Chapter 265: Test Subjec (1/2)

Sometimes, I truly wondered if perhaps this queen ant had her head kicked in by a donkey when she was still a larva. A simple question ended up requiring quite a bit of explaining on my part before she understood what I was trying to ask. By then, my patience had basically been worn thin.

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As I looked at that look of epiphany on her face, I celebrated quietly. At the same time, I questioned whether it was in part because my explaining skills were lacking…

“The Elders…said…long…long…long ago…people…collected…protection…fee…often…”

‘Protection fee, huh…so it’s not just the triads who do that now…’

Her answer didn’t surprise me all that much; it was perfectly understandable that someone would do such a thing given how many blasted golems there were littered about. Clearly, there was someone collecting poop to create golems.

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With that in mind, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that golems were a part of the capital’s defensive system. Having gained such an interesting piece of news, I continued pressing her for more information, which she did without holding anything back. At the end of that, I decided to let her go but just as I was about to tell her that, a thought occurred to me: ‘If those golems were made from excrement, or poop, would those golems try and attack the Black Blood Queen Ants?’

As for why I suddenly had such a stroke of inspiration, I couldn’t say for sure but in hindsight, I sure had a ton of reasons I could come up with to justify it.

First, Black Blood Ants were a vital part of the production process for golems so the people of Sable Radiance probably wouldn’t want to hurt them. Second, the ants themselves aren’t really interested in their poop so there’s no reason for them to attack the golems either. Given that neither side threatened the other, the golems really had no reason to attack the Black Blood Ants.

Lastly, and also most importantly, from the way that queen ant talked, I could tell that the Black Blood Ants had some degree of intelligence, perhaps not as much as the other races, but enough to definitely create a society. In that sense, it implied that the people of Sable Radiance had engaged in some kind of unique relation with the ants for ant poop. While I wasn’t entirely sure how close this relation was, it was most likely that of a master and a servant’s.

The weak served the strong. That was the law of nature, whether in this world or Earth.

If these ants were really slaves of the kingdom, then they probably wouldn’t trigger the external defense system as well! If the golems really won’t attack them… ‘I think there’s something we can exploit here…what if I were to bring along a queen ant and walk unopposed throughout the capital…of course, that’s just the best case scenario.’

Still, I knew that this was something I had to act on in order to prove.

“Nola, are you about done with eating?” As I said that, I glared at the queen ant to warn her not to move. I then turned to look at the feasting Nola: “If we end up meeting more golems later on, you should be fine, right?”

“Mhm.” She turned towards me and nodded: “If I were to meet one, I’ll show you the results you want.”

“Good, then go prepare yourself first, I have no doubt the next battle will come soon.”

Having answered my question, she returned to her feasting. ‘Looks like those three days were really hard on her belly…’

“Big 4, go have a look around, if you see a golem, try to lure it back here.”

“Understood, Master.” Big 4 sped off into the distance without any hesitation whatsoever, randomly picking a direction in the process. Because the golems were all roughly scattered about with no regularity at all, finding one was entirely a matter of luck and Big 4 had no choice but to search around aimlessly. If he was lucky, he should be able to find one soon enough, if not…well, who could say…

‘If my theory is correct, that golem should ignore the Black Blood Queen Ant, otherwise…well I just have to say sorry then…and who told you to be born so ugly, am I right?’

The search for golem proceeded very smoothly, requiring less than 40 minutes of waiting before I saw Big 4 barrelling towards us with a fully-limbed golem chasing after him. While this golem had all its limbs intact, it had a gaping wound, over 10 cm deep, raked across its body as if something had clawed at it. With how ghastly the wound was, it was hard to imagine how any one single creature could accomplish such a feat.