Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire-Chapter 374: A date in the mecha manufactory
Chapter 374: A date in the mecha manufactory
While I’ve waged war, here in the Bee Empire, my girls were dutifully building mechas.
After Titania and its crew had successfully mined a record amount of ore from the deep mines and Engine-See’s Researchers trained more bees into the art of making and piloting these mechas, Ambrosia and Adviser Workharder started working on the expanded production line.
The small forges used by bees most of the time weren’t fit for something as massive as a Princess-type mecha! Most of the Titania’s details were made in a human forge in Krisha village by a smith Tamsha and Engine-See directed.
But with the materials extracted by Titania, and with Titania moving parts too heavy for bees, my girls have built a massive manufactory where parts for future mechas could be cast, forged into shape and assembled.
I’ve read reports about it, but the sight of the structure was something else. It was a good two hundred meters tall and built entirely on the surface of the ground, near Hive One-Of-The-Best, from clay bricks the size of a train wagon! Several large chimneys with crown-like tips exuded dark smoke, and wagons of coal were brought to the place as we spoke.
A structure like that didn’t have to fear any storms at all. Hell, a human could probably step on it and it won’t budge!
I wasn’t going to test it, though.
Of course, this building was still tiny compared to the smallest human house. But it was built entirely by hands of bees, in record time, and was still large enough to fit an entire sub-hive.
Researcher Engine-See met me and Ambrosia near one of the several entrances to the mecha factory. She was already smiling when she saw me and my usual posse of bodyguards, but at the sight of Ambrosia Engine-See jolted with shock.
“Mother-Queen!” Engine-See gasped. “You came to look at the mecha factory too, and in person? Did you find something unsatisfying in the reports I’ve brought to you earlier?”
“No,” Ambrosia replied, shaking her head. “I’m here on a date.”
She was even dressed for a date—which she took very seriously, since Amby rarely went as far from Hive Supremo as she did today.
Which meant that she put on a full set of dragon scale combat armor… although I tried to convince her to wear a dress.
But after this, I could only put on my own armor out of solidarity.
When she saw this, Destroyer decided we were expecting a fight—despite my attempts to tell her she was wrong—and was twice as alert as average. Then she was twice as alert as that, because she was guarding Ambrosia as well—so four times as alert as usual.
Now Engine-See looked at us all and her expression steadily grew only more anxious.
“A date? Uh… Father, Mother-Queen, do you want me to show you the factory? Or the blueprints for our next project of a mecha? Or…”
“Calm down, nobody is going to attack us. Seriously, there aren’t even any flies for miles around,” I said, stepping closer to Engine-See to ruffle her hair. freeweɓnøvel~com
She tensed like a cat who was rubbed the wrong way, but at least it dispelled her anxiety!
“Very well. I will be glad to show you what we’ve achieved while you were away. Perhaps you will recall some extra knowledge you will be willing to share with us when you see our facilities,” Engine-See said, fixing her hair. “Please, follow me.”
She led us inside the factory. As soon as we stepped in, heat hit our faces, along with scents of smoke, metal and chemicals. Loud clanging was coming from all sides, drowning the buzzing of all the bees that were flying back and forth.
The floor plan was mostly open, so I could see a lot of the massive machines that filled the place. It looked like metal smelting furnaces the size of houses, presses large enough to break a human’s head…
Yes, it was a wonderful place for a date, filled with impressions and excitement, even if it wasn’t very romantic!
I reached into my travel pack and pulled out some honeyed jerky sticks. After all, this was a date—snacks and shows were equally necessary!
I gave a few sticks to Amby, who smiled at me gratefully, then—because it felt wrong not to—offered one to Engine-See and the rest of the bag to my bodyguards.
“Anyone else want some?”
Destroyer shook her head.
“Father, we are still carrying the rest of your snacks,” she reminded me.
Engine-See took the offered stick and held her close to her chest.
“It’s an honor, Father. I hope my work here actually deserves this gift.”
I chuckled awkwardly.
“Hey, hey, I just felt bad eating in front of you without sharing…”
But of course, Engine-See didn’t listen. Oh, well.
“Don’t worry about this, Necty. You made her day truly special—don’t you usually like doing this to our daughters?” Ambrosia said between chewing her jerky. “Oh, look at this! It truly looks incredible—almost like a human skeleton.”
She pointed at the side of a factory, where a mecha was being assembled from parts. Although this was happening literally on the other side of the building from us, the place was open enough that we could clearly see the gigantic figure surrounded by scaffolding. Surprisingly for me, no mechas were working inside the factory.
“Yes, it does. The construction is based on a bee skeleton, which has a lot of similarities with a human skeleton,” Engine-See said.
“Wouldn’t it be more convenient to assemble mechas outside, where other mechas and Tamsha would have enough space to move around and help?”
“The existing mechas are not precise enough for the assembly work, and we wanted to do a human-free construction line,” Engine-See explained. “It’s more efficient to use mechanisms custom-made for a specific task, anyway. We have cranes that lift things up and down. The process has been heavily optimized, believe me. Now, let me show you the production line from the start…”
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