Jophiel's frown deepened as he neared the Requiem Antz Nest.
This was the headquarters of the Antz Colony, and he was expecting to see thousands of them scurrying around their territory hunting for food.
The only thing he saw were the footprints left by the Antz on the ground. Jophiel was also an experienced Hunter, so he was able to tell that the tracks were just several hours old. This made him sigh in relief because this meant that the Antz were still around, at least, according to his assumption.
'The tracks all lead towards their nest,' Jophiel thought. 'Did something happen to the Queen?'
Jophiel shook his head and dispelled the idea. Right now, the Requiem Antz were in a stable path of development. Even if something happened to the Queen, another Queen would take its place, so there was nothing to worry about.
'I should take a look at their nest first,' Jophiel mused. 'There is no way that Millions of Antz could possibly disappear overnight.'
This was what Jophiel told himself in order to calm his senses. He wasted no time and followed the trail that the Antz had left behind. The Head Examiner was certain that once he arrived at the Antz Colony, all of his worries would disappear completely.
However, after he arrived at the entrance of the nest, his worries once again resurfaced. The closely guarded entrance of the Colony was deserted.
There were no guard Antz.
No worker Antz.
There was nothing!
Jophiel gritted his teeth as he decided to enter the entrance of the Colony. He activated his powerful senses to seek any form of life, as he traversed the underground maze.
'How can this be?!' Jophiel was alarmed after discovering that he couldn't' detect any signs of life. It was as if the entire Antz Colony had disappeared into thin air!
'This is impossible!' Jophiel frantically sped up his descent in order to look for the Queen's Room. Although they had no information about where it was located, his exceptional Hunting Skills allowed him to follow the Worker Antz trails, which would eventually lead him to the Antz Nursery.
This was where the Queen spent most of her time, birthing the eggs for the Colony.
Half an hour later, he finally arrived at his location. Freshly opened eggs could be seen everywhere, which meant that the Queen had still been active a few hours ago.
The only problem was that all the trails led to the Queen's area, but of them could be seen going out.
What did this mean? It meant that all the Antz went to see their Queen, and were never seen again.
'Could this be a rare case of cannibalism?' Jophiel frowned. He held this idea for half a minute before rejecting it completely. 'No. Cannibalism cannot explain this turn of events. Even if this was true, the Queen can't possibly eat Millions of Antz in a span of a few hours. This is simply unheard of. Something must have happened here, but what?!'
After a brief internal struggle, Jophiel took out his communication crystal and immediately informed the Headmaster of Hestia Academy about his discovery and theories as to what might have happened. The Requiem Antz was a dangerous species. If they had suddenly disappeared, it could only mean one thing.
They went someplace else!
The Headmaster was alarmed when he heard Jophiel's report. He immediately ordered the Head Examiner to take all the hunters and scour the entire island. They must find the Antz no matter what because they posed a serious threat to the world if left to their own devices.
One of the Hunters, who was tasked to watch over William's group, received an emergency order from Jophiel. He had tasked them to escort the Half-Elf and his group back to the outpost, before returning to the forest to meet up with him.
The Hunter found this order strange, but he still decided to carry it out since Jophiel was his superior.
"The Head Examiner told us to escort you back to the outpost," The Hunter said to William. "I hope that you and the rest will cooperate with us and not cause us unneeded trouble."
William nodded his head, but still decided to ask a question.
"Did something happen?" William asked. He knew from the call that Jophiel had discovered that the Requiem Antz had disappeared, but he still decided to play his part and act like he was unaware of what was happening in the forest.
"Nothing of importance," the Hunter replied. "Please cooperate with us. Let's go back."
William nodded and decided to not make a scene. He had already done his part, so making things difficult for the Hunters would only make them have a bad impression of him.
The Half-Elf knew that the Head Examiner would suspect him, but he was confident that the disappearance of the Antz would not be traced back to him. After all, how could a single person hide over a Million Antz inside his pocket?
They were also living creatures, so it was impossible to store them inside storage rings.
After arriving back at the outpost, William and the others obediently returned to their quarters. Two of the Hunters remained to watch over them, while the rest headed out to the forest to meet with Jophiel.
—–
William sipped his tea in a leisurely manner as he calmly waited for Jophiel's investigation to end.
Zhu, Sha, and Kenneth, joined him for an afternoon snack, but of them discussed anything related to the Requiem Antz.
William had already discreetly informed them that they might be being monitored, so they just chatted about random things that had no importance whatsoever.
Meanwhile inside the Forest…
"This is absurd!" one of the Hunters exclaimed. "They were still here when I returned to the outpost yesterday. Everything was normal and they showed no sign of a migration or anything!"
"Calm down. Maybe they are still somewhere on the island," another hunter commented. "Requiem Antz don't grow wings. Even if they did, we would have heard the rustling of wings last night, since there are millions of them."
The Hunters calmed down a bit after this discussion. It was a known fact that the Requiem Antz couldn't evolve into flying creatures. Unlike normal Ant Species that grew wings in order to mate and start their own colonies, Requiem Antz were land dwellers.
There could only exist one Queen at a time in a colony and, until she died, no Queen would emerge from her brood.
Jophiel half-listened to their discussion because he was reading the information that the academy had gathered about the Requiem Antz.
He had read the document twice, but matched the circumstances that they had right now. In the end, he decided to scout the island and search for any signs of the Antz. He was still hoping that the Antz had just migrated somewhere else on the island.
"Let's split into three groups," Jophiel ordered. "Marlo, your group will go to the West. Carl, your group will go to the East. I will head to the North. If any of you find the Antz, notify me at once. Even a single member of the colony is fine. Do I make myself clear?"
""Yes Sir!""
The Head Examiner and the Hunters looked for the Antz until morning, but their search brought no results.
After receiving the least news from Jophiel, the Headmaster of the Academy finally decided to go to Antilia Island personally to investigate.. This matter was of great importance to the academy, and he would do his best to get into the bottom of things, even if he had to turn the island upside down.
