Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

Bzzzz. Bzzzz. Weeeeeeeng.

As I crawled out of the old tree with Ranghu, the worker bees of the Golden-Furred Wasp King, who had been waiting both inside and outside the hive, began to buzz their wings as if revving up an engine.

It was likely that these bees were the ones preparing to follow us for the swarm migration.

A swarm division occurs when the original queen leaves the hive, and since I was taking Ranghu out of the old tree, that must have signaled the beginning of the migration.

"About half of them, huh?"

It looked like about half of the hive was preparing to take flight.

As soon as I stepped out of the entrance of the training hall, the buzzing bees finally launched into the air all at once.

Weeeeng. Weeeeng.

The bees that had been waiting outside the tree and those pouring out from the entrance swarmed into the sky, momentarily darkening the space around me.

Soon, the airborne bees filled the air above me, swirling in a circular motion with me at the center.

The sky became busy with their movement, and the hum of their wings completely filled my ears.

Bzzzz. Weeeeng.

"I need to move quickly."

Confirming that all the bees following us had taken off, I rushed toward the exit of the training hall.

Swarm migrations needed to be completed as quickly as possible.

Worker bees leave their original hive with a certain amount of honey stored in their bodies, but if too much time passes while searching for a new home, they digest all of it.

Until they find a new nest, build a hive with wax, and gather fresh nectar, they have to survive on the honey they carried from their old home. The faster they settled, the better.

But before I even got halfway across the training hall, the bees suddenly started clinging to my body one by one.

The swirling swarm around me began diving straight toward me.

Bzzzz! Bzzz!

"H-Hey, hold on a second—!"

Of course, they weren’t attacking me.

When swarming, bees have a tendency to land wherever the queen settles. Since Ranghu was on my shoulder, they were all gathering on me.

One by one, they latched onto me until I was entirely covered in bees.

I could barely wiggle my hand free from the massive cluster of buzzing insects.

At first, I was slightly panicked by the sheer number of them surrounding me, but then an amusing thought hit me.

This scene…

This was something I had dreamed of in my past life.

"Gyaaaaah! Is this… a bee beard!?"

In my previous life, bee beards had been a staple in any video featuring bees.

1. Inside trees (wood honeycombs).
2. Inside rock crevices (stone honeycombs).