Chapter 113: Paranormal Activity, An Uninvited Guest
After stepping out of Sophia's room, the butler made his way over to the door of another guest room. Through his perception skills, he detected two distinct presences pressed close against each other inside. By this point, he was already thoroughly accustomed to such sights. Judging by their rhythmic, even breathing, he concluded that the two occupants were fast asleep.
Just as he prepared to slip inside undetected, a horrifying realization struck him.
*Wait a minute. Why is there one missing?*
The very next second, a small spider, about the size of a human palm, materialized out of thin air right in front of his eyes, completely monopolizing his field of vision. Acting on pure instinct, the butler took a frantic step backward, forcing himself to suppress a terrified shriek.
Then, right before his trembling gaze, the spider began to slowly scale toward the ceiling along a nearly invisible strand of web. His eyes traced the creature's slow upward ascent until, in an instant, his pupils dilated violently and every single hair on his body stood on end.
Up on the ceiling, Riel had all six of her arms fully outstretched. With completely vacant eyes and a wide-gaping maw, she was staring down at him with an unblinking gaze. Right before his eyes, the spider scurried along the silk and climbed straight into her mouth.
*Crunch!*
Her jaws snapped shut, her head spun a full 360 degrees, and she flashed the butler a thoroughly wicked smile. Despite being a seasoned veteran who had endured countless trials, a display this intensely macabre and surreal nearly frightened the soul clean out of his body.
But she wasn't finished.
With her head still locked onto the butler, Riel dropped from the ceiling and crawled across the floor like some bizarre, contorted aberrant. Standing up from the ground, her body executed an unnatural, full-circle twist before she finally pulled the door open and vanished into the corridor.
*Hiss–*
Sucking in a sharp breath of cold air, the butler forced his trembling legs to hold him upright and gave his thigh a vicious pinch. He desperately needed to confirm whether the phantom he had just witnessed was a dream or reality.
Regrettably, he was wide awake.
Given his advanced age, the sheer terror of Riel's performance had brought him a hair's breadth from fainting on the spot. Stumbling back into his own quarters, he locked the doors and windows tight, collapsed onto his bed, and gasped heavily for air. He had absolutely no recollection of how he finally drifted off to sleep that night; his reliable
Later on, the butler dutifully reported the intelligence he had risked his life to gather to Duke Balto, only for the Duke to offer a flat response.
"Are you entirely certain this isn't just a horror manuscript you've been working on?"
"Uh..." To be completely fair, the butler himself felt the narrative sounded exactly like one.
It wasn't until Ariel casually informed Balto much later that the spider sisters were actually living dolls that the paranormal mysteries haunting the estate were finally resolved. However, that did little to ease the old butler's immediate suffering.
Balto ordered him to continue his surveillance, which resulted in Riel materializing out of thin air from some random corner every single night, thoroughly terrifying him with an assortment of deeply unsettling poses.
Of course, Riel actually harbored nothing but good intentions. She simply felt that the old grandfather keeping himself awake every night was terrible for his health, so she had decided to use her own special method to help him fall asleep. The results were highly effective, and the child had a wonderful time playing her game.
From that historic benchmark onward, the old butler kept a profoundly respectful and terrified distance from the entourage of monsters residing in the manor.
Naturally, there were exceptions to his terror.
"Lord Shirazawa, Lady Shiro, here are the refreshments you requested." The butler respectfully arranged a beautifully set tray upon the garden table.
"Thank you," Shirazawa replied politely. He picked up a small spoon, sliced off a piece of the delicate pastry, and held it up to Shiro's lips, gesturing for her to open up. The absolute first bite always belonged to his beloved lady.
"Ah~"
"Ahmm..."
"How does it taste?" Shirazawa asked with a warm smile.
Shiro closed her eyes in pure satisfaction, nodding happily. "Deliciouth~"
Witnessing the two of them casually generating a wall of romance, the old butler tactfully took his leave. Over the past few weeks, he had grown entirely accustomed to their antics. Relatively speaking, these two supreme entities were by far the most normal occupants of the estate–though even that normalcy had its distinct limits.
The butler had once caught a fleeting glimpse inside their private chambers, only to find the entire room completely cocooned in a dense, intricate lattice of pristine white spider silk. It looked exactly like a mythical arachnid grotto. While the craftsmanship was remarkably elegant and beautiful to look at, it nonetheless radiated an incredibly eerie atmosphere.
What the butler didn't understand, however, was that the dense layers of web provided the two spiders with an overwhelming sense of absolute security, which was why they had chosen to furnish their nest that way. Even if Ariel herself wished to breach those silk fortifications, it would require a significant investment of time and effort. After all, who wouldn't want their personal sanctuary to be completely impregnable? It was pure, unadulterated comfort.
Their peaceful, slow-paced lifestyle continued unabated. The luxurious, lazy routine thoroughly ensnared the two completely checked-out teens, pulling them into a cozy loop they had absolutely zero desire to escape. This period could comfortably be described as the absolute pinnacle of their arachnid lives.
They slept in for as long as they pleased, enjoyed a dedicated team of maids standing by twenty-four hours a day, and woke up to a lavish feast every single afternoon. Of course, such premium accommodations required compensation.
But the so-called compensation requested of them was so trivial it could practically be ignored.
Bundle after bundle of priceless spider silk was casually produced by the pair whenever they felt like it. Back when they were shackled by the laws of the System, the silk they produced carried a hard structural cap on its attributes. Now that the two of them had successfully evolved beyond the System's jurisdiction, the upper limits of their thread could be enhanced completely without restriction.
To put it in perspective: every single physical and magical damage parameter contained within the world's System was completely incapable of leaving a microscopic scratch on their thread. The person wearing the armor could perish, yet the clothes themselves would remain completely pristine. It was an entirely absurd reality.
However, the silk still had to respect the fundamental laws of nature: it was inherently flammable. Silk produced outside the domain of the System could not withstand standard natural fire; even if flame-resistance attributes were woven into the core structure, this natural vulnerability could never be truly erased.
Even so, that minor flaw did nothing to diminish the absolute supremacy of the thrthi–a reality Ariel understood on a profoundly deep level. She strongly suspected that even if a legendary-grade weapon were to strike the silk, it wouldn't be able to sever the strands cleanly. Unless an opponent wielded power that surpassed the mythical tier, breaking through was entirely hopeless.
Thus, in a calculated bid to give these two free-loaders a productive hobby, Ariel tasked them with producing thread on a non-stop loop. Since the two of them had completely checked out from doing actual labor, they strictly handled the manufacturing of the raw thread, flatly refusing to participate in the weaving process.
The entire tailoring operation was tossed squarely onto Riel and Sael's shoulders, leaving Shirazawa and Shiro free to continue sunbathing and enjoying afternoon tea every single day. Whenever they grew slightly bored, they would casually peer into the labyrinth to check on Leest's leveling progression.
This lazy, decadent routine persisted flawlessly–until the sudden arrival of an uninvited guest violently shattered their peaceful daily life.
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"Young Master, please do not be reckless! The individuals residing inside are highly esteemed guests of the Duke, we absolutely cannot afford to offend them!"
The old butler was currently wrapped around the leg of a blonde, thuggish youth, desperately trying to hold him back. He was a fiercely loyal, old-fashioned servant who genuinely feared his family's young master might get casually obliterated by the occupants within.
That afternoon, while the group was gathered inside Shiro's quarters weaving garments, a loud, chaotic commotion suddenly erupted from the corridor outside. Riel and Sael instantly dropped their work, shifting into absolute combat stances.
The very next second, the bedroom door was violently kicked open as a figure burst into the room, letting out a furious roar.
"What the hell is the meaning of this?!"
"Why is my own damn house suddenly crawling with a bunch of freakish strangers who have turned the entire place completely upside down?!"
The intruder stood roughly 180 centimeters tall, sporting a distinctly aggressive, hostile expression. A chaotic, messy tuft of blonde hair crowned his head, his build was notably rugged, and his choice of attire was exceptionally eccentric—rendering him the textbook definition of an alternate-world delinquent.
"I have absolutely no clue what my thick-headed older brother is thinking, dragging every random piece of trash he finds straight back to our estate!"
The young thug ranted loudly without a single filter, causing cold sweat to pour down the old butler's face behind him.
*I beg of you, Young Master, please close your mouth! This old servant would desperately like to survive for a few more chapters!*
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