Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 71

Chapter 71: Go forth and conquer
The class of 20 young Queens stood in a line in the middle of a training ground. Usually, this place was used to train future Warrior and Foremen bees, but today it was ours from crude wooden dummies in one corner to a pile of training sticks in another.

Each of the Queens was wearing a set of spiky bone armor over crude leather clothing, with crown-like helmets fit for princesses.

For weapons, each of them had a stone dagger with a wooden handle and a stone hammer.

They also now had names, which they chose themselves, and looked ready to rule and kill.

The transformation from rebellious (and murderous) teenagers to regal (and murderous) princesses was incredible! Although I visited them every day and watched their progress, it was still a shock to see today.

I wanted to beam at them and hug each of my daughters, but I had to keep the image of a stern father today.

That, and they were wearing spiky bone armor.

Ambrosia and I stood opposite of the princesses, next to their teachers, Equatina and Shhi.

“We’ve taught them the basics the best we could. This was enough time to teach them how to read and write, but I wish we could get deeper into mathematics!” Equatina reported.

“They know how to stab, how to hammer, and how to camouflage. Should be enough.” Shhi shrugged. “Test them, Father.”

I nodded.

“I trust you two, but I want to see for myself what my daughters can do before I let them out on this dangerous mission.”

“You won’t go alone, of course,” Ambrosia said to my princesses. “There will be guards with you, but they won’t be able to enter another hive. The guards of the hive will stop them. And until you take full control of the hive, we won’t be able to send more people to help you.”

I nodded.

“You must be able to take care of yourself, girls.”

“Of course we can, Father. We always could,” a young Queen said with a huff. Her name was Stabbina.

I stepped back and folded my arms over my chest.

“Then let the tests begin. Show me your best!”

The first test was to show their stabbing, stinging and hammering techniques on a dummy. Everybody passed—they hit the dummy with the right sides of their weapons.

The second test was to show their literacy. Everybody also passed it—they could spell out things readably enough and sum numbers up to a thousand without mistakes (with the help of a wax tablet).

Nevertheless, after the tests, I frowned severely.

“Hmm… Well, this is decent, I guess. But you must work harder! This result wasn’t very satisfying. I’d like to see more progress in the next five days! Then I will make a harder test than today, so work hard to prepare!”

The time was calculated. Right now, I have 132 days left… I’d rather spare 5 more days to prepare my daughters even better than to send them out just like that.

Pollenia trained much longer before she became the ruler of Hornet’s Nest!

However, my words were met with an immediate protest.

“But I want to have my own Drones…”

“I want to mate!”

“I want to have my own hive! Living with sister Queens is awful!”

“We are ready, I swear!”

Then one of them—Rulia—turned to me. Her large, shining eyes were glistening with a hint of unshed tears, her lower lip was jutting out just slightly, and her antennae bowed almost to her nose.

It should’ve looked comical considering her warrior’s getup, but the contrast only made Rulia look cuter. With her round face, despite being an adult, she still had some pure childish adorableness…

Yes, she was incredibly cute! This was an actual adorableness attack!

And Rulia’s sisters supported it with similar expressions.

“Is this what you really think, Father? But we worked hard in those past days, just like you told us to. Aren’t you proud of us, not at all?”

‘Critical hit! You were dealt over 9000 emotional damage! Morale is critical!’

With my mega-brain I could tell immediately that this was all a manipulation. The young Queens were all little brats with only D (Drones) and their own kids on their mind.

‘When did they even learn this?! Who shared with them my biggest weakness?! Was it Amby? No… It had to be the Attendants! The gossipers, I know they will tell everything to everybody!’

But although I knew this was just manipulation, I still couldn’t resist.

Unlike them, I was tearing up *for real*!

“Rulia, don’t say that! Of course, I’m proud of you! I’ve seen you training for twelve hours a day! But you must—”

Rulia stepped closer to me. Her eyelashes fluttered even more pitifully.

“Then, if you *are* really proud, will you let us fly out tomorrow, Father?”

I bit my lip, preventing myself from agreeing immediately. But it was a really close call.

“Let them, Nectus,” Ambrosia said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You know they are as ready as they need to be. We, Queens, are born with the necessary skills in our instinct. With your genes, there already was no chance for other Queens, and with the weapons they have… It won’t even be a competition.”

I let my shoulders fall and turned to her.

“The closer is The Day, the more I worry,” I admitted quietly.

She smiled at me.

“I know, Nectus. That’s almost… What’s the word you use? Silly?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, silly me. Ah… Well, then forget the ‘strict father’ routine! Everybody should take off the bone armor. At least I want to hug my daughters before they go off and conquer!”

***

They flew out the next morning, as they wanted to. Each had three squads of Commando Bees with them, and just in a few hours, I was going to get the first reports of my daughters’ failure or success.

I was going to worry the entire time. And what was the better way to distract myself than to worry about other things?

So I opened my empire’s status… And immediately had a new reason for anxiety.

〔Bee Empire〕

〔Wellness〕: 74 %

‘Uh… What the hell? When and *why* did it get so low?!’