Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

"How is this even possible? The Flaying Flu didn't affect bees before! And the worst of the disease was dealt with all the way in Naregan Kingdom!" Bloodimina furiously asked her subordinate, Chief Physician Medicia.

After seeing the sick people by herself (Bloodimina didn't fear falling sick because she was immunized with dodo blood already), she went to speak with the Chief Physician one-on-one in her field office.

But Medicia didn't take any of Bloodimina's attitude. She waved her hands at her in frustration.

"Germs evolve, Grand Commander! You know this as well as I do! And you also know that it was never stopped fully—just contained to the extent where we don't have to worry about it. We could've caught it from local insects, from the Vardish people we trampled, even from local water—we only boil the water we drink, after all. My people are already doing what they can to treat and quarantine everybody who caught this thing, but! But this isn't a reason to shout at me."

Bloodimina let out a long breath.

"It's impossible to quarantine sick people sufficiently in a camp like ours, and you know this as well as I do, sister," Bloodimina replied darkly. "I'd also like to know why I only got a report about the flu *now* and not when the first sick people were found."

Medicia sighed.

"For this, I could only apologize. You know how many people fall sick with other things already. When the first sick people appeared, they thought they got sores from something else. And the other symptoms are very common. You also know that people sick with the Flaying Flu can still stand on their feet and even fight for some time until the disease turns lethal. Because of this, it wasn't taken too seriously by many people…"

Bloodimina nodded.

"And there are too few Physician Bees and human doctors compared to the amount of sick people we get in this cursed place. I know." Bloodimina grit her teeth and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "If we don't do *something* to prevent the Flaying Flu from spreading to more people, we might lose our entire army. And then the city we were planning to conquer."

At least her scouts there didn't report signs of any massive pandemics. The harbor was closest to Castle Soneraht—infected terribly, but still functional.

With Flaying Flu, though, this could change.

This sickness was deadly enough to empty entire villages back in Naregan Kingdom. It was stoppable with quarantines and immunizing injections, but it already evolved since then. Bloodimina was sure that it could only mean worse things for everybody.

Medicia thoughtfully picked a speck of dust from under one of her long claws.

"We can't quarantine or immunize everybody who falls sick. We can't even send them back to the Empire—they will die from the flu faster than they reach it. But we can ask them to sacrifice their lives for the Empire. At least, we can do this to bees. Humans are terribly unreasonable about sacrificing themselves most of the time."

Bloodimina could only nod.

"Perhaps if the rotten part of our ranks is cut off, there will be enough left standing to finish this military campaign… I need precise numbers on everybody who fell sick, and I want them *now*."

"It will be done. One of my assistants is already finishing the count—she will bring you the results in… about half an hour, if she's not distracted. But what about the sick humans? We must get rid of them as well, or they will just infect everybody again."

Bloodimina scowled.

"I will deal with this. Concern yourself with making sure that we have enough medication for everybody, Medicia."

She turned around and prepared to leave; before she did, she caught Medicia's sigh behind her.

"I wish I was running tests to develop the mythical penicillin right now," the Physician bee muttered.

***

'Good news, Grand Commander—Gresch understands how bad the situation will be if he doesn't act decisively. Bad news—he isn't sure his soldiers understand the same. It looks like some convincing from bees will be necessary here!'

Bloodimina scratched her ear when she received the message from Gresch's Agent with a reply, and scowled.

This message interrupted her thought! She didn't like telepathy much. Usually, her signalers accepted and passed on all the messages sent to her, but this time the Agent must've decided that it was too important.

Either way, since Gresch was in *his* camp, and Bloodimina was in hers, she had to find her signaler and dictate her a message to reply.

She was ready to scare humans in whatever way necessary, even send people to assassinate all the infected ones.

Anything, as long as she could prevent the spread of sickness to more bees. Bloodimina already gave orders for all not-immunized bees to stay away from humans for now.

Although even Bloodimina realized that killing humans will make them reluctant to help them in the future. She had another idea, though.

"First, tell his Agent that this reply was *not* worth messaging me directly," Bloodimina instructed her signaler. "Second, tell Gresch that if his soldiers don't realize how bad things are, he should just teach them. Take the most ill soldier, show him to everybody, explain in every gruesome detail how the Flaying Flu kills you…"

The more Bloodimina spoke, the more she remembered methods of Agents she worked alongside of, and the more inspired she became.

"Even lie about it. Make extra sores on the man, add more details about how painful and terrible the death from Flaying Flu is. Then people who are sick with it will be eager to die just to avoid it!"

The signaler nodded and looked at Bloodimina questioningly.

"This is all, yes. End message. When Gresch sends his reply… If it's a confirmation, tell me in person. If not, fine—message me telepathically."

Bloodimina wanted Gresch to start killing the sick people as soon as possible, so she had to be ready to resolve any delays.

In the meantime, she had her own sisters to kill…

The most grim duty of a leader.