Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 250

Chapter 250: System, where level ups?
On that day, I read the reports written on wax tablets, deciphering bad spelling and letters that smudged from warmth or poor handling, and wished we had paper.

But paper was invented way later than the Late Bronze Age. Before that, people had papyrus at most.

The wax tablets had reports on the progress of my Researchers, and what they all said was that, by all accounts, the Bee Empire had discovered most of the technologies of the Late Bronze Age, and even some technologies of the Iron Age?

We could make metal alloys, pottery, and even refine glass from sand. We had our first fabric manufactories and learned how to tan leather a while ago. And so on and so on…

‘System, *why* I still haven’t reached the next technological age?’

I didn’t really expect an answer, but it came.

<The degree of implementation of the current age’s technologies is too low, user. Too few of your subjects have access to these technologies.>

‘Really? Can you tell me more?’

<I can’t provide you with more detailed information about your empire, user.>

So I had to rely on reports.

I thought that the sub-hives were in the same technological age as the Hive Supremo. It wasn’t like Hive Supremo was a high-tech mega-city while the sub-hives were all villages!

And things were working as they were supposed to. Heralds carried my instructions and advice to Queens of hives, who made sure everything was in order. There were extra messengers flying in and out every day, carrying details about imports and exports of items and workers.

From the amount of resources the sub-hives could produce and the amounts they needed (and also everything Hive Supremo had, of course), the Empire Council calculated the amount of resources we had in total.

The point was—I didn’t know what exactly was going on in the sub-hives as long as they and the heralds that went there reported no problems. But they could not *know* it was a problem.

This meant I had to carry on a personal inspection.

A surprise one!

***

Next day, I announced my plan to Ambrosia. As much as I wanted to act entirely in secret, it was impossible to do on my own with how many eyes were on me at all times.

“It’s not that I think they would hide something from me intentionally. My granddaughters are not like that! They are good, honest workers. But they might do things wrong because they weren’t taught better, or hide their problems because they are sure they can deal with them on their own, or because they just want to look better in my eyes… So I want to see their daily lives without embellishments.”

Ambrosia nodded with solemn understanding and reached out to pat my shoulder.

“Yes. The lies are not natural to bees, but so are many other things. And we invent them every day, even without your advice. They could’ve invented lies without thinking about it. I don’t think it’s very probable, but even a slight risk is not something we can afford.”

I nodded eagerly.

“Exactly! They start with exaggerating and diminishing the truth, then go on withholding facts… Anyway, I need you to cover for me for a day, so nobody rings an alarm when I’m away. Say that I’m in seclusion or something.”

Ambrosia continued to speak as if she didn’t hear me at all.

“But I don’t understand how you plan to achieve your ‘surprise inspection’, Necty. Any bee in the Bee Empire will recognize you immediately by sight and smell. You are their Father, their Emperor. As soon as you enter a sub-hive, it will be a reason for a celebration! And nobody will believe that you are in Hive Supremo when a thousand Worker Bees will see you leave.”

Each word was like a sharp poke into my amazing ideas, which might’ve been not so amazing after all. Perhaps I was blinded by my desire to take a break from the constant duties of an Emperor and having to care for an endless amount of children.

Still, I wasn’t going to give up! I still had more ideas.

“I will wear a disguise, of course! I will… I will dress like a Commando and cover my face with camouflage, too. This will cover my smell as well! Or I can pretend to be a Physician, they wear masks, too.”

The wrinkle between Ambrosia’s brows smoothed a little.

“This might work. Let’s test it in practice.”

***

Half an hour later, I stood in the Royal Chamber, dressed in a face mask and simple leather work clothing of a Physician Bee. The mask was made from cloth, thankfully, though it was still hard to breathe through. I knew that most Physicians still used leather face masks, which were less breathable.

Ambrosia walked around, examining me from all sides.

“Your hair is short, like that of a young bee. Your claws are too short while your wings are too long, but people won’t pay much attention to those. And these clothes smell so strongly of herbs that I can’t make out your smell. Your stinger definitely shows that you aren’t a man.”

She made a full circle and stopped in front of me.

“You are still way too tall for a Worker Bee, and your shoulders are too wide.”

“I will say that I’m chaotically evolved if anybody asks! It would explain everything. There aren’t many chaotically evolved bees in the sub-hives, but there are enough.”

When I first got the ‘Chaotic Evolution’ gene, I didn’t have time to share blood with my Queens—I was too busy dealing with human attacks.

Since then, I shared two entire sets of genes, including the ‘Chaotic Evolution’. There were still only a few generations of bees with it, compared to all their older sisters, but my girls knew what this gene meant.

(And what to do to identify tricky genes like ‘Precognition’ and ‘Telepathy’.)

“Alright,” Ambrosia conceded. “This might work. And if it doesn’t, nothing bad will happen. But if you seriously thought that I would let you leave Hive Supremo on your own, Necty, you were very foolish…”