Mountains, Underground Labyrinth, Makeshift Mine—
With a backdrop filled with a series of loud bangs and booms, a small green-haired girl who was seven parts similar to Petra placed her small hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes, appearing arrogant. She opened her mouth, made a few 'Pa-pa, Pa-pa' sounds, and loudly commanded the two trembling bipedal ants that stood just before her with a face filled with frustration.
After she finished, both ants, with their head still down, nodded a few times before quickly scurrying away and disappearing.
The leader-like girl, Avatar Sister No.8, code name 'I am perfectly perfect,' looked around with a frown, then turned to leave the edge of the cliff and enter deeper into the construction zone.
The construction zone was still underway, but if one looked around, they would discover that many parts of the mind were already fully complete and working, beginning the excavation process that Petra had previously left to them.
The little ant walked around, looking from place to place, seemingly performing a meticulous inspection.
Perhaps it was due to her slight lack of facial expressions, but this small ant seemed incredibly annoyed, clearly dissatisfied with something. As she continued to wander, she passed dozens of teams, each filled with a variety of workers, but the more she looked, the more dissatisfied she seemed to get.
After stomping her little foot a few times, she grumbled out a series of clicks and approached another ant. This ant seemed to hold a slightly higher status, but that didn't prevent him from freezing in terror the moment the girl approached. After a quick chat filled with a series of very direct, very aggressive clicks, the small girl stormed off, appearing even more annoyed than before.
Watching her depart, the supervisor, an ant wearing a top hat he had casually found somewhere while the ants were looking through a costume chest, nervously adjusted his headwear and sighed.
Each step of the little green-haired girl landed with a particular weight, shaping her steps as she walked around. Eventually, she discovered the place she had been looking for, then followed a crudely carved set of stairs to an elevated ledge that overlooked the mining site currently being built atop the cliffside.
She entered the cubbyhole.
Soon, she narrowed her big black eyes, her gaze locking onto the slightly chubby, laid-back green-haired brat who looked almost identical to herself. This girl was not only avoiding all the work, but she was also surrounded by empty wrappers, with an unfinished chip still hanging from her mouth.
There was a pause.
Their eyes met.
A bag of chips was dropped.
BOOM!
Following a devastating flying knee kick that soared through the void, the chubby little girl skillfully rolled away from the infuriated child who had just thrown herself through the air like a comet. While still in a slightly dishevelled state, the chubby girl jumped up, jiggled a bit, then took a few more quick steps back in an attempt to avoid the fight entirely and give her sister a moment to think.
Unfortunately for her, the first little girl didn't seem to care about her kind considerations…
"Pa-pa-pa! Pa-pa! Pa-pa-pa-pa!" (Damn fatty! How could master create such a lazy brat!)
Swoosh—Boom!
Another explosive attack shot over, causing the chubby girl to roll away once more.
This chaotic dance continued for some time.
One loli with a light case of facial paralysis continuously kicked and struck, while the other chubby loli jumped, rolled, and dodged, adding a few bellyflops into the mix.
It was an absolute disgrace to watch…
After who knows how long, the chubby girl began to pant heavily, eventually falling backward and lying prone on the ground. With a grumpy grumble, she half sat up, appearing a little like the common NEET that could be discovered in any hoarder's house. She casually scratched her belly, looking a little slovenly, which only made the more arrogant girl, the one with the mindset of a symmetrophile, want to kick her to death!
"Pa-pa-pa! Pa-pa! " (Aren't you embarrassed?)
"La-la!" (?)
It was a perfectly valid question, because this lazy little loli currently looked like she was just waiting to be invited into any passing van by any passing uncle…
Again, it was an absolute disgrace to watch…
"LA! La-la! La-la-la-la! La-la-la! La-la! La-la-la-la-la!" (Humph! What do you know? You're way too wound up all day!" the lazy one grumbled. "Look, now that we finally get to go outside, why don't you try and enjoy life a little? Hey, go and see if Little Six has any more food! When I checked before, she had already collected a lot before the big bosses entered this strange place!)
"PA! Pa-pa!" (You're too lazy!)
-
Ten minutes later, the angry little girl was staring at a small figure sprawled across a crate. This wasn't her sixth sister; instead, it was her eleventh sister, the lazy one…
She squinted her big black eyes.
This little girl was openly sleeping atop a pile of crates, resting peacefully.
The frustrated girl looked up at the lazy little ant, who had somehow wrapped herself in a pile of clothes stolen from the storage space. Seeing this, she finally understood why so many of the costumes their little union had fought for had gone missing. Aside from the blanket, she was also using another ant as a pillow. For some reason, this large, puffy, and almost mushroom-like ant didn't seem to care.
Our cute and precise temporary protagonist felt her eyelid twitch violently!
—!
She marched over and violently poked her eleventh sister in the forehead with a long stick. Then, with a small jump and a quick grab, she yanked her down and threw her onto the floor.
"Pa!??" (Where's sixth sister?)
This lazy loli, the eleventh sister, slowly opened one eye without getting up. She yawned. Then, after a murmur, she lazily pointed in a random direction before immediately closing her eyes again.
Silence…
The little ant looked down with dark, angry black eyes.
After what seemed like the equivalent of taking a deep breath—
Boom!
She stomped down. Her foot missed by only a hair, yet another one of her sisters dodged the attack with a flash. In an instant, the two ant sisters began fighting, rolling across the ground in complete chaos. Their tiny little fists flew everywhere, kicking up a cloud of dust.
-
Time passed.
After the previous fight ended in a draw, the angry ant, fifth sister (The perfectionist), continued her journey through the construction site, only this time she had a little tail following behind. While turning back to check that her eleventh sister, the lazy one, was still lagging along, the small girl continued to walk, this time thinking deeply about the specific location her eleventh sister had pointed out.
Each step landed sharply, as if she were trying to vent her immense frustration.
Tap!
Tap!
Tap!
Behind her, the eleventh sister still lazily followed from several meters back, occasionally tripping over rocks and scattered supplies because she was still half asleep and staggering with a bent back. At some point, she even walked directly into a support beam before slowly bouncing off and continuing on without a single second to stop.
Despite her clumsiness, the leading ant ignored her completely. She was currently focused on inspecting the nearby mine, because she was actually the avatar who had been put in charge of the entire operation!
While walking toward her destination, her eyes swept around.
Too crooked!
Too uneven!
Too many!
Too few!
It's ugly!
It needs to be cleaned!
Why is everything so asymmetrical!
Ah!
Her little face twisted further and further the more she looked around. For a moment, she felt as if she were going completely crazy, an emotion so strong that it actually transmitted through the mental channel, causing a faint ripple in Petra's sea of consciousness. Although this ripple occurred in a small corner and was nearly impossible to detect, it indeed managed to reach.
Tug, tug, tug!
She paused.
She didn't know when, but another small figure had suddenly appeared beside her and sister eleven! Poking her head around, the lazy loli, sister eleven, looked over and discovered that this guest was actually their first sister, the kleptomaniac!
The lazy loli shrank back instantly, because First Sister was one of the scariest of the sisters! First Sister being the Kleptomaniac meant that everything belonging to them inherently belonged to her. There was no lack of incidents, even in their short lives, where this little brat had silently stolen a thing or two.
Even this silent tugging could easily be a secret tactic just to pickpocket her!
The lazy loli, her eyes squinted with a deep sense of suspicion, stared back at her sister, wondering exactly what she was about to lose.
Fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case this time, and there were no small hands slipping into any pockets. Instead, this new Petra-lookalike had a face that was rounder than the others, with slightly puffier cheeks and an especially eager expression. The little ant girl bounced around excitedly while aggressively pulling on the in-charge sister's sleeve.
"Om! Om-om! OM!"
Fifth sister just nodded, and soon, she pointed the energetic girl toward the designated storage area. Little one urgently trotted toward it a few moments later.
The leading sister blinked.
Why was this little one so obsessed with food? She really didn't know…
As their first sister shot away like a cannonball—Boom!!
There was a sudden explosion!
All heads turned, and the construction zone momentarily paused. What was going on? What was that explosion? Who was causing trouble? Did they even have anything that could explode?
Fwoooosh!
A pillar of fierce flames shot into the sky!
Ah? Oh… so it's Second Sister, the Pyromaniac…
This was the collective thought that all the ant avatars shared at that exact moment. Regardless of where they were, they all watched as dust and fire exploded from the storage space. The blast disappeared into the distance at a terrifying speed, blowing away several nearby workers and knocking many more sideways with its violent shockwave.
Our leading sister stared silently at the bright light for several seconds.
Then—
BOOOOM!!!
An even bigger explosion suddenly shook the underground mine! The entire tunnel rumbled violently!
It was finally at that moment when the leading sister's expression completely warped! She could only hurry over as a pillar of thick, black smoke rose into the air.
-
In a place with a full view of the mine—
Mell, dressed in her maid's attire, quietly sat atop a large, smooth stone which looked a little like a table and chairs near the edge of the construction zone, calmly drinking tea. She lowered her hand, clicking her cup against the saucer, and sighed deeply. Steam slowly drifted from the cup in her hands, the beverage clearly having just been brewed.
In the distance, the billowing pillar of smoke and fire was continuously erupting toward the cavern ceiling, followed by several screaming workers fleeing through the mine in a total panic.
Mell blinked.
"…Indeed, it is impressive..." she muttered, her eyes rippling with a faint light.
She genuinely couldn't understand how those little girls managed to create such devastating explosions using nothing but mining supplies, stored food, and some random junk they had found along the way.
Mm, it truly defied common sense…
Actually, now that she thought about it… why did Petra make these girls resemble herself in the first place? Weren't they a bit too similar? Mell knew that they were some kind of puppets, but she didn't actually know the intricate details of their creation. In truth, perhaps only Jillian could truly see a sliver of the ultimate masterpiece that was these ant avatars.
Many of the things Petra made were designed to look simple, but only she understood the hidden difficulties in creating each and every one of them.
Mell lowered her teacup.
Although she didn't know the exact process, she felt as if she understood the final goal. These puppets, although they were still just puppets, didn't actually need individual consciousness to serve their purpose. Since that was the case…
"Family…" Her eyes softened.
After a moment of thought, she lowered her head and mumbled something quietly to herself. Petra rarely spoke about 'those kinds of things' directly, but sometimes, through little actions like this, Mell could vaguely feel that her master was actually a bit lonely.
She raised her head, a soft smile spreading across her lips. That little girl seemed to possess an unconscious yearning for something—something loud and messy, a place where people could fight one moment and sit together the next.
Mell shook her head lightly.
Now that she thought about it, she was not much different, Rose and Wind too…
It had also been a very long time since she last drank tea in peace like this.
After some more time passed...
She blinked. For a brief moment, she found herself reminiscing about the strict etiquette lessons of her childhood. Back then, every motion, every word, every posture, and every position had been carefully, brutally drilled into her body. If she were to resume that lifestyle now, she would have to completely abandon this rustic village-girl persona she had gradually built around herself.
Her mind turned, thinking back to the original version of herself.
She had only shown Petra her true face once, and that was back when she confessed her real identity. Since then, she had continued wearing the skin of that simple village girl who had escaped the clutches of the Tibon Family, the black market, and the tragic aftermath of her mother's death. Her original posture, her original speech, even her original face, Mell quietly wondered which version Petra actually preferred.
Boom!
Her eyes snapped toward the distance. Several of the ant sisters were currently beating each other unconscious atop a rapidly moving cart, while Rose and Lira were screaming and throwing punches nearby. She chuckled, then looked toward the enormous, towering pile of raw ore beside the excavation site. After seeing that it was entirely untouched by the explosion, she relaxed a bit.
After a long pause, she lowered her tea, then sighed once more…
* * *