Dumb Ant

Three weeks later,

Staring at the hundreds of ants who were working hard in the area, and were replacing the old inefficient walls of the colony, Canty almost rushed forward to help them.

Even though she knew that she had to supervise the ants to make sure that everything went alright, Canty couldn't help but want to go help her sisters with the work.

But as she remembered what happened the last time she had snuck off to work, Canty couldn't help but shiver.

After being discovered by the Ant Queen, Canty was forbidden from working, supervising other ants who were working, or even helping around the colony, for a week straight.

Although by supervising and making strategies, Canty was able to increase the efficiency of a group of workers by over fifty percent, the queen did not seem to care in the slightest, as she still brutally told Canty to relax, otherwise she would face an even harsher punishment.

No matter what, Canty did not want to see what the ant queen had in store for her, as such, she did not go in to help the ants do manual labor.

Of course, with someone supervising them and making plans for them, the group of ants Canty was watching was able to achieve increased efficiency that couldn't be matched by any other group in the entire colony.

As such, Canty's sanity was a small price to pay.

At this very moment, though, Canty's antenna suddenly moved, causing her to break out of her thoughts and look at the ant that had just arrived at the construction site with a confused look on her face.

A moment later, Canty's antenna moved once again, as she suddenly sensed some pheromones emerging from the ant.

The moment Canty deciphered those pheromones, and discovered what they meant, she immediately got up from where she was sitting and jumped towards the arriving ant, feeling extremely excited.

Just a few moments after that, Canty suddenly heard several thousand footsteps coming to her general direction, causing her to stare towards her left with an excited look on her face.

Looking at the two hundred ants, who were clearly smaller than the other ants, Canty immediately got to work.

In what seemed like a few moments, Canty quickly distributed the young, fresh out of the brood ants, to where help was needed.

As such, after only around five minutes, Canty's work was done, as the new ants were now integrated into the old ants, although now perfectly.

'With these new mandibles, we should be able to finish this chamber in around thirty minutes,' thought Canty as she moved excitedly.

'If that's the case, we can finish renovating the entire colony in just under five days,' thought Canty as she remembered the plans that she had seen the queen and her mistress make.

After Beatrice had come back, she had asked Antonia for a map of the colony, so that she could see if any improvements were possible.

As one might expect, although Earth Ants were extremely adept at digging tunnels, they were not the best at civil engineering, in fact, in Beatrice's opinion, the new colony plans of the queen were extremely horrendous.

Because of this, although Beatrice was not truly proficient in engineering, she was still able to improve them quite a bit after a=making some changed.

Although Canty didn't really understand what benefits those changes made, she had noticed that the queen was rather happy with them, causing Canty to become quite happy as well.

In Canty's not so informed opinion, the queen always had the best interests of the colony in mind, and as such, she would always follow her instructions.

Of course, the fact that the queen prohibited her from working was not included in this 'always'.

The very next day, still inside the Earth Ant Colony.

As she looked at the tiny ant, who was fidgeting next to her feet, Antonia couldn't help but suddenly move her head.

In an instant, Antonia's antenna had suddenly struck the ant in the head and made her fall over.

'Is the fifth brooding chamber complete?' asked Antonia as she watched the little ant get up from the ground.

'Yes, we finished just a few minutes ago, but what was that for?' asked Canty as she successfully flipped over and got up from the ground.

'You don't have to move so much and waste so much energy, I noticed you already from the minute you arrived near me, I was just busy, moving so much without a purpose is a waste of energy,' said Antonia as she looked at the little ant, causing the latter to fall into thought.

'That's true, If I move less, I will use less energy and will use less food,' thought Canty as her eyes suddenly brightened.

Not noticing the change in Canty's expression, Antonia continued.

'There isn't anything that needs to be urgently renovated, you can just continue on with the sixth brooding chamber,' said Antonia as she stared at the little ant in front of her.

'Understood, I will be on my way,' said Canty as she suddenly moved in a straight line from her position into a tunnel.

'One more thing, Canty, you can help the colony much more by supervising instead of just working, I hope you remembered that,' said Antonia as she looked at the little ant with a cold glint in her eyes, causing the latter to freeze for a brief moment.

A moment later, Canty ran into the tunnels of the colony without looking back, seemingly not hearing the words of the queen, although they had been sent into her mind.

Seeing this, Antonia couldn't help but shake her rather enormous ant head.

'She still has a long way to go until she's fully grown up,' thought Antonia before turning her attention to something else.

After all, as the queen of the Earth Ants, Antonia was extremely busy at every single moment of the day, regardless of what she seemed to be doing.