Blood 3: Encounter with the Spider
It was the first time I had left the city.
As the eldest daughter of the city's lord, I had been carefully protected and never allowed beyond the city limits.
My mother was temporarily returning to her family’s countryside estate, and I was taken along under the pretense of meeting my grandparents.
The outside world, for the first time in my life.
Still, the destination city was not far.
One day of travel by carriage.
We arrived at a city slightly smaller than the one I had grown up in, and met my grandparents for the first time.
They were young for grandparents.
Well, my mother was quite young as well—perhaps marriage age was simply earlier in this world.
Both grandparents were noble rulers of the city.
We spent several days with them, then began our return journey.
It was on the way back that the incident occurred.
We were attacked by bandits.
Six attackers.
Six attackers is too few for an assault on the lord’s wife and daughter—indicative of a poorly planned raid.
A hasty attack, likely prompted by the sight of a well-dressed carriage passing by.
The issue is not the planning. It is the inability to respond.
Four guards against six raiders.
Rumors had circulated recently about increased bandit activity, but never imagined an attack in the middle of such a well-traveled road.
This moment made clear—this world operates under rules entirely foreign to Japan.
The guards fight fiercely, but are gradually pushed back by sheer numbers.
One guard is cut down.
“Melazofis!?”
Mother cries out from inside the carriage.
The slain guard is the butler who has served her since childhood.
The guard had served the Lady with loyalty akin to that of a childhood companion. His devotion to her was high.
The Lady was naturally unaware. Perhaps she had not noticed, but Melazofis loved her as a man loves a woman.
He had transformed that affection into duty, serving her as a loyal subject.
Such a loyal servant had been slain.
Blood spread across the ground.
A human who had been moving moments ago now lay still, motionless.
The spilled blood appeared, like Melazofis’s own Life force.
Gulped.
A sound from the throat.
Likely fear—death drawing near.
If all Guards are eliminated, next will be us.
The Lady is still young. She might be taken.
I am a child. I might be disposed of quickly.
Perhaps kept alive for ransom—but that would lead to no good outcome.
I’ve just reincarnated. I was beginning my second life. And now I’m going to die here?
No.
I’m afraid.
I don’t want to die.
I still want to live.
Someone… help me!
I doubt anyone heard that mental cry—but it appeared all the same.
One of the thieves suddenly collapsed, blood dripping from his body.
There stood a spider—pure white.
An enormous spider, at least one meter in size, impossible on Earth.
I’d heard stories.
This world has monsters.
Magic exists. So it’s not surprising such creatures exist.
But seeing one now, face to face, was not like the tales. It was a real, visceral fear.
The thief, frozen in shock like me, was cleanly severed in half by the spider’s swinging limb.
Internal organs scattered. A grotesque scene flooded the eyes.
Gulped.
My throat made the same sound again.
It should have been nauseating, yet it was not.
A self-inflicted wound.
In that moment, the spider creature used magic to fell one thief, then swiftly eliminated the remaining two.
The magic appeared to be a minor earth spell.
A brown object streaked at high speed, piercing the thief’s head.
Yet the fate of the other two remained unclear.
They attempted to flee, then abruptly froze—then collapsed.
No indication of what had occurred.
The spider turned calmly toward us.
Tension surged between us.
Our turn, next.
We who had nearly fallen to the thieves.
And the creature that had wiped out the entire band in an instant.
There was no chance of survival.
The Guard raised his sword against the spider.
His body trembled uncontrollably from fear.
They knew, as well, that victory was impossible.
Yet they still sought to fulfill their duty as Guards to the very end.
The spider did not attack immediately. It seemed to observe.
Its featureless red eyes scanned the surroundings.
They settled on the fallen Melazofis.
The spider approached Melazofis.
Just as the thought formed—what was it doing?—the spider activated magic. Melazofis's wounds closed.
Healing magic.
"Impossible... Your Grace?"
Mother stepped out of the carriage in haste.
Holding me in her arms.
"Serath-sama! It's dangerous!"
The Guard urged her to return to the carriage, but Mother ignored him and advanced toward the spider.
The spider turned its head.
Eight eyes seemed to focus entirely upon me.
A chill races through every limb.
Fear.
What is this?
Can something like this exist?
An aura that spreads terror merely by being present.
Do creatures like this appear frequently in this world?
If so, I may have been reborn into an unthinkable realm.
"Are you an emissary?"
The memory of a word from the past surfaces at her voice.
Emissary—wasn't that the term for a servant of the goddess, as worshiped by my mother's faith?
The goddess had many followers across various races—wise ones of ancient depth, guardians of green, and others with overly dramatic titles preserved in myth.
Among them, a spider who had once crafted the goddess’s garments.
From the perspective of the mother, a devout follower of the Goddess Faith, did the spider who had once aided them appear as one of her divine emissaries?
Regardless of how one considers it, this ominous presence seems utterly opposite to the sacred aura of the goddess.
Yet within the mother’s mind, the spider appears to be definitively an emissary.
The mother continues speaking, murmuring gratitude and reciting sacred prayers.
The spider turns its gaze toward her.
"Assessment?"
The mother flinches, muttering the word quietly.
A skill name, perhaps?
Seems useful. Should I try to remember it?
"Current Skill Points: 75,000.
Skill 'Assessment LV1' can be acquired using 300 Skill Points.
Acquire it?"
A sudden divine voice interrupts.
In the instant the mother’s focus shifts toward the voice, the spider vanishes.
The mother shouted, "Wait!" after the spider fleeing at incredible speed, but I wished it had just kept going.
Muscles tense with fear released their strain.
[Skill acquisition complete. Skill 'Fear Resistance LV1' acquired.]
Thus, I survived unharmed.
Yet later, the spider settled near the town where I lived, causing another incident.