Chapter 50: Long Live Her Majesty the Queen (04)

  Creak...

  The bee girl's stinger, spiraling as it was shot, burrowed into the burning hive, while the woman was rolling on the ground, her waist torn in half.

  'Ah...!'

  As the hive burned while being slowed down by the mana sword, it only then occurred to me that the heat engulfing the queen could spell the end.

  15 minutes were needed, but by setting the fire, I realized that I had disrupted the queen's flight, which had only about 10 minutes left, and caused her to burn.

  "What have I done... Ah...!"

  r

  But nature is a mysterious thing.

  The queen, whom the bee girl and I tried to protect, dried her wings faster than natural air drying due to the heat from the burning hive, and now she was ready to fly into the sky, havi go of the hive she was holding.

  Vroom...

  A creature that was once a rva, once a pupa.

  Was now a queen taking flight.

  "Success... achieved."

  The bee girl was still watg.

  Watg her sister, whom she had nurtured, asd gloriously as the queen.

  The bee girl, who had been tirelessly colleg honey and making royal jelly every day, had finally received her reward.

  Squeeeak...

  "GROOOOAR--!!"

  Simultaneously with the queen bee's ast, another queen tore through the hive and revealed herself.

  'Is that... the queen of the s?'

  While the bee's queen bee was simir in size to a human form, with a slightly longer rear end and wings, the queen was truly enormous, to the point I had to look up.

  The grotesque appearance, half human and half i, was burning in the hive's transferred embers; its wings and legs were abze, but numerous s g to the queen 's body, rubbing themselves against her to put out the fire.

  'How do ture that?'

  Even with full gear from the magiight corps, I had hought of fighting such a massive monster.

  Witnessing the queen reag out with her burning forelimbs, trying to catch the esg queen bee amidst the pain was enough to make me realize there was no time to worry.

  'Let's capture her first.'

  I had to try.

  Even if the extreme mana ption would cause my body to self-destruct, I couldn't give up without even trying.

  Hooooong-!

  Kaaaaboom-!!

  The front of the hive was engulfed in fmes and torn apart, and the queen , half-buried in the hive, lost her grip on the queen bee amidst the trembling of her body.

  'This is...!'

  Beyond the torn hive, visible were dozens, maybe even more, blobs of fire flying toward the hive.

  'Le bombardment support from the royal mage corps...!'

  Kooooong-!!

  It was a body too massive to be cut through with just a sword, but it couldn't withstand the grand siege magiched by the entire royal mage corps, who had liheir sciousness for the spell.

  [Crack... you hear me? If you hear, please specify the coordinates. Be careful not to get caught in indiscriminate bombardment. We are targeting based on the mana sword as a marker, so escape as soon as possible.]

  Upon the senior knight's orders, I immediately grasped the situation.

  Indiscriminate bombardment was about to unfold toward this location, using my mana sword's tracker as the coordinate for firing, so I had no choice but to abandon the mana sword and escape.

  'My body is starting to paralyze.'

  Having moved my body earlier for a final blow and given up ooxification, the venom was now severely spreading, slowing my heart rate and nearly turning my body atose.

  Crack!

  While biting my too stay awake, I kicked the mana sword a it flying into the lower part of the queen before attempting to flee, but...

  "This is as far as I go..."

  My legs were already not obeying me.

  Kuguuuguguang!!

  The s tried to block the flying siege magic with their bodies, but the powerful magic tearing through the sky couldn't possibly be stopped by a mere physical assault.

  And its force was going to blow me away just as equally.

  "The queen... she's probably esg well, right?"

  Having nth left to escape, I colpsed o the bee girl, who was only half remaining.

  "sidering I was destio die since I was kidnapped, surviving about 5 more days... is alright, isn't it?"

  Besides, I hadn't see beautiful sight.

  The sight of the trapped queen freely flying into the sky.

  As my body stiffened from the paralysis venom, and my lungs a were stopping, I quietly closed my eyes to accept my fate.

  Gurgle...

  A bitter liquid flowed into my mouth.

  It was sticky, sweet, and fishy...

  And at the same time, terribly bitter.

  "......"

  Even with only half her body left, the bee girl assing the st of her fluids in her mouth to mine.

  Although all the honey had been spilled, and the blood was thhly mixed in... she was feedihe st of the royal jelly remaining inside her.

  Was it the instinct of a bee who had nurtured rvae? Or... a will transdih that showed a miracle.

  With a final push of royal jelly to my lips, the bee girl pletely stopped breathing and moving.

  The depleted mana began to fre up as the royal jelly's effects started ralizing the 's venom.

  As my stiffened body started to obey again, I lifted the bee girl's upper body, which was now lighter than usual by more than half.

  Even though her beehive was attacked and she was kidnapped along with her sister by the s.

  Even though her colleagues were captured by the s and died.

  Even when she charged at the overwhelmingly stronger .

  The bee girl never gave up.

  Theher could I.

  Believing in the soft material of the beehive, I ed the burning pieces of the hive around my body and threw myself toward the ground.

  * * *

  Due to the le bombardment by the royal mage corps, the northern part of the Spider Forest began to burn.

  As fire-based magic exploded oer ahe hive burned, and the bees trying to put out the fire inside also buro death, obliterating the surrounding ecosystem pared to the imposing nature of the bees.

  No matter how giant the hive was, its structural weako fire was undeniable.

  If they were bees, they might have attempted to put out the fire by fpping their wings together, but for s who knew nothing but to destroy and e, there was no way to block such fmes.

  They threw themselves desperately to protect the queen , but the extremely rge queen caught fire first in her wings and couldn't asd, burning alive; only then did the surviving s, sensing their survival instincts, flee and got caught in the reinforced spider webs of the Spider Forest, being prey while still alive.

  For spiders, s were a formidable and tricky prey, but once caught in the prepared webs, they were merely food.

  "Phew... the smell."

  The knights from Barrack 2, holding their noses against the smell of melting beeswax and the noxious st of burning bees, were searg the burned forest for their roommate.

  "Ugh... The smell of burning is to to find him..."

  The st of burning hampered the military dogs from trag properly, and the mana sword's tracker had long beeroyed by the bombardment, so it was thought that it would take a long time to search, but uedly, they were able to find Ban quickly.

  Rustle.

  Ban suddenly appeared from the burned bushes.

  "It's been a while."

  "You're alive?"

  Although the words were blunt, the knights of Barrack 2 were exceedingly gd to see Baurn safely, inwardly relieved and happy.

  Of course, being men as usual, they joked about how tough his lifeline was, saying, "Oh, he bought it," but that was just their way of speaking.

  "So did you get stung by a bee this time?"

  To Dane's question, Ban smiled weakly, unlike his usual self.

  "I'm tired, let's go in a first."

  "Alright..."

  They noticed Ban's right wrist was bloodied and his left arm had a rge hole, realizing he had faced a brush with death, so they didn't ask further, just letting him lean on their shoulders to help him out.

  "Yes, found him. Heading baow."

  With that, along with Levin's unication, Bahe burned and looked bae st time

  .

  "Farewell."

  Beyond the bushes he had sprung from was a small mou behind.

  A mana sword fragment and a bracelet made of old leather tied he handle served as a makeshift grave marker.

  It was a small grave he had made for a trivial creature, but it recious to Ban.

  Leaving that pce behind, Bauro where he was meant to be.

  Aaaaaang......

  Unbeknownst to him, the queeh beautiful rainbow-colored wings was watg him from the sky.

  If Ban was under any misception, it was that the mating with the queen bee rva was not merely an act to stimute her to quickly bee a pupa and be reborn as a queen.

  Only after the queen bee was fident that she could create her swarm and still have seeds left over from this oera did she attempt her metamorphosis.

  Aaaaaang...

  The queen bee looked down at Ban's locatio time, but with her poor vision, it was unclear whether she was actually looking at him or just sensing the flow of the wind and happeo be above him.

  She was certain only of her ability to create a new swarm and give birth to bee girls like herself.

  Fate is, after all, an unknowable thing.

  To protect the st rva of the northern hive, over 400 bee girls had died from the hive.

  Even after being captured, while carrying food and feeding royal jelly, they made her into a queen, but three of the bee girls were caught by the s and died.

  Born from a queen, to die for a queen.

  That was the fate of the bee girls.

  Except for one.

  Except for one bee girl who threw herself into dao save the man she loved.

  No one might aowledge it, and even the man himself might uand it as just an instinct to protect the queen.

  But the queen bee knew.

  Was the bee girl her sister?

  Because they shared the same bloodline.

  Ultimate-Harem-fan