The incident at the Crystal Clear Trading Company wasn’t the sort of thing that was exclusive to the Shining Conglomerate. Even within the borders of the Lower Realms alliance people took advantage of positions of power, the ignorance of others, and the like for their own gain. However, there were paths for reparations to be obtained, which she somewhat doubted were in place here. Certainly, Nezihe didn’t seem to know of them.

To Anishka, the incident was simply a reminder that there would be resistance to the idea of bringing up those who were ‘lower’, simply because it would reduce the amount of power bartered among those at the top, either in terms of money or favors. Except that it wasn’t necessarily true. More prosperous individuals at a lower level would indeed reduce immediate control and gains, but it could ultimately lead to growth for those at the top as well- and quite a bit more, since they had a beginning advantage. But some people didn’t care about their absolute prosperity so much as how much ahead of the next person they were.

“Where are we going next?” Anishka asked as they returned to the ‘automatic carriage’. She had gotten a general feeling for Taron as a whole as they moved about the city, but Nezihe would have her own opinions as a local about what was most in need. Her own interpretations.

“The one place that has the most problems I am aware of,” Nezihe said. That didn’t actually explain to Anishka what sort of place it was, so she could only wait.

Though it was not long before they pulled up in front of a building that she might have passed over. It was not falling apart, like some. The outside was well maintained, and the inside seemed quite functional as well. But taking a few moments allowed Anishka to pick out some part of the problem.

The building in question was a hospital of some sort. Anishka determined that it was not just treating physical maladies, but also cultivation deviations and the like. It was packed with both patients and workers caring for them.

“Is this the only one in the city?” Anishka asked. No, she had vague feelings of similar places. “Or is it the only one that is affordable?”

“This one is financed with public funds, its services available to all,” Nezihe explained. “So in a way, it is the only choice many have. Even those across the city must come here.”

“It looks like a disaster waiting to happen. I see few precautions meant to stop the spread of disease.” She wasn’t an expert, of course, but she’d seen high class facilities of all sorts, and as a cultivator she had an excellent memory.

“What would they even do? The way sickness spreads is mysterious.”

Anishka hoped the doctors knew more than Nezihe. She wasn’t going to put down her guide for lack of knowledge however. Still, the hospital had more problems than a shaky understanding of germ theory. Aside from a lack of space, various supplies seemed low in quantity.

“Is there not sufficient funding for such a place?” Anishka asked.

“Many are lobbying for increased funding,” Nezihe replied. “They say that it requires double or triple the amount it is now receiving, just to function.”

“But you don’t believe that,” Anishka surmised.

“I admit I am no expert on the topic. I am merely a somewhat powerful cultivator from a recognized faction here. But having spoken to some of the doctors… the money should be enough.”

“But it isn’t,” Anishka said. “Should we even go inside?”

“I don’t think we should interrupt the hard working people. And I doubt any significant theft of resources actually takes place here. I did not bring you here with the intention to have you fix it, somehow. You simply asked, and I delivered the best I could.”

Anishka nodded. “Indeed. I can’t say what I would do. And while I could most likely help stabilize a few individuals, my presence would likely be more of a disruption to their operations than a boon. Perhaps I asked for too much right away,” Anishka shook her head. “Tomorrow, I would prefer to visit your favorite places. I need to see the good in this city to balance everything out.”

Anishka was aware she had political pressure she could leverage, but she wasn’t certain this was the best place to use it. Not yet. This city had likely been functioning this way for decades at least, and a few days wouldn’t change anything. She could pass along this information to those who might be able to affect it, while she should move along to something fitting in the area of her own expertise.

As she had been deliberately ignoring a very small passenger, she did not notice when said passenger was no longer with her. Nor would anyone else, since they had no idea how to look for the tiny ant, nor that they should be.

-----

The Sergeant didn’t really know how money worked. That was something for specific higher ups in the void ants to handle, and even then they never had it in their colonies. It was on paper in human cities, where it belonged.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

But here they were, in a human city, and somehow the papers were indicating the wrong amount of numbers. At least that was what the Sergeant gleaned from the conversation. Beyond that, there was only some vague implication that specific humans would be at fault.

It had taken quite a bit of effort, but the Sergeant had learned how to read human papers. It was more than just them being a different system that lacked any and all intentional pheromones, but also that they were at the wrong scale to be comfortable.

So when the Sergeant found herself practically buried in papers, she knew she would never manage simply by looking at records. There was a natural energy technique humans could use to resolve such issues, but the only thing she could do with natural energy was eat it.

But the Sergeant was nothing if not patient. She roamed through the area, listening to conversations. She heard of supply issues and delivery folk. Physicians and managers and quartermasters by a different name, and she came to the real problem. It was poorly organized. For void ants, it would simply mean a reshuffling of the colony. For humans, it was more difficult to untangle as people weren’t willing to accept being repositioned at the will of another.

But it was more than that. There were only a few hundred people involved at this location, but there were more elsewhere. And while the Sergeant hated to believe it for an instant, the thought came that some of them might not simply be bad at paperwork. They might have malicious intentions.

That was so much easier to deal with if such people were killing others directly. She could chomp on their natural energy and then rip out their throat. But she highly doubted Anishka would approve of any throat ripping in this situation. And if it were going to happen, she’d have to be very certain.

Eventually, she picked one person and rode home on her head. It wasn’t a particularly risky maneuver unless she slammed her head into a brick wall in just the right way with no warning. And even then, statistically the Sergeant shouldn’t end up directly crushed, but would instead be shunted to the side. Her body was much sturdier than a standard ant, after all. Her size had hardly increased since her first real assignment from the Great Queen- watching over Anishka- but her other attributes certainly had.

Three days it took to clear the woman. Three days of eating crumbs off the floor, occasionally getting in fights with normal ants until she smelled of their deaths and they left her alone. Three days of food with hardly a drop of natural energy in a whole meal and only a thin layer in the air around her.

Then she rode the woman back to the hospital and surveyed another, and another. These weren’t truly random individuals, but people of some amount of importance, with access to records and the like.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months- but while the passage of time was concerning, the Sergeant could sense Anishka’s presence in the city, and knew that her departure should not be for over a year. And the void ant was making progress. Pulling threads- occasionally literally. And also occasionally retrieving hidden documents.

The difficult part of retrieving a page or stack of pages was not, in fact, the ability to move it. As long as it was not made of particularly flimsy material, locking her mandibles into it gave her enough of a grip to move papers. And in the worst case scenario, she could push. She had the power for that, her feet gripping strongly onto anything beneath her.

The hard part was making humans not notice a paper moving on its own. Which was both harder and easier than it sounded. Easier, because human cultivators were actually very bad at using their eyes. Harder, because they did have energy senses.

So the Sergeant had to learn to eat just the part of their senses that would touch the paper. Not above it, nor below it. If they still sensed the floor beneath, they were blissfully ignorant.

She already had some practice in that field, as it was much like eating wider area cultivation attacks. Not that she needed to do that, except in protection of a human. The only issue was doing it continuously, and in a confined area.

More than a few times her retreat was stopped by people grabbing their stray papers. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to connect it to her. One or two recognized her as an ant, but didn’t draw anything from the lack of feeling her with their energy. And once she was out of sight, she was truly gone from their minds.

One tried to squish her. She didn’t know if they recognized something, but what she did know was that human flesh was much more malleable than her own body. So when the thumb came down on her, it simply folded around her. She clung to it when it was lifted and pulled in her limbs, trying to look like some damage had occurred, and they blew on her to dislodge her from their thumb.

That wasn’t fun. She almost bit them, and that would have ruined her whole ploy. She really hoped Anishka was doing well.

-----

Ignorant of the Sergeant’s adventures, Anishka was in fact enjoying most of her time visiting the new world. Nidec brought her to parks she enjoyed as a child, still intact. She ate at local favorites. She perused their fashion- but she probably wouldn’t wear any as it would be very difficult to match the comfort and utility of her own garments. And if she truly craved a different look, they were moldable to her desires, within certain limitations.

She also found the kid again. She learned his name was Lyndon, and that he’d found the fire and ice crystal on an expedition involving many others from his poor neighborhood. And though he wasn’t obligated, he’d shared the money with those who had gained the least. And the families of those who had been lost.

The only thing she was disappointed by was that he hadn’t shared the cultivation method she gave him with anyone when she came to find him. Sure, he didn’t want to offend her, but she felt it was a lack of initiative.

It was there that she began the task that was consuming most of her time. Guiding young folk in cultivation. There were some techniques available to all- the Shining Cooperative wanted to defeat the Trigold Cluster after all- but they weren’t great. And more importantly, not everyone was good at finding one they had affinity with. Anishka could greatly speed up that process and prevent costly mistakes. Perhaps her grandfather would be better, but she wasn’t an Assimilation cultivator for nothing. And she enjoyed it. It reminded her of working with people on Ekict. She just hoped they wouldn’t need to rise up and overthrow the elite class here. Well, at least some of them were alright, so that was already a good start.