When Theo began reading through the Shardjaw ants’ abilities, he quickly felt like it was a lot to digest and understand all of it. There was simply so much information that he refrained from looking at it any further.
So, instead of checking the status of the rest of the ants, Theo went directly to the ant queen and noticed sothing.
"So you gained the spatial traits... but didn’t evolve? Nor did you get any evolution requirent...?" he muttered aloud.
"That’s strange."
Yet the ant queen responded with emotions that resembled explanation.
It tried to convey that the newer generations would now inherit the spatial abilities simply because the ant queen itself had acquired them.
Theo was pleased by that.
But sothing still felt wrong.
And as if sensing his doubt, the ant queen tried to deflect that. Theo narrowed his eyes.
"Are you sure you’re telling the whole thing, ant queen?" he asked firmly.
The ant queen fell silent for a while, confirming Theo’s suspicion, but what she said through the bond next gave Theo an even worse headache.
"So... you rejected the evolution option yourself? Without telling what it even was?" Theo’s voice turned sharp, annoyance evident in his tone.
He couldn’t help but feel shocked and frustrated too. The ant queen was able to outright reject the evolution option.
"I am VERY VERY disappointed in you, ant queen." Theo said, not realizing that he was still speaking out loud.
Both attendants and the Baron glanced at his furious expression, then at the silent army of ants beside him. They kept watching on the sidelines while Theo continued.
Through the bond, the ant queen sent waves of emotions of concern that turned into panic when it read Theo’s thoughts.
Theo entered the bond space and saw the ant queen approaching him out of the depths this ti.
When it ca close, it waited, expecting the usual pat on the head from Theo.
But there was no response in the bond at all, making the ant queen panic even more.
’You just rejected an evolution option without consulting , ant queen... Do you think that was the right thing to do?’ Theo asked, frustration seeping into his voice.
The ant queen’s mandibles began moving rapidly, as if it was in deep thought.
Through their bond, it sent a wave of emotions to Theo, which he interpreted as, ’It didn’t feel that great of an evolution, so I rejected it.’
A vein throbbed on his forehead.
"It seems I never gave you commands like that before, but you still did it on your own... and to lose a spatial evolution because of it..."
A part of him knew it was sowhat his fault. Still, how was it supposed to occur to him that a beast could reject an evolution by itself? That was a very random thing to even think of.
The ant queen had nothing to say, and there were emotions of sadness and concern all over the place.
Theo felt bad, but he couldn’t afford to show his weakness at the mont.
It was like a parent was teaching their kid a lesson. If they softened midway, the child might think it could get away with a simple, innocent and sad expression.
"You won’t do that again, you got it, ant queen?" Theo said firmly in the bond, "You will not reject any of yours or anyone else’s evolution options until I have seen them first."
"If you had just asked , I would have explained to you that you can get more than just one evolution option. That way, we could have stored it for later."
Theo spoke, recalling the fact that they just lost a spatial evolution for the entire colony’s head.
’If the smaller worker ants had such crazy powerful skills... then what could the ant queen have gained?’ Theo couldn’t help but imagine.
The ant queen stepped closer and gently nudged its forehead against Theo in apology.
Theo could feel the genuine regret and guilt it was feeling and also the sting of being scolded by him for the first ti.
"Just make sure you don’t do it again, alright? If we didn’t get this one and you rejected it too, maybe it wasn’t ant to be for us." Theo spoke to cool his head.
"I am not mad anymore, so don’t worry about it."
He muttered again and patted its head a few tis before coming out of the bond and opening his eyes.
Just as his eyes opened, he saw Clara and Elias standing nearby.
"How are you feeling now, young master?" Elias asked, holding a plate of freshly cooked al.
But the army of thousands of ants around Theo didn’t make it easy for him.
"Since I woke up, my headache is much better," Theo replied as he picked up the mantis with his left hand and tried to stand.
As he tried to get up, sothing felt... off.
He felt like he was already fully upright, and yet he was still getting up. It felt like things around him were in slow motion or sothing.
Theo commanded the ants to make way. Almost imdiately, the ants parted, forming a road ahead.
He took a step forward.
To him, it felt painfully slow, but at the sa ti, both Clara and Elias only had smiles on their faces seeing him walk.
On his third step, Theo stumbled a little and began falling forward.
Clara rushed toward him to catch him from falling, but at that exact mont, Theo decided he didn’t want the help and wanted to try it out on his own.
He decided to not let Clara get him and shifted to the side to avoid her grasp.
’What...?’ He saw Clara continue moving straight ahead, even though he had already moved to the side.
When she finally turned her head to the side, Clara’s eyes widened in shock.
Theo was falling sideways now.
And when his focus was gone...
He felt he had hit a wall only to realize that the baron had stepped in and caught him.
"You need to explain what your ability is about, son," the baron said gravely.
"IMDIATELY."
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