"This is nice. Finally, some peace and quiet," Rebecca said as she sat atop a dirt mound, with Cecile and Nana beside her.

Now that they had returned from their journey, they were back to mundane work—their original assignment: converting dirt into iron ingots.

Unlike most heroic protagonists, Hiro didn’t mind the dull labor. The war and the parasitic tentacles had given him more than enough excitement for a while. He had realized he wasn’t cut out to be a true combat symbiote like Sheena. Fighting wasn’t for him. He preferred crafting and doing lewd things with his hosts.

Of course, trouble came knocking soon after. Elysia told them that Marissa was looking for them in her office.

"Ah, Cecile, Rebecca, Nana," Marissa called out. "There seems to be trouble in the northern mountains. Could you check it out? Fifteen diggers and five knights have already been injured—or worse. A local tribe appears to be having issues with us."

"Traveling again?" Rebecca rolled her eyes.

"Well, Marissa and Elysia can handle things in Quantora," Nana said calmly. "So it’s only right that we go."

"Let’s go! I want to visit a mountain!" Cecile said brightly. Unlike the others, she loved traveling. "It’s already been a week. We’re knights of Litmus!"

"Ah, Cecile," Marissa added, "if you manage to quell the unrest with the tribes there, we may appoint you as village chief for that region."

"Eh? Can I refuse?" Cecile asked. Her enthusiasm dropped off a cliff.

"You’d refuse such an honor?" Rebecca said, bewildered. "That’s your chance to become a noble!"

"You can take it instead, Rebecca. You were an ex-noble," Cecile replied. "I’m just a common adventurer. I don’t want to be a noble."

"Nah. I don’t want it either," Rebecca said. "People from my Evesys days might resurface. That wouldn’t be good for the nation."

"See? We’re the same!" Cecile grinned. "What about you, Nana?"

"If Hiro wanted me to," Nana said thoughtfully. "But I’m already busy. If I cut down my personal time any further, I might collapse. So... please excuse me."

One had low self-esteem, one was too lewd, and one carried a problematic past. Yes—it was wise to decline nobility.

"Moving on, what tribe is it?" Rebecca sighed.

Rebecca herself had no desire to become a noble either. Not because she opposed the idea, but because her Evesys name would inevitably be dragged back into the spotlight.

Marissa smiled. "Excellent. It seems all of you have rejected the offer, then."

She glanced at a minister standing nearby, subtly signaling him to leave. He could only sigh in exasperation as he complied.

"What was that about?" Rebecca blinked.

"That was Count Julian’s man," Marissa explained. "His family had been one of Daneswald’s vassals for over a hundred years—and he had his eye on Hiro for quite some time. I’m not against Hiro expanding, but the king wanted to put a cap on it. Everyone wants to be a symbiote host, even if they weren’t a combat symbiote, so Julian has been leveraging his loyalty to my father in hopes of obtaining a symbiote."

"Was that whole thing a test?" Rebecca asked.

"Ah, no. The issue with the tribe is real," Marissa said. "The king genuinely asked us to mediate. You see, a Dovekin tribe was disturbed when we established a mining site near their hidden village."

"A Dovekin tribe?"

"Yes. Since the village technically lies within my father’s territory, they brought their complaint to him." Marissa turned to her maid. "Could you call Sara?"

The door opened, and an angelic figure entered. Radiant white wings spread slightly as she bowed. Hiro’s tentacle twitched at the sight.

"Greetings. I am Sara, a Dovekin," she said.

"Sara," Marissa continued, "allow me to introduce my knights. This is Cecile, this is Rebecca, and this is Nana. They’ll be mediating this matter."

"Um... Sara," Rebecca said carefully. "Before we go to your village, could you tell us what troubles you?"

She expected a territorial dispute or some disturbance such as the new villagers crossing some cultural taboo, but the answer caught her completely off guard.

"Your knights and villagers have been hunting our friend," Sara said calmly. "So we retaliated. Fifteen people were killed in the dispute."

Cecile and Rebecca stared at her in shock. They never imagined Litmus could be so heartless. Something was wrong—there had to be.

"Huh? How could Litmus do such a thing?" Rebecca asked, stunned. "Is this report true, Marissa?"

She hadn’t expected the dispute to escalate this far. This was no longer a disagreement—it was bordering on civil war.

"I read the report," Marissa replied carefully. "But our men and knights claimed they were hunting vampires. I thought you all hated the undead."

"They are not vampires! They are batkin!" Sara snapped.

"...That’s new. My apologies," Marissa said, momentarily thrown off. "We’ve never encountered batkin before."

She scanned the report again, brow furrowing. "Hm? It says here they confirmed the targets were vampires. Blood-drinkers. Some are even capable of necromancy."

"Batkin drink blood too," Sara shot back, "and anyone can practice necromancy if they study it. We have been providing them with blood. We forged a pact with them. But when your knights arrived, they drew their blades! They started calling them undead and attacked!"

"Sara," Rebecca said carefully, "first of all, we do have genuine undead in this village. So if these... um, batkin can be reasoned with, maybe we can reach an agreement?"

Sara hesitated and looked away. Hiro could sense her unease. Beastkin came in many forms—her explanation could be genuine. These might truly be batkin, not vampires.

But if the Dovekin were harboring actual undead, the situation would be dire.

Undead were calamities. They fed on the living and obeyed entirely different natural laws. Worse, they could not disobey their progenitors. If ordered to rebel against the king, they would do so without hesitation. That was why undead were considered dangerous—even if they appeared reasonable.

"That would be difficult," Marissa said firmly. "One or two might be tolerated. But an entire village? That crosses a line. We also need to discuss the progenitor. Who is it?"

Vampire princess... please let it be a loli vampire princess over a thousand years old! with busty melons if possible! Hiro’s mind wandered. He imagined pale skin, blonde hair, crimson eyes—utterly detached from the gravity of the discussion unfolding.

"There is no progenitor," Sara said, her voice steady. "Batkin give birth to their sons and daughters the same way humans do."

This time, there was no hesitation in her answer.

"...Is that true?" Rebecca asked, studying Sara closely.

"Yes!" Sara said quickly. "I’ve even assisted with one of their births. Unlike vampires, who spread like a plague, batkin don’t infect anyone when they bite. They only drink blood for sustenance."

"Well..." Rebecca said slowly, "if the batkin are truly as you describe, then I believe we could open discussions about cohabitation. Litmus is a welcoming nation. We accept all races, as long as they obey our laws and strive for peace. As for the batkin’s unique biology—could we rely on you, at least for now? I doubt many humans would willingly let others drink their blood."

This time, Sara turned away. Hiro immediately understood. This is the real problem.

A fight had already broken out. People had died.

Rebecca caught the hesitation at once. This world wasn’t governed by modern sensibilities—it ran on magic and power. An isolated tribe didn’t mean a weak one. If necessary, they could match trained knights. Litmus could wipe them out by deploying symbiote users, but Hiro could sense the reluctance. The Dovekin were clearly vouching for the batkin, and no one wanted escalation.

"Sara," Rebecca said gently, "what do the batkin want? Do they want peace?"

"The Dovekin want peace," Sara replied. "We’ve tried everything to mediate between the two sides. But the batkin want vengeance. Your knights ransacked their homes. They killed their children—burned them on pyres."

The room went silent.

"If you demolish the newly founded village," Sara continued quietly, "that would resolve the conflict... but that won’t happen. Will it? But we don’t want that either. The village had been quite a boon for dovekin."

Rebecca exhaled sharply. "Then what are you even asking us to do?" she said, rubbing her temple. "You don’t have authority over them."

Sara’s eyes welled with tears.

"And we can’t just dismantle the village," Rebecca went on. "Too many livelihoods depend on it. Even if we did—would that truly solve anything? What if these so-called vampires decide to terrorize other settlements instead?"

The problem hadn’t disappeared.

"Well... peace is hard to come by," Marissa said. "I applaud your decision, Sara. We have to start somewhere, right?" She turned to the others. "Rebecca, Cecile, Nana—can I trust you to mediate between the batkin and the new mining village?"

"Is there anything else we need to know?" Rebecca sighed. She already knew this would be a massive undertaking.

"I don’t think there’s much else you need to know about us," Sara said after a moment of thought.

"What about the region itself?" Rebecca pressed. "Does it have any special characteristics?"

"Ah. The region is cursed," Sara replied. "Unlike other lands, crops cannot grow there."

"Huh? No crops?" Rebecca exclaimed. "Then how did you survive under the radar for so long? If nothing grows, you must have been importing food from somewhere!"

"We Dovekin mostly eat insects and nuts that grow on trees," Sara explained. "We don’t farm."

Rebecca and Cecile gaped.

Hiro, who had been eager to visit the region moments ago, hesitated. A land scarce in food was disastrous for him. His hosts already ate at least three times as much as normal people on a daily basis—and that number could climb to five times when he used adrenaline or amphetamine enhancements.

"That’s... unfortunate," Marissa said carefully.

"The newly founded village brought much-needed grain," Sara continued. "That’s why we wanted to stay on good terms with them. If only they had never encountered the batkin and that incident, I believe we could coexist in peace. We didn’t think they would react so violently just because of their appearance. Allowing villagers into our territory was a mistake."

"Well," Marissa said, "when can you depart, Rebecca? The king has issued a decree halting all offensive actions. Will the batkin honor the same?"

"Um... yes," Sara said. "We currently have a truce."

"Ugh... this is going to be troublesome," Rebecca groaned. "All right. Let’s prepare. We’ll depart in two days."