Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 68

Chapter 68: He said the thing
“Asassination?”

“Murder. Stab-a-stabbing. Our Queens will kill the *other* ones and replace them. It will be easy. All my daughters are much stronger and tougher than average bees, and they will have the best weapons and armor. Ordinary bees… I bet they won’t think twice if another Queen Bee just flies into their hive. Even *you* just let that other Drone in yesterday!”

I glared at Bloodhero, the Military Adviser, who was also responsible for entrance guards.

Bloodhero straightened to attention.

“Father, I won’t make this mistake again, Father! We wouldn’t have let in a bee from another hive like that. But this was a Drone! You didn’t tell us to stop Drones. That’s not the same!”

“It was curious to see a Drone from another colony in our hive, but not alarming,” Researchina said.

I gave her a disappointed look.

“I expected better from *you*, Researchina… You are smarter than this, I know it!” I shook my head. “Anyway, can you see the perspectives, girls? All these hives will work for us, with us! Will be a part of our dominion!”

My Advisers nodded, but my thought was flying further toward my bone crown.

“No… From now on, it’s called an empire—because we will be ruling over Queens. We are the Bee Empire, the one and only. I’m the Emperor, and Amby is the Empress!”

<Congratulations! You’ve unlocked ‘Feudal Government’ technology!>

〔Feudal Government〕

Brainpower requirement: 200

Replaces ‘Clan Administration’.

Allows subjugating settlements whose rulers and populace don’t have blood relations with you, as long as they also have ‘Feudal Administration’ or better.

Allows giving land titles to make people nobility.

Land-ruling nobles are considered administrators.

Logistics: +10 per 1 affected administrator.

〔〕〔〕〔〕

‘What? Wait, it says… “per 1”, not “per 1 thousand”! But… who counts as administrators? Especially affected ones… Only nobles, isn’t it?’

<Yes, user.>

‘Hah. Still, interesting!’

I grinned.

“Yes-yes!” Things-Things said, grinning back at me. “They will be like Queen Pollenia’s hive! We will be exchanging bees and things!”

“Bees from other hives are too stupid to do more than gather nectar, I bet, but there will be better, smarter bees later.” Workharder began counting on her fingers. “In a month, maybe? Queen Ambrosia, you know this stuff better.”

Ambrosia frowned and picked a wax table from the pile in the corner. It was our equivalent of clean paper for notes.

I moved to watch what she was writing over her shoulder. She was doing math, and I spotted no mistakes.

“The generations will fully change to ours in about two months,” Ambrosia said a minute later. “In this time, the new Queens can train and equip new specialists. With trainers from Hive Supremo, of course. Yes… I like this plan. The young Queens won’t even have to search for Drones, they could take ones that still live inside the hive.”

I looked around.

“Does anybody have objections, or something else to point out?”

“There will be a lot to arrange…” Workharder mused. “It’s been harder to keep notes on who goes where even with just Hornet’s Nest hive to think about. When bees start working in the wrong directions, it always ends in disaster. We will have to do something about it!”

I winced.

This was true.

Bees were more hardworking than most humans. I could leave them easily and know that none of them will start slacking off without supervision. From the last Cleaning Bee to my Advisers, they all rested only when they were actually tired, and when all work was done, they asked for more.

But even with 100 intelligence, they could be mistaken, or confused. Just last week, my Craftsmen Bees made 1000 spears instead of 1000 hammers requested by Bloodhero, because someone misinterpreted the image Bloodhero scribbled on a wax tablet with the order.

Literacy was still a work in progress.

“We need more teachers,” I said. “Way more.”

In my mind, I was also making calculations.

18 days just for the new daughter Queens to emerge.

Then at least a week to prepare them for their mission. Not even for ruling, just for political assassinations.

Then two months would pass before the new hives will fully get all the bonuses I so painstakingly stacked for the existing hive.

This was really cutting it close to my lifespan limit, and it was *still* the best option my strategic genius came up with. If something went wrong in the process… I shuddered to imagine.

Ambrosia continued writing notes.

“I agree. The current teaching speed was too slow, and now that Pollenia will be laying eggs again… More young bees will emerge than our school can fit. Also… It would be more convenient for everybody if there were bigger rooms. Maybe there’s a way to make… horizontally bigger rooms?”

For the next several hours, the Colony Council talked about everything the Bee Empire needed for the conquest. In the process, we started research progress on several minor technologies, and I explained to the Advisers how feudalism worked (more or less).

Afterward, I donated a gallon of my blood (only 15 health points out of 36, but it looked and felt like a gallon) to upgrade Researcher Bees, and went right to sleep.

Blood loss of this scale showed itself.

***

Not 10, but 20 new royal pods were built for the future Queens and filled with royal jelly to the brim.

The days leading before emergence were spent in such busy preparations that time flew by faster than an arrow.

Hive Hornet’s Nest kept growing, and aphids were steadily producing food. The rate of deaths among our bees diminished, while birth rates promised to spike. There were more teachers, and soon, all bees could read, write and count to thousands (with the help of a wax tablet).

Effectiveness of all bees was growing from that. Even Cleaning Bees had an easier time navigating the growing hive when there were signposts on the walls.

Development points were growing steadily, but way too slowly. *Way* too slowly!

And 18 days later, I faced a challenge.

The young Queen emergence day was approaching—how was I going to wrangle 20 rebellious, murderous, and jacked on OP genes daughters?