"Eh?"
Lazily sprawled across the soft, plush bed, Shiraori suddenly twitched her ears as if sensing something.
She sat up and turned her head, eyes fixed in a certain direction.
"What's up, Shiro?" Nagami, noticing the spark of surprise and excitement on her face, asked curiously.
"Hehe~ We've got a bite!"
Grinning with the glee of a predator ready to feast, she flipped off the bed and launched a strand of silk from her back, swinging away gracefully to retrieve her prey.
"Please don't let it be another frog..."
Nagami muttered under his breath, following close behind.
If it was a high-level monster, Shiro might have trouble dealing with it alone.
Best to tag along just in case.
C.C. could stay back and guard the place.
...
"Why?! I made extra sure to settle down in an even more remote area after watching the anime—so how am I still running into these guys?!"
Shiraori clutched her head in frustration.
In front of her, a fully armored soldier was struggling, completely entangled in sticky spider silk.
Her expression was one of utter exasperation.
"Who are these people...?"
Concealed in the shadows of the cave, hidden behind a large boulder, Nagami observed the scene.
His gaze lingered not on the soldier—but on the egg in his hands.
"That's probably one of Shiro's classmates..."
He used an appraisal skill to get more info, but his skill level wasn't high enough, so all he got was some basic data.
He had no intention of revealing himself.
Nagami always avoided unnecessary contact with people he didn't know.
The soldier, panic-stricken, struggled with everything he had, but ordinary humans stood no chance against the strength of Shiro's spider silk.
His party had been ambushed by a swarm of monsters and split up—he might've been the unluckiest one of them all.
Now trapped in a spider monster's web, he could already guess what fate awaited him.
It wasn't the idea of dying that terrified him—it was the slow, horrific thought of being devoured alive.
In this world, killing humans yielded more experience than killing monsters.
And worse—humans tasted better.
It was no surprise that humans were a favored prey among magical creatures.
Dim light danced across the cave walls as the soldier's expression twisted into pure desperation.
His eyes, filled with fear, looked like those of someone who'd hit a dead end.
Then he remembered something one of his senior teammates once told him:
If you see a spider's nest or get caught in a web in the Great Elroe Labyrinth, your only chance of survival is to burn it.
This was the standard human response back before Shiraori became known as the "Nightmare of the Labyrinth."
And after she earned that title?
The new standard procedure became: run for your life.
Behind him, there was a faint, skittering sound.
No doubt—a monster was approaching.
His pupils dilated in terror.
Every muscle in his body froze as fear gripped him, silencing even his breath.
In a panic, he tossed aside the earth dragon egg he had been cradling and, with trembling hands, pulled out an otherworldly version of a firebomb—a required item for dungeon exploration.
He lifted it, preparing to ignite it and turn the tables.
But then...
"...???"
The terror on his face vanished instantly.
His hand, mid-throw, froze in place.
He stared blankly at what was approaching. His expression was a bizarre mix of confusion and disbelief.
"What… the hell is that?"
It looked like a spider monster at first glance, but... that face.
It was round and soft-looking, with big, adorable pink eyes that now stared back at him with visible annoyance.
Had he died?
Was he hallucinating from the fear?
Because no way a monster could look like that.
It was cuter than most of the pets back home!
So what on earth was he looking at…?
The soldier stopped struggling.
He just stood there, dumbfounded, as the bizarrely cute spider in front of him yelled something.
In that moment, everything he thought he knew about monsters was turned upside down.
"Hey! You there! What're you staring at?! (▼皿▼＃) I'm gonna eat you now, so you better start running!"
Shiraori, aware she had just made her beautiful camera-ready debut, waved her tiny limbs menacingly.
She loosened the silk restraining the soldier ever so slightly and bared her fangs in a dramatic, overly exaggerated attempt to scare him off.
Of course, Shiraori—who still retained Wakaba Hiiro's memories—wouldn't kill humans without a reason.
But that didn't mean she'd let them off easily if they provoked her either.
After all, as a reincarnated monster, she no longer needed to see the world from a human's perspective.
Naturally, she didn't feel any strong affinity for humans anymore.
Nagami was the one exception.
"Behold, the roar of the demon spider! Rawr~! Rawr~!"
Shiraori did her best imitation of a fierce roar while simultaneously shooting out a strand of web from her rear, snatching the earth dragon egg from the soldier's hands and pulling it into her own arms.
As a fellow reincarnator, she couldn't let some sketchy humans take it away—it was safer in her care for now.
However, instead of a deep, guttural spider growl, what came out was a high-pitched, cute little squeal.
D, ever thoughtful, had added a voice-enhancement effect to her beauty filter skill.
Still, thanks to his "Thousand-Tongue Comprehension" ability, Nagami hadn't noticed the change—Shiraori's voice, no matter how distorted, always sounded like a familiar girl's voice to him.
Because of this, neither of them had realized the disconnect between Shiraori's self-perception and how others saw (and heard) her.
To Shiraori, she still thought she sounded fierce—just like always.
Which… led to an unexpected and highly awkward situation.
After snarling a few more times with her cutest "menacing" face, the soldier—who had finally wriggled free from the webbing—didn't flee in terror.
Instead, he approached.
With a puzzled, almost fascinated look on his face.
…What!?
Humans were this brave nowadays!?
Confused, Shiraori scratched her round little head with one of her front legs, completely baffled.
———————————————————————
[Nagami]: The beauty filter! Shiraori, you forgot you still have it on!
———————————————————————
Nagami leaned against a rock wall not far away, palm to his forehead, sending a private message through the chat group.
He couldn't watch any longer—his favorite spider was turning into a walking comedy act.
"Ohh~"
That dawning realization hit her like a truck.
"Huh?"
The fierce expression she had been wearing froze, then crumbled into pure embarrassment.
Shiraori suddenly remembered the beauty filter D had gifted Nagami—and the fact that she had been using it to scare people while looking like an adorable, big-eyed plush toy.
The shame hit her like a tidal wave.
Her entire body stiffened as that internal cringe rushed up her spine.
She threw her little legs over her face in horror, then turned around and sprinted away from the scene.
"Uwaaaah! What am I doing?! So embarrassing!"
Wrapping the earth dragon egg in silk and strapping it to her back like a backpack, she bolted through the dungeon, fleeing as though from her own reputation.
To the soldier left behind, the whole thing made no sense at all.
The strange spider monster had just… panicked and run away?
He stood frozen, dazed.
Then, mechanically, he reached up and pinched his cheek under the helmet, just to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
Shiraori, despite everything, still had a massive case of social anxiety when it came to strangers—especially humans who weren't Nagami.
Realizing that she'd just unintentionally pulled off some weird cutesy act in front of a complete stranger… it was almost too much to handle.
If her eight spider legs could carve emotion into the ground, she'd already have sketched out a full map of the Great Elroe Labyrinth by now.
Wobbling as she ran, her little head hung low, she desperately searched the floor for a crack to crawl into.
'SMACK!'
Running at full speed and not watching where she was going, Shiraori slammed headfirst into a rock wall.
With a squeal, she collapsed to the ground, curled up, and held her poor head in her legs.
"Owieee~ That hurts!"
Tears welled up in her big pink eyes as she looked up at the unforgiving stone wall.
"Pfft…!"
Nagami finally lost it and burst into laughter.
"You're laughing at me!?"
Shiraori glared at him with all the ferocity her tiny form could muster, raising her legs threateningly again.
"Well, it's your own fault for forgetting!"
Nagami chuckled, walking over.
He gently placed a hand on the exact spot where she'd just bumped her head.
'Knock knock.'
Yup. Nice and solid—she'd be fine.