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“Gaaaaaaaaaah!”

In the morning I am woken up by the sound of an earnest roar . I rub my eyes and stretch my neck .

The light leaking in from the entrance is still dim . It must be quite early in the morning . I would have liked to have slept in another two hours or so .

Well then . After checking the entrance I look towards Aro in the back of the shrine .

Though her facial expression is as unreadable as ever, she’s waving her arms and legs in a hurry . She looks at me through her empty eye sockets, then as if to get me to check, glances over to my partner .

“Gaah! GaaaaAH! GaaaaAAH!”

She’s howling as if she’s lost her mind, her head twisted to the side .

Stuck to her forehead there’s the burst remnants of the egg sac . Crawling over her face, there are eight fist-sized spiders .

“Gaaaaaah!”

Ah, they’ve finally hatched . They’re covered in green fur, the same colour as the fur on leg of their parent that was waving around .

Spider-san, your children have hatched . I look towards the corner where the spider’s corpse rests .

…I should get around to burying it soon . For that matter, I should give the whole shrine a clean .

“Gaaaah! Gaaaah!”

Ah right, first off I should check their species . I concentrate on one of the spiders crawling on my crying partner .

【[Baby Araenie]: E-rank monster】

【A species of furry spiderlings . 】

【Though its potential is diverse, because it has many enemies only a few individuals are able to become an adult . 】

【It has a bitter flavour, but is surprisingly tasty . 】

The parent spider was also an araenie, if I remember correctly . Many enemies, huh . Don’t worry you guys, that person you’re crawling all over is a full-fledged carer who’s going to raise you all .

“GaaaaaAH, AaaaAAAaah!”

…I suppose it’s about time I rescue her . I lightly tap her face with my foreleg . The spiderlings crawling over her drop to the ground . Some get stuck upside down, and some quickly right themselves and start crawling through the shrine .

My partner limply rests her chin on the ground .

“Guua…”

Groaning softly, she looks up at me . Tears are welling up in her eyes .

…With how she had the egg sacs stuck to her face, I could tell something like this was bound to happen . Perhaps I should have stopped her after all .

Shasha, shasha . Shasha, shasha .

I thought it was the spiderling’s cry, but it’s the sound of their hairs brushing against each other . The rustling sounds are echoing throughout the shrine, making a rather creepy effect . If a human entered a den of these to fight them, even though the adults are only D-rank monsters, they’d be too scared to do anything . Araenie are meant to be docile though .

I hear a clip-clap sound of bones . Taking care not to bump my head into the ceiling, I turn around to see Aro surrounded by the spiderlings . Her head rotates as she looks around at the slowly gathering spiderlings .

Just as I think they’ve stopped moving, in the next moment they all rush forwards towards her . A terrific number of footsteps echo . I stretch my head out, and Aro desperately climbs on . Before the spiderlings can follow, I raise my head .

The spiderlings quickly lose interest in her, each of them scattering away to explore the shrine . These guys, they really are free-willed .

From my forehead, I feel a vibration . Aro is shivering . She must have been quite scared… I’ll let her down after she’s had some time to calm down .

Discipline them properly, partner . It’s regrettable, but depending on the situation, we might have to force them out .

“Gaa…”

Traumatised by the experience of them crawling over her, she is being more docile than usual .

Hey, the one who said they wanted to keep them was you, you know? Pull yourself together and look after them properly .

Noticing my gaze, she averts her eyes . Th-this girl…!

But seriously, I don’t know if we’ll be able to handle this . They’re E-rank now, but as they develop they’re going to get bigger and bigger, right? Monsters grow up stupidly fast; if I were to mess up when they’re all B-rank, I could be killed . If they were to rebel against me, I’d lose .

Rather than raising them poorly, releasing them into nature wouldn’t leave as bad an aftertaste . Thinking about it normally, monsters aren’t something you keep as a pet .

While I’m wondering what to do with them, I notice the spiderlings gathering around the remains of their parent . At first there’s just one, but then a second and a third join it . Soon all eight of them have assembled .

…hmm? What are they doing? It’s not like they’re grieving for their dead parent .

The eight of them quickly disperse again . The remains have disappeared . Only a few strands of green fur are left behind .

…Th-they’ve gone and eaten it . That might be normal for a spider, but still! They’d just hatched so needed the nutrients, I get it, but still!

With their stomachs bulging, the satisfied spiderlings gather in a comer of the shrine and start falling asleep . These guys really are free-willed . Oi .

What do I do here . Should I really keep them?

I turn to look at my partner . She’s timidly stretching out towards the spiderlings, drawing her head closer .

“Gaa…”

Then, as if satisfied, she lets out a breath of relief . She turns to face me .

『Keep! Me, keep!』

S-seriously . Just a moment ago, weren’t you terrified of them?

『It’s okay! No problem!』

…R-right, well, I’ll wait and see a bit longer before deciding . Aro’s also scared of them after all .

Leaving the spiderlings behind, I exit the shrine .

Noticing me, a tree growing in front of the shrine opens its eyes, uproots itself and starts moving . It’s the lesser treant . It seems that treants can rest and heal by spreading out their roots .

…But an evil dragon, a skeleton, spiders, and a treant . It sure has gotten lively, or rather, I’ve completely started down the demon lord route .

For now, my objectives are raising Aro’s levels and securing a food supply . Well, for the food supply issue, I expect that I’ll be receiving another tribute soon .

There’s one more thing I’m concerned about . What happened to the manticore after it ran away? I could imagine it attacking the village any time soon, so ideally I want to bring our fight to a close .

Also I’m curious about what the dragon-god’s miko meant by 『Because it fled in that direction, it should be fine』 . There must be something in that direction . While I’m grinding levels and securing food, I might as well investigate it at the same time .