Amelia the Level Zero Hero

Chapter 182

Edlyn was still unconscious even an hour after we landed back in Wolfwater. So I quickly found her a room and left her there so she wouldn’t just be slumped over a table in my restaurant. It was the spare room in Noele parents’ farm that I stayed in when I first came to the farming village.

Or was this place a town now? I didn’t really know. And in my brief time in the Astra Palace, I had come to determine that most people weren’t sure either.

Anyways, I returned to Bucky’s Out of this World Restaurant after dealing with the unconscious Edlyn. Noele and Garron waited there, still recovering from their fight. Arthur had gone out to find Harlan. I didn’t know this, but apparently, Harlan liked to go fishing on his days off. So it was just Noele, Garron, and I in the main hall of the restaurant.

“Bawk bawk bawk…”

Oh, and Bucky too.

I looked towards the chicken as she crawled out of her little cage. She still looked hurt. I watched as she massaged her wings in pain, before sidling up towards me. I knelt down next to her and patted her on the head.

“Good job with what you did,” I said with a small smile. “For saving Noele.”

“Bawk bawk,” she replied.

I watched as she tilted her head back, before pointing at her mouth with her wings. I blinked a few times, then she rubbed her belly. That was when I realized what she wanted from me.

“You want me to feed you,” I pointed out flatly.

Bucky nodded eagerly, piping up. “Bawk bawk bawk bawk!”

My gaze bore into her, and she shrank back. I stared at the chicken as she hesitated for a moment, before she gestured at her injured wing.

“Bawk bawk…?” she said apprehensively, looking at me with round eyes.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been trying to guilt-trip me into feeding you more by playing up your injury?” I sighed as I got back to my feet.

The chicken blinked a few times, then she waved both her wings in protest. She flinched when she raised her injured wing too violently. And I rolled my eyes.

“Don’t hurt yourself. I didn’t say I wasn’t going to cook you something nice.”

“Bawk bawk?” Bucky paused. She stared at me in shock, and I grinned back at her.

“You did do a good job,” I said as I drew back. “So you deserve a nice treat.”

“Bawk bawk bawk!” she exclaimed excitedly.

I scoffed, watching as the chicken enthusiastically hopped up and down in glee. I shook my head, seemingly disapproving. But I was glad to see that she was safe. And the same applied to everyone else.

“I’ll make you two food too,” I said as I looked towards Garron and Noele. The two adventurers exchanged a glance, before nodding gratefully. “How does curry sound?”

“It sounds great, Amelia. Thank you.” Noele smiled at me.

Garron leant back in his seat, intrigued. “I have not had your curry yet, but I’ve been meaning to try it.

“Alright.” I nodded to myself as I started out the doorway. “I’ll just have to harvest some honey from the bastion bees and I’ll be right—”

But I paused as suddenly Noele leapt to her feet. She slammed her hands on the table as her eyes went wide.

“Oh no.”

“What is it?” I blinked, caught off-guard by her sudden movement.

Bucky stared at the blonde girl, confused for a moment too. But slowly, it seemed a realization settled in as she clucked in a panic too.

“What’s going on? What’s gotten into the both of you?” I narrowed my eyes as I looked between Noele and Bucky.

“The bastion bees…” Noele bit her lower lips. She closed her eyes, before slowly massaging her temples. “I forgot about them.”

I just frowned. “What are you talking about?”

—--

“Oh.”

I stared at the hive of the bastion bees— the small rock fortress that they had constructed right behind my restaurant. It was like the size of another bedroom. It protruded from the back, giving the building a little bit of flair to its dull exterior. After all, I was the one who fixed up the place, and I was certainly not an architect of any sorts.

Anyways, there was a clear problem with the hive of bastion bees when I found it. Usually, it would be buzzing dangerously— warning anyone who came close to it not to mess with what was within. I would usually be able to see shadows darting about inside. And when I got close to the hive, I’d be greeted by one or two of the nursing bees.

This time around, there was none of that. In fact, I couldn’t even peer into the hive. Because the entire structure was encased by a magical glass-like dome.

“So you’re saying that the bastion bees have been trapped in here for a whole day,” I said, turning to Noele and Bucky.

Both the chicken and the blonde girl flinched. They both nodded slowly, not saying a word.

“And somehow, you forgot this had happened?” I narrowed my eyes.

The two of them exchanged a hesitant glance. It was Noele who spoke up, scratching her cheek apprehensively.

“Well… a lot happened. And we kind of just—” She bit her lower lip, cutting herself off.

I sighed as I strode forward. “It’s fine. Let’s just hope the bastion bees had enough air to survive a day.”

Being realistic, the sacred monsters were probably still alive. I didn’t think that being cut off from oxygen in a relatively medium-sized enclosure for a day was enough to suffocate them. But I didn’t know how much air they needed to breathe. So I never could be too certain.

I tapped a finger on the magical barrier encasing the bastion bees in their hive, and it shattered like glass. Noele and Bucky flinched as the broken fractal shards collapsed around me, before fading away.

Immediately, I could feel a shift in the air around me. Like I had stepped into a hot and humid environment, before I was inundated by a clamorous buzzing. It blared loudly— an angry sound that nearly seemed to shake the ground. Noele and Bucky backed up instantly as I crossed my arms.

“Well, at least I know they’re alive,” I remarked casually.

And a moment later, I watched as a swarm of baby bastion bees shot out, followed by the dozen nursing bees that were charged with starting the new hive. I stared at them as their gazes bore down at me. They looked livid.

More so than I had ever seen them before. Which was quite a feat, considering how they almost always seemed to be angry.

I swept my gaze over them all— the tiny bastion bees that were flapping their small wings as they formed their swarm. There had to have been at least a hundred of them. Each one was relatively small— about the size of the palm of my hand. But I remembered seeing them as soon as they hatched not too long ago.

They had grown relatively quickly in size since then. But that was not all. I raised a brow as I whistled.

“You guys sure learned how to fly fast. Weren’t you just wriggling around on the ground, unable to even crawl just a week ago?” I looked towards the larger nursing bees that were tasked with taking care of the babies. “You did a good job raising them.”

I locked gazes with the usual nursing bee I spoke with. She was floating there in the middle of the swarm, not flying out to meet me as she normally did. She didn’t seem to be angry like the rest. But she also seemed quite… muted.

I frowned at her as she just floated there, buzzing softly. “Are you alright?”

I asked the simple question, but she didn’t reply. Instead, she just shifted back. I blinked and watched as she gave way for another bastion bee to take her place. It wasn’t a nursing bee— it was a baby bastion bee like the others.

But this one was different. It was slightly more rotund, and with larger wings than the rest. I stared at it for a moment, before I realized what it was.

“Are you… the new queen?” I asked curiously.

It didn’t respond. Instead, I watched as its eyes flashed. And all at once, the buzzing grew silent for a moment. Before all the gathered bastion bees charged my way.