Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire-Chapter 320: Don’t believe, just help

'This is the middle of nowhere… Does *it* still lead me in the right direction? The last thing I need is for my horse to break a leg on these potholes. And the insects are never-ending—did they all come out because the sun hid behind the clouds?'

Tamsha the human was riding a horse down the living mountain forest. Two more riders followed him. Neither of the three were wearing more armor or weapons than swords at their sides; their clothes were more fit for average travelers than warriors.

The only bee in the vicinity was a lone Commando Beemarine who showed them the way by flying ahead. Right now she stopped on a pillar mountain branch a few hundred meters away from the bees' camp.

And Tamsha was so busy following the scout and projecting his mental grumbling to everyone who can hear that he didn't notice me flying on top of his head (where I could head).

Admittedly, the buzzing of my wings was covered by the buzzing of all the horseflies, dragonflies and other flies in the area. Most of the bees were waiting in the camp, with only my bodyguards relatively near, ready to pounce on any threats, as always.

'The Divine Emperor Nectus Stingprince is extremely glad that you came at his call, Tamsha ma Hamatsk,' I messaged the man.

He gasped and sharply stopped his horse, then began looking wildly around—and found nothing, of course. Before I could wonder how Tamsha was *that* unused to telepathy even after negotiating with my scout, the man pulled himself together.

He said something aloud (it sounded vaguely like swearing), gestured for his servants to stop, then thought slowly and loudly, 'You… You are one of these creatures that speak with thoughts.'

'I would rather you don't call us "creatures", human,' I sent right back. 'But I was told about your… skepticism. And about what you need.'

'Yes! I was promised a cure for all sicknesses!' Tamsha replied. 'Knot that if this is all a lie, and you just brought me into a trap, I will sell my life dearly. I might not be a warrior, but I studied the sword.'

I chuckled at Tamsha's attitude. This guy was so suspicious, it was almost funny! Although if he wasn't also so palpably desperate, it'd be way more frustrating than funny.

'It's not a trap! The cure is here, you just need to take it. We need it too—but we can't do it on our own. The cure are special, god-blessed birds that hatched in several nests high above. These bird chicks must be gathered and protected as soon as possible.'

I explained to Tamsha the gist of our problems. For all his skepticism, he listened intently, and accepted the fact that his allies were sentient (and divine! I had to keep pushing this part, too) bees without too many questions.

He seemed to have reached the point where he accepted certain things as fact.

Tamsha was just still unsure about our motives and had very little faith in our divinity. Since I could hear his thoughts, I could hear all his suspicions that we were evil spirits feeding on his desperation.

'Help us bring the dodo chicks down, and you can take one of them for yourself,' I said. 'It should be enough to cure your mother.'

Since the cure was a dodo's blood, the chick will surely die. It'd be much safer to gather blood little by little from adult birds—but a single chick was a fair payment for saving the rest.

'Alright,' Tamsha said, almost without hesitation. 'Robbing hawks' nests… Good thing that I brought a rope with me.'

I grinned and finally flew off Tamsha's head to look at his face. Even on its bug-like features, I could see the man's frown.

'Then let's not waste any time.'

***

With Tamsha's help, things moved much quicker. Climbing tall mountains was not a simple task for a human who had only a rope for support, but Tamsha was pretty athletic, and his servants helped, too.

These hook-like fingers of local humans were better for climbing than normal fingers.

In a couple of hours, he reached the first nest. While a swarm of bees attacked the hawk-dragon parent with stings and clouds of fire, Tamsha hurriedly grabbed the dodo chicks and put them into a sack.

The hawk-dragon tried to attack him and defend his nest, but when a swarm of bees stood in its way, quickly changed its mind and just watched from the side. It put its life above that of its chicks and fled before we could even kill it.

The dodo chicks went into a pen prepared for them, where several dragon riders who weren't busy with the black crow-dragons began tending for them.

"Great job, everybody!" I cheered, watching how the pitifully squeaking of dodo chicks turned into eager cries for food when food appeared in sight. "Perhaps we can tame these birds while we are at it, even if they have imprinted into someone else! But first, we must get more of them. Keep enlarging the pens, those who aren't flying with me and Tamsha!"

After the first nest, the rest were even more of a smooth walk. Tamsha might've wounded his hands on branches more than once, but his grip became better and better with each time.

That day, we cleared another nest, and the next we did three more. Tamsha made a camp near ours, and the human-sized bonfire he built scared off small insects from our living spaces as well as his.

The more dodo chicks we saved, the fewer bees there were available to save more. They ate *a lot* to grow so fast, and I ordered a hundred bees to just spend all their time hunting for food for them.

Still, the swift progress gave me hope we can save enough dodos to succeed. Next day, I prepared for a dodo rescue in a positive mood.

But nature and gods wouldn't let us succeed so easily.