The reason the humans stood in shock was because right now, B568-114 was acting at the limit of her abilities, sending my words to the heads of every human present at once.


    ''Show your respect and bow before Nectus Stingprince, the Spirit Emperor, humans! I came to speak with you personally.''


    At the sight of my army, even the humans who just acted the angriest stepped back in visible fear—if they weren''t frozen on the spot. Telepathic messages were incredibly shocking for someone not used to them—and these people never even heard of the *concept* telepathy before!


    It was all dark sorcery to them, so it was scary.


    And Anad was the first one to fall to his knees and bow before me and my army. He said something in my direction, then shouted to others.


    Of course, since I and B568-114 were here, and they were there, I had no idea what he said. But then, a few more people bowed deeply. Others just kept backing off.


    I flew higher, making it easier for humans to see me. Several bodyguards carried large candles with them, which lit me up dramatically, while B568-114 stayed in the evening''s shadows.


    I glanced at her and said,


    "I had enough of the senseless war between our kinds—with an ultimatum! Tomorrow, leave ten iron nails in the forest, and we will kill you no more. If you agree, then bow deeper—show the Spirit Emperor respect, humans!"


    B568-114 translated my words. Again, some humans—like Anad—bowed deeper immediately. Others hesitated, but began lowering their heads, muttering something and eying Bloodimina''s army with fear.


    No wonder. A force of 20 thousand bees, flying in neat rows with drummers and fire-bearers (for light), was an impressive sight, even compared to human size. Especially after humans have witnessed how deadly my girls could be…


    With an angry exclamation, one of the men wounded at Hive Supremo turned around and tried to run from us.


    He made two steps before crying out and falling with his face to the ground. A moment later, he convulsed, clutching his leg. His leather pants, already cut in many places from the previous battle, didn''t protect him from my girls'' stings.


    A wave of shocked and fearful gasps flew over humans, but now they were too afraid to even flee.


    When I glanced in her direction, I saw Bloodimina smiling, and gave her an approving nod. She followed my instructions perfectly!


    While their own squabbles and the presence of Bloodimina''s army distracted the gathered humans, her Beemarines had time to sneak to their shins. Just as a precaution measure.


    The man wasn''t even badly wounded, unless you counted his previous stings.


    "He didn''t show respect to the Spirit Emperor," I said.


    Now everybody else was bowing as well. Even the wounded man himself sat on his knees and bowed.


    "Good! Now listen—I''m a benevolent Emperor. Tomorrow, bring twenty iron nails instead of ten, and in exchange, I will give you some of the riches you so arrogantly tried to steal from us."


    There were some gasps and questions from humans, but I couldn''t understand them. I wasn''t going to ask B568-114 to approach them at the distance where she could be smacked dead (together with me, most likely).


    Instead, I flew back to Bloodimina to give her my next orders.


    "Humans have been reasonable so far. Let''s return to the camp. There will be no bloodshed today, and hopefully never. There will be more iron instead."


    And as much as Bloodimina was visibly unhappy about this, she obeyed without question.


    ***


    Next day, Anad and a few other villagers obediently left twenty iron nails, spread on a large piece of cloth, around the same place they left gifts earlier.


    Before, the problem with human gifts was that we didn''t have enough people to transport them. Today, though, I was prepared.


    Invincible-13 convinced Scourge to fly to research camp in the morning. After humans left, with B568-114''s explaining to Scourge what to do, the dragon easily carried the nails to the research camp in just half a dozen trips.


    It all took just an hour. And in the camp, an entire army of soldiers with nothing to do was ready to dismantle the huge iron bars into chips.


    Transporting them back to the Bee Empire would be a pain. But now that humans agreed to "trade" with us, the wealth of opportunities spanned before me!


    And I had to use them. After all, I wasn''t getting any younger! Right now, I had 175 days of lifespan left, and my colony was only halfway to the next development level.


    "Keep watching everything that humans do. I will send you more dragons to send messages. They will also bring the gift we must leave to humans."


    Another short trip later, I was back in Hive Supremo.


    Despite the best efforts of scavengers and my girls, the entire area was full with a thick stench of rot. My antennae shrunk from it, and I was wincing as we entered the hive.


    There, things were slightly better. Still, I focused on calling the Council and giving orders to my Advisers so I won''t have to think about the smell.


    "Things-Things, I need you to quickly arrange a large bag… no, two large bags of gold bars! We should have plenty, is that right?"


    "Yes-yes, we do! With all the humans dying, we gathered so much iron, there was almost no need to use the mined gold."


    Workharder nodded, too.


    "I have switched the mining efforts to coal weeks ago, but we still have gold in storage. I can call an Archivist who can tell the exact amount."


    "Yes, please. We will need to restart the gold mining. From now on, we will pay with gold for human items and services. It''s extremely precious for them—even a small amount will give us a lot of iron. And to transport things from the human village to the Bee Empire easier… We will expand the Empire toward them. Yes. We will expand a lot!" Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.