Ella stepped out of the lifeboat’s hatch.
The first thing she did was scan the entire 360-degree world around her.
Naturally, all she saw was an endless ocean.
“Haah…”
She plopped down on the floor in time with the lifeboat’s rocking, not caring whether the planks were dirty.
“What a huge drop in status…”
Just days ago she had been the lofty Insect Mother, seated on a throne formed from condensed swarm secretions.
Beneath her feet lay the Insect Nest she had spent ten years building.
Behind her stood tens of thousands of insects obeying her every command.
She had servants for everything—food delivered to her mouth, clothes placed in her hands.
That wasn’t an exaggeration.
She had literally assigned an entire group of insects to handle her daily routine.
And now?
She was sitting on hard, butt-numbing wooden planks with not even a flat patch of ground to lie on comfortably.
Ten years of effort hadn’t completely gone to waste, but it was pretty close.
In the end, all she had left were these three.
Plus the one humanoid insect maiden—or rather insect maiden—she had raised from a tiny bug, who still hadn’t woken up.
Four in total. That was it.
The old him had modified his own body, making it far stronger than an ordinary person’s.
But now, in this brand-new silver-haired girl form, she was no different from any normal human.
If she had to put it into words, her seeding ability as the Insect Mother was still there.
She just didn’t dare use it anymore.
She no longer trusted her own power.
Every time she sank her consciousness into the swarm consciousness network, she felt like something was waiting for her on the other side.
“Watching the sea?”
“Huh?”
Ella glanced behind her.
Dieyi crawled out of the hatch, her pink hair tousled by the sea breeze.
The wounds on her body seemed to have healed; the bandages were gone.
She had regained the elegant appearance Ella remembered from their first meeting.
Of course, Ella now knew that beneath that elegant butterfly-maiden exterior was a brutal side completely opposite to her fragile, beautiful looks.
“Where are we heading next?”
“Zhuluo is pinpointing our location. Once she’s done, we’ll head to the transfer station, get a new ship, and keep moving.”
“Keep moving? To where?”
“Doesn’t matter. Anywhere is fine.”
Dieyi’s tone was casual. She sat down beside Ella, stretching her legs out so her toes rested on the edge of the lifeboat.
In the silence, the sound of waves filled the gap between them.
“These past years… how have you three been doing out here?”
Ella asked without daring to look at Dieyi.
Her gaze stayed fixed on the sea, as if that were where her attention truly lay and the question had simply slipped out.
She knew it was a little disrespectful to think this way, but with the carefully tuned appearances she had once given them, the three of them had beautiful faces that came with plenty of advantages.
They probably hadn’t had it too rough, right?
“It was awful.”
Dieyi’s answer was blunt and unadorned.
“Your swarm robbed ships every day on the sea. Anyone who had ever visited the transfer station knew to stay far away from that area. Only idiots like those werewolf pirates wouldn’t have known about you.”
“What?!”
Ella whipped her head around so fast her silver hair slapped her own face and caught in the corner of her mouth.
“Cough, cough, cough!”
Me? I’m that famous?
She pressed her lips together, hesitated, rubbed her fingers on her knee twice, and finally forced the question out.
“I—I’m not that well-known, right? It’s not… like… infamous or anything…”
“Oh, it is.”
Dieyi turned to look at her. Her crimson pupils reflected Ella’s shocked face as the smile on her lips grew even more obvious.
“A lot of players know you exist. You just never saw them because everyone knows you’re not to be messed with. And because of you, the three of us ended up living like rats in the streets out there.”
She swept one hand through the air, drawing a circle that encompassed the entire surrounding sea.
“Pretty soon we’ll have to figure out how to sneak into the transfer station.”
“What happens if we get caught?”
“If it’s just us, it’s not too bad. At worst we get kicked out.”
Ella blinked. Us? Wait, did that mean—?
“But if it’s you, my dear Your Majesty Ella,”
Dieyi deliberately drew out her words, watching to see what adorable expression Ella would make at what came next.
“Hmm… I hate calling you that. From now on I’ll just call you Ella, got it? Remember this: if I call you and you dare ignore me, I’ll pinch your ears.”
Now it was Ella’s turn to be speechless. What was with this girl… trailing off mid-sentence just to argue about a title?
“Anyway,”
Dieyi withdrew the hand that had drawn the circle and pointed her index finger straight at the tip of Ella’s nose.
“If it’s you who gets caught, you’ll be executed on the spot. They’ll call the whole city to watch. The moment your head rolls, it’ll probably be a city-wide celebration. Every year on this date they’ll call it Ella Day. The reason is simple: because the demon lord Ella died on this day.”
“No!”
My flawless reputation! My grand Insect Nest empire!
“I—I had no idea I did so many things over those ten years…”
Images flashed through her mind of all the “supplies” her swarm had brought back over the years: piles of planks, bundles of rope, crates of nails, and occasionally some unnamed, glittering rare ores.
She had thought they were salvaged from the seabed. She had thought they were stripped from sunken ships. She had thought her swarm was simply working diligently in the deep sea where no one else went.
Turns out they really had come from sunken ships… as for how the ships sank… best not to ask.
She lowered her head and covered her face with both hands.
For the first time, Ella realized just how rotten her reputation was outside and felt like crying.
Dieyi, of course, had zero interest in comforting her. She sat beside her, tucking her pink hair behind one ear, crimson pupils slanting sideways at Ella.
The corners of her mouth curled up for a brief second before she pressed them back down.
“Hehe, so you’d better stay hidden, Miss Ella~ If you get caught, we won’t come save you~”
“No! If I get caught you absolutely have to save me!”
“Heh, I see, I see. So the arrogant Insect Mother is actually this soft and cute in private? How adorable~”
“I’m not cute! I’m a tough guy! Even as a girl I’m still tough! Watch me whip you with my tentacle!”
“Please do. My butt’s feeling itchy right now. Go ahead and whip it.”
“You shameless—! I’m sure I didn’t forget to add a sense of shame when I made you!”
“Who knows~”