Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire

Outside, I soon got used to my new speed—as much as it was possible. I was buzzing around Hive Supremo's neighborhood like an arrow. A bullet! I was so fast that bees could barely track me with their eyes, much less follow my flight. Faster than a car, definitely.

At some point, I asked for a dragon rider's protective helmet just so the headwind would stop blowing my eyes shut. It was impossible to fly at my full speed otherwise.

Even then, my speed at a straight line was so fast that I couldn't change directions or even react quickly enough to get out of the way of things. It was like riding a sports bike.

But even the reasonable part of my speed was way faster than that of any other bee, and it wasn't even more tiring than flying normally. I fooled around a little, to the awed gasps of my girls, then saw that Disaster was near the hive, resting in one of its favorite sunny spots while its dragon rider gave it scratches with a large stick.

It was an excellent opportunity to test my mind reading abilities, I decided, and flew toward the dragon.

The majestic creature opened its eye upon my appearance, then closed it back again. I flew closer and stared at its head, trying to peek at its thoughts.

They came to me hard at first, then easier and easier.

'Yes… yes… Scratch there, bee… Mhm…'

'Hey, beastie. You hear me?'

The dragon snapped its eyes open and raised its head. Its dragon rider gasped in alarm.

"You probably better wait aside for a bit," I told her, before turning back to the dragon.

'Don't worry, it's just me talking to you. Yes, me—this bee in front of you.'

Thankfully, all our dragons were used to telepaths by now.

'No threat then. Good. No scratches. Bad. Where are my scratches?' Disaster turned its head toward its dragon rider and growled. 'Scratch more!'

'She will scratch you again soon. But hey, tell us first—do you like her? Or me?' I asked the dragon, approaching even more dangerously close to its head.

Nearby, my bodyguards began thinking about ways to quickly get me out of dragon jaws. Just in case.

'Big shiny bee… Fine. Scratching bees… fine.'

'Fine? That's all? We are just "fine" to you?'

'Bees are fine. Bees give food and scratches. Are you going to give me food or scratches?'

I huffed.

'I will give you food… If you reach that pillar mountain faster than I do. That slim one.' I pointed toward a mountain that was a couple kilometers away from Hive Supremo, but I sensed a lack of understanding in the creature. 'The mountain that has sun right over it, well? You understand now?'

'Yes. Food… Mountain is close. I will fly there very quickly.'

Then, without a warning, Disaster stood up and jumped into the air. The blast of air from flapping wings threw me a couple of meters back.

Then I crouched and opened my wings.

"Girls, wait for me here!"

The next moment, I dashed after the beast!

For a few seconds, as my speed increased so fast that I thought my brain would get squished in my skull by G-force, I even got ahead.

Then, with a few mighty beats of its wings, Disaster overcame me and flew far ahead. Even with the increase in speed, the dragon was still faster, and still by a massive margin!

No wonder. It still crossed in a couple hours the distance that bees needed weeks to travel.

Despite this, I still flew all the distance to the marked target, reaching it in a couple of minutes that didn't even diminish my stamina badly.

A couple of breaths and I was ready to fly back. Disaster wasn't here already, but I saw it flying back to its feeding spot.

I closed my eyes for a moment, imagined Disaster's face, and mentally told her to give Disaster a treat. Immediately, I knew my message had reached its target.

On my way back, I was flying much slower than before—slowly enough to see my surroundings. The sun was shining nicely over my head, promising that the good weather of the last two weeks wasn't a fluke, and the seasons were changing.

New trees were growing all over the forest under my feet with incredible speed—like bamboo. However, there were many spots with only grass and cut tree stumps, or entirely barren ground.

All that woodcutting did a lot of damage to the forest, but that was alright! We still had plenty more trees to cut.

By the time I returned to Hive Supremo, Disaster's dragon rider returned to scratching the beast, while other bees carried an extra slab of meat for it to devour.

I took off my flight helmet, made a note to request a permanent flight helmet made for me and anyone with the 'Flight V' gene, then went inside the hive at "pedestrian" speed.

The Empire Council had a break. I knew that those girls who weren't watching me flying were eating the food prepared for the Grand Ceremony.

But now I called them back. Conveniently, I didn't even need to get into earshot of bees in the hive—I could just… telepathically message them!

Like calling people without a phone. Incredible.

"Back to business, girls," I declared when the Empire Council re-gathered, and the table became filled with wax tablets instead of food. "Researchina, I've seen the last reports from you, and I think you have too many people busy with relatively insignificant things. Yes, different clay options are good, and crossbows (hand-ballistas, I mean) are useful as most weapons are, but we must not forget economics, too. It's time to advance toward the Iron Age!"

I picked an empty wax tablet and began writing from memory.

"Glass should be relatively simple, and it's a good thing to trade with humans. Also, since we have good thread, we might as well finally make looms… Oh, also—what is our progress on dragon-taming?"