Chapter 94: Interlude – The Spider’s First Experience

Thousands of silver threads tangled together with a chilling sound. Spiderwebs coiled in from all directions, tightening like a snare.

Bishop Harris let out a startled cry. “D-damn it!”

He launched his tendrils at the encroaching webs. His barbed appendages attempted to shred the thin threads, but rather than cutting through, the tendrils were severed the moment they touched the web. The webs were thinner than a strand of hair, yet imbued with a power strong enough to slice through steel like paper.

Bishop Harris furiously roared, “A wretched sinner, trapped in a mortal shell, dares to defy me?”

Black tendrils erupted from beneath his skin. Dark mana surged, and dozens of tendrils shot toward Professor Baldwin like a volley of spears.

Professor Baldwin stepped forward. “Is that your answer?”

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

In an instant, the spiderwebs around her contracted, coiling around the oncoming tendrils like a net. The webs entangled the tendrils and yanked them out from Bishop Harris’s body.

A hideous scream ripped through the air. “

AAAAAAARGH

!”

Blood gushed as the Bishop collapsed, writhing in agony. Terror shimmered in his grotesquely bulging eyes. He staggered back, huffing and muttering with trembled lips, “The Cursed-Eye Spider...”

Professor Baldwin walked steadily toward him, dragging in a long breath from her cigarette. “What a pitiful answer.”

Pale smoke drifted from between her lips.

“H-heh.” A twisted grin curled on Bishop Harris’s bloodstained mouth as he shakily rose to his feet. “Don’t think this is the end! Lord Jackal will soon—”

Before he could finish, a thread snapped around his throat and severed his head cleanly. “You talk too much.”

A lump of flesh crawled from the severed head. It was the true body of the Mind Eater. Without hesitation, Professor Baldwin stomped on the squirming parasite as if it were a bug. Flesh and fluids burst across the ground. Then, she tossed her finished cigarette onto the corpse.

I stepped forward, lifting the barrier and approaching Professor Baldwin. “Well done.”

“How are the villagers?” she asked.

“They’re fine. For now.”

Even after Bishop Harris’s death, the poison planted within the villagers hadn’t been activated.

She said, “We should call for assistance from the Holy Empire to neutralize the toxins.”

“No need. I can take care of the poison,” I replied.

The Primordial Flame had the power to burn away the power of a soul stigmata. Since the villagers had been poisoned through the power of the Demon God’s soul stigmata, I reckoned I could purify them using the flame.

Surprised, she said, “You, Dale?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

Then I walked toward the villagers. As I approached them, they flocked toward me in desperation.

“H-Hero!”

“What’s going to happen to us?”

“P-please, spare us!”

I looked at them and said, “Everyone, please calm down. Form a line.”

They glanced at each other nervously but eventually lined up.

I continued, “Hold out your arm.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

One of the villagers extended their arm. I gently took it and channeled my mana into their body. I had to just burn away the traces of the poison and do nothing else.

Injecting mana into an ordinary person without a soul stigmata was like performing surgery with bare hands; it was incredibly dangerous. But this was the one thing I was confident in. When it came to precise mana control, I could proudly say that among the Final Five Heroes, I was unmatched.

The Primordial Flame flowed into the villager, incinerating the remnants of the demonic poison inside.

“It’s done,” I said.

“S-so, I won’t turn into a monster now?” asked the villager.

“Correct. The poison is completely gone. You’re safe,” I replied.

The villager wept and bowed repeatedly. “Thank you! Thank you, Hero!”

“All right, next.”

Like a doctor running clinic rounds, I went on purifying each villager one by one.

***

Soon, night fell at the village square. The campfire burned low, glowing faintly as it scattered its last embers with a few dry cracks. As the final detoxification ended, I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead and slowly stood up. “

Phew

. That should be all of them.”

This was the longest I had ever controlled the Primordial Flame, and it had completely drained me. But there was an unexpected silver lining. My control over the Primordial Flame had improved a bit. Using the Primordial Flame on ordinary people with no soul stigmata required me to refine my control to an entirely new level. The overwhelming power that once felt so unwieldy had become much easier to manage.

Professor Baldwin approached me and said, “Well done.”

She wiped away the sweat I had missed with a cold, damp cloth. As she wiped me down, she looked at me with concern. “You were sweating a lot.”

I shrugged, trying to mask my exhaustion. “Just needed to focus a bit. Nothing serious.”

“You say that, but you look awful.”

Professor Baldwin tugged my head down and rested it on her thigh. Even through the fabric of her suit pants, I could feel the softness of her skin.

“Rest,” she said.

Trying to lift my head, I replied, “It’s actually harder to rest like this.”

But Professor Baldwin gently pressed her palm against my forehead to keep me down. “Quiet. Stop complaining and lie still... Have you finished the detoxification?”

“Yes.”

She gently stroked my forehead and softly said, “You must be exhausted from the battle. You’ve done well... Dale.”

“Yes?”

“Thank you!”

I held back a chuckle and shook my head. “There’s no need to thank me.”

Sure, I had come up with the plan. But it was never something I could’ve pulled off alone.

“You were the one who saved them, Professor,” I said.

***

Elisha turned her head to look at the villagers. Some were crying uncontrollably, and others were cheering that they had survived. One villager had spilled an entire barrel of apple cider in frustration. Suddenly, a memory from the past flashed across her mind.

She remembered the girl who had screamed and cried, watching her village burn that day, decades ago. A girl who looked just like her, weeping as she prayed for a salvation that never came.

“Someone, please! Please save us! The village... our village!!!”

However, this time, someone stepped in front of the crying girl.

“Don’t worry. We’ve come to save you.”

In that fantasy, Dale stood beside her, smiling reassuringly.

Elisha let out a self-mocking laugh at the vision playing in her mind. “

Hah!

”

Deep within her heart was a wound that had been left festering and torn for decades. Now, she could feel it slowly starting to heal.

So that wound... could be healed with something this simple

, she thought.

“How... painfully cliche,” she muttered to herself.

There was no dramatic twist, no grand narrative, and no bittersweet ending that brought tears to the eyes. The wound that tormented her for so long had been healed in the most absurdly simple way and by a young cadet, no less.

At that moment, she heard someone call her. “Professor Baldwin?”

Looking up at her with wide, innocent eyes was Dale. For some reason, her heart pounded so hard she couldn’t meet his gaze directly. She told herself to get a grip. If Professor Kane saw her like this, he would tease her endlessly.

Elisha swallowed a bitter smile and took in Dale’s face. Then suddenly, she felt a mischievous urge rise inside.

***

Professor Baldwin asked in a mischievous tone, “You know, you’re quite suspicious.”

“

Huh

? What do you mean?”

She narrowed her eyes and leaned in. “A cadet from the Warrior Division using a magic-nullifying barrier that even professors from the Mage Division would struggle with and also managing to neutralize poison crafted by an Archbishop. Doesn’t that seem suspicious to you?”

She was so close, we could feel each other’s breath, as she said, “I think I’ll need to conduct a more thorough investigation.”

“What are you—”

She pressed her lips closer to mine. But just as our lips were about to touch, she pinched my cheek and pulled away. “

Hehe

. Did you expect something?”

“What are you doing?”

She smiled in satisfaction and leaned away. “I just felt like messing with you a little.”

I frowned and lifted my head off her thigh. For a fleeting moment, I caught a trace of disappointment in her eyes. “Is something wrong?”

“No. It’s nothing.” She turned her gaze toward the villagers. “We made it through this time, but the Archbishop of Beasts won’t stay quiet for long.”

“Yes. That bastard said so before he died.”

Jackal would come for her soon.

Her voice trembled slightly as she asked, “When that time comes, will you fight by my side again?”

It was probably very hard for her to ask a mere cadet to face off against an Archbishop.

I stifled a laugh and nodded without hesitation. “Gladly.”

I hadn’t expected the Archbishop of Beasts to make a move this soon, but that was good news. The sooner I eliminated him, the less of a burden there would be in the future. In my previous life, numerous heroes had sacrificed themselves just to take down a single Archbishop, so getting rid of him now was a necessity.

***

Elisha looked genuinely surprised, as if she hadn’t expected such a clear answer. “Gladly, huh.”

After all, it was her the Archbishop was after—Elisha Baldwin, not Dale Han. Bishop Harris was dead, and with the witness gone, Dale could easily keep his distance and stay safe. Yet he agreed to help without a second thought.

Is it because he trusts in his blessing?

Elisha shook her head. Even if he did have a blessing that let him come back to life, that wasn’t reason enough to say yes so easily. Archbishops were monsters who could create a hell worse than death with ease. And he had agreed without hesitation.

Could it be... because he has feelings for me?

At that ridiculous thought, Elisha’s cheeks turned slightly red. Even though she knew it was just her imagination, she couldn’t suppress the deep, bubbling feeling rising in her chest. A deep sigh slipped through her lips. “This... is hard to resist.”

“Hard to resist what—

Mmph

!”

Elisha pulled Dale in by the neck and pressed her lips against his. A moment later, a thin, transparent thread of saliva connected their lips like a spider’s silk.

“Didn’t you say the talk about further investigation was just a joke?” he said.

“I did.”

Shocked, he asked, “Then why did you...”

Elisha gently touched her lips, a faint smile forming at them. “That kiss wasn’t for the sake of any investigation.”

In her long life as Elisha Baldwin, the Cursed-Eye Spider, it was the first time she had kissed someone for a reason other than duty or interrogation.