"Hah… Last night was amazing…" Elizabeth gazed at the flesh bed even though it was almost noon. Hiro nudged her cheek, but she still lay there in a daze.
"Come on. How long are you going to sleep, Elizabeth?" Rebecca opened the window to let out some of the lewd smell lingering in the room.
Still feeling dizzy, Elizabeth and Sara dragged their bodies to the door. Hiro sighed. They had only climaxed once last night, and he wondered why they were so exhausted.
"Come, let me help you." Cecile and Nana propped them on their shoulder.
"Do we have to do that every night?" Elizabeth asked as she rested her head on Cecile's shoulder. It was almost time to check out.
"If you don't want to, it's fine. Hiro won't force himself on you. But he might deny you in turn when you want it." Rebecca smirked. Her words alone sent shivers down Elizabeth's spine. She knew Rebecca spoke from experience.
The journey to Quantora Village was uneventful, with only the occasional drone of the carriage wheels and the same lush scenery outside. The passengers were bored out of their minds, but not Elizabeth and Sara, as Hiro played with them. Not sexually—just nudging their cheeks and patting their heads. Hiro found out that most girls loved being touched. They were just like cats that needed to be petted.
"Greetings. I am Marissa Daneswald. I believe we have met, Sara. But I haven't met her. Are you the chief of the Batkin tribe?"
"Yes. I am Elizabeth… a batkin. I… I am still technically a chief. though we only have a dozen members now." She turned her head, seemingly embarrassed to admit the fact.
"Hm? Why are you so unsure about it? Rebecca swore that you are a batkin. The appraisal ball tells me that you are a batkin, right?" Marissa checked the appraisal ball Rebecca gave her.
"…Yes." She turned around, wary of Quantora's officials, who looked at them as if it were just another job on a Tuesday. Hiro noticed that Quantora had grown. Now that Marissa was completely healed and had the status of a symbiote user, Quantora had the prestige of being managed by the duke's daughter. So trade was booming.
"Let's talk in my office." Marissa gestured for the girls to come to her private room and cleared out the officials. Once they were gone, Rebecca told her everything that had transpired in the village, including how Elizabeth and the rest of the batkins could turn into vampires.
"Hm… That's troubling…" Marissa frowned. Rebecca nodded. The quickest way to solve this issue was to execute all the batkins, sure. But that would really leave a bad taste in her mouth. Then there was the problem with the mining village. They had proved themselves to be batkins there, so undoing that belief would be difficult.
But granting them an autonomous village was like creating a ticking time bomb. Who knew when they would go on a rampage? Elizabeth was fine since she had Hiro, but what about the other batkins?
"Um… Are you going to pull back on your promise of granting us land?" Sara looked worried. They had left their village, so if Marissa pulled back now, their lives would be reduced to hard labor akin to slavery.
"Hm… I won't. But I am worried whether the batkins will go on a rampage again," Marissa said. The room fell silent. Neither Elizabeth nor Sara could assure Marissa that the same thing wouldn't happen again. After all, the batkins held the position of power in their society. They are their soldiers who were often tasked with hunting and security.
"There is no need to worry. If they go on a rampage, you can just ask Elizabeth to clean them up, right? We have all ruffians. Even knights or town guards are not exceptions." Rebecca cocked her hips.
"I…"
"They are your people. You need to take care of them. Make sure they stay in line. It's your job as matriarch!" Rebecca said.
"…But… It feels hypocritical when I ask my people to keep themselves from blood when I fell for it myself, right?"
"You didn't fall. You just made a mistake. A hypocrite is someone who keeps doing it despite advising others not to." Rebecca's answer was firm.
"…I see. Well. I will do my best. If other batkins attack innocents, I will do my duty. I will discipline them, even if I have to kill them all," Elizabeth nodded.
"I see. Good. Here is the map of our kingdom. Where would you like to settle? I think this place would be the best for you. This is the land connecting Quantora with the rest of the duchy. If you build a village here, you could prosper in the service industry. Most dovekins are quite fair, so I am sure they will be popular in the service industry," Marissa said as she unfurled a map from her shelf.
"But they are quite far from Quantora. I wonder if that's wise. Maybe we should be a little closer, like here?" Rebecca said.
"We don't particularly like outsiders. So… I must refuse the service industry. How about here? It's quite remote," Sara pointed at a location near the forest. At the border between Latvin and Litmus. Marissa and the girls frowned at where Sara had pointed.
That place happened to be where Marissa's village was—or the remnants of it. It had been almost a year since they evacuated from there due to Latvin's attack.
"That place has seasonal monster attacks. A stampede season," Marissa said.
"What monsters? Are they powerful?" Elizabeth joined the discussion. She thought she and the rest of the batkins would become laborers, but when a chance to repay the dovekins—a chance to protect them—appeared, she immediately jumped in.
"Not really. Just goblins. A knight or two could repel them," Marissa said as she eyed Elizabeth.
"Then it is perfect. We could protect the dovekins!" Elizabeth beamed at the opportunity. But when she saw how the others looked at her, she retracted her offer. "Ah, sorry. Yeah. We shouldn't handle weapons anymore. I'm sorry."
"Well… I think it's fine… I mean, rather than outsiders…" Sara muttered.
Hiro couldn't believe his ears. After the recent events, he couldn't believe the dovekins were ready to trust the batkins again. He thought their relationship was over.
"Are you sure?"
"Well… I need to talk with the others. But we won't get a village without the batkins, right? So the option of getting rid of them is off the table. We couldn't pick up weapons. I mean… we could learn, but batkins are way better in that department. I think it would be best to make them our guards rather than hiring adventurers or knights. I assume hiring knights would be expensive?"
"I see. If you are okay with batkins handling your security, that would be the best course of action. The money used to hire knights or guards could instead be used to build your village. And there is a ruined village there that you could use as a starting point, so you don't even have to start from zero. I think you could live a comfortable life after a year or two in that ruined village," Marissa nodded.
"Thank you. Um… I will speak with the others," Sara bowed.
"In the meantime, it would be best if you could introduce yourselves to the villagers. I don't think isolation is the best path for you. If you could establish a trade route, it would be better. We might buy some fur from the game you catch near that village," Marissa nodded.
"Will we be under your rule, Marissa?" Sara asked.
"…Yes. You have to file a tax report every month. A messenger will come to your village and collect the taxes. All harvests and game you catch will be subject to a twenty percent tax."
"…I see."
"On the bright side, you will be guaranteed a lifeline. Should there be a monster attack that you couldn't handle, you could always flee here. A merchant will also be sent there regularly to supply you with tools or food. You no longer need to rely on wooden tools. Moreover, if there is a crisis that the batkins couldn't handle, we could even dispatch knights there," Marissa said.
Hiro thought they got the shorter end of the stick. As a modern person, he had always hated taxes. Taxes were demons in disguise. Unlike in the modern world, taxes here were only used to pay knights, and Sara had just said that they didn't need knights, as batkins would fulfill that role just fine by themselves.
He forgot that the kingdom had supplied the dovekins and batkins with the initial funds to build the village. No nation had ever given land away for free. If he saw them as investments, then this would all make sense.
"It feels like a dream." Elizabeth wandered through the streets of Quantora. Even though it had grown from a simple village into a city, Quantora was by no means the largest or most prosperous city in Litmus.
Yet, Sara and Elizabeth were enamored with the bustling city. So many humans were here, haggling over their wares in the plaza, taking breaks by the fountain, sitting on a bench, enjoying the scenery. Of course, to Hiro, this was nothing compared to the modern world, where people were packed shoulder to shoulder on the streets. Hiro even thought the streets and plazas here were a little sparse.
But through his sense sharing, he knew what the dovekins and batkins felt. They were overwhelmed by the crowds passing by.
"I am hungry…" Elizabeth growled.
"That was quick. I thought batkins were supposed to only drink blood once every two or three days," Sara pondered. Even she hadn't felt hungry despite eating yesterday. The food here was much more bountiful and filling. She felt full after eating just half a loaf of bread.
"I don't know. I just feel hungry," Elizabeth sighed.
"Well, let's return to the mansion," Sara said. Beastkins were rare in Litmus, so they drew gazes from the public.
"…I want your blood." Elizabeth looked at Sara with yearning. Hiro tilted his tentacle, wondering what Elizabeth was talking about.
"…No. I am not hungry… I just…" Elizabeth crouched down she shook her head, trying to temper her hunger. Hiro sighed. Elizabeth wasn't hungry. It was just cravings. The blood addiction from drinking Sara's blood hadn't gone away yet.
Just as Hiro wondered whether he should put more restrictions on Elizabeth, he felt something nudge his core.
…
Hiro blanked out. Right now, Hiro was inside Elizabeth's womb. There shouldn't be anything that could touch him without alerting Elizabeth.
Then, a small, unmistakable kick shook his core.
For the first time since Hiro became a parasitic tentacle, he panicked.
There was someone else there!