Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire
Chapter 418: For the greater Empire

Chapter 418: For the greater Empire

Nope, they couldn’t. I gave up on them.

"Three out of four should be good enough. And if the God of Humanity wanted me to do a better job, he should’ve given me more resources to do it! Instead, he couldn’t even prevent the Vardish Empire from attacking me—what kind of ally is he?!" those were my words to the Empire Council and to the gods if any of them listened at the moment.

In the end, there were countless dead people not only in the Hatha Kingdom, but in all others. Countless—because we didn’t have the opportunity to count.

The estimates ranged from several millions to several hundred millions, although I was almost sure there weren’t that many humans *living* on this side of the continent.

The most honest estimate said that approximately a sixth of the total human population died since the "Dark Age" had begun (as some local historians started calling it).

The Kachi-Chi Kingdom suffered the worst (because of the flood *and* everything else), while the Naregan Kingdom suffered the least.

The Vardish army stranded on our continent had lost all its will to fight, too. With each day they were besieged, more and more people gave up and sometimes even changed sides.

At first those were only singular people that were stopped by their officers, but then entire squads began escaping toward Naregan encampments. The rate of desertion increased a lot when it became known that all deserters were given pardon and their own plots of land where they could just live freely.

I could afford to give farmland to people left and right. There was a lot of it left free, and it was better when it was in use, anyway.

Not all that land was well-protected by bees, but it would be by the next harvest.

Another month later, there was just nobody left in the Vardish army willing to fight. This matter was officially closed—and I knew that even if the Vardish Empire wanted to throw another army at us, they wouldn’t be able to gather it so quickly after losing an entire fleet.

Meanwhile, the three kingdoms I saved grew and bloomed with my help, and the system rewarded me for their successes with points. I was steadily approaching the development level 12, and the kingdoms were steadily approaching stability.

The canning manufactures in Judji worked overtime, canning fish and sending it on ships all over Barahi and Kachi-Chi kingdoms.

This fish was eaten in these countries with a side dish of cooked insects from the "safe" list and whatever crops they could grow with the very modest protection the Bee Empire could give their crops.

By then, the Naregan Kingdom also had a harvest—probably a bigger one than the other countries had combined—and sent some of it to its protectorates. This time for free.

The temples to old faith in the protectorate kingdoms were being rapidly refurnished in more and more places. Dalmanrach and the bees joined the regular pantheon of gods. Farini’s orders and the propaganda of Agent Bees made sure of that.

Things were evening out in the Bee Empire, too.

By the time the metal-eaters stopped being a large concern (so—by the time more scouts became trained and ready to search for them) there were many new mechas built.

Those mechas operated day and night, being operated by shifting crews of pilots and fueled by entire lakes of ethanol made of crops we grew for their nectar and fuel.

The amount of sugar beet turned into ethanol was so large, it could’ve fed an entire town. Instead, those calories were put into engines and fed to my mechas.

Totally worth it. The massive machines tended these fields, built new manufactures, dug out resources and refilled the Bee Empire’s coffers.

Things were getting well again!

The only place that had no hope was the Hatha Kingdom. The only thing the Naregan Kingdom could do for it was accept all refugees that crossed its borders.

There were a few counties whose noble lords swore fealty to Farini and became a part of the Naregan Kingdom, but most of them still refused for various reasons.

I knew we would have to conquer them by force in the end. They were the last major force that stopped the Naregan Kingdom from uniting the entire half of this continent.

But before this, I addressed the Empire Council with another matter.

"It’s been a long time since bees and humans started to work alongside each other. Although we are tiny compared to them, humans worship as divine guardians. This is a success, I think! But it’s not enough. We are still separated on a cultural and economic level. It’s always ’Bee Empire this, Naregan Kingdom that’. Most importantly, this means that whenever we need to work alongside humans, all orders have to be passed through extra people—it’s just too slow and inconvenient."

I raised my fist in front of my puzzled, but very intent listeners.

"My girls, all of you had time to get used to humans. They are very similar to us—ahem, you—but also very similar. Some of us even learned their language. There are very few bees who lived when the Bee Empire and humans fought wars to death..."

I glanced at Ambrosia, who frowned as she recalled this time. The worst part of it for her and many other bees was probably not the fact that humans almost set the entire Hive Supremo on fire, but that I was kidnapped by gods without warning, sending the entire Empire into a panic.

"In short—it’s time to make the Naregan Kingdom an official part of the Bee Empire. Farini will be its viceroy, but I will be the true leader of the united empire in everybody’s eyes. Then, as a united force of bees and humans, we can do even greater things than before!"

I smiled and looked at Researchina, thanks to whose people this was even possible.

"And to make humans see us as their equal, I will use..."

She smiled back victoriously and finished my thought:

"The Queen-class mecha, the first working prototype of which had finished its testing yesterday!"