So I’m a Spider, So What?, Vol. 3

by Okina Baba

  “My master? Yeah, that person’s not human.”

  “Heh-heh-heh. With my Evasion skill, your snowballs will never hit m— Oof! Hey, Sue, that’s against the rules! Ow, ow… Sue! That’s not snow! I told you, no throwing rocks! You’ll hurt someone!”

  “The hero is humanity’s greatest hope. So I won’t ever lose. I swear it.”

  Memories of Julius flood my mind.

  My older brother was always smiling.

  A smile so full of kindness that it brought peace of mind to all who saw it.

  To me, my brother will always be the hero.

  Am I really supposed to succeed him in that role?

  I don’t know if I can do it.

  But I can’t abandon the goal my brother was pursuing just because I don’t have confidence in myself.

  “A dream’s a good thing to have. Some people might laugh at you or say it’s impossible. But all you have to do is keep chasing your own goal. A world where everyone can laugh and live in peace… I’ll keep on chasing that ideal, even until the day I die.”

  I know I can be naive.

  But my brother was even more so.

  Still, I want to carry on those naive ideals.

  I doubt I’ll ever become as good a hero as Julius was.

  I can’t fight purely for world peace like he did.

  Half my motivation comes from fulfilling the obligations that come with the Hero title.

  But now, I think the other half comes from my true feelings.

  “Shun…no, Hero Schlain.”

  Hyrince speaks to me in a different tone.

  “I wasn’t able to protect Julius. I’m a failure as a shield. But if you can settle for such a pathetic tank, please allow me to serve as the shield bearer for the new hero.”

  “Hyrince…”

  “Since I couldn’t protect Julius, let me protect you instead.”

  “Thank you, Hyrince. I would be honored to work with you.”

  Hyrince and I exchange a firm handshake.

  Instead of trying to save the world, I’m carrying on my brother’s will to do so.

  No true hero would think that way, I’m sure.

  I’m nothing but an impure imitation of my brother Julius.

  But that’s all right.

  This is how I’ve found my resolve as a hero.

  Even Hyrince doesn’t know the identity of the “white girl” who defeated my brother.

  Apparently, no one has ever seen her in any previous battles.

  Hyrince speculated that she could be a very high-ranking demon who usually doesn’t participate in combat.

  Or that she might even be the Demon Lord herself.

  If so, as the new hero, I’ll have to face her someday.

  Even if that’s not the case, I still won’t be running away from her.

  My brother, the hero, was a wonderful person who pursued his ideals.

  Crumbling into dust is definitely not an ending he deserved.

  I’m sure his last moments were full of regret that he was killed before he could accomplish his goals.

  Or maybe he didn’t even have time to think about that.

  Just like Hyrince passed out with no idea of what was going on, my brother might have died before he realized what was happening.

  I want to clear away those regrets.

  More than anything, I know I can never forgive that girl.

  “So it might still be some time before you begin work as the hero?”

  “Yeah. The Church still needs to determine the new saint, so I think it won’t be until after that stuff gets set up.”

  “I see.”

  “Sue…I’m sure you know this, but once I start working as the hero, we can’t be by each other’s sides like we always used to be.”

  “Mm-hmm. I knew you would say that.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “No need to apologize. I am not a child anymore.”

  “Right. You’re a strong adult, I know that. But I can’t bring you with me. I don’t want to put you in danger.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s selfish of me, I know. I’m sorry.”

  “As I said, you don’t need to apologize.”

  “Okay. You should just keep enjoying yourself at the academy until graduation. You’ll be safe there.”

  “I suppose.”

  “Even when I do start working as the hero, I’ll try to see you whenever I can. Just like Julius did.”

  “Brother, are you going to try to avenge Julius?”

  “Yeah. I don’t know if I can, but I have to try.”

  “Either way, I don’t think you need to worry about that for a while.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “You’ll know soon enough.”

  “I see… All right. I’ll try not to think about that for now.”

  “Good.”

  “All right, I’d better go. Good night.”

  “Very well. Good-bye, Brother.”

  THE HERO’S MASTER

  It is time for my daily magic power control practice.

  I cycle the magical energy through my body. Refining it, increasing its density.

  However, I have been unable to concentrate well of late, so the circulation is imperfect.

  In these past few years, I have felt no small amount of impediment due to my age, but this current condition stems from a different cause.

  “Master. There’s still a lot of postwar work to be done, so please don’t slip away on me now! And please get rid of all that crazy magic power! Are you trying to blow this whole place off the map?!”

  One of my particularly fussy students has discovered me.

  “I am a mage not a secretary, you know.”

  “Mage or not, you are in the service of the court, so at least write a document or two once in a while, please!”

  “Do not speak such foolishness. A master’s job is the job of his disciples. You are a mage of the court as well, so surely you can take care of such matters on your own?”

  “You’re the one saying foolish stuff, old man. As the Renxandt Empire’s head court mage, you can’t slack off.”

  My fool disciple lifts up my body, still in a meditating position, carrying me away against my will.

  Where is your respect for your master?

  Truly, such an imbecile I have for a disciple.

  “Master. You wouldn’t be thinking something rude about me right now, would you?”

  “If you realize that, then you must surely realize your actions are deserving of unkind thoughts. This is good. You may be a fool, but at least you are an observant fool.”

  “You just wanted to call me a fool, didn’t you?”

  My foolish disciple sighs dramatically.

  “All my disciples are fools. The fool who comes crying to me over paperwork. The fool who becomes a commanding officer despite lacking any motivation. The fool who fails to understand magic yet pretends to be an adult. I have shed my heart’s blood to teach you all, yet not one of you fools has surpassed me yet.”

  “Well, sure. You’re the strongest mage in the world, aren’t you, Master? We can’t really surpass that very easily.”

  “Harrumph! ‘Strongest mage in the world,’ indeed. The strongest human mage, perhaps. But there are those in this world who far surpass me in power. That master, for example…”

  The image of the one whose mastery of the occult was beyond understanding is still clearly etched in my mind.

  I have never once forgotten the divine appearance of the person whose power approached godhood.

  There are some creatures in this world, like that master, who would likely never be surpassed by mere humans.

  “What? No way. There can’t be any creatures that surpass you, Master! You didn’t even break a sweat defeating that demon general, remember?”

  True enough, in the war when all those demons attacked at once, I was able to take down their commander.

  However, this brings me litt
le pride.

  “Demons are just humans with a little more hair. Pathetic. Humans and demons, crushed together in one tiny vessel. We do not understand how small and insignificant our lives truly are.”

  After seeing that master, I find little distinction between humans and demons.

  It can be said that demons boast stronger stats than humans, but from my point of view, the difference is virtually insignificant.

  “Master. I know I’ve said this before, but don’t say things like that to anyone but us, all right? You are free to admire that master and debase yourself if you really wish, but you remain the strongest mage.”

  “Yes, of that I am well aware.”

  “I hope so. You talk about that master to anyone who will listen, it seems. There are some elder folk who were directly hurt by it, so please try to refrain from mentioning it, all right?”

  “As I said, I understand. Do not trouble me with such mundane concerns.”

  “In fact, you yourself were near fatally injured back then, were you not? I have a hard time understanding how you could still admire it in spite of all that.”

  “I was conceited back then. But that master truly opened my eyes to the fact that there is always someone stronger than oneself. I became aware of the smallness of my existence. I am thankful from the bottom of my heart for my encounter with that master.”

  It was sixteen years ago when I met that master, while I was at the peak of my confidence.

  I truly believed I was the strongest in all the world and that I had truly mastered magic.

  But that encounter neatly shattered my overgrown ego.

  “I was a fool back then. So anyone who cannot share my enlightenment now is a fool as well.”

  “Yes, yes.”

  My foolish disciple is barely listening now.

  “Especially foolish are the disciples who cannot understand this and die before me.”

  Several of my disciples were killed in this battle. Mere children, far younger than I.

  Among them was my fool disciple who was manipulated into misjudging his own abilities by the title of Hero, and thus hastened his own death.

  The fool disciple who held the naive desire to save the entire world with his meager skills.

  Saving something so large can be accomplished only if one is willing to become, perhaps, a god.

  A single individual can save only so many, no matter how strong they might be.

  We must focus on trying to save what is visible to us, and no more.

  That is the most we mere humans can hope for.

  But that fool disciple never understood that, even in the end.

  Why do I go on trying to teach these foolish disciples?

  Only in the hopes of giving them the power to protect themselves, if nothing else.

  But as soon as they gain even a little power, they also grow arrogant.

  They believe they can save others, and in the end, they cannot even protect themselves.

  “Disturbing my concentration during magical power practice is already insolent enough. Fool disciples should never die before their master.”

  The fool disciple carrying me makes no response to my doleful murmur.

  DRAGON SLAYER

  The battle over, the fire dragon looks down at the magma sea it created.

  Its monster lackeys are present, but no sign of the spider.

  The monsters from its army have Heat Nullification, but the spider definitely didn’t.

  There’s no way it could have survived a direct hit from the fire dragon’s strongest breath attack.

  That’s what you think, idiot!

  A giant blob of poison appears above the fire dragon.

  This poison is nothing like the Weak Poison I wrapped myself in before.

  It’s my lethal Deadly Spider Poison, mixed with the maximum amount of Paralysis.

  The deadly poison lands a direct hit on the dragon, its defenses down after seeing an apparent victory.

  The huge glob of poison breaks through the Flame Wrap and bites into the dragon’s body.

  That’s when I throw in a full-powered scythe attack!

  The perfectly timed blow lands right in the gap where the flames have been momentarily extinguished by the deadly poison.

  I pour all my strength into that one attack.

  It’s a double combo of Deadly Poison Attack and Rot Attack!

  The Rot Attack shreds the dragon’s hard scales while the poison sinks deep into its body.

  My ultimate physical attack is pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.

  The fire dragon lets loose a roar of pain and falls into the magma.

  I quickly pull myself back up to the ceiling with my thread.

  I’m sure the fire dragon was convinced it saw me die.

  It must be pretty confused right about now.

  But the particulars of how I survived are simple.

  For starters, I didn’t get hit by that breath attack.

  In fact, I never came down from the ceiling in the first place.

  This play was made possible by the Heretic Magic level-6 spell: Phantasm.

  It’s one of the trump cards I’ve been hanging on to.

  Phantasm is basically a spell that creates hallucinations.

  I used the dragon’s momentary panic when it was about to swallow the poison I synthesized to cast the spell on it.

  Without an opportunity like that, Heretic Magic could’ve been easily dispelled by Imperial Scales combined with the fire dragon’s high resistance.

  To the fire dragon, it must have looked like I dropped to the ground, but I actually just kept clinging to the ceiling.

  Then, when it let its guard down thinking the battle was over, I swooped in with the surprise attack.

  Even a fire dragon is bound to take a lot of damage from my strongest physical attack.

  For a moment, I consider using Phantasm to escape.

  But I can’t bring myself to run away again.

  Sure, I’ve spent a lot of time in my life as a spider just running away.

  But if I keep that up, I’ll be no different from when I ran away from the humans who burned down my home.

  To live with pride.

  That’s the goal I swore I would attain.

  But I haven’t truly regained my pride, even after all this time.

  I can’t go on like that.

  I am the Ruler of Pride, after all.

  I have to live up to that title by living as proudly as I can.

  So I won’t run away.

  As long as I have the slightest chance of winning, no matter how slim that chance might be, I’ll never give up.

  I’m going to defeat this dragon.

  And in doing so, I’ll say good-bye to the weakling I was before.

  That’s right. I’m better than some irritating dragon.

  …?

  “Irritating”?

  Say what?

  I thought I was afraid of the earth dragon. Since when do I think of it as “irritating”?

  Huh?

  Where is this feeling coming from?

  Well, that doesn’t matter right now.

  I may have landed a huge hit, but I’m still at a disadvantage here.

  I mean, my HP is at 1 now.

  I’m surviving only because of Perseverance.

  The dragon was whittling down my HP for a while, but the blowback from my big attack was the last nail in the coffin.

  Rot Attack is very strong, but it comes at a price.

  And that’s not the only damage I took just now.

  Even after being extinguished by my poison, the Flame Wrap still inflicted damage on me.

  I still have some MP left.

  Which means I’m not going to die just yet.

  But a single hit from any one of the fire dragon’s attacks is probably enough to do me in.

  My decisive strike definitely did a number on the fire dragon, but it’s still got some strength left.

  Avoidi
ng the magma, I land on the ground for real this time.

  The fire dragon is still sinking into the magma.

  Now’s my chance.

  I activate my second trump card, the one I’ve been preparing since this battle began.

  My MP decreases at an alarming speed.

  In my current situation, every point of MP lost means a point closer to death.

  But activating this magic is worth the cost.

  Don’t you agree, magic brain number one and number two?

  Sure do!

  Count on it!

  See, my Parallel Minds skill leveled up, so I’ve got a new friend: magic brain number two!

  Now I’ve got double the brainpower for invoking magic.

  Magic brain number two has been preparing this spell all this time, and now it’s ready to use, thanks to the help of magic brain number one.

  Now I open thee, Hell Gate!

  Immediately, the whole area goes dark.

  Even the glow of the magma is swallowed up by the intense darkness rising from the ground.

  It’s as if the darkness of hell itself is seeping into this world from below.

  It engulfs the magma, the ground, the enormous fire dragon.

  The overflowing darkness swallows everything.

  Abyss Magic level 1: Hell Gate.

  An extremely dark and powerful magic that heralds the opening of hell.

  That’s what I unleashed into this world.

  The darkness engulfs everything, converges, and abruptly absorbs back into the ground and disappears.

  As if it were sealed away.

  As if the gates of hell had closed shut once more.

  All that remains is the beaten, battered fire dragon and me.

  Seriously?

  You survived that?

  But the fire dragon has precious little HP remaining.

  And its MP and SP are virtually gone.

  It must have converted them into HP with the help of its skills.

  That’s the only way it could possibly have survived Hell Gate.

  My own MP is rather low after using Hell Gate, too.

  I’m in pretty rough shape myself.

  Basically, both of us are struggling to stay on our feet.

  The next blow will decide the victor.

  The fire dragon’s chosen attack is also its most primitive one.

  Namely, a body slam.

  Yeah. It’s a good choice.

  With virtually no MP or SP, it’s the fire dragon’s most effective means of attack.