Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 1 - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The White Spider’s Shackles

“My... servant...?”

I was at a complete loss for words at this reality the white arachne had thrust before me. The monster who attacked us this evening—who kidnapped me, who kicked Rose aside, who easily evaded Lily after she took chase—was my servant.

“No way, that’s...”

I doubted my own senses, but my instincts couldn’t deny this monster was my servant. I then began doubting my mind, but this also didn’t seem to be a delusion born of despair.

“Why would... a servant attack their own master?”

All of my servants yearned for me, and I believed that I reciprocated such feelings. There was certainly a bond of trust and love between us. To an outsider, such a relationship might appear twisted. However, that bond was more precious to us than anything else, so their opinions didn’t matter. I loved Lily and Rose. As a master. Or perhaps, like family. That’s why I thought I would treat any new servant just as dearly. Unconditionally. Maybe even innocently.

“So why...?”

“How unexpectedly dense of you, My Lord,” the white arachne replied in a playful tone. “I already told you. ‘There’s but one thing I desire,’ and ‘I have no interest in taking such insignificant lives.’ There is no reason beyond that.”

“So, you... want me?”

I didn’t get it. What value did I possess? But there was a certain credibility to what she was saying. I’d thought it over before. She didn’t kill me, and she went out of her way to bring me all the way to her nest. In other words, the white arachne’s goal wasn’t to take my life but to secure my person. I was somewhat relieved I wouldn’t be killed right away, but...

The white spider laughed. “It seems you fail to understand just how valuable you are, My Lord. Teeheehee.”

Her expression reminded me of something.

She’s like an innocent child watching a bug in a cage.

The roles of insect and human were reversed, but this scene was similar. An unpleasant bead of sweat ran down my cheek.

I won’t be killed at least? That’s a relief...?

I was an idiot. Spending the rest of my days in the dark future, captured in this spider’s web, was no salvation. I had to get away from here one way or another. But how?

The most realistic approach was to wait for Lily and Rose to save me. But that was also unrealistic. The two of them were likely to... no, they were definitely going to come and try and save me. But the outcome of that was sure to be extremely cruel. The white arachne was completely beyond them.

Just thinking of my companions’ lives being miserably scattered to the winds drained the blood from my face. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t rely on them here. I had to escape before they got here.

It would all be over if I didn’t. Anything and everything. But how could I possibly escape from this spider’s web? I desperately racked my brain for an answer, but nothing good came to mind.

The arachne watched me panic and put her eight legs into action as she drew closer. She then smiled broadly like a bewitching beauty.

“It seems you require some education regarding the value you possess, My Lord.”

She slightly inclined her head, her silky white hair slipping over her shoulder. She leaned forward in excitement, causing her practically see-through chiffon-like garment to press down on her soft breasts.

The word temptress came to mind. I couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of obscenity from each and every one of her actions. It sent shivers down my spine. Such a bewitching and beautiful girl atop a repulsive spider would normally make me want to avert my gaze. And yet, in her case, even with such a cruel reality before me, her beauty and charm felt far more prominent.

Even as I grew dizzy from the oddity of the situation and her coquettish behavior, I did my best to maintain my consciousness in a normal state. I was certain I would be overwhelmed the moment I relaxed my focus.

“Education?”

I couldn’t afford to offend her, for now. My only option was to buy time and search for an opening... Not that I knew an opening would appear; I could only wait and see.

With a cold sweat running down my spine, I continued to question the monster before me.

“And what exactly are you going to teach me?”

“Let’s see... First, shall we begin with a little lesson about the beings you call monsters?” the arachne replied. She was in an extremely good mood, a complete contrast to mine. “Do you properly understand what they are, My Lord?”

“They’re... beings who possess mana, right?” I carefully scrutinized the meaning behind her question as I answered. “Monsters are capable of drawing forth strange power precisely because they possess mana. How a firefang can spit flames, how a magical puppet can move a wooden body, how a slime can maintain a viscous state, how a treant can move like a creature despite being a tree... All of this is because of the mana monsters possess.”

“Exactly. So, do you know anything about how mana enters a monster’s body?”

“I think it was... by accumulating the mana in the earth into their bodies, or something like that.” Lily had told me about this before. I recalled the example of heavy metals, but that wouldn’t get through to the arachne, so I didn’t use it.

She looked slightly bored with my answer. “You’re quite well-informed... Oh, yes, you had that little wood chip with you, didn’t you? Did you hear this from her?”

She was likely referring to Rose. Now that I thought of it, was she really alright? It looked like she took a pretty bad hit, so I was worried.

“Whatever, it matters not. So, My Lord, did you know that we monsters do not possess what you would call a will?”

“I heard a bit about that before...”

Lily had told me about it in bed once. Before becoming my servant, she didn’t have a definite will. All she did was wander around the forest aimlessly.

“From what my companions told me, they obtained an ego for the first time when they became my servants.”

“Oooh. Oooh! So it’s true!”

She raised her voice in joy and excitement. Her legs stamped about, causing the floor to creak as if it were about to break. The pillars tied together by spider webs and even the ceiling began creaking boisterously. It was as if the entire space around us was celebrating in joy with the white spider.

“So, do you understand? Do you? Do you know what your true value is now?!”

I had been captured by this spider. I felt it in my bones, and I lightly bit down on my lip because of it.

“My value...? I don’t have any...”

“You do. It seems you are unaware of it, though.” Her wild enthusiasm came to a stop, but she was still excited. Her smooth white cheeks were tinged a sensual red. “Do you not understand? Even that lack of understanding is ever so adorable.”

She bent her legs and drew closer. She was already close enough to press her skin against mine. The white hairs from her legs touched my arm. They felt unexpectedly silky. She stretched out her arm and began stroking my shoulder.

I heard the sound of cloth tearing. She was removing the leftover fragments of my shirt. She touched my body with her slender finger and gently ran it across my skin. She looked up at me with her red eyes. I got goosebumps from the pleasant sensation this gave me.

“This is a bit of a contradiction from what I just told you, but I actually had something like a will before becoming your servant.”

“...What?” I knit my brows. This was different from what I’d heard.

“Having said that, it was ever so faint. From your perspective, I’m sure it was but a fleeting thing you couldn’t even call an ego,” she said in a self-deprecating manner. Although, in complete contrast to her words, the girl atop the white spider took an ecstatic breath. It was proof of how much of a good mood she was in.

This was supposed to be a good thing for me. As she twirled her finger around my chest, she could easily pluck out my heart by poking me on a single whim. My entire life was directly connected to her mood. And yet I couldn’t honestly be happy about her good mood. On the contrary, it gave me a slight chill. The happier she was, the more I felt like I was sinking into darkness.

“After many, many, many years, I established my own ego. However, it was but a faint and fleeting thing. You see, I lived in a deep slumber for a long, looong time. And tonight, I opened my eyes for the very first time. Though, you may not be able to understand how much excitement this brought me.”

“...So, I was the trigger which woke you up?”

To be precise, it was my cheat. My ability to tame monsters was capable of mass-producing servants. That in no way meant it was a power which made them my puppets or tools for combat, though.

The monsters who became my servants, Lily and Rose, possessed firm egos. They also gave their hearts to me with strong emotions, one in the form of love and the other in the form of loyalty.

Ego and emotions.

This white spider had probably desired these things to no end for a long, long period of time.

“My circumstances aren’t that much different from those little ones who serve you, My Lord. Even if it was not to the same extent, they possessed a faint ego. Or perhaps they were special monsters who possessed the seedling for an ego to sprout from.”

“Special monsters...”

Thinking back on it now, it was in fact true that Lily was a unique monster and Rose was a rare specimen. When I’d learned this, I faintly thought that maybe this was a condition for becoming my servant. I didn’t have enough samples to make a proper conclusion, though.

The white arachne before me was a high monster, making her quite special. You could say that the amount of mana these monsters could retain was what made them special. This white arachne in particular pointed out that she’d had the most fertile grounds for an ego to grow from. As such, it was possible this excess of mana had an influence on the development of an ego in monsters.

It felt like an erratic idea even from my perspective, but after thinking about it, it didn’t seem that far off. For example, if it didn’t possess mana, a monster like a magical puppet was nothing more than a wooden doll. The same applied to the undead, who were nothing more than corpses. Even if they didn’t possess a clear will like humans did, they at least had what meager intelligence they needed to attack other creatures on sight. It didn’t look like there was some invisible hand manipulating them. They all looked like they were acting autonomously to me.

It was possible that mana, which I had no familiarity with since it was particular to this world, essentially had such a nature to it. In which case, the beings we students called monsters were actually closer to the yokai of Japan. The monster fox or old tools which gained wills over the long course of years were much like the monsters who accumulated mana over the long passage of time.

The fact that Lily, Rose, and the white arachne were all females could also be explained by this. If monsters gained egos by accumulating mana, it meant all my servants possessed a certain level of mana. And the monsters who could accumulate the most mana were the ones capable of giving birth to other specimens—in other words, females.

“We are all connected to you, are we not?”

The arachne gradually ran her finger down my body. I tried to stop her from doing so but couldn’t. Before I knew it, my uninjured arm had been fastened to the floor with webbing.

“...You mean the mental path?”

“Yes. That is the true nature of your power.”

I didn’t know whether she noticed my futile resistance, but she smiled with her face close enough to feel her breath. A clink resounded through the air as my broken belt buckle fell to the ground, and the arachne licked her red lips. She then stretched her hand out to my chest once more.

“We’re able to touch your heart through this mental path. By doing so, we learn how a heart should be. Be that as it may, without the soil to nurture a heart, one cannot unravel what exactly this means. This is the definitive difference between those who are and are not able to become your servants, My Lord.”

My heart was connected to the hearts of my servants. I didn’t interpret it as anything more than a convenient power up until now. However, the arachne pointed out that this was actually the source of my power. For example, back in the cave, I connected with Lily through the mental path, and she was touched by my wish. In a sense, she touched upon my heart. That was the trigger which formed her individuality.

The servants I gave birth to like this were obviously different from the traditional image of a tamed monster. They weren’t being domesticated. They simply treated me, the one who gave them an ego, with the same yearning a child showed for their parents and wanted to help me out of goodwill.

With my ability structured this way, I had no actual power to bind those girls to me as servants. I was learning these details in the worst way possible.

“Heeheehee.”

The spider laughed and looked at me like she found me dear from the bottom of her heart—or perhaps, like she was affectionately watching a creature in a cage.

“I’m certain you’re incapable of understanding how much of a shock I received upon discovering you, My Lord,” she said as she threw her arms wide open. “The world grew so vivid! I felt that I definitely existed!”

I could sense an attachment to me in her voice, as if stuck down by heavy spider webs. From that, I felt for the very first time, despite it being quite twisted compared to Lily or Rose, that this white arachne held abnormal feelings toward my very existence. She was my servant.

“I possess power. Power that won’t lose to anyone. And with it, I shall achieve whatever my heart desires! Just as the ego I attained wills it!”

My servants were somewhat childish in a sense, like a portion of them had a pure simplicity to them. Perhaps it was inevitable, considering it hadn’t been that long since they attained egos. However, this white arachne had a long-cherished desire accumulating and accumulating over the passage of time. And that desire was being overwhelmed by her instincts as a spider to take everything she wanted, tie it up, and monopolize it. That’s what led her to this violent act.

“Do you understand me now, My Lord?”

“U-Ugh...?!”

The hand that had been caressing my body tightened around my throat with the same graceful movements as before.

“Do you understand just how valuable you are to me?”

Her seductive exhalation was sweet. She gazed at me in a trance, cheeks red, as I lay there suffering.

“You were the one to bestow myself unto me. Thus, I cannot help but adore you.”

My vision began flickering in and out. There wasn’t enough oxygen getting to my brain. My consciousness grew hazy.

“I want your everything, My Lord.”

As my consciousness faded, I felt the violent stream of her emotions through our mental path. Her raging torrent of desire bleached my mind. Everything was being painted over white. Everything lost its color.

“Become mine. Let’s spend a looong time together.”

I felt an intense loneliness.

My heart felt like it would break.

I couldn’t stand it.

I was weak.

My heart was weak.

Even if I was completely alone, I would surely be unable to withstand this white storm.

“...So, they’re here,” the white arachne muttered as she loosened her grip on my throat.

Through my hazy vision, I vaguely saw her beautiful face scowl. And as doubts floated through my mind, a dignified voice resounded through the nest.

“Is that the reason you abducted our master?”

My heart had felt like it would be crushed by the overwhelming torrent of desire from the white spider, but now a gentle warmth began flowing in.