CHAPTER 479: NOT A BATTLE, BUT A WAR

And I couldn’t do a thing about it. Even if I was physically near the avalanche, against these trees, I was powerless. What would I do, shoot stingers at them?

Even bullets and cannonballs would probably do more good to them than harm because of the heat they carried in them. And the power of the auras I could share with allies in the line of sight would only affect a small part of the emergency forces that were spread over hundreds of kilometres of avalanche.

I was only wasting time every time I stopped here, near the avalanche. I was ought to do better things.

With this thought, I returned to my body. However, instead of focusing on all the regular duties that needed my attention, I asked Attendant Helping-Hands to delay everything non-vital and secluded myself to meditate.

I focused all my mental power on the problem, seeking solutions and calculating their possible results. While a part of my mind worked, another listened to distant thoughts of bees and humans, intercepting even reports that weren’t sent to me and creating a picture of the situation in my mind.

The mental focus I put into this gave me incredible clarity. I often knew before anyone else what decisions had to be made to prevent a problem from happening or to improve our forces’ effectiveness. Then I sent a direct order to these bees, knowing that they would share it both with their superiors and their subordinates.

Like this, I was helping Workharder to lead the emergency forces and cut the ice-hole trees faster, but it was still far from enough to win against them in this battle.

I wasn’t despairing, though. When I sat to meditate, I realised almost immediately that this really was a war, not a single battle. The enemy attacked first and started strong, but their forces also weren’t limitless.

Meanwhile, I watched the preparations of my plans, especially plan C, which was currently my best hope to finish this war quickly.

As I expected, by the end of the day, the ice-hole trees grew too large to cut easily. Now even the lowest of them reached the height of a human’s chest. Stepping as close as three hundred meters near a tree this size would make you lose warmth not just from outside, but also from the inside.

The latter part was the most dangerous one, and it was why people needed to recover for a while after spending only a few seconds near the ice-hole trees. It was way too easy to earn hypothermia from the trees’ cold aura.

The clearing works also had to stop for the night—it was too dark for humans to work without risk of accidents, and they were tired. I knew that in the morning, the trees would grow too tall and their aura would be too wide for humans to cut them at all.

By this point, approximately 13% of the avalanche was cleared from the trees—my direct help gave us three extra percent above my previous calculations!

Workharder was still unhappy.

’This is a dead end, Father,’ she told me after we exchanged reports and information, which was a very uncharacteristic show of pessimism from her. ’From now on, we can only use cannons to attack the trees. Humans and mecha crew would die faster than they could deal a blow to them. We can still beat them, of course, but the amount of resources it will take makes my legs feel weak!’

I could only imagine. We would need to spend at least a cannon shot for each tree... And there were thousands upon thousands of them. Human-sized cannons could take dozens of trees with each shot—but by the time we could deliver even a single cannon to the avalanche’s site, these trees would probably grow to the size of pillar mountains!

Despite all that, I wasn’t feeling as pessimistic as Workharder.

’The ice-hole trees have also reached a dead end, my dear. They spread their seeds with avalanches, but they can’t do it anymore. They grow from warmth, but they have already frozen most of their surroundings. They are stuck where they are for now, and this gives us time to prepare our counterattack!’

’Ah. I understand, Father. The plan C, huh?’

’Yes, the plan C.’

’Sister Researchina better follow through with it, or I will cut off her hair until she’s short-haired like a new-brood!’

’No hair-cutting! Workharder, I thought you were more mature than this! Seriously...’

’She’s not my subordinate for me to shout at her and wave my hammer, and I have to do something to motivate her. I learned that Foremen Bees must be imaginative with threats sometimes, especially when it comes to people like Beemarines or, well, Researchers,’ Workharder explained casually.

’Just leave motivating Advisers to me, alright? You girls sometimes bicker too much already!’

Although I wanted to speak with Researchina about her progress with our plans, after this conversation, the first person I spoke with was instead Ambrosia.

She was closer (in our Royal Chambers) and...

"Amby, my love, please—talk some sense into Workharder! When she gets back into the hive. I thought I taught her not to be a bully—even if for a good cause!—but it turns out she only got more imaginative! At least she shouldn’t pick on other Advisers, it will negatively affect the Council’s effectiveness."

"Hm... This might sway other Advisers’ opinions toward Workharder’s advice, and it’s not always the best one," Ambrosia said thoughtfully. "Alright, Necty, I will speak with her. But is this really what you want to talk about? Not the things near the mountains?"

She looked at me with her black, shining eyes without whites but with so much care in them...

Although I planned to speak with Researchina, I decided it could wait. Instead, I sighed and sat on a couch next to her to put my head on her shoulder.

"Oh, Amby, the things near the mountains!.."