Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 162

Chapter 162: Millions of bees, all two of them
I shouldn’t have worried.

Compared to building the train (even with Worriesgone modifications), making the railroad itself took way longer, anyway!

Even with 1600 forges built in Camp Rich and 16 thousand Craftsmen Bees manning them, it would take three weeks by Things-Things approximations to make and install all the rails.

*Three weeks*!

Compared to the amount of work required on this stage of Project Hotwheels, everything else felt like a child’s play.

Over 100 hundred Forager Bees, released of their usual work—foraging—were busy on the project doing manual labor. Carrying things to and from Camp Rich, installing rails, and so on and so forth.

The number felt insane, and yet, the Bee Empire barely felt the dip in productivity.

Because, a couple of days after Worriesgone’s request…Live a little!

<Congratulations, your empire has reached a population of two million! You got a new achievement: “1000000*2”! Your reward: ‘Increased Fertility III->V’ gene.>

〔Increased Fertility V: +100% to fertility.〕

‘Incredible! We… do we really have so many people living in the Empire? Two million? This is huge!’

But numbers wouldn’t lie.

〔Bee Empire〕

〔Wellness〕: 91 %

〔Population〕: 2041 thousand

A thousand of thousand were a million, and we had it twice!

With all the young Queens laying eggs in their hives, our population was growing with speed I could barely comprehend. Especially since I spent most of my time in Hive Supremo.

‘After I give my little princesses some of my blood, this fertility bonus will make my population grow even faster. Oof, and here I thought I can avoid it in the foreseeable future.’

I also now had more gene points to spend thanks to this, but considering what I knew, they would all just go to poison.

I sighed, already calculating the amount of blood this will take, considering that there were not only 21 ruling Queens, but also 30 young Queens waiting to take a mantle of a ruler of their own hive.

‘Wait a second… System, why is there an achievement for 2 million people, but no achievement for 1 million people? System? Hey, don’t go silent on me! If you don’t know, just say that you don’t know!’

<This function isn’t available, user.>

‘Just amazing. With every day you grow worse and worse, system!’

I huffed and went back to the bloody math.

51 Queen, half a health point each… I would be left with 11 health points if I did it at once.

This meant I will have to go through the bloodletting procedure more than once. Not much better.

‘Truly, progress is made through the blood and tears of its makers. Blood is yet to flow, and I’m already going to cry!’

***

Soon, I forgot all about the time the railroad project would take, and about the railroad itself.

Because the little princesses that I shed my blood and tears for were finally ready to leave their home nest!

Well, most of them were just envious that Regalia got to settle in Camp Rich (officially Hive Rich now, since Regalia got herself a few drones and began laying eggs) while they didn’t.

Either way, Ambrosia declared that, “They know enough to follow the advice of their Advisers, and they will learn other things with time.”

Thanks to the efforts of the Bee Empire’s army, alongside its many workers, this brood of Queens was born with a silver spoon compared to the previous one.

They didn’t have to infiltrate other hives and take out hostile Queens in a bloody battle. Their hives were already built as working camps and forts, and all they had was to settle in.

Regardless, when my little princesses gave me their last goodbyes and flew out with their swarms of helpers and bodyguards, I felt like tearing up.

“They grow up so fast… All of them,” I blinked rapidly and turned to Ambrosia, who went to see the Queens off together with me. “At least I can visit them sometimes. Especially ones that settle closer. But you, Amby—don’t you feel bad that you probably won’t see any of these girls in the foreseeable future? You actually spent more time with them than I did.”

Today, Amby was dressed in the peak of current sewing technology—a light-brown dress. The threads were scavenged from ropes that made clothes of the green giants and hand-woven into rough but sturdy fabric. The process was incredibly labor-consuming, and until we had mechanical looms, it made little sense to make more clothes from fabric.

This dress was a prototype, but Artists and Craftsmen labored extra time to embroider it with gold wire and pieces of dragon scales.

Not for function, just because they thought their Mother-Queen-Empress should look as pretty as their beloved father.

Whenever I looked at this dress, I knew her daughters loved Amby more than they would admit. And vice versa.

Also, it fit her beautiful figure much more than previous leather clothing, and made her look even more striking than usual.

Ambrosia stared into the sky outside the hive for a while before replying.

“Sometimes, Nectus, you ask questions that take way more effort to answer than they provide anything useful. My feelings aren’t useful to the Empire. What’s the point in trying to put them into words?”

I frowned.

“Well… You might feel better. How’s that, Amby?”

She rubbed her chest.

“Do I need to feel better, though? I suppose this will help me work more effectively…”

Without thinking, I reached out and pulled Ambrosia into a tight hug. She gasped in surprise, but hugged me back.

“Don’t talk about this like you don’t matter at all, alright, Amby?” I kissed her right between two shocked eyes. “Live a little!”

To my delight, Amby blushed.

Around us, the onlooking bees were pausing in their work to look at the scene, grimace in disgust, and resume working with extra effort.

“You always say things like these and make me feel all the strange feelings you can’t explain properly!” Ambrosia said, putting her head on my shoulder. “And call me by this shortened version of my name like it’s somehow better. It’s only fair that I call you Necty, then.”

I beamed.

“You gave me a pet name! So you must *really* love me, then!”

“If you say this with so much conviction, maybe it’s true. I wouldn’t know, though. Even Researchina can’t explain some things you say.”

I chuckled. Today, all the sass went right over my head. I was a fool in love!

And I wondered what my numbers were going to look like in a month, after all the Queens settled in properly and created a new generation of my granddaughters.

Long before that, twelve days later, another significant event happened…