Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire - Chapter 73

Chapter 73: Long live the Queen!
THE GODDESS OF BEES, ONE WHO BRINGS SWEET HONEY AND DEADLY VENOM, ALWAYS WATCHES, EXCEPT WHEN SHE DOES NOT. BUT TODAY, SHE WAS WATCHING.

She was watching how a virgin Queen Bee (who called herself Rulia, but what decent being *needed* names, anyway?) with her pitiful swarm of just 33 bees flew toward a hive.

It was built in a hollow inside of a massive pillar mountain, larger and older than most pillar mountains nearby. The protrusions on the upper part of it were reaching so far and wide that all the mountain’s surroundings were in constant shadow for a kilometer in all directions.

A forest was growing on top of this mountain, so far from the ground it was partially hidden by a blue haze of distance. Massive beasts prowled it day and night, but none of them touched the beehive inside the mountain, despite the sweet honey inside.

They knew better.

Bees didn’t *need* intelligence to be superior to these creatures.

Rulia and her swarm paused near the hive’s entrance. She and her companions exchanged words; then the Queen flew toward the hive, while her companions landed on the ground and waited.

There were two hundred bees guarding the entrance: dedicated guards and simply resting Forager Bees. The scents and sights of approaching Rulia made them perk up in alarm. Compared to bees in Hive Supremo, they looked more pale, slender and weak.

Rulia only raised her nose higher and kept flying, not slowing down. She knew none of these bees will stop her, and none of them even tried!

From Rulia’s scent, they recognized a Queen, and it was enough.

Inside, Rulia quickly smelled the trace of the local Queen’s scent. In no time at all, she found her target, and no Worker Bees tried to stop her on the way there.

After all, Rulia was a Queen, and their instincts told them that Queens had permission to be around.

The other Queen was surrounded by a dozen Drones, who were trying to mate with her—but when Rulia burst into the royal chamber, all the bees turned toward her.

The local Queen pushed the Drones away and stood up, raising her stinger.

“An intruder! An intruding Queen, no less. I will kill you, rival!” she shouted.

“Another Queen!” the Drones whispered to each other. “Should we try mating with her?”

“Will she let us?”

“Queen! Queen, let us mate with you!”

Rulia raised her hammer and looked the Drone over. She decided her father could probably kill any of them with two punches, but two was more than one, so… They would do.

She turned to the hostile Queen, who raised her stinger in defense.

“You stand no chance!”

Rulia didn’t even step in melee’s range. Instead, she swung her arms and threw the heavy hammer like Shhi taught her.

The hammer’s head flew with unerring precision; the other Queen tried to flinch away, but was too slow.

The blow landed with a wet crunch, sending splatters of blood, shards of bone, and bits of brain all over the room.

Even the Drones fell silent, staring at the bloody murder with stupefied faces.

Rulia grinned as her rival’s body fell to the ground.

This was a brutal rival elimination that even the Goddess of Bees approved!

Her Chosen One’s plans of spreading his genes were disgustingly effective and moderately entertaining. Too bad that so much of his success came from that infuriating human intelligence he spread around.

“Father is such a worrier… Train for another five days, as if! This was so easy—I could’ve won naked and without training!” Rulia picked her hammer and kicked her rival’s corpse. “Now this hive and all its bees are mine! Miiine!”

A Drone wiped a chunk of brain from his cheek and looked at Rulia hopefully.

“Will we be yours, too?”

A moment later, a Queen Attendant poked her head inside the royal chamber. Although she smelled a dead Queen, she also smelled a living, virile Queen—so she and her sisters were calm.

“A Queen! Are you our Queen now?” the Attendant asked.

Rulia nodded.

“Yes, I *am*! And my first order—get rid of this body, bring me food… No, that’s two orders. Three orders—I also order you to let my new subordinates in!”

“Uh… I… Queen, too many words…”

Rulia huffed.

“Oh right, I forgot that you all are stupid. Fine, let me explain it to you in larvae terms…”

The Goddess of Bees would’ve watched the scene for longer, if she could—but she had to use her power elsewhere. Since the Goddess of Bees wanted to keep that mortal on the path of world conquest, she had to keep hiding him.

Just like she was doing before.

***

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

Ambrosia nodded.

“I must check on our nursery immediately.”

“Wait, I’m with you! The rest of the Council—just… don’t go far away yet!”

I flew after Ambrosia to the part of the hive where all the eggs, larvae, and pupae were growing.

It looked exactly as always, with Nurse Bees buzzing around. There were no signs of a terrible plague.

“Someone! Bring me all the Chief Nurses!” Ambrosia commanded the nearest Nurse Bees.

Meanwhile, I flew right to the honeycomb cells and began examining the bees inside. Although they weren’t mature yet, and didn’t even count for my empire’s populace, they were alive and had a status.

〔Bee Egg〕 〔Ally〕 〔Progeny〕

〔Health〕: 2 / 2

〔Stamina〕: 0 / 0

〔Bee Larvae〕 〔Ally〕 〔Progeny〕

〔Health〕: 3 / 3

〔Stamina〕: 1 / 1

This all looked well—but I couldn’t look farther. All the pupae were lying in cells covered by wax walls, which I couldn’t look through.

I clenched my fists and glared at one such wall.

Too bad that breaking it would definitely only harm the pupa inside the cell!

As if reading my thoughts, there was a punch coming from inside the cell. Then another…

A young bee tried to get out, but her blows were so weak, they couldn’t break through the wax. This definitely wasn’t normal!

“Amby!” I shouted, turning to her. “Amby, look here—help me out! This bee is trying to get out of her cell!”

“Ah, yes, Father—the pupae in front of you are scheduled to emerge today. It should’ve happened earlier today, but we supposed they just felt like sleeping in!” a Nurse Bee nearby chirped.

“This can only mean bad things,” Ambrosia said, hovering next to me. “Let’s help our daughter out, Nectus.”

I nodded, already fearing what we might find.