The Caterpillar Princess
Messi studied the caterpillar princess at a leisurely pace.
She looked like a cross between Weedle from Pokémon and Tentomon from Digimon mashed together. The overall coloring and body shape were those of a hornless Weedle, but the mouth, the big round eyes, and the antennae were pure Tentomon.
Kyu!
What was that? A cry?
"..."
The caterpillar tilted its head as it looked at him.
"Oh—oh my... she's adorable."
"Captain, snap out of it. When this thing grows up, it becomes one of those six-legged monsters outside."
"Ugh, that's disgusting. Messi, can't we just kill it? I don't have the guts to haul this thing back up to the surface."
"Young master, please compose yourself. Wasn't Messi's plan to take the princess hostage and use her to get us out?"
"Damn it..."
At Ramang's urging, Ereb put as much distance between himself and the princess as he possibly could. If they weren't going to kill it, that was the next best thing.
Ayla, on the other hand, had fallen prey to the urge to touch it no matter what. She crouched down and poked the caterpillar with a fingertip.
"Hey, hey. Can't you make a sound or something?"
"Captain... how is a caterpillar supposed to make a sound..."
"Oh—oh my... look at her shivering!!"
The caterpillar shuddered all over, then rolled itself into a tight little coil. It seemed frightened of human hands.
...?
Messi caught something strange in their exchange. Had no one else heard the sound?
It only reached me. Is that it?
She had spoken.
Messi's pupils trembled — a rare sight.
Master never once mentioned a monster you could actually talk to...
There was one thing that came to mind, though.
When his master had stood face to face with the Ant Queen, he had simply looked at her in silence before turning away. Looking back on it now, he must have been speaking with her just like this.
Why me?
You knew who I was?
She even knew about his master. That settled it.
Something about her suggested she was going to be a talker.
But over a hundred years old? Was this the kind of spirit beast you read about in martial arts novels?
If I split her in half, would there be an inner core or something?
Kicked out?
Why? Aren't you the heir to the ant kingdom?
Only then did Messi grasp the full picture. He still had no idea how she had known about the kidnapping plan, but the ants clearing a path for them suddenly made sense.
Dreaming of a coup in that adorable little voice... she was a budding revolutionary, through and through.
One way or another, they seemed to have caused her some unintended harm. But what else could they have done? It wasn't as if they'd had another option. He wasn't particularly sorry.
We didn't have a choice either.
If she tried to declare independence anywhere near the kingdom her mother had built, she would be crushed in no time. So she wanted a fresh start somewhere far away. Which meant getting out of this area entirely...
Messi had no intention of leaving Benuda Village just yet. Once this was over, he planned to go back to living as Messi of Benuda Village, just as his master had told him.
I can't even promise that. I'm planning to live quietly in a village around here.
Divinity...? What's that?
Messi watched the princess wriggle her way up his body and sank into thought.
This is going to be a hassle... maybe I should just kill her.
Ah. Sorry about that. You already have retainers?
He was starting to understand the Ant Queen's position. If a creature that was still just a caterpillar had already poached her retainers, a little existential dread was only natural.
Fine. We'll decide what to do with you once we're breathing surface air.
"...Looks like she's chosen me, whether I wanted her to or not. I'll take charge of her and bring her up with us."
Messi pointed to the princess perched on his shoulder. Ereb gave him a look reserved for something grotesque and waved him on — do whatever you want.
Only Ayla looked envious. The expression on her face said, I have a shoulder too, you know... why just him?
What about that person's shoulder over there instead of mine?
...Her tastes were certainly decided.
He stepped forward toward the ants with the princess on his shoulder, and they didn't know what to do. Common sense said they should rush out and rescue their princess — but the Queen's command held them in check.
Which meant the Queen's dominance was still very much intact. The princess had said a rebellion would take about fifty years of preparation. He was beginning to see why.
Shing. Messi drew his sword and leveled it at the princess clinging to his shoulder. Without her there, it would have looked like he was holding a blade to his own throat.
A classic villain move. Meanwhile, the princess on his shoulder was nuzzling her cheek against him in delight, making a complete fuss. The soft caterpillar fuzz kept brushing his face, and it tickled. Beside him, Ayla let out a groan of pure envy.
Kieeeeeek...
"H-huh... looks like it's workin'?"
Just as the Village Chief had exclaimed in astonishment, the ants were crying out and falling back, as if they had no other choice.
Their bodies trembled so hard it looked like they might lunge at any second...
And then, from among them, a single ant slowly walked out.
Thud. Thud.
Princess, why is the General Ant coming out?
The princess's voice had gone dark. And she was right — this was bad. Because the thing that had just emerged from among the ants was walking on two legs.
According to the laws of Japanese manga, a biped was always stronger than a quadruped, wasn't it? Surely that didn't apply here too?
Then just tell him to stand down.
In human terms, he was the captain of the royal bodyguard. The appearance of a powerful heir had gutted his loyalty to the current monarch — but he had no obligation to obey an heir who had yet to become king, either.
Situations like that tended to produce a by-the-book hardliner who put the job above everything else. And ants, whose caste was determined at birth, treated that duty as their very reason for existing.
"Messi. That thing doesn't look like it's planning to step aside."
"It seems... we'll have to fight. He's the General Ant serving as Captain of the Royal Guard. I don't think he has any intention of letting the princess go."
"His antennae are a weak point too, right? And even if he's got a sword, he shouldn't be able to cut us."
Ereb had a point. The General Ant had antennae as well. If he was an ant, they would be the same weak point.
He had a weapon, too. It gleamed the same black as the ants' carapaces, jointed segment by segment like an antenna — a strange, distinctive shape.
"...I'll take him."
"Sir Ramang, wouldn't a coordinated assault be better?"
"I am a knight. The opponent may be an insect, but he stands alone... I cannot open with a group attack."
Ramang stepped forward, bypassing Messi's suggestion. The strong recognized the strong. His face had gone rigid.
Ramang Stradimus. Forty-two years old.
His talent with the sword had never been remarkable. But through relentless effort and a stubbornness all his own, he had climbed to his present realm. He had reached Lavish, the stage after Brave, and now stood on the verge of Brillant — the domain of the Sword Expert.
Lavish was the highest stage within the Sword User realm. A body tempered in the Savage Stage. Mana accumulated through the Brave Stage. And a personal Sword Intent capable of bringing the two into harmony. Body, mana, and enlightenment — all three flourishing in balance.
"Be careful. He may not care about bleeding at all."
Ramang nodded at Messi's warning.
As the princess had said, this was an opponent whose eyes had gone blood-red with the single purpose of protecting the royal family. That meant his patterns could differ from the other ants, who shared the broader task of defending the kingdom. On top of that, he had broken free of both the Queen's and the princess's control. There was no way to restrain him. The best plan was to put him down with as little bloodshed as possible and get out of here fast.
He abandoned that thought almost immediately.
A flick of the wrist.
The instant Ramang's wrist twitched, his blade flashed out at blinding speed, aiming for the General Ant's antennae. As if he had expected it, the ant evaded the opening draw of Ahental Swordsmanship with nothing more than a tilt of the head. The sword was already back in its scabbard — then it burst forth again, streaking toward every vital point on the ant's body.
Boom! Boom, boom-boom!
Dozens of exchanges blurred together. Ramang's blade, faintly blue, left afterimages in its wake as it painted the air around the General like a living picture. And yet at every turn, the sword was turned aside. The knights watching wore expressions of shock.
It should have felt like a flock of sharp-beaked birds striking all at once — and still the General Ant whipped his sword like a lash, intercepting every single attack.
The moment he carved out a single breath of space in that crushing sword-dance, Ramang shouted in desperation.
For a knight to abandon a one-on-one duel was to admit that his opponent had completely overwhelmed him.
And why would a creature like that have given Ramang even a single breath of time?
A flash.
The instant Ramang's attention so much as flickered toward his back, the General Ant's sword warped unnaturally and stretched in length. Ramang hadn't seen it coming. The blade split his chest wide open.
"Gaaah!!"
"Th-that's—!"
Ramang staggered back, spraying blood. At the sight of it, every knight flicked their wrists and charged.
The Ahental Swordsmanship of dozens of knights filled the air at once. Blades so fast that only their tips were barely visible concentrated fire on the ant's antennae — and still the General Ant did not retreat.
Clang!
Swords crashed together with savage force, scattering sparks through the air. Messi nearly lost himself in the spectacle — then he was already running to Ramang, casting Heal. He had to stop the bleeding immediately. Not for Ramang's life. For his own.
Light burst as both of Messi's hands completed a magic circle. Ramang's split chest began to fill in from the inside. The ribs had been severed. Part of a lung was torn.
But what could he do about the blood that had already been spilled? Messi felt his body tremble with a sense of crisis he hadn't known in a long time.
Even underground, the forest monsters' sense of smell — especially for blood — was unmatched. It wouldn't be long before they noticed. That a very fragrant scent was rising from the earth beneath their feet.
...The only thing I can do right now is support the knights as much as possible and bring that thing down.
Finishing Ramang's treatment, Messi stretched a hand toward the knights still fighting.
Can I do this?
He realized he was about to attempt something he had never done. A method even his master had never taught him. He had no idea whether it would even work.
But he had to try.
If they couldn't defend against an overwhelming assault, the only way to survive was overwhelming healing.
This was not the light that used to illuminate a single patient.
Pale and wide, it spread like morning mist, washing over every knight in the fight.
The fighting knights felt their bodies grow lighter. Ordinarily, Heal did nothing more than give a condition boost if there was nothing actually wrong.
But that was not the only reason Messi had cast Heal's light across the entire knight order.
"Kh!"
The General Ant's sword grazed a knight's wrist. The knight grimaced in pain — then the pain vanished, and he stared in confusion. The wound had already closed.
The General Ant's sword slashed someone's calf. The alien sensation of the blade passing through made his strength give out, and he started to fall — then power flooded back into the leg.
The General Ant's sword punched through a knight's abdomen and came out the other side. The knight barely managed to fall back, clutching at the wound — then, bewildered, he took his hand away. No blood was coming out. His stomach had already been restored. What on earth was going on?
The longer the fight dragged on, the more they all began to understand.
The one creating this situation was the single healer standing behind them.
No way...
He's covering all of us by himself?
This is even possible?
Something that should not have been possible was unfolding in the middle of battle.