Aurum - Year 1  - 3 months later

 

About 1 month ago we sent the resources to the werewolves, it took a lot of time to build the wax crates and fill them with resources, but with a lot of work we managed to fill everything.

When it was time to transport everything, I had the idea of sending just a small group, but the soldiers said it was a stupid idea, as we didn't know how the werewolves would react, so we ended up sending 40% of all the soldiers, accompanied by 60% of all the workers, the number reached thousands, forming a gigantic swarm, so much so that the boxes could not even be seen, as they were covered by bees.

I thought it was too much, and that a swarm of that size would scare the wolves, but Hans didn't care at all, and said it was better that they were afraid of us anyway. We also wrote a letter on a silk parchment, the letter contained our story, and said that we were not looking for conflict, and that we just wanted to have a friendly relationship with the wolves. But when the "delivery" group arrived we had a huge communication problem.

The language spoken by wolves was the strangest thing I had ever heard in my life, it felt like I was watching a video of a Korean trying to speak with a mouth full of food. And I couldn't understand a single word.

The letter we spent hours writing also turned out to be useless, it was written in plain English, but the wolves understood absolutely nothing. Hans tried to talk to them, but this only left them extremely astonished.

We decided to leave the resources and never bring it up again, if they survived it would be their merit, and now my conscience was lighter, since I had provided them with resourses of a production of months, and even an absurd amount of [drops of life] had been gived. If they died now my conscience was clear.

But to my surprise, there was now a group of 5 werewolves right at my door, in complete amazement as they stared at our tower. The wolves kept their distance, but a gray-haired wolf walked vigorously towards us, without showing any fear.

The soldiers didn't like this at all, and advanced towards her, but the wolf just threw herself on her knees on the ground and raised her arms while saying things in a mysterious language.

"What now? What should we do? I told you it was a bad idea to help them!" Hans said in a bad mood.

"How dare you mock our queen mother's choices!" Yan said very unhappy.

'Don't talk to Hans like that, I already told you that I never asked for blind loyalty from any of them, and Hans is right, he warned us that we shouldn't help the wolves.'

'-But mother, this is a clear offense to your highness as queen! Hans must be punished or-'

'Yan, don't make me regret appointing you as my representative...'

'-Ugh... I'm sorry, my queen...'

"I'm sorry, my reaction was exaggerated, please continue with the conversation.." Yan said frustratedly.

"Huff... I think we should expel them, it's not a good idea to allow them to get so close, I think if we gather all the soldiers together we can even kill them!" Trouble said.

"Isn't this a bit hasty? We don't know their intentions, and we could benefit from an alliance with them!" Ken said.

"What a stupid idea! Allying ourselves with beings we can't even understand!? They might just be after us for our resources. In fact, I believe they came for that reason alone!" Hans mocked.

"After all, how did they find us? I thought you had left without a trace!" asked Carl as he ate some fruit.

"I have no idea, they must have a skill like my [Mad chasser], or racial ways of sniffing out their target, they are wolves after all." Trevis said.

"After all, why don't we give them a chance? We have dozens of Beacons that can analyze memories, and do research, with a little collaboration from them we can translate their language! And it would be great if we could use this chance to learn a common language of this world, Even if they are not friendly, we can use them to learn general knowledge about things outside the forest, and then kill them when they are no longer useful, after all they are weakened, and they must think that we are going to help them after the gifts we gave them. It will be easy to trick them into telling us everything they know." Steve said coldly.

"I believe this is a good course of action, wasting their usefulness is counterproductive! Just like the Wappos and Snails, we can find some use for them." Yan said.

"But is it worth the risk? We have the luxury of keeping animals because we can count them, but it's a totally different story with these wolves, they can kill us, and probably even trick us!" Trevis said.

"We don't need to get involved with the entire group of wolves, I believe we can use just these 5, in fact, just the gray-haired wolf, after all she seems to be more submissive. This way we could absorb all her knowledge, and kill her easily later" Yan said.

"W-We can also C-Create some signs with images to try to communicate! If we send a group of beacons and scientists we should be able to learn the basics of their language in a few weeks..." Said Levi.

"Can't we mentally link with her? If we put her in the link we could absorb all her knowledge at once!" Matt said.

"It will never happen! The link is private, and our weakest point, entry by any external individual is absolutely prohibited!" Yan proclaimed.

"I agree, I believe it is not possible to add members who are not descendants of mom to the link, but even if it were possible I would be against the idea of exposing ourselves like that!." Hans said.

'Then that's it? Are we going to accept this wolf into our house?'

"Should we shelter her within the rings?" Yan asked.

"Absolutely not! We will place her at a safe distance, and keep her under surveillance 24 hours a day!" Hans said.

'Very well then, send the soldiers to escort her.'

"So we're determined, let's learn from her, absorb everything she knows about the world outside the forest, and then decide if it's worth taking the risk of keeping them as our neighbors, or if it's better to just kill them! If Someone disapproves of this plan, speak now!” Yan announced.

No one said anything in protest and Steve sent the order for Radyo to broadcast to the entire hive.

---

 

Hilda's Point of view

 

We came after the divine beasts, it was a long and tiring journey, we spent days walking until we saw a large yellow tower in the middle of the placinie.

'A dungeon?'

At first I thought it was a dungeon, but when we got closer we started to see the same bees that had visited us a few weeks ago, the bees were hunting insects and small animals in groups, as if they were experienced hunters.

When they saw us, they ran back to the tower, as if they were fairies that disappeared once they were seen. When we got close to the tower, we could see that it was huge, more than 50 meters high and was emitting several sounds.

We could hear the fluttering of bees wings, mixed with a captivating harmony, and the sounds of voices in a strange language. The entire tower was surrounded by dozens of high quality flowers, and developing plant seedlings that were cared for by bees.

The entire place was surrounded by walls made of wax, which were being erected by thousands of bees, inside the walls were buildings made of bricks and wooden rods, something that should not be possible for wild beasts.

When we arrived about 50 meters from the place, a swarm of beautiful golden bees began to fly bravely towards us, the trackers and warriors were terrified, but all I could think about was the beauty of these divine creatures.

Their appearance was healthy and robust, they had no marks on their bodies, a sign of good health and a prosperous life. They had a crest around their necks that was made of silky, crystalline white fur, which appeared to be combed daily and very well cared for, all the bees looked plump and well-fed. Some carried harpoons that appeared to be made of some metal, and others advanced towards us with their stingers pointed at us.

While my group only thought about running away, I began to walk excitedly towards them, and when they got close I knelt in front of them and began to pray the Astrawoul texts. The bees suddenly stopped, and just stared at me peacefully.

'I knew! They are certainly creatures that received the gift of Astrawoul! Maybe they'll even be blessed by him!'

"Oh, great divine beasts, my name is Hilda Asperg, I come in peace to thank you for your generous gifts in a time of such uncertainty! I ask for your mercy, as brothers who praise the same god, and help my people in a time of such darkness!"

For a while the bees did absolutely nothing, just stared at me and then retreated, as if denying my request.

'No! They didn't think I was worthy enough!? Oh Astrawoul! Please hear my prayers!'

As I prayed for what seemed like a long time, a large swarm of bees exploded from within the tower, the bees quickly flew towards me, and began to surround me in a tornado of bees. They then grabbed my clothes and fur and began to lift me into the air. And take me in the opposite direction to the great wax tower.

"Stop! Please! Give me a chance to prove myself worthy of your protection!"

The bees continued to carry me somewhere, without paying any attention to what I said, but they didn't seem to have the intention of hurting me, when I tried to struggle, dozens of large robust-looking bees stuck to my limbs and squeezed me tightly, stopping me to move.

Soon I was brought to the entrance of a cave, the place was far from the tower, but it was still possible to clearly see the tower and the bees working from the cave.

With a thud the bees threw me to the ground, and right behind my group came running towards me, but I couldn't care less, I needed to prove my worth to the divine beasts.

"Please! Just give me one chance! Just one chance and I'll prove that I'm not a waste of time!"

But the bees didn't stop, they continued to return calmly to their tower, and left me behind, as if I weren't even worthy of being in their presence.

"Hilda! Are you crazy, woman?! Charging towards these creatures?! They could have eaten you alive!" Shouted one of the warriors.

"They wouldn't hurt me... They just showed me that I'm not worthy of their time..."

"Then let's go! I don't know what the hell these bees are! But I've never heard of any monsters that build towers and deliver gifts! Let's go now and report this to the leader! There's something seriously wrong with these bees!"

"No! I'm not leaving! I'm going to stay and prove to these beasts that I'm worthy!"

"You're crazy! Those things are going to eat you!"

While we were discussing a new swarm started flying towards us. This swarm was smaller than the swarm that had carried me, but it seemed more powerful.

As soon they got close, they started attacking my group, launching spikes and small rays of energy. Some went after my companions and started impaling them with small metal spears.

"Damn it! They're getting violent! Hilda run now!" One of the trackers said as he ran against the swarm.

But I continued to stand still and move in place, the bees' blows were only aimed at my group members, and when I tried to get in front of my allies to protect them, the bees simply dodged and attacked the members behind me.

"Run! They don't want you here! They just want me!"

"Hilda!"

"Now! Run if you don't want to die!"

Hearing my warnings, the members of my group began to run, and when they got about 80 meters away from the cave the bees stopped chasing them.

'Was I chosen? Is there something in this cave that the beasts want me to see?'

Analyzing the cave I couldn't see anything interesting, just cobwebs and slime growing on the walls. While I waited a new group of bees approached me, this swarm was made up of even more threatening bees, and the bee that had delivered the gifts to our village. Soon they opened the way and from the center of the swarm several small black and gray bees came out along with some bees carrying some letters.

"H-Hello!"

Without caring about my presence, the bees began to place several cards in front of me, all of them had drawings, some drawings were very strange, but others were clear. Like the drawing of a cloud, a flower, flesh and a circle.

"ㄥ∪ㄥ乇丨几, 千ㄖ山丂卂ㄒ卄ㄖ尺ᗪ卂, ㄖ尺ㄚ?

One of the black bees tried to talk to me, but all I could understand were strange, meaningless words.

"I-I can't understand you divine beast!"

The bee looked frustrated for a few moments, but then lifted a letter with the help of the larger bees, and spoke again.

"ㄈ丨卂ㄈ∪ㄥㄖ!"

"What?"

"ㄈ丨卂ㄈ∪ㄥㄖ!!!!"

The bee pointed to the shape of the circle and exclaimed these strange words, so I could understand what it was trying to do.

"Is that your word for circle? C-丂r -ㄈuㄥo?"

The bee seemed happy with my pronunciation, and started showing me other cards, I tried to reproduce the sound they made when they showed me one of the cards, but I don't think I was really understanding anything right.

'What if I...'

I tried to get close to the black bee, but the swarm that was behind him got really angry at me, I just tried to stretch a finger towards him, if I could touch him I could offer him a beast contract, and that way I could understand him with more ease.

The black bee looked at my finger for a few seconds and then held it with its small hands. When it seemed comfortable with my touch, I tried to establish a contract between us.

But the bee didn't like that at all, quickly released my finger and retreated towards the swarm, which became furious and began circling me furiously.

"Forgive me! I was just trying to understand you! I swear I didn't have any evil intentions! Please calm down!

---

 

After putting the wolf in the cave and sending some beacons, we started trying to teach her, it seemed like she was understanding, as she managed to pronounce some words correctly, but then she extended one of her fingers to Radyo, and tried to touch him. The soldiers didn't like this at all, and threatened her, but she didn't back down and Radyo ended up touching her finger to try to give her a false sense of security.

But the next moment I regretted letting Radyo touch her.

 

 

'What the hell!?! Of course not!'

'-That was an attack! She tried to infiltrate the link! Kill her now!' Hans shouted through the link.

The soldiers were furious with this "Hilda" and began to circle her furiously, she shouted meaningless words but this did nothing to lessen the fury of the swarm.

'Wait! It wasn't an attack, it was just an attempt to make a contract?'

Now there’s this one too, magical contracts! Will a demon come to me one day wanting my soul in exchange for endless fortunes?!

After ordering the swarm to calm down, I called a new meeting with the "council", with the participation of the leader of each club.

"This is absurd! She had the audacity to launch an attack against us after we welcomed her here!" Trouble exclaimed.

"Well.. We don't exactly "welcome" her here, we just let her stick around, and offering a contract isn't a real attack." Zuki said while knitting a pillowcase.

"In all my life, never have I felt such disregard. That wolf's audacity left me feeling absolutely violated!" Radyo said.

"I think we should allow her to make the contract with a member of the colony, after all we can get something out of it." Exclaimed Miles.

"Are you going crazy?! We don't know what this contract means!" Matt said.

"Exactly, it could be something very beneficial, and considering that she offered the contract while we were trying to communicate, it could mean that this contract allows both parties to understand each other." Miles said.

'I don't like this idea, we don't know the price to pay for this contract...'

"But what does it mean to make a contract with this wolf? Would the contracted member have to blindly follow her wishes? Or would it just be a beneficial contract and a mutual agreement for both sides?" Yan cursed.

"No idea, I don't know what a contract means." Miles said.

"...Guys, I received a request from Ciel." Ken said.

Ciel was the second "nurse" that Ken had taken under his wing a long time ago, he was Simus' companion and second in command of the nursery. Ciel had also evolved and became an [Acolyte], a strange class, capable of healing like a [Healer] and still applying bonuses like a [Nurse], the only disadvantage was that Ciel had less energy, and his healing and bonuses were weaker.

"What is the request coming from Ciel?" Yan demanded.

"He would like to offer himself for a contract with the wolf." Ken said bluntly.

"What?! Is he crazy?!" Matt said.

"No... According to him, the wolf seems to be very friendly, and emanates an aura of tranquility, he really liked her and would like to offer himself if we are going to allow someone to make the contract with her." Ken said.

"No! Even if we made the contracts, we would still send a worker, losing Ciel is the same as losing a large skilled workforce and a barrel of XP!" Steve said.

'...Allow Ciel to go. There's not much we can do about it anyway, and we'll make her regret it if she tries anything funny.'

"Mom allowed us to send Ciel to make the contract." Yan announced to the delight of many.

"This is absurd! We shouldn't risk our colony members like this!" Hans said.

"I think it's worth the risk, we'll never discover anything if we don't take a few risks every now and then" Ken said.

"We will send Ciel. It is decided, if the wolf tries to run away with Ciel, or make us attack we will make her regret it." Yan declared

---

 

Now we were all nervous, just watching as Ciel, a bee with a white crest with golden details, and a small, fragile body approached the wolf. He didn't seem afraid of her, and all he did was stretch his little arms towards the wolf.

The wolf took a while to understand what was happening, but soon understood everything and stretched out her finger to Ciel.

 

 

"Yes!"

When I accepted the contract, I could feel the link between me and Ciel being tremendously weakened, it was like pouring water on a bonfire, there were still some embers left, but the fire was almost dead.

I could also feel a slight "shadow", which connected with Ciel, it was almost imperceptible and if I didn't focus all my attention on this "Shadow" that hovered over Ciel I couldn't see or feel it.

"WHAT?!"