At first glance, Kurozawa was genuinely startled for a moment.
A house floating in midair would have surprised anyone who saw it.
But when Kurozawa looked closely, he discovered why the wooden house was suspended. At its base, strands of thread too fine for the naked eye extended outward, connecting to the trees beyond the clearing and supporting the house itself.
If Kurozawa's Pupil Power had not been strong enough, and if he had not been on guard after tracking them all this way, he might not have been able to see those transparent threads that seemed to blend into the moonlight.
Apparently unaware of Kurozawa's arrival, the wooden house's door remained tightly shut, with no movement inside.
Kurozawa looked at the house, a curve forming at the corner of his mouth. Then he raised his torch high and hurled it viciously.
Whoosh! The fierce wind made the flames sway wildly, but they did not go out. With a crash, the torch punched through the door and flew into the house.
Using the firelight, Kurozawa saw the scene inside through the hole torn open in the door.
The wooden house was small and exceptionally plain. There was no furniture at all, only wooden floors and walls. It was hard to imagine a demon living inside.
Yet Kurozawa saw a figure crawling on the ground, its eyes still bleary with sleep.
A human head, a spider's body.
Unlike the Human-Headed Spiders he had seen before, which had spider legs growing beneath pallid human heads, the demon inside the house truly had the body of a spider, topped with the head of a human boy.
It seemed to have been asleep just moments ago, which was why it had failed to notice Kurozawa's arrival. Startled awake by the torch, it blanked out