenn, Sapphee, and Illy up high in the sky–formed a three-person team intent on tracking down the arachne.

Glenn didn’t know why the mysterious arachne weighed so heavily on Sapphee’s mind, but he was sure she had her reasons.

As they went further into the mountain forest, the entire area became thick with webs. Glenn suspected that these weren’t webs to capture prey, but instead those arachne used to get around with ease. He had heard there were also some arachne who spun their silk to the branches of the trees, swinging and jumping like a pendulum again and again to travel long distances.

“Be careful, Doctor,” Sapphee said. “Arachne are skilled at laying traps.”

“I’m sure we won’t fall into any traps, right?”

“I wonder.”

Stepping and slithering firmly against the earth, they continued further into the mountain forest.

It wasn’t hard to track the arachne. The trail of webs told them the specific direction in which the mysterious arachne was moving.

“At any rate,” Sapphee said, “the arachne I know well is…a little odd.” She seemed to be talking to herself, but Glenn could hear a warning in her voice.

“It’ll be fine. There’s no way I’ll be caught in a web that’s visible to the naked eye like these are.”

 

***

 

Glenn regretted his own words a few short minutes after saying them.

“I told you to be careful,” Sapphee said.

“I’m ashamed…” Glenn said with a groan.

Unaware of an arachne web placed at his feet, Glenn had fallen down. It seemed that the web he’d fallen on had some sort of pressure-sensitive function and a thread that extended down from the treetops to Glenn on the ground. It lifted him up where he lay with both of his hands tied cleanly behind his back.

Unable to move in the entangled web, it was as if Glenn were a condemned criminal being hung. Indeed, if there had been a string of silk caught around his neck, it would have been more than a metaphor—he really would have ended up as a corpse.

The trap had been laid out quite cleverly, the web stuck to blades of grass and camouflaged so it wouldn’t be noticeable at a glance. Once one was caught by it, it chained together into the next trap and semi-automatically crucified the arachne’s prey to the tree. It seemed that the arachne who had made the trap was outrageously skilled.

The web Glenn had fallen prey to was clearly different from all the webs they had seen earlier. It was obviously a trap made to capture any human that stepped further beyond where they were.

“Sapphee, I’m sorry, but do you think you can untangle me?”

“How about you stay like that for a little while? It’s a good lesson for someone so careless.”

“Come on, don’t be spiteful…”

Glenn couldn’t do anything while he remained trapped, unable to move, but it seemed that Sapphee had no intentions of helping him down.

“Unfortunately, if I touch an arachne’s silk, I’ll end up getting tangled in it as well. I very much want to help you, but…please just bear with it for a while.”

“Ugh…”

Sapphee wasn’t being cold, however, but instead plotting a precise method with which to get him down.

However, Glenn’s bound hands would soon start hurting, which made sense, considering the unnatural pose his body was twisted into. If he weren’t able to get free of the silk, it was possible his body might suffer ramifications from the experience later on.

“Well, whatever the case, it’s no problem,” Sapphee said.

“It definitely is a problem. It’s painful being kept in a pose like this.”

“The news that a scatterbrain has gotten caught in a trap will travel to the one who laid it through the threads of silk… I’m sure it won’t be long before they come to get a look at said scatterbrain’s face.”

“Come here?” Who was coming? Glenn thought.

The answer was obvious, of course: the arachne that had spread out the trap.

 

***

 

“Oh dear. My, my, my.” The voice was coming from up above.

A black shadow covered Glenn, as if it had blocked out the sun filtering down through the treetops. The voice had a refreshing tone to it, but at the same time spoke with a leisurely drawl.

“Ah, if it isn’t Sapphee. I wondered who that might be. Long time no see, dear.”

“So, it was you, after all…Arahnia,” Sapphee said.

“Oh, no—why, what a frightening face you’re making. You should be happy to see me.” With nimble movements unsuitable for its enormous body, the shadow descended from the trees.

It was an arachne with beautiful, straight black hair.

Arachne had a total of twelve arms and legs. They had four arms on their human-like upper body; on their lower body they had eight legs like a spider.

With her four human arms, the arachne standing before Glenn cleanly pulled in her threads and approached him quickly.

“Now, what ever could you be up to on a little old mountain like this?” she asked.

“We’re in the middle of a trip to the harpy village to treat patients there,” Sapphee replied. “A better question would be what are you doing here, Arahnia?”

“Well, I heard a little rumor, you see… Oh, is that it? This careless gentleman here must be the doctor you’re always talking about.”

The woman got even closer to Glenn. She had deep red eyes beneath her evenly cut black hair. All eight of her spider legs moved as if they were each their own separate organism, letting her make agile movements that didn’t appear possible with her large body.

“Greetings, Doctor. I am Saphentite’s close friend—Arahnia Taranterra Arachnida. It’s quite a pleasure to meet you.”

“Close friend?” Glenn glanced over to Sapphee and she gave a slightly defeated nod of her head.

At Arahnia’s words, Glenn actually got the feeling that he could see similarities between her and Sapphee. Her calm expression and manner, her long hair, and the indescribable source of fear bubbling underneath the surface. For Sapphee, this fear came from being descended from assassins—but where did it come from for Arahnia?

Her clothes were bizarre. She wore what looked like a party dress, her large breasts pulling it open. On the other hand, she also wore an obi around her middle, much like those worn with the kimono that were seen in the eastern edge of the humans’ territory. The alternating black and white pattern of her dress was one that Glenn couldn’t remember ever seeing before. She seemed to be a woman who was fond of fine, fashionable clothing.

On her upper body, she had a pair of arms that extended from her shoulders, much like a human’s, as well as another pair situated beneath the first. The second pair looked the same as the arms of a human but were in fact equivalent to the pedipalps of a spider.

On each of her hands, she had long nails that had been painted and manicured. The color of her manicured nails was also quite mysterious. They were a strong, reddish pink, a depth of color that wasn’t a simple hue of red. Glenn couldn’t imagine what kind of dye would produce such a color.

“She’s a designer,” Sapphee said.

“Designer?”

“That’s right. She’s the dressmaker for the Lindworm branch of Loose Silk Sewing. My nurse’s outfit, and the outfit she is wearing now, are all her own personal designs.”

Glenn was amazed. Loose Silk Sewing was a famous company that had shops all across the continent. The entire company was comprised solely of arachne, and they mainly produced and sold clothes for monsters. Clothes made from the threads of the arachne were famous for being even higher quality than regular silk. They handled a variety of different fashions, each adapted to various different species of monsters.

Arahnia was a dress designer for such a large company. She looked young, but held an important title in a sizeable business. It seemed that she was a youthful, but quite capable, individual.

“I’m Glenn Litbeit. Nice to meet you…” It felt somewhat odd for him to be greeting someone for the first time while tied up against a tree.

Yet Arahnia didn’t seem to find it odd at all. She smiled at him and said, “Yes, yes, I’ve heard about you. Despite appearances, Sapphee is a drinking buddy of mine. She often tells me about you when we’re together.”

“I became familiar with Arahnia after I began ordering clothes from her,” Sapphee said. “She can be a little difficult at times, but she’s hardworking and friendly woman.”

It seemed that, unbeknownst to Glenn, Sapphee had also been making more friends throughout the city. Now that he thought about it, she often went out at night, saying she was going drinking with a friend. Since it was unlikely for Sapphee to get drunk to the point where she was falling down, Glenn had never been very worried. It seemed that Arahnia was the one she had been meeting up with all those times.

Though Arahnia had said they were close friends, there was a sharp look in Sapphee’s eyes as she stared at Arahnia, as if she were on her guard for some reason.

“So, then…why are you here, Miss Arahnia?” Sapphee asked.

“Well, you see…” Arahnia flicked her long nail and pointed it towards Glenn.

Arahnia’s hand had five porcelain white fingers and was very beautiful. She used those five fingers and her legs to manipulate thread with ease. Much like spider webs were sometimes patterned like works of art, the threadwork of the arachne crossed over into the domain of art, as well.

Arachne had indeed reached the absolute peak of silk making.

“I’ve heard that there is a harpy with phoenix wings here on the mountain.”

“Y-you’re quick on the uptake,” Sapphee said.

Glenn knew immediately that she was talking about Illy. The only thing she had inherited from her phoenix lineage was the pattern of her wings—but that wasn’t necessarily the point.

“Don’t underestimate the information network of the arachne. We’ve spread our web across the whole continent, you know… How wonderful, though! A phoenix! I wanted today to be the day I’d capture that miraculous figure with the beautiful seven-colored wings, able to change hue freely with only a flap.”

“I think you’re exaggerating a bit…” Glenn said.

“I’m sure wings of such beauty will give me inspiration for my latest work!”

Glenn figured it out. At last, he understood what Arahnia’s goal was.

Looking closely at her, she had a number of pouches tied to her spider legs. In them, he could see glimpses of paint brushes and charcoal. In other words, she was intending to sketch the young phoenix girl that had appeared in the village and would afterward use her drawings as a reference for the new clothes she was going to make.

Glenn thought that it was just as Sapphee had said—Arahnia seemed to take her work very seriously.

“Well, I must admit that I never expected Dr. Glenn to get caught in the trap I made to capture the phoenix… Forgive me, okay? I’ll untie you now.”

“Y-you were going to capture her with a trap?!” Glenn said.

“Hm? How else would you have me do it, then?” Arahnia tilted her head as if she truly didn’t understand what Glenn was saying. “I wouldn’t be out here in the mountains camping and spreading traps everywhere if I weren’t trying to catch the phoenix…”

“Wait a second, Miss Arahnia. You didn’t actually think the phoenix was a wild harpy, did you?”

“Huuuh?” She had a completely serious look on her face, but Glenn wondered if she was just playing innocent.

No, he decided after a moment, that didn’t seem to be the case. She had an artsy air about her, but it seemed she was a bit of an oblivious airhead, as well.

“The girl you’re looking for is living in the village, you know. She’s a completely integrated member of the community.”

“Y-you must be joking with me, right?”

Glenn now understood why the harpies of the village had been getting caught in her threads. Arahnia had been going all around the woods, continuously spreading traps for Illy. Since her hunting grounds were slightly off from the harpies’ area of activity, she hadn’t yet captured any harpies. However, because of that, Arahnia’s misunderstanding had never been corrected.

“You should have just come to the village first,” Sapphee said. “You’re always doing things in a little off-kilter manner like this.”

“Well, I wish you would have told me that sooner…” Arahnia used her four arms to hold her head in her hands.

At that moment, a trivial thought popped into Glenn’s head: maybe the more arms one had, the more troubles and worries one had to hold with them.

 

***

 

Having spent her whole time on the mountain camping, Arahnia was happy to sleep under a roof for the first time in a long while. The drive it had taken for her to dare to camp out in the mountains just to get a glimpse of the phoenix was, perhaps, admirable, but…it had brought with it the recklessness of not properly considering what came ahead of her.

In any event, Glenn thought she certainly had an uncommon passion and zeal for her work.

At a glance, she had the air of a composed, dignified young lady. Combined with her leisurely accented drawl, Arahnia gave a modest, soothing impression. Yet…

“Hmph.”

In the middle of their conversation with the village elder, Arahnia twisted her head around as a hurried red wind passed behind her.

Arahnia had six eyes in total—though at first glance, she seemed to only have two eyes, much like a human. In reality, however, she had four small compound eyes on her forehead. It was said that an arachne’s vision wasn’t very good, but it seemed that her eyes were sharp enough to take notice of the harpy with lustrous wings loitering about the village.

“That must be the phoenix from the rumors! Hey, young lady—I have to speak with you! Show me those wings of yours!”

“Eh?!” Illy said. “What the—a spider?! Wait, who are you?!”

“Who I am is but a trifling matter! Don’t you worry about that—just show me those wings!”

“No, wait—stay away!”

“I just want to see your wings! Just a little, even the tips would be fine!”

“No way!” Illy made to escape using her natural agility, but Arahnia wouldn’t be beaten.

Arachne had no bones in their lower body. Instead, they had a light and sturdy exoskeleton, which allowed them to move spryly despite their large size. Despite the harpy’s fleetness of foot, Arahnia chased after Illy.

“I won’t even ask for a sketch. Just give me one feather!”

“Noooooo! Get away from me!”

“Please! I promise I won’t ask for anything more!”

“Gyaaaaaaaah!”

For a while, the two of them chased each other around the village square before finally running out of sight. Glenn scratched his head, troubled, hoping that Illy didn’t wander off to the mountain as she ran away.

With a pale look on her face, Sapphee apologized to the village elder over and over again. He didn’t seem to mind at all, though it was clear that Arahnia’s hardworking behavior had a sort of frightening edge to it.

“They won’t be back for a while,” Sapphee said with an exasperated tone to her voice.

To Glenn, it seemed that, though she sounded amazed at Arahnia’s behavior, she seemed happy, as well. While she didn’t grow loud and talk cheerfully with her, Sapphee had seemed to be enjoying her conversation with Arahnia.

Arahnia had said she was a close friend. The city of Lindworm had always been a city totally comprised of foreigners and outsiders. The harpies on the mountain had lived in the region since long ago, while the City Council representative Skadi, and Glenn’s teacher Cthulhy, had both come from distant lands. Glenn, Sapphee, and even Tisalia were the same.

However, just because the city was full of people from a variety of backgrounds and origins didn’t mean it was easy to quickly make friends. Glenn thought that Arahnia must have been one of the few friends Sapphee had been able to make in a city full of strangers and foreigners like Lindworm.

“Dr. Glenn.” Sapphee’s conversation with the village elder appeared to be over, and she turned now to face the Doctor. “For now, Arahnia will stay in the village. We’ve been given the elder’s permission, as well. It’s up to Arahnia herself how long she wants to stay, but I’m sure she’ll return to Lindworm once she gets her fill of looking at Illy.”

Glenn wondered if she’d really be able to get enough of a look at Illy to be satisfied. After all, Illy didn’t seem keen on the arachne’s attention, running away as she was. If things continued like this, he couldn’t imagine that Arahnia would be able to get enough information to use as a reference for her dresses.

“Also, we’ve gotten her promise that she won’t put her silk all over the mountain. That way, fewer harpies should fall victim to Arahnia’s threads.”

“What was that you said?!” A large body crept into view from behind Sapphee.

“You’re saying there’ll be fewer victims, huh?! A fine thing to say. Look at me! Look at what’s happened to me! Thanks to an encounter with that street-slasher spider woman, I’ve been covered in silk! Auuuggggh, what am I going to do?!” It was Tisalia Scythia.

From her face down to her breasts, she was covered with sticky white threads of arachne silk. The dripping white substance was all over Tisalia’s well-developed breasts. She was in a horrible state. Tisalia wiped her face to try and get it off, but that only had the opposite effect, entangling her hand, as well.

“Oh, how unlucky,” Glenn said.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with luck! That spider-woman gave a ‘pardon me’ as she chased Illy right past me! Sending her threads flying to move is tolerable enough, but it’s being caught in all of it that I can’t stand! What in the world is up with her?!”

“She’s my friend,” Sapphee said.

“You need to choose your friends better!”

It seemed that Tisalia had been taking a walk somewhere or another, encountered Arahnia, and in a bad string of luck had arachne silk poured over her—or at least, that’s what Glenn could surmise from the situation.

“All over one of my favorite outfits, too…”

“If you dip it in hot water, it will come out,” Glenn said.

“Leaving such a dangerous woman to scamper about as she pleases! Honestly, what is the meaning of this?!”

Glenn was taken aback a moment.

From what Glenn knew about Tisalia, she never spoke poorly of others. While she sang her own praises and was proud, she didn’t often show contempt for others. Well, Glenn thought, Sapphee being the one exception.

Glenn wondered if Tisalia actually disliked Arahnia just as much as she did Sapphee, despite the fact that—as far as Glenn was aware—they hadn’t ever met? Was Tisalia really capable of detesting someone before she got to know them?

Sapphee gave a slight shrug of her shoulders. Glenn was sure that she wouldn’t be pleased to hear someone speak ill of the woman whom she referred to as her close friend.

“It is true that it’s in her character to sometimes lose track of her surroundings, but Arahnia isn’t a bad person. Please don’t say she’s dangerous or anything like that,” Sapphee said.

“Oh, well this is a rare moment for the wise Miss Sapphee. You can tell at a glance how dangerous she is! I mean really—you’re her friend, but you still haven’t noticed?”

“I assume, then, it’s fair to consider that remark as your own prejudice against the arachne?”

“That’s not it! That’s not what I meant.” Tisalia shook her head. “Those types are moody.”

“Your point being? It’s true, she is moody, but the way she works when she’s let herself loose into one of her moods is splendid. My clothes were also her design.”

“Those types of people, you know, they can’t be trusted. She—Miss Arahnia, was it? She covered me in her silk, yet she didn’t show any sort of remorse. That’s the face of an evil woman.”

Glenn wondered if this was what was known as a woman’s intuition.

Tisalia seemed unusually on edge. Even the ears on top her head were perked straight up, which told Glenn she was on high alert.

“It’s okay, Miss Tisalia,” Glenn said, thinking that if he didn’t come in as the peacemaker, their fighting wouldn’t stop. “It seems that Miss Arahnia just wants to see Illy’s wings, to use as a reference to design a new dress. That’s all.”

“Is that really all it is, though? I wonder if she’s scheming up something or other.”

“Something like what?”

“Well…! I don’t really know.”

“In that case, I’m sure you’re worked up over nothing.”

Tisalia still seemed unconvinced.

Glenn wondered what it was that made her so wary of Arahnia. She was an eccentric woman, but all of the monsters he knew were a little eccentric in their own ways… He couldn’t quite explain it, but it wasn’t like Tisalia to get so upset just from being exposed to some of Arahnia’s silk.

“I’ll make sure to tell my friend you said that,” Sapphee said.

“Did I offend you? It’s just, I—”

“No, if that’s what you’re saying, you should just stick with it, right? That’s more like you, anyway.” Now Sapphee was acting somewhat strange as well.

Her words were also very unusual for her. Was she cheering Tisalia on? Protecting her? Glenn got these impressions from her words, but on the other hand, it also felt as if she was somehow forsaking Tisalia.

Glenn thought that everyone was acting weird. Ever since Arahnia arrived, an odd tension had been hanging in the air among the womenfolk.

“Arahnia is here, yes,” Sapphee said. “But we’ve got a strong person like Miss Tisalia here in the village right now, so even if she’s scheming up something, it’ll be fine, right?”

“Are you perhaps…being sarcastic?” Tisalia asked.

“Hmm, I wonder?”

Almost as if announcing their conversation was over, Sapphee slithered away in the direction of the clinic.

Left behind, Tisalia let out a sigh. “She’s definitely feeling tired.”

“Huh?” Glenn said.

“Perhaps it’s because of the cold here in the village. Doctor, please give her your support.”

Glenn was at a loss. He hadn’t seen Sapphee looking fatigued at all, and she had been as precise with her work as ever. He knew it was true that as a species they were weak to the cold, but…

“She’s trying too hard,” Tisalia said. “It’s because she wants to do her best for the doctor she loves so much.”

“I hadn’t noticed it at all…”

Tisalia had pointed out Sapphee’s condition to Glenn before, but he had ultimately ended up ignoring it.

Sapphee hadn’t let it show on her face—not even when she was pushing herself to the limits. That was the type of personality she had. Generally, her tail expressed her emotions more eloquently than her facial expressions did.

“I suppose even a great physician can be slow to discern the condition of those closest to him?” Tisalia said.

“I don’t have anything I can say to that…”

Sapphee had always been a capable person. Without realizing it, Glenn had started relying on her too heavily. On top of that, she was older than him and had always been like an older sister to him. Perhaps he had been taking advantage of her somewhat.

Believing Tisalia’s words to be true, Glenn decided to let Sapphee relax a bit. Their long stay in the village might have put more of a burden on Sapphee than he had thought.

“I’m going to go wash this silk off.” With those words, Tisalia left Glenn as well.

“Oh, uh, okay.”

Both Tisalia and Sapphee seemed to have something on their minds, but the subtleties of the two women were beyond him. He could pick out the focus of an infection but was still far too young a man to pick out the inner workings of a woman’s heart.

 

***

 

Ultimately, Glenn did have Sapphee take a break from her work.

The number of victims of Arahnia’s webs had decreased and work at the clinic had calmed down. He told her that he wanted her to take a nice long soak in the hot springs to make herself feel better again and that now was a good opportunity to do so.

“I feel fine,” Sapphee said.

“Take a break anyway. I’ve been having you work too hard lately… I want you to relax a little. Think of it as a present from me.”

“A present…from Dr. Glenn… In that case, I’ll do as you wish.”

After that conversation, Sapphee had consented to taking some time off.

For several days, Glenn would manage the clinic by himself. With fewer patients coming in and the helper fairies on hand, he would be able to manage perfectly fine even on his own.

Sapphee is likely soaking in the hot springs right now, Glenn thought to himself as he worked.

Kay and Lorna had been worried for Sapphee and took her there themselves. They may have been acting on secret orders from their mistress, but whatever the case, Glenn was sure that, at that moment, the three of them were enjoying themselves in the warm waters.

Poikilothermic species of monster were weak to changes in temperature, particularly the cold. The cold was quite draining on a lamia’s strength and they didn’t hibernate in the winter like snakes. Glenn figured it would be good if Sapphee could get even a little bit more energy from the warmth of the hot springs.

However.

Glenn still hoped that any patients planning on coming to the clinic would wait until Sapphee returned, but—

“What, is Sapphee not here?” It was Arahnia, coming to visit the clinic.

Skillfully folding up her eight legs, she had somehow managed to fit herself inside the tiny clinic.

As aforementioned, arachne were a race of monsters with a spider-like lower body. The large spider abdomen that bulged out behind them and the eight spider legs that stretched out on either side made arachne look giant compared to the actual measurements of their body’s length. For all that, the surprisingly spry and skillful way they could move their bodies was a special ability of their race.

Glenn shouldn’t have felt any need to be intimidated by Arahnia, but nevertheless found himself shrinking back from her presence.

“I’m sorry, I’ve had Sapphee take a break. She won’t be working here in the clinic for a few days.”

“Oh, is that so, then? That certainly is a pity, but I suppose nothing can be done about it.” She spoke in the official language of the continent, but she had a strongly pronounced accent that came from the eastern part of the humans’ territory. Long ago, many arachne lived in the humans’ territory and were sometimes referred to as “jorougumo” in the language of the humans of the east. That word, however, came with a considerably discriminatory connotation.

If she were from the east, maybe she was from the same province as he. He wondered if the uniqueness ­of her outfit’s radical design was a result of her incorporating elements of eastern culture.

“Is something bothering you today?” Glenn asked, giving his standard greeting while thinking offhandedly that he had nothing to talk about with her. Sapphee was the one who was friends with Arahnia, after all. The first time he had ever met her had been the day they met on the mountain. Glenn didn’t know what he should say to her, or do, except give her an exam like he did all his patients—and yet…

When he thought back to Tisalia and Sapphee’s exchange, he felt slightly on guard, despite the fact that Arahnia was completely faultless in the whole affair.

“Well, my head’s been feeling a little hazy, you see,” she said. “And I’ve got a bit of an ache in my joints.” Arahnia shifted the joints of her lower body. Each time her legs moved, her exoskeleton rubbed against itself, producing a grating, stiff noise.

Despite saying her head was hazy, she didn’t look very sick—not judging by her face, at least. Glenn wondered if it were simply in her nature to keep her sickness from showing on her face.

“Hm… In that case, could you let me take your temperature for a moment?” he asked.

“Why, certainly. Go right ahead.”

Pulling back her evenly cut bangs, Arahnia’s covered up forehead was thus exposed. The four small compound eyes there looked like four red rubies.

Glenn placed his hand on her forehead, covering up her compound eyes.

“…You don’t seem to have any fever.”

“So it seems, doesn’t it?”

“Now, then—this time will you open your mouth for me?”

“Aaaah.” Arahnia opened up her mouth, and Glenn got a glimpse of her bright red tongue. Her fang-like teeth were impressive.

Pushing her tongue down with a disinfected tongue depressor, Glenn examined the inner part of her throat, but could find no irritation or inflammation.

“Your throat looks fine, too.”

“Ahfh ouhu duhaun?”

“Oh, excuse me. I’m finished.”

Glenn couldn’t find any symptoms that stood out to him, but that didn’t mean he could ignore the complaints of a patient.

“I didn’t see any problems during my examination,” he said. “It may just be the beginnings of a cold. The mountain air might have something to do with it. Have you been having headaches?”

“Why, yes I have. Both my head and throat have been hurting.”

Sounds like it’s a cold, Glenn concluded.

As he wrote down her symptoms on his charts, he thought to himself that, considering her symptoms, she would heal with a little bit of bed rest. Giving her any medicine would just be an unnecessary cost for her, so for now it wasn’t necessary. He could give her a prescription for something if her symptoms grew worse in the coming days.

Despite her cold-like symptoms, Arahnia smiled and observed Glenn as he worked.

“…Is there something else you were curious about?” he asked.

“No, not at all. I was just thinking to myself, ‘Wow, a human doctor really is examining monster patients, isn’t he?’ That’s all.”

“That’s right. I give my patients the utmost care.”

“I’ve been asking myself what sort of person this ‘Doctor’ that Sapphee always talks about was, but now I see. So, you’re the one Sapphee’s set her eyes on, huh.”

Hearing this made Glenn embarrassed. He was very much aware of Sapphee’s affection for him. However, at the moment, not only was he so consumed with running the clinic that he had little time to spare for love, Cthulhy would be enraged if they became occupied with lovers’ talk. Glenn wanted to avoid that as much as possible.

For now, he wanted to do his best to avoid breaking their doctor and assistant relationship. It was a dividing line that was necessary for Glenn to continue being a doctor of monster medicine.

“Were you able to get a look at Illy’s feathers?” he asked.

“Why yes, I was. I even managed to get a sketch. I have to return to Lindworm as soon as possible and finish my design, but…it seems that the road back is filled with rocks and debris again. It’s put me in quite the bind.”

“The mountain road would be rough while you have this cold of yours. I would say you should take it a little bit easier before trying to go back.”

“If I relax too much, the snow will start falling.” Arahnia gave a cackling laugh. There were very few women in Lindworm with a laugh like hers. She let out a moan as she stretched out her arms and arched her back. “But you’re right, I’ll wait until this cold is gone. I suppose I’ll go out and take in some of the fresh air?”

“It’s not good for your cold to expose yourself to the wind.”

“I’m sure just a little is fine, right? Oh, Doctor.” Arahnia’s red eyes pierced through Glenn as she gave him a fleeting glance. Even with her hair covering some of them, she did have a total of six eyes on her head. Simply put, her sight was three times better than a human’s. “If at all possible,” she said, “would you join me for a walk?”

 

***

 

Glenn had a number of reasons for going along with Arahnia’s invitation.

First was that the clinic was not busy. Although he had to be ready for any emergency that might come his way, it was still good to get a change of atmosphere now and then. He figured it would be no problem for him to take a walk through the village. In fact, it was possible he was feeling exhausted without even knowing it and in need of a break.

The other reason was that he was worried about Arahnia. Although she was only experiencing cold-like symptoms, he couldn’t neglect someone who was sick. Furthermore, she was a guest in the village, and she didn’t have any close acquaintances there besides Sapphee. He was confident that just accompanying her on her walk would make her feel at ease.

However, Glenn was beginning to think that he had been mistaken in his judgement.

“Miss Arahnia.”

“What is it?”

“How far are you planning on going?”

Glenn had accompanied Arahnia through the village, but now they were on the outskirts and there were no trace of the harpies. If they kept going, they would be well on the path leading to the mountain’s summit. A cold wind raged through the heights of the Vivre Mountains—the same one that brought the sharp chill to the air in the harpy village.

In short, it was not a path one set out to climb when one just wanted to take a short stroll.

“I wonder… I suppose wherever the mood takes me?” she replied.

“…Why don’t we head back soon? This will only make your cold worse.”

“Now, now, Doctor, just a little further.” Arahnia continued down the path, moving her spider legs with a chittering irregularity.

It was strange. Glenn had thought she’d come to the clinic because she was feeling sick. However, right now she didn’t look sick at all—in fact, she seemed much livelier and more active than she had back there.

The path continued deep into the mountains.

Without Glenn noticing, Arahnia had taken out the shears she used for cutting cloth. Just as Glenn was wondering what they were for, Arahnia started to use them to cut off the flowers that were growing on the side of the path and place them in the pouches tied to her spider legs. Glenn wondered if this was also to use as a reference for her designs.

This isn’t good, Glenn thought. They were marching completely into the middle of the mountains.

Glenn was wearing what he always did—his tunic and the white coat he wore over top. He was obviously not prepared for a walk through the mountains. Naturally, he thought the same should have been true for Arahnia, but…

“Miss Arahnia?”

“Hmm?”

This time she was distracted by a butterfly fluttering nearby. She didn’t appear to be listening to Glenn’s words at all.

“I’m going to start heading back.”

He didn’t wait for an answer and put his back to Arahnia. For just an instant, he hesitated at the thought of leaving Arahnia behind. But when he gave it some more thought, he had to remind himself that she was a bold woman—she had climbed the mountain by herself and set up camp for a number of days, after all.

It seemed to him that she should have decided to go back much sooner.

Right as he took a step back towards the village—

“Watch,” came Arahnia’s curt reply, “your step.” They weren’t words of caution; they were a declaration of victory.

There were threads of silk spread out in front of him; they took Glenn off his feet. He thought his face would crash hard into the ground, but the threads flying out all around held his body up. He remembered this sensation. It was just the same as before, an arachne-made trap.

As Glenn spoke out in alarm, he was suspended in midair.

“Ngh?!”

“See, that’s why I told you to watch your step.”

“Since when were you making a trap?!”

“From the start. It didn’t catch you on the way, but I laid it out so it would capture you when you went to try and return to the village. How does it go, again? ‘Going is easy, but the return is…’” Arahnia brought up an old eastern children’s song to tease Glenn.

Arahnia had already spread her threads over the mountain path. She was now crossing her four arms back and forth, creating a kind of cat’s cradle or something similar, but her manipulation of the threads of silk was too fast for Glenn’s eyes to follow.

“This time the trap is a serious one. If we arachne feel like it, we can make traps that are imperceptible to the human eye, after all.”

“Why did you…? So then, you saying you were feeling sick was…!”

“A. Lie. Tee hee hee hee.”

Glenn could feel nothing but a sense of dread from Arahnia’s smile of satisfaction.

Back before humans and monsters fought against each other, each monster species lived as they saw fit with other members of their species. Centaurs lived on the grassy plains, lamia lived in the forests, mermaids lived in the rivers and seas—and Arachne lurked on the roadways.

In other words, they lurked on the routes traversed by humans and other species of monsters. The arachne would lay traps there and subsist on the bodily fluids of their prey. Some subspecies of arachne would suck blood. When their prey was a human male, though, they would sometimes drain their fluids through forced sexual intercourse. The all-female arachne race attacked other races in this way, made children when the time came, and thus grew their territory.

Their custom of attacking other races had long been thrown aside, but their skill in laying traps along a road or pathway was still going strong.

It was nothing but bad news for Glenn.

“Now then, Doctor. How about I do something good for you?”

Arahnia extended her hands. Before he knew it, threads of her silk spun around his body and lifted him upwards with ease. Then he was inverted in midair so that he was facing Arahnia upside down.

With manipulation of the nearly invisible threads of silk, Arahnia could control the space around them at her will. She had the dexterity of an acrobat in a circus troupe.

“Something good… What’s that mean?” Glenn asked.

“Oh, come now, Doctor. You know that can only mean one thing between a man and a woman. I couldn’t say such an embarrassing thing like that myself, you know.”

“Why, though? You and I don’t even know each other that well.”

“Oh, that is true, isn’t it? Personally, I am not very interested in the doctor’s personality,” Arahnia said with a nonchalant look on her face.

The two extra arms extending out from underneath the other two still had shears in their hands. She played with her shears—snip, snip—as she answered.

“I’m a dress designer. No one puts more pride and fervor into clothing than me. But, perhaps because of this personality of mine, I don’t really have a lot of friends, you know.”

“F-friends?”

“You see, it’s in my nature to want what others have.”

Snip, snip.

The sound of the scissors didn’t stop. Glenn wondered if he was going to be spider food, or if he would instead be cut into a piece of fabric. Either way, it seemed clear to him that he wouldn’t be able to escape scot-free.

“Ever since I can remember, I’ve ended up wanting the things held precious by the people I grow close to. Stuffed animals, ornaments—and clothing, too.”

“By ‘wanting,’ you mean…you take it?”

“Oh no, of course not. I don’t really want to take it. It’s just, you know, I want to share the same things they have… I want to match.”

“…Even though you’re a designer?”

Glenn pondered to himself. She was someone with the vision to make clothes unlike anything anyone else wore and yet, Arahnia seemed elated by her own words as she continued to speak.

“It’s probably because I’m a designer. The things that are made with these fingers of mine, these nails, these threads—they’re each one of a kind. But by creating them, you see, this heart of mine gets lonely easily.”

“Okay…”

“I’m sure if I were able to match up with the people I’m close to, I’d be able to create even better designs… Yes, for example…”

Her long-nailed fingers brushed up against Glenn’s cheek.

Arahnia’s upside-down face drew right up to Glenn’s nose.

“Matching lovers, perhaps…”

This, Glenn thought, was very bad.

Arahnia had a serious illness. However, her illness was beyond Glenn’s field of expertise—the incurable disease of being an artist. Its sufferers were far too gone to cure, so obsessed with their particular field that they were prepared to do anything for the sake of creaking a fine piece of art.

Many people were affected by this disease, monster and human alike. Most went to the grave without ever being cured.

I see, Glenn thought to himself, she is indeed a hardworking person.

Her focus on doing anything for the dresses she designed was so overly enthusiastic it crossed into the realm of abnormality and absurdity.

“Sapphee and I are nothing more than doctor and assistant. We don’t have that sort of a rela—”

“Indeed. Sapphee, you see, has a surprisingly sweet side to her. You’re so precious to her, she can’t really make her move, it seems.”

In actuality, there had been a number of times when things between them had gotten dangerous, but Glenn thought that was beside the point right now.

“I’ll make it clear, Doctor: I don’t have even an ounce of feelings for you.”

“S-so it seems.”

“But Sapphee is my dearest friend, and I want things to stay that way. That’s why I’m so very interested in the doctor that she’s so enamored with.” Arahnia licked her lips, and a dubious gleam sparkled in her eyes.

In the east, arachne were called jorougumo. It was said that, in the past, they changed into the shape of a woman and tricked men. However, the origin of that myth was a trivial mystery. The word jorougumo had always referred to the half-spider, half-woman arachne.

Glenn, however, thought that the fiendish seduction of men by arachne seemed to be alive and well.

“If I were to rape you here, Doctor…what do you think would happen?”

“Sapphee would be angry, clearly.”

“That’s right. And more than that, she would feel endangered and become impatient, right? She’d think, Oh, no—Dr. Glenn was taken by Arahnia, I can’t stay idle anymore… I have to do something before it’s too late. Tee hee hee.” Arahnia’s shoulders trembled as if she was convulsing. It seemed to Glenn she couldn’t stop herself from laughing.

“Oh my goodness, what a story! Her precious doctor, taken from her by her best friend! Sapphee surely wouldn’t let herself be defeated, but would instead share her bed with you, wouldn’t she?! With this, we’d be sucked into a futile love triangle. With our obsessive love, Sapphee and I would be connected to each other through you, Doctor! Sapphee wouldn’t be able to escape from me, not ever!”

“Miss Arahnia, no matter how you justify it, that’s a warped way of thinking about it.”

“That’s true. But you know, Doctor? Perversion is important to creation. The distorted inspiration is what will further radicalize and intensify my designs! It will serve as the aid I need to create clothing marvels the likes of which this world has yet to see.”

It was absolutely insane logic.

However, the troubling part of Arahnia’s personality was that her awareness and continuance of her dark side meant she had deemed that darkness acceptable. Awkward attempts at persuasion wouldn’t get through to her.

Glenn wanted to do something to escape, but the threads restraining him were strong. At this rate, he realized, he might actually cross that line with Arahnia.

“Now then, Doctor. Give yourself to me. Don’t you worry at all—I’m quite confident in my body.”

Her body was outstanding. The liberally open-breasted clothes she was wearing gave a good glimpse at her degree of self-esteem. Her black hair gently brushed against Glenn’s cheek.

The more Glenn twisted his body in an attempt to untie the threads of silk, the more the threads firmly bit into him. Glenn realized there wasn’t anything more he could do. He even began to consider how he would apologize to Sapphee as he desperately averted his face from Arahnia’s to avoid her incoming kiss, when—

“This! Is! Divine! Punishmeeeeeeent!”

A flash of light streaked through the air, the unmistakable slashes of steel drawn through the sky. The many layers of cutting lines would cut Glenn’s body to pieces—or so he thought.

“Awaaah!” he cried.

“There we go,” the voice said.

His body no longer supported, Glenn fell. Before he crashed into the earth, however, his body was caught in a sturdy grip.

“Doctor? Are you injured?”

“M-Miss T-Tisalia?!”

The centaur princess had caught him with ease, almost like she was boasting about her strength. There was a longsword affixed to her waist, which she had most likely used to cut Arahnia’s threads of silk and release Glenn from his restraints.

“Hmph. This troublesome web isn’t anything to worry about when I have a sword in hand. It’s a good thing I borrowed it from Kay before I came.”

“What are you doing here…?” Glenn asked.

“I hunted you down,” Tisalia said, with an innocent look on her face. “I heard everything. Honestly, what a terrible thing you’ve been through.”

“I’m sorry, Tisalia. I always seem to be causing trouble for you… But can you put me down now?”

“Oh? I wanted to keep you in my arms a bit longer.”

Glenn couldn’t help but feel ashamed at being forever held in the arms of a woman like Tisalia. Not only that, but the two large bulges on Tisalia’s chest were strongly asserting themselves against Glenn’s body.

With a dissatisfied look, Tisalia quickly placed Glenn on the ground.

“Well, well—it’s the young Scythia daughter, is it not?” Arahnia said. “I was sure I’d set up traps to ensure we wouldn’t be followed…”

“Hmph. I cut down all those traps of yours.” Tisalia pointed her sword toward Arahnia without any hesitation. Looking closely at her, it became evident that both the sword and Tisalia herself were covered in Arahnia’s threads of silk.

Even when dirtied with webs, the dignified expression on the centaur’s face didn’t change.

“I heard everything! Your actions were dubious, but I wouldn’t have had anything to say if they came from feelings of love and longing for Dr. Glenn… But instead, what?! You aren’t interested in him at all?! You were going to rape the doctor just for your clothing designs?! I will never allow you to do something so outrageous!”

“I don’t really need your permission, though, do I?” Arahnia crossed her four arms as she dangled from a tree.

“I won’t overlook such depraved immorality!”

“I’m not very good at handling these types of women, you know…” Despite her words, Arahnia observed Tisalia with a grin on her face.

Tisalia’s sword could cut through Arahnia’s silk. Arachne had a sturdy exoskeleton and were quite nimble but didn’t have much muscular strength. It was clear that if they were to fight head to head, Arahnia was at a disadvantage.

The rank-three arena fighter Tisalia Scythia was already prepared for combat. The lack of an opening in her stance showed she was just as comfortable wielding a sword as she was with her spear.

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t interfere,” Arahnia said. “This doesn’t have anything to do with you, does it, Miss?”

“It absolutely does! After all, I intend on having the doctor here come for a marriage interview and become the heir to the Scythia business!”

“Well, now. So, you’re also planning on taking him for yourself then, aren’t you? You want the doctor to inherit your company. I want the doctor for my own hobby and work. You’re no different, are you?”

“Hng…?! N-no, you’re wrong! It’s true I want a successor for my family’s business, but I actually love Dr. Glenn! It isn’t strange to get married to the person you love.”

“Hmm, but do you really love him? Haven’t you just put yourself under the illusion of loving the doctor because he’s someone who happened to be nearby and who would be a good fit as a successor?”

“I-I know for certain that’s not true!” There was an uncertainty in Tisalia’s eyes, and the point of her sword wavered.

Figuring that she couldn’t win in a fight, it seemed that Arahnia had changed her strategy, shifting their battle into a war of words.

Arahnia turned her fingertip towards Tisalia and began spinning it in circles. It almost looked like a technique used to confuse and capture dragonflies, but it seemed having an effect on Tisalia.

“You’re saying you love Dr. Glenn even without your family’s affairs being involved? In that case, why don’t you just throw it all away and elope with him?”

“P-preposterous. I have a responsibility to the Scythia family legacy… I could never do that to Kay and Lorna, either…”

“Well then, you’re not different from me at all. Our means and ends are both the same, are they not? We both want the doctor for ourselves.”

“Th-that’s not true. You’re, after all, you’re…!” Tisalia’s sword was trembling violently. The distress their conversation was causing was clear as day.

“Miss Tisalia.” Glenn spoke up, realizing the danger. How­ever, he was lost as to what he should say to her. Until now, Glenn had always come up with some sort of excuse to decline Tisalia’s invites for a marriage interview. He thought that if a man like him were to try and cheer on Tisalia’s love, it would come across as nothing but superficial.

Despite Glenn’s wavering, Tisalia’s sword moved.

“Just… just…”

“Just?”

“Just! Beeeeee! Quieeeeet!”

“Miss Tisalia?!” Glenn shouted.

The centaur princess moved.

She swung mercilessly at Arahnia with a diagonal slash. Arahnia seemed to have predicted the attack and used her threads to quickly run away.

Tisalia’s skill with a sword was wonderful, but Arahnia’s speed as she fled was extraordinary. Despite Glenn’s earlier assumption, Arahnia seemed surprisingly familiar with scenes of battle and bloodshed.

“That was…a close one!” Arahnia said. “What in heaven’s name are you doing?!”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up! Quiet! Stop chattering along with that complicated logic of yours! I don’t understand anything about love myself! I’ve never even really been properly in love before, okay?!”

“Don’t sound so proud about it!”

“Never. The. Less!” Tisalia thrust her sword towards Arahnia, who was hopping to-and-fro as she escaped deeper into the woods. “Even though that’s the case! I knew at first sight that Dr. Glenn was the one! I won’t let you say my feelings are all an illusion! I’m different from someone like you, who said she didn’t have any feelings of love for him! We’re not the same at all!”

“Ahhh… I really am no good with these types…” Arahnia groaned, as if this time she was truly having a hard time dealing with Tisalia.

However, she readied her scissors and confronted Tisalia directly. Glenn had thought for sure she would run away, but it seemed she had some intention of fighting. He wondered if she was going to fight with her scissors and if the arachne species, so accustomed to sewing, could also apply their technique to battle.

“Hold on a second, you two—take it easy with the violence,” he said.

“Doctor! It became violent a long time ago! From the moment you were captured!” Tisalia said.

It didn’t seem that they were going to let Glenn act as a peacekeeper. Tisalia’s excuse was understandable, and the excessive lengths Arahnia had gone to were more than enough to force an altercation.

Glenn wondered what he should do. He wanted the two of them to avoid getting injured as much as they possibly could—that was his instinct as a doctor, after all. He had been subjected to a terrible experience at Arahnia’s hands, but that didn’t mean he wanted her to be hurt. But with both Tisalia’s sword and Arahnia’s scissors involved, Glenn was sure that neither of them would walk away unharmed if they clashed.

“Fine. I suppose the ends justify the means, then,” Arahnia said.

“I hate people like you who don’t consider those around them!”

Ultimately, Glenn knew that he needed to stop them, even if it meant risking his own life. As Glenn stood there, observing them closely, and bracing himself to interfere—

“Both of you.” The voice was icy cold.

Everyone froze as if they had been doused by a bucket of ice water—especially Arahnia, whose face drained of blood.

“You’ve said some very selfish things arguing over my Dr. Glenn.”

Slither, slither, slither.

From the trees above, a white rope-like something coiled around Glenn. It felt more comfortable than the silk threads. Having already experienced that very touch many times before, Glenn knew it was Sapphee’s serpentine lower body.

But today, her coiling was not gentle. From what he could tell, the tail that entangled itself around him, even up to his neck, was using all of its strength.

“Quiet. Quiet. Miss Tisalia, Arahnia, both of you! Just be quiet with all your talk of love or whatever!” A lamenting tone rose in Sapphee’s words.

Glenn thought it was probably a cry of exhaustion and frustration, driven forth by all the hard work she’d been doing since arriving in the village. As she squeezed him with all of her might, he found he couldn’t stand to look her in the eye.

“It seems like you don’t understand, so I’ll be sure to make it perfectly clear—Dr. Glenn does not have any time at all to be taken up with love, relationships, or marriage meetings!”

Lamias didn’t have tear glands. Even in sorrow, they didn’t have the physical makeup to cry any tears. However, if Sapphee had been able to cry, her face right then would likely have been drenched in tears. Those were Glenn’s thoughts as his mind grew hazy from lack of oxygen.

Sapphee was unable to cry, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t suffering or in pain…

Glenn sincerely berated himself for being such a hopeless man and not realizing that sooner.

 

***

 

With the arrival of Saphentite Neikes on the scene, the one-on-one combat about to break out between Tisalia and Arahnia had stopped before it could even begin. Glenn fainted from a lack of oxygen, but only for a second. Sapphee quickly came to her senses and released her hold on Glenn. Thus, the situation came to an anti-climactic close. The only remnant of the altercation was the imprint of Sapphee’s scales on Glenn’s neck.

Arahnia made her escape, and Tisalia politely apologized to Sapphee.

From Sapphee’s point of view, it would have made more sense for Arahnia to apologize to her. She’d had no reason to expect an apology from Tisalia. After all, the centaur had drawn her sword in defense of Glenn.

There, Tisalia came to understand. She understood now the significance of Sapphee’s attitude, and why the lamia had been able to rush to Glenn’s aid when he was in a pinch.

From the very first moment Sapphee had met with Arahnia in the forest, she had known that Arahnia would have her sights set on Glenn.

 

***

 

“I’m so very sorry, Doctor,” Sapphee said. “Truly.”

“It’s fine. I know you didn’t do it on purpose.

“Even still…those marks…” Sapphee had a look of worry on her face as she stared at the marks around Glenn’s neck.

The shape of her scales was freshly imprinted on his skin, but it was nothing more than a bruise that would disappear in a few days. Glenn regretted driving Sapphee over the edge so much that he didn’t give a single thought about the bruises.

Besides, if Sapphee had actually strangled him with everything she had, the bones in his neck would have been broken. Glenn was confident that there was a certain level of force that she would not go beyond.

“More importantly,” Glenn said, “being apologized to while you’re busy drinking seems a little disingenuous…”

“I wouldn’t be able to bear this situation without drinking!” Sapphee said and took a swig of the wine in her glass.

She had finally opened the wine Tisalia had given her in exchange for examining and treating Lorna. It was a limited edition white wine from the Alraune Plantation—an extremely expensive bottle not easily acquired unless one was from a rich family like Tisalia. Sapphee hadn’t even waited until they were back in Lindworm before opening it up.

Glenn supposed he couldn’t be too surprised, though. She was called a drinker because she immediately drank any alcohol she had in her possession, after all.

“More importantly—about Miss Arahnia. Did you know that she was plotting something?” he asked.

“Well, she is my close friend.” A self-deprecating smile came to Sapphee’s face. “I wouldn’t say she was scheming. She’s always had a covetous personality. She had heard about you before, so…I figured this would happen sooner or later.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It was something I had been expecting. That and the fact that Arahnia and Miss Tisalia definitely wouldn’t get along.”

Her face growing redder by the minute, Sapphee poured wine into Glenn’s glass.

Glenn peeked out of the window of the clinic. The first snow of the season was coming down lightly. It had arrived much earlier than usual. Glenn was sure it wouldn’t pile up immediately and close off the mountain road, but the falling snow still served as an announcement that it was time for them to depart—to go home to their clinic in Lindworm.

“I’m…scared,” Sapphee said, also looking out at the snow. “Actually, I wasn’t even worried about Arahnia. Even if she did take you away from me.”

Urkh! “W-wait a second, Sapphee.” He’d just been enjoying the taste of the high-quality wine. When he heard her words, he came dangerously close to spitting it all up.

“I mean, she’s not serious. Even if your bodies became one, your hearts absolutely wouldn’t join with them.”

“W-well, I suppose that’s true.”

That arachne was just infatuated with her interest in Sapphee and her own art. If Glenn had to put it into words, he was nothing more than a tool to her—something to give her inspiration. In a way, it was extremely easy to figure her motives out. It made complete sense that Sapphee had been able to predict Arahnia’s plan.

A hedonistic Arachne. She was most likely still in the village, and Glenn wondered what she was doing at that moment. He didn’t think he’d be very surprised if she greeted Sapphee and Glenn with an innocent look on her face the next day.

Sapphee said Arahnia was a close friend, but Glenn wondered if she said that precisely because she had come to grips with that self-serving part of Arahnia’s personality.

“I love you, Doctor.”

Glenn couldn’t help but be embarrassed at hearing these words said straight to his face. He should have already been aware of Sapphee’s feelings for him, but the redness in his face was certainly not just a result of the wine he was drinking.

Immediately after she looked Glenn in the eye, Sapphee covered her face and beat the air energetically with her tail.

“Despite that…! Despite that, more rivals keep showing up!”

“Th-there really aren’t that many…”

“There are! There absolutely are! Dr. Cthulhy and Miss Tisalia! Those two are already more than troublesome enough!”

“I don’t really think Dr. Cthulhy has any interest in me anymore…”

“That is definitely not true!” Sapphee shook her head vehemently. She was completely drunk.

Glenn thought to himself that he had been right to give Sapphee some time off. She was normally a woman who hid her true feelings. It was good for her to make this time to have a drink and allow herself to let loose. It really was true that her exhaustion had built up inside of her ever since coming to the village.

Therefore, she had a couple of drinks and whined like a petulant child.

“It seems that someday someone might really take you from me, Doctor.”

“…Sapphee.”

“Arahnia won’t capture you. But Miss Tisalia is serious. She’s just a little clumsy when it comes to love and romance, and always acts earnestly because of that.”

Glenn agreed with that statement. Tisalia was straightforward and never said anything vague or superficial. The number of times she had invited him to a marriage interview was evidence enough of just how serious she was.

However, Glenn had the clinic. If Glenn married her, entered into Tisalia’s family, and became the company’s heir, he would have to cast aside all the responsibilities he had undertaken. It wasn’t something he could agree to at a moment’s notice.

“Arahnia truly always manages to stir up trouble.” Resting her head in her hand, Sapphee let out a sigh. Her tail swayed quickly back and forth, an indication of her emotional disarray.

It was odd that even with her drinking, she didn’t coil herself around Glenn like usual. She was probably worried because she had strangled Glenn earlier that day. Sapphee regretted the fresh scale marks on Glenn’s neck more than even he did.

There wasn’t anything else Glenn could do, so he gulped down his wine in one swig. He wasn’t very good with alcohol. Even just a half a bottle of wine could get his head spinning, but without liquid courage, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to tell Sapphee what was on his mind.

“Hey, Sapphee?”

“Yes?”

“I still have the clinic, and I don’t know how a lot of things are going to play out in the future, but…there is one thing that I can promise you. You’re the only one who I ever share a drink with, Sapphee.” Despite being timid, with the liquor in his stomach, Glenn finally managed to get those words out to Sapphee, almost blushing with embarrassment.

The words were equally embarrassing for Sapphee. Her whole face—even her ears—grew bright red. She couldn’t look at Glenn, averting her eyes left and right. Her tail frantically swung back and forth.

“Th-th-th-those… those kind of words aren’t going to deceive me!”

“You’re too loud. Sapphee. You’re going to wake up the fairies.”

In actuality, Glenn already sensed a gaze staring out from the corner of the clinic. It made sense that the fairies would be curious about all the noise, believing that their work for the day should have already been over.

“W-well, that’s because you said something so embarrassing! H-honestly!”

“Yes, yes, it’s my fault. I’m a little tipsy, too—why don’t we head to bed?”

“O-okay. Oh no, the wine’s already all gone…”

Sapphee had been the one to drink most of it, but despite that, she was still reluctant to part from the bottle. She had drunk a considerable amount, but Glenn supposed that for her to still be unsatisfied was only to be expected of a heavy drinker like her.

At that moment, Glenn realized something—something moving. He’d glimpsed it out of the corner of his eye as it moved across the room.

“……?”

As he had assumed, the small shadow belonged to the clinic’s helper fairies. But with their work for the day over, it was out of the question that they would be working extra. They were extremely strict with both their work and their payment. They would never work beyond what they had been paid to do.

It didn’t seem that they were reacting to the uproar that Sapphee was making, but then he saw another fairy crossing the edge of the room. They all seemed to be moving toward the clinic’s entrance. Glenn wondered why. They had nothing to do; there was no reason for them to go outside—

Wait, Glenn thought, that’s not it.

Perhaps this was like when rats fled from a sinking ship—

“…?!”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah?!”

The clinic rocked violently.

The wine bottle on top of the table fell to the floor and shattered loudly.

“E-earthquake?!” Sapphee shouted.

“Sapphee, we need to get outside!”

The trembling was gone in an instant.

A number of things on the clinic shelves had fallen down, but they couldn’t worry about them now. They had to get somewhere safe while they still could—but just before the thought came to Glenn’s mind, there was another violent quake.

“Eeek!!” Sapphee shrieked.

The trembling was a shock even to Glenn, who wasn’t as bad with earthquakes as Sapphee. Somehow, he kept his composure and tried to guide her out. The rumbling came again intermittently after that.

Intermittently? Glenn wondered to himself.

“Sapphee, hurry!”

“O-okay!”

Thinking the whole situation strange, Glenn quickly left the clinic with Sapphee and headed outside.

 

***

 

Glenn and Sapphee managed to find temporary relief in the village square, where there wasn’t anything around that could fall on top of them. The residents of the village had all gathered there, and everyone had a distressed look on their face. Tisalia and Arahnia were there, as well.

The rumblings hadn’t let up. However, having come from a region that often experienced earthquakes, Glenn came to a realization: These weren’t earthquakes at all.

The ground was, without a doubt, trembling. However, the intermittent vibrations were beating out in a fixed rhythm. It was almost as if a giant or something similar were walking along, pounding the ground with its feet, one step at a time.

That can’t be, Glenn thought.

“Dr. Glenn, are you all right?” the village elder asked, catching sight of him.

“Oh, yes—yes, I am. It seems to be a big earthquake—has anyone been hurt?” Glenn asked as a reflex. It was half-instinctual, simply part of his nature to worry more about the injuries of other people than his own safety—even in times like this.

“Fortunately, no one’s been harmed by these quakes. However…” The village elder hesitated.

Again, the square shook violently. The tremor was over in an instant. Glenn knew he was right now—this wasn’t a regular earthquake.

“I dispatched one of the young harpies to the mountain summit,” the elder continued. “I think that this quake—I don’t think any of the recent tremors have been earthquakes.”

“They aren’t earthquakes,” Glenn mused. “In that case, what could they possibly be?”

“It’s an old story,” the village elder told Glenn, a hard look on his face. “I’m sure this is the rage of the legendary Giant God, who is said to have dwelt in the Vivre Mountains since ages past.”

It sounded almost like a fairy tale, but the village elder’s eyes were completely serious.

“According to the report from the young harpy who just returned, there is someone with a body far larger than that of any man approaching the village from the summit, the rumblings of the earth accompanying them as they move.”

Glenn’s face went pale.

He couldn’t believe such an outrageous story, but as soon as that thought came to him, another large tremor rocked the earth, as if it were laughing scornfully at Glenn’s disbelief. Sapphee’s shoulders trembled in fright, and Glenn gently nestled up close to her.

The rumbling of the earth sounded from far away.

Glenn heard them as the roars of the giant that the young harpy had laid eyes on.