I short-circuited.
"Wh-what?"
"Drone?" the Attendant tilted her head in puzzlement.
'Fuck, that's right—a drone bee is just the sperm provider for the hive! That's so pathetic. If I'm supposed to lead the bees, why wasn't I reborn as an actual queen?'
Would that mean that I was about to enter a massive bee orgy? That's how honey bees reproduced in my world: the queen bee mated only once in her life, but with an entire swarm of drone bees at once.
I felt more and more like crying with every minute. The Goddess of Bees must've really hated me.
These bees didn't even know that I'm an impostor.
'That's it! I can't live a life of lies. Even if it will be 71 days long… I'm going to admit everything to the Queen! And not be roped into any orgies, no way.'
"Lead me to the Queen, Attendant!" I declared boldly.
"Sure. Follow me."
The Attendant smiled at me and pushed herself off the wall. I sucked in a breath as she went into a free fall for a moment—but then her wings began beating and hovered in the air near my cell.
I leaned out of the flap door and looked outside.
Several meters away from me was a massive honeycomb wall. It spanned in each direction as far as I could see. Some cells were closed, like mine; most were open.
Inside and around them were thousands of humanoid bees. The bees flew around, they talked, they carried things. They hung on the cells' outer walls like mountain climbers, and slept inside of them, unperturbed by the noise around. They were all female.
I've never seen so many tits in my life. Not at once and not separately, not even if you counted porn!
But then I looked down. I could barely make out a stone floor several dozen meters below. A long, long fall…
I staggered back with a shudder.
"Drone? Are you going?" The Attendant asked.
I swallowed.
'Maybe I should just admit the truth to her instead of going to the Queen…'
But the only way out of my cell was through the air. If I didn't learn to fly, I won't even have 71 days to live. I will just die from thirst in a couple of days.
I glanced down again and gulped.
I tried to move my wings. It came to me much easier than I thought it would. Not like they were an entirely new pair of limbs, but like I was just stretching tired muscles.
'Alright. Time to do it! Humanity has dreamed about flight since forever, you gotta grab this dream! Yeah!'
The psych-up talk didn't do much, but I tried.
I forced every thought away, closed my eyes shut, and just stepped forward.
For an endlessly stretching moment, my stomach just kept getting higher and higher while I was falling lower and lower… Then the body's instincts kicked in, and my wings went from 0 to 100.
I opened my eyes and covered my mouth to not vomit from sheer emotion.
I was flying!
It was wobbly, but I held myself in the air. Nobody from hundreds of bees flying around spared me more than a glance, except for the Queen Attendant who hovered next to me.
"Come on, Drone."
I slowly let go of my mouth and tried to smile.
"Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine, totally fine. The Queen? Where? I mean, where's the Queen? We will go there. Now."
The Attendant didn't even blink at my tirade.
"Yeah, let's go."
She flew ahead, and I followed, using the instinctive knowledge to dodge other flying bees and just not fall.
The flight took only a couple of minutes, but by the end, I felt winded. It was like spending two minutes running, except with my chest muscles.
My stamina reflected this.
〔Stamina〕: 9 / 10
The Queen's chamber wasn't a single honeycomb, but several horizontally adjacent ones joined into one room, separated from the outside with another wax flap. A dozen Attendants were loitering on the walls in the honeycombs nearby.
"The Queen is waiting, Drone," my escort encouraged me before joining the resting bees outside.
I steeled myself, tore the wax open, and climbed inside the room. An Attendant fixed the flap closed behind me, but I barely noticed that.
I was stunned by the sight in front of me—that of the sexiest woman I've ever seen.
Even if she wasn't the only other person in this room, I would've immediately recognized her as the Queen. She had a royal bearing even when just standing there, absolutely naked.
And she had *shapes*. The other bees I've seen up close so far were basically children—although they were naked, it was gross to even think of them as sexy.
But the Queen was a woman, and one that exuded fertility. Youthful, but with nourishing breasts and child-bearing hips. She had the beautify of a Roman goddess from a painting and a porn model from an adult journal all at once.
She also smelled incredibly good.
〔Queen〕 〔Ally〕
〔Health〕: 10 / 10
〔Stamina〕: 10 / 10
〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee
〔Age〕: 438 d
〔Remaining lifespan〕: 2117 d
〔Attributes〕
> Strength: 8
> Agility: 39
> Endurance: 10
> Defense: 10
> Intelligence: 4
> Perception: 43
〔Special abilities〕
Flight, Stinger, Royal Jelly Production
〔〕〔〕〔〕
And she had only 4 intelligence. Other bees had 3. I had 100. I had problems imagining how smart I was by comparison.
Then I remembered why I actually came here. There weren't any other male bees around, but what if?
"Listen! Queen—my lady—I'm not who you think I am! I'm not your drone who was supposed to mate with you—I'm a human who was reborn in this body. I can't just have sex with you if you thought that I'm someone else, not to mention we don't even know each other! And won't take part in any orgies if you offer. Not that I think you aren't attractive—you are hot as fuck, honestly—shit, I don't usually talk to women like this, uh—"
The Queen raised her finger.
"Shh. Quiet."
My mouth closed shut.
"Are you ill? You act strange."
"Uh… No. I mean, I was reincarnated. But it's not an illness."
She looked me over from top to bottom, and the antennae on top of her head twitched.
"So, you are healthy. You *look* and *smell* healthy, too. Your mind seems addled, though…"
"H-hey! I have more intelligence than you do!"
It didn't seem like she could see status windows.
The Queen tilted her head, ignoring me.
"Doesn't matter. There aren't anyone else, anyway. Come here, Drone. Do you remember how to mate and give me your seed?"
Well, fuck.
'I just told her I got isekaid, and she didn't even care…'
The Queen made a step toward me, and all unhappiness was forgotten in the sight of her breasts.
The glory! The softness! The truth! And she wanted me (or at least my sperm, but it had to count for something)!
This could be my last and only chance to have sex with someone of her caliber. And I had told her the truth, so my conscience could rest easy.
"Yeah, uh, mate. I can totally do that, lady. Ma'am. Queen."
I made a step toward her, trying to remember that I wasn't a virgin and forget that there were dozens of other bees just outside those very thin walls.
The Queen walked toward me, swiftly crossing the rest of the distance. Her hands went to my shoulders and sides. She was slightly taller than me, and it was easy to press my nose into the crook of her neck and inhale that wonderful smell. Were those pheromones?
"Yes, Drone. This is what you came to this hive for. Come here…"
I was going to do my best to show this woman a good time.