C65- Finding the Humans (3)

Following the scent of the spices while hiding from most enemies, they were finally led to the corridor where the scent was coming from.

"Are we really sure there are humans here?"

"Have you ever heard of a monster cooking food with spices?"

"But... I never heard of one that made a nest as well..."

"...I don't have an answer to that, but if the bugs were eating this food, we would have seen it before. Why would food be this far back in the nest. Some of the bugs might not even be allowed to enter this part of the nest."

"Wait wait wait, why do you think bug monsters would have a social hierarchy other than the queen?"

"Why won't they? Listen-"

While the three guys were arguing about pointless stuff, the girls who had to listen to them were regretting the many decisions in their lives.

"Why do guys talk about pointless things like they are so important?"

"Sigh~, Don't even think about it, Amy. Even becoming an adult doesn't help, you just can't understand guys sometimes. Just be happy that they keep it to themselves..."

"Hm? B-but I like it when Noah talks about something he cares about. Isn't it cute when he can't stop his mouth because of his enthusiasm?", said Clair while twirling the tip of her hair and averting her eyes.

Amy and Acherie looked at Clair with shock.

"She is too far gone... Is this what it means to be in love?"

"Clair... You are amazing... You are going to make me doubt my own love..."

"Eh? Huh? A-Am I weird?", asked Clair with a blush on her face.

""No! You are cute!""

*****

"Cough! Hey, guys! Are you done with your discussion about bug social structure?", asked Acherie.

"Bugs? Oh! That's what we were talking about, right!"

"Oh, yeah!"

"And we were wondering how we came to the topic of what we would have done if we were the one who found the new world..."

"Huh? Wait... How did it came to that topic? How does that make sense?!"

"Hm? It does, doesn't it? We went from bug society to humans. And then Noah remembered something a noble from the new world said about humans. Naturally the topic of the new world came and we-"

"Okay! That's enough! Really... How do they achieve to forget what they were talking about in such a short time?"

"Acherie..."

"Hm?"

"You also forgot about it, didn't you."

"What?"

"You were supposed to stop them from talking anymore, not-"

"Ah! Right!"

Acherie turned back towards the guys, who were fervently talking about bugs again.

"Hey! Come on, you idiots! We have something we need to do. You can talk about stupid things once we are out of this damn nest with the others!"

The three guys got up and apologized. After that, they slowly walked towards the room where the smell of spices was coming from. Normally, the entrance of a room in the nest would be just a hole, but this entrance was closed with a big wooden door. They opened the door and entered inside.

They were met with three men who were pointing spears towards them, and a group of women behind them, who were cooking food in a makeshift kitchen.

"Who are you! Are you from outside!?", asked one of the spearmen in the Alea-Rin language.

Acherie stepped in front of the group and talked with them.

"We are from outside the nest. With me is another Ale-An warrior, and four kids from the Altus. We are co-operating to free every human in this bug nest."

The spearmen lowered their spears.

"How can we trust you?"

"You are asking that after lowering your spears?"

"Isn't it obvious? If you have the intention of saving us, then it would be disrespectful to hold a spear to you. And if you have the power to save everyone in this place, then pointing the spears won't do anything anyways. If you had other intentions, you wouldn't use an excuse like that in the first place."

"I see... Then this is going to be easier."

The spearmen led the group inside the room to sit somewhere and talk. While Acherie was talking with the spearman, Amy was translating what they were talking to Corvin, who was the only one whose only spoken language was Ofetan.

"Is this all the humans inside the nest?"

"No way... This is just the place where we cook the food."

"Where are the rest of the humans then?"

"Most of them live inside the sleeping room, but currently most of them are probably either working inside the workshop room, or are mining another tunnel to a new room."

"A new room?"

"Yes. This entire nest is connected by the corridors but there are also ventilation tunnels that connects the rooms as well. There is an iron vein found inside the nest, and some craftsmen are making pickaxes from the iron to expand some of the airways to make tunnels to connect other rooms into the human rooms."

"How many rooms are there?"

"Including this kitchen, there is the main human room where almost everyone sleeps at, the workshop room close to the iron vein and two mushroom rooms that we take food from. There is also a trash disposal room and a butchering room that is further away from all the others and their tunnels blocked with a big boulder because of the smell of trash and blood."

"Hmm... If you have this many tunnels, then why aren't everyone escaping through one?"

"Actually, we were working on the escape tunnel but for some reason the bugs increased their security. There is a bigger risk to digging a new tunnel than expanding an already existing one. Also we can't mine as much as we used to especially close to the surface, since we have to be careful of making too much vibrations while mining and alerting the bugs."

"Were the bugs alerted before?"

"Not that I have seen it, but I have been here for only three years-"

"THREE?!"

"Huh? Ah, yes. It is not easy to escape from here, you know?"

"...Continue what you were saying, please."

"Appearently, five years ago, three people on mining duty were discovered by the bugs accidentally, and killed while expanding the tunnel that connected to here. Ever since then, the bugs periodically patrolled the nest and checked if we were mining. The intensity of these increased much more ever since that earthquake or whatever that struck like four days ago."

"Huh? Earthquake? Was there one?"

When they heard this, there was only one sentence inside Corvin, Amy, Noah and Clair's minds. So they stared at each other at the same time, and talked with their eyes.

'That definitely was the roach's death...'

'It definitely was...'

'We are sorry, everyone...'

'Guys... Don't tell anyone, okay?'

'''NEVER!'''