Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 110

Chapter 110: A gathering swarm
Gone were the days when young bees called me “Drone” and told me to fuck off! Now I was beloved by all!

I beamed and waved back at my girls as I flew by.

“Keep up the good work!” I shouted.

Hammer-Hammer-23 brought me to finished storage cells. Half of them were empty, but the other half was filled with hundreds of units’ worth of honey and dried meat.

And while I sat in an empty cell, still chewing on that jerky, two bees flew up to me with excited expressions.

“Father! Father, you are here!”

“Father, do you need anything?”

Chief Builder B666666 and Chief Warrior Spiky. One was here to build this camp, another was to make sure it was well-guarded.

“Hew, I wash gowing tho winf wu—” I swallowed the half-chewed jerky, “I was going to find you after a snack.”

B666666 got closer.

“Was your journey safe? I hope you like the things my subordinates built! I made them *especially* neat!”

I grinned at her. This bee—I remembered her. That name was hard to forget… It looked like she really went far, although I didn’t know if having the job orientation in place helped there, or if she achieved everything on her own.

“I got here safe, thanks to my amazing guards,” I nodded at my squad of Warrior Bees. “A praying mantis tried to jump me when we had a rest stop, but they killed it faster than I could get scared! And what about you, girls? All safe here? How goes the first stage of the Operation Superior Sting?”

B666666 puffed her chest out proudly.

“Everything is going ahead of schedule. The storage is going to be finished by this evening—we only need to fill it!”

“The garrison is gathered, too, Father. The guards under my command have fought off several dozen wandering ants and wasps during this time, but we suffered no losses! There were some wounded, but they are being treated by a Physician Bee in this camp, and she said they will be fine.”

I grinned.

“This is great to hear! I guess me being here is just another pointless worry of your anxious dad!”

“It’s not worthless. Every bee works even harder when you are near, because we want to impress you!” B666666 said seriously. “Thanks to your visit, we might finish building all the cells an hour or two later than estimated!”

I shook my head.

“This is good, but try not to overexert yourself. The supplies for this camp won’t travel here until tomorrow, anyway. And the assault itself won’t start for at least…” I glanced at today’s date in my status, “10 more days.”

257th day of my life, or 9th day until my Beemarines were scheduled to emerge.

It was a wonder how much work was done in such a short time.

I ordered building this work camp *yesterday*! And the next day it was basically finished!

Besides it, two more camps were being built on the way to the gold deposit. Although technically they were work camps, functionally they were small forts that hosted a lot of warriors and much fewer Foragers.

In 10 days, my siege force would start a siege of the hornet nest. Then, those forts will serve as iron chain links of my army’s supply line.

Although it took a day to travel from Hive Supremo to the gold deposit—without carrying heavy weight—it took only 3 hours to travel between the forts.

Shorter trips with plenty of rest between them will let my Foragers carry heavier loads, and my Warriors to guard them more effectively than if they all flew for a day straight.

That was the base of the Operation Superior Sting!

It’d be hilarious for everybody but us if my army starved faster than the hornets we would be besieging.

“And how are you otherwise?” I asked my daughters. “It must be hard to work away from a hive, especially with your nieces from sub-hives.”

“They are good at following orders, but you gotta shout loudly,” Chief Spiky said.

B666666 flailed her arms.

“You must explain everything twice to most of them! But they *are* hard workers, just like the rest of us. My sisters teach them the ways of life and your wisdom, Father. Like washing hands before eating…”

“That’s good, that’s good! And…”

I chatted with my girls for a little longer. A father like me could spend less and less time with individual daughters, and wasn’t this sad?

Just sitting and talking about small events in their lives was a rare joy.

Someone mixed up their building knife with someone else’s and there was a scandal; a bee caught a cold and sneezed on her entire squad instead of going to a Physician immediately; someone wrote three tablets worth of bee puns and was sharing them for laughs even though most bees didn’t get the humor.

But eventually I had to move on—I was planning to inspect other forts today, too, and this meant a lot of flying and a night’s rest uncomfortably close to (despite being safely far from) a hornet nest.

***

Rows upon rows of bees gathered in front of Hive Supremo. They gathered into squads, which gathered into cubes, each with 1111 bees in it.

There were five such cubes in total training their maneuvering right now, but many more Warriors were waiting their turn or busy elsewhere.

Each of them wore leather clothing and spiky bone armor, and wielded a hammer. On their rope or leather belts were bolas and waterskins with provisions.

Next to me, my Military Adviser was watching this too with palpable pride.

“The Warriors are ready to fight the entire hive of hornets if you tell them, Father. For the Empire! Just give an order, and I will lead them to attack myself!”

I shook my head and looked at a wooden sundial fixed in place nearby.

“No. Keep training them, Bloodhero. We are going to attack with all our forces, and this means that we should wait a little longer. Anyway, I think it’s the time!”

I turned away and began flying to the hive’s nursery.

“The time?.. Ah! Father, Beemarines are about to emerge?! Father, please, let me watch, too!”