Translator: Manga0205
「Ahー ha ha! You really are a noble-sama. Going by that look of yours, you've never been embraced by a man, or killed another person, have you?」
「Wh……what's wrong with that!」
The battle was overwhelming. Even Olivia, who was able to display that talent of hers if she were in a position of commanding an army, probably accumulated the minimum amount of training as a knight. She might be much better than me, but there was only dim lighting, the footing was bad, and on top of that, her opponent was a demon that attacked her with movements that weren't Human. Unable to exchange even three blows, Olivie's sword was knocked down from her hand.
Both of her legs were tied up by the string the Arachne spit out, and she was in a state that looked like she were half sewn alongside the wall. Even her dominant hand that remained had her weapon blown away just now. Coming down from the ceiling, the Arachne slowly approached Olivia.
「Ahh, how could you be so pitiful. You're going to be killed by a demon inside such a gloomy mine like this, without even knowing the touch of a man. Even Count Abram must be disappointed about having just a useless niece, don't you think? ……Ahh, what is it? Is it true that you're Cout Abram's illegitimate child? In that case, he might be a little sad, won't he? The influential looking guys of his lineage were generally killed while they were young after all. Ahh, some of those times were me pulling the strings, weren't they. Ahahahaha!」
I couldn't see the Arachne's face, but it was probably warped with sadistic delight. She probably didn't plan on killing Olivie just yet, but there was no telling when she would change her mind. I could somehow tell that I was in a hurry. 'Be calm' is what I repeated in my mind several times.
On the other side of the wall, Olivie was held captive by the Officer of Arms……by the Arachne, and was being tormented. Since the voice pipe was functioning, only their voices were transmitted, but the eye wasn't stationed at an angle that could display the wall side very well. Crowding mechanisms in areas with hidden passages was my own suggestion, and my aim was to be able to immediately break into the site at times like this. However, a portion of the wall slanted from the aftermath of the explosion, and the hidden passage door became unopenable.
Shiro, who I called for, cried with a low voice. Ahh, there's no way around it. It's become impossible to continue on in secrecy, but we can't be any slower than this. I called out to Sara who was waiting behind me.
「……It's your turn.」
「Officer of Arms-dono, could it be that you're……!?」
「……Y, you……!?」
「I can tell even from looking on top of your underarmor, but you've got a fairly grown up body, don't you. Why didn't you use this and shake your ass to the nobles and flirt with them? What, did you fall in love with that male childhood friend that you met at that village?」
With that nostalgic name pulled out, her body responded with a start for only an instant.
「Ahahahahahaha! What's this, was that the bull's eye? Man, sorry about that. With a stupid reason like that, to think that you don't know the touch of a man even with such a great body. What, you can be relieved. Although you'll be dying here, I'll slowly kill you after teaching you about a woman's pleasures. Then after you die, you can swing your hips at that man. Since he'll probably be waiting for you there!」
Looking down on Olivia who raised a frenzied voice, the Arachne cheerfully whispered to her.
「Ooh, so scary, so scary. This is why innocent women are so slow. That man, about this time, he's probably turned into a corpse in the middle of some forest, and being pecked at by crows or something. He was already dead on the second night after meeting you. He's probably already become nothing but bones. ……The jewel that I handed over to him calling it settlement money from you was made so that it blew out poison after the second day after all!」
While listening to the Officer of Arms' loud, offensive laughter, Olivia's facial expression froze over. Strength left her body, and her gaze fell as if all of her willpower had been consumed. Unable to no longer bear the tears that she had continued to endure this whole time, *porori, porori*, they came pouring out.
「Ahh……Good, that's a good face you have, Olivia-ojou-san. Not making it in time, unable to do anything, regretting various things……that's the face of a dejected loser. It's very……good. Ahh, I can't get enough of it, I'm getting wet. The Dungeon Master of this place has probably fled long ago. You will die here, and some other force that isn't Count Abram will probably obtain this now uninhabited mine. You dying had entered the plans long ago. That's why, at the very least, I'll teach you about the thing called a woman's pleasures so……Die after you've let me have my fun, okay……Hn?」
「Monster! Get away from Olivia-hime!」
「This trash, made an injury on me!」
Her face filled with rage was already something that couldn't be called Human. That form of hers where she bared her fangs and had several eyes risen to the surface of her forehead, it was truly the atypical appearance of a spider. Freely manipulating two sets of arms and two sets of legs, she jumped at him. The messenger soldier raise his voice in fright, was soon caught, and hurled at the wall. The surface of the wall, which had become brittle from the impact of the explosion, crumbled, and the upper half of the messenger soldier's body was buried.
「Hmph, a nuisance got in the way……Now then, it's just the two of us again, isn't it, Ojou-sama?」
「……Ara, it looks like a survivor of the dungeon's monsters got sexually excited by your female scent and has come here. Have you ever seen an Orc? They're pig-humans that love to kill and rape women. Shall we give your first time to the Orc? Or would you like to have it ripped apart by my foreleg?」
The cheerfully speaking Arachne noticed one thing that was strange after she finished talking. It wasn't the reaction of the crying Olivia. It was that the Orc's groaning and the sound of wall being hit had vanished. In its place, although it was small, a clear voice could faintly be heard. That was……
「Fulfill thy contract, come forth from the staff of stars, stalwart Salamandra!」
Together with that yell, a ball of fire that was a size bigger than the last time I saw it flew towards the wall. Together with the explosion, the hidden door was blown away.
「Yosh, that was excellent, Sara!」
After patting and crumpling Sara's hair, I instructed the Orc Leader that was on standby, and had him rush inside. As if being hidden by that huge build of his, me, Sara, Astarte, and Shiro barged into the passage.
「What!?」
A sudden explosion from an area that the spider Mazoku, the Arachne, didn't know about and didn't have any jewels installed in. And then, since the Orc that barged in attacked her, the Arachne was considerably shaken up. The Orc Leader's attack made a direct hit on the Arachne's arm. The Arachne made a small shriek, but skillfully clung onto the ceiling just like that and moved about. This definitely was an opponent that was hard to fight……That's right, if it were a fight using a close range weapon.
「Sharpshootingg!」
「Fulfill thy contract, come forth from the staff of stars, stalwart Salamandra!」
Consecutive use of magic was greatly limited. Not only was movement limited in the middle of spell chanting, the mental fatigue was also large and the chanting time wasn't short. If Sara was alone, the Arachne would have probably gotten close to her and tear her to pieces. It was for this reason that the Orc Leader and Shiro were buying time. Maybe because the upper limit of her internal magical power was increased from being turned into a Mazoku, Sara's magic had much more power than before, and it made a direct hit on the Arachne.
Raising a scream, the Arachne came falling down. The Orc Leader struck her many times, and instantly drove her into a corner. Taking that chance, Shiro and I split up the work and installed mechanisms in several places. ……Although I say installed, it was just throwing containers filled with some fluids. While breathing rough breathes, Sara went into her third chant. The Arachne still wasn't defeated.
Thread was sprayed onto the Orc Leader's face, and using the opening from him being distracted, the Arachne jumped and gained some distance.
Immediately after she turned around to look at us, the Arachne's complexion changed. The passage that we came in from was lit up, and she probably had eyes that worked in the dark to begin with. ……Seeing my face, she stiffened up for only a moment. This was our reunion after several days, if she didn't get surprised, there would have been no meaning in me showing my face.
「Eli……ott……?」
Olivie, who was affixed to the wall, muttered that with a voice that sounded as if she had seen a ghost or something. The hidden Astarte was cutting up the threads that restrained Olivie, and would probably free her soon.
「Y……You bastard, why!?」
The Arachne asked that question. Despite counting the time in my mind, I did my best to show that I had leeway and produced a smiling face.
「Don't you think that coming help when a childhood friend is in a pinch is like a fairy tale and a bit cool?」
I intentionally threw the situation into chaos. If she noticed my aim, the chance would be crushed. Guide her thoughts. Don't let her notice. Don't let her see the surroundings.
「You declared that it was settlement money, but in actual fact, it was a trap. For simply driving away an undesirable lover that was getting close to Olivie, I thought that you went too far.」
It seemed that the Arachne noticed that the premises of her own plan was errored. ……Yosh. I wanted to guide her thoughts "there".
「Ahh, Diana told me all about your plan. She's a good girl, isn't she. It's pitiable that you abuse her.」
That's right. There wasn't really any problems with her becoming aware of that.
What I didn't want her to notice was the existence of the volatile oil that Shiro and I scattered a bit earlier and……
「……Come forth, stalwart Salamandra!」
The existence of Sara who continued to chant her spell behind me.
Flames spread out in an instant, and engulfed the Arachne's body. Her scream was drowned out, and the inside of the dark cavern became bright as if it were the daytime for only an instant.
The volatile oil immediately went out. The wounds from the flames, honestly speaking, it probably wouldn't result in taking her life. My aim was on something else. One was the impact, and then the other was……her breathing. The air inside caves immediately became thin, and that was why charcoal miners needed to rest frequently. When fire burned inside a glass jar, the air inside seemed to decrease, and it showed movements as if the surrounding air was being sucked in. It didn't go all that well but there was a time when I made bottled preserved food and tried to see if I could make it airtight with this method.
Even if she was a demon, she still needed to breath. If we were able to take away the surrounding air all at once…… A large sound was made, and the Arachne crumbled down. She twitched and trembled, but she showed no signs of starting to move. ……
「Phew!」
Taking a deep breath, I squated down on the ground. It seemed that I won the gamble. ……I didn't know if we would have won or not if we didn't make a surprise attack. The Arachne's body suddenly became smaller, and returned to the appearance of an injured Officer of Arms. ……The Arachne had completely lost consciousness.
「Eliott!」
「You're living! You're alive! ……Thank goodness, thank goodnessss……」
After that, it didn't turn into words. She was saying something mixed in with her sobbing, but I couldn't really understand her. Thanks to her jumping at me while I was squatting down, I flashily fell down, and my clothes became covered in soot, but for now, one danger has passed.
However, things still haven't ended. Olivie had come to know various things. And then, my objective wasn't to defeat the Arachne.
「……Olivie, I have something I want to tell you.」
About me. And then, about how I will obtain you.