"As expected of Ash. You're the one who understands me best!", The moment Kumoko heard there was a roasted beef leg to eat, all of her anger and dissatisfaction from just now flew out of her mind. The corners of her mouth lifted uncontrollably again, her face filled with a happy smile, and she nodded cheerfully over and over, looking completely satisfied.
'Sure enough, as long as I bring out food, Shiro is instantly taken care of,' Watching Kumoko like this, Ash couldn't help thinking to himself that she really was interesting and easy to appease.
Thinking that, he gently made a pop as he pulled his finger back out of Sophia's mouth. She had started drinking his blood again the moment he sat back down on the sofa.
Then Ash got up and headed outside to bring the roasted beef leg over.
During the short time he was gone, Kumoko sat there happily swinging her head back and forth.
Sophia, who still looked unsatisfied, noticed this and immediately fixed her eyes on Kumoko, muttering unhappily under her breath, "Don't think you've won just because of this..."
"??"
'What is this yandere girl talking about? Wait! Come to think of it, why did Ash leave me alone here with this dangerous girl? So scary! Even though she's calmed down after drinking blood, she's still terrifying,' Kumoko glanced sideways at her in confusion, unable to understand what Sophia meant.
Still, she really did feel a sense of crisis.
Because... she had suddenly discovered that she couldn't use any of her powers.
All of her skills had disappeared as well.
She had become nothing more than a weak girl without the strength to truss up a chicken. Apart from being pretty and having a good figure, the only unusual thing left was that the spider's eight eyes had merged into her human form, becoming double pupils.
Simply put, besides the black pupil in the center, there were four pairs of strange pupils surrounding it.
Other than that, her overly pale skin would hurt as soon as it was exposed to direct sunlight.
In other words, if she stood in direct sunlight, she would immediately develop symptoms of sunburn.
Simply put, after completely leaving the System, she had gone from being an overwhelmingly powerful super monster to a frail girl with albinism.
That yandere vampire she could once easily discipline...
Now she had to deal with very carefully.
———
Although Sophia had shown signs of becoming a yandere a long time ago, she was usually obedient and sensible, so Ash wasn't really worried that she would actually do anything excessive to Kumoko.
The only problem was that the strange and dangerous yandere aura she gave off from time to time could easily become a considerable source of mental torment for Kumoko.
Sure enough, by the time Ash returned carrying an enormous beef leg, he found Kumoko sitting there hugging a cushion.
She looked exactly the same as before.
Weak, pitiful, and helpless.
It even made people feel sorry for her.
The moment Kumoko saw Ash return with food, her eyes lit up. She dashed over like an arrow leaving the bow.
She instinctively reached out to take the beef leg.
But who could have expected it to be so heavy?
With her now powerless body, there was no way she could hold it.
If Ash hadn't reacted quickly and caught it again in time, Kumoko probably would have been crushed to the floor by the beef leg.
"Th-Thank you...", Kumoko smiled awkwardly as she looked at the beef leg Ash had caught again.
But she couldn't care less.
While Ash was still holding it, she simply lunged forward and bit into it without caring about appearances.
However... compared to the hearty way she used to eat, after only a few bites she covered her mouth and let out a little burp.
Wearing a dazed expression, she held her slightly swollen stomach, looking as though she was beginning to question life itself.
"You used to finish an entire earth dragon. Now you're full after just a few bites? Are you in a bad mood?"
"N-No... Wh-What do I do?", The moment he said that, Kumoko immediately looked as though she were about to cry.
"You've never gotten this worked up over anything else. Is eating less really this painful?"
"Yes!"
"This is the first time I've ever heard you answer so quickly and so firmly," Looking at the foodie before him who looked ready to cry just because she couldn't eat much, Ash's face filled with black lines, completely at a loss for words.
Watching Kumoko like this, Sophia looked delighted by her misfortune and sneered, "Serves you right!"
"Alright, alright. Stop picking on her... Anyway, tell me about your current condition."
Ash lightly scolded Sophia before taking the beef leg himself and eating it in Kumoko's place.
Kumoko could only watch enviously with longing eyes while dejectedly explaining her current situation.
First of all, just as Ash had guessed, her disappearance had actually been because D was protecting her.
D had even arranged something called a "Basic Lecture for Gods."
Although the name sounded a little strange, considering it was D's arrangement... it somehow felt perfectly reasonable.
She had now completely separated from the System and finished the process of becoming a god.
However, according to D, the System itself wasn't enough to make someone into a god.
Her case had simply been an accident.
Combining that explanation with the immense power Ash could sense from her, a power even greater than his own, the conclusion was simple.
In short, she had become a god and obtained astonishing power.
The problem was... she had become a god through the System's enormous assistance, taking countless shortcuts, and finally eating a bomb capable of blowing up an entire continent as the final catalyst.
Normally, there was absolutely no way anyone could eat something like that and make use of its energy.
But in every possible sense, she had always been rather strange.
Although the final result had been good, and she had truly become an eternal god, it completely violated the proper method of becoming one.
The excessive shortcuts meant that, she didn't even know how to use that power herself.
Without the System's assistance, she had become nothing more than a god with immense power but no idea how to wield it.
From now on, she would have to slowly learn how to use those powers herself, how to construct those spells.
At the same time, Kumoko finally learned the answer to something that had troubled her for a long time, why her memories had always felt incomplete.
Why there always seemed to be something missing.
The reason was that, in the very beginning, in her previous life... she had been a spider.
A completely ordinary spider.
It just so happened that during the previous Hero and Demon Lord's joint trans-temporal magical attack, they had apparently attempted to kill D, the real Wakaba Hiiro.
Out of pure interest, D had gone to live as a girl for a while, much like Gulie-Gulie creating an avatar just to experience life.
But in the end, all that happened was that the classroom at the high school she attended exploded.
The aftermath killed the students and teacher inside.
Only D, disguised as one of the students, emerged completely unharmed.
Afterward, D reincarnated those people into another world, creating what became known as reincarnation.
Since D's subordinates were extremely capable, the slightest irregularity in the flow of souls would immediately bring them over to drag D, who seemed to have been skipping work, back by force.
So D casually grabbed the nearby spider, stuffed her own memories into it, and thus Kumoko came into existence.
The reason Appraisal had never shown her name before was simply because she really hadn't had one.
Naturally, she also lacked the notes that normal reincarnators possessed.
As for why she had reincarnated into a spider monster, it was merely because that body happened to be extremely compatible.
D even gave her the name Shiraori.
After slowly explaining everything, Kumoko, no, she should now be called Shiraori, unconsciously looked at Ash with nervousness, staring without blinking.
It was as though countless unspoken words were hidden in her eyes, while at the same time she seemed to be waiting for some sort of response from him.
After a long silence, Ash slowly nodded to himself as though he had finally reached a conclusion.
Then he spoke with unexpected seriousness.
"I still think Shiro is better."
"Huh?"
'That's the thing you care about the most? Where's the point? Is that really the point? Could you be just a little more serious? I spent all this time worrying, and you're hung up on my name? Give me back all that worry!', Shiraori felt all her concern had been wasted, as though an angry evil spider were roaring wildly inside her heart.
"What? Isn't Shiro good?"
"Absolutely... not!", The moment Ash said that, Shiraori shook her head furiously like a rattle drum, her face full of rejection.
Seeing her overblown reaction, he couldn't help muttering, "What? Don't tell me you're actually closer to D than you are to me."
"That's not... the issue!", Although she disliked having her name given by D, at least it was better than the names Ash and Ariel had come up with. Feeling rather indignant, she retorted, "At least Shiraori... sounds like a person's name."
"So you'll accept it as long as someone else's is a little better? Is our relationship really that fragile? That unable to stand the slightest test?"
"..."
'Then come up with a better name yourself! Why are you complaining to me instead? Take responsibility for your own mistakes! Why are you talking as though this is somehow my fault? You're the one who should reflect and take my name more seriously!', Shiraori glared at him with reddened eyes, silently arguing with all her might inside her heart.
"Forget it, forget it. Let's leave it like this for now. I'll think of a better one next time."
Seeing at a glance what she was thinking, Ash quietly looked away and put on a magnanimous expression.
That irritated Shiraori so much she really wanted to argue with him for three hundred rounds.
Of course, that was only a thought.
She knew it wasn't realistic.
After briefly mourning the dramatic reduction in her appetite, she couldn't help asking, "How long was I undergoing deification? Did anything happen during that time?"
"Instead of that, why don't you get some rest first?", Ash didn't really want to answer immediately and tried changing the subject.
"I've already rested... for a long time," Shiraori shook her head as she stared suspiciously at Ash. Based on how well she knew him, she guessed, "You wouldn't have... done something behind my back while I was gone, would you?"
"Something behind your back? Of course not. What kind of man do you think I am?", Ash hurriedly waved his hands, looking thoroughly wronged.
"A strange... bad man," Shiraori frowned and muttered softly, still full of suspicion.
"I don't want to hear that from you."
"I'm... very... normal!"
"No, no. None of you reincarnators are normal, are you?", Ash couldn't help retorting.
"How could that be! At least I'm... hmm?"
Shiraori instinctively wanted to argue.
But halfway through, she suddenly felt that something wasn't quite right.
Seeing that, Ash lowered his head and concentrated on eating his beef.
Meanwhile, Sophia, who had originally wanted to enjoy Shiraori's misfortune a little longer, suddenly stiffened and quietly turned to leave the room.
———
When Shiraori finally came back to her senses, the first thing she noticed was that Sophia had suddenly disappeared.
Her brows immediately furrowed.
She realized—
'Something is wrong!'
'Those two couldn't have... done something improper while I was becoming a god, could they? I spent so long guarding against Ariel, doing everything I could to stop the two of them from being alone together... Don't tell me someone from our own side got there first? What is this? Is this what they mean by "it's impossible to guard against a thief inside the house"?', though both of them are house thieves. The more Shiraori thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
The more she thought, the angrier she became.
She stared at Ash as though her eyes were about to spit fire.
Ash's heart immediately skipped a beat under her gaze.
Something was definitely wrong.
'Did becoming a god make her smarter? She guessed something just from a few careless words? This is bad... Should I just confess early?', His expression gradually became awkward as his heart started pounding.
He had intended to tell her eventually.
He had only wanted to build things up first, choose the right moment, and explain everything as gently as possible.
But now...
There didn't seem to be any point continuing the buildup.
"Alright, I admit it... I did do a few things that weren't very good. But it wasn't just me. Ariel and Sophia were accomplices too."
Under Shiraori's gaze that seemed able to see through everything, Ash quietly tossed aside the piece of beef in his hand, summoned some water to wash his hands, then raised both hands in surrender.
"I knew it! E-Even... Ariel was involved too?", Hearing that, Shiraori's mouth fell open in shock. Grabbing Ash's clothes, she shook him repeatedly, "Clearly... clearly I was..."
"Sorry... B-But you kept hesitating and never made a move, so I just... acted first? In a way, I did it for your sake too," Ash forced himself to explain, though even he felt the reasoning sounded rather weak... despite thinking it was perfectly reasonable.
Shiraori simply couldn't believe her ears, "Th-That kind of thing... was for my sake?"
'That kind of thing was for my sake? Who needs that kind of weird consideration? What do you mean "in a way"? You're definitely a pervert And you still refuse to admit it! This is just... just...,' Shiraori was so angry she could barely speak. She nearly fainted from his bizarre definition of "in a way."
"Calm down, calm down. Don't get so worked up. Things really aren't as bad as you think. I did at least protect your bottom line. I didn't actually do anything too excessive. Just a tiny little thing... really."
Seeing the betrayed look in Shiraori's eyes, Ash felt a little guilty.
He hurriedly placed a hand on her shoulder while gesturing with the other, trying to smooth things over peacefully.
Patting his chest, he promised, "Don't worry. I do feel sorry, and I have reflected on it... Though I honestly don't think I was wrong, acting on my own wasn't very appropriate. So as an apology... well, if there's anything you want, just ask."
After listening to Ash's long explanation, Shiraori felt rather dizzy.
But after thinking about it... she felt she more or less understood.
In other words, everything except the very last step had already happened?
But even so...
'That still isn't acceptable!'
Furious, Shiraori slapped Ash's hand away and glared at him hatefully, squeezing a few words out through gritted teeth.
"You beast!"
"Huh?", Ash froze.
'What does killing a few Heroes have to do with being some pervert? Could those guys have been into older women? Are we somehow fellow enthusiasts?', That strange accusation suddenly made him realize something was wrong.
Carefully, he tested the waters.
"We're talking about... killing the reincarnators and the Heroes, right?"
"Reincarnators?", Shiraori froze too.
'Reincarnators? Heroes? While I was asleep, he even went after the Heroes and reincarnators? Ah, wait... killed? Killed? So it wasn't sneaking around with Sophia and Ariel? Hold on? This makes no sense! What kind of mess is this? I need a few seconds to process this.'
Shiraori lowered her head and circled her index fingers beside her temples, trying hard to sort out the confusing situation.
Honestly, watching the usually expressionless girl make that gesture was rather cute.
But Ash wasn't in the mood to appreciate it.
He had more or less realized... that he and Shiraori had been talking about completely different things.
'What do I do? Did I accidentally say something I shouldn't have? Maybe now's the time to retreat first?', While Shiraori still had her eyes tightly shut, desperately trying to understand the situation, Ash quietly withdrew his hand from her shoulder and prepared to slip away unnoticed, planning to let Ariel handle the aftermath.
However...
"Tell me. Honestly."
Before he had taken two steps, her hand had already grabbed the corner of his clothes.
Tilting her head up with her lips pursed, she stared straight at him.
Although he could easily have broken free, he didn't want to make things worse.
So he could only obediently sit back down on the sofa and, feeling overwhelmingly depressed, explain everything he had done.
Just as he had said from the very beginning, Ash hadn't had any particularly malicious intentions.
He had simply wanted to keep her from becoming another Gulie-Gulie, endlessly doting on spiders.
After all, if she wanted to repay kindness, helping Oka alone would be enough.
There was no need to bend over backward for every reincarnator.
Even now that he understood Oka had in fact saved Shiraori's life once, back when she had stopped the students from squashing her while she was still a spider.
Still, letting that one favor affect so many things, tying his own hands, forcing every action he took to come with conditions, and making him endure all those oddballs, that was even less acceptable.
Besides, both he and Ariel had helped Shiraori plenty too.
They had saved her life as well.
If she truly wanted to repay a debt of gratitude, then repaying someone she had only met once by restricting all her other benefactors simply wasn't right.
Ash frankly laid out his own thoughts and reasoning.
He also directly admitted that during this period, he had killed three Heroes.
At the same time, he had locked her teacher together with her student.
Now four women were all together in one place.
Maybe they were happily playing mahjong.
After hearing all of that, Shiraori remained silent for quite a while, wanting to say something but unable to.
Strangely enough...
She also let out a quiet sigh of relief.
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