Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

'Then so be it,' Farini replied. 'These people will be remembered.'

A small consolation to these people and their families, but I wasn't going to burden myself with their lives.

I already had so many lives to think about.

'With the time won by these people, the guardians, the humans can strike the enemy together…' I flew around the map and landed at another place. The predictions said nothing about it, but it looked suitable. 'There.'

***

Exactly on schedule, I got news that the border fortress fell, and the Vardish army was advancing deeper into the country. They razed several villages on their way, but people were warned about their arrival and hid in forests or retreated toward the capital.

At the same time, the army of Naregan soldiers traveled in the opposite direction, together with an army of Warrior Bees.

Anyone who didn't know better wouldn't even suspect that there were two armies. The Warrior Bees were moved around by humans, together with their portable bases.

They were built inside living stone boxes, each around a hundred meters tall. Those were carried around on carts pulled by horses, along with all the provisions these bees ate daily.

It was an… interesting way of travel—especially since many bases were one Queen away from becoming a full-out traveling sub-hive!

I put an idea of a human-sized ethanol-powered truck to the rest of the inventions there were worth developing.

And I was with these soldiers right now, raising the spirit of all the soldiers. This also let me get all the freshest reconnaissance info and to see the future battlefield with my own eyes.

It was close to the road which Vardish people had to take if they didn't want to circle over dense living mountain forests for weeks to age the Naregan capital. A natural chokepoint, blocked by a tall hill on one side and another living mountain forest on the other.

The hill had a village on it, but right now all the locals had evacuated and the Naregan soldiers, led by general Gresch, took their homes and were actively building fortifications all around the place.

These fortifications won't help much against the Vardish cannons, I knew, but it was better than nothing.

Meanwhile, I and Bloodimina led the bee army to position itself elsewhere.

Since not just one, but several crop field garrisons have come here for this war, we had 400 thousand Warrior Bees under our command, not counting all the extras like scouts, telepathic messengers, Physicians, Builders, Craftsmen and other support staff.

It was a swarm the size of a human cart, and when humans saw it flying past them with the buzzing of hundreds of thousands of wings, led by me in my shiny gold-adorned armor, they fell to their knees in awe.

Our path led us to the middle of the chokepoint, into an open field far away from the human army. Nothing was there, except an occasional boulder or a pillar mountain here or there. The hill fortifications seemed tiny, almost bee-sized from here.

"Here. Here, we wait," I ordered, gesturing at the area. "They will come soon."

***

The Vardish army was impossible to miss even from far away. At first, they were just a dark spot on the horizon, but soon became much more colorful.

Not only they had blue faces, but they also wore bright red shirts and purple pants. They were like walking road signals! A vast difference compared to the plain green or brown clothing of Naregan soldiers. Even an average dragon—which were often more colorful than flowers—was less bright.

"This is so impractical! Who the hell puts such colorful clothing on their soldiers? They can be spotted from miles away," I muttered from my cover in the bee-made trench covered by tree leaves.

Bloodimina, who was sitting in this trench next to me, turned away from the enemy and at me.

Then she looked at my armor, which was bright green and blue and shone whenever the smallest speck of light fell on it.

"This is different! I'm a leader, I'm supposed to be seen from far away so everybody would feel inspired to fight harder, Bloodimina!"

Bloodimina's stone-like expression didn't change in the slightest.

"Of course, this makes perfect sense, Father."

I huffed, feeling even sillier because she was perfectly serious right now.

"Forget it. Just stay ready."

Bloodimina nodded and turned away, holding tighter the crossbow she was wielding. It was loaded with a stinger-pointed bolt.

Although our Researchers learned how to make working bee-sized muskets, against humans, nothing worked better than some venom. The latest generations of Beemarines could shoot stingers right from their body, but others used other means.

Meanwhile, the Vardish army approached confidently. Right behind their front rows of infantry I saw hundreds of dark shapes—cannons.

They weren't the slightest bit intimidated by the Naregan army waiting for them on the hill, because even with the hill giving Naregan archers an advantage in shooting, the cannons had a longer range.

The Agents sent to snoop in the Vardish camp already transmitted to me all their plans: the Vardish army was about to just stand there under the hill and shoot at Naregan people until they were forced to run at Vardish musketeer lines.

Because, oh yes—Vardish light infantry weren't spearmen, they were musketeers. They had an insane weapon advantage.

This reminded me about a certain strategy game where you could attack a tank with spearmen… And even win, if circumstances were right.

The Vardish general thought this wasn't such a day, but I knew better.

Because while the Vardish army confidently moved toward the only enemy they could see, they were walking right next to a danger much more lethal, but much less noticeable.

Soon, the enemy soldiers became so close that I felt the ground shake under me from their footsteps. The human figures were about to march past me and my army without even noticing that we were there.

I grinned.

"Bloodimina, command the attack!"