"I should've expected this… Of course they would come to chew on carrion."
In the sky above me, was flying a black dragon. He made a circle around us, then loudly landed right on top of the oldest giant's head, scaring away several hundred bees working near the body.
Of course, only my tamed dragons would be bold enough to approach a swarm of bees so easily. And by now, I recognized the shape of this dragon's snout even without looking at the name in its status panel.
"Scourge, hi, Scourge!" I waved at the dragon, although it was so far that he couldn't have heard.
Ignoring me altogether, Scourge bit into the dead man's eyeball and swallowed half of it at once.
Then I heard the flapping of more wings above and saw that Scourge's friends, Disaster and Woe, weren't far away. They flew to other bodies, clearly intending to fill their stomachs until they couldn't fly.
The bees that were dismantling the dead giants looked alarmed at first, and I wondered if I should interfere. Thankfully, both Hammerwork and Bloodimina were already somewhat familiar with the dragons, and knew that they weren't a threat.
Soon, they organized the workers and the guards again, directing them to places that dragons weren't eating.
When I looked around, to the distant tops of the pillar mountains, I saw more black dragons watching from a distance. However, unlike the tame ones, they didn't dare to approach all the bees.
I turned to my bodyguards and pointed a finger at the random one.
"Demolisher, fly to Bloodimina real quick, please. Tell her that Scourge, Disaster and Woe have the exclusive permission to eat as much meat as they can, but other dragons should be scared off. We can spare food for them, but I don't want the wild dragons to harm anyone by accident. They should scare off larger beasts as much as they can, too."
"Yes, Father! I will relay the message word by word." Demolisher saluted and flew away.
'Too bad we can't just tame these dragons instead. It will take too long. I would rather get dragon eggs and tame little ones! But that would take super long, too—dragons actually have lifespan worth measuring in years.'
I would've lamented about it, but I was too excited about all the things we were going to get!
Not to mention, I still had gene points to add to the Beemarine morphotype and an extra morphotype I could make. They could wait, but I already imagined that the second morphotype could focus on electric charge attacks.
But spreading my morphotype pheromones required me to return to Hive Supremo, so for now, it was pointless to think about. I couldn't leave Camp Rich until I was certain the dismantling of the dead bodies would continue without incidents.
More and more Worker Bees arrived every hour, but the biggest group arrived the next day.
Not 10, not 20, but 100 thousand assorted workers from all over the Empire, led by Adviser Workharder personally.
When they approached Camp Rich, the collective humming of their wings was so loud, I heard it from inside of the hive!
"Father! You are such a sight for my eyes—Hive Supremo already misses you, so I will make sure all the work is finished quickly and you can return home quickly!" Workharder exclaimed, landing near the cave entrance.
The swarm of workers landed behind her in uneven rows. Thousand faces followed me like I was the sun, watching with awe.
Something told me they already heard the tale of me killing three giants with one blow.
"I'm glad to see you too, girls," I said, landing near Workharder. Then I noticed that among her subordinate Chiefs, there was… "My little princess Regalia! What are you doing here?"
Regalia was one of the youngest Queens, from the group reared a little over a month ago to rule the fringe hives that weren't even built yet.
Not counting the time she spent in her breeding cell, Regalia was only two weeks old! She and her brood sisters were still learning from the Advisers how to rule.
"Mother-Queen said that I've learned enough theory to start learning in practice. I will rule Camp Rich and make it Hive Rich, where many Drones will live!" she said, raining her chin proudly.
"Hey, don't be in such a hurry. You won't start to *actually* rule until I and Father make sure things run smoothly, Queen Regalia!" Workharder said.
I nodded vigorously in agreement.
The last time I talked with the young Queens a few days ago, I concluded that they still lacked experience too much. Of course, they would have advisers to rely on, but…
They just thought too much about Drones, as Regalia just proved!
Procreation was important for the Empire and all, but it was every second sentence out of their mouth, and I was hoping they can be taught otherwise.
"That's right, Amby still said that you are learning, little Regalia," I said wisely. "Watch Workharder and me organize things. Speaking of, there's a lot to organize…"
I pointed with my chin toward the hills that were the dead bodies of giants.
In the time that passed since their death, they have lost a lot of meat and their clothing looked like it was eaten by moths. Gathered ropes and leather were piled up nearby, preparing for transport; cooking fires were made right next to bodies. While some cooks prepared fresh meat for workers, others were preserving as much as they could for storage.
Most preserved meat was just cut into strips and dried, while some was put into jars with honey and sealed. Thanks to its high sugar content and slight acidity, honey was a good preservative—another fact from my endless memory of facts.
20 thousand units of food were gathered just like that (and half of them immediately eaten)! According to other bees, green giants' meat was slightly tougher than that of caterpillars, but still delicious.
However, all those efforts weren't enough.
The bodies began to stink, and the terrible smell was one blow of wind away from permeating Camp Rich!
"Workharder, we must work extremely quickly now. The meat we gather from now on mostly won't be edible—but we must dispose of it before the smell and rot fill the entire area around Camp Rich!"