92. Non-Ferrous Sword (4)
92. Non-Ferrous Sword (4)
Stepping through the wide doors and into the room, she found herself in a fairly spacious chamber, surrounded on all sides by warriors watching her with vigilance.
At the center stood a lone warrior in an imposing helmet.
"Welcome. Queen of the Dungeon."
The warrior wore a long sword at her hip, forged not of iron but of her own carapace.
She removed her helmet—its horns sweeping out magnificently like a bull's from both sides of her head—and greeted me.
"I am Orea. Queen of the Myrmekian Clever clan."
Using her upper arms to lift the helmet away, she laid one of her lower hands across her other shoulder and inclined her head in a courteous, silent salute. A knightly air radiated from her.
"You're handsome. You."
"Ah... thank you."
The face that emerged as a wisp of heat escaped the helmet—as if she had only just returned from somewhere—was far different from what I'd imagined.
Different from the impression her helmet had given me, and from my own preconceptions.
I thought she'd be much bigger.
That expectation came from every depiction of 'queen ants' I'd ever seen across all kinds of media.
Realistically speaking, a queen ant's body was usually vastly larger than an ordinary ant's, wasn't it?
Even in animations or comics featuring monster queen ants, they almost always appeared with enormous, bloated bodies.
And even when her own body wasn't that swollen, she was normally deep in the nest somewhere, unable to even think of moving because she was so busy laying eggs.
But...
The queen I was meeting now looked nothing like those stereotypes.
For one thing, though her build appeared slightly larger—perhaps because of additional external carapace—she was shorter than Ibna Shue.
The face beneath the helmet wasn't human, so it was hard to judge at a glance, but she seemed, at first impression, to be an extraordinarily active figure.
It was as if...
Instead of a queen, I should call her a knight-commander... or a grand general.
That face was, save for the obvious differences of being a monster, decidedly the 'princely' type.
"Shall I address you as Queen?"
"Please call me by my name, or address me as Grand General. I prefer that."
As if she truly viewed herself that way, she confirmed my private assessment in the conversation that followed.
I was briefly taken aback that she spoke as if she'd heard my thoughts, but I kept it from showing.
"Understood. Grand General Orea. I am Libertas. To use your people's way of speaking, I am the Queen of the Dungeon."
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Libertas. Please, sit."
She maintained a stiff and hardened manner the entire time, and that was just as evident in what she did next.
"You. Bring out the refreshments."
"Yes!!"
No matter how I looked at her, the ant-human was dressed like a lady-in-waiting or a maid—but her posture when answering Orea's order was purely a soldier's.
I could understand it.
The 'Myrmekians' were monsters that took the form of ant-humans.
Inheriting the nature of their model species, they were diligent, excelled at group living, were highly prolific, and belonged to a race where the vast majority of the swarm were workers and warriors alike.
In other words, the entire swarm was both labor and military force. Absolute top-down obedience must have been a racial instinct.
They were also a race that, without some special circumstance, would have been targeted for early subjugation and driven to extinction.
If not for the ironwood of this coniferous forest, that is.
The fact that they survived—and even maintained their numbers—was, in practical terms, a concession from humanity, but I didn't know if these monsters were even aware of that.
Whether they knew or not, they weren't in a position to care about it anyway.
Because right now, they were locked in a fierce war against another monster faction.
"I never expected you to visit during such chaotic times, Libertas."
"I have business of my own. I hope you'll understand that I can't afford to wait on your circumstances, Orea."
"Business?"
"Just as you are waging war, I too am destined to face countless challenges and competitions in the days ahead. So I can't miss the right moment on matters like this."
"..."
"Cooperation with a dungeon is also essential for you. Is that not the case?"
Orea merely furrowed her brow at my words and offered no particular rebuttal.
It seemed she, too, understood that her refusal of the meeting was, at least in part, an attempt to push through on their own terms.
She didn't like the idea of belonging to a dungeon. She seems to envision a fairly autonomous life...
The relationship between a dungeon and its neighboring monsters was typically a cooperation where the dungeon held the upper hand.
While monster groups often chose to hide from humans, if they didn't want that, they ultimately had to secure the backing of demons and the Demon Realm.
The arrogance of the dungeon lords who'd come to this region therefore had its own basis in fact.
Since dungeons were ultimately the ones who could promise monsters greater support as time passed, they offered promissory notes and pressed for submission.
That was why my attitude struck the monsters as strange.
"You, too, are no different from the other dungeon lords after all."
However, from her perspective, since I had pushed my way in by force, it was only natural that she'd gotten a different impression than the other queens had.
Of course, it wasn't as though I had nothing to say in return.
"Considering I came to talk after hearing your emphatic refusal, I think I've already been fairly considerate."
"Hmm..."
Orea shut her mouth once more.
She'd have nothing to say to that.
They'd admitted Kamaya's envoy when she proposed arranging a meeting with me, yet had refused me outright. And the other envoy I'd sent afterward hadn't even been permitted entry into this residence.
The point where I could simply let it pass is long gone.
"Although, seeing this, I'm beginning to doubt whether you're even qualified to represent this region."
"What do you mean by...?"
"Do you feel like objecting even after spotting such formidable foes? I don't think I would."
"..."
Therefore, unless she chose war, Orea couldn't rashly oppose me even if I spoke this bluntly.
Refusing any further would mean she was unwilling to leave any room to build a relationship—and that was no different from opening yet another front.
She probably knew that, if it came to that, the other queens wouldn't be in a position to help her either.
In the end, they themselves had given me the grounds to act this way.
"My Queen... No, sister. You must hear her out now. The situation is not favorable."
"Etna."
At that moment, the woman who had guided us here placed her hand on Orea's shoulder and spoke.
"... Sister?"
I'd thought she might not be a maid, but I hadn't expected that form of address. When I looked back and forth between them, the woman called Etna offered a small smile, as if apologizing for the deception.
"Come to think of it, I haven't introduced myself yet. Introduce yourself properly, Etna."
"Yes."
She rose from her seat, gathered her upper pair of arms toward her stomach, and used her lower hands to lift her skirt, greeting me gracefully.
While her sister had a more slender build with hints of muscle, Etna possessed a figure so fine it was noticeable even through her carapace.
"I am Etna. I perform the duties of chancellor for our Clever clan. In private, I am Orea-unnie's younger sister."
I could tell at a glance.
This place, too, had absorbed a considerable amount of human or demon culture.
No matter how one looked at it, that was not simply the appearance of monsters raised in the wild.
Even if they were wild by origin, they weren't merely hiding; they were steadily adapting to human society. That must be why humans regarded them as a threat.
As the number of inhabitants grows, land inevitably shrinks.
"A chancellor, is it. So you manage internal affairs, then."
"Though I am lacking, I am doing my utmost."
Yet as I observed the two of them, a question arose.
A question that surfaced because, no matter how I studied them, their forms appeared designed to fulfill 'identical roles.'
"The two of you look remarkably alike... Is Orea the only queen among you?"
Among ants, only a single individual becomes the queen.
Once a queen ant is born, she exerts control to prevent other queens from emerging among her kin.
So the existence of two queen individuals among ant-humans—especially within a single clan, modeled as they were on ants—could only look strange.
"Ah, that is..."
At my question, Orea remained unfazed, but Etna's expression shifted.
Her face grew flustered, an expression that hardly suited the title of chancellor...
Since political or factional infighting wouldn't arise in monster territory, I suppose a 'chancellor without a political poker face' could exist.
I let it go, understanding it roughly in those terms.
"If my question was impertinent, you needn't answer. I asked from simple curiosity. If it was discourteous, I apologize."
"That's not it."
Orea shook her head once, seemed to ponder for a moment, then shook her head again.
It was a gesture of refusal.
"However, our relationship is not yet close enough for me to speak of such things."
"Is that so? Then let us discuss something else."
Judging by her manner, it wasn't some grand secret, but it seemed to hold meaningful memories for the two sisters.
I didn't press further and returned to the main subject.
"So, I will ask. Why did you refuse the meeting?"
"I recall having already told you."
Orea's atmosphere, which had softened for a moment as if she'd been reminiscing, sharpened once more like a sword's edge.
From the first moment I'd seen her until now—save for that brief moment—she was a woman who radiated a consistently cold and keen aura.
No matter how I looked at it, she was more a grand general, as she herself had insisted, than a queen.
"We are at war. Therefore, we have no leisure to take part in a meeting."
"From what I saw of today's battle, you appear to hold the advantage. Besides, neither of you were even on that battlefield."
"That is... Hoo."
Orea let out a sigh, as though she had no choice.
She hesitated briefly, then gave her answer—while removing a section of carapace attached over her chest.
"Unnie...!"
"It is because the enemy's leader is powerful."
And there, one great anomaly stood out.
What set them apart from humans were their black eyes, antennae, two pairs of arms, and the doll-like joint connections at their limbs.
In Orea's case just now, one more was added.
"That wound?"
The fact that she was still alive despite a penetrating wound so massive that one of her pair of breasts had nearly vanished.
One side of her chest was literally in tatters.
I didn't know what she'd used to staunch the bleeding, but the blood wasn't flowing. Yet one part was pierced through so deeply her back was visible, and the remaining two vertical gashes cut deep enough to glimpse her internal organs.
"It is a wound I received from the enemy king."
"It was inflicted over a week ago. We have provided ample nutrients and employed every treatment available, so it ought to be healing by now... but it will not heal at all. We have never faced an enemy like this before..."
After revealing that wound, the atmosphere between the two shifted subtly.
Etna's voice sounded as if she might burst into tears at any moment, and Orea frowned, as if finally allowing the pain she had kept hidden until now to surface.
Had she been concealing it well all this time? Or does she simply not feel pain?
If she was feeling the pain in full, it was a grievous wound—the kind that would make even moving difficult.
And yet Orea had not shown so much as a hint of that pain until now, so I couldn't help but be suspicious of what I was seeing in this moment.
"First, let me take a look."
But suspicion was one thing, and there was work to be done.
When I rose from my seat and approached, Orea flinched for an instant as if on guard, then showed signs of relaxing.
A sigh came with it.
"... It can't be helped. I ask this of you."
"... Please help us, my Queen. Unnie won't even listen when she's told to rest..."
Orea's gaze was calm yet seemed resentful; Etna's eyes brimmed with hope and worry.
After examining Orea's pierced chest beneath those two gazes, I was able to learn several things.
This is... not that difficult...?
One was the nature of the magical presence I sensed from the wound.
Another was that the Myrmekians—or at least the magical aptitude of this Clever clan—was abysmally low.
And lastly, the fact that these individuals were utterly stubborn and inflexible.
"Did you not consider showing this to the other queens?"
Because if they had genuinely tried to understand the cause keeping this wound from healing, they would never have needed to leave it untreated for so long.
"Uh..."
"..."
Sure enough, the ant-queen sisters fell silent at my question, unable to offer any further reply.
Etna was flustered, and Orea stubbornly kept her mouth shut.
I couldn't say what Etna or the other ants were thinking, but I felt I knew what was in Orea's head.
I cannot accept help from other races in wartime.
"... That's what you're thinking, isn't it? Orea."
"How did you know?"
At least one thing had become perfectly clear.
The reason these ants had refused the meeting wasn't because of some hidden ulterior motive, but truly because they were 'in the middle of a war.'
"You people... No, you, Orea. You are truly the most inflexible person."
That was the kind of behavioral pattern I couldn't let pass without saying a word.
These sisters.
No matter how I looked at them, I couldn't leave them like this.