Chapter 36: Test of Loyalty Part 1

At the camp of the monkey rebels, the other sibling who is tasked to stay behind and be the one to hold the post is in his dwelling as he once again escorted a battered monkey out of his tent after the said monkey reported the same report he has been receiving these past few days, a hunting squad was attacked and was slaughtered, the monsters who attacked plundered their weapons but overlooked a single monkey and accidentally let it escape, right in the night of his brother's departure. At first, he brushed it off as just a random incident, however, a monkey that escaped reported to him that the monsters who assaulted them, had green-colored skin and are using sharp stones attached to a carved stick as a spear, surprisingly enough they do not use the weapons they plunder but seem to just store it somewhere.

He doubted this report, after all, the only monster he knew to have green color are the goblins and it is said that the spears they used is made of carefully carved rocks, thus it is impossible that those bunch of morons are the ones who attacked them, but then he remembered the unsuccessful assault of the wolves towards the settlement of the Hero Prospect.

When the rebellion is still yet to happen the queen of the spiders once told their father that the Hero Prospect have goblins for soldiers, when he remembered this, his eyes turned blood red as several veins came pulsating throughout his muscular body.

_We lost the initiative to attack!_

He roared in his mind, this is a big blow to his pride and a sudden slap on his face! At first, he thought that the hero prospect is nothing special, after all, who would think highly of someone who has goblins as servants, right? But for some unknown reason, let alone knowing the rebellion of the two younger brothers, the Hero Prospect also learned the location of their camping site, she even learned the food hunting spots they have set beforehand. However, as the intelligent creature that he is, he finally learned the advantage of information, thus he ordered a monkey to send a message to his brother that his mission shall be fulfilled in the shortest time possible.

The spies then were commanded to further hasten their range-widening order, but then a report came.

"Leader, the scouts have been assaulted by a grey goblin archer and a bunny that is so muscular for his size..." This report once again angered the rebel leader, but he immediately calmed down.

After all, the countermeasures are already set and the harassment they are facing is not frontal, thus the damages are minimal except for the weapons that got plundered without fail and the several prey that escaped their grasp, the leader just smirked causing the injured scout to be confused.

"Do not worry, I already took proper actions and will see to it that such accidents will not happen again, disperse."

The leader cannot help but laugh, despite his evaluation of the hero prospect going up by a little, he is still yet to recognize her as a threat, after all, what thus her goblins who got a little power-up can do against his invincible army, right?

______

The youngest of the two monkey rebel leaders is still traveling with his soldiers toward the location of the spider queen's cave without knowing what happened to their camp. They continued to talk loudly like always as if they are the ones who owns the world and no one will even dare to stop them, only one monster amongst them is taking their travel seriously.

"Only the leader has the good instincts to notice my presence huh? But still, he cannot confirm it because of all these spiders around the path towards her lair also spying on them."

A figure with three pairs of eyes said so, he have a tall stature and have a pair of daggers in his hands, he then suddenly stabbed the dagger down a part of the body of the tree in which a white colored spider is in, the spider of course died without even taking a single squeak before it perished.

"It's starting to have a lot of these white-colored spiders, they are about to arrive at their destination."

Kabuto assessed so, seeing trees with numerous spiders all white here and there, the spiders don't have that much of an overwhelming amount, but still, even someone like him who worked as a spy even for such a short time will immediately know how bizarre the sudden increase of arachnids are, much so they don't have any color variations.

"So in the end, she does know my existence and most probably my purpose."

Kabuto pondered about this thought and the idea of failing his mission once again lingered in his mind. He clenched his fist and swore that he will never fail his lady ever again.

"Yo! How has it been, Kabuto?"

Sophia's unusually cheerful tone resounded abruptly in his mind, causing him to straighten his back in haste.

_My Lady's voice is quite different? She is supposed to be serious when talking about my orders... I wonder what happened._

Kabuto knows this side of Sophia, of course as the one who always talks with her because of the nature of his unique skill, he also knows that this side of her will never be revealed in situations that require serious attention such as this war, thus he found it bizarre but decided not to meddle with his master's things too much.

"Lady Sophia."

Kabuto replied with his usual regal tone as he continuously jumped from tree to tree to tail the band of monkey soldiers he is tasked to scout.

"Ah, that's right, serious, needs to be serious, anyway, are they near the lair yet?"

Kabuto, still not used to the casual tone in such serious conversation replied with his report.

"Master, yes, they already reached a point where spider webs and spiders of the same colors increased in concentration and volume, I assume that for a week or less, they will reach the cave in which that accursed queen is."

Kabuto jumped on a tree and intentionally stepped on a white spider that is staring right at him as he reported that.

"Ouchie... For now, I think you should stop killing spiders in there."

Kabuto stopped suddenly at a tree just three meters passed the tree he killed the spider in, he then looked at that spot and all of his eyes squinted at it.

"Why?"

He asked, the tone of anger not evident yet in his voice.

"Whoa there relax."

His master, Sophia laughed at his baby tone she also rarely uses, and Kabuto became more confused. Just a while ago his respected master ordered all of his civilians and soldiers to kill all the spiders they can see anywhere they go, Sophia even showed clear contempt at the very thought of knowing that someone is spying on her and she cannot do anything about it.

Despite this turmoil in the mind of Sophia's most intelligent Subordinate, she continued.

"You see, the Queen of Spiders offered her loyalty towards me, effectively making the two of you allies... For now, that is."

Kabuto seem to not have heard the last part right and still asked in confusion.

"Why did Master accept it?"

His Lady immediately rebuked him, Kabuto can even hear the chopping sounds of her arm on the wooden table that is seem to be in front of him.

"No, no I did not, what the heck?"

She sounded annoyed for a second, but finally, for the first time in this conversation, she went serious.

"Do you think I'm stupid? Do you know the cons of just accepting someone who knows that I am courting Eleanor without even entering my settlement being accepted just like that in my ranks?"

Kabuto thought for a while and indeed, his master is not stupid and will not recklessly accept such an offer.

"But that's also the reason why I can't reject the offer. I will list down to you what kind of benefits are there in signing that spider as my servant. First, information about the remaining boss class monsters of this forest, second she is the only neutral monster of this forest, thus having her with us will tip the power scale of this place to my favor."

Sophia, Kabuto's lady finally stopped rapidly speaking and sighed, she then continued.

"These things make me come to a neutral conclusion, I shall give her a trial to test her loyalty, and that's why I am here talking to you, you see the tribulation for that spider's loyalty goes like this..."

His master proceeded to explain what she had demanded from the spider queen and Kabuto cannot help but admire his master even more.

_Such a brilliant idea!_

With this task being taken off, the brunt of pressure on the soldiers will decrease, and the main battle will be easier than how it was simulated, furthermore with the relationship between the spider queen and the tribe leader, there is a possibility that the monkeys not part of the rebel group will be persuaded to give up their volcano which is the point to be conquered for the hero's test without the need of shedding more unnecessary blood.

"As expected of a being such as yourself!"

Kabuto cannot help but admire his master further, he did not hear a reply as Sophia continued.

"Now, I want this to be your role in this test, first you..."

Kabuto listened intently to what he was supposed to do, and after he was instructed and with his usual "Understood." the communication cut off.

"Poor little monkeys."

________

The youngest leader of the rebel army doesn't have any idea of this conversation ever transpiring, as he alongside his undisciplined troops continued to travel alongside each other, most of these soldiers are newly conscripted and do not have a lot of loyalty towards their conservative former leader, that is the reason why these people can easily be persuaded to rebel against the leader's father.

On the flip side, however, they do not have the restraint nor the observant nature of the more veteran soldiers, causing them to not be able to notice that the number of spiders in their surrounding increased. If he can just request his other brother to give him the soldiers that are currently guarding the camp, then he already did.

_There should be a limit to their immaturity._

The youngest sibling shook his head while they continue to transverse the place, in his mind the feeling of unease he is feeling got confirmed to be the spider queen's doing, easing his heart a little. Even though the monkey tribe royal family in the past have a "close" relationship with the queen of spiders, usually the queen is the one who always visits them and only his father is the one who can visit her... for obvious reasons that do not need to be stated.

"Leader! Leader! A message from the camp!"

Suddenly, the clamorous army stopped their chatter, and a single shout from the back of the ranks was heard, the soldiers then upon hearing the words "from the camp", immediately made way for the soldier who have the message from their other leader. They know that it is urgent if it came from one of the great leaders of the rebels.

The traveling leader turned around, seeing a monkey who is panting despite the big tank of stamina the monkeys have he came here with some important message when he is exhausted like that.

"What did my brother want?"

The leader asked while he wait for the moment the messenger catch his breath. After a while of panting like mad and one last heavy exhale, the messenger finally spoke.

"The leader has changed the orders, he stated that the information purchase should be put as utmost need and shall be fulfilled with haste."

The other leader froze, his worries that already got pushed back deep down his heart once again flowed like unconstrained water.

"That's it?"

However, as one of the leaders of the rebels, he cannot let his worries show on his face, thus he swallowed them forcefully back unto the deepest part of his mind.

"Let him rest for a while."

The monkeys then who are carrying their ration immediately started to make fire to roast the poorly aged meat they call resources the soldiers are excited that they will take a short break.

The leader however did not... or rather cannot take a break, he looked at the monkeys roasting meats in a bonfire as he thought about the message.

_That person put something he thought at first as nothing important as a priority?_

_That person who has the confidence and guts to call our father incompetent?_

_What happened back there? Why is the message not attached to the whole situation?_

Overthinking shrouded his mind as he thought of the possible circumstances the camp went through, suddenly as if the worries he have is not already enough and it is needed to be further piled up, a spider with some of its limbs missing suddenly dropped down in front of the leader, the spider is bigger than usual, it is more of a combatant than a scout.

"Help me, my child....!"

A shrill voice of a woman in agony rang out.