Chapter 582: And how much would it cost?
The amount of work required to push the ash cloud away turned out to be immense. It threatened to create food shortages because of the destroyed fields, and to destroy infrastructure if the fire got out of control by accident.
In other words, the plan was expensive and risky. But Precio-Us’ words earlier meant that without an intervention, the ash cloud was going to hang over our heads until it all fell on them.
And unlike snow, which would eventually melt and seep into the ground, ash went nowhere.
Countless bees and humans were cleaning it daily, but the piles of it only grew higher and higher by day. Eventually, the landscape of the Central Region would become a desert with countless ash dunes moved around by wind…
These would plague our mechas for years to come!
“Even with the costs… We must execute this plan. And brace for its consequences,” I said heavily. “Precio-Us sent me the calculations for the locations that must be affected and for the total surface area of the fires, but I’m sure that this can be adjusted. They didn’t have all the latest information about the fields and living mountains standing there. Workharder, Researchina—I want you to find the areas where we can focus on burning living mountains instead of our usnea plantations. And instead of our infrastructure, of course.”
The two girls nodded, but Workharder immediately spoke up.
“Father, living stone burns hotter than wood, and the living mountains are massive! Fire can travel for kilometres from one living mountain to another, especially on the wind. If we burn them, we might easily start a living mountain fire, and then… And then even we won’t be able to stop it.”
I nodded.
“Yeah, that’s a problem—but if you cut the living mountains and even ordinary trees on the edges of the area that needs burning, it should be safe. Humans should have some experience with this kind of living mountains burning, and you will need a lot of human workers for this project, anyway. In addition to mechas, of course.” I turned to the chair reserved for Adviser Whisper’s astral projection. “Whisper, please, make sure that humans are helpful, and they won’t have any stupid ideas like protesting the entire project.”
‘Of course, Father! They know better than to object. They also should have enough scythes by now, at least for this project.’
I nodded.
Scythes were an uncommon tool in the region until Malevolence sent a description of them and how they can be used to harvest usnea fruits.
They were a Vardish tool—locals traditionally used sickles for cutting trees. Usnea trees, when fully grown, were often cut with machetes or axes—they were large even for humans.
Since there was a Vardish colony on our continent in the past, locals have seen or heard about scythes (at least in some regions), but mass production began only after they were reintroduced.
This production was encouraged and directed by bees, of course.
I have heard Malevolence’s and her advisers’ doubts about giving humans rights to this tool and associated independence, but we had other means of controlling them, and the tool promised to increase the Bee Empire’s overall productivity by a lot.
Perhaps it would’ve been just the thing that would’ve pushed us to the next development level if not for the recent disasters.
“Good. Then Bloodhero will prepare her people and redirect them to planting new usnea trees in the Digging Holes region. The armies that are still not cold-immune can stay in their garrisons, while the cold-immune ones travel to the mountains and start planting. It should be alright if this isn’t timed perfectly to align with the burning of the trees on the other side. What’s important is that there’s both push and pull to break up the ash cloud’s cyclone.”
The girls nodded, exchanging thoughts about how to proceed with their objectives.
“This will take a lot of workers. Workharder will probably need to pull people who are doing other work away from their tasks, especially in the fields,” Ambrosia pointed out. “We must account for the potential shortages this will cause, too. And for the disruptions this will create in the train network.”
“Of course, Mother-Queen! The production in areas on fire will be entirely paralysed, but we could create emergency item stashes in the affected sub-hives.”
“At the very least, you must have enough food for both adult bees and the young larvae,” Amby lectured. “I will count how much is necessary for the time these sub-hives won’t have external supplies, but I must know how long the project will take.”
I thought about the plan given to me by Precio-Us again.
“The cloud itself will travel quickly, just for a day,” I said.
“But it will take way more than that to start it moving!” Workharder continued. “At least a week. In this time, the trains will be able to travel, but the workers from the region will be too busy to tend to fields or do other duties except for the most vital ones. And after that, the Fields Region will probably be impossible to traverse for a while.”
Bloodhero nodded.
“It should also take about a week for soldiers to plant the trees in the Digging Holes Region. But they will need to take provisions with them to travel so quickly and not be distracted with hunting and foraging for food while planting.”
“A week’s worth of food for a region and an army…” Amby muttered. “We should be able to afford it even in the current circumstances.”
“Then, as long as our girls will have enough food, other things should be… bearable. At least for a week.” I winced. “As long as those shortages don’t spiral into anything worse. But without the ash cloud, if anything, our production should spiral the other way around!”
Workharder grinned at me.
“Of course it should. If you are leading us, the future can only be better, Father!” she said so casually as if she mentioned that the sky was blue.
Oh, but I knew too well that the sky could have way more colours…