Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 161

Chapter 161: Legendary inspiration
Things-Things—sure, this was her domain. But Worriesgone? And a dozen other Artist Bees?

How did they even get out of the hive? They could barely fly! They didn’t *climb* all the way from the hive, right? Maybe they asked someone to carry them down…

A dozen bees were shouting at once, while others abandoned their work and waited for the conflict to be resolved.

“Stop being underfoot, Artists! Wasn’t yesterday enough for you? We know how to do our jobs already!”

“But it isn’t *your* job! You already took it from us once. We all saw!”

“Oh, don’t go back to it again. It was our gift, *our*! Now—”

I landed on top of the half-finished wagon. The spotty roof creaked under my weight, but held.

All the bees went silent and looked at me.

“What’s going on here?” I asked, staring down at people in charge: Things-Things and Worriesgone.

“Father!” Things-Things clasped her hands in front of her chest. “Please, I almost dealt with this interruption. Worriesgone, now see what you did? Not only did you slow down the production schedule, you got Father involved in our arguments like he has nothing more important to do!”

Worriesgone shook her head. Her usual charming expression was replaced by a resolute look that clashed with her weak physique.

“I know I did some things in a way that inconvenienced many people… but it was all I could do. Father, please forgive me for this, and let me make a formal request.”

I raised my eyebrows.

Normally, when a bee of a lower rank needed something out of ordinary that her own branch of the Empire couldn’t provide, the request went first to her respective Adviser.

She would negotiate with another Adviser, or even with the Council. Then the request went down the chain of another Adviser if it wasn’t rejected.

This chain of requests took time to process, but was much more organized than if everybody went to other branches of the Bee Empire directly.

Of course, I, being the Emperor, was above all Advisers and on top of every chain. But if I made myself available for every request of every bee, I’d fall dead from exhaustion just listening to them all.

They would all ask for headpats! I had hundreds of thousands of daughters, but only four hands!

In short…

“Worriesgone, if you had a request, why didn’t you go to Ambrosia?”

“I tried to, Father. But Mother-Queen was laying eggs and couldn’t listen to it! I felt like it was too urgent to wait.”

“She isn’t laying eggs *today*, you know.” I saw Worriesgone’s frown deepen and shook my head. “Fine, forget it. But what were you trying to do here that was so urgent?”

I gestured at the unfinished wagon, then at the idling bees.

“The Artists just appeared and began messing with our work! Measuring things and telling what to do and what to not do!” a Craftsman Bee complained.

“No!” Worriesgone protested. “We were helping. The wagon-train can’t be crafted the way you planned to! It will be worse than an insult to the greatness of the Empire!”

“Huh?”

“While Artists made art to inspire Researchers that worked on furnaces, I saw and heard how hard they and other bees work on the railroad. Even harder than I imagined… Then, I was told how long the railroad will be, and how many bees are involved in its making. Then… then I *understood*.”

Worriesgone put a hand over her chest. When she spoke, her voice was quiet, but carried so much passion within that even angry Craftsmen Bees paused and looked at Worriesgone with new interest.

“The wagon-train that moves on this road can’t be less great than the road itself. Especially since it’s the first, the most important one! It must be an artwork that will glow with the might and glory of the Bee Empire and you—the top of it all! The vision of it appeared in my head and made me act before the train could be completed wrongly.”

As she spoke, Worriesgone pulled out a piece of thin green leather—almost parchment. On it, using coal, was drawn a sketch of a wagon—but with a twist.

Although the sketch wasn’t detailed enough to see all of them, there were embellishments added to every open part of the wagon. A figure (a statue?) was drawn on top of it, closer to the nose—almost like a ship’s figurehead.

“I *must* make the train pretty, Father,” Worriesgone concluded and looked at me with a hopeful but determined expression. “I know—it will be the greatest, most useful thing I will make in my life!”

Silence settled on the area. In the distance, a dragon growled something that sounded like, “Stop trying to take my food!”.

I looked at Worriesgone, then at the wagon I was standing on.

Making it “pretty” would make it heavier to pull, slow down the production, and take more materials.

But after Worriesgone’s passionate presentation, I could almost imagine it—a glorious train, adorned with gold and banners, traveling across the forest and inspiring all the bees who saw it with its presence…

‘Besides, the way Worriesgone talks about this makes me wonder… She isn’t just passionate or inspired. This feels like something special. Could it be the “legendary inspiration” given to Artist Bees?’

I had no idea what it was or how it worked, but it had 1% chance. Out of whatever.

Either way, even without this, I would have agreed to Worriesgone’s request.

“You are absolutely right, Worriesgone!” I flew down to stand next to her and patted her head. “Our first train-wagon *must* be nothing less than glorious. Let it advance our culture with its very existence—it’s way too low as it is! Things-Things, I know it will be troublesome, but cooperate with Worriesgone on this.”

Things-Things folded her arms over her chest, but nodded.

“Yes, Father. And I will ensure that the wagon’s characteristics don’t decrease.”

“Thank you, Father. We won’t disappoint you,” Worriesgone said, smiling.

I smiled back.

“Can’t wait to see the results. Speaking of—do you have any idea how long this all will take?”