I Became an Ant Lord, So I Built a Hive Full of Beauties-Chapter 195: Tale of Frog

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"I’m offering you survival!" the Prince hissed, spitting acid-tinged foam. "Give her to me. She’s wounded, her kingdom is dust. She’ll only suffer trying to rebuild. Hand her over... and become my servant! You’ll live. I’ll even let you kneel in front of the servant! That is a great honour for all species of this planet."

Everyone watching went still.

Azhara’s grin vanished. "He did not just say that."

Akayoroi’s antennae stood straight—utter fury curling her hands into claws.

Kai’s head bowed. "...Are you trying to be funny?" he whispered.

"I’M SERIOUS!" the Frog-Prince screamed. "You can’t protect her! If you kill me—THEY’LL COME FOR HER! And you! The Ones Who Sent Me and his masters! They are BEYOND YOUR IMAGINATION!"

"They don’t die! They feed off wars and bloodlines—they’re G O D S! You’re just a lucky insect! If you kill me, they’ll erase you from time!"

Kai didn’t even blink. "I am not a loser and licking dogs like you all."

He pulled.

SCHLORRCH.

The heart crystal peeled further from its anchoring glands. It screamed—a deep, bassy shriek that vibrates the bones of the dead.

The Prince wept. "FINE! KILL ME! But you’re DAMNING HER TOO! SHE’LL NEVER ESCAPE THEM!"

Kai’s voice was cold steel. "She’s already free. You were the chain."

The claws flexed again.

The Prince shrieked. "WAIT! WAIT! Don’t kill me! I’LL GIVE YOU A SECRET! A REAL ONE! NOT ABOUT THEM—ABOUT ANOTHER WORLD!"

That made Kai pause. His claws froze, still embedded, but no longer pulling. "...Another world?"

The Prince gasped, blood running down his bloated chest. "Yes... yes... I swear! Something that many people know about! Not a lie, not bait—a real secret! Portal coordinates! Forbidden realm! A different plane of existence!"

Kai growled, "Then speak."

"I—I will," the Prince panted. "Just... just let me breathe—"

Kai relaxed pressure by a single degree. The pain dimmed slightly but the threat didn’t vanish.

Akayoroi stepped closer to the battlefield’s edge. Her voice shook. "... be careful..."

Azhara leaned against her. "If he lies, I’ll fry his eyeballs personally."

Kai didn’t look back. He glared into the frog’s remaining eyes.

"Talk. Now."

"Wait, let me think about it." The Frog Man replied.

Azhara frowned. "Is he stalling?"

Akayoroi’s antennae swept the air. "It might be real... might be desperation."

Kai glared at the dying toad. He tightened his grip again. The crystal shrieked. "Speak."

"I... I will!" The Prince panted, acid sputtering with every word. "But... but let me live..."

Kai’s mandibles spread into a predator’s grin without kindness. "You’ll talk first. If it’s something useful I will think about it."

The Prince shook, chest cavity rippling around Kai’s embedded arms. "Promise me you won’t kill Me!"

"Three expectations," Kai said calmly. "One: you talk. Two: you talk quickly. Three: if I even smell a lie, I squeeze until your soul pops."

The Prince paled, which was impressive given the sickly green of his skin. "O-Okay," he croaked. "I swear! I’ll tell you everything about the other world, its origin and everything..."

He gulped, biting back another sob. "Just--"

Kai inclined his head once. "Then start talking."

The Frog-Prince’s body carried the trembling resonance of a cracked bell. Black-green blood dribbled down his distended chest, sizzling against the ruin of his own ribs. Kai’s claws still cradled the pulsing crystal heart, fracture lines glowing like red lightning across its oily surface.

"Talk," Kai repeated, voice flat as iron in snow.

The monster’s remaining eyes, three on the left cheek, one dangling from his right brow on a fleshy strand twitched wildly. Each ragged breath whistled through broken fangs.

"I... I’ll tell you everything," he croaked, spittle sizzling against Kai’s forearm. "This secret—my father kept it locked in the royal muck-vault. Only the crown brood knows..."

Kai tightened his grip a fraction. CR KK— another fracture crawled across the core.

"NO—NO! I’ll explain!" the Prince squealed. "It began more than five hundred years ago..."

"Back then," the Prince rasped, "the swamp wasn’t ours alone. My great-great ancestor named Grand Prince Bufo IX—was nothing but a curious tadpole compared to the juggernauts of his era. He and six traveling companions, one flame fox, a stone gryphon, two silk serpents, and an icecap wyrm—ventured far to hunt star worms. They strayed too close to a space rift. It cracked open without warning then swallowed them whole."

Kai’s antennae flicked. Space-rift... five centuries past...

The Toad’s throat convulsed. "Inside that rift, my ancestor fell separate from the others, spinning across time. He crash-landed in a strange realm—a world without aura, where metal insects crawled on rails and towers pierced clouds made of glass." He wheezed. "They called that place ’Japan.’"

Kai’s breath hitched the instant the word "Japan" left the frog’s cracked lips.

For a single heartbeat, the battlefield vanished—the world stink, the crackling aura, even the pain throbbing in his ribs.

Instead, flashes of another life shot through his mind: neon signs bleeding color across rainy streets, the rattle of a train door sliding open, the scent of his favourite food, Steak in soft orange juice from the narrow side-alley restaurant. His human memories—long buried beneath layers of chitin and aura—pushed against the present like ghosts pressing palms to glass.

Japan...? A name he hadn’t thought of since awakening in this world.

The realization struck him harder than any blow the Frog-Prince had landed: If that rift truly opened five hundred years ago, then the timeline matched the era of his own death on Earth. Which meant his reincarnation here wasn’t random—it sat on the same cosmic clock that spat a swamp toad across dimensions.

A storm of questions flashed behind his crimson eyes, but outwardly he showed only a slight tightening of his jaw.

Because in that single word, Japan, the frog had proved one thing: His home was real, and the path between worlds was not a myth.

Vel frowned from the sidelines. "Ja-pan? Sounds like an exotic fungus."

Azhara muttered, "I call dibs on eating any fungus that makes trains out of iron bugs."

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m