[V8C16] Hatred Seen Firsthand
Translated by Jodas 8: The Witch of the BoundaryJust a little bit earlier, Tia had heard the sound of a large creature moving silently. Bug Monsters often made those sorts of sounds. They had much thinner legs and lighter bodies compared to beast Monsters, so their sounds were distinctive.
Then, all of a sudden, that sound changed into human footsteps… That meant it had transformed into a human.
That was why Tia knew immediately that the woman who appeared before them was a Monster.
There were other things that were off as well.
For instance, her clothes that were far too light for Winter. Monsters had a different sense of temperature than humans, so it never would have occurred to her that it was too cold for such light clothing. She must have just thought that wearing human clothes was enough to pass of as human.
Tia raised her leg. She intended to shatter the skull of the Monster lying on the ground.
But the woman lying on her back exhaled sharply and suddenly jumped up. Rather than jumping, though, she moved more like she’d been pulled up into the air by a string attached to her body.
The woman floated up and nimbly landed on a branch of a nearby tree. There, there was another woman with a similar-looking face. This one had darker brown hair.
“This hurts, sister~. That little girl stepped on my face without a second thought~!”
“Ho, ho, to see through your disguise at first glance. What a clever little human~.”
The auburn woman held her face and complained while the brown woman laughed elegantly.
The next instant, those women’s bodies — their lower bodies in particular — began to swell up. Their upper bodies remained those of women, but their lower bodies ballooned and long, thin legs emerged from them.
These were Monsters with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a spider. Their clothes torn in the process uncovered the underside of their breasts, revealing crystal shards that glowed in their cleavage.
Wren looked up at the spider women and spat at them.
“You know, when a real human gets chased by Monsters and runs into a couple of kids, they don’t say ‘Help me,’ they say Run!’!”
Oh, that made sense. That explained why Wren had been cautious of the woman when she came up to them.
Tia examined the two delightedly laughing spider women.
While most Monsters that could take human form were Greater Monsters, Tia concluded that these guys were not.
They took that form in a completely different way. While Greater Monsters could change their bodies directly, the spider women before her eyes were only temporarily coating themselves in a false skin.
(These guys aren’t Greater Monsters. They’re probably some of the stronger Lesser Monsters, though.)
At least they were a level above the mantis Monsters. After all, they had the intelligence to try and approach humans by pretending to be human themselves.
The auburn Arachne and the brown Arachne laughed uproariously.
“Alright, I’ve decided! I’m gonna take that little girl who stepped on my face, rip the skin off her face and hang her upside-down!”
“Ho, ho, then I’ll make sure that cute little boy over there watches the whole thing! A child’s fear just tastes so good!”
The next moment, the Arachnes took off, jumping in opposite directions. Heedless of their massive bodies, they moved rapidly.
As the Arachnes flew, the path of their leap was traced by a glimmering white thread. It was silk secreted by those spider women.
“Wren, hide.”
Tia didn’t have to tell him twice, as Wren ducked under a tree and pulled a bundle of paper and a pen from his pockets. The tools for his inscription magic.
The auburn Arachne spun a great quantity of white thread from her spider half as she flew towards Tia.
Tia dodged by flying upwards with the Magical Leaping Device, then landed on a nearby tree branch.
“I won’t let you get away~!”
The auburn Arachne, the little sister of the two, climbed up the tree after Tia.
Tia coldly looked down on the Arachne.
Harpies were bird Monsters. As such, her instincts told her this about bug Monsters:
—You mere bugs, you’re nothing but prey to me.
Tia jumped down from the tree, landing with force on the Arachne’s face. If she had her talons, she would have torn that face to shreds.
It infuriated her that she couldn’t do that now.
“Take this!!”
The older Arachne let loose a stream of threads towards Tia.
Tia used the younger sister as a springboard to leap off, dodging them. Ever so pitifully, the younger Arachne ended up wrapped in white silk.
“Hold on Sister! Watch where you’re shooting~! Now I’m covered in silk!”
“Ho, ho, it’s your fault for being so slow. Of course your sisters are going to laugh at your failures.”
“Please don’t tell our Great Sister about this~!”
Tia continued jumping and coming at the Arachnes with her kicks. But it seemed the Arachnes had read Tia’s attack patterns by now.
Tia had no options available to her but kicking. It would be hard to take down a Monster with that alone.
(If I had a big rock, I could smash it into their faces…)
She searched the area, but there weren’t any suitably-sized rocks.
“Tia!”
Wren called her name in a hushed shout. Without thinking, Tia rushed to Wren’s location, grabbed him, and jumped. As a Monster, Tia couldn’t be the one to activate his inscription magic.
“Ho, ho, I won’t let you get away.”
The older Arachne spewed a thread towards Tia and Wren. Wren tossed the paper he just finished writing on at that thread.
The paper, with mana poured into it, let out a small flame.
The flame was only as big as a person’s head, and it had almost now potency to it, nor any directionality to send it flying towards the enemy. But the flame caught on the threads and traveled up them.
In the opening created by the Arachne sisters recoiling in fear of the fire, Tia jumped in the direction towards the Lange Hamlet.
(I can hear the sound of wind.)
The Arachne sisters followed after her. They were as fast as they were large, weaving in between the trees.
Tia asked Wren as she carried him.
“Wren, when humans scream, does it sound like ‘Kyaah’?”
“Yeah, that’s it, that’s it!”
“Okay, cover your ears.”
Tia took a deep breath, then screamed.
“KYAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”
It was the loudest voice the Harpy in human form could make. Even with his ears covered, Wren winced in pain.
The Arachnes following after them cackled ravenously.
“Oh my, what a voice. You truly are a noisy one.”
“Ho, ho, if you’re going to scream, I’d prefer it if you were pitifully sobbing! Then I could just eat it all right… up!”
Tia’s body tilted over in midair. Spider silk had caught on to her leg.
To prevent Wren from being crushed, she tossed him and sent him rolling gently across the ground. She herself landed face-first.
“Pebu…”
She spat the dirt out of her mouth and tried to stand back up as the spider’s threads wrapped around Tia’s body with force.
The sturdy threads wrapped around the wings of Tia’s Magical Leaping Device.
The wind projector nozzle was now clogged with silk. She wouldn’t be able to leap at this rate.
Wren pushed himself off of the ground and shouted.
“Tia!”
“It’s okay, Wren!”
The Arachnes bore down on Tia’s position.
Tia looked up to the sky and muttered.
“Looks like he made it in time.”
With a roar, the a gust of wind fell down from above.
A torrent of wind blades swirled into a tornado, slicing up the bodies of the Arachnes.
Unlike fresh human blood, a turquoise liquid pooled out, splattering across the surroundings. Several of the Arachnes’ legs were torn off, rolling like sticks onto the forest floor.
“…Don’t you dare touch my Apprentices.”
That voice echoed from above.
That low heavy voice, like a boiling stew of anger, hatred, and malice, came from none other than the older of the Lange Brothers, Frederik Lange. With his spear in one hand, he stared down the Arachnes and, while chanting, suddenly closed the distance with his flight magic.
His first target was the brown Arachne.
The Arachne spewed a great volume of threads in an attempt to ensnare Frederik. But, Frederik quickly dodged that with his flight magic and lunged forth with his spear wreathed in wind.
—Three simultaneous strikes: The head with a woman’s face, the chest, and the spider’s lower half.
That strike with swirling winds was Frederik’s trump card she had seen back during the magic battle.
With one strike, he twisted and gouged out the flesh of the Monster.
Chunks of pulverized flesh, bodily fluids, and woman’s hair scattered across the landscape. Without even being able to let out a dying wail, the older Arachne became only a hollowed-out chunk of flesh.
Nevertheless, her spider body continued to convulse erratically.
Frederik swung his spear around. Blades of wind severed the spider legs and the woman’s head.
Thud, splash. The parts of the Monster unceremoniously fell to the ground. Upon seeing that grotesque sight, Wren’s eyes rolled back and he fainted.
“Pyoehh…”
The Frederik Lange that Tia knew was the mister smiley who always floated around with a gentle smile on his face.
Yet now he showed no hesitation against the Monsters. He radiated rage and malice as he turned to interrogate the younger Arachne.
“You, have you ‘eaten’ these kids?”
“I– I haven’t eaten anything yet…! Not even a little tip of a fingernail, or flesh, or anyone’s heart, no sir~!”
“I see.” Frederik muttered. At the same time, he moved.
His spear pierced straight through the Arachne’s neck. Her severed woman’s head spun through the air before dropping to the ground.
“Ah… Ahh…”
The head on the ground, the woman’s head still moved its lips and let out an indecipherable voice.
Frederik brought his spear down onto it.
“Don’t imitate humans. It gives me the creeps.”
He spat under his breath with unconstrained hatred. Frederik then cleaved through her still-convulsing spider body.
Again and again. Persisistently.
Tia was aware that humans feared and hated Monsters.
But since she had spent so much time with Wren and Sevil lately, somehow she had grown complacent.
Frederik’s malice brought Tia back to reality.
The truth that humans feared, hated, and despised Monsters.
Eventually, when the Monster had completely stopped all motion, Frederik turned back to Tia.
“Are you okay?”
His gentle demeanor was the Frederik Lange Tia knew well.
Since Frederik was tall, Tia naturally had to crane her neck to look at him.
Frederik looked at Tia with concern. If he knew that Tia was a Monster, this gentle expression would surely twist into one of hatred.
Tia said nothing, so Frederik brought his eyebrows together in worry.
“Were you scared?”
He asked like he was trying to confirm something. Frederik’s eyes surveyed Tia’s face for any changes of emotion.
(What do I do…?)
From Frederik’s voice, Tia could feel both a desire to comfort her, but also a sense of panic he wanted to ease.
But he didn’t seem to have noticed Tia’s true identity.
This man hated Monsters far too much. Had he even the slightest clue about Tia’s identity, he would have been much more cautious around her.
But Tia didn’t feel any sense of caution towards herself from Frederik.
Frederik bent his knees and squatted down to meet Tia’s eye level.
“…Tell me. It was scary, right? You were scared?”
Tia warbled “Piroro,” then answered brieflly.
“Yeah, I was scared.”
‘Of you, Frederik.’ She obviously kept that part a secret.
When Tia responded, Frederik placed his hand on his chest and let out a heartfelt sigh of relief.
“I see, thank goodness… You guys weren’t eaten.”