Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire-Chapter 287: Totally cuckoo

There wasn't much time for questioning.

Soon, the distraction for the real Amby in the nursery comb will end, and I will have to explain everything to her somehow. And she was the most hypnotized one.

I *knew* that I could explain to her the situation, but if I could do it without the hypnosis standing in my way, it would be much easier.

"You!" I pointed at the infiltrator. "Drop your tricks immediately, or you are dead!"

The infiltrator shook her head, staring at me with anger and stubborness despite her tied up arms.

"This is complete nonsense. Release me immediately!"

I winced and pulled on my hair.

"Dammit! Do you even understand what I'm saying? Do you?"

"Of course I do. Stop this, Nectus!"

I wasn't so sure anymore. There was no way the infiltrator was a bee. If she wasn't a bee, how would she know bee language?

I tried to read her thoughts again, hoping for a hint.

'This… this can't be happening! Did Nectus go mad? Why?! Why…'

Wincing even harder, I closed my mind shut.

"Father…" Destroyer said, looking determined but extremely uncomfortable to be here. "You shouldn't be in the presence of the infiltrator's influence. We can talk to her ourselves."

I shook my head, feeling like I was at a dead end.

Perhaps beating the infiltrator up will make her more cooperative, but what I saw so far of her intelligence didn't make me assured she was reasonable at all.

She could be like a cuckoo chick, just living in someone else's nest with no understanding of where she is and what she's doing except pushing her step-siblings' eggs out of the nest.

If this was so, then we might just kill her by accident and learn nothing.

And despite everything, there was still that irritating nagging question… What if she was the real Amby, after all?

"Screw this," I finally said. "Destroyer, you and your team will guard this cell for now and take care of the prisoner. Oh, and untie her. Keeping ropes on limbs for long doesn't help circulation…"

"Yes, Father!"

I left the cell, already sending telepathic messages. Researchina and Tabletina were hypnotized, too, but after I explained the situation to them, accepted it even easier than myself.

I told them to make a team of selected non-hypnotized Researchers and Physicians to study the prisoner, then went to talk with the real Amby before she got upset.

***

"An… infiltrator? Impostor?" Ambrosia rubbed her forehead and sat tiredly on the edge of our bed. "It feels so hard to believe… But I can also remember being a lone Queen of the hive just yesterday."

The living room hall was still being cleaned up by Attendants, so we talked in the bedroom.

"So she was only pretending to be a Queen for a day? This is a relief. She couldn't have done too much harm in so little time," I said, sitting near Amby and half-hugging her. "Yeah, I still feel weird, too. I can't stop feeling that something is terribly wrong with my memories, and at the same time, can't stop being a bit worried that you both are real. Or even just her."

Ambrosia looked at me sternly.

"You said it yourself—this is the effect of this creature's hypnosis, Nectus. Don't blame yourself." She patted my cheek. "This is an order from your Queen."

"Yes, ma'am!" I grinned at her, immediately relaxing my shoulders.

Ambrosia turned away from me to stare thoughtfully at the fresco painted on the opposite wall.

This fresco was my personal order—I wanted my Artists to try their hand at scenery so I would have an imitation of a bedroom window. The result wasn't very lifelike, especially since our pigments were still very limited. There just wasn't enough blue or green. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

"All I remember the infiltrator doing was asking for food and eating," Ambrosia said. "I wanted to ask for her help with the Empire management, but she always found some excuse to eat instead. They sounded good at the time…"

"She didn't try to harm you?"

Amby shook her head.

"Not at all."

"She still reminds me of a cuckoo chick. Maybe she didn't feel like killing you because there was plenty of food for her already."

"The Researchers and Physicians will find out the truth," Ambrosia said assuredly.

I nodded, calming down.

"And perhaps the hypnosis will wear off without contact with whoever put it…"

"And I should apologize to the Chief Nurse Rearer," Ambrosia said, sighing. "She was only following your instructions, and I demoted her all the way to Sergeant…"

***

Explaining to Ambrosia about the infiltrator was the easy part.

Capturing the infiltrator was straightforward, too.

But explaining about her to all the hypnotized bees was much trickier!

I wasn't even sure who these were.

Most Attendants, all Advisers, and many, many other bees…

And all of them had a question about where the second Queen went. Why wasn't she around?

While I explained the things to the Advisers, dealing with hundreds of other bees was…

Way too much!

"She asked to not disturb her and went to rest in her chambers. Perhaps she ate too much and needs time to digest all of it properly?" I lied to the faces of my Attendants. "Don't worry about it."

They nodded with relief.

"Ah, very well, Father. And we've cleaned the mess in the living room. Why would things fall off their places like this?"

"Don't worry! Don't worry about it!"

"As you say, Father."

I hoped the hypnosis will end sooner than my excuses…

Now, there was nothing left for me but to wait.

Especially since it was evening, and the hive was slowly going to sleep.

I went to bed, wondering if the hypnosis will actually wear off in the morning. Or, perhaps, the research team that swore to think and work overnight to get the results as quickly as possible, will achieve something?

It was a very restless night, and even Amby's presence at my side didn't make things much better.