Episode 74 — The Identity of the Bug, and the Proposal for a Biological Patch

As the sky outside my window began to pale, I let out a long sigh in my study chair.

Displayed on the screen was data on "Weaver Ants" I’d found online, showing their incredible defensive capabilities. High aggression, twenty-four-hour patrol shifts, and thorough elimination of foreign invaders. As a patch to save the elven village, the specs were perfect.

(The logic holds up. But the real problem is that I don't know the environment.)

Did ants with these specs actually live in the Ern Forest? What was the current ecological balance? I was drastically short on the necessary "raw data."

(I found the answer, but I need an environment compatibility test. ...Alright. I'll reuse those three as 'testers.')

I started up the translation printer and began writing the "spec sheet" for the next phase.

***

The next morning.

Gustav, Elishua, and Bartos gathered in the living room. They seemed to have regained a bit of energy after a night's rest, but their faces still carried the heavy shadow of the village’s impending doom.

I stood up from my Throne of Sloth and adjusted the monitor to the best angle for the three of them to see.

"Morning. I’ll start by telling you what I’ve found."

Displayed on the monitor was the image I’d analyzed all night by pushing my PC to its limits. It was a close-up of the fruit the elves called the "start of the curse."

"Elishua. The true identity of what you guys call the 'Curse of the Forest' or the 'Wrath of the Spirits'... is likely this."

I pointed to the base of the fruit in the magnified image. There, clearly visible, were tiny perforations and white, powder-like deposits that had surely been overlooked by elven eyes and detection magic.

"This is... is it not just dirt?" Elishua asked, her eyes going wide as she peered at the monitor.

"Nope. These are insect eggs and traces of sap being sucked out. ...What’s attacking the village isn't a magical phenomenon. It’s just a pest infestation... specifically, a resource hijack caused by an explosive increase in a certain insect. At least, that's the most likely scenario."

When I told them that, Elishua muttered, "Insects... and such tiny ones at that..." She stared at the monitor, lost in deep thought. Eventually, as if realizing something, she began to speak in a trembling voice.

"My magic is constructed to react to 'hostility,' 'mana,' or 'abnormal filth.' But these insects are just tiny living beings... no different from the forest background itself. If billions of them are hiding inside the trees and behind the leaves... I cannot process them with wide-area magic..."

In Elishua’s eyes, despair was replaced by a mixture of regret and a deep understanding of the system of her own magic. She stared at her own hands, making no effort to hide the trembling of her fingertips as she vented her frustration.

"So that's why no matter how much I prayed or poured mana into the forest, nothing changed... We were fighting an invisible enemy..."

"The logic is sound. Now, let’s verify it," I said.

Gustav leaned forward with an earnest expression.

"Zect, if the cause is 'insects,' is there a countermeasure? The orchards in the Ern Forest are far too vast to dispatch the Knights and cull them by hand..."

"Manual labor is impossible. That’s why I’m thinking of using this."

I switched the screen to display the documents I’d fished out from the sea of the internet regarding "pest control via ants."

"Ants...?"

"Yes, ants. ...Listen, if there are billions of pests, we just need to hire billions of guardians. They build nests in the trees, patrol around the clock, and eliminate any intruders they find. It’s the ultimate automated defense program, using a species called Weaver Ants."

I broke down the stories of ant farming used in African cocoa plantations and ancient China into terms they could understand. The idea was to build an environment that didn't need pesticides just by placing nests. At the thought of "hacking the laws of nature," a spark of hope lit up their faces.

"Splendid! As expected of Master Zect! You mean to have the ants protect the forest as if they were familiars! In that case, we must tell the villagers immediately—"

"Wait. Don't get ahead of yourself."

I cut off Elishua’s excitement with a flat tone.

"The logic holds up, but this is just a success story from somewhere else. Does the Ern Forest actually have ants with these same specs? And if they do, what’s their power level compared to the current pests? ...Unless we know that, releasing ants will just cause another ecological bug, like an invasive species problem."

Elishua’s eyes, which had been shining with hope, regained a bit of composure.

"First, we need to scan the village... we need a thorough investigation. What kind of ants are in which layers, and who is the top-tier killer? I can't write the spec sheet until we collect that raw data."

"Raw data... So, you mean an investigation is necessary," Gustav said, nodding deeply.

"Exactly. So Elishua, I want you to go back to the village and get your hands dirty. Not as a mage, but as a 'tester' who determines the truth of the forest."

Elishua looked at her clean fingertips for a split second, then quickly clenched her fists tight.

"I understand, Master Zect. Please teach me how to conduct this investigation. ...I will surely gather the fragments of truth needed to save this forest!"

I lined up the "investigation equipment" I’d prepared next to my throne—plastic cups, white cloth, and nets—on the table.

"Alright. I'll teach you the efficient investigation procedure based on the entomology I’ve researched. ...Everyone, listen carefully."

From despair to hypothesis. And from hypothesis to verification. The master of Felsen’s full-scale "debugging" of the elven village was about to begin.

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