Chapter 21: Reunion with the Spider Princess (03)

  "Oh ho."

  Just as I was about to take a, several figures among the audience rose from their seats, as if they'd anticipated this moment.

  These were the knights we had identified earlier alongside Dane. Some were openly armed as if serving as escorts, while others were disguised as ordinary spectators.

  For an au with barely 200 attendees, having nearly ten knights present seemed like overkill...

  *"So, the rumors about us—members of the Magiights—iigating this pce must have already spread."*

  Although the senior knight’s order to iigate was given covertly, it must have passed through multiple els before reag us. It seemed these people had expected someoo e after them.

  "Ah, we figured it would be you two."

  "..."

  "Most knights who e here are trash, but you two actually look like proper ones."

  The senior seated at the far left smirked and began drawing his mana saber from his belt. Following his lead, the other knights also uhed their ons.

  *'Quite the bold bunch,'* I thought.

  Suddenly, a suffog aura of intimidation and killing i desded upon me, so heavy it felt as though my shoulders might colpse uhe pressure.

  *Squelch...*

  Startled by the killing i, Molng burrowed into my arms for safety. I secured her against my torso—the safest part of my body where she’d be least likely to get hit.

  Attag her to my lower body might have hindered my movements.

  "Out of goodwill, let me offer some adviy juniors in the Magiights: ignore what the other knights said and just walk away."

  "Ig?"

  "Yeah. As you know, the transas here aren’t illegal."

  That much was true, even to my uanding.

  There were no ws prohibiting the breeding of harpies or the trading of monsters. Moreover, if buyers registered their purchases as research materials fical studies, there would be no legal issues. With ten knights present, safety measures were deemed suffit.

  "No matter what fuss you cause here, the Knights won't send reinforts. If you fight on your own, you'll just die a dog's death."

  "Is that so?"

  "Exactly. So put away your sword and ask us seniors o let you off. I'll even buy you a drink tonight, and art on good terms. How about that?"

  "Oh, how thoughtful..."

  I ughed, flipping him off.

  "Trash knight. Sure, it must be hat it’s not illegal."

  When I openly rejected his offer, the other knights’ faces darkened with humiliation. However, the senior knight in our row looked at me with a different expression—one ret.

  "Hah... Trainee knights, always ed by some misguided sense of justice."

  "This isn't about justice. It's a personal matter."

  "I don’t make a sed offer. Judging by your unfamiliar face, you're just a trainee. If someone like you dies here, no one will raise a fuss."

  While the senior knight was stalling, the audience had already evacuated, leaving only Dane, myself, Princess Arae, and the meraries attempting to take her.

  "k..."

  Princess Arae g to the bars of her cage, reag out to me pitifully. Meanwhile, the meraries anxiously g me, trying t her away.

  Time was running out. We had to escape before more escorts arrived.

  "Dane."

  "Ah... Damn it. You know releasing a high-risk monster is a punishable offense, right?"

  "You just have to keep quiet. I’ll make you a homunculus ter with all the top-tier options."

  " we eve out of here?"

  In respoo his question, I raised my mana saber. It was a signal that I inteo break through by force.

  "You still don’t get it, do you? Pointing a mana saber at us won’t scare us into begging for our lives. We’ve got ons too, you know?"

  The senior smirked, holding a high-end mana saber. The other knights also wielded ons far superior to the civilian-grade saber issued to me.

  Mana sabers vary signifitly in performance depending on their price. Against these elite models, a cheap saber would shatter if their bdes cshed.

  *"Typical gover-issue junk."*

  Of course, the senior knight didn’t give me this saber expeg me to engage high-level oppos head-on. It was more of a self-defeool for retreating if necessary. Still, it was woefully ie for fag a group of ten knights.

  "What are you waiting for? Just kill him!"

  A burly knight with a beard lu me, swinging his mana saber. Its dark blue bde aimed to slice me in half. Blog it would be impossible; the bde—and likely my body—would be severed.

  *"But I don’t o block it."*

  I feigned an iion to csh bdes but adjusted my swing at the st moment, dodging the attatirely. The charging knight, like a rampaging boar, missed me a a deep gash in the spot where I’d been sitting.

  "You little... Urk!"

  Before he could recover, I activated my bde briefly and sshed his vulnerable hamstring.

  "Take him down!"

  The other knights charged at me, but their movements were riddled with openings. Sidestepping them, I simply had to stab my bde...

  "Argh!"

  *"Pathetic."*

  As they say, a healthy mind dwells in a healthy body. These knights, with their garbage attitudes, had garbage skills to match.

  Despite wielding mana sabers, they couldn’t hold a dle to my fellow trainees, let alone a senior knight.

  "What the hell? He’s not even swinging properly, yet how...?"

  "Move aside! I’ll take him!"

  A heavily armored escort knight stepped forward, fully gear reinforced with anti-mana coating. My cheap saber wouldn’t even scratch it.

  *g!*

  I tossed the saber’s hilt between the gap of his helmet and neck. While he panicked, I struck the hilt’s end to leverage it as a makeshift lever, adjusting the angle.

  "No, wait—"

  Before he could react, I activated the bde.

  *Fssshhhh!*

  "Arghhhh!"

  The smell of burning flesh wafted from inside his armor as he rolled on the ground in agony, trailing smoke.

  "Trash."

  *Thud.*

  I kicked aside the groaning knights and stepped forward, ready to face the senior knight from my old training barracks.

  "Oh ho, so you’re the infamous Ban?"

  "Infamous?"

  "Yeah. A real celebrity. The problem child of the 87th css of the Magiights. Rejected by the Swordmaster himself. The ‘monster with a bde.’"

  "Did something like that happened?"

  "Tch, I heard rumors about you being a freak, so I expected some shadowy lunatic. Turns out you're just a carefree joker."

  *Bzzzz—!*

  "e at me. Uhe rest of these trash heaps, I won’t be an easy oppo."

  The aura from the senior standing before me was far more overwhelming than the bined presence of the other nine knights. It was clear—he was the leader responsible for proteg this underground sve market.

  ‘I o end this irike.’

  There was no way I could let this fight drag out. My oppo had better gear, and at minimum, he was wearing chest armor, armguards, and greaves that could deflect attacks. He could even afford to take hits directly if it came to that.

  Crossing swords or trading blows wasn’t an option. O from his high-output mana saber, and I’d either die instantly or be incapacitated.

  It was an overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation. But still...

  ‘It’s not like there aren’t any openings.’

  I aimed for the unprotected gaps in his armor with my mana saber, and he immediately terattacked aggressively. It was clear he inteo take a hit if it meant splitting me in half with his bde.

  However, his ferocity only pyed into my pns.

  *Screeech!*

  I released my mana saber and grabbed his wrist with both hands, twisting it sharply. Sensing his wrist might get severed, he instinctively dropped his mana saber.

  *Ctter!*

  *Whirr!*

  Kig up the fallen mana saber with my knee, I caught it mid-air and sshed at his armguard.

  *Screeeech!*

  Even with the low-grade saber, scratg against the mana-coated armeed enough heat to turn it red-hot.

  "Urgh!"

  Victory was mine. If I had aimed slightly outward, I could’ve taken both his hands.

  "You… You dare go easy on me, your senior?"

  The seniritted his teeth and threw aside his overheated armguard. He lu me again, but I wasn’t in the mood to show mercy twice.

  *Ssh!*

  No blood spilled. His wrist, seared bck, simply dropped to the floor.

  "Ugh…!"

  The agoched across his face was almost pitiful. But such was the way of the knightly world.

  Whether in the era of steel swords or mana sabers, knights were always the same—stubborn fools obsessed with proving themselves through their bdes.

  "Hah… That straight-ced friend of yours was right. The Order really is raising monsters."

  "What’s the big deal? You’re the ones running a monster-handling operation here."

  "You… shameless brat. I bet you’re here to take her away, aren’t you?"

  Despite his pain, he was still trying to maintain his seniority.

  "Since I’ve lost, I have nht to stop you. Take her. The rest of the knights have probably fled by now anyway."

  "Uood."

  I didn’t ask what would happen to his arm or whether he could recover. That wasn’t necessary. Such things were simply part of a knight’s life.

  "Dane."

  "Don’t worry about me."

  While I dealt with the knights, Dane had been handling the meraries overseeing the monsters. By the time I looked over, the meraries had already been driven away, leaving Dane yawning in front of the iron cage.

  ‘So that’s how it is with meraries...’

  When Dane had approached with his mana saber drawn, the meraries had just fled.

  Of course, for meraries, their lives were their greatest asset. They wouldn’t risk death over loyalty. Still, from a knight’s perspective, such behavior seemed pathetic.

  *Rustle.*

  Pulling back the curtain that covered the cage, I reached out my hand.

  "Let’s go."

  Ihe cage, the Spider Princess huddled in a er, waiting for me. I offered my hand to escort her out.

  * * *

  Esg the capital through the underground market’s secret passages wasn’t difficult.

  By gauging the position of the sun and the general yout of the city, I could navigate easily. If worst came to worst, I could always climb to the rooftops and jump across buildings.

  That was no issue for me, and as a spider, the Spider Princess naturally had no trouble sg walls. Even if the thieves’ guild were to pursue us, they wouldn’t be able to keep up.

  Soon, we reached the edge of the Spider Forest. As if to wele her return, giant spiders began to emerge, f a circle around us while keeping me under watchful guard.

  Letting go of her hand, which I had held tightly for her safety, I stepped back a few paces.

  "Now, it’s time for you to go back."

  Acc to the aueer, the queen had been captured and killed.

  That meant the princess was no longer a mere princess. She was now destio bee the queen—the ruler of this Spider Forest.

  If I didn’t returhe forest would fall into chaos without a ruler, leaving room for other moo take over. That could disrupt the delicate bance of the ecosystem.

  "Goodbye, my princess."

  It was supposed to end there—with a simple, dramatic farewell. But…

  "Ahem… Hrmph!"

  I quietly returned Molng to her waterskin and, just in case, secured the bottle to a spider web. I made sure the rapped tightly around the lid, ensuring she couldn’t pop out and cause trouble.

  Then, approag the Spider Princess as she prepared to leave, I spoke again.

  "Wait… Is this okay?"

  Avoiding the spider half of her body as much as possible, I pced my haly around her waist. She blushed deeply and nodded.

  Well… If she didn’t mind, then surely it was fine, right?

  Ultimate-Harem-fan