What?!? I've Been Reincarnated as a Arachne! (On hold)

Part 4

Part 4

The Red Shoe
Arachne Tailor.
This is a tailor under the sole management of Shiori Arachne – me.
...Actually, I said 'a tailor', but it's been turning into something more like an armor shop these days.
Well, the past Shiori living on Earth would never have imagined that one day she will be running a tailor or an armor shop, anyway.
So by that line of thinking, you can say that there isn't much of a difference between selling clothes or selling armor...
Ah, I'll need to introduce myself, don't I?
I, Arakura Shiori (24), was working at a florist in a city, when a runaway truck slammed at and killed me. After that, I happily reincarnated in Falyias, a fantasy world of swords and sorcery.
As a half-human half-spider monster called an Arachne.
...Well, I ran into a lot of trouble with that as one of the reasons, but now I'm making my living by running the aforementioned tailor in the town of Rihak.
Luckily, manipulating threads – the special skill of my race – is my forte, and turning into a human is also quite simple, so I haven't had any problem living here.
The shop is doing well too.
...And so, today I continue to spin threads and weave cloths, just like every other day.
*rustles* *rustles*...
A new day, when the sun still hasn't completely shown its face.
In the back of my shop, inside a workroom with 'Outsiders Absolutely Not Allowed' written on its door, I wound my thread between two poles.
The poles themselves are about as long and thick as a laundry pole, and both of their ends are tightly embedded in the wall.
And I have two of those poles. They are mounted on the walls of this room, like a pair of gymnastic uneven parallel bars.
...Before, I used to wind my threads between my two front legs, but I can't make large sheets of fabric by using my legs like that.
Which is why I set up those poles in the workroom explicitly for that purpose. Now, I use them to wind my threads and make sheets of cloth.
That way, I can weave larger sheets, and furthermore raises the quality of the fabric as well as make it smoother.
"Phew. That's about it, I guess?"
After finishing the 20th sheet, I decided to stop here for now.
I'm using my thread as the material, after all. Since my own physical condition affects the quality of the thread, working too much is out of the question.
*Snap*. I cut off the flow of thread coming from my spider lower body, and uses my knife-like claw to neatly cut the sheet of Arachne silk that has been perfectly woven between the two poles.
I carefully put the sheet onto a shelf and return to my human form.
If I keep using my spider form all the time, in the very rare case that someone sees me, there's going to be a huge commotion.
Which is why I'm making this Arachne silk, the lifeblood of my shop, way early in the morning and in a room at the back of the shop, all hush-hush like.
"Nnnnn... Tuuurn into a human, tuuuuurn into a human... Mmmmm..."
When I close my eyes and focus on transforming, the skill [Human Transformation] activates.
*Sssssssshlup!* My enormous spider lower body shrinks and turns into two porcelain-white legs, six of my eyes (I'm a spider, so I've got 8 eyes in total!), red and sparkling like rubies, also sink with a *plop* and disappear inside my forehead.
I intentionally made my dress loose enough to adequately cover my body down to my legs even when I turn into a human, so there's never a moment when I'm indecently exposed. It's a wonderful piece of clothing.
By the way, in human form, I look like a 12-13 years old silver-haired beautiful girl. Though I guess that just sounds like praising myself.
Anyway, I still haven't reached one year old in terms of my physical age, while mentally I'm 24 years old. My age is a bit of a mess, so I'd appreciate it if you can leave the subject be...
"Soooo, next is... Dye 8 sheets black with Ravenfeather Ivies... Dye 6 sheets light-purple with Horsetrap Violets... Dye 4 sheets brown with juice taken from Mystic Persimmon fruits... And dye 2 sheets red with crushed Crimson Dragon scales."
By the way, these dyes are all made from materials which can only be acquired in A~S rank danger zones.
These super high rank materials are so precious that if they're gathered in any significant quantity, just one milk bottle filled with the stuff can be equivalent to one small gold coin, or about 5000 kram (around 500,000 Japanese yen).
However, their effects are truly worth the price. They can be used to add bonus enchantments to clothing. For example, Ravenfeather Ivy's effect is an increase in speed and dodging ability for the wearer. Clothes made with it are highly popular among front-line adventurers who focus on speed, such as thieves and rangers.
Similarly, Horsetrap Violets can raise one's strength, while Mystic Persimmon juice can raise magical power.
And Crimson Dragon scales can–
"Go away, brat!"
"Aaah!!"
An angry shout, a scream, then a *thud*, like the sound of something hitting the ground.
The spell of silence of the early morning suddenly ended, just like that.
It wasn't so loud that normal people can hear them from inside their houses, but I didn't have any problems catching their voices. I'm still more or less a high-ranked monster called an Arachne, after all.
Even my hearing is superb, far surpassing a normal human.
"My place is a high-class store serving nobles here! It ain't somewhere a dirty urchin like you can approach!"
"I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
I hurry outside my shop after hearing the voice, seemingly full of fear, of a young girl.
And there, in front of another store diagonally opposite my shop – Elrond Shoemaker, if I remember correctly – is Elrond, the owner, arrogantly standing as if he owns the whole town. The target of his glare is a young girl with her butt on the ground.
"What happened?"
I speak to Elrond while trying my best to remain calm.
Elrond is a black-haired middle-aged man, wearing some posh-looking clothes.
His high-class shoemaker store receives orders from even nobles, so Elrond himself wears quite the gaudy sort of clothing, far from being something you'd imagine a craftsman to wear.
...Well, whether or not such clothes suit that huge bear with a beer belly is another story, though.
"Haaahhh?! Don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong, kid... Wait, you're that Arachne Tailor's... Yeah, you don't need to worry. This homeless brat was just about to touch my merchandise with her dirty hands, and I'm just doing a bit of education."
In fact, my shop not only receives orders from nobles, but even from royalties and S-rank adventurers, so I'm currently standing on top of the craftsmen's hierarchy.
He knows that if he carelessly angers me, there's no knowing what sort of complaints I'll be sending to the big-shots... Well, it's not like I'm going to do that, though.
"N... No... I was just looking... I wasn't thinking of touching them..."
The girl refuted while still sitting on the ground. Elrond's face turns tomato-red, and his foot connects with her body.
"Like hell I can trust you! You're going to filch and sell off the merchandise I put near the counter anyway, aren't you?!"
"*cough*... No... I'm not..."
"That's enough, isn't it? You're going too far."
"Ain't got nothing to do with you! If I leave them alone, they're just going to come back even worse the next day! Gotta make sure they don't... Wha?!"
In the middle of his persistent kicking, Elrond's legs suddenly stop in the air.
"That's right, that's right. Like people say, all things in moderation. Thank you for your understanding."
"Eh?... Wait, hey, why are my legs... I can't move?!"
"Oh my? Maybe it's because you haven't used those muscles for a long time, and they got cramped up?"
"C-Cramps? Really? Fuck... Come on, move..."
Taking my words for the truth, Elrond sits on the ground and furiously massages his immobile legs.
Obviously, there's no cramping involved here.
He simply got tied to the shop's pillar by my extremely thin spider threads.
The threads are so small you normally can't see them unless you really focus your eyes. Furthermore, they're stronger than steel wires.
Elrond won't be able to get them off no matter how much he tries... Well, I set those threads to automatically release him 3 hours later, so he'll just have to endure until then.
I brought the girl back to my own shop to treat her bruises and nosebleed and the like. Her injuries are rather severe.
Even now, she's still dizzy and not entirely conscious. I sit her down on a chair and take off her clothes to check her injuries.
Her shirt and pants are pretty much just rags now, and she doesn't seem to be even wearing underwear, so I quietly extend my claws and snappily cut open her clothes.
Because it's just troublesome to take them off one by one.
"Hah?! Eh?! Nooo!!"
Right when I just finished removing her shirt and was continuing to her bottom, light finally returns to her eyes, and she crouches down and cover her chest with both arms. She seems to have realized what's going on.
"Come on, don't make such a fuss. I'm just looking at your wounds... and treating them, that's all!"
"T-Treatment? Ah, but this is my only good set of clothes..."
"Heehee, just where do you think you are?! I've got more clothes than you can shake a stick at! Come now, just be obedient and stay still ♪"
"Hyaaaaaaa?!"
In no time at all, I cut off her pants, leaving the halfway-panicking girl naked.
"Ah, uuuuu..."
"All right, first is disinfection. [Light, cleanse my body]Clean Body."
The light shining from my hand gently envelops the girl's body and clean off all the dirt.
This is one type of magic used in daily life. It can wipe off the dirt on your body surface.
"There we go. You're actually injured all over the places, you just couldn't see it before because of the dirt and grime. I'll bandage you, so just sit still and stop looking so embarrassed."
Once more, I make her sit on the chair and start bandaging her.
"S-sorry... it kind of feels really nice to the touch, this bandage."
"Of course it is, it's made from Arachne silk."
"A-Arachne silk!! Isn't it that super-high rank material made from a spider monster's threads?!"
"Mmm, I don't know about it being super-high rank or anything, but it IS Arachne silk. What about it?"
I made this bandage beforehand with my threads, so it's pretty much free, though.
"S-sorry! I'm really sorry! Please don't waste your precious material on me, I-I don't have anything to pay for the treatment cost..."
"Doooon't worry about it. It's just something I made from leftover cloth."
Despite the girl's excessive hesitation, I force her to sit still and continue to wrap my silk bandage around her wounds.
Actually, this bandage can help heal wounds better than a normal cloth bandage.
Maybe it's because it's made from organic matter, similar to how an egg's membrane can be used as a dressing for wounds...?
Anyway, after her body is almost completely covered in bandages (aside from the wounds inflicted by Elrond, she also has a lot of scratch wounds all over the places), as the finishing touch, I secretly cast [Spirit Enchantment].
[Spirit Enchantment] isn't considered healing magic, but it can help make wounds heal extremely fast. With this degree of injuries, she just need to sleep for a whole day and her body should be just like new again.
After the treatment is finished, I can finally relax, so I've decided to ask her about her story.
When I introduce myself as the owner of this Arachne Tailor, she seems surprised for a moment, but then quickly pulls her knees together, gives me a bow, and politely give her thanks for the medical care.
Her conduct is quite elegant, her every single movement beautiful.
"I apologize for my belated gratitude and introduction. My name is Elisyne von Astrade."
What a surprise. It seems she used to be the daughter of a baron.
Now that she mentioned it, she does seem to have a certain graceful air about her once I'm done cleaning her up.
She has straight, flowing golden hair, deep green eyes, white skin, and soft fingers. And her proportions also aren't half bad.
In fact, I would say that over 90 out of 100 people will consider her cute.
When I ask her about the reason why the daughter of a baron was in such dire straits, she hangs her head and begins to tell her story in a halting voice.