Inn Overlord: Reincarnated with Enhancement Magic, Now Worshipped as a Divine Messenger! - Chapter18

Seraph’s Perspective

Luka swung her club around, knocking back the charging army ants like baseballs. The griffon lady used wind magic to push and blow them away.

“Seraph-sama! It’s done!”

“Seraph-sama! Another one is coming from this side!”

Two ants that slipped past their attacks rushed toward me.

“Seraph!?”

“Woof!”

David called out to me. Two army ants were right in front of me. I grabbed their protruding jaws with each hand, stopping their movement.

I felt bad for the two ants before me, but I cast an enhancement spell that amplified fear on one of them. Then, by using sensory enhancement, I confirmed that the other ant, which had no spell cast on it, had the same scent as the pheromones stuck to the griffon lady. In other words, this army ant had been marked with attack pheromones.

I spoke up.

“Luka!? Send another one this way!”

“Okay~!”

One of the army ants dodged Luka’s swinging club and charged toward me and the ants I had stopped.

However, instead of attacking me, the charging ant began attacking the ant marked with pheromones.

—Good!

I threw the fear-enhanced ant away and used my free hand to grab the ant attacking its own ally, then tossed it far away.

Next, I used magic detection to trace the magic emitted by the pheromone-covered ant. I found another ant in the back that was sensing this magic. Then, I traced the magic of that ant to another one behind it.

It was like hacking into a chain of connected magical signals. I repeated the process, following the link back to the ants’ nest and locating the queen ant deep inside.

If the worker ants were the size of small cars, the queen ant was as huge as a four-ton truck.

Now was the time.

Using the same principle the queen ant had used to track us, I connected to the army ants’ magic and detected the queen far away. I also noticed several guard ants near her.

At the same time, I felt something else.

The queen ant had overwhelming hatred, but beneath it, she also carried a deep sadness—a wish to be stopped.

At that moment, I considered using the same fear-enhancing magic on the queen’s guards. I planned to force them to release warning pheromones. If those pheromones stuck to the queen or spread among the worker ants, it would confuse their command system—or even make them turn against the queen. That would create an opening for us to strike.

But I hesitated.

She, the queen ant, was also under mind control—just like the griffon lady had been.

I thought.

—What if I used mental enhancement on the queen instead?

—But I can only use my enhancement spell one more time.

—In this weakened state, casting mental enhancement remotely might fail…

—If I force the guards to release warning pheromones, we’ll be safe, but the queen might die…

Should I kill the queen to save the worker ants? Or should I take the uncertain chance of saving the queen and all the worker ants? If I failed, we would have to fight 8,000 ants.

As Luka and the griffon lady fought desperately, I made my decision.

I cast the mental enhancement spell on the queen ant.

—Please! Let this work!

I sent the remote enhancement to the queen, but the army ants’ attacks did not stop.

“Damn it!! Did I fail!?”

As frustration escaped my lips and my consciousness wavered from magic exhaustion, the ants suddenly calmed down and started leaving. Even the ones that had been knocked away by Luka and the griffon lady got up and retreated as if nothing had happened.

“Haa… It worked… somehow…”

I sighed in relief and collapsed on the spot.

We had finally escaped danger.

“W-What did you do?”

David approached me with a questioning look. Beside him, Vilkas sat, wagging his tail.

“Um—”

As I petted Vilkas’s head, I explained.

“A remote enhancement spell? That’s even possible…?”

David seemed surprised. Meanwhile, Luka and the griffon lady spoke up.

“That was amazing, Seraph-sama!”

“As expected of you!”

Both of them rushed toward me as I sat on the ground, trying to lift me up.

“This time, I will carry Seraph-sama!”

“If Luka carries Seraph-sama, she won’t be able to use her club, will she?”

The two smiled at each other but glared as if challenging one another.

At that moment, five army ants approached us.

We prepared for battle again, but then a voice echoed directly into our heads.

“Thank you for saving us.”

We looked at each other and searched for the source of the voice. The answer was the same for all of us.

The voice was coming from the army ants.