Turn into an insect? What did that mean?
Riku turned his head slightly and instinctively looked at the Vampire's corpse.
Then, before his eyes, the corpse rapidly crumbled. Insects crawled out from beneath its clothes, one after another.
Some spread their wings and flew away. Others began digging and burrowed into the ground.
Silently, the Vampire vanished without even leaving a body behind. Only a set of clothes lay flat on the ground.
That was what it meant to turn into an insect?!
"I—I understand." The middle-aged man kept his forehead pressed firmly to the ground. "I'm willing to turn into an insect."
Morien looked at the man, thoughtful.
Then he chuckled.
"If it were a Builder standing before you instead of me, someone like you would probably move them to tears."
After a pause, Morien rose and looked down at the man before him.
"What's your name?"
"My name is Yiwang," the man answered.
Yiwang? Oh, I remember.
He was the man in the original story who used himself as bait and let a Monster eat him so his teammates could escape.
Morien grinned and repeated himself.
"Delicious—"
Morien opened one hand. A small pink insect crawled onto his palm.
This was a branch without a Mother Bug.
But while the Royal Insect was still alive, having a Mother Bug was not all that important to the young Insect Brood.
Not long ago, when Morien had still been aboard the Rare and Precious, many young Insect Brood had enjoyed listening to Argenti's lessons. One lineage had thereby set out on the path of Beauty: the branch now resting in Morien's palm, much like a Space Beauty Bug.
Just now, Morien had sent what was happening before him into the network and asked whether any of the little ones wanted