Chapter 48
“ Are you talking about that honeybee ? Is it the bad guy that ruins your village?"
“ Right, popi. Flowers keep getting hurt because of that bad guy, popi.”
“ But isn't it a completely different matter between flowers getting hurt and the village getting damaged ?"
“ No. Popi. Our village is hidden among flowers popi. So, if a flower gets hurt, the village will also suffer popi."
‘The village hidden among the flowers?’
My head tilted at the unbelievable story.
“Is there really a village here?"
"It's true popi.”
My eyes went back to the cute honeybee.
It looked similar to a honeybee called a bumblebee in English, and it was much larger than the ordinary bee I have ever saw.
The appearance of flying steadily in the flower garden with a unique flapping sound seemed no different from any other honeybees.
Suddenly, I made eye contact with a honeybee sitting on a nearby flower.
Saying made an eye contact with the honeybee may sound really strange, but I instinctively felt that the honeybee was conscious of me.
In anticipation of any chance, I slowly reached out one hand to the side of the honeybee.
Burrrr
The honey bee flew up from the flower, hovered above my hand for a while, and landed gently on the palm of my hand.
The corner of my mouth slightly went up to the appearance of a honeybee that did not feel any vigilance.
“ Hello ?"
[Trying to communicate with Demon Beast]
[The subject shows "interest" in you]
[The target is curious about you]
The ability to communicate got activated naturally.
Interestingly, the honeybee seemed friendly towards me.
It was so cute to see him carefully looking at me sitting on my palm.
I even wanted to take him home and raise him right away.
"Good job, popi. Hurry up and scold that bad guy, popi.”
I heard the fairy's excited voice from the side.
I said with an ambiguous expression.
“ Hey, I don't think this guy would do such a bad thing. Aren't you misunderstanding something?"
When I made a remark that seemed to cover the honeybee, the fairy jumped from my shoulder and shouted loudly.
“No popi. The village was really damaged by those bad guys, popi.”
Then the fairy flew from my shoulder and headed to the place where the flowers were.
Among them, it hovered near the place where the honeybee was earlier.
“ Look at this, popi"
The fairy pointed to the flower where the honeybee was sitting.
I looked at the flower by bending my upper body.
Certainly, as the fairy said, flowers and stems were hurt.
“ It really is damaged."
"They go back and forth hundreds of times and ruin all the flowers, popi. Then all my friends and I in the village have to treat them, popi.”
“ Hmm……"
Definitely, it didn't seem like the fairy was lying.
I asked, looking at the honeybee still sitting calmly on my palm.
“ Did you really do that ?”
When asked by me, the honeybee wandered around on my palms.
Then, strangely enough, the honeybee's emotions and will flowed little by little.
It was surprisingly a sorry feeling.
The honeybee seemed to know his fault.
And he tried to convey something by diligently moving on my palm, but unfortunately, I couldn't understand all of its meaning.
“ Hey, this guy says he's sorry too. I don't think he had any ill intention."
“Geeze popi. Why do you keep taking the side of the bad guy popi.!? You are not helping here popi……"
The fairy was angry at me.
And the fairy, who couldn't hold back her emotions anymore, approached the honeybee, which was sitting on my palm and screamed.
"You almost ruined the village popi. Leave immediately popi.”
At the cry of the fairy, the honeybee was surprised and flew away somewhere.
At the sight, the fairy said with a triumphant look.
“ You have to kick them out like this, Popi.”
“ Shouldn't you have talked to him more calmly?"
"We can't help it popi. We need to protect the village, Popi.”
From the fairy's point of view, it was natural that they wanted to kick out honeybees somehow.
If someone came to my house and scratched things and furniture, I would have responded similarly.
However, flowers and honeybees are inseparable, and I wondered if the fairy could solve the problem unilaterally like this.
At the time when I had no idea how to solve this situation, I heard a much louder and threatening flap of wings than the honeybee earlier.
It was a large bee almost the size of a bird.
Unlike the round honeybee, it had a fierce atmosphere like a soldier in armor.
"Who is it? Who persecuted our precious comrade?”
The Soldier Bee pointed at a pointy spear in his hand and asked threateningly.
The fairy, who had been confident until a while ago, began to tremble with the appearance of the soldier bee.
I had no choice but to come forward and try to talk.
“ Wait! If you're talking about the honeybee that was here earlier, we didn't mean to threaten him.”
“ Don't lie! Obviously, I saw our comrade running away in fear.
"Oh, I did scream popi… but I didn't know he'd be so surprised popi."
“How dare you scream at our fellow comrade.?”
The soldier bee, who was aggressively continuing the conversation, paused, looked closely at me for a moment and started speaking in a calm tone.
“ You are a person recognized by our Leader. I'm sorry I didn't recognize you."
“Leader..?”
For some reason, it's similar to when I first met the fairy.
This time, I naturally inferred who the Leader refers to,
"Are you talking about Bighorn?"
When I explained the characteristics of the Bighorn additionally, the Soldier Bee nodded.
"That's right. Thanks to Leader’s strong power, our queen and brothers were able to form a safe cluster.”
‘Wow… Bighorn sure is popular.’
The reputation of the Bighorn seemed to be extremely good with the neighborhood Beasts.
‘In addition, it was interesting to see Yakum, who is almost treated as a natural disaster by the Demons, to be recognized as a strong guardian by the nearby Demon beasts.’
“ But why did someone who was recognized by the Leader threaten our comrade.?”
“ I didn't threaten him………."
I told the soldier bee in detail about what happened when I met the fairy and the honeybee.
The longer the story was, the aggressive Soldier Bee's momentum gradually disappeared.
“ Huh.That’s what happened."
“ If possible, can you tell the bees to be more careful? If the flowers get hurt and wither, you guys will also be in trouble, won’t you.?”
“ Um…"
The Soldier bee seriously agonized over something by itself and carefully talked about their situation.
"I think that's going to be a little hard. The only being that can give orders and influence us is the Queen. My mission is to only protect the comrades.”
“ Then can you explain the current situation to the Queen ?"
"The Queen knows this situation to some extent."
"….?"
"If you want to hear more details, I will guide you to the Queen. Anyone who has been recognized by Leader is qualified enough to have conversation with the Queen.
I was a little confused by the sudden invitation.
It felt like the issue was getting bigger, so I was a little bit hesitant.
"Let's go, popi. I want to talk on behalf of Fairy Village, Popi.”
“ Hmm….You can follow if you want.”
The eyes of the fairy and the soldier bee were on me.
In an atmosphere that seemed difficult to get out of, I nodded my head as if giving up.
“ Okay. I'll come. By the way it's not dangerous….right?”
“ There's no problem if you just be careful in front of the Queen. Follow me. I'll guide you to our nest.”
The soldier bee slowly flew towards the forest.
I stepped into the forest with the fairy on my shoulder.
I followed the Soldier bee to a fairly deep place in the forest.
The surroundings became darker and darker with large-grown trees.
In a slightly creepy atmosphere, the fairy stuck tight to my shoulder and kept looking around.
Burrrr
Burrrrrrrr
Burrrrrrrrrrrrr
As the bee's wings flapping sound gradually grew louder, the nest in the deep forest finally appeared.
"Wow…"
The whole area around the large tree was forming a nest so that the end could not be seen properly.
And at the entrance of the large nest, hundreds and thousands of bees were very busy moving in and out of the nest.
It was a very fascinating and overwhelming sight.
"Wait here for a moment. I'll tell the queen about your arrival.”
Leaving the message to wait, the Soldier bee flew up in the direction of the entrance.
Brrrrr
Brrrrr
After the Soldier bee left, a honey bee flew near me and hovered around me.
It was the honeybee I met in the flower garden earlier.
When I reached out my palm, he naturally sat down on it.
When I carefully patted the part with striped hairs, he naturally accepted my touch.
Punch
Punch
The fairy on my shoulder hit my neck.
The fairy had an unfair expression like, ‘Why is he the only one you think as cute?'
The cute jealousy made me laugh without realizing .
Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
From the entrance of the nest, many Soldiers bees poured out with a strong flap of wings.
They were all bees similar to Soldiers bee that was with us until a while ago.
And under their escort, the Queen Bee appeared.
A slightly larger body than the soldiers next to it, and a much larger antennae than other bees grew on her head.
And the most impressive thing was not the appearance, but the unidentified energy flowing from her whole body.
The energy was constantly affecting the bees around her.
"You're the one who was recognized by the Leader aren't you?"
The calm and clean voice of a woman rang in my head.
I intuitively realized that the owner of the voice was the Queen bee.
"Yes. Hello. Can I call you Queen?"
"Do it like that. You don't have to feel too uncomfortable. Since you're a guest who came to our nest."
Not only me but also the fairy on my shoulder looked a little comfortable at the favorable response than we thought.
"I've heard roughly why you've come this far. I heard my children who went to collect honey are ruining the flower garden.
“Right popi. My village friends are having a hard time because of that, Popi.”
“ I'm sorry. I already knew that the flower garden was your territory, but I didn't think this would happen.”
“ Ask those silly bees to come back right away, popi.”
The Soldier bee, who was guarding the Queen, reacted to the fierce protest of the fairy.
"You cheeky fairy.”
When the soldier bee pushed the spear, the fairy screamed and quickly hid behind my shoulder.
Fortunately, due to the restraint of the Queen bee, the soldier bee quickly pulled back the spear.
"Queen, can the bees collect the honey more carefully? If the flower field gets damaged, doesn’t it bad for the bees too.?”
“ That's true. But we have a situation, too."
"……?"
"Now we're fighting for territory with enemies in the eastern forest. That's why I'm using the honey for soldiers who are fighting to have as much influence as possible.”
“ What does that have to do with this situation.?”
“ It’s not that long since I became the Queen, so I lack the influence to control the entire herd. Because of the continued battle, there is no room to look at worker honeybees.”
"Hmm."
It seemed like the Queen had her own circumstances.
"Then do we have to keep leaving the bees like this ?"
"There's nothing I can do right now. I'm sorry."
The situation went more complicated than I thought.
When I peeked at the fairy's expression, her face was full of complaints.
If there were no Soldier Bees with spears around the Queen, she would have already said a word.
What should I do?
What I started because I wanted to save the strawberry garden somehow came this far.
As I was frowning with complicated thoughts in my head, the queen spoke carefully again.
"I can't use my hands right now, but maybe you can solve this problem."
"…… Me ?"
"Yes. I had a vague feeling from the first time I met you. You seem to have an ability similar to mine.”
The queen pointed to the honeybee sitting on my palm.
The honeybee was still sitting calmly on my palm. It's true that this honeybee follows me well…
"You have the ability to communicate with Beasts, which the Demons and other beings do not have, right?"
“……"
My mind went blank for a moment at the words that came out of Queen’s mouth.
So far, I have never told anyone about my abilities, including my mother and farm members.
So it was difficult to hide my surprise when I saw the Queen accurately guessed my abilities.
"I'm sorry if you felt unpleasant. But you're the only one who can solve this difficult problem right now.”
“ Hmm… Yes, your are right.”.
Suddenly, a look full of expectations got poured on me, while I was thinking that I got caught up in something annoying.
I felt like I have some kind of ability to get tangled in problem after problem.
I cleared my mind and asked with a calmer look.
“ How can I help ?"