"Sure," Rebecca said. They had rope ladders for foreigners to climb to their tree houses, but getting them out took so long that Hiro chose to use his tentacles instead.
Rebecca, being scared of heights, curled up and hugged Hiro tightly as he lowered her body. The gentle wind swayed her body. Hiro could feel her body tense up. Dark thoughts emerged, wanting to tease her by swaying the tentacles, but he dispelled them with willpower. This was no time for games, and it wasn't nice to play with someone's phobia like that.
"Phew." Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief when her feet finally touched the ground. Seemingly sensing Hiro was about to tease her, Rebecca pouted. "I am not afraid of heights. I am merely scared that you will drop me, that's all. It doesn't seem very secure."
Hiro then pounded her head, drilling it with his tentacle. He was trying to be considerate, but instead of gratitude, he was met with rebuke. This spoiled girl needed to be disciplined!
"Ow… I'm sorry, all right. I'm sorry," Rebecca said.
"Let's go," Sara led the way through the forest. Her sandals seemed to glide through it. It didn't even take one hour, and they had already arrived at the newly established mining village.
"Want to eat first?" Cecile asked.
"…But didn't we already eat a few moments ago?"
Hiro sighed. It had been more than three hours. With such a paltry amount of food, it couldn't even be called lunch. Barely a snack.
"…Well…" Cecile and Nana turned away. Saying that the lunch was not enough would be rude as diplomats. They needed to make a good impression. Their gazes fell on Rebecca, the brain of the group, hoping for her to salvage the situation.
"Well, we should go to the knights' quarters first. By the time we finish talking to them, it will be time for dinner. Then, we can go back to the tree house for a rest," Rebecca said.
"Ah, I see. Certainly. It's a bit early for dinner, but I guess it is understandable. Um… do you find our food unwelcoming?" Sara muttered. Her head lowered, wondering whether this negotiation wouldn't succeed after all. Their culture was so different. "Is it that repulsive?"
"No! Not at all! It was a culture shock, sure, but after tasting the food, it tasted fine," Rebecca denied, a bit too fervently. "You see, the problem is not the taste, but the amount."
"The amount? I see… You should have told me from the beginning. I could certainly arrange something with Sapphire if all you need is to increase the amount," Sara said, breathing a sigh of relief. "We might be a poor village, but we are not so poor that we couldn't afford to feed three people. We have some more grubs and nuts in our jars."
"Um… before you promised you would feed us. I shall treat you to dinner in this village. This way you will know how much we eat," Rebecca said. Sara might say she had enough food, but Rebecca doubted it. Judging by the amount they ate each meal, they might have to eat a whole village's food reserve just to satisfy their needs.
"By the way, you can eat meat, right?"
"Yes. We can eat meat just fine. The batkins often share their spoils with us."
Even though you are pigeon? Of course, Hiro kept such thought to himself.
"Ah, they feed primarily on blood, right? So, is any animal's blood fine?"
"Yes. With the exception of gestation period. When batkins are expecting, they need humanoid blood, or their offspring will have severe blood illness," Sara said as they went toward the knights' headquarters.
"I'm sorry, but the knights' commander is currently busy meeting with miners. Would you like to make an appointment?"
"Yes, please. We will grab some early dinner in the meantime. Could you tell him that we will come again in the evening before the sun sets?"
"Understood. He should be done with his meeting at that time."
"Very well. Let's have something for dinner, guys." Rebecca turned to her friends. Cecile nodded her head vigorously.
When they went to the restaurant, Sara had another culture shock at the amount of food other diners ate: half a loaf of bread, a bowl of soup, and several sausages.
"Please eat. Don't worry, it's our treat. We are symbiote users; we get paid by the country. This is usually the amount we eat. Symbiote users often eat much more than normal people, anyway," Rebecca said. Without any decorum, Cecile and Nana gobbled the food before them.
Hiro sighed in relief as his nutrient storage started to rise. Out of the corner of Rebecca's view, Hiro saw Sara eat a slice of bread and ham. On her second slice, she threw up.
"Sara, are you okay? Is the food not to your liking? Sorry. We can order something else. What about boiled beans? You eat these, right?"
"…Sorry. I think I am done eating. It's not about the food, but the amount," Sara said as she was laid on a nearby bench by Cecile. When Cecile carried her, Hiro and Cecile were surprised. She was so light, barely twenty pounds. Cecile almost threw her into the air.
"You are so light, Sara," Cecile said.
"I guess this explains a lot about dovekins' and batkins' biology… They are unique," Rebecca said. This confirmed it. The experience they had in the dovekin tribe confirmed it.
"Are you okay? Need some medicine?" Cecile asked as she chewed on another piece of bread while munching on fried chicken Nana brought from her table.
"I think I will be fine if I rest for a bit. Sorry. Ugh… please don't eat in front of me. I think I will get sicker."
"Alright. We will leave you here for a while, okay." Cecile and Rebecca nodded.
Sara sighed. She thought they had splurged on the visitors with those ten chestnuts. They often ate a little less than that. But she was wrong. To normal humans, that full, heavy meal was nothing more than a snack.
She turned her head at Rebecca, who was eating heartily at the table. They were monsters. Even Rebecca, the smallest of the group, ate more food than her in a week. Sara thought back to her conversation with her before. Rebecca was right. If they ate a full meal inside the village, the village would go bankrupt.
"You really finished all of those…" Sara welled up in disgust at the empty bowls and plates lying on the table. Cecile and Rebecca turned away in shame. Hiro slithered up to their heads and patted them, as if saying that it was okay.
"Shall we head to the knights' headquarters?" Rebecca asked. Sara nodded.
"If humans eat that much in a meal, I was wondering whether we sold our feathers for too little," Sara muttered. She had traded a pound of feathers for a pound of beans or other nuts. At other times, she had received about ten bronze coins for them. She thought it was a good deal. A pound of such food was enough for one or two days.
She obviously couldn't survive on selling her feathers alone. But that money was a good deal for emergency food. The village was grateful for such lifelines.
"Do your feathers have any special properties compared to others?"
"Not really. The trader said they would use our feathers for pillows or something."
"Well, it was a fair deal then," Rebecca said.
"If we can find a specialized craftsman, we can turn your feathers into quill pens!" Cecile said, trying to cheer her up. "I think your feathers were lovely. It would be a waste to turn them into mere pillows."
"…I see." Sara considered it for a moment. For hundreds of years, the dovekin and batkin had lived a reclusive life. She herself had not fully understood the concept of money.
"We've arrived," Rebecca said. The knights welcomed and escorted them to the captain's headquarters.
"Greetings. Please, have a seat. I had received word from Lady Leafa and Duke Daneswald about your task of mediating this dispute with the Dovekin tribe."
"You have slaughtered our sworn allies unprovoked! Of course we will be enraged!"
"Sara, calm down. Let us handle the talking," Rebecca said. She noticed that the knights were quite adamant about not recognizing the batkins as a new beastkin. Now, did they really think the batkins were not human, or were they simply refusing to acknowledge the mistake? That was what Rebecca was here for.
"Let's start with facts first. Sara and the batkin tribe said you burned their house after killing 'vampires.' Is this true? I mean, it wasn't in the report. If it was true, why? There is no need to burn a house, right? Building a house is not easy. Did you really need to burn it?"
"Well, the knights were exterminating a vampire's nest. Of course we would destroy it completely," the captain said. "We left it out of the report because we didn't think it was necessary."
"So, you burned the corpses together with the house?" Rebecca asked.
"Yes. The knights said they threw the bodies of the vampires inside and burned the house." Rebecca then turned her head.
"The bodies? Do undead leave their bodies once slain?" Rebecca asked. "I thought they would disappear once killed, as the mana link was severed. Only zombies still leave corpses once dead, right? Vampires should turn to ashes once slain."
"…"
"…" The captain blanked out at Rebecca's questioning. Hiro wanted to pat her head for a job well done. But this was a formal questioning. He would leave the playing for nighttime. They had this in the bag. This was all a mistake. They really were batkins and not vampires.
"See! These men were slaughtering our tribe in cold blood!" Sara shouted. "This is the proof. Vampires don't leave their bodies behind!"
"I see. I shall investigate this more closely. The vampires could probably still have been alive when they threw their bodies inside the house, or they might just have phrased it weirdly. It probably was their belongings or something," the captain said.
"That would be all," Rebecca said. "We shall come back at a later date."
"…If this really was a mistake, I hope for your leniency. These men didn't know what they were doing," the captain said.
"We will do our best. But please remember, they must still be punished for falsifying report." Rebecca nodded.
Then the group left. The truth was now clear. But the problem hadn't been solved. Rebecca sighed. She would have to make another appointment tomorrow with the batkins.