Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire
Chapter 351 - 351: They depend on us!

Soon, hundreds of missionaries left the Naregan Kingdom to spread the word. There were plenty of humans eager to do so now that they succeeded in spreading the true teachings in their own country. Farini would've gone to proselytize himself, if he wasn't so busy with his main job. You know—being the High King.

But the missionaries didn't go alone. With each went several very courageous and very bold Beehounds, whose mission was to personally explore the lands far away and eventually return with reports about them. Nobody knew how long this might take them, especially if their human gets attacked and dies.

At least all the missionaries were from the Blood Brotherhood, so they didn't fear catching a random lethal illness. The Beehounds, of course, also were immunized.

Some countries met the missionaries with open arms, but most of them showed some hostility. And the border patrols of the Eastern Expanse Reach of the Vardish Empire didn't let anyone in at all.

As the rumors shared by Naregan people told me, Vardish people hated everybody, not Vardish. They called them "ugly greens" because of the green chitin the local humans had. Unlike Vardish people's, whose chitin was notably more blue.

There were also rumors that the recent plagues struck Vardish as much as everybody else. A few refugees and escaping slaves came from the other side of the border, telling tales that the dead were piling on the streets there and that border guards would try to kill anyone who tried to escape the country.

As much as humans were secondary to bees for me, I still felt the need to change this order. However, for now I could only wait and let the EER till the soil for the future seeds of faith in bees.

***

A couple months later, the first missionaries began returning from the other countries with tales of success and the terrible things happening in these places.

The plagues were bad enough already, but after the worst part hit, the humans reached some balance of illnesses and their level of medicine. At least, they stopped dying so much from them.

However, then the famine started. The rapidly spreading insects weren't a problem only for the Naregan Kingdom. Swarms of locusts as large as sandstorms have swept the fields, searching for any hints of food; other animals just couldn't catch up with the insects in the evolution race.

At least, not until the insects ate whatever they could and started dying out from hunger—alongside everything and everyone else.

The prices of grain flew sky high, and desperate people began eating whatever they could put their hands on. Including insects—except since many of them evolved venom or acid, sometimes these meals turned suddenly deadly.

Not to mention, these unwashed insects carried a lot of diseases which eagerly infected people *again* when given an opportunity.

In these dark times, any word of hope was appreciated. And when they came with helpful guides on how to ward off diseases and which god to pray to save their fields on the next harvest, the words of missionaries became especially welcome.

Although at this point missionaries could give people very little but hope, it was a lot of hope. The example of Naregan Kingdom, standing tall despite the hardships going on, was very inspiring.

Thousands of people left their homes to seek refuge there! And all of them were welcome. The Naregan Kingdom had a lot of land whose owners died and couldn't till it anymore. It was profitable for everyone!

A few more months later, people of Naregan Kingdom gathered a rich harvest, and five THOUSAND hive-fortresses were built or planned to be built in its fields. It was the largest leap of the Bee Empire so far, but it had a long time coming. With all the improvements in our organizational system in those months, we were ready for it.

And the Naregan people could eat.

Their harvest wasn't as large as it could've been, but compared to the total zero of their neighbors, it was like a gift from the gods!

In fact, from their eyes, it was.

Then, I suggested to Farini a money-making scheme, which he followed to the letter.

First, he bought surplus grain from the province lords, who gathered said grain as taxes from their peasants. This cost Farini plenty of money… Which he immediately refilled with extra profit by selling the grain to other countries, which would buy it for any price!

We could've robbed everybody blind, but Agent Whisper warned me that Farini would refuse to be so mercantile out of principle. As a result, the price was still high, but not unreasonable. The independent merchants, both from the Naregan Kingdom and from other countries, sold grain at much, much higher prices.

It didn't matter, in the end.

Farini still earned enough money to fund the growth of his regular army—an army that was preparing to conquer the rest of the continent.

Just as the Bee Empire was preparing its own army. This was going to be a force of bees able to be not just spies and assassins, but to meet enemies openly on the battlefield, kill them all and eat them!

Yes, eating the enemies was very important. That would cut the logistical needs of such an army by an entire quarter, or even more if it had to fight often.

When an army became large enough, feeding all the soldiers and making sure their equipment was in good shape became the largest problem. Even the crusading armies on the Naregan Kingdom's fields could only sustain themselves because humans nearby took care of their key resources.

The fortress-hives could exist in their current form only thanks to humans bringing things to bees. Without them, it would take us ages to spread so far.

It was…

Exactly the coexistence I wanted to reach!

Humans depended on us, and the bees reaped the benefits! Now they couldn't attack us even if they wanted to—it would spell doom for them.

And like that passed the rest of the year…