Why Did You Summon Me?

As soon as Baiyi came out, he discovered that their cabin in the woods was surrounded by as much horror as the Cabin in the Woods ¹ was. A swarm of bull-sized ants had their little shelter of cabins completely surrounded, getting on the soul armature’s last nerves. Subconsciously, black flames appeared on Baiyi’s raised palm.

‘How did it even come to this? This is the first time I have ever brought the students to a quiet, unpopulated, little place, successfully evading that creepy festival. It should have been a win-win!’

‘How did it even come to this?! First, I was suddenly forced into a big five-v-one battle — something I didn’t sign up for; after that, a wilder and crazier enemy appeared. Now, there are crazy-big insects staring down at me. Wasn’t this supposed to be a happy and heartwarming family trip? How the bloody hell did its plot turn into that of a surreal fiction?! ² ‘

“Daddy! No!” Mordred sensed Baiyi’s killing intent and hugged him from behind. “They are not baddies! They don’t wanna hurt us…”

Baiyi shot a skeptical glance at the little troublemaker with a daddy complex, then he turned to stare into the eyes of the huge ant standing closest to him.

His non-human students raced to the scene and stood between the ants and their mentor. Then, they took up the role of translating, while assuming a strange position. The kitsune placed Sunny the Sunflower’s pot on its head, and Potter the owl flew over and perched on the sunflower’s petal.

‘This translation group is kinda….’

The translation process was just as awkward. The fox waved its paws and wagged its tail at the ants; the sunflower twisted about strangely in what resembled an attempt at dancing, and the owl was hooting strangely atop the sunflower. After a short period of weird gesturing, the trio turned to face Baiyi and passed the ants’ words to him.

“Whoa! That big guy looks so scary!”

“Eeeehh! He’s so ugly! Is he really your friend?”

“Oh, he knows magic too?”

Baiyi read the mana-words that were projected by the fox and felt his words get stuck in his throat. ‘How do these ants act in a manner that is contrary to their looks?’

There were differences between these ants and normal ants, other than their abnormally large size. For instance, these ants had an extra pair of front legs, as well as a pair of sharp claws. Their shells were really thick and durable, reflecting a cold tinge under the light from Lumos. This showed just how hard these shells were. Instead of an oval-shaped behind, these ants had a long, segmented tail, similar to a scorpion’s; each tail had a horrifying aculeus at its end. The ants’ entire anatomy could make one’s hair stand on end.

These ants seemed as though they had been created to be the monster antagonists of horror flicks; monsters that were cruel, bloodthirst, and hungry for carnage. However, these ants did not have compound eyes that are characteristic of insects; instead, they had big, round orbs for eyes. The orbs seemed as though the had been ripped off a chibi comic, where character have round, starry eyes. Their heads were far too big and round, and their antennae darted about in a lively manner, making them seem upbeat.

Just like that, the ants were unlike the ‘monster’ one would expect them to be.

Now that Baiyi could understand with the giant ants were saying, he was surprised to find that these ants could be even described as ‘cute’, despite their appearance.

The hell has this world turned into? When exactly did it break down?

As Baiyi was scanning the ants, they were doing the same to him. Their leader’s antennae twitched wildly, summoning its friends to come and look at the weirdo! Some ants quickly came over, and their antennae twitched and brushed against each other as the ants communicated amongst themselves.

Most messages were negative reviews of Baiyi’s fashion sense! One ant asked why Baiyi’s face contained only three lines. Another ant noted that Baiyi’s “antennae” was too short and his wings, too small.

Unfortunately, the fox, the sunflower, and the owl translated well and were able to convey to Baiyi exactly what the ants were saying.

‘I… I still feel like killing them.’ Baiyi’s mind raced with that thought; however, his students seemed to have long since warmed up to them, so…

Nota the Fairy arrived at this point and took over the translation. She did much better than the three before her, instantly translating whatever was said as soon as it was said. Baiyi sat down on the ground, and the ant leader proceeded to sit beside it in a dog-like position.

Baiyi glanced at the swarm leader and began to wonder how it could sit like a dog when it had a long, segmented, venomous tail resembling a scorpion’s tail. As soon as the swarm leader sat down, it engaged Baiyi in conversation, with a serious countenance.

These large ants called themselves the “Forest Fairies”; yes, ‘fairy’. Not the wrestling ♂ fairy from Shin Nippori ³ .

An educated guess from a biological standpoint placed these critters as creatures somewhat similar to Nota. However, unlike them, Nota was a beautiful and adorable little girl who had a small, unimposing frame, a gentle and docile behavior, and a very soft voice. ‘She is completely different from these creeps who don’t know the art of having proper conversations.’

“W-what a group of adorable critters! So cute and very interesting!” The Soul Armature Practitioner cried out in delight in the Void. “So fairies without humanoid figures exit, huh? They even assume such a strange form! This could be the breakthrough of the century in biology!”

‘Too bad there isn’t a Nobel prize for you,’ Baiyi thought.

After conversing with the swarm leader and a few Voidwalkers, who were well versed in biology and made a few educated guesses, for a while, Baiyi came to the conclusion that, although these forest fairies looked like individuals, they functioned as a collective. This was akin to a mental patient suffering from a dissociative personality disorder or a group of cells living together to form one collective, overarching consciousness.

They referred to themselves as the protectors and masters of the small realm, and they had lived there for many years, dutifully carrying out their mission without fail. They had chosen to adopt their pugnacious form to better carry out their duties.

The forest fairies did not show any avarice towards Mia and the others, neither did they speak menacingly. Instead, they had helped Aya and the students build these cabins, and they had been providing food, which humans could eat, for Baiyi’s posse.

‘A very odd way of receiving outsiders… It couldn’t be that these creepy creatures have a strong preference for cute girls, right?’

Of course, Baiyi would not ask such a direct question out loud. Instead, he asked, in a more roundabout way, “Mission? What could be your mission?”

“Do you not already possess it?” The forest fairy leader said.

At that moment, Baiyi felt like there was a shift in its mode. He was not sure if it was as a result of Nota the fairy’s translation or something else, but the forest fairy leader’s tone of voice had suddenly changed from a friendly tone to a somber tone.

Even the other ants that had been playing the girls, including the ants that were being ridden around, all stopped mechanically and turned to stare at Baiyi collectively.

“You… You’re a collective consciousness, right?” Baiyi asked, wondering if this was similar to the way mental patients who had just regained their memories woke up.

“You may call me the Sexton,” the forest fairy leader replied.

“Sexton..?” Baiyi was stunned; he realized that the forest fairy leader had just answered a question that bugged him a while ago. Their mission… was it to guard a grave?

“A great being who does not flinch in sacrificing their own life when the cause demands it,” the forest fairy leader continued. It gazed deep into Baiyi’s eyes for a while before uttering, “Now, you have inherited its legacy.”

“Wha?!” Baiyi exclaimed, and he quickly produced the leather suit. “You meant this one?”

“I’ll help you…” The forest fairy leader said. It only gave one glance at the leather suit and suddenly froze for a short while.

Then, it suddenly perked up and asked, “Whoo? Where were we? I lost track… Oh right! You guys came here to play, right? I know a few sick places to hang out; want me to bring you guys on them trips?”

‘He didn’t even finish what he had to say, and now it’s back to the dissonance,’ Baiyi thought in dismay as he rejected the forest fairy leader’s offer. “Nah, it’s fine. I’m already grateful for your help in taking care of my kids.”

“They are friendly, see? Not like those annoying baddies that you had to rip the lives out of!” The forest fairy leader replied cheerfully as its antennae jerked in a lively manner. “Those intruders weren’t supposed to come in, but they barged in anyways, and they were a little, wittle, itsy-bitsy too powerful for us to take care. So! We were pleased that you were around, and you’re even more powerful than they were! You are so coooool!”

“You watched me fight?” Baiyi followed up.

“Of course! We are everywhere and anywhere. We see everything around these parts!” The forest fairy leader raised its head high and beamed.

“Why treat my students so well? We are intruding just as much as those guys were, right?”

The forest fairy leader’s antennae twitched from side to side, as though it was shaking its head sideways, then it replied, “Nah. You passed the test, so you’re our friend now. I mean, you look so ugly and everything, but you’re still our ugly friend.”

‘Do you even know how to chat with a person? And also, what’s with your beauty standards?’ Baiyi could only retort in his head.

Baiyi continued to chat with the ant leader for a while, and he finally understood what the ant leader had meant by ‘the test’; it basically referred to the fight between himself and the leather suit. Contrary to his own conjecture, his fight with the leather suit was a test, not a fight resulting from the activation of its defense mechanism.

This discovery was different from what he had deduced. It had taken a huge amount of luck for Baiyi to trigger the battle with the leather suit; if he had not, the forest fairies would have treated Mia and the other students as enemies!

Baiyi did not try to probe any deeper into the purpose of the test and the meaning of the legacy that the forest fairy leader spoke of. The forest fairy leader did not return to its somber countenance, either. It answered whatever Baiyi asked it with an “I don’t know”; there was no way to know if it was just feigning ignorance.

However, the ants did show Baiyi how they had managed to evade his psychic scanning. The forest fairy leader walked towards a tree and merged with it. When Baiyi scanned the tree, he could not detect the ant leader, only the tree itself.

Suddenly, the forest fairy leader burrowed out of the mud just beside Baiyi and sat down. The Fifth Walker had not even any changes in the air.

This was the perfect stealth technique! Are these things really only some sort of forest sprites? Are they really a part of nature?