I Became an Ant Lord, So I Built a Hive Full of Beauties-Chapter 504: Spit that Heal

---

He made a noise that was definitely not a squeak. It was a dignified grunt of surprise. Unfortunately, it came out at a pitch that Luna’s eyebrows noticed.

"Excuse me," Luna said. "What exactly is happening right now."

Akayoroi’s lips twitched.

"I believe our Lord is being groomed," she observed. "In both the social and biological sense."

Kai tried to pull his hand back.

"Miryam," he hissed. "That is— you do not— this is not—"

She tightened her grip minutely and shot him a look that managed to combine confusion, annoyance, and the unshakeable conviction that she knew better than he did about his own body.

"Hold still," she said. "You are making it harder than it needs to be."

"You are licking me," he protested, because apparently his mouth had decided to commit fully to this disaster.

"Yes," she said. "That is how it works."

"How what works," Luna demanded, taking a step closer. "If this is another strange side effect like when she tried to eat caster fire last time, I would like to know before something explodes."

Miryam ignored her.

She drew one more slow line with her tongue along the edge of the cut, then released his hand and took a half step back, watching.

The skin where she had licked tingled. Not the sting of antiseptic or the burn of magic. A deep, cool itch, like water soaking into parched ground.

Kai watched, torn between indignation and fascination, as the thin red line on the back of his hand faded. The blood dried and flaked away. The skin knitted under it with unnerving speed.

Within a dozen heartbeats, the cut was gone.

Not scabbed. Not scarred. Gone.

He flexed his fingers.

Even the dull ache in the knuckles had eased.

Luna grabbed his hand and held it up, eyes going wide.

"I did not do that," she said. "I absolutely did not do that. I would remember doing that."

Miryam looked faintly smug.

"I can fix," she said.

Luna frowned.

"How," she asked.

Miryam tapped her own mouth.

"Spit," she said.

Luna blinked.

Kai pinched the bridge of his nose with his newly healed hand.

"Of course," he muttered. "Of course your healing involves bodily fluids. Why would anything in my life be simple."

Miryam’s thoughts slid against his again, clearer this time as she focused on explaining.

"It is one of my new things," she said. "The big flashy one is not ready yet. It needs... teeth. This one came early. If I lick someone’s wounds, my spit goes inside and tells their tissue to behave. It remembers how their body was before and tells it to go back. It is not perfect yet. There are rules."

"Rules," Kai repeated cautiously.

"I can only do it for one person," she said. "Truly. One. I can lick everyone here if I want. It will taste like a very strange feast. But only one person will truly heal from it. The others will only get... a little better. Small things. Scratches. Bruises. The full fixing chooses one host. It picks them and says you are mine. This is the cost."

Luna’s eyes narrowed.

"One person at a time," she said. "Or one person ever."

Miryam hesitated.

Kai felt her discomfort through the soul Road, a small flicker of unease.

"Ever," she admitted. "If I give the full healing to someone, if I pour all of it into them, that is my one. I can still fix myself. I can still mend small things in others. But the big miracle, the one that pulls someone back from the edge, that rewrites broken bones and torn organs and dead nerves, that is one use. One target. Forever."

The chamber went very quiet.

Akayoroi’s queen-sense weighed the words, measuring them against potential battles and beds and births yet to come. Luna’s mind exploded into thirty different horrified calculations at once, each one involving triage lists and ethical nightmares.

Kai looked down at his hand.

It was such a small patch of skin.

Such a tiny demonstration.

"How much did you use just now," he asked softly.

Miryam smiled, a flash of teeth that was more dragon than girl.

"Not even a sip," she said. "That was a hello, not a binding. The big one would feel different. It would taste different. I would know. I would have to choose. You would have to choose, if you let me."

She tilted her head, studying his face.

"You smell embarrassed," she added, almost as an afterthought. "Why. I licked your face when I was smaller. You did not make that sound then."

"I did not have a room full of spectators then," Kai said through his teeth. "And you did not look like this. You are an adult now."

She glanced down at herself in vague curiosity, as if she had not quite remembered that she had a body yet.

"Oh," she said. "Yes. You got taller too. Everywhere."

Luna made a strangled noise somewhere between a laugh and an outraged wheeze.

"All right," she announced. "New rule. No licking any part of the Lord without medical supervision. Or at least a curtain."

Akayoroi nodded gravely.

"I approve," she said. "For once our wives’ prudishness and my queenly interest are aligned."

Kai resisted the urge to bang his head gently against the nearest wall until he passed out.

"Miryam," he said patiently. "From now on, you warn me before you try to use that skill. Especially if it involves any body part other than my wrist."

"Why," she asked, genuinely puzzled.

"Because I am trying to maintain an aura of terrifying authority," he said. "It is difficult to do that when I am making undignified noises because my overpowered god daughter or whatever our future relationship will be has decided my hand is a lollipop."

Her eyes softened at the word god daughter. She did not correct him, even though she had stopped calling him Papa.

"You are Kai," she said instead. "You raised me. You fed me. You kept me warm. You shouted at the world until it moved out of my way. You are mine... and I am yours. That is enough."

Something in his chest went very odd.