The trio stayed the night in the dovekin's village. As the moon rose, Hiro extended his tentacles to envelop the room. Using his metamorphic tentacle, he could even mimic the wooden window. Despite being in an enclosed room, Hiro could still see his surroundings.
"Hiro…" Nana rubbed her body against him, wanting to play naughty. Cecile tried to cover herself with Hiro's flesh as a blanket. But Hiro knew she wanted the same, while Rebecca feigned ignorance. Just as Hiro was about to take off their clothes, he sensed something: a movement from outside the door.
Hiro stopped his activity at once. He slithered his tentacles to the window and onto the roof. A thud. It was so soft Hiro couldn't hear it, but the vibration on the floor and the wall couldn't be mistaken.
There was a person outside, spying on them. Hiro went silent. His attention went toward the intruder. He didn't know whether this person was just passing by or was spying on them, but better safe than sorry. Hiro stopped the play and handed Cecile's sword to her. Motioning the party to get ready by pointing outside.
Seeing the gesture, the girls became alert. Nana was especially irritated. Her eyes glowered with dangerous light, ready to kill anyone who dared to interrupt her alone time with Hiro.
Then a shadow passed the window. Hiro lashed his tentacles at the intruder.
"Eek! What's this!" the shadow screamed. A flash of light severed Hiro's tentacle as the shadow glided through the forest.
Hiro's stats were low, barely a match for a beginner adventurer. There is no way he could win in a straight-up fight unless he can latch himself and activate his parasitic skill.
"Who's there!" Cecile and Nana bolted to the window. But all they saw was a black shadow that disappeared between the trees.
"Cecile, Nana?"
"No. I didn't see it. but it sounded like a girl."
"It's a batkin. But I don't know who," Nana, who had better eyesight, said.
"What should we do? Should we ignore them?" Cecile asked. Following them risked angering the batkins they were about to befriend.
"Let's follow them. But stealthily. Hiro, can you do that?" Rebecca asked.
Hiro nodded. The tentacles hugged their bodies up close and transformed into a bodysuit. Then, using his metamorphic tentacles, he formed black fur, like that of a panther. Hiro went all out with his skills. They were not as invisible as Jonathan, but this should do.
The girls sneaked out through the window. Thanks to Hiro's flesh covering their feet, their steps were silent. Through the porch, Hiro extended his tentacles, and they roped from tree to tree toward the batkin tribe. Hiro wondered whether spying on them like this was a good idea.
Hiro was not confident in his stealth ability. If they were caught, there was no talking their way out of this. They would be branded as spies by both dovekins and batkins, and they would lose all the trust they had with them. But Hiro chose to trust Rebecca. She was the leader of the team. All he needed to do was support her to the best of his ability. This is a chance to figure out whether the batkins had passed the point of no return.
When they arrived at the batkin tribe next door, Hiro used his tentacle to peek inside, but the houses were empty. All the batkins were gathered in the village hall down below. With multiple torches, two dozen batkins escorted several dovekins through the forest.
"What are they doing with those dovekins?" Rebecca whispered.
"That pale girl is Elizabeth, right? She is the batkin's chief. What were she planning with those dovekins?" Cecile whispered beside her. Elizabeth, the chief of the batkins, led the way. Her pale face, lit by torches, was unnerving.
"Ah. That might be who attacked us," Nana said. "The figure fits."
"I see. This might be the secret these batkins were trying to hide," Rebecca whispered. "Let's see what they have. Can we move closer?"
The batkins had good eyesight, but the dovekins were not. The torches that surrounded the dovekins reduced the batkins' night vision so that they did not see the three shadows tailing them. The dovekins used to work in the sun, so they had practically zero stealth.
"Tch! We are in trouble. Those symbiote users have their guards up. I can't put the sleeping incense inside," Elizabeth said.
"What are we going to do now? Tonight is the ceremony," another batkin guard asked.
"What else can we do? We have to continue, otherwise lives will be lost," Elizabeth said. Her eyes glanced at the trees. "Let's hope they stay inside their room."
Then they dived deeper into the forest. Hiro wasn't sure whether Elizabeth had spotted them, but Rebecca insisted on the mission.
Then, they arrived at a glade, where an altar and a metal coffin were placed on it. On an altar, a batkin woman was sleeping inside a coffin. Rebecca gasped, thinking she was dead. But she wasn't. Rebecca watched as the dovekins lined up toward the crypt. Then the dovekins gave their hands, and the batkin inside the coffin woke up. With a bestial growls she bit the dovekin's hand and drank their blood. When she tapped out, a nearby batkin forced the woman sleeping in the crypt to release them, and the cycle continued with the next dovekin.
Rebecca and the girls watched the ceremony so intently that they forgot Elizabeth was missing from the group.
"This is a batkin ritual. When a female batkin conceives during a full moon, they need blood," Elizabeth whispered behind Rebecca. The girls all jumped. Each reached for their weapons, but Hiro prevented them.
"HI—Hmpf!!" Hiro quickly muffled their mouths. If Elizabeth had wanted war, she would have attacked them by now. But she didn't. Hiro had a feeling she wanted the girls to follow them when he saw Elizabeth sometimes glancing back.
"You are quite stealthy. But not stealthy enough. If not for those torches and the sounds those dovekins made, we wouldn't have been caught off guard like this. I am special, though. Please don't come any closer."
"I see…" Rebecca calmed her racing heart. "This is a peculiar tradition. With the coffins and the night sky. Are you sure you do not have anything to do with vampires?"
"Have you ever thought about how vampires come to be?"
"They were bitten, died, and either became a new vampire or mindless undead zombies," Rebecca, the scholar, answered.
"Those that become vampires… Are they just mindless undead? They have a will. They are sentient. Why can't they be acknowledged as a race just like other beastkin?"
"Well. They need to eat humans. And do they even want to make peace with us?" Rebecca asked. "The history book said that an undead country once ravaged the land, enslaving and killing any sentient being for their blood."
Elizabeth smiled.
"Well, just for your information, we might be descendants of vampires. But we do not consider ourselves vampires. As proof, we no longer turn to ashes under sunlight. We might get drowsy under sunlight, but sunlight no longer kills us."
"But the blood." Rebecca frowned. "You still have to kill humans to survive."
"…We still have to drink blood, but we can drink animals' blood now. But when we conceive, we still have to eat humanoid blood. We did our best not to kill anyone. As proof, look at those dovekins. None of them died, right?" Elizabeth wore a sad frown as she looked over at the ceremony. "Can't you forgive us?"
"I see," Rebecca muttered as she watched toward the vampire woman. She looked as if she was in pain. As if she yearned for something.
Despite the eerie growl, it was a solemn ceremony. But Rebecca could feel the weight of it. They were vampires. They were undead. Some of them had made pacts with devils. But now they wanted to repent. They wanted to walk into the light. They were tired—being hunted by humans, being predators, killing those they held dear.
"Well. If you say so. Then the answer is simple, right? We can have a truce," Cecile said.
"Unfortunately, my kin do not tolerate you as well as I do," Elizabeth said. Hiro slapped his nonexistent head. Here it comes again. Politics.
"Why?" Rebecca asked.
"Women are rarely born in the batkin tribe. Vampires and batkins are a matriarchal society. Apart from me, there are only three other women, and you killed one of them. Such actions mean war. Without women, we couldn't breed. I am still young. As per tradition, a virgin batkin girl must be the queen. Well, we are just a village now, so I became the chief. Batkins believed a virgin batgirl is the strongest, as she is the one blessed the most by the moon."
"…Is this all the batkin tribe? Only two dozen people?" Rebecca asked, guessing their numbers. Hiro rolled his nonexistent eyes. Two dozen batkins. Two women. Three if they counted Elizabeth. They were functionally extinct. There was no way they could flourish as a race.
Hiro wondered how they conceived. But Rebecca didn't ask that question. Instead, she bowed and seemed ready to leave. Now Hiro was curious.
"I see. Thank you for telling me this, Elizabeth." Rebecca bowed.
"Please leave now. If you are caught, there is nothing I could do to save you. It would be an all-out war then," Elizabeth said. Rebecca nodded.
"We will come to your house again tomorrow afternoon."
"Understood. We are often asleep, but I will make time specially for you," Elizabeth nodded. "Don't get lost. Go straight in that direction. If the trees begin to get smaller, that means you went the wrong way."
Hiro kicked the curious question about batkin biology aside and focused on the task at hand. That was to stealthily return to their room. Hiro had thought about how to return the moment they tailed the batkin tribe, so he left a piece of himself on the trees they passed. It was just lifeless meat without cores, but it was enough to be a sign.
Once they returned to their room, Cecile yawned. The drowsiness began to return now that they felt safe inside the room.
"So, what did you think about it, Rebecca? Um… about batkins," Cecile asked.
"They are finished. How are they going to survive with just two women? Three including Elizabeth?" Rebecca yawned.
"Is there really no other way? I feel sorry for them. They have endured so much."
"Well, the problem is definitely the host. There are barely a hundred dovekins here. If they needed a dozen dovekins just to feed a single woman… No. I think the problem is not that." Rebecca thought back on their conversation.
"How do batkins conceive children, anyway? Do they lay eggs like lizardmen, or do they give birth like catkins and dogkins?" Nana asked. Her head tilted to the side. Hiro tilted his tentacle. That was news to him. He thought the beastkins here were all like mammals, giving birth. He didn't know there were other beastkin out there who laid eggs.
"…That's something we would have to ask them in private later," Rebecca muttered. Hiro eyed her. She definitely forgot to ask her earlier. "Well, we will see how the meeting turns out tomorrow. If the knights admit their mistake, we can then talk about reparations with the batkins."
Thinking the problems were over, Rebecca slept. She had seen enough for today.
Now that you mention it, do dovekins give birth or do they lay eggs? Hiro's thoughts wandered as he imagined Sara laying eggs and watching miniature Sara hatching from them.