1 Encounter

A spider.

A huge, hairy spider.

It hung in the corner of her room alight its web, all of its two-inch monstrous glory and hairy appendages in full view.

Aena had quickly scrambled across the dusty carpet and instinctively pressed her body against the wall. She might have embarrassingly stumbled over a few pieces of furniture along the way, but it was an understandable reaction, right? Currently, she was still cowering in fear leaning against the reassuring roughness of the wall on the side of her room.

She wasn't tall to begin with, a meager 162 cm, but the terror had caused her to appear smaller than she actually was as she tucked in her knees and curled her limbs inward in a fetal position.

'Oh gods," she thought, "it's too early to worry about this." A weary expression adorned her face as she dragged in ragged breaths.

After taking a few minutes to ease her jumpy nerves, Aena slowly unfurled herself from a human armadillo and slowly stood up, adopting a fighting stance with her right hand in front as if shielding herself.

It was quite a comedic sight.

She gazed carefully at the devil's spawn poised three meters away. Its beady eyes stared back, but it remained locked in position. With her hand still outstretched, Aena rummaged through her duffel bag that she had spontaneously dropped on the ground due to her initial shock.

Keeping her eyes on the spider, she slowly leaned down and rummaged through her bag with her free hand. After a few long moments of rustling, Aena wrapped her fingers around a cylindric shape. Bingo.

With trembling hands, she slowly lifted the object out of the bag. It was a can of pepper spray. It had been a gift from her protective mother for her acceptance into Imperial Royal Academy.

Her mother probably had much different ideas in mind for its intended usages when she gave it to Aena. But nevertheless, here she was, before the first semester even started, aiming to battle a single arachnid.

'Wait does pepper spray even work in this situation?' The fleeting thought momentarily processed through Aena's distressed mind; she paused briefly but afterward shook her head.

'Doesn't matter. Guess we're about to find out.'

With this conviction in mind, Aena advanced step by step toward her target. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right.

Aena carefully advanced armed with the weapon. She breathed deeply in regular intervals as if to calm her beating heart.

She was now just one meter away from her enemy. She wrapped both hands around the bottle, gripping so tightly that her knuckles began to lose their color. Aena steeled herself and cautiously took aim.

She fired.

With a hiss, a white mist quickly ejected from the nozzle, rushing forward. The spider, noticing the disturbance to its territory, quickly scurried upwards with its eight appendages.

"Hieeek!!!!!" Surprised by its sudden movements, Aena let out a startled shriek but stood her ground and fired again.

The spider, irritated from the spray, fell from its web… and right onto Aena's new bed. On the pillow to be exact. Reorienting itself from the fall, it crawled towards Aena with terrible speed.

"Gaaaahhh!" Unable to control her fear this time, Aena let her instincts take over and turned around, running for the door like her life depended on it. She threw it open, letting her momentum lead her outside, and closed the flimsy door with a resounding slam.

'Shit.'

Catching her breath, she creaked open the door and peered inside. The spider hadn't returned to its web, and as she swiveled her eyes around the room, she didn't spot it. It had disappeared.

Aena shivered. This was not the ideal situation: it was probably scarier not knowing where the creature was. She was definitely not sleeping well tonight.

Sighing, Aena grabbed her duffel bag and pulled out a fresh set of clothes. As her parasympathetic system slowed her raging pulse, she realized she was sticky with sweat as the fabric of her clothes clung to her.

'Well, I should use this opportunity to check out the baths," she told herself with a positive outlook.

She exited her cursed new dorm room and made her way down the hallway. She was in the Rosengard dorms, the only one she could afford with her limited money. As such, the facilities were certainly not the top of the art, such as the ones in the newer dormitories. However, the building was still affiliated with the name of the Imperial Royal Academy, so it was still nicer than the living spaces she was used to.

A significant difference between this dorm and others was the existence of bathrooms—or rather the lack of. The Rosengard dormitories did not have any private showers and instead had a public shower that was shared across the dorm.

Lost in her musings, Aena only lifted her head as she saw another girl coming her way. It was the first soul she had seen since the guidance counselor had dropped her off and gone on her way with a simple "Welcome to the Academy, please feel free to ask if you have any additional questions."

Aena had tried to inquire about a few confusing matters, but the guide had adamantly stridden away, pretending not to hear her. Oh well. Aena planned on reporting him later.

"Hey."

Aena snapped back to reality. She shook off the exhaustion from earlier.

She sweetly smiled at the girl; first impressions were everything after all.

The girl stared at her. 'Hmm? Is my smile weird?' Aena thought. The girl was still staring at her with an indiscernible expression. Aena was now feeling slightly uncomfortable, her smile slightly faltering. She felt pressured by that strong gaze.

"Stop staring at me! If you keep looking at me like that I'll misunderstand!" Aena protested, covering her chest.

"What?!" The other girl's eyes widened at her sudden reply. "It's just that… that scream earlier… was… was that you?"

Aena froze like a deer in front of headlights.

'Well. Shit.'