Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 72

Chapter 72: A mysterious affliction
〔Bee Empire〕

〔Wellness〕: 74 %

〔Population〕: 47 thousand

〔Territory〕: 2826 sq. kilometers

〔Settlement count〕: 2

〔Development level〕: 4

〔Development points〕: 156 / 1000

〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee

〔Attributes〕

> Workpower: 799

> Military: 156

> Brainpower: 266

> Logistics: 56

> Resilience: 160

〔Resources〕:

> Food: 2029 units

> Building materials: 74 units

> Crafting materials: 53 units

〔Colony Council〕

〔Military Adviser〕: increases total military by 10%. (Bloodhero)

〔Science Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to brainpower. (Researchina)

〔Industry Adviser〕: increases total workpower by 10%. (Things-Things)

〔Economics Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to military. (Workharder)

〔Culture Adviser〕: increases all total attributes and wellness by 3%. (Ambrosia)

〔Technologies〕

Dance Communication, Hive Building, Food Preservation, Forager Posts, Rank-Based Hierarchy, Border Patrols, Candles, Primitive Spiked Armor, Primitive Medicine, Work Camps, Literacy, Scientific Method, Basic Hygiene, Technology of Stone Age

〔〕〔〕〔〕

I scanned my status fully and compared it with yesterday’s notes.

Although there wasn’t enough space for a full log of my colony, I kept a week’s worth of my colony’s statuses, plus some notes from earlier times.

I had to get a separate room for all the tablets, but it was good to have a reference.

‘Compared to yesterday, we’ve lost 13 units of food, 2 units of building materials and 3 units of crafting materials. And yesterday we lost 10 units of food, 3 units of building and 3 units of crafting materials.’

I bit my lip. Those losses could be explained by a bout of bad weather or bad luck, but…

‘This doesn’t explain why wellness fell so low in such a short time! Just two days ago it was 78%. Which is already bad… Fuck. I thought implementing basic hygiene will be enough to keep it up!’

Low wellness meant that the population was weakened, sick, wounded, and generally prone to dying.

As I’ve noticed, wellness increased naturally together with population density. Bees fell sick as much as humans did, but with clothing, plentiful food, and a bit of hygiene, I kept my daughters mostly healthy.

The worst we got here was mild cold.

Could this have changed?

The last time wellness dropped so fast and so badly was after the hornet attack. Back then, hundreds of bees were wounded, many of them badly.

Was the situation just as serious this time? A creeping affliction I had no idea about until it was too late? A mysterious sickness?

I shivered with dread.

‘Time for an emergency Council meeting!’

***

The Colony Council gathered quickly.

I placed the numbers in front of them, pointed at the wellness, and waited patiently while the Advisers would read the number. Since most of them only read by syllables, it took a few seconds.

“This is not right. Why? Why is this number so low?! I was given no reports about hundreds of people falling wounded or ill at once.”

Ambrosia took the wax tablet from my hands and frowned deeply. I looked at her hopefully—as our Culture Adviser, dealing with things like hygiene and illness was mostly her responsibility.

“You say this happened in the last couple of days, Nectus? This is really alarming… Because I’ve seen no signs of it, either.”

She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

“There’s always someone who’s feeling sick. Our hospital has a couple dozen bees currently, but none of them are dying, or were there for long. It’s not at all like the illness of Drones I’ve told you about. The number of ill bees isn’t too big, either.”

I nodded.

Our hospital was a small building in the farthest corner of the hive cave. It was not the best facility, but at least it quarantined the sick until they got healthy. More or less. The bees brought food and water to the sick with as little personal contact as possible.

“I trust your judgment on this, Amby. Considering when the Drone pandemic happened, I doubt they are connected. But if our hive is alright… What if something happened in the Hornet’s Nest?”

The stats of our colonies summed up, after all.

As Pollenia’s hive became more stable, our exchange of bees slowed. However, Hive Supremo still provided Hive Hornet’s Nest with crafted items and trained specialists.

In return, Hive Hornet Nest provided aphid meat, honeydew, and rocks for crafting. There were a lot of the latter excavated from the aphid tunnels.

By now, two broods of adorable granddaughters have reached maturity and emerged from their capped cells in Hive Hornet Nest. To my dismay, they partially inherited the basic genes of Drones from Pollenia’s harem; but thanks to bees’ complicated genetics, only 25% of bees genes came from the father, anyway.

To say this softly, some of my granddaughters were a bit dull.

Could this have influenced my colony’s wellness?

“Queen Pollenia’s messengers mentioned nothing about this when they brought requests for our crafted stuff,” Things-Things said.

“We should still ask. Good thing Hornet’s Nest is just a short flight away… Bloodhero, send someone after a *detailed* report. And… think about all this. The Empire needs answers!”

“Yes, Father!”

***

An hour and a half later, the Colony Council gathered again.

“Queen Pollenia says that there’s been nothing abnormal happening in her hive. 29 sick bees, a dozen injured in a minor cave-in, but nothing worse than bruises,” Bloodhero reported, waving a wax tablet.

I rubbed my forehead.

To deal with this problem, I used my Grand Strategist title. But although I got mostly used to it, when I had so many unfounded reasons for anxiety about my little princesses somewhere out there, the extra 20 points of intelligence were mostly giving me *more* anxiety.

“Let’s be logical,” I muttered.

Researchina and Ambrosia nodded at once.

“Are you feeling well yourself, Nectus?” Ambrosia asked. “Could you’ve fallen sick, too? *Actually* sick?”

I blinked and checked my health. No—still at 〔36/36〕. I’ve been still feeding Researcher Bees my blood, but only a portion at a time.

“No, I’m fine! I think. This is something else. Not the Worker Bees in Hive Supremo, not the Worker Bees in Hive Hornet Nest… Ah, my little princesses! Could something have happened to them?”

Ambrosia shook her head.

“The wellness loss happened in the last few days. They were perfectly well back then. Our daughters are fine. It’s…”

A realization flashed over her face, followed by a dark shadow.

I couldn’t remember ever seeing my wife with this expression, and it took me a moment to realize…

She was *dreading* something.

The next moment, I understood.

“Oh, no. If it’s not anyone else, it has to be…”