Coran saw the reception desk in front of him. Behind the desk was a door that likely led to some back room for the staff, and to his left was a long hallway that led to an assortment of rooms- all the doors of which were closed.

It was an empty place, and all the lights were off so the only light shining in was the sunlight from the windows.

"Is there some sort of attic entrance around here? Let's take a look...", Coran said as he scoured the ceiling for any trapdoor entrance.

"None over here.... perhaps in the hallway?"

Coran walked down the hallway, his spiderlike legs ticking on the hard wood floor as he walked.

It was not a well polished wooden floor, but rather one made from wooden boards that seemed to be old and creaked as he stepped on them.

'If my legs weren't made from chitin it would be easy to get a splinter walking barefoot...', Coran thought.

The place was not well taken care of.

It was run down, and there were many stains on the walls from who knows what. Dirt covered the corners and it didn't exactly scream inviting. It seemed like the orphanage was merely a product of neglect, one that was shoved aside into the furthest corner outside the city.

'The warehouse seemed brand new though.... that certainly is odd that they would allocate funds like that... no, I suppose I can understand. If you only have limited resources and workers, you would want to focus on production first to make more money, and then improve living conditions from there.'

Coran placed his human-like hand on the windowsill to find a layer of dust.

'But still, this place is filthy. Is it even being used at all? It's like they simply abandoned the building. Or maybe they don't care? Hmm... actually, this works best for me. If this building truly isn't in use, then it will be less suspicious of a spot to hide in. I could even make this into a permanent base.... but that might be too optimistic.'

Coran made his way all the way down the hallway, passing a total of 5 rooms, each of which had signs on the doors to show what room they were.

Playroom, Bedroom, Bathroom, Kitchen, Dining Room. These were the rooms in the order which Coran had passed them.

'Well, they seem to at least have all the basic necessities. I wonder if the entrance to the attic is in one of these rooms, or that other room back there... I suppose I will have to check them all either way.'

The roof was triangular, so it was impossible that there wasn't a space for an attic, however it could be the case that there was no entrance, in which case he would have to burrow through the roof in an inconspicuous way, and repair it from the inside while he kept watch over his surroundings.

'I suppose that's what us insects are supposed to do anyways. We burrow into homes, invade them, and reproduce within them. However, I am part human, so I don't know if acting like an insect is actually what I should be doing here... ah, doesn't matter. As long as I don't get caught, and am able to observe my surroundings for now that should be enough.'

Coran entered the rooms one by one to check for entrances.

First the Dining room on the far side of the hallway. Inside it was a small table, low enough for children, and no other furniture. It could only fit around 6 people, with 2 seats on each long side and 1 on each short side.

The room barely had anything else in it. It was almost like a cardboard box, with nothing more than a single table. Coran checked the ceiling, but found no such attic entrance. He closed the door and continued to the next room.

He opened the door to the kitchen, and this room had an oven and a countertop to make food on, with some cabinets to store things.

The room was slightly larger than the dining room, but still cramped. Coran walked over to take a look inside the cabinets, to find them almost completely empty. There was a single pot of flour, and a jug only half filled with water, and that was it.

'How will they make food for 30 people with this? I mean, sure this could make enough for each person to have a small piece of bread, but.... well, maybe the person in charge is out to purchase more now. Or it could be the case that they don't live here at all, and they are simply coming here from elsewhere to work in that warehouse. I can't know for sure.'

Coran continued his search after confirming that there was no entrance to the attic, and went into the bathroom.

'I doubt that the attic will be in here, but lets take a look anyways just in case. Never make any assumptions. Always know that what you believe to be true could be false, and if it is, then any logic you have used previously will fail completely. His excellency Gary taught me this.'

Coran walked into the bathroom, to see a pitiful toilet that looked like it was simply a wooden cube which led into the ground. He could smell the feces from here, and didn't want to stay in here any longer than he had to. Aside from the toilet, there was a small storage unit to the side, which Coran didn't bother to check.

"That must be uncomfortable to sit on....", Alicia commented while peeking out her head and plugging her nostrils.

"Indeed..."

Coran confirmed that there was no entrance to an attic and moved on.

'Gary created these things called sinks in the dictatorship, and told us that we should wash our hands with this odd thing called 'soap' after we use the toilets.... it was something about being sanitary, and preventing the spread of disease. However, there didn't appear to be one here. He also created things called 'showers', which we are supposed to use to clean ourselves after a long day of working, however I didn't see one of those either. Perhaps it isn't something the humans use? Maybe it is merely a contraption that only their excellencies could thing up of. As expected, their knowledge and understanding of the world is boundless, far surpassing anyone else.'

The bedroom was the largest of the rooms thus far, thought still small, and as Coran entered he saw a number of dirty cloths covering the floors. If he counted them up, he saw somewhere around 10 of them.

There seemed to be some patches of clumped up plant material and foliage laying around the area.

'Ah, are those a primitive form of the things called 'pillows' which their excellencies had my sister produce? I prefer my own webbing as a bed, but many of the goblins and slime people in the dictatorship certainly enjoyed using them. They said it makes their sleep much calmer, and they wake up without any pain in their necks anymore. Their excellencies have created so much for our people. It almost brings me to tears how much they have done. They have introduced things which I never even could have imagined until I met them.'

Coran once again looked around to notice that there was no entrance to the attic, and at this point was becoming concerned.

'Could it be that there actually is no entrance? That would be annoying.'

He went on to the next room, the playroom.

On touching the door, an entire chunk of dust came off.

'My goodness.... it's like nobody has been in here for ages.'

He opened the door- or tried to, however it was locked.

'Why is this one locked, whereas the others were not? The only reason I can think of is that this room is hiding some sort of taboo.... that there is something inside here which somebody doesn't want anyone to discover. Well, I have to search every room. Since the useless woman inside my bag doesn't even have a stinger that I could use as a lockpick, it looks like I am forced to break in again. Somebody will certainly notice, but I don't really have a choice here. Ah. I accidentally just thought of my slave as a useless woman. Am I taking too much of an influence from his excellency? No, that's actually a good thing. I will start calling her a useless woman until she proves useful. Then again, she did allow me to fly, so I suppose she isn't completely useless... what would his excellency say?'

Coran pried open the door as he thought these meaningless thoughts, breaking the wood around the handle to get in.

When he opened the door, a whole load of dust seemed to fly around him.

"Cough cough... eck...."

Inside was a rug that seemed to be covered in sweat stains, and dust covered the entire room as if it hadn't been used in ages. There was a single chest at the end of the room, behind the rug.

Coran looked around and confirmed that there was no attic entrance, and decided to take a peek inside the chest to see what was inside.

'This must be what somebody is trying to hide. What could it be? Money? Or perhaps some sort of dark secret that would ruin them if it was found?'

Coran opened the chest to see a box full of toys.

'Hm? What are these things? I've never seen anything like these before, even among the contraptions that their excellencies have made.'

Coran started rummaging through the bins, however he didn't find anything which was significantly different from the toys- anything which could hold value.

'It isn't the case that they hid something valuable among whatever this garbage is. Then perhaps these things themselves are valuable? Do they hold some sort of purpose that I can't understand? I will have to ask their excellencies later.'

Coran took out the spider camera, reaching into his bag and once more feeling around before grabbing the camera.

'Ah, here it is.'

"Could you please not stick your hand in here without warning!!", Alicia shouted.

"Why? I am merely trying to find some of my property, all of which is contained within this bag."

"Well.... you can't just stick your hand in here like that! What if you touch me!?"

"You are my property, so it shouldn't matter. I can pick you up and rummage you around just like any other piece of property, no?"

"Wha-"

"Anyways, be quiet like a good slave. Or I will throw you out as a defective product. Useless woman."

"Useless!?"

"Shh!!!"

"Ok..."

Coran took out the camera and hovered it around the toybox to get a view from all angles.

'This should record and send to the database of his excellency a 'video' as he calls it, of whatever these strange objects are. I will bring it up when I next speak with him.', Coran thought as he placed the camera back in the bag.

Picking up some of the wooden blocks, Coran tried to understand their purpose.

'Just what could these be used for? I don't understand. It's clearly too small to be used as a building material, and I don't see how this could work as a component to a contraption. It simply doesn't have anything complicated enough to function like that. Then what is it for? Humans certainly are strange.'

Coran put the blocks back, and closed the chest, leaving things as they were before.

He then noticed that his footprints had been left in the dust.

'Ah, this is no good... I can't be leaving my unique footprints here. As a spider, my legs are shaped differently from humans, so it would be bad if they deduced that something has been here.... what do I do? Ah! I know.'

Coran, instead of sweeping up the dust, decided to use his fingers to paint human footprints around the spots he had stepped in.

'Now even if they see this, they will assume a human did it.'

Coran then walked back over the footprints to exit the room, and closed the door shut. Because it had been forced open, he had to force it closed and many woodchips seemed to be cracking out.

'They will certainly notice this, but there is no evidence that an outsider did it.'

Coran then proceeded into the reception area.

There was one final room to check.

'If there is no attic here, nor an entrance to say an underground basement, then things will become complicated. I might have to give up on this location and make a temporary retreat while allowing suspicions of an outsider invading to boil down.'

Coran jumped over the reception desk, and stood in front of the door.

"Can you be a little more gentle? It's really spacious in here so if you jump around like that then I'll be flung around!", Alicia complained.

"Ah, sorry. Wait, why am I apologizing to my slave!? Just be quiet!"

"Mmm.... you're so mean...."

'But I kinda like that about you....', Alicia thought.

Coran stood in front of the door, and tried to open it, however this too was locked.

'Damn.... well, we've already come this far.'

Coran broke open the door once more, and opened it to see something unexpected.

It was a room of luxury- one which completely disobeyed his expectations based on the previous 5 rooms.

'What the hell? Why does this room seem so different from the rest? It's true that it has been separated from the others, however the others are filthy, whereas this one looks like it would be fit for their excellencies. Perhaps this is the room of the leader? But why would the leader deal with such disgusting conditions around them? Her excellency, Sarah once said that if she is surrounded by filth, then it is all the same as living in filth herself- and thus it must be ensured that every corner of the city is well kept. However, this completely contradicts that....'

Coran's face then twisted with disgust.

'Are you telling me that the leader here disagrees with the views of the Dictators?'

"Coran, is something wrong.... you seem to be shaking a lot....", Alicia asked quietly.

Coran came to his senses at her voice.

"Ah, nothing. I need to focus on the mission. Thank you, Alicia for reminding me of my duty here. Perhaps I've been a bit too harsh on you. I permit you to speak when you feel the need, and I will not stick my hand in the bag without fair warning."

"T-thank you, Coran..."

"Now then... this is certainly strange...."

Inside the room was an extremely elegant bed, and next to it was a large dresser with a mirror, and all sorts of expensive accessories and such laid out across it. There was an open door in the back which led to a personal bathroom- one that was so clean it seemed to be fit for a king, and there was also a desk to the left of the entrance of the room. The desk was covered in papers, writing tools and stamps, and statements.

There was a door also directly to the right of the entrance, and when Coran opened this one, it led to another room- one that had a small wooden bed and a desk with even more paperwork.

'It seems that there are 2 people who have been managing this facility, and clearly one is leagues above the other in status... though it seems a bit empty, as if someone removed a bunch of stuff from this room just recently. Well, let's take a look for the attic....'

Coran didn't see anything in the luxurious room, however when he went into the plain room, he saw something.

It was a small trapdoor at the top in the corner of the room.

"There it is! We've found the attic!", he whispered.

Coran webbed over to it, and pryed open the entrance with relative ease. It was not locked. There was also no ladder or anything of the sort, which made this even better.

'There is no way anyone could come up here without first obtaining a ladder. I've seen everywhere in this building, and there doesn't exist one. While technically there could be one in the factory that they could bring over, there would be no need to do so unless they suspected that something was in the attic... meaning so long as we keep quiet and don't breed any suspicion, we should be fine to stay here.'

Coran then retraced his steps around the orphanage, closed the doors that he had previously opened, and tried his best to reset anything that had been moved to how it was before.

'That should be about right. Now...'

Coran then entered the attic from the ceiling, first throwing his bag up and then crawling in himself as he clung to the walls like a spider.

"Oof! Why did you throw the bag like that!?"

"Well, I needed to get you up somehow. Bear with it. Or would you have preferred that I grab the bag with both arms and shove it up, mangling you in the process?"

"Ok...."

Coran climbed up into the darkness, only to see yet another extremely dusty location.

Cobwebs were all over, and they were so thick that you couldn't even walk without being covered with them.

'Nobody has ever been in here, likely from the construction of this building. Perfect.'

Coran started clearing out the cobwebs. He didn't want to see any webs but his own.

'Weak. These webs are pathetic. You wouldn't even be able to catch a fly with ones like these.'

After clearing out the webs in the area, Coran set his own webs as a trap.

He covered the area in webs, so that if anyone tried to come up here for some reason, they would be completely stuck.

'There we go... this isn't exactly completely safe. It's still possible that someone could show up who is capable of cutting my webs... or perhaps even someone who could use fire magic could easily just burn this area to the ground like her excellency, Ally.... however, this is the best I can do without putting any seriously dangerous traps. I don't want anyone to be suspiciously killed by a poison trap, only to gather the attention of the entire city. If someone finds out about me then I need them to disappear by getting caught in a web, and only after having a conversation with them will I decide what to do.'

"We wait here for now, and scout out if anyone is living here, and if they are worthy of befriending.", Coran explained.

"I understand.", Alicia noted, crawling out of the backpack.

"How much food do we have? How long can we survive in here?", She questioned.

Coran looked around the area with his four eyes before zipping around the room, and in an instant he had six spiders on one of his metal cones like a skewer.

"This should be enough for tonight at least, and we have a bit more in my bag as well. We can last 2 days- 4 if we really try to stretch what we have out."

"You.... you're ok with eating spiders? Isn't that a bit... don't you feel anything wrong with that?"

"What could be wrong about that? If it was for my masters, I would eliminate every last living being on this planet. There is no such thing as right or wrong when it comes to fulfilling my mission. Fulfilling my mission in of itself is right, and failing to do so in of itself is wrong. Anything else is irrelevant."

"I.... I see... then, shall we eat?"

Coran took a bite out of one of the spiders, and then handed the other half to Alicia.

"Indeed."