Chapter 6

Thank you always for your comments and reports of typos and omissions!

At first, the Honey Ants were also surprised by the waves of sand.

"Ant~! Ant~! Ant~!"

It seems they started to enjoy it as they rode, and now they were making chirping sounds that seemed to express excitement.

Since we were here, I decided to create a big wave and move through it, and they were surprised and delighted by that as well.

"Amazing—really, I'm amazed by Horus' magic."

"Well, it's a spell that can't be used without sand."

"Even so, it means that if there is sand, its effect is tremendous! I think it's amazing!"

Isis praised me. It made me happy, but I think Isis' life magic is even more amazing.

After all, she made plants grow so quickly. With sand magic, I could only move them along with their roots.

"Ant~!"

One of the Honey Ants skillfully pointed the way for us with its finger. At the tip of the finger, a huge ant mound, like a castle, was built.

Wow. I never realized there was such a large structure in the desert. It wasn't within the range that could be detected from the sand castle.

"Ant!"

When I stopped the waves, the ants urged us to enter. The entrance was wide enough for us to pass through easily. There were even guard ants, but they greeted us as we passed.

The inside of the ant mound had plenty of room to walk. However, there were many rooms, and the ants were moving around busily.

As we went further in, we came to a much larger hall than the previous rooms. There was a throne-like object, and one, or rather one ant, was sitting there.

But it was different from the other ants. This ant had clearly visible limbs and sat like a human.

"Welcome."

"Spoke—!"

"Ngooooo!"

Oh, I was surprised. The ant on the throne stood up and spoke! Fluently! Isis and I, even Rak, couldn't help but shout.

"I apologize for surprising you. I am the leader of this ant mound, the queen of the Honey Ants."

Ah, ants can speak human language. I didn't know that. They are smart.

"I am Horus."

"I am Isis. And this is Rak."

"Pleased to meet you. By the way, a camel with a honey lump is quite rare."

The queen turned to Rak, showing a curious interest.

"Still, it's surprising that we can understand each other."

"Our royal species are slightly different in body structure from other ants, which is why we can understand and speak human language."

Indeed, the queen's body structure seemed closer to a human's.

"Well, I'm sorry to have called you here. I heard that you saved the worker ants from a dangerous situation, and I felt I had to thank you."

The queen spoke. It was about saving the ants from the iron-like ants. She's a considerate ant to want to thank us.

"If that's the case, I received honey from the ants. And thanks to that honey, this girl, Isis, was saved."

"Yes. I was weakened, but thanks to the honey Horus gave me, I was able to recover. If the ants gave us the honey, I should be the one to thank them."

Isis showed respect. The queen showed a somewhat gentle expression.

"I'm glad the honey we gave you was useful. Still, to repel the Iron Ants, Horus must be very strong."

Iron Ants, that's the name of the ants that attacked the Honey Ants.

"Well, I'm just a bit good at sand magic."

"Sand magic, huh? That's amazing."

The queen was quite impressed. I felt a bit embarrassed, but it was nice to be recognized, even though my attribute wasn't valued in my country.

"But, even among ants, there are conflicts."

"It's shameful to show such behavior. However, this was not the case before. Iron Ants are aggressive, but they are not unreasonable. I once spoke with the Iron Ant king and agreed not to invade each other's territories and not to harm each other's ants."

The queen looked sad, as if the agreement had not been kept.

"Did they invade your territory?"

"Yes. They attacked my comrades without any provocation."

So the Iron Ants broke the agreement unilaterally.

"Is that common?"

"We only break agreements under extreme circumstances. The Iron Ant king is a strict ruler. He is an ant who takes responsibility for his words, so I never thought he would break an agreement."

Listening to her, there were many puzzling points.

"Ngoo! Ngoo!"

"Yes. The Iron Ants have a male king, not a queen."

Rak made a sound, and the queen answered.

"Can you understand what Rak wants to say?"

"If there is a clear will, I can understand it to some extent."

That's amazing. The queen is excellent.

"Ant~ Ant~!"

As we were talking with the queen, one ant rushed in, clearly agitated, and reported something to the queen.

"Such! The Iron Ants are near here!"

The queen stood up, clearly shaken.

"Horus..."

"Yeah. That's right. Queen, if you need help repelling the Iron Ants, I'd be happy to assist."

"Huh? But I can't impose on you any further..."

"Don't worry. It's like a ship that's already set sail, and the ants saved Isis with their honey. To me, that's more important."

The queen called us to thank us, but from our perspective, we wanted to thank her.

So, I'll return the favor here.

"...It's a bit embarrassing, but the combat power of the Honey Ants is much lower compared to the Iron Ants. If you could help us, it would be a great relief."

"Sure! It's a deal!"

"I'll go too! My life magic might be of some use!"

"Ngoo!"

"Rak, stay here and watch over the queen."

"Ngoo? Ngoo!"

Rak snorted and was eager. Well, it's just a formality. If the Iron Ants have high combat power, it's better for Rak to stay. The queen seemed to understand this and said nothing about Rak staying.

"...One request. It may seem weak, but I don't want you to kill them. I can't believe the king would do this without a reason..."

The queen bowed. She wanted to avoid violent actions until the reason was clear.

"Sure. I'll try not to kill them, but if there's no other choice, I can't hold back."

"Yes, of course I understand that."

Then we followed the Honey Ants to where the Iron Ants were approaching.

"There they are! The battle has already started!"

"There are so many injured ants... I'll go heal them!"

"Huh? You can do that?"

"Actually, life magic is most effective in healing."

I see. That makes sense.

Isis focused on healing the injured Honey Ants. Then I need to think about repelling the Iron Ants!

Thank you for the daily ranking entry! I appreciate your support!

Today, I'll update another chapter in the evening to express my gratitude.

The ranking is currently 11th in fantasy and has entered the top 50 overall.

I'd like to make it to the cover... so if you're even a little curious about what happens next, if you think the camel and Honey Ants are cute and want to see more, or if you think I should keep updating, I'd be very happy if you could bookmark the story or rate it with the ★ below.

If you think the content is good, give it ★★★★★! If you think it's boring, you might not give it a star, but if you have even a little hope for the future, even one ★ or ★★ would be very encouraging!

Thank you very much, readers!

And I'm looking forward to your comments and reviews!