"How many?" I asked.

"Four in total. The nearest one is an old factory to the east of here. They’ve done nicely for themselves, fortifying the place so I couldn’t really get close. But as far as I can tell, everyone there is human, and so is their leader. Though he seems to be one of the few humans who had awakened a system."

A human settlement? No doubt they must’ve fought off their fair share of monsters and supernatural creatures to be able to survive this long. Their leader must be quite formidable to keep them all safe.

"The next settlement seems to be run by the military. They took over a small town not far from here. As for their strength, I spotted several armored vans and trucks. I can’t tell you much since I haven’t been able to get close to them, but I did see something strange. A group of them were ambushed by lizard-like monsters. At first, I thought that was it for them, but I had to swallow my words because in the next second, the group of soldiers completely annihilated the monsters."

"That’s supposed to be impossible. You said they only had guns, right? But guns are completely useless against monsters. Bullets can’t even pierce their skins."

Nyra shrugged.

"Their guns worked perfectly. Even their vehicles seemed indestructible."

"What about the other settlements?" I asked.

"Of the two other settlements, one belongs to a group of low-level vampires. They have bent some humans under their will to do their bidding during the day. And the last settlement, if you can even call it that, is a family holed up in their luxurious mansion. I could hear their generator running, and they seem to have quite a lot of food. But they can barely fight off the zombies the noise from the generator attracts. I doubt they’ll last long."

"That was quite a bit of information. Thank you. You’ve done well, Nyra."

She smiled cheekily at my praise.

"Does that mean I get a reward?"

"I’ll have to think of something."

"Don’t take too long," she chuckled.

After I was done talking with Nyra, I went back to my room for the night. The moment I stepped into the room, I was greeted by a sleeping figure curled up on my bed.

She must’ve gotten tired while waiting up for me.

As if sensing my presence, the sleeping beauty slowly rose from her slumbers, rubbing her eyes.

"Welcome back, Lee!"

Sylvie got into a cat-like position, stretching her limbs before finally sitting up and greeting me with a cute smile.

"Did Lee have fun working?"

I smiled and sat beside her on the bed.

"I did."

She smiled and clapped her hands happily.

"Sylvie also had fun, and she thought about Lee a lot!"

"Did you really?"

"Yep! Sylvie always thinks about Lee. Um... does Lee also think about Sylvie?"

"All the time."

She giggled happily and placed herself in my lap, obviously expecting head pats. With the needy looks she was giving me and how much her tail was dancing behind her, I couldn’t possibly refuse.

"GRR!"

She purred softly as I petted her head, and her entire body shuddered.

"So what did you do today?" I asked.

"Hmm..." She placed her index finger on her chin as if trying to recall. "Sylvie gave Lily a piggyback ride through the forest."

"I see."

Sylvie and Lily have been getting a lot closer these past few weeks. And of course, this elicited the jealousy of Isabella. Even Selthia has been spoiling Lily quite a lot lately. I think she thinks that by doing that, the closer she gets to Lily, the closer she’ll be to me.

And of course, Lily doesn’t hesitate to exploit their kindness. If this continues, the little ball of cuteness might usurp my place as alpha.

"Sylvie also fought a monster."

"A monster?"

By that, I assume she means Selthia.

"The monster used her evil liquid to hurt Sylvie while Sylvie was dreaming of Lee, so Sylvie used her fangs to scare her off."

"I see. But maybe you can be friends with the monster?"

Immediately as I said this, her eyes turned sharp like a predator’s.

"No! Bad monster. Monster wants to take Lee from Sylvie."

Seeing how riled up she was getting, I began petting her head a little faster to calm her down. After that, she curled up in my lap and began dozing off again as I stroked her head.

The moment I was certain that she was asleep, I stealthily laid her down on the bed and left the room.

...

A few minutes later, I found myself outside the village, deep in the forest. I used my thermal vision to locate the person I was looking for. I made my way towards her, and immediately as I did, I encountered one of her arachnids. The creature immediately approached me, rubbing itself against my shin, and just as usual, I was forced to pat its hard shell before it allowed me to leave.

Kumo told me that her arachnids now saw me as their father or father figure. She said touching them would make them feel as if I had accepted them, making them stronger in the process. It felt strange at first, but I was gradually getting used to it.

"My Darling~ You came back!"

Kumo finally spotted me.

"I’ve come to ease your burdens. Since you have been patrolling the territory all day, you can now rest. I’ll use my bloodlust to repel any monster that tries to enter, and my shadow hounds can take over for your arachnids."

Kumo smiled warmly. I’ve learned that this crazy, perverted woman was just a hopeless romantic. She has spent the last thousand years searching for her one true love. That is why she tries to lure in as many men as possible, and whenever she realizes that they aren’t the person she is looking for, she loses her mind and kills them, turning them into her arachnids.

For whatever reason, she thought that I was the person she was looking for all these years. That was the true story of the jorōgumo yokai.