Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire-Chapter 375: Extremely satisfying

It was an incredible show from start to finish. We looked at massive cranes, whose design was based on design of mecha arms, and which operated by a dozen bees each; at the train station for delivering ore and coal that was built right into the manufactory building; at designs for an electricity power plant that Engine-See planned to build nearby.

We also looked at the way bees lived here between hours of work. Someone drew many frescoes on the tall walls of the manufactory and even on the ceiling; although soot already began damaging them, the Artist responsible used bright black, red and orange colors that survived even the conditions in the manufactory.

There were also a few resting rooms built at the edges of the building. They also served as kitchens and constantly distributed fresh cooking to the hungry workers. (This was where I let my bodyguards be so they wouldn’t be underfoot in this already crowded place.)

But if someone was too tired for these—admittedly, not very large for the amount of bees working in the manufactory—resting rooms, the Hive One-Of-The-Best was only a short flight away.

Finally, the manufactory had a medical facility with a few bored-looking physicians that bandaged people’s scratches and put ointment on burns.

"This is a great organization of the work process, Engine-See! Especially the Physicians and food on-site. That’s not a standard procedure for forges, isn’t it?"

"It’s not. Most forges are too small individually, but they *must* have close access to a hospital and food," Ambrosia said. "This isn’t too dissimilar. Although Workharder proposed some extra quirks that make the entire operation smoother—for example, there should be a signaler on-site who telepathically coordinates the readiness of every detail on the production line."

Engine-See brightened.

"Yes, Mother-Queen, exactly. My experience and knowledge are great, of course, but Adviser Workharder and her people have even more of it when it comes to work processes. With their help, putting together this factory was... much easier than putting together a mecha."

"Speaking of," I said. "How about this tour inside of one?"

"It sounds interesting," Amby said, looking at the unfinished mecha in the distance. "They aren’t too crowded for us, though?"

"A crewed mecha isn’t very suited for tours..." Engine-See muttered. "But we have one that’s unscrewed at the moment! It’s finished, but we were making it pretty. It also still needs a name—since you are here, perhaps you will give one to us, Father, Mother-Queen?"

"Yeah, that’s great! Amby, it will be your turn to name the mecha—what do you think? We can name one after you! Amby, glorious and powerful mecha... They are even shaped like Queens, although they are ’Princess’-class."

She looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Everybody in the Bee Empire associates my name with its Empress—me—and from there with you, our Emperor. It’s a name so powerful that none of our daughters and granddaughters dares to use it for themselves—if I give it to a mecha, it must be worthy of it."

"I can’t argue with this logic... Let’s see for ourselves!"

***

The built mecha was standing near the unfinished one inside the manufactory. This section of the manufactory had a truly massive gate at the side through which a mecha could walk through; but at the moment it was standing still while several dozen bees were attaching bright scales and pieces of fabric to it.

Outwardly, at least, it looked more or less the same as Titania, up to the open cabin through which we entered.

Without all the people taking space at the seats, it looked like a replica of an extremely crude alien spaceship. The hexagonal patterns often used by bees in construction only enforced this impression.

I was enchanted immediately.

"Ohhh, the levers and the buttons! Just look at them all, Amby!" I immediately hovered closer to a few of them and tried to recall what I remembered of schematics. Understanding it was hard even though I had a perfect image of them in my head. "This is a button that gives a signal to... turn the left arm?"

I poked it a little; nothing happened, of course—the mecha wasn’t powered up.

Engine-See looked mildly uncomfortable.

"They are much more fascinating up close than from schematics. I’ve never seen things like these myself... Oh, it clicks! Why is this sound so satisfying?" Ambrosia muttered, standing next to me and pressing another button.

She pressed it again and again several times, then reached for a lever. With effort, she pulled it down and sighed with satisfaction.

This place was an ultimate toy for idle hands! I knew it was probably not great to act this way here, but I couldn’t stop myself from poking my nose and hands all over the place!

Meanwhile, Engine-See looked even more uncomfortable than before.

"Ah... You won’t break anything by doing these things, Father, Mother-Queen, so you can continue, of course. Nothing stops you. Nothing at all."

The rest of her thought I could only hear with telepathy.

’Why does everybody who comes to this place for the first time act this way?’ Engine-See bemoaned inwardly. ’Someone will have to pull everything into the starting position later. Why do levers and buttons have this effect on people? This feels like something that we should conduct research on. If only so that the training of future pilots runs smoother!’

These thoughts awoke enough conscience in me I stopped creating a mess and began pulling all the levers into their original positions.

"Alright, it was fun to act like kids for a moment, but we also wanted to see inside of the mecha, don’t we, Amby?"

She sighed and released the control elements with slight reluctance.

"Of course. If I want to pull a lever, I can always just reach for yours," Amby said in a casual tone, not even batting an eye on her words. While I choked on air (this had absolutely blindsided me!), she turned to Engine-See. "Lead us deeper inside."

Thankfully, at least the Researcher has completely missed the joke and just nodded with relief.

"Yes, of course. Please, don’t touch things inside, they are more important than here..."

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