Chapter 179
Lately, Queen Bee Arsha had been under significant mental pressure.
And who could blame her?
Her true body was essentially held hostage in the Shadow Dungeon, meaning her life was tethered to Suho’s hands.
On top of that, Suho was the priest of the Plague Monarch, Queen of Insects, Querehsha—so she had every reason to stay in his good graces.
The problem was, no matter how much she tried to please him, there simply wasn’t much she could actually do for him.
At best, she could send her worker bees out to gather intel…
But even that began to feel insufficient once Im Do-Gyun, whom she had written off as a useless human, suddenly started displaying tremendous competence.
‘To think I’d feel competitive toward someone like that!’
It was humiliating.
For Arsha, who had always considered Im Do-Gyun to rank below her worker bees, this was a deeply irritating turn of events.
But what choice did she have?
If she wanted to avoid falling out of favor with Suho, she had to step up.
At the very least, she needed to prove more useful than Im Do-Gyun, the lowest-ranking member of Woojin Guild.
‘This won’t do. I need to increase the number of worker bees as much as possible.’
She had never felt her forces were lacking before—but this time, she decided to multiply them tenfold.
‘Since non-combat worker bees are easy to produce, I’ll overwhelm with quantity!’
Arsha had never attempted this method before.
As a queen bee, she had always prioritized quality over quantity to ensure her own safety.
But now, with her true body safely (?) hidden away in the Shadow Dungeon, it was time to prioritize numbers over strength.
WEEEEEEEEEEE—
Arsha’s army of worker bees began to multiply rapidly under her command.
The method was simple.
She fed her royal jelly to ordinary bees across the world.
Just one human-sized sip of royal jelly was enough to enslave an entire hive.
And thus…
WEEEEEEEEEEEEE—
Her worker bees spread across the entire country.
‘Until now I’ve only gathered information about villains. But from now on, we’ll focus on anything related to demon factories, Stardust, or the Church of the Outer Gods!’
WEEEEEEEEEEEEE—
Her worker bees buzzed tirelessly, doing their best to collect the information Arsha demanded.
But there was one problem—worker bees weren’t smart.
Arsha had mass-produced them without granting them any special abilities.
Which meant she had to personally analyze and sort through all the data they brought back.
[Ugh. The… the headache…]
Drowning in the overwhelming flood of incoming information, Arsha was nearly driven to delirium.
But she didn’t give up.
Her pride as a queen bee would not allow her to retreat so easily.
She forced herself to absorb and manage the data sent from tens of thousands of bees.
And then…
Something unexpected happened.
[……!]
Arsha’s consciousness—previously occupied with coordinating her massive swarm—suddenly exploded outward in a burst of clarity.
[Aaah…!]
She collapsed to the floor, her entire body trembling.
Then—
CRACKLE!
A transparent husk shed from her body.
[The Queen of Insects, Plague Monarch, is watching the Queen Bee.]
“Hm?”
In the middle of a daily quest, Suho raised an eyebrow at the sudden message from Querehsha.
Though his limbs felt crushed and he could barely lift his head, Querehsha’s voice continued to echo in his mind.
[The Queen of Insects, Plague Monarch, remembers the name of Queen Bee Arsha.]
‘…Remembers Arsha’s name?’
This was the first time Querehsha had ever referred to Arsha directly by name.
Querehsha was the queen of all insects.
Arsha, as a queen bee, had merely been one of many lesser kin—barely worth his attention.
So why now?
‘Whatever happened, it looks like Arsha might become Querehsha’s successor after all?’
[Forty-one.]
“……?!”
At that moment, Ammit’s stern voice cut into Suho’s thoughts.
“Forty-two!”
[Your form is off. Forty-one.]
“Ugh.”
Faced with Ammit’s unyielding discipline, Suho clenched his teeth and resumed push-ups.
By the time he finally finished his daily quest, Arsha appeared before him.
[Suho-nim, I think my worker bees have found something.]
With a serious look, Arsha began relaying the intel gathered by her bees.
[There seems to be a strange ‘superstition’ spreading among low-ranked Hunters lately.]
“A superstition?”
[Ever since the Association classified Stardust as an illegal substance, more and more Hunters have begun wearing it as jewelry.]
“Jewelry? What do you mean?”
Turning Stardust into jewelry?
Suho raised an eyebrow, confused, and Arsha continued her explanation solemnly.
[They harden the Stardust into stone-like beads and wear it as a necklace. Then, before entering a dungeon, they pray to it.]
“…They pray?”
Suho felt a strange sensation in his gut.
Technically, Stardust wasn’t illegal if it wasn’t consumed.
But to deliberately fashion it into a necklace—and pray to it?
That wasn’t normal.
“I saw something like that on HunterNet recently.”
Just then, Im Do-Gyun, who had collapsed during training, began crawling over and chimed in.
Suho pried his mouth open and fed him a potion. Only then did Im Do-Gyun regain enough strength to speak properly.
“Ever since Stardust was outlawed, the people who had stocked up on it in bulk have been freaking out. They’re stuck with piles of unsellable inventory. And, well, the Association isn’t about to compensate them for it.”
Once people learned that the manufacturing process of Stardust involved burning people alive, no one wanted to consume it anymore.
“So eventually, a trend started where people claimed to pray for the souls of those who died during Stardust production.”
“Hmm.”
“And then people began making necklaces out of the leftover Stardust they bought before it was banned. Technically, using Stardust to boost mana is illegal—but this was framed as a symbolic gesture with good intentions, so they’re basically offloading leftover stock in a nice way.”
As Im Do-Gyun explained, Suho’s expression grew more serious.
‘Praying for the souls of the dead.’
On the surface, it seemed like a good gesture.
But the issue was the object of those prayers.
The core ingredient of Stardust—“Blue Mist”—was extra-dimensional mana that melted the borders between dimensions.
In other words, it was the very essence of Itarim’s invasion.
And they were praying to that Blue Mist?
“This… really doesn’t feel right.”
[I thought it might be related to the Church of the Outer Gods in some way, so I reported it.]
At Arsha’s comment, Suho nodded.
Come to think of it, things involving Itarim were never just coincidences.
“Arsha, those Hunters praying to the necklaces…”
[My worker bees have already identified them.]
“No, not the Hunters. Find out who’s selling those Stardust necklaces to them.”
[Ah…!]
Arsha’s eyes widened.
[Understood! I’ll find out right away.]
Without hesitation, Arsha sent out a psychic command to her nationwide network of worker bees.
Not long after—
[Found them.]
Since the Hunters already wearing the necklaces had been tracked, finding the source wasn’t difficult.
It wasn’t even illegal, so the sellers hadn’t gone out of their way to be discreet.
Arsha even went one step further—tracking where the sellers themselves were sourcing the necklaces from.
[There are many distributors, but they’re all getting the necklaces from the same place.]
“Same place? Where?”
[Gyeonggi-do, Yangpyeong.]
“Yangpyeong?!”
[……?]
[Kiieek?]
At Suho’s intense reaction, both Arsha and Beru looked puzzled.
[Young Lord, is something wrong with that location?]
Beru asked as Suho sighed and rubbed his forehead.
“That’s… where my grandparents live.”
[Kiieeeek?!]
* * *
Suho’s grandfather, Sung Il-Hwan.
In Suho’s childhood memories, his grandfather had always smelled faintly of smoke—a firefighter through and through.
Even when his son, Sung Jinwoo, begged him to finally retire and rest, Il-Hwan never gave up his duty.
He worked side by side with young recruits up to his very last day on the job, retiring only after reaching the official retirement age.
Suho still vividly remembered his grandfather’s retirement ceremony.
‘Thank you for your service, sir!’
‘Thank you, sir!’
‘Thank you for everything!’
……
As his colleagues and juniors applauded him, Sung Il-Hwan stepped down from the stage with pride.
Even that day, his firefighter uniform carried the faint scent of smoke.
After a lifetime of service, Suho’s grandfather moved to the countryside with his wife, saying he just wanted to farm quietly.
Well—“countryside” was a bit of a stretch.
They hadn’t left the Gyeonggi Province.
Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi-do.
Far enough from Seoul to be peaceful, but close enough to stay connected—a place filled with open fields, rivers, and beautiful scenery.
The one who provided Suho’s grandparents with a comfortable home there had been none other than Yoo Jinho.
But now, of all places—why Yangpyeong?
‘Of all places… it had to be where Grandpa lives!’
The thought that the Church of the Outer Gods might be operating near his grandparents filled Suho with urgency.
And yet, even more agitated than Suho was—Beru.
[W-We must go immediately! This is a grave matter!]
Beru had just recalled something he had completely forgotten until now.
How could he have let it slip his mind?!
[This is entirely my fault! I deserve severe punishment, but right now we must hurry!]
“What is it? Is there something I don’t know?”
As Suho rushed toward Yangpyeong where his grandfather lived, Beru answered with a grave tone.
[Until now, we assumed the Apostles of Itarim were only targeting National-Level Hunters—vessels capable of containing their power. But… they may not be the only targets!]
“What do you mean?”
[Your grandfather, Young Lord—he, too, was once a Hunter blessed by the Rulers in his past life!]
“……!”
At that revelation, Suho dashed toward Yangpyeong at full speed.
