Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire
Chapter 349 - 349: A fortress in a box

'I should've come even earlier to see that the spirits don't send this place on fire by accident or for their spirit reasons… Are they gathering dead insects? By gods, there's an entire pile already!' Tamsha's eyes widened when he saw our "future meat" pile. 'Ew, how disgusting.'

I glanced at it and winced. Admittedly, it *was* gruesome to the extreme—it looked and smelled like a butcher shop, and to the side, some bees were already doing the butchering.

The atmosphere of a slaughterhouse was growing more concerning than any suspicions Tamsha could've had. He had them all the time, anyway.

'Just leave the box—no, not like that, put it on the side first.' When he did, I nodded in satisfaction. 'Now go back to your actual work, Tamsha. If any of the supplies are missing or wrong, I will hold *you* accountable!'

This was enough to urge Tamsha to leave together with his massive wheelbarrow. And now we had the box!

It didn't have a lid, so when put on the side, it became a convenient shelter large enough to fit an entire Hive Supremo inside. There was plenty of space for the fortress-hive that will guard this hive!

For the sake of building it, as well as field camps, the army that came with me had a separate engineer division of 5000 Builder Bees. There were also other support divisions, of course, like some Physicians.

And since we were close to Krisha village, we had extra help. Soon after Tamsha left, groups of bees from the nearest hives came with extra building supplies and working hands.

Together with the crusading soldiers who didn't know how to build, but could still do manual jobs, my girls were going to build this hive in no time at all!

After the fortress was set up, I planned to send a Queen with a harem there, so this place could function as a full-blown hive and become a full part of the Empire's infrastructure.

All the bees involved worked hard until the sun set. They processed all the dead bodies, either throwing them into pits away from the fortress to rot, or cooking them on bonfires.

The Builders finished working on the foundational buildings of the future hive. Although most of it was still unfinished, there were at least communal bedrooms for the soldiers to sleep under a roof and a water-stopper to prevent any flooding.

At this point, I could've left to sleep in a nearby hive (just ten minutes of flight away if I put on my flight helmet and went at full speed!), which had beds.

However, of course I wouldn't do it. The work of crusaders here wasn't done yet, and I had to keep watch over my girls, at least during the very first crusade anyone in the Empire was on!

Anyway, the floors weren't the worst place for sleep, and Destroyer, of course, had a bedroll prepared for me.

Next day, there was more fighting. During the night, the insects and night beasts tried to get into the field, and our night patrols were too small to stop them all.

So in the morning, more soldiers had to fly out and kill some more insects, as well as scare off a couple of dragons.

But the massive slaughters of the first day were no more. From now on, the soldiers only had to sustain the cleanliness of the field.

Which meant that they were free to build their fortress. By the end of the second day it was functionally complete—now it only needed furniture and secondary buildings, all of which could wait.

During this day, I did my paperwork from Hive Supremo remotely with telepathy, then helped Malevolence manage the logistics of the new hive. A fifth part of the crusading force will stay there as a garrison, while the rest will move to the other crop field of the Krisha village.

Malevolence already appointed a bee who will become the fortress's military leader, but was busy double-checking all her decisions, which I found unusual for her. In my experience, she'd prefer to move to the next fight faster…

"Well, of course, Father. I can't wait for the next crusade already!" Malevolence replied when I asked about it. "But you honored me so much with my Grand Commander position, and this is the very first fortress I'm setting up—everything must be *perfect*! And Beemarine Ambetter is a smart one, but this is her first time on something so big, too. She also thinks too much of herself! If I don't double-check her, she won't do it. At least until I find enough mistakes to bash her head with!"

I frowned.

"I can talk to her about it…"

Malevolence's hands went to her chest. She looked like I was about to punish her. Actually, no, she'd be less horrified if she met an actual punishment!

"Father, no! I-If I can't deal with something so minor myself, what kind of Grand Commander I would be?"

"Relax, relax! You were actually doing such a good job that I feel like this army doesn't need me at all, except to pat some heads while other girls watch with white envy and imagine being in the place of lucky ones…" I sighed. "They really care too much."

"They only care as much as you deserve, Father!" Malevolence exclaimed. Her eyes were blazing with zeal. "Hatred for our enemies warms us from the front, and our love for you and your love for ours warms us from the back, Father! So when we fight, we are warm to each other and no fear chills us even in the face of the worst dangers!"

Now it was my turn to put my hands on my chest and feel all emotional—in a good way, though.

How could someone stay untouched when hearing things like these? I grinned, and my eyes became itchy… But my mental fortitude grew a lot, so I didn't tear up.

Of course, after this I couldn't leave until Malevolence went on her second crusade.

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