NOVPUB"They have found a perfect place to place a border at—we will barely need to defend it, and our soldiers will be free to fight elsewhere. It's so full of water that none of the pests that usually fight us live there. Instead, the scouts report about creatures that live only in or near water… And this water spans so far and wide away that only flying creatures could cross it. It will be too much water, even for giant beasts."
Bloodhero turned to the—painstakingly copied when the Council Chamber was moved to this room—wall map and gestured at it.
"It's so big that it wouldn't fit on this map if I wanted to draw it. We need a bigger map, Father. And a word to call this thing. It's not a lake and not a river."
I blinked for a moment, trying to imagine the picture Bloodhero painted…
"No, it *is* a river! An actual river!" I realized. "The bee-sized rivers we saw before were just… shallow streams of rainwater. Forest creeks at most. But this is an actual river, and I bet it floods way worse than a forest creek. Bloodhero, we can't build near it."
My Military Adviser didn't look very upset about it.
"Then we will fight as usual, Father."
I nodded.
"Yes… But whatever man we have left can be used to improve our soldiers' weaponry…"
The rest of the Council meeting passed in more relaxed discussions about more minor things, such as hunt for more hawkmoths and allocation of our budget (which still wasn't measured in money, because the bees needed no money). The expansion could eat a never-ending amount of it, and the rest went on projects like the paper.
But it was all for the development points.
10000 points that I needed to reach to development level 10 sounded like a huge amount, but we were more than halfway there by now. The full implementation of paper will certainly give us a boost of another few hundred points.
Meanwhile, Researchina's girls were inventing principles of simple and complicated machinery for the future manufactures.
The Empire would grow.
***
In a week, there were dozens of hawkmoths found in the Empire. It was a testament to how harmless they were that we didn't find them until now.
The beast tamers were doing their best to train the captured moths, but they were stupid and lazy. The only achievement of the tamers so far was finding that the hawkmoths hypnotized not just bees, but anyone who smelled their pheromones.
It wasn't anyone's conscious effort—it was instinctive. Now, by my order, a group of Researchers was thinking about potential usages of a cage with a pygmy hawkmoth inside.
Paper became more and more widespread in the Hive Supremo, and rows upon rows of wooden paper pulp vats were made for the paper-making industry. But the amount of people who needed to carry reports around was decreasing (because a single person could carry more reports).
Researchers made a prototype of a conveyor belt that worked when a bee turned pedals on a bike attached to it. Similar concepts could be used for many other production lines, but each had to be invented separately.
Compared to this, the war that was happening among humans seemed like such a minor thing. But because of their size, it was actually very, very important.
The reports from my Agents told me that Farini successfully returned to his army, declared himself a prophet for everybody to hear, and went on to unite the Upper and Lower Grazahmich.
His promises of a better life and a good treatment of commoners won him a lot of volunteers from the local farmers into the army, and he successfully and almost peacefully overtook the entire province.
After all, the leaders of Farini's opposition all mysteriously found themselves dead, blind, or—in some rare, lucky cases of Agents' work—changing sides.
Farini insisted it was the work of gods that punished those who stood in the way of divine will. The righteousness of his side was proved further by the medical knowledge and help he was spreading.
It wasn't much yet, but many commoners had no access to medical help at all! They were singing him praises for the simplest cures. Especially if they worked.
Explanatory also sent a report full of gratitude for her current position and excitement. She found human books and began deciphering their written language. The Physicians at her side got Farini to experiment with some herbal cures familiar to bees, but very few of them worked on humans in the same way.
In another week, Farini established himself even further in the region, and the High King finally gathered an army that was healthy enough to fight the rebellion.
Most of the High King's province lords send him no or almost no soldiers to help. Although Farini didn't like these methods (and neither did I, honestly), Bloodimina sent assassins to intimidate the most eager lords.
Some got sick themselves, others got threats to his loved ones… That Bloodimina executed ruthlessly at the first report from Agents that the lords were doing things they shouldn't have.
The intimidation was Explanatory's idea, by the way. She and the Agents already knew that humans cared for their immediate family very much, but most bees didn't really *understand* this.
Explanatory understood the concept enough to suggest using hostages—an idea which other bees found absurd and stupid, but no more absurd and stupid than humans themselves.
I counted the number of people who will die if lords rise against Farini and approved it. Farini counted the same numbers and also agreed with this.
Now Farini was about to meet the High King's army in a battle. It was a sight that I'd like to see—it will be a battle of giants!
I had no doubts that Farini would win. Not with the effort Bloodimina's bees spent on killing Farini's opposition.
I couldn't wait for Farini to become a king and make the bee worship the official religion! 𝚗𝚘v𝚙𝚞b.𝚌𝚘m
