Reincarnated To Evolve My Bee Empire-Chapter 404: Prophecy not found

The second thing I did after returning to Hive Supremo (the first one was to greet my wife, of course) was visiting the Oracler.

Whether they foresaw my arrival or were warned about it, the Oracles were waiting for me when I came in.

In the many months that passed since the Oracler was first built, this originally modest building became a grand place with many halls and sleeping and meditation cells for the thousands of Oracles working on deciphering all the probabilities.

Some of them trained younger generations of Oracles, some trained themselves in search of more effective ways to see ahead, some just meditated to sift through their prophetic ’dreams’, and some were away from Hive Supremo, observing events in all parts of the Bee Empire so that their past selves could predict them.

The more our empire grew, the more variables there were, and the more effort it took to find the most probable ones. Although new bees with the precognition gene emerged from the brood cells all the time, there was always a need for more.

Not every prophecy was major enough to be sent to me. Many were given to leaders of bees in all fields to warn them about inauspicious probabilities in the future. This wasn’t only about the future, but also about attacks on our borders, work accidents, and much more.

It was hard to tell the exact numbers because of how gradual the incorporation of the Oracles into the Bee Empire’s infrastructure was, but they boosted our production somewhat, but more importantly—significantly reduced deaths from enemies and accidents!

At any given moment there were at least a thousand Oracles working only in the Oracler of Hive Supremo, with two hundred Attendants and Cleaners taking care of the place and the Oracles, as well as carrying their predictions to the people who needed them.

Now, as I entered the Oracler’s main hall, a hundred of Oracles sat in chairs in the main hall, and the Chief Oracle Undecided was standing in the front, greeting me. The only reason any more Oracles weren’t here was probably because they wouldn’t have fit in the hall anyway. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

"What a grand meeting, girls," I said, smiling at them all, only to frown a little when I saw their frowning and almost fearful faces. "What’s wrong? I didn’t even say why I came here. Did you predict something bad?"

"Father... No, it’s the opposite! We *didn’t* predict it!" Undecided said, clasping her hands in front of her chest. Her eyes teared up. "We can’t forgive ourselves. You could’ve died! And we were the ones who said that your journey will be swift and fruitful."

I let out a breath.

This reaction of Undecided was... entirely expected. Two things that all my daughters and granddaughters and grand-granddaughters feared the most were the destruction of the Bee Empire and my death. In their minds, it was the same thing, anyway.

Only a few bees, I felt, would keep enough presence of mind in case of my death to not do anything suicidally stupid. I’d like to think Amby was one of them, but I wasn’t entirely sure...

Undecided clearly wasn’t one of these people, though.

"First, calm down!" I declared, raising my hands. "Your father is alive. I’m here! You can see me yourself. And yes, I came to talk about the prophecy you gave me for that journey. Undecided, I know that you gave me a very summarized version of what you and your girls have seen. I need the full version now."

She opened her mouth, then closed it.

"B-but Father! It was a work of a hundred bees meditating and sifting through their dreams for two days—it will take ten times as much to retell you every dream they saw!"

I scratched my cheek embarrassedly.

"Eh... Alright, the less-summarized version. First of all—how much do you know about what actually happened to me?"

It turned out that Undecided was warned upon my arrival by Destroyer, who sent her (through an Attendant, of course, since Oracles couldn’t accept telepathic messages) an irate message asking why she didn’t predict the chicken-dragon’s attack.

All that Undecided knew was that there was a dragon and that it got really, *really* close to my person. And I wasn’t even warned that I would need my golden spear to fight it and was forced to do it with my bare hands.

I explained to her and the listening Oracles the rest of this story. Although I tried to be soft with them, the more they listened, the more ashamed they looked.

"Father, now that you told us what you are looking for, I will do my best to bring you the relevant information as soon as possible. But I’m unsure there will be any. There might, but—but we still failed you already!" Undecided clasped her hands again, looking at me helplessly. "How can you rely on us again? Ever? Future is so large and we are so small and—"

I cut her off, stepping forward and looking down on her.

"Undecided. You can’t let a single failure turn you into such a mess—especially when nobody died as a result! Except for that human—but you don’t care about him, and I... honestly, don’t care either. You are still my First Oracle, Undecided... And my daughter, of course. This mistake will be your lesson, that’s all."

I smiled my warmest smile at Undecided and turned to the rest of our audience.

"The same goes to all of you! Now show your best and find what you know about the metal-eaters in the future and in the past!"

"Yes, Father!" Undecided exclaimed. "The report will be on your desk in five hours! No... three hours! Or four? But it will be!"

The chorus of similar shouts, too discordant to actually make out the words echoed her. The Oracles stood to their feet and even tried to show me military salutes, but they failed miserably at that and just flailed their arms around.

I smiled wider and wondered what will happen faster—the Undecided will bring some hints about the metal-eaters, or I will question Agent Convincing and her people for it.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel