Fireballs and lasers shot through the horde. Like poking a beehive, the camp woke up all at once. Orcs, goblins, and trolls swarmed out of the camp. Just before Cecile engaged them, arrows flew from behind. Despite being much farther back, Nana still hit them in the head.
Cecile dismounted. With her buckler and sword in hand, she charged toward the horde while Rebecca aimed from the rear. Hiro was flabbergasted. Arrows were obviously slower than lasers, but even Hiro missed some of his shots when he aimed from Rebecca's shoulder. The fact that Nana could still shoot accurately from the top of her horse from more than 300 meters away was nothing short of amazing.
Cecile then engaged the horde. Hiro pondered whether to feed her amphetamine and adrenaline, but decided against it. They were random mobs, not elites. The current Cecile could defeat them alone, all thanks to Hiro's growth enhancement.
Hiro wanted to save the trump card just in case the battle came down to a war of attrition. They were just orcs, but there were hundreds of them, and Cecile only had two hands, one of which needed to hold her buckler.
Just as Hiro predicted, the battle lasted until evening. When the orcs realized they couldn't win, they fled like mice from a burrow. Soon, the ruined village was emptied. Cecile and the others rode in and picked the best house—Marissa's former home.
"Is this the ruined village that was going to be given to us?" Sara asked, and Rebecca nodded.
"Yes. This was formerly known as Marissa's Village. We used to live here."
"I see. What a shame. Why did you all move out?" Sara asked.
"When Latvin attacked, it was deemed that this village was indefensible, so we evacuated."
"You told us before. I mean, why didn't you all move back in?"
"Well, Marissa was a cripple before, so this village was also used as a place to exile her," Rebecca said as she opened the door. The inside was ruined. All the furniture was dirty and smelled like goblins. The stench was so repulsive that Rebecca doubted cleaning would solve anything. Everything needed to be replaced.
"Since Marissa was healed by Hiro, she got a place in Quantora Village. She was a duke's daughter after all. This border village is too small for her status. Well, Quantora is still a bit small for a duke's daughter and symbiote users, but taking over another village would create friction with its previous ruler. His father would prefer Marissa to build a great town out of Quantora Village to prove her worth." Rebecca began narrating Marissa's life.
"If only we could remove the smell, this house would already be usable."
"Without maintenance, the house is in a state of disrepair. Not only the furniture needs to be replaced, I think the rood and some of the walls needed to be patched as well."
"Well, we don't really need furniture. As long as we can hang our hammocks, it's fine," Sara said. Elizabeth nodded.
"We don't need beds. They interfere with our wings," Elizabeth added.
"I see. I am glad this village is enough for you," Rebecca nodded.
"It's a bit too big for our liking. There are fifteen farm fields here," Sara said. "It could feed thousands of us."
"Really?" Rebecca tilted her head.
Hiro thought they were exaggerating. These fields were only enough for 100 or 200 families. But since dovekins only needed about half the amount of food compared to normal humans, he was inclined to believe her. Well, it didn't really matter. If they lacked food, they could just open new farms. There were barely 20 families in the dovekin tribe now.
"Let's spend the night here. This used to be a warehouse, but with Hiro's skill, bedding won't really be an issue, right?" Rebecca said as she opened an empty room.
Hiro slithered out, making beds out of his tentacles.
As they stayed the night, Hiro, who didn't need to sleep, stayed on night watch. Using a synthesized eyeball, he watched his surroundings. A few hours into the night, he felt a pinprick on his tentacle.
Elizabeth was snacking on his tentacle again!
Hiro immediately looked at Elizabeth. Despite sleeping, her teeth found Hiro's flesh quite easily. Hiro wanted to punish her, but when he saw her smiling, he held himself back.
"Hiro… I love you. Hiro… Delicious." Elizabeth whispered in her dream as she bit into his tentacle as if it were food. She then licked his tentacle like a cat grooming its food.
Her love was painful!
Hiro sometimes wondered whether her love for him was genuine or whether she saw him as infinite food. After all, she was saying that Hiro was delicious.
Hiro's sight snapped toward the abandoned building across from him. He sensed movement. Those goblins had come back.
Hiro wanted to slap his girls awake, but for a moment, he wondered whether he should do that. Should he wake them up, or should he handle things on his own? With his parasitism, he wondered whether he could defend the girls by himself.
Hiro briefly reminisced about the past. He had defended his girls with nothing more than his tentacles before. In the end, he chose to let his girls sleep and try to raid these mobs on his own.
Hiro used mitosis and created a new core. After sharing some nutrients with his new core, it slipped outward. He hid under the overgrown grass like a snake ready to latch onto its prey, slithering and watching the beasts skulking around.
Then, like a snake, Hiro lunged at the approaching beast. He extended his tentacles and slithered up an orc's leg. The moment his tentacles made contact, he activated his parasitism. Nutrients flowed into him, and he expanded his tentacles to latch onto another goblin and an orc.
The orcs and goblins roared, swinging their clubs at the tentacles. Hiro thought he was strong enough to overpower trash mobs like these, but apparently, he wasn't. The orcs could still tear his tentacles apart like wet tissue. His strength was only above that of goblins.
Hiro realized that if not for their parasitism, parasitic tentacles as a whole wouldn't survive.
The orcs roared, swinging their maces wildly. The goblins followed suit. Using their knives, they tore through the tentacles before collapsing to the ground and drying up.
It was nighttime. There was no sun, so Hiro couldn't use his sunbeam. But he still had one ranged attack left: the new skill he had just acquired a few days ago, Bullet Shot. With it, he fashioned bullets made from bone and shot them from his tentacles.
Each shot tore through the orcs like arrows would. Unfortunately, Hiro didn't have Nana's godlike accuracy. In this dark, moonless night, he could barely see them. With the orcs thrashing around, his vision and aim shook along with them.
Orcs were known for their vitality. Weak shots like these wouldn't kill them unless they were aimed at vital areas such as the heart, throat, or head.
"Huh? What's that noise?" Rebecca groaned.
"We are under attack! Hurry! To your weapons!" Elizabeth, who was not as careless as Rebecca, snapped toward her sword. Despite her bulging belly, her awareness and experience living in the middle of the forest were still prominent.
Rebecca jolted awake. She couldn't believe her ears when Elizabeth said they were under attack. Still, she followed Elizabeth and clumsily reached for her staff. Nana and Cecile followed suit.
"What's that?" Elizabeth stood still as Hiro laid waste to the ambushing orcs. Knowing their targets had awakened, the orcs ran back toward the forest.
"Ah. It's Hiro in his battle form," Cecile said. "Hiro can fight alone if he wants to."
"... I see. I thought it was weird that Hiro didn't wake us up even when he detected monsters nearby. So he wanted to deal with these monsters alone." Rebecca connected the dots.
"Hiro… you shouldn't pamper us like this. We are getting spoiled," Cecile said as Hiro transferred his nutrients to his girls and dismantled his core.
"What a waste," Elizabeth muttered as she stared at the ground where Hiro's tentacle and blood had splattered. Through sense sharing, Hiro sensed that Elizabeth felt longing and disappointment.
Hiro nudged her on the cheek and flicked her forehead. In that moment, a sense of shame and regret surged through her. She had thought of Hiro as food.
"Ah. I… I am sorry." Elizabeth bowed down. Tears forming in her eyes.
Hiro then patted her on the head, a sign that he had forgiven her.
"So, what are we going to do now? Those orcs and goblins might ambush us again tonight. Should we do a night watch?" Elizabeth took a few deep breaths. But of course, her idea was met with a lukewarm response.
"... I guess we should. We shouldn't let Hiro do all the work, right?" Cecile said with an uncomfortable smile. Although they were knights, they had never been assigned to nor needed to do night watch during their entire careers. After all, Hiro didn't need sleep. They had been unconsciously relying on Hiro to keep watch at night.
The reason they were silent was because they didn't want to admit that they had been pampered by Hiro in their knightly duties outside combat. They didn't want to admit that they owed even more to Hiro.
"I guess we can rely on Hiro. But… are you sure it's okay?" Sara turned to Hiro. Hiro nodded with his tentacle.
"No! We shouldn't let Hiro spoil us like this! Let's do a night watch, like proper knights should!" Elizabeth said.
"Elizabeth, you are pregnant. You should sleep," Sara scolded her. Alas, Hiro guided them back to the mansion and closed the door, letting them fall back into his flesh bed.
They could act spoiled all they wanted. After all, they were Hiro's slaves. Hiro wanted them to act spoiled.
"Please wake us up if you sense any attack, alright? It's the least we could do," Elizabeth said.
"Yes. Leave the fighting to us. We can't let you handle everything alone," Rebecca nodded.
This time, Hiro nodded his tentacle. The girls slept with their weapons at their sides, knowing that these monsters were smarter than they looked.