Chapter 125: Chapter 125

Belissar and Chief Rohsuak discussed a bit and decided to allocate the second floor to the karnuq. Belissar would add a Flower Meadow, an Orchard, and a Dirt Tunnels there for the karnuq to use. There was, however, a slight problem.

It turned out Belissar didn’t have enough mana to actually add that many rooms right now, much less any additional room features. So, he and Chief Rohsuak agreed to wait a day or two for him to expand his mana reserves before the karnuq would move in.

With that, Chief Rohsuak left to rejoin the karnuq and Belissar dismissed the queens back to their hives. He decided to spend the remainder of the day resting after all the recent battles and conversations.

But, unbeknownst to Belissar, the queens did not immediately disperse and return to their hives. Niobee took the Firstborn and the First of the Fifth aside. The Firstborn gave a salute dance and then began to dance unsteadily.

“Yes, Conduit? Need us?”

Niobee danced unusually slowly for her.

The Firstborn and the First of the Fifth glanced at each before the First of the Fifth began to dance.

How could the King find himself at such a disadvantage? How could others like him fail to see his wisdom and grace? And how powerful were they that they could harm the King and get away with it?

It was a solemn reminder to the Flower Meadow queens. Their army was mighty and could bring down invaders without the loss of a single bee. They had avenged the First Dynasty and allowed the King to turn his mind away from war. They had defeated two new types of invaders without being caught off guard. But they were not the most powerful force out there, not by a long shot, and they still had a long way to go if they wanted to protect the hive of hives. It would not do for them to grow complacent in their recent victories.

Fortunately, the King had granted them great tools to do just that. Every queen felt as the Tower’s mana passed through them. It strengthened all the bees, making the soldiers hit harder, the workers fly faster, and granting the queens greater mana and endurance. And, beyond that, it spoke to the queens. It told them of a new type of bee, the one the King had told them about. A bee that would let a queen see through the eyes of her workers and send them commands from the safety of her own hive.

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For the Flower Meadow queens, it was perfect. The need for a queen to command the army for maximum responsiveness and adaptability? They could now do so without exposing herself to danger. The drop in worker efficiency they noted whenever the queen was away? The queen no longer needed to leave to take command, and so could continue to manage her workers at the same time. The delays when commanding soldiers that weren’t the queen’s own brood? Now each queen could command their own offspring all at once. It was a solution to all of the problems they had encountered since taking personal command of the army. Ŕ𝙖NổꞖĘs̩

And, additionally, it would help with the issue raised by the Conduit. The queens could assign workers to watch the newcomers and then watch them with their own eyes. Their responses to any threats would not be delayed by the need to wait for a report to arrive.

So, the Flower Meadow queens soon began to discuss what all of this would mean for them. Every queen would begin raising communers immediately, while worker bees would be spread out across the entire room in order to keep eyes on every corner…and so keep them aware of everything occurring in the Flower Meadow.

They would never cease their efforts. They would take this opportunity and continue to grow the might of the army. And they would keep the hive of hives and the King safe from any and all threats.

The First of the Fifth paced about in her hive as she considered the implications of what the Conduit had told her. To hear that the King had been wounded and humiliated? Unthinkable. Had it been anyone other than the Conduit who told her, she would have them stung for a most egregious and despicable lie.

But it was the Conduit, and that meant that it was true. Her wings buzzed again as the mere thought of it made her mind blank with rage. Should any of the King’s old human hive appear again, she swore she would make them suffer.

But they were not here. So instead, she would not fail the Conduit’s request. She would ensure that these karnuq would never have the chance to do anything like the King’s old hive.

The question on her mind right now was…how?

She had the worker force to spread across the Apiary, or even beyond, and she could request her daughter’s help with the Orchard. The Flower Meadow queens would handle their own domain and, for once, the First of the Fifth did not doubt that they would complete this task with all due diligence. The issue was that to do so would ultimately compromise her honey production. Workers spread out across the Apiary would disrupt the allocation of her foragers to the best flowers, the patches the King had grown himself. They could still gather from the mundane flowers spread across the room, but the honey quality and quantity would suffer as a result.

The First of the Fifth was willing to do this if it came down to it. She would not permit the King to suffer such injury and humiliation ever again, no matter what she had to do to prevent it. But, she was the First of the Fifth. She aimed to be the King’s ideal queen. She produced the most and the best honey. She would love all bees as he did. She never compromised and never settled for less than the best, and would spare no effort to achieve her aims.

So, she considered how she could complete her given task without compromising on her honey production. If there were any method by which she could avoid the inefficiency inherent in giving her workers this secondary goal.

And, as she could have expected, the King had provided.

At first, the First of the Fifth had been somewhat dismissive of the new option. These communer bees cost more mana and honey than a regular worker to raise, and yet held no advantage over any other worker in either work or battle. Certainly she could see the value in extending her eyes and dances beyond the range of her own sight…but it was not necessary for her hive. Her hive was perfectly efficient already, and she had perfect knowledge of its every operation and full confidence that her workers would carry out her will. Relying on communers to manage her own hive was a crutch that an ideal queen would not require.