Chapter 240: Chapter 240

The next day, Belissar found himself surrounded by beehouses. He walked through them, rubbing his chin. He looked through each and every one, pulling out a tray from each. They were all different shapes and sizes, mostly all rough around the edges. But still, Belissar nodded. He turned to face the karnuq beekeepers’ class, all of them staring at him silently.

He gave them a smile.

“This should do, at least as far as I’m concerned. The true test will be if the bees like them. Are you ready for that?”

The karnuq all saluted.

Belissar nodded in approval.

“Good, then I’ll go get the first one.”

With that, Belissar departed from the karnuq village and walked over to an inhabited corner of their Flower Meadow. Once there, he placed a new monster bee queen spawner. He waited while the tree with a beehive built itself, and then a new monster bee queen crawled out of the hive. She shook herself off and began looking around, freezing once she turned towards him. She then took off into the air and began a salute dance before him. Belissar smiled.

“Hello, and welcome to the Tower. This one would be the ninth spawner so…First of the Ninth?”

Velebee had spent the rest of the day in anguish. If she hadn’t been mistaken, honey would have allowed her to raise a full generation of Niobees and push her hive to heights she never could have imagined before. And yet…was it a trap? Why exactly had that First of the Fifth just left her honey here? Did the First of the Fifth intend to accuse her of robbing and wipe out her hive? But then…why wouldn’t she have just wiped them out to start with?

Well, while Velebee had been pondering her workers had been working and since she hadn’t told them otherwise they moved the new honey into the hive, leaving Velebee despairing as to what would happen next.

And then the First of the Fifth had returned the day after…and left another tray of magical honey in front of her hive.

Velebee had thought long on this and spoken with her Niobee on the matter, for she simply couldn’t comprehend what was going on. Niobee had explained, then, what was meant by “hive of hives.” All the bees here belonged to the Hive Builder and all worked on his behalf. Therefore, they considered all bees that belonged to the Hive Builder as one hive, and acted as such.

That didn’t seem possible to Velebee. The queens that lived in the Hive-Builder’s hives before had shown no particular inclination to cooperate with one another, Velebee included. How was it possible that these bees had put aside their innate rivalry?

And yet, here she was, not being stung to death by mystical giants. And now, Velebee was watching as new workers crawled out of their cells, raised not on the work of her brood but on honey freely given to her by hives that should have been her rivals and her doom. Workers that possessed the spark of mana within them, new Niobees to take care of her hive while her Niobee took care of the Hive-Builder and all his hives.

This hive of hives thing was inconceivable…but if it was real then maybe it wasn’t a bad thing.

Velebee dropped everything, though, as she heard the Hive-Builder’s voice calling her name. She flew out to find the Hive-Builder and her Niobee once more. She danced happily with her favored worker, before rushing to greet the Hive-Builder and thank him for the magical hive he had granted her.

“You’re welcome, I’m glad you like it. Also, there’s someone I’d like to introduce to you.”

Velebee then realized that the Hive-Builder and her Niobee weren’t alone. There, flying alongside them, was another queen. Not a giant this time, this queen was barely larger than Velebee herself. But the queen was packed full of mana just like all the others, so Velebee had no illusions as to her identity. This was one of the magical giants, maybe a young one who had yet to grow.

“This is the First of the Ninth, she’ll be living near the karnuq with you.”

Velebee froze. The magical giants…were moving in? This place wouldn’t be hers after all? Her hive wouldn’t be safe here either? Had that been the reason? Had the First of the Fifth been fattening her hive up so that a new giant could devour them?

While her mind was racing, the Hive-Builder turned to her Niobee.

“Niobee, normally the oldest queen is in charge of a given room, do I have that right?”

“Oldest and most developed hive!”

The Hive-Builder nodded.

“Got it. In that case, First of the Ninth, this is Velebee. One of my queens from before the Tower, Oracle of the God of Bees, and Niobee’s mom. She’s been living here a few days now, and I guess will be the main queen for this room if you have any issues.”

Velebee recoiled as the young giant flew before her and then started to dance. No doubt a smug declaration of her hives demise…

Velebee froze. If she wasn’t mistaken…the giant was…saluting to her? The young giant repeated her salute dance several times so Velebee could not be mistaken. Her Niobee then landed by her and began brushing her antennae.

“Niobee, magic giant not eating hive?”

“Magic giant…saluting?”

“Yes! King said! Queen mother in charge of room, other bees will follow!”