## Chapter 146 – How to Tame a Spider (4)
“Ugh… Hnn…”
It didn’t take long for Leah, who had writhed in extreme pain before collapsing as if limp, to wake up.
I had watched her, completely unconscious, for about half a day.
I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved that she was safe or dread what would happen after she woke up.
The regeneration within her body was happening rapidly. At least from the perspective of the tentacle inside her egg sac, the outer membrane was showing a significant recovery rate.
Accordingly, the elasticity of her flesh and the strength of her muscles were also returning. I figured that if she rested well for just three to four days, she would regenerate healthily inside and out.
When Leah started moaning as if she would wake up any moment, I slowly pulled the tentacle out of her vulva and began to watch her wake up, pretending not to notice.
“Ah… Hngh!!”
She slowly opened her sleep-filled eyes and stared blankly into the air for a moment, then suddenly shuddered.
But unlike before she fainted, she had long since regained her freedom. Rather, she moved her body, thinking she was still captured. Her body, exerting excessive force, staggered and flailed her legs.
“Oh… Ack…!! Ouch!! Ughh…”
Staggering around like a drunken spider, she bumped the back of her head against the hard snout of the Kernel Worm, which was watching Leah from behind in case of any situation. She had no choice but to cover the back of her head with both hands and let out a soft groan.
‘Ouch… That must hurt a lot…’
“Ughh… It’s not just…
a little painful…
But… still…”
‘Huh?’
Leah, who had been hunched over with her head in her hands for a moment, slowly began to straighten her back and then looked down at her body and began to speak.
The cracks in the exoskeleton of her lower body, caused by the aftermath of the previous fall, the burns and scorch marks from being splashed with Hye-ryung’s drugs, and the pain in her lower abdomen, which had now faded considerably and was bearable.
“You truly… healed me…”
The cracked exoskeleton had reattached and become smooth again, and the skin that had been mottled and scarred from burns and melting had returned to its original jade-like state. Leah couldn’t help but realize what had happened to her body.
‘Please understand that the process was a bit rough.
It was the best I could do.’
“Such a pointless thing to do…”
‘Please refrain from saying things that hurt my feelings.’
“What are you planning to do with me now…?”
‘What do you mean, how…?’
“You helped me because you wanted something, didn’t you…?
It was the same in that prison back then, wasn’t it?
We only kept our promise to cooperate because we both had something to gain…”
From what she was saying, it seemed she was referring to what happened in the underground dungeon during the special evaluation. I suddenly recalled the situation back then.
I helped Leah escape safely from that place, and in return, I took all the beastmen.
As an extension of that, Leah would not antagonize me and would wait quietly in the lair until it was time to let her out.
Perhaps she was perceiving the current situation in the same way.
“You’re definitely planning to knock me down and trample on me…
Otherwise… there’s no way you would save someone like me…”
‘Well… it’s not exactly… like that…’
In reality, Leah had never been friendly to me, but she faithfully followed my instructions, which could have been frustrating, and I repaid her by helping her escape to the outside world as promised.
That meant that our contract had already been concluded.
‘If you’re thinking that you owe me something…
No… maybe you’re thinking something even more serious…?’
This time, there was no promise, no contract.
There was nothing she could give me to guarantee her safety, or even any leverage to threaten me.
Leah had simply ended up in a situation where she was unilaterally receiving my help, so it was inevitable that anxious thoughts would grow in her mind in this situation.
Even if she had been treated like a lady once before, this time she was trapped in the lair without any reassurance or promises, so it was only natural that she would feel fear.
Perhaps that’s why Leah went straight into the house she had built as soon as she entered the lair, and didn’t move at all, just in case.
‘I understand… but it’s a bit bitter…’
This was the lair of a monster that Leah herself had realized had a remarkably intelligent mind.
Even I would feel fear arising from the current precarious situation, rather than gratitude towards the monster, if a monster that could make the intelligent choice of betrayal at any time was being nice to me.
Although most of her injuries were now healed and her body felt light, I had already captured her once before.
I was no longer the baby Enic who had begged for his life while being nearly eaten by her on our first encounter, with only a few small bugs or tiny earthworms that could be crushed underfoot.
‘Now I feel like… maybe I’m at least a small business owner…’
The giant Kernel Worms were still reliably monitoring Leah, and the swarm members seemed to be wandering around aimlessly, but could turn around immediately if they sensed any threat.
If the tentacles were added to that, even if they could inflict significant damage when they fought Leah again, there was no guarantee that she would definitely win this time.
‘Well… at best, a few more tentacles would be torn off than last time…’
Therefore, Leah seemed unable to easily choose to resist, as she might be caught again and used as a reliable source of nutrients for the lair as punishment for having resisted even for a moment.
Perhaps that was why Leah’s eyes, which were now quite relaxed but still had a slight wariness, made me ponder what to do, and I had to take a moment to contemplate while wiggling my tentacles.
“Say something… say something!!
Why did you save me… save me again…!!
And why… why are you just watching me!!”
Rather, when I remained silent instead of answering, Leah’s body trembled more and more, as if she couldn’t bear the pressure of the current situation.
‘What do you want to do?’
“Me…?”
Leah’s eyes began to waver at my unexpected answer.
‘You wanted to leave last time, didn’t you?
Don’t you want to leave this time?’
“I… I would like that…
But…!!”
Leah, at a loss for words at such a fundamental question, stared at me with a blank expression. The swarm members guarding her scattered and dispersed one by one.
Now that a conclusion had been reached, there was no need to monitor or be wary of Leah any longer.
But even that situation was bewildering to her. She turned back to look at the giant Kernel Worm that was slowly disappearing into the wall, then turned her gaze back to the tentacle.
‘Then let’s go out.
You can go out through that tunnel we made before.’
“That… that has collapsed…”
‘Then wait a little bit.
I’ll make another tunnel.’
“You really won’t… hold me back…?”
‘Why would I?’
“……?”
‘I’d be really reassured if you were with me.
It wouldn’t be easy to feed you, but I could figure something out.
But you said you wanted to leave, right?
There’s no point in holding onto someone who wants to leave.
It can’t end well.’
“Just… for that reason…
You’re going to let go of prey that walked in on its own…
Without any conditions…?
You don’t want anything from me…?”
‘Why does there have to be a reason?
Or… do you want to stay here like this?
But you don’t want to, do you?’
To be precise, there were definitely aspects of my way of thinking that were similar to Leah’s.
The reason I tried to be good to the people around me.
Looking back on it, it was probably an act for ‘compensation’ in human relationships, hoping that someone would notice me, hoping that someone would be with me.
And in the end, it would always end with the clumsy and foolish me becoming a fool, a pushover, and remaining a nice person, with a continuous series of moments where wounds piled up.
That’s why I could sympathize with her idea that there was no such thing as an act without compensation, but instead, there was one thing I had learned.
If you empty your mind from the start, there’s nothing to be hurt about, nothing to be tormented about.
Just make the best choice you can, and if it doesn’t work out as you expected, just flexibly escape from that disappointment.
‘I’ll heal you, and I’ll dig a tunnel for you to get out.
Of course, if you attack or antagonize me during that time, I’ll treat you accordingly…
I’m just going to do my job, and after that’s done, the rest is up to you.’
If there is a previous favor that disappears because someone ignores it and looks down on it, then isn’t it possible that there is also a favor that doesn’t expect anything in return, regardless of what the other person says?
The best choice a coward who doesn’t want to get hurt can make is to cover his own eyes, pretending that’s not the case.
‘I guess it’s just a pathetic excuse for being a pushover…?
I just… hope that kindness doesn’t turn into malice.’
If you don’t intend to ask anything of the other person in the first place, it doesn’t matter what the other person thinks of it.
Whether the other person ignores my kindness or sincerely appreciates it, I’m just doing what I want to do.
In the end, paradoxically, what matters is how the person who receives it thinks about it.
At least for me, it’s better to have a pleasant feeling of unexpected good reactions coming my way than to struggle to get good results in order not to feel bad.
‘You’re not in good condition right now, so you have to get treatment properly.
Let’s make that what I want.
More important than that is ‘what you eat’ for the time being.
You can eat the tentacles you cut off for a day or two, but…’
“I don’t mind… starving…”
I threw another one of the severed tentacles at her, who was expressing her intention to decline with a listless expression.
Leah, who caught it and looked down at it silently, seemed to be hesitating about something, moving her lips as if she was hesitating.
‘It’s okay, eat it.
It’ll grow back anyway.’
Of course, the Parasites could reattach the severed tentacles, and even if they were left alone, they would eventually grow back thanks to their unique regenerative power.
That’s why I didn’t need to save the tentacles, and it seemed like Leah was unnecessarily watching my mood.
‘You have to eat something before you leave.
It’s awkward to reattach it anyway, so just eat it.
Come to think of it, it’s been a while.
It’s almost time to change the nutrient fluid. Is that okay?’
When her lower abdomen, where the sweet-smelling nutrient fluid that had become slightly drier and darker was flowing down, came into view, I slowly began to bring the tentacle to that place after a moment of hesitation.
‘Leah, can I put it in?’
“…… Do as… you please…”
‘Okay. It’ll sting a little at first.’
At Leah’s words, who hesitated for a moment before finally allowing it, the tentacle began to move, gently digging into the egg sac.
And Leah, who frowned deeply and closed her eyes tightly as if it was a little stinging, hugged the tentacle I gave her to eat as if it were a long cushion, buried her face in it, and trembled.
‘Does it still hurt a lot…?’
“To feed me… somehow…
Such an unromantic, uncool courtship…… Hnnngh…!!”
Just for that moment when a soft moan escaped from her mouth as she mumbled something,
I was just carefully scraping the inside of her body, which was relaxed to a subtle degree.
