Poor Noble Nord’s Adventure

49. Retreat

(If I don’t get this information to my brother soon…)

Nord knew he had to deliver the information to Johan, the lord of Alba Village, no matter what.

The knight spiders were dangerous monsters with insatiable appetites, capable of causing significant harm to human settlements. Now, they had massively reproduced in the nearby forest, creating enormous nests. Worse, a being even more threatening than wyverns seemed to be leading the horde—a first-class emergency.

The villagers needed to begin evacuation immediately, and the Adventurers’ Guild—or perhaps even the Royal Knights—had to be summoned.

But for that to happen, the lord responsible for the area had to first recognize the gravity of the situation.

──A legendary monster has revived and is nearing your village.

If such a warning were given by an ordinary adventurer, the lord would never believe it.

Perhaps an Iron-ranked or Silver-ranked adventurer—or someone even more renowned—could command attention, but Nord was merely a Crystal-ranked adventurer. No noble would take the word of a mere mid-tier adventurer at face value.

However, Nord had the advantage of being Johan’s younger brother and, even as a trainee, a dragon knight. If he pleaded earnestly, his brother Johan would surely listen to his warning.

If not──

──Nord’s mind conjured the image of a horde of vicious monsters attacking Alba Village.

The villagers, celebrating the autumn harvest and praying for prosperity in the coming year.

Visitors from nearby towns and villages, travelers, and merchants, gathered for the Spirit Festival.

The festival would be at its peak, everyone listening to the priest’s words of blessing, when suddenly destruction would strike.

The crowd would panic. The organizers would struggle to grasp the situation. And then, crashing through homes and buildings, the swarm of spiders would charge in.

The soulless, multifaceted spider eyes would lock onto the stunned, confused villagers—and a horrifying symphony of screams and slaughter would begin.

The invasion wouldn’t stop at Alba Village. After devouring the villagers and razing the area, the swarm would move on to nearby towns and villages.

Even if the Adventurers’ Guild or the Royal Knights intervened, ordinary adventurers and knights would be powerless against the massive spider queen—the Empress Spider, Arachne.

It would take countless sacrifices and finally the strength of high-ranking adventurers or the Kingdom of Hamill’s elite knights to bring the beast down.

By then, the destruction wrought by the monsters would be unimaginable.

But this tragedy could still be prevented—by Nord’s hand.

By sheer chance, he had discovered the disturbance in the forest and grasped the situation.

Now all that remained was to deliver the information.

At that moment, the wind stopped.

The strong gusts blowing from the northern mountains fell silent.

Nord, who had been peering out from the cliff, pulled back his head and prepared to retreat.

All he needed to do was retrace his steps, run through the moonlit forest once more, and escape. That was all. Or so he thought.

“!?”

A tingling sensation ran down Nord’s neck.

His body sensed danger before his mind could comprehend it.

From his prone position, Nord instinctively sprang to his feet, twisting his body to look behind him.

(Something’s coming! Damn it, I didn’t notice it because I was upwind.)

As a habit from his days as an adventurer, Nord always positioned himself downwind of his prey.

This basic tactic helped avoid detection by scent, and even now, the Empress Spider and her brood hadn’t noticed him.

However, this tactic had a flaw—it delayed his awareness of threats approaching from downwind, as sound and scent were carried away by the wind.

The moment the wind ceased, Nord finally heard it: the faint sound of branches snapping.

Something was approaching.

As Nord turned, it appeared.

Eight legs in two pairs, a body covered in black bristles, and twelve crimson eyes—a General Spider.

There were two strokes of luck.

First, the wind had stopped, allowing him to notice the creature just in time.

Second, thanks to the scent-masking agent he had applied earlier, the General Spider hadn’t detected him, despite being downwind.

Thus, when the General Spider leapt toward the cliff where Nord was hiding, its twelve eyes hadn’t yet identified its target as a human and a young dragon.

And before it could, Nord’s reflexive iai slash sliced it in two.

(…Tch!)

──The misfortune lay in the fact that the General Spider had been carrying prey intended as an offering for the Empress.

As a result, the combined mass of the spider and its captured prey was too much for Nord to halt.

The spider’s lifeless body, no longer bound by any force, tumbled off the cliff along with its prey.

The carcass crashed down the cliff, hitting the ground with a sickening, wet thud that reached Nord’s ears.

Nord gasped and turned back.

Silence greeted him.

The swarm of spiders, the gigantic Empress, all had frozen.

And then──

Hundreds of crimson eyes turned to glare at Nord, the intruder.