Chapter One Hundred and Thirty: Operation: Extermination of Ultra-Dangerous Creatures! We Found a Giant Hornet Nest Deep in the Forest!
Mr. Ville cast a cleaning spell on Gomamiso, and finally, our cuddle war ended in a truce. As I hold the contented Gomamiso, petting its back, we follow Ms. Aria to where the troublesome hornet nest is located…
…Yup, I can hear it. The buzzing of hornets! Aren’t hornets supposed to be sleeping in their nests at night!?
Following Ms. Aria’s silent hand signals for "quiet" and "stay low," I crouch down to hide in the surrounding bushes.
…Wow… what IS that…?
Those words nearly escaped my mouth when I first laid eyes on the nest.
How can I describe this… imagine several absolutely massive hornet nests fused together into something nightmarish and gigantic—does that make sense? There are dog-sized hornets buzzing around the nest! Several of them! The thrill and intensity are off the charts! This is the kind of thing that would shock Earth into tears!
…I remember reading in a book that the larger a body gets, the more heat it produces. Maybe they’re still active at night, despite the lower temperatures that should reduce their activity because they’re producing an insane amount of heat?
Plus, giant bats are flying around snatching up stray hornets to eat, so that’s probably got them in high-alert mode.
…Wait a minute…! Are we seriously planning to do something about this high-security hornets’ nest!?
“Um… do you think we can just charge in and handle this somehow…?”
“No… directly attacking that would be… challenging…”
When I whispered this question to Mr. Ville, he grimaced like I did and shook his head with a pained expression.
Of course! This is definitely the kind of situation that needs a proper strategy! So, what type of strategy should we use…?
“…Maybe you could catch the flying hornets with your threads, Ms. Aria?”
“Mm! Could make a net… with threads… But if reinforcements attack… might run out of thread… lots of complications…”
“Ahhh… right… there are plenty of backup hornets in the nest…!”
When I glanced at Ms. Aria, she puffed out her chest proudly, but the next moment her shoulders and eyebrows drooped.
No, no, no! I was the naive one for thinking this strategy would work just because you could catch one! Don’t get so discouraged…! It’s difficult to deal with an enemy when you don’t know how many reinforcements they might have! I’m sorry!
…But if she can handle the hornets outside, then we just need to deal with the ones inside the nest, right…?
Though insecticide probably wouldn’t work well inside the nest, and we don’t even have any here anyway…
Other effective methods… hmm? Oh, but I think there was a freezing type of insecticide, though it was for crawling insects, not flying ones. But I think we might be onto something here! Wouldn’t freezing them work!?
“What if we just freeze the whole nest? Insects become immobile when they get cold, right?”
“The whole nest? Something that big… no, wait, could it work?”
“With that size? No problem at all!”
When I glanced at Mr. Ville, his gaze shifted to Mr. Ed. Following his lead, I looked toward Mr. Ed, who had apparently been estimating the nest’s size, and he gave us a bright smile with a thumbs up.
Amazing how Mr. Ed can answer so quickly even with such a large target!
That said, there’s a chance some of the flying hornets could get through… So we decided to go in using a capture net made from Ms. Aria’s threads, along with Mr. Xenon’s backup support spells for sleep and paralysis, though he warned they might not work.
‘I too! I too will go swoosh-swoosh! I am a †noble† and †cruel† hunter! A true predator!’
“Preda… oh, predator! Well, I hear hornet larvae can be tasty… like how locusts are made into a braised dish… but could you maybe not eat them raw and wriggling?”
By the way, my job is to keep Gomamiso under control as it watches the flying hornets intently and makes little "kaka-kak" noises! Come on, don’t start cracking here! They’ll notice us!
I should add that our last line of defense is Mr. Ville with his great sword, though it doesn’t seem very maneuverable.
…Maybe I should have brought a frying pan…
These thoughts crossed my mind amid the low drone of hornet wings vibrating my eardrums and the irritating shrieks of giant bats as they flew around.
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