Chapter 60: Unexpected Talents

A few days had passed since I hired the apprentice maids, and already the previously neglected cleaning tasks were being carried out thoroughly. The increased presence of people somehow made the mansion feel brighter, livelier—as if the walls themselves had been relieved of some heavy, stagnant air.

That aside, over the past several days, I had been focused on calculating the expenses required to maintain the mansion and its staff.

After careful tallying, I found that the monthly costs were as follows: the mansion’s rent came to one gold coin, the total wages for the staff amounted to seven silver coins and four copper coins, the food expenses were two silver coins, and miscellaneous costs added another four silver coins.

In total, that came to two gold coins, three silver coins, and four copper coins per month. Converting that into Japanese yen, it amounted to 1,404,000 yen per month, or 16,848,000 yen annually.

“My mother’s salary is only two gold coins a month, which means there’s a deficit of three silver coins and four copper coins every single month… seriously?”

The rent was discounted since we were considered nobility, but even so, I hadn’t realized maintaining the mansion would be so costly.

I continued calculating the monthly and annual breakdown for each individual item, making sure to include a note that I would cover four silver coins for Rugena’s living expenses and alcohol. This was more than I had given her before, but as long as I presented it as a “mansion maintenance fee,” I doubted my mother would object.

“Here we go.”

As I was drafting the report to submit to my mother, a knock came at the door.

It was Heralda who entered the room.

“Arthur-sama, Rugena has returned. She’s currently tidying up in the storage room.”

Yesterday, the Adventurers’ Guild had contacted me to request that someone collect the harvested materials. I had entrusted Rugena with the task.

“Also, I’ve brought the report from the Adventurers’ Guild.”

“Understood. Once I finish reading the report, I’ll head to the storage room, so please tell Rugena to prepare for disassembly.”

“Understood.”

After passing along the message to Rugena, I turned my attention to the guild’s report. It detailed the anticipated habitats and population estimates of Ambush Spiders and Cave Spiders, and it included evaluations of how difficult they would be to defeat and transport given the collection requests.

“Hm… I see. Well, we’ll decide once we inspect the specimens ourselves.”

I tucked the completed report into a drawer and made my way to the warehouse next to the main mansion.

The warehouse was designed with two distinct halves: the left side consisted of small rooms, like rented storage units, while the right side had a front workspace and a garage large enough for two vehicles at the back. The sliding doors were oversized, designed to allow a carriage to enter easily.

Pushing open a slightly ajar door, I stepped inside. The workspace contained a workbench, neatly arranged dissection tools, and glass jars for storage.

“Thanks for waiting, Rugena.”

“All set. There are four Ambush Spider abdomens in the right bag and seven Cave Spider abdomens in the left.”

I donned the dissection apron Rugena handed me and listened as she explained the contents of the two burlap sacks sitting next to the workbench.

“Got it, thanks.”

I untied the cord sealing the right sack and pulled out a single Ambush Spider abdomen for observation.

Unlike the white-gray Vite Spider, which blended into grass and foliage, the Ambush Spider had a dark brown hue, designed to camouflage in the soil.

“Hm… seems a bit bigger than the Vite, but not by much.”

“Individual differences, of course,” Rugena replied.

“Right, that makes sense.”

We continued examining the samples. The spider abdomens were in perfect condition—no major damage—and as instructed, Rugena had seared them over a flame after separating them from the thorax to prevent leakage of bodily fluids.

“These are clean specimens. Alright, let’s begin the dissection.”

I flipped the spider abdomen over, inserted a knife near the spinnerets, and sliced through the exoskeleton to locate the organs. The internal structure mirrored that of the Vite Spider, with four silk glands of varying sizes. Carefully gripping the glands with tweezers, I used a small knife to make delicate cuts, slowly detaching them from surrounding tissue.

“Tray, Rugena.”

“Yes, here.”

Rugena handed me a metal tray, onto which I placed the silk glands.

“Finally, just one done.”

I repeated the process with the remaining three glands, taking great care not to damage them, and finally squeezed the silk into glass jars for preservation.

“Ugh… that was exhausting.”

Even without using materialization, the work itself was meticulous and physically tiring.

“You’ve worked hard. I’ll take care of disposing the remains, so you should rest a little,” Rugena said, carrying a bucket of the discarded parts toward the incinerator behind the warehouse.

“Hey, what’re you doing here?”

“—Huh?”

Kacha entered the warehouse just as Rugena left.

“Dissecting monsters, of course.”

“Huh? Why are you, Al-sama, doing that?”

“Sama…? Well, I can’t just leave this to someone else—it’s my research.”

I withheld mention of the workshop and alchemy, explaining to Kacha that I was personally collecting materials from spiders for my silk research. He didn’t understand the details about silk glands and silk fluid, but he grasped that we were dissecting spiders.

“I thought that was the Adventurers’ Guild’s job.”

“It is, normally—but…”

Ideally, I would have requested the silk fluid collection as a guild job, but I couldn’t risk information about the fluid leaking. I also wanted to strictly control the samples to prevent cross-contamination.

“I see… huh.”

“…No, you really don’t get it, do you?”

Even though I tried to explain clearly, Kacha had apparently been half-listening and averted her gaze.

“—Ngah?!”

“Slacking off again, Kacha?”

Rugena returned and lightly smacked her on the back of the head. She doubled over, clutching her head.

“Ugh—what the hell, Ruu-nee!”

“Manon was looking for you. You disappeared when no one was watching.”

So that was it—she came to the warehouse just to slack off. Though I had to wonder when they’d become close enough for her to call her “Ruu-nee.”

“No, wait—! I’m helping Al, I swear!”

“Huh?”

“Eh?”

Did she really think such a flimsy excuse would work?

“Hmm… well then, Kacha, maybe you should try a dissection?”

“Yeah, sure. I don’t really get all the manners stuff, but I learned how to dissect from my older brothers.”

I had meant my remark teasingly, but Kacha calmly took an Ambush Spider abdomen from the bag.

“Wait, you can really dissect it?”

“Of course. I assumed only adventurers could do this, so my brothers taught me.”

The “brothers” he referred to weren’t blood relatives—they were boys from the orphanage who had cared for her. After leaving the orphanage to become adventurers, they had taught him not just survival and combat, but also how to dissect low-rank monsters. She even occasionally ate tame, easy-to-catch insectoid monsters when there was no other food during camping.

“Oh… I see. Then why become a maid?”

“Well, adventurers can die anytime.”

Three months ago, her brothers had been killed by monsters on a mission. Though she had understood the danger in theory, losing people so close to her shook her. Unsure if she could continue as an adventurer, she accepted the odd offer to become a maid, expecting little.

“…Odd, huh.”

“Because… normally only brothels would hire orphaned girls, and then someone came saying they wanted a maid…”

It seemed she’d never encountered anyone looking specifically for maids from orphanages before.

“Anyway, which part do you need?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s not so much a part as some internal organs—”

Seeing Kacha could handle the dissection was a relief, so I explained the silk gland extraction process as we worked.

“This feels more like cooking than dissection. Well, I can handle this.”

“Wait, you can cook?”

During the interview she mentioned doing heavy labor and carrying loads, but cooking hadn’t come up.

“Hm? I can roast stuff,” she said.

“…Roast?”

“Yeah, just roast it and sprinkle some salt—it’s mostly edible.”

Wild. Very wild. Though I doubted Bartel would call that “cooking.”

“Gimme a tool.”

Kacha sliced the spider abdomen, fixed it open with an iron skewer, and plunged her hands into the viscera without hesitation. Using her fingers, she carefully separated the silk glands from surrounding organs.

“All done.”

I was initially horrified seeing her plunge her hands into gooey innards, but she extracted the silk glands faster and cleaner than I had.

“Wow… perfect. (Though I definitely wouldn’t want to do that myself.)”

“Ha! Impressive, right?”

“Yeah, amazing. Alright, the last one and the Cave Spider next to it—your turn.”

“What?”

“You don’t have to study manners today—just take care of these last ones.”

With momentum on her side, I left the remaining dissections to Kacha and quietly slipped out of the warehouse.

◇◇◇

The next day, we began testing the silk fluid.

We had collected from two types of spiders, so the eight jars were organized by gland type.

C and D fluids were distinguishable by their stickiness and how they hardened when dry, so they were set aside. The remaining fluids were spun into threads, which revealed A and B fluids.

Everything so far was as expected.

Next was the mixed-species test. This was to determine if silk fluid from different spider species was compatible. We mixed equal amounts of A fluid from both species, spun it into thread, and found no noticeable difference in texture or strength. Using alchemy to further combine them into threads also yielded no difference.

“Looks like A fluid is consistent across species.”

Testing B fluid produced a different result. Simple mixing yielded crumbly, thread-like fragments, and alchemical synthesis resulted in brittle strings that snapped easily, like old rubber bands.

“Didn’t mix properly, or does mixing weaken it?”

Individually, each B fluid produced resilient threads, but combined, it broke easily—meaning B fluids were “similar but fundamentally different.”

I wanted to analyze the difference further, but there was no method available. For now, simply knowing “don’t mix them” was sufficient.

“Done?”

Rugena, who had been operating the spinning apparatus, asked wearily.

“For now, yes.”

We still had experiments mixing with Vite Spider fluid, but since the silk itself was usable, it wasn’t critical.

“Can I start cleaning up?”

“Yes, let’s tidy everything.”

As we packed up the tools, I already had the next steps in mind.

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