"I ended up chatting for quite a while and got delayed a bit. I didn't expect... Hmm? Am I late?"
Ash glanced around, then reached out toward the guard lying on the ground.
A gentle healing spell covered the guard with light.
The man wasn't actually dead yet. The arrows lodged in his body were pulled out as though guided by an invisible hand, and his wounds began healing at a visible rate.
The guard suddenly opened his eyes, like someone waking from a nightmare. His gaze was full of confusion as he instinctively looked around, seemingly unable to process that he had just been at death's door.
"I... I... died?"
The guard's voice was weak and shaking. He couldn't believe he had come back from the brink of death.
"No. You're still alive."
Ash answered casually.
As everyone recovered from their surprise and relief, two elven intruders in green cloaks suddenly appeared at the entrance to the study.
Their eyes were fierce, and the arrows in their hands gleamed coldly. It was obvious they had come to kill.
But before they could fire, Ash merely glanced at them.
That gaze carried an invisible force.
A powerful impact swept over them like a tidal wave. The two elves didn't even have time to release their arrows before they were blown away. With a dull crash and cries that sounded like they were on the verge of death, they collapsed and stopped moving.
But just as the threat at the doorway was dealt with, a series of loud crashes came from behind.
The windows had been smashed open.
Everyone turned around.
Six elves in green cloaks had entered through the windows. They had already drawn their short swords and surrounded everyone.
"M-Mr. Ash!"
Madam cried out.
"Yes, yes... I know. No need to worry so much."
He lightly tapped the floor with his toe.
Puchi!
A dense cluster of earth spikes burst through the wooden floor.
In that instant, the spikes pierced the elves through the chest with perfect accuracy.
Amid a series of screams, they were lifted high into the air on the sharp spikes.
Blood flowed down the spikes and pooled across the floor.
"Anyway, I'm going to the front hall to meet some guests. Are you... coming along?"
"P-Please! Let us come with you."
Afraid more elves might suddenly appear, Madam tightly covered Sophia's eyes to stop her from seeing the bloody scene while hurrying after Ash.
The others followed as well.
Like drowning people grabbing onto a lifeline, they only felt safe beside Ash.
———
Even though Ash had cleaned out the elves before leaving, they had apparently used teleportation magic to return to the Keren Territory.
Several elves were already waiting in the entrance hall with bows drawn.
But among the cloaked elves, the one standing openly at the front was the Elven Chief himself, Potimas.
He appeared without any disguise.
His posture made it clear he intended to kill everyone present.
His cold gaze shot toward Ash like an arrow, filled with scrutiny and killing intent.
"So you really did appear. Were you sent by Ariel to protect the reincarnators? Who are you?"
"A traveler passing by."
"Not going to answer? It doesn't matter."
Potimas slowly walked toward him.
A chilling killing intent spread across his expressionless face.
"Anti-Magic Barrier, activate."
As his words fell, a strange and terrifying change occurred around Potimas.
Ash immediately felt weaker.
More accurately... all the enhancements provided by his skills disappeared.
The lord's family felt the same thing.
Their magic, skills, and stats were all excluded by the barrier.
A chill ran through their bodies like an icy snake, making them tremble in fear.
"Don't bother thinking about it. No matter how powerful a mage you are, all magic is unusable here. Any enhancement skills are forcibly removed."
Out of caution, Potimas immediately used the trump card of this body and looked at Ash coldly.
"I'll admit you're qualified to be my opponent. I am Potimas Harrifenas. Remember that name. As for your own name, there's no need to tell me. You're about to die here anyway."
The moment he finished introducing himself, Potimas gave Ash no time to react.
His figure blurred.
He rushed forward at astonishing speed and threw a punch straight at Ash's head.
The heavy strike seemed intent on smashing his skull apart.
Madam didn't even have time to scream.
Her eyes were wide as she watched in horror.
Yet unexpectedly, before the punch could reach Ash's face, Ash stepped forward.
His hand moved first and landed on Potimas's face like lightning.
The entire motion flowed smoothly without the slightest hesitation.
Using the momentum of his body, he slammed Potimas's head into the ground.
BOOM!
The explosion sounded like a shell hitting the earth.
Potimas's head was driven directly into the floor, creating a massive crater.
His arms and legs hung in the air.
The impact had instantly crushed his head, revealing...
A mass of scattered mechanical parts.
The parts reflected strange light under the lamps, creating a disturbing sight.
As Potimas's head exploded, the barrier surrounding everyone vanished like smoke.
"What was that? You acted like you were so strong. I was even thinking about playing around a bit longer. That's all there was to it? How boring."
Looking at the broken machine beneath him, Ash finally understood why he couldn't appraise him.
At the same time, he found Potimas's earlier arrogance ridiculous and even felt a little regret for hitting so hard.
Everything had happened too quickly.
So quickly that nobody could react.
Everyone unconsciously held their breath.
The result was so far beyond common sense that their bodies had stiffened.
Potimas had already moved too fast to follow clearly.
Ash, however, had moved so quickly that nobody could see it at all.
Everyone present began doubting their own eyes.
Had they really seen what they thought they saw?
Wasn't he a mage?
Why was he so strong in close combat?
That question became the shared confusion of the entire Keren family.
The elves, who had been counting on their chief to solve everything, immediately panicked.
They instinctively tried to fire their arrows and save Potimas.
However, before they could finish moving, translucent slashes swept through first.
Like the scythe of death.
The slashes were incredibly sharp.
Every elf they touched was cleanly cut in half together with their bow.
Heads flew into the air alongside sprays of blood before hitting the ground one after another with dull thuds.
The mansion fell into complete silence after the slaughter.
Yet amid that silence, space suddenly twisted once again without warning.
Then a giant white spider two meters long appeared in the hall.
Its body carried a strange and mysterious presence.
But what shocked people even more was that at the base of its neck, above its back, there was the upper body of a beautiful young girl.
The strange thing was that the half-girl appeared with her eyes closed and her arms elegantly spread to both sides, like a figure skater finishing a performance.
Honestly... She looked kind of ridiculous.
At least, Ash wanted to pretend he didn't know her.
In fact, he really did.
'Kumoko! Making a grand entrance! Well? Were you shocked, huh?'
Having hurried over to show off her new body, Kumoko had been eagerly imagining Ash's reaction the moment the teleportation finished.
She had already planned out how he would praise her cool entrance.
But the eyes of the giant spider body beneath her noticed that...
'Something seems off.'
The scene she imagined, where everyone was amazed by her, never happened.
Instead, everyone was staring at her with strange expressions.
Ash had even covered his face and turned around, pretending not to know her.
Even her own expression started falling apart.
Like a punctured balloon, the confidence she had been overflowing with vanished completely.
She froze where she stood.
Her pale cheeks quickly turned red at a visible rate.
At the worst possible moment, Kumoko appeared on the scene.
Her arms were elegantly spread open and her eyes were shut as if she were completely immersed in her own world.
She had not noticed the miserable state of the surroundings.
She hadn't even noticed the elf head near her feet.
She looked exactly like a figure skater striking a final pose after a performance.
If smartphones existed, Ash would definitely have taken a picture to preserve for posterity.
But now, he simply covered his face and looked like someone contemplating life, acting as though he hadn't seen her at all and wasn't familiar with her.
Under normal circumstances, the Keren family would have forced themselves to praise her somehow.
But now, in this atmosphere, they simply couldn't.
The place was a mess.
Corpses were everywhere, and the smell of blood filled the air.
There were guards killed by elves.
There were also six decapitated elves.
Bodies lay scattered across the floor while blood continued pooling around them.
In a scene like this, a "dancer" suddenly appearing as though she were performing was a very awkward sight.
Furthermore, the Keren family didn't even recognize her as the Divine Beast.
Though both were spiders, the difference in size was far too great.
She also had a human upper body now.
She practically looked like a different species.
After receiving no praise, Kumoko gradually realized that the mansion had somehow become a battlefield and slaughterhouse.
The redness spread from her cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears.
She looked like a fully ripened apple.
The embarrassment made her want to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.
The lines she had prepared got stuck in her throat.
She could only stand there with her mouth open, completely lost.
It was hard not to laugh.
'Aaaaah... I want to die! I want to die, I want to die, I want to die! W-Why are there suddenly so many dead people here? I want to die! What do I do? I seriously want to die! Ah, no! I don't want to die at all! Calm down, calm down. At a time like this... right! Friends help each other when away from home, but there's no need to care about favors in life, right? So... how do I erase everyone's memories here?'
Kumoko screamed internally and even covered her face with both hands while questioning her existence.
"M-Mr. Ash... Who is this?"
The lord carefully walked toward Ash.
"Don't know her, don't know her. Not familiar at all."
Ash shook his head repeatedly like a rattle drum, afraid of being associated with this strange creature and being considered strange himself.
"I-I truly... truly don't know how to thank you..."
Tears filled Madam's eyes.
Filled with admiration and gratitude, she kept bowing to Ash.
Her body still trembled slightly, clearly not fully recovered from the fear she had experienced.
As for the strange monster, she wasn't worried because Ash was here.
"It's nothing. Just a small matter."
As he spoke, he looked at the baby in Madam's arms.
To maintain the act of not knowing Kumoko, he casually took the child into his arms and showed a gentle smile.
"As long as the child is alright..."
"Uh?"
'Did she pee again?'
The moment he took the baby, Ash regretted it.
He could clearly feel the wet sensation on his hand.
His first instinct was to throw the child as far away as possible.
But doing that would ruin his image.
So he forced himself to act unconcerned and used his still-dry hand to pat her cheek, trying to look like he liked children.
After teasing the baby a little, he immediately prepared to return the little one, who was staring blankly at him, to her mother.
Unexpectedly, the moment he tried to hand her over, Sophia seemed to notice what he intended.
Her little hands grabbed tightly onto his clothes and refused to let go.
"What are you doing? Let go already. Your mother must be worried about you."
Ash struggled to maintain the smile that was almost breaking apart as he quietly whispered beside the baby's ear.
["No."]
Sophia pursed her lips and stared straight at him without blinking.
"Why not?"
["No means no."]
"..."
'Does this girl even understand my situation right now?'
The difficult-to-describe warm wetness on his hand made Ash deeply regret ever picking up this baby who might wet herself at any moment.
If other people weren't present, he would already have thrown her away.
But there were no "ifs."
All he could do now was continue dealing with this awkward and troublesome situation.
From an outsider's perspective, Ash bent down slightly and moved close to Sophia.
The two looked like they were sharing a secret that only they could hear.
The sight was heartwarming.
Sophia's chubby little face carried an innocent smile.
Her eyes sparkled with affection for Ash, like a little angel.
As for Ash, his sunny smile and gentle gaze made him look warm and caring.
Seeing this scene, Madam slowly withdrew the hand she had stretched out to take Sophia back.
Looking at Ash and Sophia, she revealed a gentle smile and softly said, "Sophia really likes Mr. Ash."
"Right! Since Sophia likes Mr. Ash so much, and Mr. Ash likes Sophia too, why don't we arrange their engagement right now?"
The lord suddenly looked like he had been struck by inspiration.
Excitedly slapping his palm, he came up with what he considered a brilliant idea.
The elves had already targeted Sophia.
There was no way he could protect her by himself.
In that case...
Why not find her a future husband early?
Becoming family with someone as strong as Ash was probably something even kings would dream of.
Getting married early wasn't a bad thing.
At least, he couldn't think of anyone more suitable for his adorable daughter.
The moment he said that, both Kumoko, who was still covering her face in embarrassment, and Ash himself instinctively turned toward him.
Both wore expressions of disbelief.
They seriously suspected he had been scared stupid by everything that had happened earlier.
After a long silence, Ash lowered his head again and looked at Sophia in his arms.
The little girl's clear eyes were now shining with excitement.
It was as though the word "engagement" held some mysterious attraction for her.
Ash quickly looked away.
Then he looked at the strangely serious lord in front of him and patted his forehead.
"Wait a second. She's still... isn't she?"
"That's not a problem. She can get married when she's eighteen."
The lord spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
He seemed completely immersed in his own idea and unaware of how ridiculous it sounded.
Of course, it probably wasn't ridiculous in this era.
But to Ash, it sounded absurd.
He immediately objected without thinking.
"At least wait until twenty!"
"That's fine too. Then they can marry at twenty?"
The lord seemed to have caught onto the wrong point.
The light in his eyes became even brighter.
His serious expression left Ash both amused and speechless.
"Ah... no, that's not what I meant. I was just complaining. I wasn't saying twenty is okay..."
He felt things were getting more and more ridiculous.
No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't understand how simply being friendly with Sophia had led to this situation.
Meanwhile, because of that slightly questionable statement, Kumoko's eyes had gone completely blank.
She suddenly rushed over.
Placing both hands on his shoulders, she pressed her forehead directly against his.
[🫠 New Fanfic—"ReZero: I Transmigrated, But My Life is Still Miserable". Add it to the collection and leave some powerstones. I really want it to reach collection and popularity ranking so I would be glad if you all helped. Have a great day~]