“Stop that! What if they sting you and fly over to…us…?” Princess Ileze froze, still clutching her fan. Her eyes were wide open in shock. She stared at me as I stood next to the box without so much as a single sting. “…What’s going on? Why aren’t they stinging you when you’re so close?”
“Are you aware of what makes these bees unique, Your Highness?” I inquired.
“H-How rude! Of course I know! This country’s southern region is famous for its beekeeping. The southern dukedom keeps bees that make a special, high-quality honey. Isn’t that right?!”
She was partially correct. Perhaps that level of knowledge was the norm amongst foreigners.
“It sounds like you don’t know why the dukedom’s honey products are such high quality,” I said.
“What are you trying to say?”
“These bees have a certain nickname. Please take a look at Lady Fillia.” I cast my eyes in her direction, prompting Princess Ileze to turn around.
Lady Fillia was clutching a long flute. She stood off to the side while the two of us quarreled.
“Who cares about some flute?” the princess snapped. “I don’t care to hear you play, I just—”
“Quiet. Listen and you’ll understand.” I silenced the princess with the overpowering smile I inherited from my father. Then I nodded to Lady Fillia, who began to play.
“What…?!”
Suddenly, the swarm of bees dove at Princess Ileze. Each note of the flute steered them left, right, up, and down. They navigated through the air with perfect coordination.
“What’s going on…? How can bees move like this…?” the princess gasped.
“This is what makes the dukedom’s honey so exceptional,” I said. “One can freely control the bees by playing a tune on a flute. You can make them gather nectar from only certain kinds of flowers or from a variety of flowers that will produce unique flavors of honey.”
They were a very mysterious sort of bee. These bees, referred to as Flute Bees, had been kept in Lady Fillia’s family for generations. Physically, they looked no different from honeybees. But they obeyed the sound of flutes—perhaps because they had magical energy, though that wasn’t known for sure. While they weren’t very famous creatures, I personally wondered if they were a variety of Mythical Beast.
Mythical Beasts were living creatures who contained magical energy and were capable of strange powers.
It wasn’t as striking of a power as a griffin, Snow Cat, or Gardener Cat, but I couldn’t think of any rational explanation for why the bees would obey the sound of a flute. I was certain that no insects in my past life reacted to noises so precisely, at the very least.
“I’ve heard that well-trained Flute Bees don’t sting, so long as the flute doesn’t command them to,” I said. “That’s why I can safely approach them without using my magic.”
Princess Ileze had mocked me for being unable to use a spell, but I simply didn’t have a need for one. I conveyed that to her nonverbally and watched her face go red.
“What…?! You should have told me about that!” she snipped.
“I just told you. Is there some sort of problem?” I responded to her nonchalantly.
Princess Ileze had been the one to start this fight. I would hate to have her get the better of me without being able to respond. I didn’t want her underestimating me either.
All I did was use the opportunity provided for a little counterattack.
“You…! Just who do you think I am?!” she demanded.
“You’re the fourth-born princess of the Maldion Empire, Princess Ileze,” I stated coolly.
“That’s not what I meant! You think I’ll just allow you to make a fool of me?!”
“Please don’t be upset with me. If you’re going to get angry, then get angry at your own ignorance.”
“…!” Lost for a response, Princess Ileze bit down on her lip.
The existence of Flute Bees was no secret. Anyone with the desire could research and learn about them.
The princess was living in a foreign country and didn’t necessarily need to know more about Flute Bees, but this was Lady Fillia’s villa. Her family were the ones who kept these bees throughout the generations. It was easy to embarrass oneself by being ignorant about these bees, even if you were a foreigner.
Princess Ileze had clearly rushed straight to this villa for the opportunity to sabotage me. That was why she didn’t do any research into Lady Fillia’s family, and knew only the bare minimum about how the southern region produced a famous local honey.
It was natural for her to be ignorant about this, but it would be in her best interest to learn such information before coming to this country and pretending to be an expert. I’d made sure to research the Flute Bees even before I first met Lady Fillia.
In that way, it seemed Princess Ileze wasn’t a particularly clever person. Her Highness had supposedly only come here in the first place because a political opponent forced her away to Wolfvarte. Her homeland, the Maldion Empire, was very similar to my homeland of Elltoria. Most royals and nobles were sorcerers, prideful people with a sense of being the chosen ones, and they hated leaving their homeland to visit foreign countries.
Still, perhaps Princess Ileze would have retained some of her pride if she’d been sent to the kingdoms of Raiolbern or Alphasar—their countries still being fairly large powers. However, Wolfvarte held less power than the other two kingdoms, and since it was known as the “Great Shield” that bordered territory full of monsters, Maldion’s royals and nobles wanted little to do with the country.
Princess Ileze, like other royalty in her homeland, seemed to be very biased against beastfolk. Nearly half of Wolfvarte’s population was comprised of beastfolk, so I knew she was probably extremely reluctant to come here at all.
However, she’d been essentially ousted from her home over a political dispute—a situation that resembled my own… But I didn’t want to be treated as the same kind of person as Princess Ileze, someone who refused to learn about a new country in her efforts to get in my way, nor did I have the slightest intention of befriending her if it meant abasing myself to meet her halfway.