Beesekai [A Monster Reincarnation Isekai]

“Do you guys give up?”

My question towards the Valkybees sure stirred up their battle fever. For several seconds they didn’t answer, stewing in the possibility that I had already beaten them. All three of them, at the same time. But to be honest, I was exhausted, and I just wanted the fight to end. Fighting wasn’t something I was accustomed to, especially a protracted battle where I have to be going-all out at all times.

“You’ve grown again, haven’t you Mother?” Belphegora finally spoke up, even while struggling against my Mind with all her might. They hadn’t given up at all.

“Not really. I’ve just never been in a fight like this before, so I had to figure out a new way to use my Mind. I’d call it reinforcement rather than growth.”

Belphegora managed to shake her head. “As far as I have observed in my short time in this world, you always find a way through. No matter what is thrown at you, you figure out a way around it. Being on the other side of that unfathomable strength is… frustrating. I would nearly deign to call it unfair. So don’t insult us by taking it easy. There is no chance we will yield.”

“I yield.”

Belial had stopped struggling at some point, and his admission of defeat nearly caused Belphegora to stop resisting entirely in shock. I immediately knew he was telling the truth. His Mind had calmed while Belphegora spoke, and our connection was back to normal. Maybe it was risky, but I let go of the Mind holding him down. He simply turned over onto his back and sighed.

“What a fight. I wonder how strong you’d be if you could use the full power of you Mind, Mother. You’d probably be unbeatable.”

I blew a silent sigh of relief. He really had given up. “I doubt it. Who knows what kinds of powers exist out there? But you guys nearly had me. I just have way too many advantages, especially against my family. If Beelzebub were here, I would have gotten my ass kicked.”

Belial laughed. Belphegora was not so amused. I could feel her Mind rearing to explode with effort again, ready to push against me even harder, but a soft voice derailed her train of thought.

“I give up too.”

This time Behemoth was the one conceding. I immediately let her free from the grip of my force-field grasp, and she simply stayed still, curling herself into a massive ball. My heart shattered into a million pieces seeing my poor baby all nervous and exhausted like that, made worse by the fact that I’d done it with my own six hands. I knew she was happy about the fight, but that didn’t make me less sad, dammit!

“Amazing. You’re too amazing, Mother,” she said. “I don’t really want to fight you again. It made me a little sad. It was fun and scary. Next time, I want to fight with you, by your side. Can I do that?”

Her massive, shiny compound eyes instantly repaired my broken heart. Some might say it was a face only a mother could love, considering that it belonged to a giant bee. How could I refuse a face like that? 

“Of course! I want to fight alongside you guys, too. Though Bedivere and Beatrice might have something to say about that…”

“Hey! Hey hey hey! If you two are done, you’re free now. This was the opportunity you were looking for, wasn’t it? Distract her so I can break free, and we can finally win this battle!”

The three of us looked at Belphegora, still straining against my Mind. With power freed from having to hold down the other two, keeping Belphegora in check was much more manageable. For a split second, I wondered if she was right. Was the surrender a trick to bring my guard down and launch a decisive attack against me? I’m pretty sure that was a war crime. Though, as bees, we had established nothing like that, so I supposed it was fair game. As for the two Valkybees who’d given up, even if I had a split second of doubt, it was entirely unfounded. Even without searching their Minds I could tell they had well and truly given up the fight.

“Isn’t that enough, Belphegora?” Belial said, sitting up and putting his arms on his… other arms as if they were legs. “This isn’t like you. You said it yourself. Mother already figured out another way to use Mind, and if we keep fighting, I’m sure she’d only figure out even more. This battle is a lost cause for us right now.”

“A lost cause right now? Is that what you will say when the enemy invades the hive, when the Knights come knocking at the forest door again?”

I’d never seen Belphegora become so emotional before. She was more on the cold and calculating part of the scale, relying on foresight and her sharp brain to succeed. She’d been pivotal in taking Yiwi, and that was her first-ever mission. And other than some human hatred, she’d been cool as a cucumber. She took on more responsibility in advancing the hive’s goals than the rest of the Valkybees combined.

And now she was frustrated. More than I’d ever seen her. Not because she lost to me, although I doubt that helped. For someone whose whole deal was messing with people’s emotions, for the first time, she was losing control of her own.

“As we are now, a small collection of Knight Commanders and their squads could destroy the hive. I’m the only one of us who’s beaten Beelzebub in direct combat, and she nearly died! How far can Bedivere really take us? How far can Mother? I’m the only one in the hive who has even a fraction of her combat capability with Mind, and she defeated me with ease. When Mother strengthens the hive, her personal capabilities weaken. If none of us were Linked, she would have crushed us. I had to put my all into keeping up, and even then I was useless. So how? If we can’t win against her, what use are we as her personal guard?”

At some point during her disjointed tirade, Belphegora had begun to cry. Belial and Behemoth sat awkwardly, unsure of what to do. Belphegora was the strongest among them, at least mentally. Or so they thought. They looked to her for guidance. The thinker of the Valkybees. And her words struck a chord in their own hearts as well. I also wasn’t sure what to do, besides letting up my Mind. I felt a nudge from Queen, and so I floated over and embraced Belphegora in a hug. Against their will, I pulled Belial and Behemoth in, too. Behemoth started sobbing harder than Belphegora. Belial’s face was stone, but his Mind was also in turmoil.

As for what to say to comfort them, neither Queen nor I had any idea. Maybe that was a failure on our part as a mother to our children, for not knowing exactly what to say to them to make them feel better. Maybe we should have known exactly what each of them needed. But right then, all we could do was comfort them by holding on.

“The combo attacks were way too good,” I said with a smile. “Seriously, the way you guys coordinated without even thinking about it was crazy. I knew you were thinking and still couldn’t predict your moves; that goes beyond anything I could’ve imagined.”

“Oh, stop. It was merely the result of efficient planning and plenty of practice. Our jobs are as simple protectors, so most of our time is spent honing our skills. But as we’ve seen, nothing can compare to what can be learned by true battle. It’s a conundrum; we need to stay in the hive to protect you, but without leaving and fighting powerful foes, we might never become strong enough to be the best possible protectors.” Belphegora’s proud demeanor was short-lived.

Belial, on the other hand, was puffing his chest. “We got amazingly close, though. As a team, we might just be really strong. And I was handicapped, too.”

“Hm?” Belphegora scoffed. “You think those human devices compensate for your lack of skills enough for us to have performed better?”

“You wanna fight?”

“Don’t confuse me for Beelzebub, fool. I won’t rise to your silly provocations. Besides, I would win without question.”

I sighed. The Valkybees had gone back to their spirited selves, enough to ignore the daggers every bee in the dining hall was staring their way. Well, Behemoth seemed properly embarrassed, hiding her face in her claws, but luckily her spot was just out of sight on the outer part of the dining area, so most of the bees’ ire was drawn towards the ones bickering right in front of me. Bedivere wasn’t angry, but it was because he actually wanted us to fight, the bastard. He had been watching the whole thing and was simultaneously happy that the Valkybees fought me and peeved that they got their butts whooped so bad. I had tried to reason with him; after all, I hadn’t beaten them badly whatsoever. I nearly lost. If I had one less advantage, if just a little bit more of my Mind had been in use, if just one tiny thing had gone wrong, I’d probably be waking up right now from getting my skull bashed in by Behemoth’s leg. On the other hand, Beryl was the angriest. She’d shown up in the clearing right after our little hugging session ended, and like a rabid dog made to attack the Valkybees all on her own. I had to hold her back the entire way back to the dining hall.

But the one bee I kept an eye on was Beatrice. When we’d arrived back at the dining hall, the Valkybees had initially been subdued, ready to face the wrath of my number 2. But when her thoughts were apparently occupied enough for her to ignore them, well, they clearly didn’t care about the feelings of any other bee present.

“Mother.”

I jumped in my skin at Beatrice’s voice. Slowly, I turned to face her, but her expression was entirely neutral. Just like it had been after I revealed my former humanity. Why did she have to be so scary?! Even now she was pushing up her antennae glasses as if nothing were out of the ordinary. She’d only been talking to me, but apparently every bee had heard and was now sitting at rapt attention, their ire towards the Valkybees forgotten. And for their part, the Valkybees immediately shut up.

“We should continue the meeting. I know you are exhausted, so it might be best if you rest for the remainder. We will not be leaving until we have determined that all the relevant matters have been properly discussed.”

She looked towards the sky, which had, at some point, taken on a slightly purple hue. My tussle with the Valkybees had apparently been pretty quick, though it had felt like weeks, but it still dragged on enough for it to be nearing evening.

“And now that we’ve added the matter of our human nature to the docket, the discussion will likely go on longer than anticipated. If you so desire, you could also retire to your quarters, and observe the meeting from there. I will leave it up to you.”

That was unusual. She’d been adamant about my attending the meeting in the first place, so for her to walk that back now was suspicious. Was she mad about the revelation of us being part human? Maybe she was also mad at herself, like some of the other bees were. Or mad at me, just for how I handled that situation? She could also be upset with the fact that I just got punched in the face.

No. This was more like a test. Her intentions weren’t totally clear to me, as Beatrice tended to be, but she wanted me to make a decision here that she’d file away for later. Fine with me. I was on the brink of collapse over here, my Mind strained to its near limit, but the fight with the Valkybees had been eye-opening, in a way. Maybe it got my blood pumping to my stupid brain for the first time in ages, because I finally felt confident matching up against Beatrice.

“Actually, I need to make matters clear. We really do have a lot to talk about; the future consequences of Lemonholm, our plans for Somuia, how we should handle missions outside the hive moving forward. But I’ve realized that until I achieve my goals, the rest of that stuff is pointless. I have things I want to do. And I’m the queen of this hive. I don’t want to sit around all day, doing nothing to help the hive but eat and pop out masses of drones. I don’t want my every action to just be work. Yes, shocking, I know. I’ve realized that we’ve been holding ourselves back for some time, looking for efficiency at all costs. But efficiency by itself isn’t enough. We need more. I want more.

“And so, here’s what’s going to happen. First, I’m going to get Queen a body, one she can control and do with as she pleases. You all don’t know everything about her, but she’s trapped right now, to the point that she can’t even really talk to you all. Do you know how painful that is for a mother? We want to remedy that. Next, I want to create queen bees to handle most of the bee creation. Any bees I make will be very specific, very special bees, and so I can direct my attention to things other than just making more bees for the sake of numbers. After that, there’s plenty I want. I want to learn to use Mind better, whether that’s for fighting or otherwise. I want to make this forest less ugly. It pisses me off that our attempts to revitalize the forest haven’t made any ground, so I’m going to pour as much energy into it as possible. I want to see the world. Lemonholm as a town was something I’d never seen before, and I want more. There’s an entire world outside of this burnt-ass forest that we could scarcely imagine. And of course, I want the hive to grow. Food, bees, time. We’ll get them all so the hive can become even more amazing. So. That’s what we’re going to do.”