Chapter 66

"Are you the queen bee?"

Arsha smiled sweetly and nodded at Suho's question.

"Yes. I'm the queen bee you've been looking for."

"What's your relationship with Querehsha?"

The smile in Arsha's eyes faltered at his blunt question.

"You know quite a bit about the Monarchs. Just what one would expect from the Monarch of Fangs' successor, I suppose?"

"..."

"Oh my, what's that look for? With the scent of a beast pouring off your entire body, surely you didn't think I wouldn't notice? I'm no fool."

"...?"

The knowing look on Foolsha's—no, Arsha's—face left Suho momentarily speechless.

WHOOOSH

Just then, a mystical breeze swept through Suho's snow-white hair.

[The King of Beasts, the Monarch of Fangs, clutches his stomach and wheezes with laughter at the queen bee's mistaken assumption.]

The actual successor to the Monarch of Fangs was currently possessing Suho's body.

"Still, I'm a little hurt that the Monarch of Fangs' successor stole the worker bees I worked so hard to make. Is this the Monarch of Fangs' famous power, 'Contempt for the Weak'? Commanding beasts weaker than yourself? Am I right?"

"..."

No. All wrong.

Not a single thing she said was right.

Why did she keep spouting nonsense with that sultry look on her face?

[The King of Beasts, the Monarch of Fangs, clutches his stomach and wheezes with laughter.]

'Stop laughing. She just doesn't have enough information. I'm sure she isn't that stupid.'

Why was he the one feeling embarrassed?

Feeling awkward for no reason, Suho made excuses on Arsha's behalf.

[Her misunderstanding is only natural.]

Just then, Beru transmitted his voice directly into Suho's mind so Arsha couldn't hear.

[As I told you before, for a Monarch's successor to exist, the Monarch must first die and leave the position vacant. But the Shadow Monarch, the victor of the war, is still very much alive...]

'So no one would think I'm the Shadow Monarch's successor. And I'm not, anyway.'

Beru always called Suho the Young Monarch, but strictly speaking, he was merely the Shadow Monarch's son, not his official successor.

In the first place, a successor to the Shadow Monarch could never exist.

Sung Jinwoo, the Monarch who ruled over death, would never die.

The clearest proof was Suho's status window.

[Status Window]

Name: Sung Suho

Level: 28

Class: None

If Suho were the official successor, that class field would never have remained empty this long.

There was other evidence, too.

The shadow soldiers standing steadfastly behind him.

Suho wasn't a Monarch, so he couldn't command an army. That was why, even after going to the trouble of extracting shadow soldiers, he could only use them as day laborers.

After a single day, they returned to nothingness...

But there was no need to explain all of that to Arsha at length.

If she was jumping to conclusions all on her own, it was only human nature to take advantage.

'Let's see what she does first.'

Instead of answering, Suho asked her another question.

"So you're Querehsha's successor?"

"Hmm. Who can say? In truth, all of us insects are her successors. Lady Querehsha is both one and a swarm. She is the mother of all insects."

"Dodge the question and you die."

[Actually, you're the one dodging questions, Young Monarch...]

Best to ignore Beru's whisper for now.

"Oh my. How frightening."

As Suho's presence grew increasingly imposing, Arsha raised both hands in an exaggerated gesture of surrender.

Then an astonishing sight unfolded.

BZZZZ

In an instant, both her hands broke apart into countless bees and scattered.

[Kieh! How dare you...!]

An enraged Beru instantly snatched at the air.

PATTER

His attack sent several small bees tumbling onto the table. The remaining bees clustered around Arsha again and turned back into hands.

Beru's eyes narrowed.

[Mimicry. A common trick weak insects use to protect themselves.]

"Hehe. Struggling to survive is the very essence of being an insect, you know?"

"Where did your real body go?"

"Oh my. You're not surprised at all?"

Even in this situation, Suho remained calm.

And for good reason...

'I couldn't see your name tag from the start.'

From the very beginning, he had seen something other than the name Arsha.

The name tags of countless [Contaminated Hornet]s swarming together within her body.

"Yes, that's right. I left this place long ago. A worker bee I recently put a great deal of effort into raising rebelled against me, so I decided to move my hive."

"A worker bee? Don't tell me..."

"Yes, that's right. Vice President Lee Minsung, who's been making all the headlines lately."

Arsha answered with a small sigh.

Her gaze suddenly turned toward the Shadow Lancers standing behind Suho.

"Did you know? Those lancers were once human, too. After coming to Earth, I fed royal jelly to men who approached me with ulterior motives, evolving them into worker bees."

"Royal jelly? What's that?"

"A queen bee's power."

Arsha, the queen bee, had carried a poison within her body since birth.

A special poison called royal jelly.

It was sweet as honey, but the moment it entered a host's body, it transformed the host into a loyal worker bee that obeyed only the queen.

"But the requirements for turning someone into a worker bee are surprisingly tricky."

"Requirements?"

"Yes. Those who can't withstand the toxicity of royal jelly die immediately, while those with some degree of resistance rot alive."

Rot...

Like Gu Dongjae's arm?

'Good thing I cut it off right away.'

In other words, grabbing just anyone and feeding them royal jelly wouldn't necessarily make them evolve into a worker bee.

Arsha, too, had initially gone through considerable trial and error.

"So I opened a bar and kept feeding royal jelly to one person after another. And then I understood."

Those who readily accepted the queen bee's power, willingly giving up their humanity to become worker bees, had one thing in common.

"Desire."

Arsha's eyes gleamed beguilingly.

"The stronger a human's desires, the more easily they gave up being human."

"..."

Every human had desires.

But their intensity differed from person to person, and they came in many forms.

Among them were those who particularly desired strength.

Hunters, in other words.

"So I sought out hunters who weren't satisfied with their own power and wanted to grow stronger by any means necessary. Oh, finding them was easy. Once I put out the bait, they gathered on their own."

Suho immediately realized how she'd done it.

"Stardust..."

"Yes, exactly. When I fed royal jelly to hunters who used Stardust, they became the healthiest worker bees. And as it happened, Vice President Lee Minsung was supplying me with Stardust."

The more she thought about it, the more Lee Minsung had been an excellent worker for Arsha in all sorts of ways.

He had been immensely useful even as a human, but what she had truly looked forward to was the day he became an actual worker bee.

Despite already possessing A-rank strength, he yearned to become S-rank.

"That's why I put so much care into raising him."

If he proved unsuitable, his body would necrotize, so she had taken her time, gradually acclimating him to royal jelly in tiny increments.

Like a vaccine.

She had fed him a small dose of poison every day.

"But I think I must have given him too much. The vaccine was too strong. In the end, he escaped from me."

[Escaped?]

Beru was the first to react.

A worker bee fleeing its queen?

For an ant who served a great king, such behavior was utterly unimaginable.

"Yes. He did become a worker bee, but I ended up creating one who refused to become my subject, even though I'm his queen."

Arsha heaved sigh after sigh, looking genuinely troubled.

"He even started gathering an army of his own, as though he wanted to imitate me. A failed creation like him."

"...!"

An army.

Suho's expression hardened at that familiar yet ominous word.

* * *

Meanwhile, outside Times Square, disturbing signs were appearing throughout the city.

"Grrr..."

Had he drunk himself senseless?

People whispered as they watched a passerby stagger along, clutching his throbbing head.

"What's wrong with that guy?"

"Who knows? Looks like a hunter. He's wearing armor."

"Hey, let's steer clear. No need to get mixed up in any trouble."

Hunters like that weren't uncommon.

People who had suddenly awakened as high-rank hunters, become rich overnight, and lost all self-restraint.

Getting caught up in one of their drunken rampages could put your life in danger. That was no exaggeration.

Whispering among themselves, people began edging away from the hunter.

Just then, the hunter walking with that unnatural gait whipped his head toward them.

At that moment, a chill ran through them.

"...!"

His exposed face was rotting like a corpse.

"A m-m..."

The people who saw him rapidly turned pale.

A broad grin spread across the hunter's face. Then his mouth gaped wide, and he lunged at the civilians.

"Graaah!"

"Aaaah!"

"A magic beast!"

Screams spread like wildfire at the humanoid magic beast's sudden appearance.

But screams were rising from other alleys, too.

There was more than one.

* * *

The Association went on high alert.

—Dozens of villains are attacking civilians indiscriminately! Dispatch the nearest combat personnel immediately!

The order came down to Team Leader Han Jaehyuk, who was in the middle of tracking Lee Minsung.

"These crazy bastards! Why are there so many villains lately?"

Han Jaehyuk immediately led his subordinates to the reported location.

"Graaah...!"

The scene was utter chaos.

Horribly mangled bodies lay dying, and villains trampled over them as they advanced.

'No. They're not villains.'

His hair stood on end.

Now that he had arrived and finally seen them for himself, goosebumps rose over Han Jaehyuk's skin.

A villain was an awakened person who had turned to crime.

But the instant he saw them, his instincts screamed a warning.

Those things weren't human.

Like Mist Burns, they had once been human, only to transform into something like magic beasts.

The Association had recently given such beings a new name.

Mutants.

"Graaaah!"

Just then, the mutants, rotting like corpses, spotted the Association hunters and began charging at them.

Combat broke out without warning. Han Jaehyuk activated his defensive skill and urgently shouted into his radio.

"Reporting in! These aren't villains. They're mutants! They appear completely incapable of communication, and we're severely outmatched—!"

"Aaargh!"

An Association hunter evacuating civilians was struck down.

The mutants immediately pounced on him where he lay.

"Why the hell are they so strong?!"

Still transmitting, Han Jaehyuk noticed a moment too late and desperately rushed in.

That was when it happened.

"Open fire."

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

A sudden rain of arrows poured down from the sky.

"Graaagh...!"

It was truly a spectacular sight.

Though the arrows rained down everywhere, they avoided the people and struck only the mutants with pinpoint accuracy.

Startled, Han Jaehyuk turned around.

There stood hunters from the famous Reaper Guild, all with their bows drawn.

"Lee Minsung won't show his face, and now this? What the hell is going on?"

Lim Taegyu stood among them, his expression grim.

After inspecting the mutants one by one, he roared.

"Why the hell are my guild members here in this state?!"

Every mutant that had appeared on the streets was a Reaper Guild member abducted by Lee Minsung.