Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire-Chapter 391: Menaces of working

I spent a lot of the next weeks flying all over the sub-hives to breathe out my morphotyping pheromones on thousands upon thousands of larvae (and wishing I could bottle the stuff without it losing its freshness and properties).

The results were worth it, though.

As soon as they emerged from their brood cells, Hardbees showed themselves to be absolute workaholics!

It was in the nature of bees to like working and being useful. They also didn’t like idleness because it was boring. In that, Hardbees were exactly like any other bees.

What made them special was the extra time they got by eating only one meal a day and sleeping for only three hours. They got seven entire hours of extra time which they had no idea what to do with, because for the first couple of weeks the only job all bees had was to finish school!

As a result, I got reports about Hardbees flying over the hive at night, trying to do the job of Cleaners and Nurses as their instincts urged, only to be underfoot because of their lack of training (and general understanding; they were in many ways like children at this stage).

"It wouldn’t be so bad if we could place Hardbees as apprentices to other bees," I complained to Amby about this. "But we can’t, because all other bees are asleep while Hardbees are still awake!"

"This won’t be a problem when the first generation of Hardbees starts working. They will be able to teach the younger ones while their sisters are asleep," she replied.

"Yeah. But this is something we must deal with *now*! Ah, fuck it—they already learned how to read, I will send them to the Archives and tell them that they should study in their free time by themselves. Can’t be too bad... And Workharder should think about how she will mix up Hardbees and regular Workers and their sleep schedules."

The Archives of Hive Supremo and the sub-hives where Hardbees were grown had plenty of paper books, scrolls and occasional wax tablets to eat the extra time of Hardbees. I doubted that they learned much except for the random trivia, but at least they were contained.

The Archivist Bees complained about misplaced notes, but it wasn’t to the alarming extent.

And following the schedule, exactly a month after their morphotype was created, the first broods of Hardbees have finished their basic education and training. These bees became ready to take the job positions that were waiting for them impatiently all over the Empire: in forges, manufactures and some mecha positions (near their massive engines, for example, which got very hot during work).

The result was visible immediately in Workharder and Things-Things’ moods. They brought their next reports to my office together, and both had bright smiles on their faces.

"The rate of work accidents decreased by a third, yes-yes, a third, Father!" Things-Things waved the paper notes in her hands excitedly. "The Hardbees are all inexperienced, but my smiths say that their heat vision already helps them with maintaining temperatures of smelting furnaces and metals they smith a lot-lot! Their eyes are sharper than regular ones. Hey, I can confirm!"

She pointed at her own eye. By this point, all my Advisers got the new genetic upgrade from my blood, so Things-Things had heat vision just like myself and Hardbees.

Workharder’s report was calmer, but also cheerful.

"The Hardbees can work day and night, and they sure like to! Some of them started to get into a competition about who can work longer and harder and with fewer distractions. Imagine that? They even began to organize their work themselves, without help of Foremen Bees, just so they could outcompete their brood sisters. If only everybody worked like them..."

Workharder scowled and added:

"I had to tell Foremen to ask them the most competitive ones to bring their fervor down. They were neglecting their needs, which could only decrease their efficiency in the long run. But this is over and done, Father."

I grinned and patted Workharder’s head.

"Good job. I’m glad that you didn’t encourage any harmful behaviors! Especially since I bet you’d be the first one to compete a..."

I paused.

When did I recruit Workharder as my adviser? I didn’t celebrate birthdays in this world, and neither did other bees. The winters also were just wetter seasons in our climate.

It was easy to lose track of time, but the system was always there to serve as a calendar.

〔Age〕: 1235 d

I spent three years and a half in this world! And Workharder was about this old, too.

’How the time flies... Back in my world, everybody must’ve already accepted that I’m gone and moved on... I hope my mom is fine...’

"Father? You were saying?" Workharder asked, tilting her head. "What’s with your face? Are you well? Are you having the bad-thought-worms? Should I call Mother-Queen?"

"Ah! Sister Workharder, Father is crying! His eyes are wet!"

"No they are not!" I rapidly turned away from my girls. "Thank you for the reports, girls, and keep up the good work. And tell the same to Hardbees."

"Sure, sure. If you want to cry, we won’t distract you, Father!" Things-Things nodded rapidly. She put her notes on my table and pulled Workharder by her shoulder. "C’mon, you know how Father can get embarrassed, yes-yes?"

Workharder followed Things-Things to the exit, but I heard her hesitation. ’Maybe we should call Mother-Queen, after all,’ she thought.

Then they left and I was alone again.

I let out a long breath, then made a deep inhale and began gradually calming down.

This sudden wave of sentimentality... I thought I stopped feeling this way! At least I could hide it from my girls and appear more strong and respectable in front of them, and not the emotional mess I was when I first appeared in the Hive Supremo. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

I reached for the cup of tea on my table, thinking about washing down my stress with the calming brew. Instead...

"Hello, Nectus."

This content is taken from free web nov𝒆l.com