pappabearbooks Chapter 90.2
Chapter 90.2
chapter 90.2
[part 2/4]
'(・`ω・ ́) my little sister, your sister is still eating, okay?' the self-proclaimed and pompous white spider declared, her voice filled with an air of superiority.
"who's your little sister!?" iruka's voice echoed through the doorway, laced with frustration and disbelief.
as i observed the scene, it was evident that the spider speaks using a mysterious method of communication. there were countless thoughts swirling in my mind, so many things i wanted to express, but i held my tongue for the moment.
regarding this mysterious method of communication used by the white spider, where some sort of emoticon-like symbols can be recognized, botan had analyzed it as a kind of special ability.
she said that it might be a kind of thought wave... more like telepathy, rather than curse. maybe this spider is talking directly to other people's brains. i don't understand what that means. but anyway, if not for some special processing, it could even speak to me through a wall.
"alright, your mealtime is over."
as i was called, i pulled the white spider clinging to my arm away from iruka, making a '(; ・`ω・ ́) hmph!!' expression.
...not only is this spider's reasoning unclear, but her ability to recognize people is also questionable. how should i interpret this in order to identify the future parasite that will eat and kill me with '(ノ ́д`)ノ no, papa, i'm still not don't eating!!?' i mean, i don't remember making a brat, okay? and i have no idea why this spider somehow treat iruka as her little sister. ...anyway, i'll intentionally refrain from investigating how this spider perceives the others. i might step on a landmine, after all.
"all right, hold on a second. let me put this one back in the wagon."
i gently placed the white spider inside a special cage that concealed its insides. the spider made a sound like '(. >д<) uuugh!?', but i closed the cage anyway. finally leaving the restroom, i informed iruka. i didn't want to do it, but to avoid letting the spider starve, i had no choice but to bring it along for the event. i kept the spider in a wooden box at the back of the wagon, except when i occasionally let it feed on my blood. both the box and the cage were recently obtained to limit its abilities and had protective curses to prevent theft and track its movements.
by the way, it was gorilla-sama who obtained the new cage and box for me. i can't get either of them, which seem to be of reasonably high quality, on my own. in exchange, i regularly lent gorilla-sama the spider, which could be considered my second heart. she told me she makes it spit out threads. well, it may be a low-level fool, but it's still divine. the threads imbued with divine energy surely have various uses.
now, heading towards the stable where the wagon was parked, alongside iruka, i glanced at the commotion in front of the government office.
"...looks like a poor gathering," i remarked, referring to the army soldiers gathered in front of the government office.
they weren't even a hundred in number, maybe around sixty or seventy.
"yeah, i heard from tamaki, and the reasons behind it are equally terrible," iruka replied.
according to her, it takes time to mobilize due to the vastness of hieda county, and there are cases where units exist only on paper and not in reality. it goes without saying that no one knows where the money to support these non-existent soldiers goes. there are also those who are too scared of the dangers of the mission to move, and come up with flimsy excuses to avoid taking action.
* * *
the population of hieda county, as far as the imperial court knows in the family register, is about 6,000. even if we include the unregistered homeless, beggars, migrant workers, and slaves, there wouldn't be more than 7,000 people. there are three cities (towns) and forty-two villages, including the county capital. there might be hidden areas and hidden villages, but these are not taken into account here.
given that namahage is not known where it roams, it was out of the question for murasaki and us to move from the county capitals. the population of the county capital is nearly 2,000, one third of the total population of the county. if it were to be attacked, the county would essentially collapse. for his own self-preservation, the county governor requested that we stay here.
murasaki, too, wanted to prevent the worst-case scenario of the capitals being attacked. she was also worried about tamaki and shirowakamaru, who were inexperienced, going to the villages where they might encounter namahage. so, she understood the governor's reasons and agreed with him. as the leader of the monitoring team, it was her duty to bring them back safely.
however, tamaki strongly disagreed. she thought that reinforcing the defense of the capitals meant abandoning the villagers in other areas.
"we came here to evacuate the villagers from the youkai, didn't we? and now you want to cowardly hide away!?" tamaki's voice was filled with frustration and anger. to her, murasaki's suggestion felt like a betrayal.
"mind your words, amateur!! i won't tolerate such remarks repeatedly!!?" murasaki retorted sharply, her voice laced with irritation. murasaki's outburst was testing her patience.
but tamaki wasn't deterred. she shifted her focus to shirowakamaru, her tone challenging. "and what about you, shirowakamaru? aren't you also from a rural background? how can you support such a policy that leaves the villagers to die!?" her voice carried a mix of accusation and disbelief.
realizing that arguing with murasaki would be futile, tamaki turned to shirowakamaru, hoping for a different perspective. unlike murasaki, who was born into the world of exorcists, tamaki had heard rumors about shirowakamaru's rural origins. she believed that shirowakamaru, coming from a rural area, would understand the importance of not abandoning the villagers.
"isn't it sometimes necessary to sacrifice the smaller for the greater good? it's not an unusually strange judgment, i think." shirowakamaru's calm and composed tone silenced tamaki, leaving her momentarily speechless.
"what do you say...?" tamaki pressed, her voice now tinged with curiosity and a hint of urgency.
"there are no important bases or people, are there? there are only a hundred or so poor farmers in the cold villages. even if a few of them collapse, it won't be a significant loss." shirowakamaru's voice was matter-of-fact, delivering his cold and ruthless logic. he had inherited this approach from his mentor, madame kochou. it involved prioritizing and making tough decisions to protect what truly mattered, even if it meant sacrificing the least important elements. his words held a sense of practicality and detachment, drawing a clear line between priorities.
"no way, that's cruel..."
"cruel? please don't speak in your half-asleep state. this is not a game. i don't want you saying sweet things and putting everyone in danger, alright?"
the boy spat out his words, saying if she wanted to play with fire, she should do it alone. he even took a jab at the county governor, who seemed relieved by his remark, saying, "county governor, i hope you devote yourself to your own duties." or was it a threat...? anyway, it seemed like he was already calculating the aftermath of this turmoil and the benefits to be gained from it. truly, he was just an apprentice of a woman who acted much younger than her age.
"that's..."
then, tamaki looks at the army leader with a ray of hope. however, the army leader simply averted his gaze. thus, tamaki's face contorts in despair.
~ to be continued ~ l--b1n.