Chapter 27. You know it when you see it.

“I told you that woman wouldn't have left her post without a thought!”

One of the cow thieves burst out in frustration.

This was not the first time they had tried to steal Grainy's cattle.

The first time, it was the leader alone.

He had confirmed that a woman was running the ranch by herself and snuck in, only to be discovered and flee.

He gathered comrades, and when they attacked again, a few of his comrades died.

This was the third time.

The reason they were so persistently targeting Grainy's ranch was out of a stubbornness born from what they had invested so far.

Anyway, after targeting Grainy's ranch several times, they had somewhat grasped Grainy's tendencies.

That was the part his subordinate was pointing out.

“Her guard must have been raised because of this attempt.”

“So? Was it lax until now? How thorough has that bitch been until now?”

The leader of the cow thieves, who was wrapping a cloth around the wound he had received from Ben, flared up in anger.

He recalled Grainy's pathological obsession with security.

She would set traps, pretending to be away, and when she absolutely had to move, she did so before they could notice.

They had watched for no short amount of time, but the times Grainy had left the ranch could be counted on one hand.

If there was no hope, they would have given up, but the possibility shimmering before their eyes was more malicious.

It wasn't a noble's mansion guarded by many servants, but just a ranch guarded by one person.

He waited, thinking that a gap would surely appear, and that all he had to do was not miss it.

And, as expected, an opportunity came, but…….

“You're going to blow a chance because you're scared of one guy?!”

However, the other thieves did not just listen quietly.

“You saw how that guy used his sword!”

“He's definitely a proper mercenary! Damn it, how did a person who never hired a single worker get the money to bring in a mercenary?!”

There had been no loyalty from the start.

The reason the thieves, who had each been active on their own, had gathered was for a ‘big score’ that they couldn't pull off alone.

They were the kind of people who would have neatly divided the money and gone their separate ways if they had succeeded.

They had only made the one with the sharpest mind their leader.

They might have listened to instructions necessary for the job, but there was no reason to quietly listen to him shifting the blame.

As if that wasn't enough, the arrows of anger began to turn towards the leader.

“You want to act like a leader after causing this mess by obsessing over cows?!”

“That's right! It was your misjudgment!”

The leader's face turned pale at the pouring criticism.

‘These damn bastards.’

Was it the leader's idea alone to target the ranch?

Absolutely not.

They had started this because stealing and selling a few cattle could make more money than stealing from poor commoners dozens of times.

‘Where did it go wrong?’

The plan wasn't bad.

First, subdue the one guarding the ranch, enter the ranch, and take the cattle.

After that, make the rest of the cattle run away.

It was difficult to catch humans who were determined to flee, and in the process, the cattle might not be recovered.

They had figured she would give up the chase, as recovering the escaped cattle would be a way to reduce the loss even a little.

However, they had failed from the very first step of subduing the one guarding the ranch.

Once the first button was fastened wrong, the plan for the next stage lost its meaning.

“So, if you're so unhappy, what are you going to do now?”

The leader chose to be more forceful.

A moment of silence fell at the leader's words.

There was no way those who were only thinking of avoiding responsibility would have an alternative.

“Stealing just one cow is enough to cover all our losses so far. Two? That's more than enough. Three? We could live without working for a while. Even if you want to wash your hands of this and live as a commoner, you need some capital, don't you?”

They were at the bottom of the barrel anyway.

Things couldn't get any worse.

Instead, he whispered of a rosy future.

“But the number of people has increased. Won't it be harder to break through?”

The leader shook his head at the reasonable question.

“The bitch who used to move alone has called for people. That means the situation will be different from now on. When you try to change something, a gap is bound to appear.”

Hearing the leader's words, it sounded plausible.

Perhaps it felt that way even more because it was what they wanted to hear.

“Alright. Let's try just one more time.”

“If it doesn't work this time either, we'll give up.”

A chance for a windfall.

Opportunity comes to those who are prepared.

However, such an opportunity was never given.

Click-clack.

The sound of hard carapaces clashing was heard.

* * *

“Whoa. Whoa whoa.”

Pol and I herded the cows that were leisurely grazing in the pasture into the barn.

It was a task Grainy had left us with as she hurriedly departed for the city.

It was a desperate measure in case the Arachnes approached the ranch.

It was unlikely that a barn could safely protect the livestock against monsters, but it was better than them roaming outside, becoming targets and attracting the monsters.

Perhaps because Grainy had trained the cows well, they understood our words.

After the cows entered the barn, we scraped together the hay stored in the warehouse and put it in the barn.

Today might be the day of these guys' ancestral rites, but wouldn't it be less unfair if they died with full stomachs?

Just as we were finishing the work, a scream was heard from afar.

Aaaargh-!

In a normal situation, I might have gone to check if someone was hurt.

But now, was it really a coincidence that a scream was heard at a time when the monsters called Arachnes had come out in anger?

Of all things, the direction was also the one where the Arachne's cave was said to be.

‘Did some clueless human wander around and run into an Arachne?’

If so, this was a big problem.

It meant that the Arachnes had come quite close.

“Brother! Let's go!”

Pol hastily grabbed his sword.

“How do you know what's going on?”

“In any case, isn't it something dangerous!”

A sound argument.

The thieves who were targeting the ranch might come again while we were away, but it was unsettling to pretend not to know when someone's life was on the line.

I also grabbed my sword and was about to run in the direction the sound came from.

“Wait.”

I gestured for Pol to stop and listened carefully.

The faint scream was now heard quite clearly.

It was getting closer.

Soon now-

“Aaaaargh-!!”

The owner of the scream made a spectacular entrance.

“There was no need to go and save him.”

“Pardon?”

“Look. It's the cow thief who came to the ranch earlier.”

I was wondering where he had run off to.

Seeing that he had no comrades around, it seemed they had already been taken down.

“Help me-!!”

And following behind him were reddish spiders.

A human-sized spider was creepy enough just to imagine, but seeing it in person had a different impact.

Because the legs moved a lot relative to the body, all I could see were the legs.

Hairy and thick legs like a tarantula's, legs, legs, legs-

Ugh, so gross.

“He's spreading shit until the very end.”

Look at that vicious criminal, running with a trail of monsters just to save his own skin.

There was no way I could look at him favorably.

“What are you just looking at?! You-!!”

He was even getting angry while asking for help.

Unbelievable.

I ignored the approaching cow thief and scanned the swarming group of spiders.

They looked like more because they had many legs, but in reality, there seemed to be about a dozen or so.

“Hic-!”

The cow thief, who had slowed down perhaps because he had run out of energy, fell over.

Right behind him, a spider leaped towards his back.

The cow thief seemed to sense his death as he squeezed his eyes shut.

Slice-

With a squelching sound, the spider that was pouncing on the cow thief was split in half.

“Still, a person comes before a monster.”

A soft-hearted Pol shook the sword that had cut down the spider to flick off its bodily fluids.

Why save the guy who guided the monsters all the way here?

“It does feel bad when someone dies right in front of you.”

It felt a bit strange for me to say this after having killed several people.

I didn't have a taste for watching other people's pain and death.

“Then, let's deal with the spiders first.”

I slowly took a step towards the spiders.

* * *

I drew my sword, held it, and swung.

Unlike a person who has only two legs, a spider has eight.

Losing a leg or two wouldn't be fatal.

So the targets were the head and the abdomen.

Shink.

With a blow that didn't contain much force, the spider's head was split vertically.

I thought it might hold on for a long time even after losing its head, being an arthropod, but surprisingly, it stopped breathing quickly.

‘They're weak?’

He had said they were monsters a bit stronger than goblins, but the strength I felt was less than that.

It seemed they were overestimated due to tricky aspects of dealing with them, such as venomous fangs or the spider's unique body structure.

It didn't take more than a few minutes to deal with the dozen or so spiders.

It was surprising that the queen of these weak spiders was so strong.

A superior individual of superior individuals.

Despite having gone through only two stages.

“The spiders were all different sizes, is the big one the superior individual?”

“No.”

Pol shook his head at my question.

“You know a superior individual when you see it. It is bigger, but its appearance is completely different.”

You know it when you see it?

How different could it be?

Was it because I had harbored a sacrilegious question?

Suddenly, the ground rumbled.

With a vibration like an earthquake, the trees fell.

A huge presence approached, making a path through the forest.

-Kiiiiii.

With a bizarre cry, a spider the size of a small hill revealed itself.

It wasn't just a simple up-scaling of an Arachne.

It had more legs, and something like antennae.

But in any case, its overall form maintained the feeling of a spider.

My will to fight disappeared in the face of its overwhelming presence.

“……That is a superior individual.”

I now clearly understood what he meant by 'you know it when you see it'.

It was a completely different species.

If that was the same species, then a tiger and a cat would be the same species too.

“Hyaaaak!! Save me!! Uwaaah!!”

The cow thief, who had just been lying down while we were dealing with the Arachnes, had a fit upon seeing the superior Arachne.

The cow thief who shot up and attempted to flee.

It was then.

The superior individual, which had been moving slowly until now, leaped.

Then a huge shadow fell over the cow thief's head.

“Ueh-?”

Thump.

The voice of the cow thief, crushed by the huge body, was no longer heard.

Instead, only the sound of crunching bones echoed.

“……”

“……”

As Pol and I stood frozen at the surreal sight, the superior individual began to move slowly as before.

The monster that had just devoured a person showed no sign of caring, even with people right next to it.

“Can it not see us?”

“I wonder.”

Come to think of it, he had said it was a species that lived in caves.

It wasn't a rare phenomenon for the vision of animals adapted to darkness to degenerate.

Usually, another sense would develop in its place.

Seeing that it didn't notice us even though we were right next to it, it wouldn't be its sense of smell, and since it didn't react while we were talking, it wasn't its hearing either.

In that case-

“Shall we get a little closer?”

“You idiot, don't move rashly!”

“……Ah?”

My restraint was too late, and the moment Pol took a slight step, the superior individual's head turned towards us.

‘A sense of touch- to be precise, it must be vibration detection.’

Like a spider recognizing prey caught in its web, it seemed to detect minute vibrations transmitted through the ground.

“……”

Perhaps because a single step wasn't enough for the superior individual to be certain, it didn't charge immediately.

A few seconds of both sides standing still.

-Mooooo.

Just as the sound of a cow mooing was heard, the superior individual whipped its body around towards the barn.

The huge body approached the barn.

It seemed better to leave while that thing was distracted by the cows rather than foolishly thinking of fighting.

The ranch and all, could it be as important as a person's life?

However, there was someone who did not agree with my opinion.

“No you don't!! You damn spider bastard!!”

Arriving at the worst possible timing, Grainy charged towards the superior individual.

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