Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 164

Chapter 164: Xenophobia never changes
Bloodhero looked at the Beehounds; they avoided her eyes just like mine.

“BEEHOUNDS, ARE YOU READY?”

She shouted like a drill sergeant! Even I jolted; Beehounds acted like startled pigeons. A half of them jumped and prepared to fly before they realized that the shouting person was just Bloodhero.

Behind me, my ever-present-outside-the-hive bodyguards raised their hammers and looked wildly in all directions.

My Military Adviser nodded with satisfaction and turned to me as if unaware about all the gray hairs she gave to people present.

“They are ready, Father. For anything!”

“Anything but the heart attack you will give them if you shout like that!” I was clutching my chest, too. “Dammit… So you have the scouting plans prepared already, too?”

According to my suggestion, to make their searches more effective, Beehounds would cover the areas that were considered most promising for the search for humans. This meant the places where they were noticed last, and the places where dragon riders *maybe* saw their signs.

It was Bloodhero’s job to separate search zones and assign them to Beehound squads (or find someone to delegate this task to), so they would scout in an organized, effective manner.

There were no more sightings of humans since the meeting with the Yash family. A month has passed since then—enough time to assume that humans forgot. They must’ve definitely abandoned their search for missing people if they had it in the first place.

But I knew that as long as we lived near humans, and on a pile of gold, no less—we were in danger.

It would take days to just reach the search areas. When the Beehounds flew out for their mission, looking visibly more and more relieved the farther they got from other bees, I wondered…

How many of them will return?

‘A lot. All of them! They are smart and sniff out things like a dog. They can do it!’

Bloodhero’s words pulled me out of my musings.

“The Beehounds can fly out right now, Father—I knew you didn’t want to waste any time, so they even got their packs! *Everything* is ready, including the scouting plans. And they were already put on wax and given out.”

I raised my brows and nodded.

“Wow, that’s good thinking. You are right, we have spent too much time without knowledge of what humans, I mean, green giants, are up to.”

I looked at the Beehounds again.

Although they were shy, even the system admitted their competence. Their very existence raised Bee Empire’s espionage attribute from 4 thousand to almost 7!

Which boosted my development points, of course.

I have reached a solid 〔744/2000〕. Not even over a half, but I knew soon, the speed of my progress will jump like a grasshopper!

All that being said, my good girls deserved an extra morale boost.

I put on my best reassuring smile. It was a smile I put on many, many times for my daughters, and by now, it was practiced to absolute perfection.

Even the most worried bees would relax and smile back when they saw it. Well, most bees were just happy to see their dad smile at them no matter how, but still!

But Beehounds were absolutely immune. They didn’t look up at me to see my smile in the first place!

Now it froze on my face.

‘What do I do? I can’t send my girls off like that! They should at least know that their dad cheers for them! Can I exclude a cheering smell? Aren’t there pheromones? Beehounds have a great sense of smell—they will be able to tell from pheromones, right?’

And indeed, their antennae moved faster in this moment… Except, even *I* could smell that I was exuding only unease.

‘Damn, this is a bad idea. Giga-brain, give me a better one… Oh, I know!’

I spun toward my bodyguards.

“Pass a message to Worriesgone. I *know* she has an art stash—I want it emptied and at least one piece of her well wishes given to the officers of the Beehounds!”

Destroyer saluted.

“Understood, Father. You!” She pointed at a random bodyguard. “You do it. Worriesgone should be on the train.”

“Yes, Sergeant!” the Beemarine shouted and dashed off.

I nodded in satisfaction.

“Now, about the second part of the plan… We have time to see if the dragons are ready, Bloodhero.”

Bloodhero’s mouth twitched with badly hidden scorn.

“Yes, Father. Dragons, Father. They *will* prove their usefulness again.”

Oh, xenophobia, xenophobia never changed. In a way, it was just adorable. Adorable enough to pet Bloodhero’s head and ruffle heir hair!

She cropped it short, just below her shoulders, but didn’t tie it up. There was a lot to ruffle.

“Dragons are damn cool, and you will understand it one day! Even if you might still want to kill them all. Alright, let’s go—I mean, fly!”

We didn’t have to fly far—the dragons were resting close enough to see their massive black figures.

They already ate their fill, and now cooperated with Explanatory’s research team.

Or, rather, Explanatory conducted research, Knowall archived it, and the dragons played a game where they growled at bees and they growled back.

Upon noticing our approach, Explanatory stopped growling and flew to meet us, leaving the dragons to her subordinates.

“Father. You want to send out dragon riders, I assume?”

I grinned at her.

“That’s right. I see you are almost chatting now! What do the dragons say?”

“Mostly, ‘graaaw’ and ‘graa’. Although they can produce other sounds, such as ‘screee’ and ‘gar—’, no, ‘grlk’. The last one is hard to pronounce.”

“Wow, you sound very like them! But… what does that all mean in our language?”

“Oh,” Explanatory frowned. “I’m only 75% sure. More research is required before I feel like I can share the results. But be calm, Father—the dragons know that if they carry riders and return on the same day, a reward will wait for them.”

I turned to Bloodhero.

“Do all the final preparations and pick three squads that fly out on dragon wings! We will see who will find humans first—they or the rest of the Beehounds.”