262 – A Moment at the Shrine

I return to the dragon-god’s shrine with Aro.

My attention focuses on a big tree that wasn’t there before. The tree uproots itself and a large mouth opens on it. Oh, it was lesser treant-san.

The treant shakes, and yellow-green spiderlings plop to the ground. It’s the baby araenies. More of them come crawling out of the shrine.

“Gaah! Guah!”

My partner stretches her head out, and the spiderlings come closer. They climb onto her head and start tapping her with their feet, playing around.

…It seems she really wants to keep them. What’s going to come of them, I don’t know.

But with them welcoming us back like that, this place is really starting to feel like a home. The spiderlings, the treant, Aro…and now the clay rabbit, too. Yeah, yeah, it’s nice that it’s gotten lively. It’s nice, but… It’s really starting to look like I’m headed down the demon lord route. When these guys grow up, they could form quite the war potential.

“Gaah! Gaah!”

My partner raises a scream-like voice. I turn to look, and see her face is covered in spider thread. What sort of game is she playing now?

『Take them! Take them off me!』

If you shake your head enough, they’ll fall off…

『If they fall badly, they could die!』

A-ah… I don’t think these guys are so fragile that you have to worry that much. Spiders which would stick their nest to the head of an A-rank evil dragon can’t be that common.

I lightly tap her head with my forefoot and all the spiderlings drop to the ground.

“Gaa…”

She rests her head on the ground in exhaustion.

…Rather than the spiderlings, there’s something I should be paying attention to. A short distance from the shrine, food has been placed.

The Lithovars must have come and left them. When they came, the treant probably pretended to be a tree, I expect. The image of Baron looking dejected at the empty shrine floats to the surface of my mind.

Thank you as always. My partner also rouses from her groggy state and drools as she looks at the lined up foods.

Since I’ve been hunting all day, I’m starving to be honest. There’s a jar of alcohol, a boar, a big box… Huh, isn’t the lid of that box a little bit tilted? I wonder what’s inside.

I think about the future as I approach the food. The most pressing issue is the reconciliation between the dragon-god faction and the anti-dragon-god faction. Even if the anti-dragon-god faction breaks, there’s still the question of whether the strangely strict dragon-god faction will accept them. From what Tatark said, that’s likely to be the biggest obstacle. If the dragon-god has influence, then I should be able to make do somehow… In the first place, I don’t know what the extent of the dragon-god faction’s animosity is, anyway.

As I approach the food, I get a bad premonition.

『Alcohol! Alcohol! Alcohol!』

My partner chants to me. Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. Even if the box explodes when I open it, I’d be able to handle it somehow.

Thinking that, I stretch my forefoot towards the wooden box.

I hear an unpleasant rustling sound and stop moving. The wooden box shakes a little.

My [Presence Perception], which has been silent all this time, suddenly starts warning me. My spine gets colder and colder. Th-this feeling, I remember it.

However, I can’t exactly leave it as it is, either. I don’t feel like crushing a box of gifts the Lithovars left for me, contents-and-all. Maybe they have a custom of capturing animals alive for me. I should decide what to do after I’ve seen what’s inside.

I scratch at the lid with my claw.

『…Better stop, it’s not good.』

She must have sensed something too. But, I swing my forefoot up regardless. The lid flies off. With a quick reaction as though it’s chasing the lid, a giant bug jumps out.

A striped body, with eight long legs sprouting from it. Far too many teeth line its mouth.

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“VeeEEE!”

As I thought, it’s an abyss. Not wanting to squish it with my bare hands, I take a step back.

“VeAah!”

The moment I do, it spits the remains of something out of its mouth. Droplets of blood and meat covered in a pale green saliva. Probably, the abyss had gotten into the box and was in the middle of eating the tribute of meat.

I guard with my wings right away, and get the sensation of something uncomfortably warm sticking to them.

“VeeEEE! VeeEEE!”

Moving its legs fast, the abyss runs away from me in a zig-zag.

“GuuoOOOOh!”

I pour magic power into the wings I closed to block, then open them forcefully to release [Wind Slash]. I don’t fire a single shot, but eight simultaneous shots.

The blades of wind gouge through earth, trees, and rocks as they continue towards it. One of them reaches the abyss, cutting its body in two.

【Normal Skill [Wind Blade] has risen from level 5 to 6.】

Cream-coloured fluid spurts from the abyss’ body.

【180 experience points have been acquired.】
【Due to the Title Skill [Walking Egg: Lv -], an additional 180 experience points have been acquired.】

…Fuu, I’m starting to get used to exterminating them. I still don’t want to look at its dead body though. 

Just when I thought the lid was a little misaligned, an abyss pops out. I want it to stop, seriously.

I gently take a look inside the box to see three bird-like monsters. All of them have had the bellies bitten into, their innards exposed… Why did it eat each of them bit-by-bit? Was it trying to harass me?

My stomach might be empty, but I don’t want to eat the abyss’ leftovers… For that matter, this bird, it hasn’t got abyss eggs laid in it, has it? It’s okay, right? I’m pretty sure God’s Voice said they lay their eggs in monsters larger than themselves. If that’s the case, then these birds should be safe since they’re smaller than it… That should be the case, but with the way they’ve been eaten and scattered around it just seems too unclean. There’s even some saliva-like liquid on them.

My partner’s also staring at the remains of the abyss’s meal with a more serious expression than I’ve ever seen on her face. As I thought, this is too much for her, too. That would be the case.

『…With eyes closed, it’s edible.』

S-seriously…? Don’t try and do the impossible now.

As declared, she closes her eyes and swallows the bird meat (abyss’ leftovers) whole. With ragged breaths, she opens her eyes.

『Water, want to drink… Water…』

Y-you didn’t have to push yourself that hard… No, we share our body, so I know how empty your stomach was too…

『Could just be my imagination, but my mouth feels sticky…』

…Aah – I get it. There are times when I get that feeling too. For that matter, if it bothers you that much then why did you eat it? Aren’t you a bit too much of a foul feeder? Where does that obsession for food come from anyway?

Exasperated, I turn to look at the jar of alcohol. For now, let’s sterilise your mouth with alcohol. It’s okay for you to drink it all.

She raises the jar to the air between her teeth, drinking the contents in one go. When she finishes, she puts the jar back on the ground.

『Aah… I seriously felt like crying back there…』

I see, I see, you’re okay now…

As I breathe a sigh of relief and amazement, I see the spiderlings swarming over the abyss’ corpse. They bite pieces off, wrapping them in thread.

My eyes bulge reflexively. Those guys, are they seriously going to eat the abyss? For that matter, is it even edible?

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