CHAPTER 494: AN EYE FOR NOTHING?

"Tabletina."

"Yes, Father?"

I folded my arms over my chest. Then I folded my arms over the arms folded over my chest. Then I stared down at Tabletina even harder.

The entire Empire Council held their breath—except Ambrosia, who was watching this entire event with more confusion than concern (a mix opposite to everybody else).

The only other person who acted like nothing was wrong was Tabletina herself, but she was only pretending. She didn’t want others to see her as a wimp.

"Tabletina, what happened to your left eye?" I asked.

Tabletina’s shoulders relaxed noticeably.

’Oh, I thought something bad happened with how unhappy Father looked,’ she thought with a clear lack of understanding of this situation.

"You don’t have to worry—I haven’t been attacked or in any incidents. I have replaced my eye with an ice-hole wood prosthesis. It hasn’t fully finished its integration into my body yet, so I keep it covered most of the time."

I could barely keep it together at this point, but with the last remnants of my calm, I asked the last question:

"But why would you replace a HEALTHY eye with a prosthetic one?"

"Because this eye has your flesh, of course. I only had one sample of your eyes—just in case it worked, it HAD to belong to me. Of all Physicians, only I can use it most efficiently."

Bloodhero protested with a glare and a telepathic transmission directed at Tabletina.

’A Commando Beehound could use it even more efficiently! She could study our enemies.’

’But I can study our allies! There are so many chaotic mutations in bees and our cattle. So many hidden illnesses...’

At this point, my patience ended. If I weren’t already standing to tower over Tabletina more, I’d stand up. Instead, I unfolded my arms and slapped my knees.

"Tabletina! My daughter, why the FUCK would you replace a perfectly healthy eye with an EXPERIMENTAL surgery that might just render you half-blind? Especially since I told you already that there’s no chance it will give you the system sight!"

After saying this, I turned accusingly to my wife.

"Ambrosia!"

She jolted. I used her full name almost... never. But right now, I was very unhappy with her.

"Nectus?"

"You were here at this time! You KNEW she was poking out her eyeball! Why didn’t you stop Tabletina? At the very least... why didn’t you scold her earlier?"

Ambrosia frowned and folded her arms under her chest. The motion was distracting, but she wasn’t acting playful at all.

"Why should I, Nectus? This is a decision related to her health. She’s the Health Adviser of the Bee Empire and an experienced Physician Bee. In matters of health, especially her own, I trust her decisions. Don’t you?"

I looked around, but was only met with even more confusion from my girls. They didn’t understand at all what made me so angry...

Amby just perfectly summarised their logic. And right now, she was thinking...

’Necty is acting unreasonable and emotional for some reason. It might be a silly head-worm or a serious head-worm... Either way, I should take it seriously, or he would feel only worse, and the worm will eat more of his thoughts.’

...she wasn’t even angry at me for snapping at her.

I let out a long breath, and the last of the wind went out of my sails.

I was also out of arguments.

Saying that the ice-hole prosthetics technology was developed to replace lost organs, not existing ones, would be a lie—the augmentations were a part of Tabletina and Things-Things’ project from the beginning.

The riskiness of the installation... The risk was probably really negligible. Especially if Tabletina asked Oracles for a prophecy beforehand, and she was smart enough to do so.

Really, the only reason I protested was because I was appalled by the thought of my girl mutilating herself just to stick some wooden ball in her skull! Even if in reality any mutilation was surely done in the most clinical possible manner.

"Father?" Tabletina asked, tilting her head to the side. "Did I go against your wishes? You didn’t inform me of them."

"And you didn’t inform me of your plans..."

"I have notified you with a written report alongside other low-priority and non-time-sensitive matters."

I looked toward the ceiling.

Was it my fault now for not checking out ALL the reports on my table before going to the Council gathering? As if my reaction would’ve been much better!

Everybody was silent, but their confusion had not gone away. I knew I had to dispel it, even if this was also discomforting.

"Fine... Look... Your father doesn’t like the idea of you losing an eye, even if it’s to put another one in its stead. I don’t doubt that when you did this, Tabletina, you used all possible safety measures. And you couldn’t even get an infection because you got a shot of immunising blood ages ago by now."

The faces of my girls cleared. Amby let out a long breath, thinking more about head-worms (but I saw a flash of a fond smile on her face).

I went back to sit in my seat and tried not to think about eyes being poked out. To help myself, I tried to focus on today’s work.

"We must start the Empire Council. The reason we gathered today is related to dodo farming—these birds eat way too much of our crops, which we are losing again..."

I glanced at Tabletina, then realised that not thinking about her eye (the bandages!) was a failing battle. The more I tried, the easier it was to imagine the entire process of its replacement... In the worst way.

"Damn it. Tell me, Tabletina, does this eye even actually work any better than your former one? Maybe you got some stats from me, at least..."

Although I doubted.

Tabletina’s right (natural and black) eye flashed with excitement. She pulled a sheet of paper from the stack in front of her.

"So you want to push forward my agenda for today’s gathering, Father? Good. I have prepared illustrations."