"...?"
"Luca, is sothing wrong?"
Xavier, who was in the middle of assisting his wife with setting up the new and much larger-scale beehives, suddenly looked up after noticing how the little chipmunk had abruptly flinched to a stop.
Luca blinked before tilting his head slightly.
"Oh, it’s nothing," he answered after a mont. "I just thought I heard a scream."
"A scream?"
"Yeah." Luca scratched lightly at his cheek. "But if you didn’t hear it, then it’s probably nothing. I just thought I heard my brother..."
The golden-eyed cadet trailed off before eventually smiling at his husband.
"But what could possibly go wrong when he’s with Kyle and Jax, right?"
"..."
Xavier instinctively glanced toward the direction of the settlent.
Because honestly?
There were so many things that could happen, especially if Jax were involved sohow.
However, at this point, while the Imperial Crown Prince firmly believed his beloved to be the kindest and purest person in existence, even Luca may find it difficult to believe that, around Jax, even the sudden and most random appearance of a teor was possible.
And so, after several seconds of silence, Xavier ultimately decided not to say anything at all and simply chalked the matter up to fate.
If sothing really had happened over there, then it was probably because they didn’t keep their mouths welded shut next to that one.
Then again, even if Xavier genuinely wanted to head over and verify everyone’s condition personally, there were simply too many pressing matters demanding their attention right now.
Like figuring out how to replenish Jax’s spiritual energy without resorting to either forcefully waterboarding him with spiritual water or aggressively stuffing him with food every so often.
Thankfully, the Elders were currently investigating that issue for them, which left Luca and Xavier with another urgent task that absolutely could not be delayed unless they wanted a second round of swarming bees.
Though in truth, that possibility was already starting to look alarmingly real, considering the bees had practically begun living outside the beehives altogether, attaching their own combs all over the original structures instead of building inside them.
The entire place was chaotic and most definitely not for the faint of heart. In the anti, the children had been instructed not to go outside just in case they encountered any agitated bees dissatisfied with their suddenly subpar living accommodations.
To solve the impending crisis, they had been working on this rehoming plan nonstop for quite so ti now, and the Prince was pretty sure he’d hear buzzing even in his sleep.
Still, if there was any consolation to this sudden workload, it was the fact that Xavier was simply relieved his little wife hadn’t suffered a complete emotional collapse after discovering that the beehives they’d purchased for a total of 600,000 CP across all three sets had barely lasted several days before becoming obsolete.
Yep.
The bees had outgrown the hives so quickly that the group practically had to beg and help Cece produce scaled-up replacents as quickly as possible.
Thankfully, while the two remaining colonies had also undergone obvious growth—both in population and literal physical size—the good news was that they still appeared significantly more recognizable than the unusual colony attached to Jax.
Not that Xavier knew enough about honeybees to properly judge such things, but even when comparing them to the pictures in the manual...
Unless the scale in those illustrations was sohow catastrophically inaccurate, there was absolutely no way bees the size of soone’s actual thumb could still be considered normal dinsions.
Still, as so consolation to this sudden and rather extre growth spurt, the colonies mostly retained the sa appearance and coloration as the honeybees they had originally purchased.
Just... larger.
Noticeably larger.
And because of that, absolutely nobody present was naive enough to grow complacent now that mutations had officially beco a confird possibility.
Ah.
Well, speak of the devil, and it would appear.
Ha.
Because just when they thought the other bees were much closer to normal, Xavier most definitely heard his little wife moan upon inspecting the old fras they were just about to pull out.
Luca was practically salivating from sheer awe and joy as he stared at the beautiful expanse of white and gold before him.
The combs were already sealed.
Practically completely sealed.
Which ant the honey inside was fully matured and ready for harvest.
"!!!"
The little beekeeper tried his absolute best to stay calm as he carefully pulled out the first fra.
Then the second.
Then the third.
And the more he checked, the more he beca utterly convinced that nearly every single fra they had originally installed was now filled to the brim with capped honey.
How was this even possible?!
More importantly—
Where were the Queen and the brood?
Luca’s eyes widened further as realization slowly hit him.
Were all of them outside because the Queen could no longer physically fit inside the original cells they had made earlier for egg laying?!
Apparently yes.
Sohow, the colony had outright abandoned the original structure and started building an entirely new ho attached to the outer sections of the hive because their increased size no longer allowed them to comfortably remain inside the old one.
And all of this had happened in only a handful of days.
The increasingly overwheld beekeeper could no longer process what he was witnessing.
His joyous heart hamred violently as he reached out almost reverently toward one of the heavy sealed combs, as though physically touching it would sohow confirm this wasn’t an elaborate hallucination brought on by bee obsession.
Then his gloved finger gently pressed against one capped cell.
Soft golden honey imdiately seeped out from the opening.
And the scent—
"!!!"
The aroma that drifted out was absolutely divine.
Luca nearly lost spiritual stability on the spot.
However, just as he almost dropped the fra entirely from excitent, a sudden prompt abruptly appeared right in front of his face.
"?!"
Nearby, Xavier had initially been perfectly content quietly watching his wife experience what was clearly the happiest mont of his recent life.
Honestly, the Imperial Prince had found the increasingly delighted expressions on his beloved’s face rather adorable.
Unfortunately, the sudden shift in Luca’s expression imdiately put him on alert.
"Luca, what’s wrong?"
Xavier’s posture instantly sharpened as he stepped closer.
In response, Luca silently showed him the hovering prompt.
[VENDING ELIGIBLE PRODUCT DETECTED.]
[PUT UP FOR VENDING?]
[YES] [NO]
"!"
The two stared at the screen for a mont.
But while the sudden appearance of a vending prompt for the honey was already shocking enough on its own, considering how Luca hadn’t gone and activated that yet...
Things beca significantly more alarming after D-29 suddenly let out an equally startled whir.
The prompt flickered.
Zzzt!
Then changed. It was a minuscule change, but one that got them staring.
[VENDING ELIGIBLE PRODUCT DETECTED.]
[PUT UP FOR VENDING?]
[YES] [YES]
"..."
"..."
"...What?"
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