Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

The gates of the fort weren't just open in front of us, they were broken. Some fresh holes from cannonballs were visible in its brick walls, too.

But what drew the most attention was the chain of bodies hanging over the gates like some Christmas garland from hell.

A dozen corpses were tied together by arms and thrown over the gate. I squinted and saw several heads on spikes placed on the walls. Like little imps, dozens of black dragons were flying around the fortress, many of them still pecking on the corpses.

Main part of the army didn't see this yet—I, Gresch and a few dozen scouts, both humans and bees, were traveling ahead of it.

The scouts were sent to check the fortress, saw the scene and utter lack of any enemies, and reported to us. Now it was our turn to see the scene with our own eyes and decide what to do.

'This debasement of our dead… Vardish people are really monsters!' Gresch seethed in his head. His hands were clenched so hard on the reins of his horse that I feared he would tear them with his hooked fingers.

Yeah, this looked awful–even from afar. And smelled even worse. Bees won't care about the deaths of some humans, no matter how gruesome, but the human scouts who saw this became visibly agitated. Their thoughts were more angry than glum, but anger could easily lead to unnecessary recklessness on the battlefield.

Besides…

"How long, do you think, the bodies were there, Quietness-104?" I asked Sergeant Commando of the scout squad.

"At least several days. Stink is really bad there. Lots of fly larvae, too."

I grimaced. This was disgusting to even imagine. From here, I couldn't see the worst details of the "message" from Vardish people, and I didn't want to.

Besides, I had other concerns.

'Your Majesty, we must gather the dead and give them a proper funeral!' Gresch addressed me with thoughts furious and loud enough to be audible, even though I didn't focus on them. 'It will be a delay, but only a small one. It's already late—we can make a camp near the fort.'

'You will do no such thing,' I replied immediately. 'The soldiers are already angry enough. They will fight with cooler heads if they don't know about this place. And none of us will walk closer to it—it's a cesspit of disease and pests.'

'But… Your Majesty!' Gresch raised a hand toward his chest. 'The souls of these people will never see peace without a proper funeral. They already sacrificed their lives for the kingdom—they shouldn't be forced to sacrifice their souls, too! Besides, the soldiers will know eventually, anyway. It's impossible to fully stop the rumors once at least *someone* knows…'

He glanced at the human scouts standing nearby, and although the thought didn't fully form in Gresch's head, I immediately understood what he was thinking about.

I sighed.

It'd be best to just abandon this place for a few weeks until the bodies were picked clean, the scavengers went away, and the diseases stopped being a concern. But Gresch was right, too.

Those human soldiers were such babies compared to bees! I had to work so hard to keep up their morale, while my daughters just needed a smile, a headpat, and an opportunity to work!

They were lucky they were carrying most of our provisions and supplies.

'Leave a hundred soldiers here, including these scouts. They will be the new garrison for this place, and they will bury the dead. But they must be extremely careful when doing so! You already know that rotting meat is where diseases grow and lunge for anyone who is not careful.'

Gresch nodded furiously.

'Yes. I studied your teachings studiously, Your Majesty! There are some soldiers from the Blood Brotherhood in the army—perhaps they can give blood communion to others, so that the entire garrison will be immune to illness?'

Even if the Blood Brothers in question were already in god-knows-which generation, they still could at least partially immunize the rest of the hundred soldiers *well enough*.

'Good idea,' I replied to Gresch. 'The rest of the army will march for the rest of the day—we should be able to reach a nearby village before it's too dark.'

This is what the army did. Leaving the cursed fort and a hundred unlucky soldiers behind, we walked to the nearby farming village.

It was almost empty by the time we came—most people ran to the nearby forests, with only the most stubborn choosing to stay and greet the soldiers.

I noted that although the village was technically on the Vardish side of the border, people here were more green than blue (although bluer than an average Naregan person).

Our army made camp nearby, but Gresch gave strict orders to the soldiers to treat the villagers respectfully. Instead of robbing the place (as was common during wars in history), he sent a priest to tell the few stubborn old men sitting in their homes about the "Word of Nectus" also known as the "True Teaching".

This continued in every other tiny village we saw on our way to Castle Soneraht, which took an entire week.

The locals weren't keen to worship new gods, but the good behavior of our soldiers helped us to hire a few local guides to direct us to the best camp places and to help us update our maps.

Although the distance from me to the nearest telepathic chain grew larger and larger, I did my best to keep in touch with Hive Supremo. Several dragon riders were flying from our army to Naregan capital and back with messages.

Thankfully, my girls were managing without me. Ambrosia, as always, held a tight grip on the Empire's business and didn't let anyone slack off. She even wrote in a message that Titania the mecha dug out the first metal and thus, Ambrosia gave orders to start building the second Princess-model mecha!

It was too bad that I couldn't spend time with my wife… And there would be a delay in the growth of new generations of bees in Hive Supremo, too.

When we reached Castle Soneraht, these thoughts were my extra motivation to take it quickly!