The battle between the Hero and the Demon King.
It had been repeated time and again in this world, over and over, without end.
The Demon King who ruled the Demon race.
There was always exactly one in every era.
When the current Demon King fell, the strongest among the Demon race and the Monsters would evolve into the next Demon King.
That was how the world had decreed it.
So while the Demon King could be destroyed, it could never truly be extinguished.
Each one was different in nature.
There was the Demon King said to have shattered the earth with Brute Force alone, splitting it open to form valleys.
There was the Demon King said to have mastered sorcery, commanding a thousand spells.
What all these Demon Kings had in common was their opposition to the Human race and their extraordinary Strength.
The Hero was humanity's hope—the one who fought against such a Demon King.
The battle between the Hero and the Demon King was a seesaw of give and take.
Sometimes the Hero slew the Demon King; sometimes the Demon King repelled the Hero.
But just as the Demon King never truly perished, neither did the Hero.
Their battle transcended generations, stretching on without interruption.
It was the fate of this world.
If tragedy existed, it was that a particular era's Hero and Demon King were far too well-matched.
Both were wielders of rare dimensional magic.
Magic on par with the gods themselves—magic that could bend dimensions, space, and time.
They each followed their destiny and unleashed that power.
The two spells collided, and the world screamed.
The Hero and the Demon King, unable to endure the force of their own magic, perished together.
The shockwave transcended time and space, reaching even into another world entirely.
That colossal explosion of space-time erupted in a high school classroom in a country called Japan, on a world called Earth.
All twenty-six students and teachers present in the classroom were struck head-on by the magic and lost their lives in an instant.
The incident was reported as a mysterious, unexplained explosion.
But those who had died would never learn of that report.
Not even if they were reborn.
Because their souls had crossed through time and space, flowing back into the world where the Hero and the Demon King waged their endless war.
Their souls scattered across the new world, each one reborn as a new life.
This is the story of one of those souls.
********************************************** Ugghhhh!
I meant to let out an incoherent moan, but I couldn't even manage that.
Was my body really in that bad a shape?
Okay, stay calm. Stay calm.
There was no pain.
I remembered up to the point where I'd been hit by a sudden, excruciating agony during Japanese class.
I figured I must have passed out from that, but now nothing hurt.
The thing was, even with my eyes open, it was pitch black, and I had no idea where I was.
No—it felt like something was encasing my entire body, and I couldn't move at all.
Wait. Was I a vegetable!?
No way.
I wanted to deny it, but given the situation, the odds were high.
I didn't know what had happened, but it sure looked like I'd become a vegetable.
Give me a break.
Conscious but unable to move, no senses to speak of… That was a one-way ticket to losing my mind.
No way, no way.
And then, just as I was spiraling, I heard a faint rustling sound.
The fact that I could hear it meant my sense of hearing was alive.
Hmm.
But only being able to hear things wasn't exactly a comfort.
BANG!
Ow!?
What the—?
Something hit me?
Huh?
If it hurt, that meant my sense of touch was working too!
Wait, wait?
Okay—calm down again. Take a breath.
Looking at it calmly, yeah, something felt off, but I definitely had bodily sensation!
So much for the vegetable diagnosis!
Earlier I'd said it felt like my body was wrapped in something, and that was literally exactly what was going on.
Ha.
No, this was NOT funny!
What the heck was this situation? I'd been stuffed in some kind of sack and kidnapped?
No way.
Who would bother snatching someone as bottom-of-the-barrel as me?
Either way, I had to break free.
SNAP!
Oh—I tensed my body and pushed with everything I had, and the thing covering me started to crack.
Not a burlap sack, apparently.
What was this, then? It was soft in some places, hard in others—a strange, unfamiliar texture.
Well, as long as it was breaking, that was all that mattered.
I'd keep breaking it and get out of here!
CRACK!
It's open!
I crawled out headfirst.
Freedom at last!
Except there was a massive swarm of spiders wriggling all around me.
WH-WHAT!?
SCREEEEEEE!?
HOLY—!?
What was this enormous spider army!? Every single one was as big as me!
And they were hatching one after another from things that looked like eggs!
That rustling I'd heard earlier was these guys!
I stumbled backward in a panic.
Something hit my leg, and I turned around.
Hm?
Was that… what I'd just crawled out of?
Was it just my imagination that it looked like the spiders' eggs?
Actually—no. It didn't just look like one. It WAS one.
I took a closer look at myself.
My neck wouldn't turn.
But at the edge of my vision, I caught a glimpse of what looked like my legs.
Spider legs.
Ohhhhhhhhh Godddddddddd NOOOOOOOO!
W-Wait—was THIS what I thought it was!? Was I really!? Was it THAT thing!? The one that was trending on the internet right now!?
No no no!
Look—in novels, you'd usually get some kind of divine perk from a god, right? I hadn't gotten anything like that, so it had to be different! Okay, sure, there were versions where the god didn't show up at all, but even so— And for guys there was the Hero candidate route, and for girls the villainess route, that sort of thing— I glanced to the side again.
Surrounding me, teeming everywhere, were thin, needle-like legs—just like the ones on all those other spiders.
I willed myself to move a leg.
It moved exactly as I intended.
…Right.
I was a master of denial, but this was something I had to accept with dignity.
It seemed I had been reincarnated as a spider.