Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

A while ago, before the union of the Bee Empire, after the Vardish Empire's invasion of the Bee Empire failed, several dozen Agent Bees went on ships of the human traders from the Naregan Kingdom.

On these ships, they have travelled over the sea—or so I hoped they would. This journey was perilous even before the Game of Evolution began to wreck this world.

For months, there was no news from them. Even at its worst, the traders should've returned and taken at least part of the Agents with them for reports.

After so long, I wondered if they weren't lost in the ocean, but…

They have finally returned!

The trading ship "Wealth of the Homeland" entered a harbour to find out that the kingdom it belonged to had become a part of the Bee Empire. But since its crew were all people loyal to the holy teaching of the Bee Emperor, they didn't find it too shocking.

(They could be stunned by the existence of radios instead.)

The news about this travelled to me before the end of the same day, after which I flew to meet the returning Agents at least as an astral projection.

Another day later, my astral projection flew to the sub-hive See-Sea, where the returned Agents stayed in the meantime.

When I appeared, their squad—nine people, all who had returned with the ship—was sitting in one of the communal rest rooms of the sub-hive, chatting with the three dozen workers on their breaks.

Many were talking and eating at once, and I doubted that they were having a great grasp on the time, even with a recently invented mechanical clock standing near a wall.

They didn't notice me, either, but this was only natural since I was an astral projection. Unless they listened to my thoughts, they wouldn't know I was anywhere near, and they were listening to the Agents instead.

"…saw a building the size of a mountain! No, a real-real mountain! It was bigger than this city's castle. Like two of them placed on top of each other! Even humans had to walk away from the thing to look at it properly. And you know how old this place was?"

"Tell us, tell us!"

"What… ten years? Or… twenty years!"

"Five hundred years! Five. Hundred! This is more years than there are days in one!"

Shocked gasps filled the room. I hovered over this scene and transmitted a mental equivalent of clearing my throat.

'Girls…'

They all jolted at once. Some recognised my voice immediately, thanks to the radio speeches I gave, some—like the Agents—were confused at first.

'Father? This isn't a message from a telepathic chain!' one of them asked, looking around in confusion. 'We were told that you are about to meet us… Is this you? Have you come all the way here from the Hive Supremo?'

'Something like that, my dear. Now I'd like to speak with you more privately… So sorry for interrupting your fun, but can we have this break room for ourselves? I know there are other ones nearby,' I transmitted to the entire room.

As much as my girls didn't want to leave, they wanted to please me more. The room emptied in less than a minute.

I sent every worker who walked out my heartfelt thanks, knowing that this alone would carry them through the entire week.

'Alright, girls,' I said, focusing back on the Agents. 'You've missed a lot while you were away, so…'

***

It took a few minutes to explain what an astral projection was and why I was almost fully in this place while being far, far away.

With this aside, the Agents told me about their journey.

It started badly—their trader's ship got into a storm, followed by a total calm. They were stuck in the sea for so long that the captain began to worry about their water supply…

Thankfully, then the wind picked up, and the sailors found a small island where they resupplied.

"But the island was by itself dangerous, too. Three humans and five Agents died fighting beasts that lived there. Then every human on the ship who wasn't from the Blood Brotherhood got sick with some island illness. But most of them recovered."

I mentally nodded along to the story, while the Agent telling it—Sergeant Agent Blessing—continued.

The island delayed their arrival in the Vardish Empire, but after that, they had fewer problems. Of course, the Vardish Empire could be hostile to us since they declared war on the Naregan Kingdom, but the traders always had their ways.

In this case, they pretended to be from the Judji Republic. Ironic, since it was all one country now.

Under this guise of Judji people, the traders entered the Vardish Empire and let the Agent Bees fly freely over its shores. For an entire month, they gathered information by reading human minds.

"It was very dangerous too, Father. The Vardish cities are huge and full of predators—we had to fight off other insects at every step. Countless people were sick or had parasites, but they continued to live and work this way, and even got used to it!" Blessing described, waving her hand in agitation. "It was just like what I heard about the Eastern Expanse Reach, but it was somehow both better and worse!"

'Please, calm down and explain yourself. What do you mean?'

"I mean, it was better for humans. They weren't dying too much. But it was worse for us Agents to look at them! And to fight all the enemies there."

I've heard that the God of Humanity put most of his efforts into saving humans who lived far away from the Bee Empire. I thought he boosted their immunity… But now I felt like he just increased their endurance and overall survivability instead.

Either way, it seemed to work because the Vardish Empire was still standing.

'Agent Blessing, does this mean the Vardish Empire is powerful enough to send another fleet at us?'