Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 100

Chapter 100: A good artist is a troubled one
I took a deep breath.

“Sorry, Worriesgone, but you can’t become a Nurse Bee.”

The young bee’s shoulders fell.

“Really? It’s because I’m so weak, right?”

“No!” I raised a victorious finger in the air. “It’s because you are so talented at drawing! You and your sisters have practiced drawing for days—for longer than any other bee spends training! Since the entire pandemic, your ‘well wishes’, your drawings, have raised spirits of the entire Bee Empire, increasing everybody’s productivity!”

Worriesgone’s jaw fell. She was listening to my speech with wide eyes.

I grabbed the nearest drawing—the unfinished one she was making before my arrival—and raised it over my head.

“Look at this! As the Emperor of Bee-kind, I can’t just waste skills and talents like yours! I wish everybody could do the job they are best suited for, but I humbly ask that you, Worries gone, become a different bee instead.”

“A… different bee?”

“Yes. An Artist Bee!”

<Title created: ‘Artist Bee’. Requirements: the smallest bit of creativity.>

〔Artist Bee〕: increases chances for legendary inspiration by 1%.

“An Artist Bee? Father, but what’s an artist? All I was doing was drawing well wishes! Does that make me… an ‘artist’?”

“Of course! Drawing is art. Playing music on that drum you had in the common room is art. Even dancing is art! And art is very important for all cultures. It raises everybody’s spirit and makes days less bleak. When people are happy, they are healthier and work better, too!”

While Worriesgone was digesting this information, I drilled the window with system information that still floated near me.

‘What kind of bonus is that? 1%, seriously? What’s even a ‘legendary inspiration?'”

<It’s an inspiration for a legendary masterpiece, user.>

‘Uh-uh. And what’s a base chance of this to ever happen?’

<This is a hidden information, user.>

‘Great.’

I suspected that the chance of anything useful ever coming out of this was close to 0. But a title is a title, and Worriesgone was already wearing it.

And now she appeared to have come to some realisation.

“I understand now, Father! I thought I was going to be an ordinary Worker Bee, but… It’s different. It’s…” She frowned. “Father, be honest—me and my ill sisters will never get fully healthy, won’t we?”

I sighed.

“Yes, Worriesgone. Sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to shield you from this truth in the first place… You might’ve missed school, but you are still my smart little daughters.”

She nodded solemnly, then smiled at me.

“It’s alright. It hurts something in my chest—that sadness. But this hurt makes me want to draw more, draw bigger things. The most beautiful things I can draw, so that nobody else feels this sadness.”

I smiled at her, feeling bittersweet.

Weren’t most of famous artists very tormented and depressed people?

“I wish you best luck in this, Chief Artist Worriesgone. But first—you and your fellow future Artists really should learn how to read and write.”

***

In the end, I got 853 Artist Bees in total—all the bees permanently crippled by the Paleness. Most of them drew, but some sang or did music with primitive instruments our Stone Age technologies allowed.

I had no idea whether Artist Bees really gave the Bee Empire any numerical bonuses. But their works *were* cheering and entertaining other bees. Besides, it was more for the sake of the Artists, anyway.

Either way, my healthy daughters and granddaughters (even step-granddaughters) have been rapidly rebuilding the Bee Empire’s prosperity ever since the pandemic ended.

There was no more conquering of unchecked beehives… No more conquering at all, since the existing hives weren’t fully converted to the Empire’s standard.

Now that my Foragers and Foremen weren’t busy with cleansing, they began working twice as hard to replenish lost food supplies. The bees that caught mites while adults have healed and rejoined them.

Meanwhile, the Artists have built their own workshop/living space at the bottom of the hive, where they won’t have to spend a lot of energy flying around.

Since there was no need for a quarantine village anymore, it was quickly dismantled for building materials—and just in time, because only three days later a heavy storm flooded half the surrounding forests.

Instead, a spacious hospital was built on the outskirts of the hive. Its isolation from the healthy bees could’ve been better, but it was warmer and safer than the quarantine village in the long term.

Tabletina quickly set up her workshop there. Although there were still only a hundred Physician Bees, there were many more Nurse Bees under her control, taking care of the sick.

The knowledge of medicinal herbs was being used more and more often for healing. I gave Tabletina a free reign to do *careful* experiments on *volunteering* bees to discover more herbal remedies.

Plenty of people got mild poisoning, but it wasn’t for nothing.

<Congratulations! You’ve implemented a ‘Dedicated Medicine’ technology in your colony, replacing ‘Primitive Medicine’. You gain 15 development points.>

〔Dedicated Medicine〕

Brainpower requirement: 500

Increases immunity and healing speed of patients with access to hospitals by 50%.

Wellness: +0,8% per 1 thousand affected populace.

Resilience: +0,8 per 1 thousand affected populace.

〔〕〔〕〔〕

And in the meantime, I had time to explain to Ambrosia the concept of job orientation. It was very novel, but she quickly understood its potential.

At the very least, giving bees more permanent jobs meant it was easier to keep track of them. Although there were still job quotas, so not everybody could get what they wanted.

〔Job Orientation〕

Brainpower requirement: 500

Increases the effectiveness of the population that picked a job through job orientation by 5%.

〔〕〔〕〔〕

10 development points that I got for implementing it were just a pleasant bonus.

Meanwhile, in Hive Hornet’s Nest, more and more tunnels have been dug for aphids. I was also considering positions of other subjugated hives. Most of them were built aboveground, but some were low enough to host their own aphid tunnels.

And most importantly, the Empire’s technologies were being rapidly taught among my growing granddaughters in subjugated hives. New specialists were trained at a massive scale!

When I looked at my colony’s stats 18 days later, I couldn’t stop marveling at the speed of our growth!