Chapter 125: Ortyr

"L-Lady Melissa, I-I’m not sure how to carry out your request..." Princess Victoria speaks, trying not to irritate the monster holding her captive to use her intelligence.

"...Human, don’t test your luck. I have no other use for you besides your brain and your body. If you claim you can’t fulfill my requests, then the only use left for you is to serve as a home for my children," Melissa says in a disinterested tone.

"...N-No, it’s just that... I-I don’t have the necessary information!! I-I’m not a mage or anything like that, a-and you’ve kept me from knowing what’s going on outside..." Unlike the treatment of most, Victoria was imprisoned in one of the castle’s rooms, kept far away from all the chaos in Ortyr.

"..." Victoria stares at the mask Melissa never removes from her face. She tries to appease Melissa, who has made many demands, mainly regarding understanding how the world and each kingdom interact and which are the most fragile ones she could attack in the future.

"...What information do you need, human?"

"F-First, for your question about w-what the chances are of someone invading, I-I would need to know what’s happening outside... y-you locked me in here, so I really don’t know..." Victoria glances at the room’s window, so covered in insects that she can’t see a single inch of the outside.

The sight makes her avert her gaze. Seeing those things vibrating and piled up, blocking everything to prevent her from leaving, is disturbing to her.

"...The state of Ortyr... if you want to know about armies, they no longer exist. All soldiers were turned into material for honey production. As for the civilians, I captured them and am currently using them to bear more children for me."

"And as for the outside, there’s a barrier. Even the humans you call National Ranks couldn’t break through it to escape," Melissa speaks in a disinterested manner while she never stops eyeing Victoria’s body, making her shrink back a little.

"Sounds like a very chaotic state, b-but considering the barrier you mentioned... and the fact that there are stronger beings like you out there, I-I doubt anyone would try to attack. I-It wouldn’t be worth it in any way." Victoria, despite everything, tries to be useful.

Because she saw well what Melissa does to humans. When she was allowed out to switch rooms, she saw a maid on the floor crawling and begging for help until insects burst out from inside her chest, tearing through flesh as they devoured her.

Despite everything, Victoria managed to quickly learn the birth pattern of these things just from the screams she heard.

Melissa’s insects function through different life stages. First, they are laid inside the target’s body in different ways, whether painful or not.

Victoria noticed this by hearing screams of people begging Melissa or other insects not to do it. So either they are forcefully injected into the body, or the person has to swallow the eggs.

Then a few days pass until they develop. At that point, the screams returned, and Victoria knows they were the same people not just by the tone of voice, but because Melissa tends not to move people after infecting them. So if someone is infected in a hallway, Melissa keeps that person locked in that place.

A safety measure, because gathering her children in one spot would only allow someone to destroy them all at once, while spreading them out based on where the prey was prevents complete destruction.

When the eggs hatch, the larvae begin eating the area where they are. That’s why Victoria was forced to listen to screams and moans of pain from her room, also understanding that the insects release some kind of substance to keep the prey alive.

Because several of the maids she listened to stayed alive for far too many days for someone being devoured alive. Although Victoria doesn’t know it, Melissa’s children carry small doses of Melissa’s honey inside their shells.

So when they are born, the insects release this honey into the victim’s body. This honey accelerates the body’s metabolism, forcing it to work actively. It forces adrenaline to be released constantly, speeding up the heart and blood flow.

And it forces the target to stay alive far longer regardless of whether they’ve already lost a considerable portion of their organs, since for Melissa’s children, fresh meat is important, and if the ’incubators’ died, her children wouldn’t eat old or rotting meat to grow.

Victoria stored away much of this knowledge, so that if she ever gets the chance to be saved, she can tell someone how Melissa produces her children.

"Hmmm... I’ll consider your words. But what about my other requests?" Melissa questions while her stinger twitches.

"I-I really don’t know much about magic, b-but I have access to the kingdom’s vaults, a-and there are many scrolls in there. Even though I don’t understand much about magic, I can open the vault for you as well as reveal its location—"

"You’re not leaving here. Just reveal the vault’s location." Melissa is not irrational despite her monstrous and bestial attitude. She knows Victoria is intelligent, so she deliberately deprives her of information that could allow her to escape or something similar.

"Of course... t-the vault is underground. If you go to the king’s room, you’ll have the exact location. The vault is several floors below the castle, and the entrance is some floors below the king’s room..."

"Better that way..." Melissa finishes assessing Victoria’s body and quickly deduces what other uses she might have.

’This isn’t going as well as I’d like...’ Melissa thinks darkly. Most of her children are weak, because humanity is weak. Unlike Nio and Typhon’s original world, which was full of high-level beings, in this world most don’t have such high levels. So Melissa’s children are also born with low levels and less growth potential.

Only the National Ranks are producing children with the average strength they should have had. This frustrates Melissa.

"Listen, human, I need something more than information. Everything you can offer me are things I can get on my own, so I want you to be more useful." Melissa has much more than just parasitism as a form of reproduction.

"W-What do you need?" Victoria grows nervous, realizing Melissa is thinking about discarding her, so Victoria tries to seem useful.

"I only have two uses left for you. Either you share the same fate as the rest of the humans, or you help me by providing a more suitable space for my children."

"...I-I don’t understand—" Before Victoria can finish expressing her confusion, Melissa’s stinger pierces her neck, injecting her honey into Victoria’s bloodstream. Victoria chokes, writhing.

"I need stronger and more stable eggs than the ones produced through parasitism, so I’ll give you a choice. Either you get parasitized and die in a few days when my children are born."

"Or you accept being the incubator for some special eggs I have. I’ll shove them into your womb, and they’ll be born and come out of your body without killing you, so I can repeat the process."

"These children will be more useful than the mere soldier insects I’m producing. I’ve determined your physique is suited for this, and now with my honey, you can provide that suitable environment. I’ll leave it to your choice." Melissa speaks to Victoria, who crawls on the floor gasping in pain.

"..." Victoria looks up at the mask that always keeps the same expression, then bites her lips.

"I-I want to live..." Victoria prefers the minimal chance of survival over dying like everyone else. Weeks of screams left her with a terrible dread of the future of being made an incubator like the others.

"Perfect, then. Since you’ve accepted, I can guarantee you’ll survive." Victoria, without knowing it, accepted a future far worse than death. After all, "queen bees" have the primary function of producing eggs.

But Melissa can’t just stay still producing eggs, so she redistributes this function among beings she shares her ’Royal Jelly’ with — a customized honey that allows others to carry her eggs until they mature.

To Melissa, Victoria is now just an egg sack she’ll use without pause until she breaks, which could take years.

’With stronger children, I can begin invading other territories... unfortunately, since I only have Victoria, it should take a few months until I have a decent army... should I ask Yomo for help? To give me some resources from the second floor.’ Melissa wonders as she leaves the room, leaving Victoria groaning in pain on the floor while her body changes subtly on the inside.