Going back now might doom me.
Pushing on might doom my daughters. And then me.
I just couldn't decide!
But not deciding was the same as moving forward with it.
Ambrosia sighed softly.
"You don't have to decide now, Nectus."
Was she reading my thoughts? Did I spontaneously mutate the telepathy gene?
She walked around and sat opposite of me. When I raised my eyes to meet hers, she stared me in the eyes, frowning thoughtfully. Was that concern in her expression, too?
"You keep worrying… Stop doing that before you kill yourself."
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Your worries, of course." Ambrosia's frown deepened. "I've been thinking about them since I found they might make people sicker. Everybody knows you worry the most of us. Ask any bee who worked in the hive longer than a week, 'who worries most of all?', and she will tell, 'Father, of course!'."
W-what? My daughters thought I was such a worrywart?!
Yeah, they were absolutely right. I dropped my head low.
Ambrosia frowned even deeper and pointed at the assortment of primitive pictures from my sick daughters on the wall. My favorite one was hanging in the Council Chamber, but I had plenty of others.
Besides the crude drawing from my little manipulator Rulia, there were dozens of well wishes from little sick bees. Many depicted me patting heads of sick bees like I was a deity giving out blessings; others were just images of me smiling together with other bees.
"This, Nectus! You hung this on our wall so we'd worry less, but you've only been worrying more since they got here. If this continues, you will worry until you die. Then, the Bee Empire will be truly doomed."
I grinned nervously. Ambrosia was genuine in her concern, and this made me feel like a bastard for worrying her with my worrying… Shit, this was some cursed cycle of worrying!
"Amby, I'm not *that* sick or anxious, believe me! I'm a picture of health, really, even with all the blood donations I've been giving. C'mon, look at those rosy cheeks!" I pinched my own cheeks and stretched them around.
Ambrosia tilted her head.
"Hm… I still have doubts. You could be mistaken, I know. Or even…" her eyes narrowed. "'Lie'. Are you *lying* to me, Nectus? To not worry me, perhaps?"
She leaned closer to me, so close that our antennae touched. My eyes widened, and I reflexively tried to back off, but ended up almost sitting on my own wing.
"Ah, Amby, Ambrosia, my dearest lady! I swear I'm not lying! Don't you trust me? Don't you trust me at all?" I made my best puppy eyes at her.
Ambrosia kept leaning toward me. A bit more and she would pin me to the floor.
That was actually an exciting thought. Her chest was almost touching mine…
I glanced there and could see the tantalizing valley between Ambrosia's breasts through the low collar of her leather tunic. This was even better than just seeing her naked breasts! I felt like a cunning thief stealing glances. No one would be able to tell with my facetious bee eyes.
"You are right. I trust you—but I worry, too, and this makes me act unwise," Ambrosia said, suddenly backing off. "Actually, I brought you a message; although until now, I wondered if it might be what kills you."
Whatever good mood my rising testosterone just gave me washed away like under a bucket of cold water.
"What message? Bad news? They can't be *so* bad, right? You can't *seriously* think they will give me a heart attack on the spot?"
"A… heart attack? Hearts can attack?" Ambrosia shook her head. "Doesn't matter. It's a well wish that came from the quarantine village. As for the rest—look for yourself."
She took a wax tablet which she had been keeping behind her back and showed it to me.
It pictured a smiling bee lying down; above her was pictured a short-haired crowned bee that always represented me. I was also smiling and patting the bee's head.
"A Nurse Bee wrote a message from the sick bee on the other side. I saw this well wish in the pile of those addressed to you specifically, when I was sorting through it. It seemed… special. I wasn't sure if it would be better for you to look at it immediately or to never see it at all."
"Well, now I'm definitely going to see it," I said, turning the tablet around.
The Nurse Bee who transcribed the message had a grammar just as awful as any other bee. The standards of education were lower than Satan's limbo.
So I read it, translating the poor grammar in my head.
'Father! This is my well wish to you! I got more sick, so soon you won't have to worry about me at all anymore! Researcher Bees say I'm almost dead! Worries will be gone, poof! Love you!'
As I read, I clenched the wax tablet so hard, the fragile wax almost broke.
The message wasn't signed, but I immediately understood who it came from. And what happened with Worriesgone was clear, too. I thought my young sick bees were slowly getting better, but she got worse? *That* much worse?!
"What the hell?! Amby, *what the hell* is this?! H-how–what kind of–Actually, why did anyone even let Worriesgone write like that?! L-like she's d-dying… She's not dying, right?"
"I don't know, but from the message, I supposed she must. The Chief Nurse of the quarantine village didn't bring her daily report to me yet, so… I guess we can go there and see the situation for ourselves together. I ought to at least once watch in person how my subordinates work."
I stared at her in shock.
It was unheard of for Ambrosia to leave Hive Supremo, even just to see the quarantine village.
She… was she still worried about me?
Was she offering to come with me for emotional support?
I bit my lip and tried to not tear up and embarrass myself in front of her… It was a futile attempt from the start.
"Of course, Amby. Thank you! Let's fly there together, immediately!"