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

Part 9

An Unwilling Return

"What to do..."
I looked at the mountain of order forms piling up on the table while racking my brain for a solution.
Greetings, it's been a while.
I am Arakura Shiori (25), an Arachne spider monster woman with an appearance that could pass for a character in the first season of Ka●●● Rider without needing any costumes.
Or if you can remember me as the owner of Arachne Tailor, Shiori Arachne, it would be my honor.
Well then, let's talk about the problem I encountered this time.
It's about the prototype air cushion I made out of Arachne silk at the time of the 'Siren Incident'.
After I put it on the storefront as a trial run, its popularity slowly but surely spread. It has become a popular item now, and one-third of my store's sales was due to the cushion.
Apparently, this cushion wasn't just a simple seat to improve comfort for the passengers; it also created a revolution in transportation and goods circulation.
Roads without any form of decent pavement, plus carriage wheels made out of wood.
They constantly inflict damage upon the passengers' butts during the long ride, and even people who have gotten used to it still couldn't take it for long. Until now, setting up intervals of rest on the road for the stagecoach's passengers had been considered the norm... However, with the situation now improved, high-speed stagecoachs were born.
As the coachman and the passengers all have their seats covered in air cushions and their ride became much more comfortable, the trip would need less rest time, and the carriage could go faster than before without inducing much motion sickness.
Horse carriages now go over twice as fast as before (with the reduced rest time taken into account).
Yeah, no wonder this stuff got popular...
Furthermore, not only passengers, but cargo has also benefited from it. I heard that specialized carriages transporting fragile goods have been making good use of the cushions.
As they could now transport goods such as pottery, eggs, soft fruits, and the like to regions far away from where they were produced, the merchants in town were beaming with smiles after managing to buy a large amount of cushions from me not too long ago.
That, in itself, was a good thing. But for me...
"Miss owner! It is me, Alrond from the Rihak Traders' Guild! Urgent order! I need 90 of the large cushions and 200 of the small ones as soon as possible!"
Elder Alrond, belonging to the Traders' Guild of Rihak, ran towards me. His face looked as if the world was ending.
Alrond was an old man with a charming white beard.
"My my, guildmaster Alrond. It is an honor for you to personally come purchase... However, I have to inform you that even if you need them so urgently, it would take some time for me to produce that many cushions."
"That's the problem! Please, I sincerely request of you! Ever since a few of our people managed to increase their profits by a huge margin by using high-speed carriages, the guild's inner balance has been getting extremely dangerous! I must distribute the cushions to the other members as soon as possible...!"
My my, that doesn't sound good.
I might be able to make it if I work all day and night for 3 days...
"No, no, my order is more important, miss owner."
That interruption to the conversation came from a repeat customer to my place, Garland, Battalion Commander to the troops stationed in Rihak.
Brown hair, huge... He's like a bear from the forest.
"Businesses experiencing some delay won't kill anyone. More importantly, I would like to order some cushions for army transportation carriages. 40 large-size, 40 medium-size, 160 small-size. Also..."
"You dissing merchants?! Goods shipping is exactly the lifeline of the town!"
"But even if you say so, the army should always be the first one to receive cutting-edge technology. You should know that any delays at all might bring about unwanted interferences from our possible enemy countries."
Guildmaster Alrond and commander Garland glared at each other, and sparks were flying.
While that tense atmosphere was going on, the shop's doorbell rang, signaling another visitor.
The first thought that appeared in my mind when I looked at the new customer was "A dwarf!", at least from his appearance alone. He took a glance at guildmaster Alrond and commander Garland, then talked to me.
"Hey... I'll be troubling you for a bit. I'm from the horse harness guild. About those air cushions, can you make some thin ones? It's for pre-stuffing the undersides of the carriage floor. For now, I'll need each cushion to be one-tenth of the area of the floor, and one set should be 6 of them... I'll need around 30 sets."
"Heeeeey!! Don't try to get ahead of us, you fucker!"
"That's right, and I ordered first to begin with..."
"Like hell I care! Weren't you busy shooting glares at each other?!"
"You fool, this is an extremely important matter directly relating to the town's development!"
"And you think my order is not important? It's a matter of national security!"
Whoaaaaa...
It's just getting out of control now. Chaos.
More and more curious onlookers were gathering due to the mess.
If I don't do something here, I won't be able to continue my work.
"G-Got it! I got it, please stop fighting! I'll deal with all your orders somehow!"
Before I knew it, that shout has already left my mouth.
Shit, but it's already too late when that thought appeared in my mind.
"Ooooh! I'm saved! I'll repay you in the next guild meeting!"
"Yes, this is indeed good news for us.."
"Hey girlie, will you be okay? ...Well, you're making them for me, so I'm not going to say anything."
The three of them went back, as happy as can be.
...While leaving behind the mountain of order forms that I mentioned in the beginning.
"Well then, dwelling on it's not going to solve anything. Can't continue my work if I don't deal with these... but the deadline's just one week away. It's physically improbable, no matter how much I try..."
Actually, it's not that I can't find a way to solve this problem. I can try to look for craftsmen who can mass produce Arachne Silk.
The reason why I shouted "I'll deal with it somehow!" during the mess in the store was because that idea flashed through my mind at that time.
"Yeah, but... That place is the devil's lair... I really shouldn't have accepted those orders."
Well, it's long past the time for regrets now.
At this point of time, if I just cancel the orders as I like, there's going to be a whole slew of problems considering who my customers are.
Yeah. No other choice. Have to brace myself and go.
I rummaged around in my storehouse to find some stuffs that could pass as payment instead of money for the craftsmen, stuffed those inside a few bags of holding, then left the shop.
※
Not too far from the town of Rihak is a forest overgrown with gigantic trees.
It's called the "Forest of Spiders" and feared by the townspeople as being a place rampant with the high-rank monster Arachne.
Yes. Basically... my birthplace.
This forest used to be the only place in the outskirts of town where you can acquire Arachne Silk, and thus visited by quite a lot of adventurers, apparently.
Of course, it seemed like ever since I began supplying the silk in town, there's been less and less people going to the forest.
As for the reason why I came here... as everyone might have guessed, I planned on asking my mother and sisters to help make Arachne Silk.
I used to be just a weakling Arachne, so I got scared of the cannibalism and ran away from the forest. But now, I won't need to worry about that anymore... I think. Probably.
Right after I entered the forest, where eyes were no longer on me, I immediately turned back into the Arachne form.
My lower body quickly enlarged into a silver spider body, and a total of 6 new eyes, red like jewels, surfaced on my forehead.
Yeah, this body really is much better for traveling in the forest... Boulders and fallen trees wouldn't be able to impede my path, as long as they weren't too big.
"Well now, I think the nest was... somewhere in this direction?"
After I finished transforming (or to be precise, after I released my transformation), I once again headed for the deepest part of the forest.
Some Sugar Bees and Cutting Bunnies flitted through my sight once in awhile, but they ran with their tails between their legs as soon as they saw me.
A long time ago, I used to struggle with them in life-or-death battles, but now... Wow, I'm feeling really nostalgic.
...And while my mind was deep inside those emotional memories, something even more nostalgic appeared in front of my eyes.
Kick Birds and Poison Crawlers.
The former looked like a chicken-sized ostrich, and the latter was a huge caterpillar, around 30 centimeter.
Apparently, the Kick Bird was trying its best to defeat and eat the Poison Crawler... and I've just showed up in the middle of the hunt.
Seemed like fights between these sort of monsters were considered too low level, so my danger sense didn't even bother ringing.
I got quite close to them, but they still didn't seem to have noticed me.
Well then, I thought while creating threads from my fingertips to bind up both of them.
Once upon a time, these monsters used to be my lifeline.
*chomp* *crunch crunch*
It's been quite a while since the last time I ate them, and this time, they entered my mouth as a snack.
Yeah... Now that I tasted them again, I really couldn't consider them to be anything delicious.
Probably because I got used to cooked food already...
But, well, depending on how it's cooked, Kick Birds might be tasty. Like in a chicken bowl.
As I continued through the forest, I grabbed a few more Kick Birds along the way.
After doing a quick twist of their necks, I wrapped them in threads and put inside the bag of holding.
Other than that, I also gathered some plants and fruits that might be useful as materials for decorating clothes, and after another 30 minutes of walking...
Well, to describe what's in front of me, it would be a huge plate made out of threads.
The structure in front of me made use of branches from the giant trees to stay in the air.
Yes. It was the Arachnes' nest, where I used to live.
"That was fast... Has it always been this close? ...Oh yeah, my movement speed went up, was it?"
My level and my stats both were raised to high heavens compared to the last time I was here, so no wonder.
At that time, even my sisters, who were still just juvenile Arachnes, could do whatever they wanted to me, treating me like their toy.
Those sisters have probably become real, honest-to-goodness adult Arachnes now.
They should be willing to help me make Arachne Silk, depending on my payment.
I hardened my resolve and walked toward the nest.
※
After climbing the last step to reach the treetop nest, I peeked out from the branches' shadow.
One, two, three, four... Yup, my mother and sisters... Everyone is here, conveniently.
Uuuuugh... It's really hard to show my face.
While it's true I left in order to keep myself safe, but this is pretty much the scene of the returning daughter who ran away from home.
Eh, who cares! Women should be brave1!
Adding my last life, I'm already nearing my thirties!
"Umm... I'm back..."
After making up my mind, I poked half of my body out of the branches' shadow and called out to them.
Hearing my voice, the Arachnes turned back to look at me.
And just as they saw me, everyone froze up with looks of shock on their faces.