Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 97 Spider-Man's Little Secret
This is a rather special brigade, consisting of about forty people, but there are basically no weaklings among them.

This number is too few for a large caravan venturing into the underground world, but too many for an independent adventure team.

Rules and conventions are often the result of experience, and breaking them arbitrarily is not a good thing.

"This means we'll make quite a commotion along the way, attracting most of the monsters. And if a real fight breaks out, we won't have enough manpower for combat and defense," warned a veteran in the group.

"There's no way around it, this is pretty much my limit. If there are any more people, I won't be able to bring them back," Purple Rose hinted in response.

Before setting off, Purple Rose made a guarantee that she could bring people back directly, and it wouldn't take long.

This was also the main reason why Rean got involved; he didn't plan to leave Radiant City for too long. He had already paid his tuition, but hadn't finished his courses.

However, it is impossible to bring too many weak people into such a special convoy. Basically, apart from a few special personnel, everyone else is a superhuman.

There weren't many vehicles, but they were of very high quality, mostly large cargo wagons and luxurious carriages suitable for long-distance travel.

From what Rean saw, those carrying goods all had seven or eight fully loaded multi-wheeled animal carts, and the boar pack animals pulling the carts were ridiculously strong, even covered with armor plates, making them look like armed tanks from a distance.

“Rean.” Sallyman, standing behind the purple rose, spoke up, this time bringing two guards with her.

Unlike her usual elegant and luxurious attire, this time she wore simple yet high-quality gray leather armor.

She donned a veil, and with a dagger and throwing knives at her waist, she disguised herself as an ordinary adventurer.

"Sallyman" opened her mouth, and Rean didn't know what to say. In a sense, this was a rare "long time no see" for both of them.

It's clear that Suliman is in a bad state; she has obvious dark circles under her eyes and doesn't seem to have had enough rest.

But considering her dual identity as a staunch conservative and a royal confidante (and in fact, a royal spy), she had no reason to rest when Her Highness was overwhelmed with problems.

Seeing Sallyman like this, Rean felt inexplicably uneasy.

"It seems you need to take a good rest." This is a reality that everyone can see, but few dare to advise against it.

As the one with the highest rank and status, she naturally became the leader of this journey.

"Well, I've been working a lot of overtime lately. I'll go back to the carriage to sleep after we set off." Sallyman's condition was far worse than she appeared.

In recent days, Radiant City has uncovered numerous foreign spies, captured prisoners of war, and cultists. As a royal spy, Sallyman has also witnessed far too many wicked people.

She is actually lying. Her actual workload is not that heavy; she is simply too scared to sleep.

Perhaps, more terrifying than dragons and monsters is the unbridled nature of the human heart.

For some, killing is just a daily occurrence; the joy of plundering and killing is their source of pleasure. Their "enjoyment" of the weak has developed into an art form. It's no wonder that the "cowardly" Sallyman couldn't bear it.

In fact, Purple Rose was in a hurry to leave because she was worried that her immature niece would be ruined.

Even so, she still wouldn't fall asleep once she got back to the carriage.
"Um, do you want to come over here?" Perhaps due to her overly vulnerable state, she asked the question subconsciously.

This plea is clearly impolite and weak.

She immediately shut up after speaking, and then began to regret and hesitate. She seemed to feel the piercing gazes of the people behind her, even though almost no one dared to look her in the eye.

It is a serious breach of etiquette for a noblewoman to invite someone to her private carriage.

If it weren't for being unmarried, it could even be described as promiscuous, and even with that added, nobles would still think you lacked self-restraint.

After thinking it over, Rean realized he didn't really want to get too close to Sallyman, especially knowing that she was a "snake mint".

He has gradually shed the limitations of the identity of "Rean Sudar". The role of the Heroic Spirit has given him an independent resume, and he does not want to owe "Rean" too much.

But seeing Suliman's dark circles and the hesitation and unease in her pleading expression, he smiled and nodded.

"Of course, I will come. After all, I am also a Sudar." With a sigh, Saliman thought to herself, "Whatever the reason, I really have nothing to say to myself."

The other party seems to be in a very bad situation now, otherwise they wouldn't have made such a rude and inappropriate remark in public.

Visibly, the girl's eyes lit up as Rean responded.

She seemed to realize that she could finally get a good night's sleep.

"Me too! Me too! I want to sleep with my little snake niece too!" Instantly, the girl-like Purple Rose jumped out to disrupt things again.

Helping my niece out of a predicament is one thing, but making concessions on certain matters is another.

It was obvious to the naked eye that Sallyman, who was being hugged, showed a look of disgust and turned away immediately.

The purple rose, having been left behind, chased after him, muttering strange words under her breath.

"Stop relying on sleeping pills. There are limits to how much you can suppress your emotions. If you suppress them for too long, it's easy to go too far without realizing it." The two seemed to be using a peculiar "parse language" to conduct encrypted chat within their kinship.

The others looked confused, but Rean kept a straight face and pretended not to understand.

“I asked you to help me, but you won’t.” Sallyman seemed a little annoyed.

“My help is just to suppress it for you. It’s no different from medication, and it might even have more side effects because it’s more effective. You need to learn moderation. Moderation is key to a healthy and stable mind, which starts with controlling your power.” As she spoke, Purple Rose turned back and waved to Rean, seemingly not just speaking to Sallyman.

Viscount Salleman's departure also meant that the pre-departure pleasantries were about to come to an end.

Each person should introduce themselves, understand their cooperative relationship, and establish some signals for emergency situations; that should be sufficient.

The brief first encounter passed quickly, and the meeting didn't take much time; we could discuss anything on the way.

After confirming once again that there were no problems with the goods and supplies, the unusual caravan set off immediately.

Contrary to expectations, they headed straight out of the city. Rean also boarded the luxurious carriage bearing the Sudar family crest, and along with the uninvited Purple Rose, Larry followed along, looking rather bewildered.

She hadn't chatted or learned from her seniors for a long time, so now that she had the time, she naturally caught up without hesitation.

She shared her recent insights into knightly training and discussed the problems she encountered in the new "punishing evil" mission. It must be admitted that the dock area is indeed a training ground. Rean was pleasantly surprised to find that Larry had also learned patience and tact, and especially learned not to listen to one side's opinions, nor to blindly swing her sword.

As for being disturbed during his rest time, Rean didn't really care. As the master, Sallyman fell asleep after Rean and Purple Rose got into the carriage and were carried by the maid to a small room at the back of the luxurious carriage.

"I see, so this is your family's business."

“I personally don’t know either. If Lorna hadn’t told me, I really wouldn’t have known. These things are all handled by my father and her.”

Apart from "special personnel" like Purple Rose, this caravan was ostensibly an aggregation of at least five noble caravans.

What they have in common is that they all have some connection with the underworld, or more precisely, business dealings.

The Labour family was one of them, and if they hadn't come to the city this time, they wouldn't have used this connection so easily for the sake of the royal family and the city.

"It seems that there are several spider-people tribes in the underworld that produce quite good silk, which can be used as material for special scrolls and mage robes. It is also the origin of our family's fortune."

This girl is so honest; she just blurted out the origins of her family.

Spider-men originally came from the underground world and primeval forests. The Labor family came from the underground, and some of his distant relatives still exist underground as a tribe.

So, how do the wealthy relatives in the city treat their relatives in the countryside? They exploit them regularly, of course. They do business with them, using cheap daily necessities and taking away their specialty, magical spider silk.

This business allowed the Labour family to possess far more "spider-man" resources than they appeared on the surface, enabling them to outcompete other spider-man textile merchants and ultimately establish a monopoly in the high-end textile industry.

This caravan was also commissioned by the princess to gather intelligence about the underground world.

Therefore, these business families with prior connections are even more valuable. Sending both of their daughters is enough to demonstrate the Labour family's sincerity and decisiveness.

"Is it right here?"

After walking for less than half a day, we started descending into an underground cave in a hill.

This underground passage is also clearly not on the map; it is one of the business secrets of those business families.

The orc village outside must also be an informant for these merchant families; someone was watching the caravan on its journey.

They only left after seeing the family crests of the Labour families.

"Young Master Larry, Miss Nokturna wants to discuss something with you."

After they entered, Larry was also brought back, but he left reluctantly.

Rean himself breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't because he had any issues with Larry, but because seeing Nocturna naturally reminded him of all the messy things that had happened before.

"That's strange. They don't seem to care about what happened between you and that kid?"

But the smiling Purple Rose seemed to have seen through everything.

"Their family is somewhat special. They haven't been back in the civilized world for very long, so they still retain a strong spider-like nature. It's not usually noticeable, but it becomes apparent in crucial moments."

Spider nature? What is that? Is it a kind of animalistic nature? Soon, Rean's eyes were opened.

The orcs of this world are distinctly different. Influenced by their racial characteristics and abilities, they still maintain their own lifestyles and customs.

If people live together in groups, they will be influenced by culture and public perception, and begin to converge.

However, the more primitive the tribal form, the more untouched it is, and often contains many secrets and outdated customs that are not easily shared with outsiders.
"Are the Spider-Man tribes and clans matriarchal societies?"

Rean was also surprised, but upon reflection, it seemed to make sense.

In nature, male and female spiders are completely different. Female spiders are generally much stronger and fiercer than male spiders. Most strikingly, their lifespans are much longer, sometimes by three to ten times or more, depending on the lineage.

Many male spiders are discarded annually, their sole purpose for survival being reproduction. Even if they don't become food for the female spider after mating, they will die naturally after mating.

However, female spiders can often live for more than ten years without any limit.

After transforming into orcs, female spider-men completely overwhelm male spider-men, not only being larger and stronger but also having a much longer lifespan. Male spider-men are still notoriously short-lived. In a sense, young master Labor's situation is also quite desperate.

"They now make men the heads of households, and even make women work like men, probably to adapt to the customs of the kingdom. But what's happening outside is a different story inside. At home, women definitely have the final say."

In this era, the strong still reign supreme, especially among the orcs with their strong tribal culture. Female spider-people are naturally stronger and therefore more suited to take the lead.

Now, Rean understood a little better; that noble young master might actually be superfluous in his family.

In a normal family, if the first two children are daughters and the third is a son born late in life, the child is likely to be especially loved. But in Labour's family, it's possible that everyone will complain about why it can't be another daughter.

"If nothing unexpected happens, he will be sent to marry into another Spider-Man family in a few years, but because of his bad reputation, he may not even have this ability anymore. Heh, it doesn't really matter, he won't live for more than a few years anyway."

Wait a minute, even the shortest lifespan wouldn't be less than thirty years. That Labor family head is already over forty. Purple Rose, are you hinting at something terrible?

"Uh, the female spider will eat the male spider, and so will the female spider-men." This wasn't just hearsay; Rean thought of the Blood Frenzy and the crazed beasts he had faced before.

"Heh, guess." Purple Rose revealed a mysterious smile, while Rean's eyes widened. Could it really be true? Were those spider-men not taking their medicine properly?
“Sometimes, instincts are hard to control. Spiders, in particular, are quite ferocious.” Purple Rose seemed to say nothing, yet she seemed to say everything.

At this moment, Rean was truly stunned. He never expected that Larry, who seemed honest and upright, might have this side to him.

"You're not kidding me, are you?" Rean was still a little hesitant. These two Labours didn't seem like it.

"Heh, if you don't think so, then it's not." Purple Rose remained silent.

(End of this chapter)