I Became an Ant Lord, So I Built a Hive Full of Beauties-Chapter 229: Kai on the Ridge

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"Highness?" she whispered.

"Yes?"

Vel hesitated, her antennae curling slightly. "Tell me... was it frightening? To surrender to a male? And... Are you truly serious about... sharing him with us? You’ve always treated us like sisters, but... we’re not royalty like you."

Akayoroi’s expression softened. She reached out and placed a gentle hand on Vel’s shoulder, her touch warm, steady.

"It was terrifying," she said, voice low. "And perfect."

Vel blinked.

"I didn’t surrender because I was weak. I chose him because he made me feel seen, cherished not for my title, but for who I was beneath the shell. And yes," she added, a playful gleam flickering in her eyes, "I meant it when I said I can’t handle him alone."

Vel’s face flushed with confusion and something more.

Akayoroi leaned in, her voice a near whisper. "If Kai ever accepts the idea... then I would rather share him with those I trust than watch strangers circle him like a hungry predator. You’re my sisters. If it happens... we’ll face it together."

She paused, glancing down at her still glowing abdomen. "But don’t place too much hope in it. He chooses with his heart. If he says no... we respect that."

Vel swallowed hard, her voice a shaky murmur. "Still... if he says yes..."

Akayoroi gave her shoulder a small squeeze. "Then we’ll all have to be very strong. He’s more than just a mate... he’s a storm. And once he puts it inside you... your world won’t ever be the same."

Vel nodded slowly, a blush blooming across her cheeks. "I’ll remember that... my Queen."

Outside the tunnel...

Kai climbed on the tallest tree, a lone silhouette against a bruised sky. From here the Southern Forest stretched in layers of slate grey in the foreground, cobalt in the distance, and somewhere beyond that bloom of color the hazy line of ocean he’d only heard rumors about. Whispered myths called it the Sea of the lost, a body of water each great regional land claimed yet few dared to cross.

He drew a dagger and knelt, tracing a rough map in the soot dark marshland covering the forest Many areas. Every line was a choice: gulley versus ridge, marsh versus canyon. He marked Easter forest route, the Monarch Mountain with an X of twin scratches, then sketched two travel arcs like parentheses. The inland route meandered around beast territories; the coastal path cut straight north east but carried its own unknowns.

"Two days," he muttered aloud, voice low and dry like the breeze up here.

He dragged a line deeper into the map line, thickening the lines previously carved into the map. His hand moved with focus, but his mouth twisted in amusement.

"Twelve odd travelers... among them: four wounded, one beautiful queen whose belly now pulses with my future army, a savage rabbit scout who wants my meat like it’s roasted carrot jerky, and five war scarred assassin sisters—still half jealous, half awestruck."

He paused, squinting at a jutting rock shaped like an arrowhead, pointing South east.

"They all want my ’monarch essence,’" he groaned. "They look at me like I’m some walking banquet of pheromones and protein. I swear, even the wounded ones in the corner gave me a hungry look this morning."

He glanced down at his own shadow, stretched long and leaned across the leaves spur beneath him. It shimmered with residual aura, proof of his power. Proof of strength.

Kai sighed. "If I let my guard down in the journey even one night, they might tie me up and suck me dry like some rare aphrodisiac beetle."

The thought was half joke, half legitimate fear.

"I can’t let that happen. Not now. Not yet."

He looked up and flexed his arms, the hard muscles under his clothes armor responding with perfect tension. Each fiber of his being still remembered the ecstasy of the mating chamber, but now he needed to reset. Refocus. Reclaim the edge of discipline that had brought him this far.

"I’m the Monarch Devouring Ant," he said to himself, louder now. "I lead. I fight. I will survive."

The last word hung in the air like a blade unsheathed.

He leaned back on his heels and let the breeze cool his face. It smelled of pine resin and the faint metallic tang of distant tidepools. The air up here was sharper, clearer—free from the tunnel’s damp pheromone haze. Still, phantom sensations lingered: Akayoroi’s breath against his throat, the echo of her promise.

Then he recalled the restless curiosity of eleven other pairs of eyes that followed him through the tunnels like heat seeking fungi.

Kai rubbed a hand across his brow and chuckled under his breath. Talking thorax...

Who would’ve thought an army-breaking monarch could be rattled by playful gossip?

Far below, laughter floated from a vine-shrouded entrance—Azhara’s high, teasing chortle answered by Sha’s flustered retort. Kai could almost visualize the scene: the rabbit twirling a spear handle like a baton, Sha pretending not to look as Vel tallied rations. It felt oddly domestic, and that unsettled him more than any beast fight.

He reopened the mental overlay of his Soul-Link—a network of faint silver threads branching from his core to each branded subordinate. Luna and Miryam flickered softly at the edge of awareness, a gentle reminder of what waited in the east. Akayoroi’s presence glowed warmer, anchored just beneath his heart like a newly forged star. Dozens more threads pulsed in subtle rhythm.

Then, quieter: "Later... When we reach my monarch mountain and the tunnels are built... then maybe I’ll let them take their turns one by one. Or take them all at once."

He smirked. "And I’ll make them beg for more. They want to taste my anaconda so badly. I will teach them a lesson."

With a last glance at the grove below, where teasing voices echoed faintly. Kai brushed the dust over the map and turned to face the sea wind curling from the east.

The next move wasn’t a bed. It was a battlefield. And he’d be ready. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"First let’s check the sea."

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