Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 166

Chapter 166: The First Train of Father-Emperor
Everybody bated their breaths as three dozen Craftsmen Bees lifted the heavy tarp off the train-wagon and it appeared before us in all its sunlit glory.

A torrent of gasps flew over the crowd. Dozens of thousands of bees were stunned speechless, and I was among them.

‘This… it’s almost like a palace on wheels!’

A tribal palace, but a palace nonetheless.

In its core, the wagon was still simple construction from rough wooden boards and iron nails, with several doors and a minimum of windows. It was, by itself, twenty meters, three meters wide and six meters tall, with space for dozens of bees. Many iron clamps with long ropes attached to them were in the front—for pulling.

But over this, every inch of the wagon was covered in embellishments!

Colorful dragon scales and chitin pieces were nailed along the walls of the train-wagon. Each had a picture on it, inlaid with gold, and in them, I recognized symbolic drawings of the Bee Empire history.

“Glorious Sun-Father meets Mother-Queen”, “Mother-Queen lays many sunny eggs”, “The eggs grow into strong and smart daughters”, “Glorious Sun-Father gives everybody headpats”, and so on and so forth.

I even saw a scene of many dots-bees fighting several large spiky triangles-hornets. It was drawn on a piece of a hornet’s chitin.

But this was just the start of the embellishments! Where there weren’t gold pictures, bees carved more abstract geometric images into wood itself. They also liberally added spikes from bone and stingers—especially on the wheels.

As a result, the train looked like a sturdy and aggressive but still luxurious tribal palace, or a temple. A shining in the sun example of a culture that was growing right in front of my eyes!

And the centerpiece of this on the front part of the wagon.

A life-sized wooden statue of a bee was standing on a roof like a ship’s figurehead, and although its features were too crude to recognize, the crown was a dead giveaway.

<Congratulations! A legendary work of art has been created in your empire—”The First Train of Father-Emperor”! Legendary works of art give various bonuses to your empire as long as they are under its control.>

〔The First Train of Father-Emperor〕

For each settlement on this train’s railroad route:

Logistics: +500

Culture: +2500

〔〕〔〕〔〕

<Congratulations, your empire gained its first legendary work of art! You got a new achievement: “Legendarily Inspired”! Your reward: “Artist Bee” title upgrade.>

〔Artist Bee〕: adds 1%->2% chance for a legendary inspiration to happen. Requirements: the smallest bit of creativity.

While I digested this, the onlookers recovered from their shock and awe and began shouting in delight.

“So shiny!”

“I’ve never seen anything so pretty!”

“And this was done by our sisters? It’s incredible!”

“The thing on the roof looks just like Father! There will be Father no matter where the train goes!”

Listening to this praise, the Craftsmen and Artists involved beamed with proud smiles—all except Worriesgone.

She was anxiously watching for my reaction.

I grinned at her, clapping my hands excitedly, and flew closer.

“This is amazing and was absolutely worth it! You and your girls and everybody else involved—you’ve outdone yourself! I also seriously hope that nobody got sick with cold because of the storms—”

“We didn’t Father. We wouldn’t want to worry you,” Worriesgone assured, smiling at me brighter than all the gold on the wagon was shining.

“Me and her—we left all the cold work for my tough Craftsmen, yes-yes!” Things-Things inserted. “But she’s better with ideas, sure. I’d never come up with so many pictures in so little time! All my girls couldn’t. It took so long to even come up with the picture on ‘Forever Greatest’!”

“This is truly a… I don’t think I have words for feeling that this train inspires,” Ambrosia said, landing next to me, but still looking at the train with awed eyes. “I’m so proud of you, and more. This train is glory, and I want to bring it to as many places as possible.”

She turned to me.

“Necty, in the future, we must connect *all* hives with a railroad, so the train would visit them all!”

I nodded eagerly.

“Absolutely! This will only help!”

Suddenly, I heard a sniff.

When my eyes snapped to its origin, I saw Worriesgone’s tear-stricken face. Despite all the water pouring out of her eyes, she was smiling from ear to ear.

Things-Things gasped.

“Little sister, you are leaking! I mean, crying! Are you hurt? Did you catch head-worms?!”

“I dun-dunno!” Worriesgone sniffed and rubbed her eyes, but more tears came out. “I’m just so happy that happiness turns liquid!”

Now I was crying, too.

Unable to contain myself, I pulled Worriesgone into a hug. She squeaked with surprise, then laughed and hugged me back.

“Aaaah, now Father is leaking, too! Is this contagious?! Mother-Queen, what do we do?!”

Ambrosia waved her hand dismissively.

“They are just crying, Things-Things. Let them.” I didn’t see her face, but her voice was warm, as if she was smiling. “You might start the preparations for the train’s first journey in the meantime.”

“Oh, right-right. I mean—what preparations? The train is Workharder’s responsibility now! Where is she? It needs to be sent off, now! There are all those crafting materials waiting for me in Hive Rich, yes-yes!”

I left Worriesgone go and saw that around us, onlooking bees surrounded the train closer to admire it and congratulate the Craftsmen and Artists who made the thing.

Thankfully Things-Things and my bodyguards were close enough to worry about all the crying, but when I looked, Amby was patting Things-Things’ head, clearly imitating my habit.

I sniffed and smiled even wider than I was, although I didn’t know it was physically possible.

Only my bodyguards looked unbothered by all this—just stoically impressed with the train.

I sniffed again, and Destroyer quietly gave me a piece of cloth.

“Here, Father. You can wipe your face.”

“Thank you… Damn, I won’t need any Attendants with bodyguards as attentive as you are!”

Destroyer didn’t reply, just quietly preened.

I turned away from her.

“Things-Things, Worriesgone, Amby is right. Put the supplies and prepare the workers—I want to get a ride on this train as soon as possible!”

I couldn’t wait to see what bonuses the train and its technologies would give when they actually start working!