Even ordinary people give off some aura, and here, hundreds of thousands were gathered. On top of that, many of them were likely using Zetsu or Ren to suppress their aura and avoid detection. Trying to identify a familiar trace among them all would be a huge undertaking.
Cyr didn't feel like thinking that hard. After all, he had no intention of dragging the humans out—he was just here to stir the pot.
As someone who sided with neither humans nor ants, Cyr pulled out his phone and launched a mobile game, even turning the volume to max.
Neferpitou's ears flattened like airplane wings—clearly displeased.
Ants didn't handle electromagnetic waves well, so phones were rarely used inside the palace. Whenever Bisef, the human among them, made a call inside, he was often cursed out or warned by any ant he passed.
But Cyr? He fought the Ant King from time to time, so his status wasn't exactly ordinary.
Wandering around the palace with his phone, Cyr spotted a few ants crouched on the floor, sniffing at some bloodstains and a pair of shoes.
That trace… probably left by Knov.
"…Cyr," one of the ants—its head resembling a wolf's—actually greeted him rather warmly.
A second later, the two ants behind him cried out in alarm.
The white-haired boy had already raised a foot and stomped on the wolf-headed one's head, his eyes filled with malice. "Who gave you the guts to call me by name?"
"Just a weak little ant," he muttered, grinding the ant's face into the bloodstained floor with his foot.
"When you see me, you should pretend you don't exist."
"You think I'm Bisef or something?" he continued, stepping harder and harder until blood dripped from the ant's forehead and merged with the puddle already there—indistinguishable from one another.
"He knows he was wrong! He knows—please spare him!" the two ants behind begged for their comrade's life.
"…I was wrong, sir," the wolf-headed ant scratched long grooves into the floor as he admitted fault—but hatred burned in his eyes.
Arrogance and delusion—every species had those who thought they were better than the rest.
"You want to be King, don't you?" the white-haired boy suddenly leaned down and whispered in the ant's ear.
The ant's pupils shrank violently. He didn't answer.
Of course he wanted to be King. Being a subordinate was temporary. Who wouldn't want to rule instead of serve?
That's why he'd tried to curry favor with the humans, acting friendly toward Bisef and even offering to help him find the woman who'd run away.
And when he saw this powerful white-haired human, he'd tried to greet him too—only to find the guy completely unreasonable.
Cyr retracted his foot and smiled brightly. "Good luck."
Like the person stomping on someone's head a second ago wasn't him.
The three ants looked at the human's lightning-fast mood switch and fled in panic.
This human was insane—more of a monster than any of them.
"Low-grade mutts," Cyr muttered with a sneer as he watched the three ants run.
Chimeras mixed with beast and human DNA who'd developed thoughts of their own—they all started dreaming of ruling one day.
Only the three Royal Guards still believed the Ant King was the one true King. The other powerful ants? They all had their own ambitions.
And the King… was still playing chess with a human.
Even knowing a war with humans could erupt at any moment, he was still playing chess. Was it love? Arrogance?
Being too confident in your power isn't a good thing.
This war was doomed to fail.
Because compared to these ants who hadn't even gotten the hang of being human, real humans… were far more complicated.
Cyr lazily put away his phone, climbed out a window, and stretched out on the roof, gazing up at the moon.
Footsteps approached—it was the Ant King. The game of chess had ended.
Well, makes sense. It was night. Humans should be sleeping by now.
"I reside in a borrowed palace, surrounded outside by mindless puppets."
"How laughable and dull that is." He spoke with amusement, to no one in particular, clearly not expecting a response.
Borrowed? It was taken by force—just call it stolen fair and square.
Learn from humans—being an immoral thief works just fine.
Mindless puppets were far more convenient than living beings with minds of their own. There would be far fewer complications.
Cyr said nothing on the surface, but internally, he was rolling his eyes hard.
The Ant King didn't even realize Cyr was lying on the roof above, basking in the moonlight.
Cyr thought of some of his online friends who used to post about depression and pain. None of them lacked money—they lived comfortably—but they were constantly trapped in self-reflection and anxiety.
Then, after getting dragged in the comments for being overly dramatic, they'd deactivate and flee. Their new accounts? Nothing but plain, no-nonsense flexing of wealth. Never another word about mental health.
If the Ant King lived in that world and made a post online, he'd probably get flamed too.
Cyr could already imagine the content of the post:
> "I was born the King of my species, with three powerful and absolutely loyal attendants. I came into this world possessing what might be the strongest power in existence. I learn everything with ease, and soon I'll have no rivals. Whatever I want, my attendants will obtain it for me at a word. I now live in a splendid, gold-plated palace that I took by force, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of mindless puppets who would die for me without question. But I find this life dull. I don't know why I was born."
That kind of post would definitely go viral—tens of thousands of shares, millions of views…
And hundreds of thousands of hate comments.
Plus a crowd of people tagging their friends: "Come look at this elementary school kid's nonsense."
Thinking about that, Cyr got inspired and started writing.
A Glimpse Into the Mind of the Enemy Commander. Or maybe it should be titled The Autobiography of the Ant King.
> "I am X. I have no name. I was born in a crude cave, and from the moment I opened my eyes, people knelt before me and called me King…"
He wrote the whole thing in first person. From the King's birth, to invading other nations' palaces, to meeting the human girl, to falling into existential confusion—it was all documented.
Frankly, no one on the human side understood the Ant King better than Cyr.
After all, he'd been observing him closely for quite some time. The rest of the humans hadn't even seen the Ant King's face.
Soon, he had a ten-thousand-word self-narrative ready. Without hesitation, Cyr sent it to his contact list.
What was the point of creating something wild like that if he didn't share it?
Just then, he sensed Neferpitou, who had been stationed on the palace's highest point, suddenly start moving toward the Ant King's location.
His instincts told him—something interesting was about to go down.
Cyr immediately followed.
The moment he arrived, he overheard the Ant King ordering Neferpitou to withdraw her En. The reason? Her En surrounding the palace was unpleasant to him. At most, he'd tolerate her extending it outside the palace as a security perimeter.
In that moment, Cyr truly believed the Ant King might be a human double agent.
Earlier, he'd deliberately severed his own arm to let Neferpitou heal him, making it impossible to use En, which had given Knov a chance to infiltrate. Now he was demanding that Neferpitou withdraw her En from inside the palace.
If that wasn't handing humans an opportunity, what was?
And then… the Ant King mentioned Cyr by name.
Because Neferpitou had objected—if her En was only outside the palace, she couldn't monitor suspicious individuals already inside, or any threats coming from underground.
And yes, Cyr was one of those "suspicious individuals" already inside.
Arguably, the biggest threat.
°°°
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