Chapter 123: Don’t Forget About Arachne

While Sipnayan and I smiled at each other, we could not help but turn our polite and professional smile to that of awkwardness, why you ask? Well, you see, on my right side is a small-statured woman with short silver-colored hair, its forelocks were all brushed to the side and tucked to her ear, she wears a filipiniana of the same color as her hair, an outfit that she seems to be fond of since our last trip, after a while of enduring the child height woman in front of her, Sipnayan finally cannot help but inquire.

"My Lady, it's not like I want to intrude with your arrangements, but why is Captain Bakunawa inside your office when we have non-military matters to discuss?"

Normally, civilians would be afraid to even address the peculiarities of the generals and captains I have appointed. That includes why Wokung and Saru seem to be awfully close to the goblin in front of me. Actually, Kabuto told me that there are rumors that Sipnayan has a bisexual harem, but I can see that Saru just wanted to make her rejoin the military while Wokung is the one running trains inside Sipnayan.

Ahem, anyway, what I am saying is, that rumor will not reach the ears of the three people involved because the three of them are very strong people, that is also the reason why Sipnayan did not even stutter when she asked me that question.

"Actually, I am quite interested in that as well, why are you here, Captain?"

Bakunawa was squinting her eyes at Sipnayan when I asked her such a question, she calmed herself down and looked at me for a full second before looking at Sipnayan again, she then suddenly held my right hand, made a step closer to my table, and then brought her head in front of the field of vision of Sipnayan and leaned in incredibly close to my face!

I could not even say anything as the serpent in front of me peered her eyes with mine, and as expected, this third-rate scene from an author's wet dream that happened in front of her was misunderstood by Sipnayan because with a cough, she immediately excused herself with a: "I shall take my leave." while using her not-a-restaurant-owner tier speed to storm out of my office.

The maid who also has her eyes opened wide put her hand on her chest and bowed lightly whilst briskly going out of the room.

_This might be the smartest move I have seen Bakunawa do..._

I can remember when she was tricked by the amount of blood I poured from the head of the pink bat queen.

I kept looking at Bakunawa who is infinitesimally close to my face, and to be honest, I was actually quite flustered too, and only my pride was keeping me from stumbling out of my seat.

"Wow, your cheeks have turned red."

I smiled at what she just said as I pushed her face away, though I noticed that her hand was not willing to let go of mine. I was getting worried, is my strongest soldier really trying to kiss me? Or worse undress me? Right here, right now!?

No way, I should stop joking around.

"Hey, hey, you can get electrocuted when you do that sort of thing again, you know?"

I tried to shake off her hand, but then her face once again went close to me, if you do this the third time people will think we're running out of content, you know!

"Yes, if you don't like what I am doing, but seeing that I did not even feel a spark, I can assume that you don't mind, right?"

Bakunawa is acting smart this day, I wonder why, and also why is she using it to make me blush!

[Why are you blushing in the first place.]

Right! You bastard, are you behind this!? What do you think you're doing, huh!? My mind went into overdrive and my perception of time dilated to the point that my inhales and exhales felt like 5 minutes each, but I didn't care about all of that as I waited for [Guide]'s answer.

[Ops, I should have stayed quiet.]

So it was really you!?

[Hey, my metaphorical heart is hurt by such accusations, just because someone you think is not smart did something out of your expectations doesn't mean that someone is helping them.]

I cannot help but get annoyed at that as I replied.

_Does that mean that Bakunawa wants to do all sort of things to me?_

[Yes, it was her partial hero's test. You already know that the gods of the undead pantheon are banking all their bets on you, so the god of streams made it so that Bakunawa will help you get out of your traumatic past, after all, you almost died in your last fight.]

I was speechless at this, just how desperate are they that they will stretch their limited influence in the world just to help me get rid of the haze in my mind? I was worried instead of touched...

[Also, she's in love with you, so maybe she wanted a piece of your juicy cake... that might not sound metaphorical with your appearance now.]

I was once again speechless, well, of course, I am not a very dense person after all, she wouldn't do something like this if she just wanted my twat or have finally entered the door of masochism.

One second really just passed with all of that mental argument I had with a unique skill and at that moment, the door creaked suddenly with the figure of Eleanor emerging, Bakunawa and I immediately separated our one-inch closed lips, Eleanor looked at Bakunawa with quite a profound gaze, well, of course she'd agree with something like this, she has been an advocate of a second Mrs. Demiurge way before the Loki incident.

I have the urge to curse her for the first time in my life.

"Sophia, I am here to take my post as the mayor of Magayon Industrial Center."

I nodded at that quite awkwardly as I said.

"Alright, this desk nameplate will be officially yours, please use this position wisely and efficiently."

Eleanor looked at me and then Bakunawa once again and smiled, Bakunawa nodded at this.

"I will."

Eleanor answered before leaving the room, I looked at Bakunawa who was also looking at me.

"I am serious with what I am doing, Sophia."

I did not say anything at this as a conflict between my two selves, one I am well acquainted with and one I refuse to acknowledge is happening within me, if I want to discover myself then I have to give Bakunawa who have observed me for far too long a chance, after all, Momoiro was just fascinated to me because she cannot read my thoughts, she will be disgusted the moment she read a sentence of the words in my mind so I cannot consider her.

_But I can't bring myself to ask Bakunawa to participate in such an 'experiment'... I am not like that after all... wait a minute, I WON'T CONSIDER SUCH THINGS IF I AM NOT 'THAT' KIND OF PERSON!_

I put my two hands on my face as I sighed deeply, even Bakunawa who was acting weird a little earlier was weirded out by my sudden actions.

Sigh... This might be the hardest decision I have to make...

Just when I was having a very strong internal conflict, a loud voice from a small spider snapped me awake.

"DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME!"

[3rd Person POV]

In a room inside the City hall, Eleanor is holding her desk nameplate in her hand whilst holding a piece of paper with a pentagram using another, she looks at her name on the nameplate whilst a faint smile appeared on her face, the plate has a "Eleanor B. Demiurge" on it.

"Even though we're not officially married yet, she already encrusted her surname in mine..."

Eleanor felt touched, after all, Sophia can be considered her first love, so seeing that her first love is so willing to bypass normal proceedings that Sophia would not do so normally, it was normal to feel such a thing, she then looked at the paper Sophia gave her and a solemn expression appeared on her face, remembering the battle between Sophia and Hebi Tsukaiza that created a mental attack to King Roselle enough for him to forcefully liquidate 4,000 gold coins just to buy a start-up currency.

_Even with the goddess of nature giving me such a potent unique skill with abilities that can make me stronger than Hebi if I faced her, I don't think I can participate in that kind of battle._

Eleanor was even more amazed by the fact that Sophia, who was weaker than Hebi at that time can led Hebi by the nose, it was the very contradiction to the phrase, knowledge speaks but wisdom listens. With a determined look, she swore to help Sophia not only with what her wife assigned her to do, but what her training with her big brother Warden can let her achieve. She then infused mana into the paper, causing the paper to create a rip in space and the fourth dimension to appear, Eleanor entered it and arrived in front of Jin, the captain of the soldiers assigned to protect Magayon.

All the soldiers greeted her with respect whilst the scientists who were at the entrance as well look at her curiously, as Sophia said, her subordinates are blind simps toward her, so they were aware of Sophia's intelligence even though they did not witness it themselves, they were intrigued by someone who was assigned by their lady to be the lead scientist when Sophia took it upon herself to become the lead strategist and commander-in-chief of the whole army.

Eleanor greeted all of them without restraint as she gestured for them to immediately enter Magayon.

_______

After Eleanor talked to all the people who visited her due to curiosity or because their posts would be getting direct orders from her, Eleanor sighed in her office.

_I wonder if Sophia will accept the advances of Bakunawa... In my observation, even before we entered Gjallarhorn, she was very disturbed by the high amount of women that surrounds her... there is that time when she even unconsciously snuggled her face on Arachne's chest, though it was Arachne who started that farce._

In all honesty, Eleanor was quite jealous at that time, and only when she observed that Sophia was having difficulties in suppressing her impulses did she encourage her wife to have a second one, it could be Momoiro, it could be Arachne, though it was a surprise that Bakunawa will be the one to make a move first, she was electrocuted several times for Sophia's amusement after all.

_Though I would feel like I was cuckolded, when Bakunawa's god even decided to intervene in this matter, then it is safe to say that Sophia needs to be forced out of whatever stops her from being polygamist, some of that is probably me, but I feel like it is more complicated than that..._

Eleanor finally understood why her Auntie Aoi lets her Mother Urduja fool around a lot. The two of them can be considered martyrs for giving up the position they should monopolize and sharing it with others for the well-being of their spouses.

_Apparently, mother also suppressed herself in her younger days just like Sophia, I can understand Sophia as she was abandoned by her father, but the past of mother is too far back that only she can dig it out, and she is unwilling to dig it out for her children._

Eleanor continued to think of such things while sitting in her office as the first mayor and first lead researcher of Kamatayan.

[Sophia's POV]

After the outburst of Arachne, she led me and Bakunawa who seemed to have decided to use persistence to pierce through my steel heart (though more like conflicted), Arachne did not say anything other than her main body being in the lab already, so we entered her cave with the spider she sent on my shoulder whilst Bakunawa insisted to be at my side.

Well, her initial report says that I and Eleanor will need to peer review the silk color pigmentation as it was something Arachne was stuck on, but it feels like Arachne is restless as she was also watching me and Eleanor train last week to find an opportunity to drag the two of us towards her lab, though unfortunately for her, Eleanor will continue to be busy, so she had to make do with my humble self instead.

_If it is pigmentation, the gene of the spider is not the problem but rather the spinnerets, they have to have an environment that would need them adapt such abilities, if we forcefully make such a change to independent spiders that can't draw the powers of Arachne, then that would result in their death, meaning we have to create a natural selection like setting somehow and make them die and reproduce quick..._

As we coursed through the maze-like cave that I had long memorized, I was creating some hypotheses, after all, what Arachne was attempting was using silk spiders to create colored webs, the spiders are in fact, similar to earthen spiders with a little bit of mana that makes their silk extra durable that what normal spiders can create.

But there is a problem, these spiders are independent spiders and not and cannot be an offspring of Arachne.

The reason why Marionette spiders can withstand genetic alteration is because, like I said earlier, they are connected to Arachne, meaning that Arachne needed to have her genes be altered and be affected negatively before all of them universally die or become autistic.

Remember that they had exploding fever before? That would be worse if they are not connected to Arachne.

_Good grief, I was a physicist but somehow how to work with genetics and the Theory of Evolution._

I pushed open the gates of the lab whilst sighing, there I saw the always naked Arachne in her arachnid form, it made me feel ashamed that I thought that I already become tall. But what caught my eye was the heart encased in a glass with nitrogen gas preserving it, in the back of the glass container is a woman of heavenly beauty, the paleness of her complexion when I last saw her was gone.

_Ah, it seems like she's about to resurrect the pink bat queen._