Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

The reports from the Ashida continent came so slowly… But when they did come, I was glad to find that Malevolence and the bees with her were doing just fine.

Soon, I planned to show her a big surprise!

The first plane that was calculated to be able to fly overseas was complete and ready for the test flight. Dozens of ships with gasoline engines were being built in harbours of the Bee Empire to carry heavier hauls but more slowly. In secluded laboratories, bees united in hive minds sang telepathic songs…

The latter was an unrelated advance, but also a very important one.

It was at this time that I brought up a suggestion to the Empire Council:

"We should move the capital of the Bee Empire closer to the sea. A lot of cargo exchange is going to be happening between two continents, and it will be much more convenient logistically if we can be near the heart of it."

This suggestion created a row of surprised gasps. The most shocked person was my wife, who stared at me like I had just grown a second ear.

"You want us to live in another place? This is… impossible! No… Insane, this is the right word!"

She sounded like I just suggested that we take the moon off the sky and put it on the ceiling of our bedroom.

"What?" I asked her in confusion. "Bees move to new hives sometimes. Why can't we do it?"

Ambrosia opened her mouth and closed it. With a soft huff, she folded her arms over my chest.

"I… Don't know."

She looked so cute… And she moved past her knee-jerk negative reaction. I could understand her acting this way—I also didn't want to leave a place that I got so used to, but the benefits outweighed the drawbacks.

"Other bees would be just as shocked to hear that you are moving to another hive, Father," Worriesgone said shyly. "They are so used to thinking that 'we are living close to Hive Supremo, isn't this great?' or 'we can see the Hive Supremo from our hive, there are Father and Mother-Queen inside!'. This will make these bees sad…"

"But it will make other bees happy, yes-yes!" Things-Things exclaimed. "And we can build a new hive from scratch, make it pretty from the ground up! Use the best architecture and materials."

I grinned.

"Yeah! We have rebuilt Hive Supremo once, but its current architectural designs are still somewhat outdated." I turned to Amby and raised my eyebrows pleadingly. "C'mon, it will be good. We could move all the things you like to this hive. All the knick-knacks from our bedroom… And think about it, we will live on the coastline! There will be sea beaches!"

"The sea and the oceans are even more full of dangerous beasts than the rivers and the lakes."

I chuckled awkwardly.

"Eh… We can build our own sea beaches without all the monsters, then!"

After another second of intense staring, Amby reluctantly smiled at me and lowered her arms.

"Oh, fine. We will talk about the details later, though. This sounds like something for its own separate Council session."

Workharder, Things-Things and I began nodding in unison.

There were other matters to discuss at this Council session, after all. Many reports that needed to be coordinated and discussed with my girls.

We were going through them one by one: how many usnea trees we were going to plant, how many soldiers we were going to train, what we were going to build first of all in the newly-colonised regions, we were going to build colonies beyond the mountains…

Closer to the end of the gathering, I was surprised to see Oracle Undecided rise from her spot to address the council, too.

She was, as usual, fiddling with the hem of her tunic as she spoke.

"Father, Mother, everybody… My sister-Oracles saw that there's another enemy that will attack us next week. The attack is not very predictable… The attack sites seem to be very random… But this attack will definitely happen, and on the Bee Empire's shores!"

I raised my palms.

"Undecided, please, don't speak like you are trying to convince us that you aren't lying. Of course, I trust you and your prophecies! What is going to attack us?"

Undecided perked up a little at my words, and I sighed inwardly. Despite the years she worked for the Bee Empire, she was still so unsure of herself, and so often.

We shouldn't have let her keep the name "Undecided", it became too prophetic…

"Fish-beasts will walk out of the sea and search for food in our harbours and bays. Some of them will even swim upriver and crawl out of the riverbanks." Undecided tilted her head and paused for a moment, then added. "They won't go far from the water… probably. But they are very well-defended. They have very-very tough carapaces, lots of immunities. And they can spit water very far. They look like… This."

Undecided pulled out a piece of paper with a rough sketch. A very rough sketch. All I understood was that the beasts were oval.

Whatever.

"An attack of amphibians? Dammit, I knew the ocean was going to become more troublesome than it already was! Undecided, was there some way we killed them?"

Undecided paused for another second.

"No… I think we just… evacuated people away from the water."

Bloodhero perked up.

"Without even giving these creatures a fight? Impossible! Thanks to Undecided's warning, we have the time to send blue-eyed scouts to discover these monsters' immunities and vulnerabilities and prepare a trap for them."

Undecided shrugged with one shoulder.

"I don't know… This is just what my sisters saw. The hive minds helped them decipher their dreams, but the dreams were their own. And mine. So…"

I let out a breath and rose from my seat to give Undecided a headpat for her efforts. She blushed a little and lowered her chin even more.

"You did all you could, I'm sure. Please keep an eye out for these beasts in your dreams. The rest of the council and I can decide how to deal with them."