It wouldn't matter if no one saw it.
But if someone did see it, like now, with a human catching it, it would be completely helpless to fight back.
It knew how humans felt about bugs.
Humans didn't like bugs.
Whenever they saw one, they usually killed it.
It wasn't a bug.
It was a monster.
But in human eyes, it was just a bug.
It didn't want to die such an undeserved death.
Though maybe if humans knew it was a monster, they'd be even more determined to kill it.
Humans didn't like monsters much, either.
Especially weak, useless monsters like it.
The old man froze.
Had he... imagined hearing that?
He reached up and rubbed his ears.
He really was getting old. Now he was even hearing things.
He supposed there was no point pretending he wasn't old.
"Let me go!"
Seeing that the old man wasn't reacting at all, the bookworm grew even more panicked.
It didn't want to be killed!
The old man's eyes suddenly widened.
He'd heard it again.
It wasn't his imagination.
It was... real!
The source of that voice...
The old man raised the bug in his hand. "Was that... you talking just now?"
The bug had spoken?!
The old man looked utterly disbelieving.
How was that possible?
But—
"Let me go!"
The bookworm cried out angrily at the old man.
It struggled continuously between his fingers.
It was real.
The bug had really spoken.
The old man felt as if the whole thing were absurd.
He was already halfway into his grave, yet at the very end of his life, he'd experienced something this incredible...
The familiar world before his eyes had become strange.
His entire worldview had taken a tremendous shock.
He'd actually heard a bug speak?!