19. Village (5)
19. Village (5)
I showed my face without a second thought during the Amber, Yui, and Erina incidents, but I have no intention of doing that anymore.
I was spreading my information around without a care. Considering the Hive Mind, which is both a strength and a weakness, I should be the safest person around. So, I've decided not to reveal myself outside from now on.
I originally wanted to see the first start of the Breeding Farm in person, but instead, I watched the humans entering the Breeding Farm through Evolute's eyes.
Evolute first handed over the old humans who looked past reproductive age to Dagos instead of letting them into the Breeding Farm.
Those humans will probably be thrown as food to the Ners who suffered so much this time.
I feel bad about feeding the Ners old, tasteless humans, but for about a year, it can't be helped.
Thinking about it, humans can't do anything as soon as they are born.
Considering the age at which humans can reproduce, at least 15 years have to pass.
Thinking about it like this, humans are really such a lousy species for farming.
The Ners started eating the humans who were useless for farming.
No matter how tasteless an old human is, it must be much tastier than eating their own kind, which tastes like crap.
I'm sorry.
My apologies.
Thanks to you, I can fill my children's bellies.
I closed my eyes for a moment and offered a silent prayer as I watched humans, just like me, being eaten by the Ners.
This is the last thing I can do for them as a human.
==
As Evolute said, the men began to have all their semen extracted by the tentacle Creatures under Evolute.
The women were each controlled by the Ners who followed Evolute's orders.
Perhaps because Evolute gained knowledge through human brains, it controlled the humans quite well.
Since they were ordinary humans without a drop of Mana, not capable humans, there was no one who didn't follow Evolute's orders.
The only problem is that many women are crying in fear and terror, their legs giving out, and fainting.
Since this is the first time farming humans, many problems will arise, but I have plenty of time anyway, and there are plenty of humans to replenish.
The problem is that now I have to go to war.
I missed two knights from Medherun.
They saw the scene where we kidnapped all the citizens of the village and even tried to stop us, but they couldn't withstand Gluttony's attack and just vanished.
That knight has probably informed them about us by now.
Otherwise, Medherun City wouldn't be this busy.
I'm observing Medherun through a Creature disguised as a bird in the sky above Medherun City.
Honestly, I think this is too much of a cheat. It makes no sense that I can just scout with a bird and get reports, but I can also put my consciousness into that bird and check it in real-time.
It's no different from playing a game with a maphack on.
The enemy can't get any information about us, but I can check the enemies' movements in real-time.
The Adventurer Guild I went to with Amber started seeing more people coming and going than ever before.
'Oh, that's her.'
While scouting Medherun City, I was able to locate where the knights were.
In a wide space, with knights lined up in rows, the woman who had tried to stop the Ners was on a podium, speaking earnestly about something.
Anyone could see that the captain of that knight order was that woman.
Come to think of it, the woman's Mana was much higher than mine. She possessed so much Mana that it felt threatening. On top of that, she had the courage and skill not to back down against the Ners.
If such a woman wasn't a high-ranking person, I would have been slightly surprised.
Throb.
As I felt a pain in my head, I squeezed my eyes shut and severed the Hive Mind connection with the flying Creature.
'I used the Hive Mind too much today.'
Not yet having the full power of a Queen, I clutched my head.
I reached out to the side, suffering from a headache as if someone were grabbing my whole head and shaking it, just like when you wake up the day after drinking too much.
Tap. Tap.
'Argh. Where is it?'
I couldn't grab the Pipe Tobacco I had clearly placed next to me.
"Here it is."
Just then, someone handed a cigarette to my hand. I immediately put it to my lips, already lit so I could smoke it right away.
Inhale...
As the smoke entered my body, the headache seemed to be pushed away and disappeared.
"Phew...."
'So this is why not eating humans is so hard.'
I opened my eyes, shivering all over as if I had smoked a cigarette after quitting for a month.
There was Amber, wearing a maid outfit that didn't fit in with the Colony full of Creatures, but suited this room perfectly.
Amber, who has now completely adapted to this place.
Amber has changed a lot.
Back when she was human, she was definitely a confident and energetic woman. Like the kind of female student who always got along well with others in class and loved sports.
After the Centipede Creature was attached to her brain and spinal cord, she was crying and depressed all the time at first, but now that she's used to everything, she has changed a lot.
Her impression has become much sharper than when I first saw her.
She had changed to become quite charismatic, to the point where if I had seen the current Amber back when I was a man, I would have been intimidated. And her behavior and way of thinking had changed, too.
Now, she talks with Evolute or Dagos or hangs out with them more often.
It seems Amber's mind has become well-integrated after entering our Hive Mind.
Well, even I, who have the Queen's consciousness, find it hard to handle; it's impossible for a mere human's mind to maintain sanity in a Hive Mind with tens of thousands of consciousnesses.
She has also become much stronger.
I haven't touched her body, but everything from her Mana to her physical abilities has become significantly higher.
She has become nearly twice as strong as when I first saw her.
Is it because of the Hive Mind? Or is it thanks to the Centipede Creature?
"Queen-nim. Would you like to take a bath?"
Now, she even reads what I want to some extent through the Hive Mind.
Is it because the Creature's intelligence has increased, or because the Creature's Hive Mind has entered a human's intelligence? She's quick-witted, and her actions don't bother me; I like her.
'I take back what I said earlier about regretting using the Centipede Creature on Amber.'
Since I have a pretty maid who helps me by my side without me having to say what I want, I don't regret it at all; I'm very pleased.
==
My favorite place in the Colony is the Bathhouse.
Of course, I like the bedroom too, but I love the Bathhouse the best because I like to just let my mind go and feel my body go limp in the warm water.
Even when I was a man, the best moment of my day was washing away the stress that had piled up from my head to my whole body after working hard, and drinking a cold beer.
"Are you uncomfortable?"
"No. This state is good."
"Understood."
On top of that, a naked beauty is there to take care of me.
Actually, there's no need to wash my body, but Amber washes my hair and body and even gives me massages just to make me feel good.
And naturally, my eyes drift to Amber.
When I look at Amber, I've been having this thought lately.
She looks delicious.
The problem is that 'delicious' doesn't mean she looks delicious in a sexual sense, but literally that she would be delicious if I ate her.
Perhaps Amber knows that through the Hive Mind, because every time I have that thought, her body flinches and stops for a moment.
'Have I completely lost my sexual side?'
Or.
'Is it because I'm not human that I can't feel it?'
I have masturbated since waking up as the Queen.
Honestly, this is an act a man who wakes up as a woman can't help but try.
It felt good.
In the first place, masturbation isn't an act that can't feel good.
But I can say this clearly.
The smoke from burning human flesh dried into powder mixed with tobacco leaves entering my body brings me greater happiness than masturbation.
If masturbation is just the brain feeling a momentary happiness that fades away, the moment the smoke enters my body from the tobacco, every cell in my body, starting from my brain, wakes up in happiness.
It's just not even comparable.
That doesn't mean I've completely lost my humanity.
My body looks like a human's, but because I am not human, there is one difference from humans.
That is body temperature.
I do not maintain the body temperature that normal humans have.
The Queen's body is unusually colder than other living things.
Is that why? I've come to like baths more than when I was a man.
And.
"Haa...!"
I've come to like body temperature. To be precise, the warmth of another body is more accurate. But if I'm going to feel the body temperature of another living thing, isn't it better if they are pretty and a beauty?
I can feel Amber's body temperature in my hands.
Even while in the bathwater, my body itself is cold, so Amber's body temperature feels even warmer and softer.
"Qu, Queen-nim...!"
I grabbed Amber and pulled her into an embrace.
As Amber's neck was exposed, I could feel the teeth in my mouth sharpening.
As if to tell me to just tear into the Amber in front of me.
Perhaps Amber feels that too, as she started to tremble.
But I am human.
Even if I kill humans, I will never eat them.
'Come to think of it, wouldn't the number of humans killed by other humans be overwhelmingly higher than the number of humans I've killed recently?'