“Come in,” Augrun said as he felt the presence of a maid outside of his room.

The grand double doors were gently swung open as a maid pushing a trolley filled with pastries and buns passed through. It was breakfast but not for Augrun. It was for Iora. Demons could obtain sustenance by absorbing the arcanic fuel in the air, Mana. That wasn’t to say Demons couldn’t eat as humans or any other creatures do. They could but they just weren’t required to. 

Augrun was by the window, sitting on the sill, in only his trousers. In his hand was a cup of fermented honey, which he had been drinking since hours ago. The honey wasn’t the kind of commercial honey from Earth. This honey was harvested from a Demonic Monster known as Antbee. As the awful pun of a name wasn’t already obvious enough, it was a hybrid of bees and ants kind of monster. The honey they produced was far more fragrant and delectable than any of the honey Augrun had tasted back on Earth. According to his memories, the honey of the Antbees was considered a luxury among luxury. But since Augrun was the Demon Prince, he could get the honey for free in the form of a royal tribute from the Antbees. It was truly good to be royalty but his reason for drinking mead at such a time wasn’t something that couldn’t be dismissed by his royal status. 

“Good morning, Your Highness,” the maid greeted with a bow and a slight blush on her cheeks while she slowly pushed the food trolley to the side of the bed. “I trust that you have a good night's sleep, Your Highness?” 

“I didn’t sleep,” Augrun answered. 

“Why not, Your Highness?”

“I couldn’t.”

The maid widened her eyes and glanced at the bed where Iora and Sera were still sleeping soundly on and both of them were without a single piece of clothing on their bodies. Sera had come joining halfway through the session and Iora was on the verge of her limit. Sera’s arrival couldn’t be more timely but she lasted half as long as Iora did before she couldn’t go on any longer. Despite hours of sex and with two women no less, Augrun still wasn’t satisfied. His libido frightened even himself. Even at his prime when he was a human, three times a night was the best he could manage, four if he forced it. A Demon’s lust was truly different. He wanted to keep going and fuck the two even if they were unconscious but he managed to rein in his lust and resorted to an alternative. The fermented honey helped but it wasn’t a permanent solution.

“Your passion and vigour is commendable, Your Highness,” the maid said with a smile and a twinkling gaze.

What bothered Augrun about the maid’s praise was that he could tell she wasn’t just flattering him because he was her Prince. She was genuinely impressed by him. It was something anyone would feel proud of but for some reason, he felt worried.

“Here’s the report from Alvon, Your Highness.” The maid walked up to him and handed him a stack of papers.

“Already?” Augrun blurted out. “I believe not even six hours have passed since I asked this of him.”

“It would seem that Your Highness isn’t the only one with a sleepless night.”

Augrun was impressed. He didn’t think Alvon would be so competent and subservient. He flipped through the papers, skimming over the contents. The first report was about Iora’s friends. One of them was confirmed to be in the auction tomorrow but the other was still nowhere to be found. The other friend was confirmed to have been sold to some noble but as the records had gone through some alterations due to the anonymity of the auction’s discretion. More time would be required to locate the friend’s whereabouts, that was what the report said. There were other reports besides the one Augrun specifically asked for. An Elder had requested an audience with him and the Elder was the father of Baxter, the man who Sera scorned and shamed yesterday. Augrun ignored that “request” and moved on to the next reports.

“Is this for real?” Augrun found himself muttering out loud.

“This Alvon human claims that there is no falsehood in his reports,” said the maid. 

“Wow… this is… interesting, I suppose?” Augrun shrugged to himself. 

The third report talked about how the slaves managed to dispel the slave crests. From the recaptured slaves’ testimony, Iora had a skill they took to calling Magic Eater. Though she was still unused to the skill, she managed to dispel many of the slave crests over the course of a few months. That report ended with a note of caution, imploring the Demon Prince to be careful of the female Ogre. Augrun scoffed and glimpsed at Iora, who was naked to her crotch on his bed.

The fourth report was about the Maxim Alliance, an alliance of all the small and medium countries in the west. The alliance was created as a way to deter the large nations’ thoughts about invading and conquering the lesser nations but they didn’t have enough to deter the Demons. According to the report, the Maxim Alliance had come to an agreement to summon a group of heroes from another world. These heroes wouldn’t be the first to be summoned to this world but they would be the first ones in this era as the last summoning had taken place eight hundred years ago. Only four heroes were summoned then but this time, they intended to summon nine heroes. 

These so-called heroes were special because they were not bound by the limits and common sense of this world as they weren’t of this world. They could grow faster and higher than the people of this world. However, summoning a single hero alone consumed a lot of resources, let alone four or nine of them. It would cost the nation a lot if even one of the heroes was a failure. This was simply put a desperate fool’s gambit, or fools in this case.

“Yunia, was it?” Augrun called out.

“Yes, Your Highness?” responded the maid as she was setting the plates and cups on the small table beside the table, made specifically for having breakfast in bed.

“Have you met any of these off-world heroes before?”

“I haven’t, Your Highness, but I have heard stories. But you already know all those stories.”

“Yes… yes, I do,” Augrun muttered. “It’s a lot to go through.” 

“I’m sure Your Highness will manage. It is Your Highness after all.”

Though his memories and knowledge weren’t entirely sorted out, he did manage to pluck a few from the clutter. One of which was regarding the descendant of an off-world hero and this descendant in question was also the one leading the vanguard army that was currently up against the Demon Queen’s army. But since even scratching the surface of that knowledge was already giving him a headache, Augrun did not look into it further. It hadn’t even been a week since his reincarnation. He wanted to enjoy and abuse his power more before he decided to participate in the war. 

There was another presence at the door just as Yunia had finished setting the plates and cups. “Come in,” Augrun said while still remaining seated on the window sill.

A giant black spider the size of a large horse crawled into the room. It was holding a neatly-wrapped white package with its fore-frontal pair of limbs. The white wrapping gave off a sharp glint as it caught the faint and meek light of dawn shining through the windows.

“Good morning, your majesty,” the giant spider greeted, lowering its whole body as it bowed. “Lady Iora’s garments are done,” it said, presenting the wrapped package to Augrun.

The giant spider was Vyona. Though it was a hermaphrodite, Augrun’s impression of Vyona from the imparted memories was that of a kind and gentle middle-aged widow. And so, Augrun had taken the liberty to call it a “she”. Vyona was a resident of the tower due to her status as the Royal Weaver, formerly the Queen’s Weaver before Augrun’s birth. She was responsible for making the Queen’s clothes and now also the Prince’s. By extension, Vyona was also responsible for making the garments of the Prince’s consorts. The garments Vyona made weren't just aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and comfortable to wear. As the garments were woven using her own silk, they were twice as tough as steel and many times lighter. Of course, the purpose of the garment’s extraordinary durability wasn’t to protect the wearer but to protect the garments themselves from the trials of time and various other factors. 

Though it was Augrun first time officially meeting Vyona, he remembered seeing her in the rite amongst the audience. Instead of feeling disgust, he felt only pride. There was something glorious about having a giant spider with proper intelligence as his subject. Bugs and insects weren’t as terrifying as they should be when they were this big. Augrun felt that the easily-overlooked miniature size of bugs and insects was a huge factor in their creepiness. Augrun took the package and set it aside. “Thank you, Vyona. How are the children?”

“They’re doing great, Your Highness. They have expressed a very keen desire to meet you, Your Highness, as they weren’t present at the rite and ceremony.”

“Why not?”

“Too loud, Your Highness. They couldn’t stand the noise.”

“Ah, I see.” Augrun skimmed through the reports once again. After making sure he didn’t overlook any important points that required his immediate attention, he set the report aside and hopped off the window sill. “Are you busy now, Vyona?”

“If it’s a request from Your Highness, I will always be available.”

Augrun chuckled. “You misunderstood, Vyona. I intend to visit your workshop if you aren’t too busy.”

“You will, Your Highness?” Eight of Vyona’s eyes widened as she bowed deeply. “That would be truly an honour, Your Highness. I will return first to make sure the workshop is all tidied up by the time of Your Highness’ arrival,” Vyona said and sped out of the room with her skittering eight legs before Augrun could tell that he wouldn’t mind the state of her workshop.

“That was interesting,” Augrun mused. “What a lovely person.”

“She is, Your Highness,” Yunia agreed with a nod. “Is there anything else that you require of me, Your Highness?”

“That will be all for now, Yunia.”

“Then I will be taking my leave, Your Highness,” Yunia said and disappeared from the room through the door.

Augrun tittered as he walked to the bed and sat on the edge. He placed his hand on Iora’s exposed posterior which he gave a gentle caress. “Perchance are you afraid of bugs, Iora?” he asked.

There was no response from Iora.

Augrun snickered and squeezed down on her malleable shapely butt, incurring a shriek from the Ogre who bounced up with a punch swinging towards Augrun.

Augrun caught her fist and used her momentum to draw her into his lap, embracing her with his arms wrapped around her as he planted kisses on her face, neck, and shoulders. “Good morning, Iora,” he greeted.

“It certainly isn’t a good one for me,” Iora retorted. 

“I can hear your heartbeat, Iora.”  

“Creep.”

“Can’t deny that, my love. In case you're curious as to how I knew, I know you’re awake from the shift of your heartbeat’s rhythm.” 

“I am not curious about it.”

“And I don’t lust after you, Iora.” Augrun chuckled. “I can tell how fast your heart was beating just then, Iora. You couldn’t have known it was a spider, so I guessed you found out it was a bug from the sounds of the way legs skittered about.”

Iora curled up into a ball, shaking, with her hands cupping her ears.

“Adorable,” Augrun said and gave her another kiss on top of her head. He then laid her back on the bed and went to put on his clothes, which were just a plain white dress shirt and he didn’t even bother to button it all up. 

“You’re going to the workshop dressed like that?” Sera asked as she plopped herself up sitting. She yawned and rubbed her squinting eyes.

“You’re awake this whole time?” Iora asked in queer disbelief. 

“As a maid, I am required to wake up early and get everything prepared before Her Majesty wakes up. But since the Prince was so rough with the two of us, I reckon he’s reasonable enough to let me sleep in later than usual.”

“Y-you heard everything then…?”

Sera nodded meekly.

“You reckoned wrong, Sera,” Augrun said. “I wouldn’t mind even if you sleep through the whole day.”

“But I will mind,” Sera retorted with a still drowsy expression. “My hips still ache.”

“Would you like a potion, Sera?”

“No,” she answered immediately. “This pain… I like it… It’s a vestige of your ardour love and lust… ”

“Damn it, Sera… You really know how to make me hard, don’t you?”

“It wasn’t my intention and I’m not responsible for the horndog you are… Your Highness.”

“And here I thought you would be going through the whole day without addressing me by my title.”

“I was still sleepy then… Your Highness, but don’t expect that blunder of mine from now on, Your Highness.”

Augrun kissed Sera lightly on the lips. “I’ll be going now, Sera. Take care of Iora for me in the meantime, will you?”

“Of course, Your Highness.” Sera nodded, barely managing to stay upright.

“I love you, Sera.” And he kissed her again.

“I love you too, my prince.”

They shared one final kiss before Augrun promptly left the room, with just his trousers and dress shirt from yesterday.

****

Thousands of black spots swarmed Augrun as soon as he stepped into the room known as the workshop. The black spots crawled up from his legs up until they covered the entirety of Augrun. These black spots were spiders, the offspring of Vyona. Though Augrun didn’t understand a word they spoke, he could tell they were excited to finally meet their prince. Strangely enough, Augrun didn’t feel repulsed or frightened like he thought he would. He had even taken a good minute to brace himself for what he was about to see in the workshop. Aside from the thousands of tiny crawlers, the workshop did not look anything out of the ordinary as how a human-built clothing workshop would look. There were no strange devices or machines to be found. In fact, there were no machines at all. There were tables, fabrics, mannequins, and a shit load of spiders. That was all Augrun caught a glance off before his sight was covered by total darkness.

“Your Highness!” Vyona screamed as she rushed towards Augrun from the far end of the room. “All of you, get off of His Highness right this instance!” Her loud screech took immediate effect as the spiders retreated away from Augrun like a tidal wave receding.

Vyona plopped herself on the ground in front of Augrun. “Forgive me, Your Highness. I didn’t expect my children to be this excited, to the length of ignoring all manners and etiquette.” 

Augrun could see the little spiders trembling in fear, shaking in a very mesmerising and surreal way. They looked almost like waves in the night. 

“I will take full blame for their misdemeanour. Please spare my children, Your Highness.”

Augrun chuckled. “It’s alright, Vyona. No harm done. They’re just children.” He squatted down and splayed open his hands. “They’re just happy to see their Prince. I should be proud and happy for having such loyal and caring subjects.”

“Thank you, Your Highness. Thank you.”

Hesitantly, the spiders crawled onto Augrun’s open palm and when they saw his smile widening, they began to amass on his palm. They were spilling from high they were piling up among themselves. Though they were just children, they were also great weavers in their own rights. They were like clockwork when it came to weaving. They were all cogs and wheels of the whole weaving process. Vyona could be considered as the director and manager but she contributed a lot to the weaving process too. They were the epitome of teamwork. But ultimately, the silk came from Vyona herself and a daughter of hers.

“If memory serves, Vyona, don’t you have an Arachne daughter?” Augrun asked.

“Ah, you mean Amara, Your Highness? One second please.” Vyona skittered up the wall and crawled into one of the many holes on the walls of the workshop. These holes were used as beds and storage. “Amara, where are you?” her voice echoed into Augrun’s ears from the deep hole she climbed into.

“I’m here, mom.” came the response from a different hole.

Vyona came out of the hole she climbed into. “Well, get out of there now. His Highness is here and he wants to see you.”

Augrun was expecting to see a creature with an upper-body of a human and the lower body of a spider. However, what came out of the hole was a complete human-looking chalk-pale girl with long black hair and violet eyes. When she was descending from the hole, she briefly transformed into a spider a size smaller than Vyona with a body that seemed to be made of mist. She turned back to her human form when she reached the ground. Vyona simply jumped down from the hole and joined her daughter at her side.

“Your Highness, this is my daughter, Amara.”

“Good evening, Your Highness,” Amara greeted with an expression that was drifting between sleep and wake. Her eyes looked dead but the vibrant violet colours of her pupils gave a very sharp vivacious feel. She was quite a beauty, or she would be if she bothered to at least groom her hair. Not that Augrun could say much about her considering he didn’t exactly groom himself too but at least he made sure he didn’t look like he just came out of a hurricane. Nevertheless, Augrun had already decided, then.

“It’s morning, Amara!” Vyona chided her daughter.

“G-good morning, Your Highness…” Amara corrected herself but there was no shred of sincerity or candour in her tone.

“Forgive my daughter, Your Highness.”

“Is she unwell?” Augrun asked.

“Oh, no, absolutely not unwell, Your Highness. She had always been this way, even when she was in front of the Queen but Her Majesty was thankfully unoffended. Of course, I hope Your Highness isn’t offended too by her… negligence of her appearance…”

“I am offended, Vyona.”

Vyona sucked in her breath deeply when she heard that. Her body began shrinking and her legs began shivering. “Y-your Highness… I—”

“I’m offended that a beauty like your daughter does not take care of herself. Truly a waste of her beauty.”

“Your Highness?” Vyona blurted out. 

Even Amara was slightly surprised to hear that as she raised her gaping demure gaze.

Vyona jutted upright and beamed with a smile, or at least Augrun thought it was a smile. “Your Highness… Do you truly mean what you say?”

“Of course, Vyona.”

While Vyona was ecstatic to the point that she was jumping in joy, the little spiders jumping along with her, Amara herself was looking like she had just fallen into a pit of despair.

“What’s with those eyes of yours, Amara?!” Vyona shouted when she took notice of her daughter’s reaction. “Are you not happy to be praised by His Highness?”

“I-I… I-I…” Amara couldn’t get a word out of her mouth. She was just stammering.

“Forgive her, Your Highness. She has never been courted before nor has she courted anyone before.”

“Mom…!” Amara screamed silently. 

“Truly?” Augrun made sure to put on his best ‘disbelief’ expression. “No one has ever caught a glimpse of the beauty underneath?”

“My daughter is quite shy, as you can see, Your Highness.”

“Mom….!” Amara’s face was bright red up to her ears.

As much as Augrun loved to take Amara for himself right here and now, being too hasty would only have the opposite effect. “Well, it would seem your daughter is a tad under the weather today. I’ll come back some other day, would that be alright, Vyona?”

“Definitely, Your Highness. Just come back anytime. This whole tower belongs to Your Highness and Her Majesty anyway. And I’ll make sure my daughter will be presentable by then.”