By the way, you dare to spy on my terrarium. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I know how to spy too. You picked the wrong human, Jaehee. I will pay you back thoroughly.

Sliding through the terrarium management screen on my phone, the information window for the hornet appeared.

I used the hornet to send messages to Kalong and to check chat logs when facing the fire-worshipping organization. As long as there were enough unripe fruits, the parasite implanted in this hornet could do remarkable things.

Earlier, Pila said that releasing the hornet before implanting the parasite would result in the extinction of all bees in the area, even preying on both honeybees and hornets. At that time, I wondered what use that would be… Anyway, its combat power was widely recognized.

I planned to infect all the bees in the 16th terrarium with the loop parasite. If Papillion could see through the terrarium with one wallet, I decided to see through the terrarium’s chat logs with one phone. Someone as meticulous as him could never have imagined such a method, right?

On the day I encountered Iris’s party and the fire organization, the hornet I sent to monitor detected a bee, and a confirmation window popped up asking whether to infect it. I didn’t like having to manually confirm every time it found an infection target.

So I mutated the purpose of the parasite entirely. Now, without needing me to press confirm, any bee it encounters will be infected without question.

High Infection Loop Parasite No. 5

Reproduction count: 2

Current set purpose: Indiscriminate infection attack

When a creature capable of infection attack is detected, it will definitely infect it.

Infected creatures will follow the host’s behavior and infect other creatures.

“While the purpose is active, the host’s satiety continuously decreases.”

Go, Pila’s super hornet. Wipe out the bees in the area until you find Papillion’s chat channel.

As if responding to my encouragement, the hornet flew off vigorously. Soon after, the reproduction count began to skyrocket.

The hornet, like a street thug, beat up all the bees in the area, and the beaten bees, like zombies, kept infecting other bees. The bee owners would never know, but it was a pandemonium among the bees themselves.

As I smirked while looking at my phone screen, the dryads gathered around with faces full of curiosity.

I have a plan. I’ll take control.

Bored of waiting, I took a nap, and when I woke up, the reproduction count had become a four-digit number. The zombie apocalypse of bees was unfolding in the 16th terrarium. The hornet seemed to have dealt with its depleted satiety by eating the unripe fruits I had prepared earlier. Ten of them were already gone.

The reproduction count stopped increasing at some point. All the bees in the terrarium had come under the wings of my queen bee.

Now only my grunt work remained. I had to change the purpose to surveillance and eavesdropping and mute all chat channels except the useful ones.

The range for peeking at chat logs was only about 100 to 200 meters, so if necessary, I had to go outside and wander around. The thought of me walking around staring at my phone like a smombie was amusing, but….

As soon as I changed the parasite’s purpose to surveillance and eavesdropping, messages started pouring in like crazy. The inn I was staying at was very close to the square, so there was a lot of foot traffic, and the conversations coming and going were no joke. If my phone had a battery limit, it wouldn’t have lasted five minutes with that kind of power.

The scroll speed was almost as fast as the market channel, making me feel like I’d been thrown into a flood of information without a life jacket. This wasn’t something that could be solved with manual labor, was it?

I wished there was something like chat filtering… When I searched through the parasite’s info window, I found out it was possible to reinforce the purpose of ‘surveillance and eavesdropping.’ It was a function where bees would only catch words I wanted and deliver them via pheromones.

Come to think of it, Pila was really a genius… But as he bragged about himself, it was clear he wasn’t the kind of talent to be in a 5th-grade research position. Without knowing it themselves, Pila and Loop had collaborated and built a chat system in no time.

The surveillance and eavesdropping function I’d used before had delivered messages with quite a lot of garbled text. If I wanted to hear about Papillion, I had to add not just ‘Papillion’ but also ‘Papillion,’ ‘Papi,’ and ‘lion’ to the filter. I could handle this level of manual work.

I added words to the filter, including Papillion, administrative officer, Monkshood, Dae-ening, Siedling, and so on. I racked my brain to get the chats I needed and crammed in all the keywords I thought were important.

The messages reaching my phone dropped drastically. The problem was that, unlike my ambitious attempt, it was too quiet without getting anything.

Just as I was thinking maybe I should wander around a bit, an unexpected message was caught.

Earning is coming!

This was a message caught by the words ‘En’ and ‘ning,’ which I had separately added to filter for the aide Dae-ening’s chat logs, just in case. I lifted the filter restriction on the bee sending the pheromones.

She’s here?

Because of the academic society… Uncommon….

I thought she was dead.

…I heard rumors, but she’s really coming….

Earning… where had I seen that name? It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite remember. Earning might just be a common name. Since the person I was looking for was Dae-ening, it could be completely unrelated.

I was conflicted. The best option would be to settle near the orchard or the alchemy tower and monitor the chat logs, but my location kept being revealed to Papillion.

If I loitered around without a clear purpose, he’d definitely find it suspicious. And if I stepped outside, he might just barge right up to me like he did in the inn lounge. Then how should I face him… ugh….

A lecture in the great hall….

…Are you going to attend?

I… don’t have the qualifications….

I want to go.

I called the inn clerk. Even so, I kept obsessing over Earning—it’s clearly a name I’ve heard somewhere, but I can’t remember it, and it’s driving me crazy.

“Is there a lecture in the great hall today?”

The clerk replied to my question very kindly.

“Not today, but tomorrow, a renowned alchemist is giving a supportive lecture in the great hall for junior development. Shall I find out more details?”

When I asked him to do so, the clerk stepped outside and returned shortly with a crisp pamphlet.

The pamphlet featured a photo of a woman with silver hair loosely tied down and glasses.

The master of insect alchemy, ‘Earning’.

After disappearing suddenly upon finishing her final research, she’s back after 8 years!

She has decided to tour the terrariums of the alchemy tower she graduated from, giving lectures to nurture juniors.

A golden opportunity to finally meet the great alchemist, long shrouded in mystery.

Tickets will be sold on-site on the day.

Participation requirement: Researchers with experience having their work published in the ‘Insect Alchemy’ specialist column of the alchemy academic journal issued by the 1st to 3rd terrariums of the World Tree.

Below that, the schedule and venue were written. The schedule was very tight, with intervals of one day. She was a very busy person, leaving this place tomorrow and heading straight to the 22nd terrarium.

So that’s where I’d heard the name… it was definitely when Loop’s parasites were introduced. Ah, my curiosity is resolved and I feel alive again. And of course, with a name so similar, it had to torment me with curiosity like this.

I called Daisy 2 through the terrarium artifact.

“There’s something I forgot to ask you. What does that aide person, Deleuning, look like?”

“Hmm, chestnut-colored bob and black eyes. He often wore a stern expression. He looked a bit like a baby’s breath dryad. Or maybe a forget-me-not dryad feels more fitting?”

How would I know if you compare him to a dryad? This Earning person has flashy silver hair and golden eyes, so she was definitely unrelated.

“Yes, yes, that’s what he looks like.”

Suddenly, Daisy 2 nodded and replied.

“What?”

“That person you just thought of, J. He looks exactly like that.”

“Huh? But that’s different from what you described.”

“Aw, it’s just the hair and eye color that’s a little different. Even us Red Daisies look similar to other daisy species except for the color. Even other dryads would recognize you right away even if your hair and eye color changed, J.”

It sounds like I heard something so surprising? The former administrative assistant of the 28th Terrarium, Dellaning… is the same person as the master of bug alchemy, Earning, on this pamphlet? How is that possible?

“The one who knows Dellaning’s appearance… is probably only you now, right?”

“That person was always only in the orchard, so without those who worked together back then or the dryads… that would be the case, right?”

If Daisy the Second’s testimony is true, why is she here? It was necessary to meet her. I had a feeling she might hold the key to solving this mismatched puzzle.

But she seemed like such a famous figure, and the lecture where I could meet her formally had participation conditions. Fortunately, I had someone skilled in bug alchemy.

Loop. I’m not sure, but I thought she might be able to do it.

“You haven’t sent the wagon to the 18th Terrarium yet, right?”

“Yes, you mean the exclusive guild members? Not yet. But I’ve lifted the restrictions so that Ms. Jae’s guild members can enter the terrarium…”

“When they arrive, tell them it’s a top-priority guild request. Have them find researcher Loop at the alchemy tower of the 18th Terrarium and bring her to the 16th. As fast as possible. Also tell them I can’t send a bee.”

“Uh… yes! Understood! I will definitely relay that!”

Fortunately, the lecture was tomorrow. The lecture time was also late afternoon. If Iris’s party pushed themselves and brought Loop on time, I could meet her.

No, what if only Loop could enter? If that happened, what message should I send through Loop? Would Earning agree willingly? She seemed suspicious in many ways.

While Scarecrow desperately used dryads and grafts to block the fire, where was she and what was she doing? Why did a renowned alchemist pretend to be an administrative assistant? Was he really unrelated to the 16th Terrarium?

Bug alchemy… could it be… no way… wasn’t she the one who brought the white pests to the 28th Terrarium? It was a series of chills. A master of bug alchemy could easily create bugs that gnaw on the world tree.

I hope tomorrow comes quickly. Praying that Iris’s party would bring Loop soon, I organized my questions and went to sleep early.