I Became an Ant Lord, So I Built a Hive Full of Beauties-Chapter 212: The Voice She Buried

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The connection struck not like a whisper but like a blade drawn from a sheath.

Kai’s heart clenched the moment the soul link started to form. The world around him—burnt forest, cracked moss, pale mushrooms glowing faintly. It faded into the background. The glow behind his eyes shifted, and warmth slid down his spine like water meeting flame.

Then came silence.

Not emptiness, but a charged stillness, like the moment before thunder. The link held. He could feel her—close, yet distant. Her soul, once familiar, now coiled like a tightly wound string. Guarded. Shaken.

Then the connection sparked softly, like a thread of silver light weaving through Kai’s soul. No heat. No sound. Just a slow, creeping warmth that pierced across the distance like the tide kissing an untouched shore.

He didn’t speak. Not yet. He was afraid of what her silence might mean. And on the other end...

A woman sat alone beneath a rocky cliffside canopy, where moss grew thick and glowing between cracked boulders. Her cloak hung loosely around her shoulders. Her blades unstrapped for once, hands clutching the rock she had been sitting on.

"Mia." Kai spoke through the soul.

Her back straightened. A tremble ran down her spine.

A voice—no, not a voice. A presence. Familiar yet unknown. Faint. Lingering in her heart like a scent she’d can’t recognise.

Mia stiffened. Her voice, cold and sharp, cut through the connection like a sharp blade.

"Who?" she demanded. "Who are you?"

Kai took a breath, steadying the ache in his chest. He let his voice carry warmth and familiarity, something only she would recognize.

"It’s me, Mia," he said softly. "Your Dawn-Blade scout captain... Kai."

Her lips curled faintly. "Very funny," she muttered. "Not in the mood."

Kai flinched on his side of the world. "Mia?"

She blinked. Her hand tightened around the rock. Her body froze. "...No. I don’t like this kind of pranks."

"It’s not a prank, it’s me Kai," Kai whispered again, more gently this time, like talking to a frightened animal.

Mia’s expression darkened. She stood, fast, eyes scanning the forest. "Thea?" she snapped. "You think this is funny? Your pranks are already twisted, but this... this is cruel."

Kai winced. "No, Mia, it’s me. It’s Kai."

Her fingers flinched toward her dagger. "Whoever you are, you’ve gone too far. I don’t know how you are talking to me or what kind of mimic spell this is, but you better cut the damn prank before I tear you apart myself."

"Mia—"

"Shut up! Don’t say my name in his voice!" she hissed, stepping into the open. Her boots crunching moss. "You don’t get to wear his voice like a mask! I’m warning you—Thea, I don’t care if you’re my sister or not, this isn’t funny anymore!"

Kai felt it. The pain in her heart. The jagged edge of loss she carried like a second sword strapped across her soul.

He couldn’t blame her. Not after everything. But... he couldn’t let her break now. Not when he’d just found her.

"I can prove it," he said with a firm voice.

"Prove what?" she spat. "That you know how to imitate Kai? That you can whisper just like—"

"I walked in on you. Twice."

Her breath caught. freēnovelkiss.com

Kai’s voice softened, tinged with awkward warmth. "Back at the worker ant area... during training week. You left the door open, and I accidentally walked on you while you were bathing. I didn’t mean to. The door wasn’t closed."

The connection pulsed. Mia’s fury halted like a stone hitting water.

"And the second time..." Kai exhaled. "You were in your princess castle. After bathing you lean on my shoulder to complain about the court rules. And your thin bathrobe fell off."

A pause. Long. Heavy.

She didn’t breathe. Her fingers trembled now. She clutched her sleeve to her lips. Her eyes suddenly became glassy.

"...No one knew about that," she whispered.

"I know." Kai replied. "Because I experienced it."

"I never... I never told anyone."

"Exactly." Kai says.

"Kai? Is it really you?"

"It’s me."

The moment she realises it’s him. Her knees gave out.

She dropped where she stood, the weight of her body collapsing under the force of something far heavier. It was grief, shock, and something deeper still. Her cloak twisted around her ankles, pooling like spilled ink beneath her. The wind caught its hem, flaring it slightly, but she didn’t move to adjust it.

A raw sob ripped from her throat. It wasn’t elegant or restrained but it was jagged, broken, the kind of sound that didn’t come from the lungs but from somewhere buried in her heart. She clutched at her chest as if trying to hold in the pain, but it was too much.

And then— She cried.

Not in silence. Not the kind of tears she’d learned to hide growing up behind steel doors and noble pride. These weren’t the polite sniffles of a warrior with too much dignity to break.

She wept like the girl she had locked away long ago. The girl who had laughed with Kai in the moonlight, scolded him for touching her hair without asking, threatened to stab him if he peeked while bathing again and still waited for him when no one else did.

Her shoulders shook. Her face tilted upward as if pleading to the sky for explanation. The tears came fast and without permission, blurring the world into watery streaks. Her hands trembled where they gripped the earth, dirt and grass clinging to her fingers. Each breath was ragged. Each sob tore new space in the silence air.

His voice was still in her head. Still echoing.

Kai... He was alive.

Her fingers curled into fists and pressed to her lips as the tears overwhelmed her. She bit down on her knuckle, trying to muffle the next sob, but it broke free anyway, cracked and breathless. She gasped as if the air was too big for her lungs now, too sharp with hope.

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