4. Person (2)
4. Person (2)
Whew. That was dangerous.
I let my guard down for a moment because I wanted to talk to people so badly, and I almost lost control of the Creature's consciousness.
When I patted the head of the Creature that had carried me here, it lowered its body to make it easier for me to get off.
After being in a cave teeming with nothing but Creatures where you'd never find a single human, meeting humans in a forest where every breath felt refreshing filled me with joy.
A refreshing yet somehow ticklish scent wafted into my nose.
It felt like something was welling up inside.
I don't know if it's the smell of the forest or something special, but I really like it.
The Creature that had been happily eating its food just a moment ago approached me, its mouth dripping with blood and filled with debris from its meal.
'Could you have at least cleaned your mouth first...'
The Creature approached me and bowed its body.
Knowing why the Creature was doing this, I reached out my hand to its head.
Flinch.
I felt a slight aversion before my hand touched it, but since you have to give praise when it's due, I patted the Creature's head.
The texture of the Creature's skin against my hand and the fine hairs tickling my skin gave me goosebumps.
But I didn't show it and kept patting the Creature.
The Creature seemed satisfied, let out a cry of joy, and went back.
I thought things were settled and went to look at the people, but I saw something strange in my field of vision.
Some of the Creatures that had followed me to protect me were swarming the blood where the dead man had been, like ants gathering around sugar water.
They were drinking the blood as if they were about to eat the dirt along with it.
I definitely don't remember giving such an order; it seems like I relaxed my tension for a moment while petting the Creature, and that's what happened.
I really can't let my guard down. Not even for a second.
"Then, first..."
I approached the woman on the ground who looked pale.
I wasn't wrong. She's beautiful.
Even though I'm merged with the Hive Mind, is it because half of my consciousness is still that of a man? I was quite interested in the woman.
I'm confused whether this interest is out of desire, or if it's curiosity about how beautiful a Creature she would make if I turned her into one.
The fortunate thing is that the process for both of these thoughts is the same. Bringing her to the cave, or rather, the Colony.
Then, I need to treat this woman first. In her current state, she'll likely die before long.
She has an arrow stuck in her thigh, various small wounds, and she seems unable to hold on because she's reached her physical limit from running away desperately.
I called for one of the most important Creatures in our Colony.
The Creature that landed on the back of my hand with a small, cute buzzing sound is the one that can heal in the most normal way in our hive.
This Creature is in the form of a mosquito, and like a mosquito, it sucks something up and stores it in its belly.
It's originally a creature that spreads plague, but right now, instead of plague, it's storing Cell Activation Liquid in its belly.
In other words, it's storing a healing potion.
I held the wings of the mosquito-like Creature, which was about the size of my index finger, and opened my mouth wide, saying,
"Ah~."
==
Having run away for a long time, her stamina had already exceeded its limit, and she had lost so much blood that her mind wasn't sound either.
'Am I going to die like this...? Is this how I die...?'
The Adventurer Woman felt like she was going to vomit at the monster wriggling in front of her, even though there was nothing in her stomach.
It was impossible to keep her sanity when the woman was holding a bug that was, exaggerating slightly, the size of a child's palm, and acting as if she wanted her to eat it.
'Is she even human?'
The Adventurer Woman stared at the woman in front of her.
The glowing red eyes couldn't possibly be considered human eyes.
They were the same eyes as the monster that had been tearing apart and eating people just a moment ago.
'That monster acted like a puppy toward that woman.'
Anyone could see that the woman in front was the master. No, would 'master' be the right word?
Her mind just wouldn't clear up.
There are only two things she knows for sure right now.
Whether to eat the bug in front of her and die, or be eaten by the monster that had devoured the people earlier.
Both were terrible options.
==
Why won't she open her mouth?
Why is she ignoring me?
Why won't she answer this body's words?
I'm specially trying to save her, so why?
It's annoying.
Even the Creatures swear absolute loyalty to me, yet a mere human dares to ignore my words?
Crunch.
I crushed the mosquito Creature in my hand, killing it. Then I shoved it into the woman's closed mouth.
"Mmph!? Gack! Cough!"
Perhaps not expecting me to do this, her mouth opened without resistance, and I forcibly shoved the Creature's corpse down her esophagus before pulling my hand out.
"Pull that out."
[ Understood. ]
Dagos, who is always by my side, followed my command and pulled the arrow stuck in the woman's thigh.
"Ugh...!"
The woman's pain didn't last long.
The thigh that had been pierced by the arrow bubbled and healed all at once.
"Th, that's impossible..."
The healing potion looks like a panacea at first glance, but it doesn't restore everything.
It just activates damaged cells to restore them to their original state.
It doesn't restore lost blood or a fatigued body.
'I don't like it.'
Her pretty face stimulated my possessiveness, but I didn't like her behavior.
That woman survived because I am human. If the Queen's consciousness had been stronger right now, this tender body would have immediately become a one-bite meal for the countless Creatures behind me.
She survived because my mind is strong.
With a kind heart, I decided to give the woman some time to collect herself, and turned my eyes to the man who looked like the highest-ranking person here, no matter who looked at him.
Unlike his rugged face with various small scars, his well-maintained equipment indicated that this person was quite skilled.
The man's eyes trembled violently as I looked at him.
"What's your name?"
"I, I am Heriis."
I smiled at Heriis's words.
Yes, this is how you should answer when someone talks to you.
I really liked this man named Heriis for reacting and answering immediately to my words.
"I am, um..."
Heriis had revealed his name, so I tried to tell him mine, but I got stuck.
How should I introduce myself?
If I say the name I had when I was a man, I'm a woman now.
And it's not like I, the Queen, have a separate name now. My species name is just Queen.
But right now, it's ambiguous to call myself a single living being.
The consciousness of all the Creatures is gathered into the Hive Mind, forming one entity.
Since nothing is set, it's ambiguous what to say, but rather than having ignorant people decide it on their own, it's better for me to declare it myself.
"I'm Lea."
Lea is also the name of the Goddess of Abundance. Why did I think of the Goddess of Abundance? I chose it with the intention of letting our children live in abundance.
There's no other meaning besides that.
"N, nice to meet you. Lea-nim..."
I really like Heriis's action of kneeling and bowing his head toward me.
"Huh?"
A pipe tobacco was lying next to Heriis, who was bowing as if prostrating on the ground.
When I was a man, I wasn't exactly a chain smoker, but I was someone who smoked.
Because work was so hard that I couldn't bear it without smoking.
After opening my eyes in this world, I had a craving for something due to nervousness, anxiety, and irritation, whether I realized it or not. At first, I wondered what on earth this was.
To think it was cigarettes.
Smoke was still rising from the pipe tobacco.
I picked up the pipe tobacco, roughly brushed off the dirt with my hand, put it to my mouth, and took a deep breath.
The smoke went down my windpipe and came back out, but I felt nothing.
The craving for something didn't go away at all.
'What is this?'
When I first arrived here, a faint scent had slightly satisfied my craving.
I naturally thought it was the smell of tobacco. But even though I'm smoking now, that craving isn't being satisfied at all.
I closed my eyes and walked where my body led me.
'This is it. This is the smell. This is the smell.'
Thinking I had finally found it, I opened my eyes and laughed hollowly.
In front of me was the place where the Combat Spider had brutally eaten the people, leaving behind countless blood and traces.
'I was prepared. I was, but... it's still a bit shocking.'
Even if my mind is human, this Queen of Creatures body couldn't possibly be a normal human.
Being the Queen of Creatures means the Queen is also a Creature.
'No matter how much I've become a Creature and a Queen, the idea of eating humans feels too repulsive...'
At the very least, I don't want to cross that line.
Even if I hurt and kill people, I don't want to engage in the act of eating them.
==
Heriis harbored a sliver of hope.
He thought the chances of survival were higher now than ever.
Lea, who spoke human language and could communicate.
He thought, if he didn't resist and listened to her, since she didn't seem hostile to humans, maybe he could survive and return home?
But that hope didn't last long.
"I'll invite you all to my home."
Lea said with a smile.
Home?
She's going to invite us to a house swarming with those monsters?
Just say you're going to kill us!
Heriis screamed inside his head.
"May I... ask the reason...?"
"I don't know anything about this world, so I have a lot to ask."
As soon as Lea finished speaking, one of Heriis's subordinates, who had been trembling behind him, shouted.
"Th, the boss is, is super smart and knows a lot...! I, I'm st, stupid and don't know anything, so c, can I not go!?"
'That stupid idiot...!'
Heriis cursed his subordinate with his eyes, but the subordinate, who had absolutely no sense, kept blabbering on to save his own skin.
Lea, having heard it all, said calmly.
"If you don't know anything.... It would be better to just die."
"What?"
"Since I don't know much about this world yet, it's not good for information about us to leak out. You have no information and you don't want to follow? Just die. I'm starving to death anyway."
It was no small feat for Lea to control the consciousness of the Creatures right now.
It was only natural, as the Creatures, who had spent a long time cannibalizing their own kind, were now in front of humans who looked more nutritious than anything else.
But if they were humans with absolutely no use, especially trash humans who worked as hitmen killing people, even more so.
"W, wait, n, no! I, actually, I know a lot—"
Crunch.
Heriis squeezed his eyes shut.
"Eat it cleanly so that no one knows what happened here."
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
"Let's get going. It's not very far from here. You can all walk now, right? If you can't walk, tell me. I'll help you."
Lea said it with the genuine intention of helping, but to the remaining people, it sounded like she was saying she would kill them if they said they couldn't walk.