Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire-Chapter 395: A revolution begins with a can of spam

"Guard the fish... Do you realize how much of it we will have to guard, Bloodhero?" I asked. "It’s tons, tons of the stuff! Enough to feed millions of people. We don’t have enough soldiers for this, and if we did, I’d send them to do something else. Like a total annihilation of our enemies over the continent."

Bloodhero deflated a little, then squared her shoulders again and went silent. So did the entire room.

The only sounds that could be heard over the background hum of buzzing wings were the loud thoughts of almost a dozen people trying to come up with a solution to the fish problem.

’Humans can gather poisons and use them to poison the fish for the insects... But they have no venom immunity, unlike most insects. They will die from the poison first...’

’Maybe the fish just needs better containers? M-m-m, fish-beasts! I wonder how they taste—ah, focus-focus, Things-Things! Containers! Iron ones so nothing gets in... No, iron will rust. Steel ones? Ah, metal is too heavy and expensive! But... Good containers...’

’Do we need to focus on fish in the first place? Then again... Humans just can’t get food of any kind without our help. They are so pathetic, ugh...’

’We can eat insects. Why can’t humans? It will be so much more effective. And if some get sick and die from it, so what? Cooking will kill most of those nasty germs inside the insects, anyway!’

The thought-voices blended together to the point where it was hard to say who was saying what. But several of these ideas captured my attention.

I gently tapped the table with a claw, drawing all the eyes—and minds—to me.

"What was it about the containers, Things-Things?"

She perked up.

"Father, you heard this? Well, it was a silly idea anyway, yes-yes! Humans will have to open containers to get to their fish, and then insects will get to whatever they didn’t eat. Because when a container is open, it can’t be closed back as well as it was! Without a forge, at least..."

"No, no—this is something!" I protested, raising my hands. "We can teach humans how to make meat preserves! Canned fish!"

Things-Things blinked.

"Canned? What’s canned?"

"Did you mean ’uncanny fish’, Father?" Worriesgone asked. "Scary fish? Weird fish?"

"No, like fish in cans! Like. Metal cans?.." My searching gaze I was met with looks of unfamiliarity.

"This is a technology you didn’t describe to us yet, Father," Researchina said, staring at me with hungry curiosity. "Please, do."

I explained the concept in the briefest terms, then concluded,

"If we teach humans how to put their fish in metal, clay or glass cans so they cook it right inside, they can send the fish all over the continent. And the fish cans will be small enough for a human to eat all of its contents at once."

"Ah, *those* things..." Workharder muttered. "Like the honeyed meat jars..."

Bees already made preserves, but simpler ones: just put cooked meat in honey or salted it, then sealed it in jars with wax and clay. Honey or salt acted as a preservative, and the air-tight seal protected the contents. But this type of preserved food didn’t last as long as true canned food, because it was cooked *before* being sealed.

"This will take a lot of planning, yes-yes," Things-Things thought, sketching something on a sheet of paper in front of her with a wax tablet. "Humans aren’t very good with glass, and metal is bad for storing food in. We will need to teach them everything, and that’s after we learn it ourselves!"

I nodded. This won’t be easy, but the invention of canned food was a real game-changer for bringing food to foreign countries, even if it won’t find much use in the Bee Empire as it was now..

In the Bee Empire, the main food stores were sealed inside the hives, and all the bees got their food from relatively close sources. No food in the Empire traveled for longer than a day before being eaten. The simpler preservation techniques were easier.

"This won’t be simple, but I want you and Researchina to test the technology. Spare a mecha... Actually, I will ask Tamsha to help you. But work quickly. And in the meantime—who thought about making the humans eat insects?"

There was silence at the Advisers’ table. My girls stared at me in confusion for a few moments, before I saw Attendant Helping-Hands, who was standing near the wall raise a hand. It was the only one in which Helping-Hands wasn’t holding a tray or a jug.

"This was me, Father. But those were merely idle thoughts... My focus is on serving you and sorting your matters, not coming up with ideas. I’m not so arrogant to think they are better than those of the Advisers."

Helping-Hands looked at the girls at the table with admiration in her eyes, before turning back to me and raising her chin in a good imitation of Ambrosia’s royal posture.

She really took pride in being my secretary and nothing more... I put my hands on my chest in adoration, and I wasn’t the only one with this emotion.

"Sister Helping-Hands, you can’t talk about yourself like this! If Father noticed your idea, it must’ve been good!" Worriesgone exclaimed, jumping from her seat.

As always, seeing her so active brought a smile to my face. There were times when Worriesgone would’ve fainted from a rapid movement like that, but now only her paleness and slight thinness reminded about how sick Worriesgone and her brood sisters were upon emergence from her brood cell.

"Yes-yes, sister!" Things-Things cheered as well. "You always bring us snacks, bring some ideas too. Ideas about snacks! You know more about cooking than we do."

Helping-Hands blushed a little seeing other Advisers nod in agreement.

As usual, Ambrosia was the one who put the last word in.

"Let the Advisers themselves decide how good or bad your ideas are. Now stop with this silliness and answer the question, daughter."

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m