Chapter 66: Mutual’s Symbiote

“Rebecca, Cecile, Nana, Elysia, the general expects you at headquarters.” A soldier knocked on the door of the girls’ room.

“Yes, we will be there shortly.” Elysia, who didn’t need to sleep, opened the door and bowed to the soldier. The sun had risen on the horizon; the girls had slept in again.

An hour later, they gathered at the headquarters. Rebecca noticed something was different today. Some soldiers didn’t wear Litmus’ blue military uniform but wore white uniforms instead. Cecile, who was slower, tilted her head, but when the soldier kneeled before them as they passed, she understood where they came from.

“Careful. They came from Mutual,” Elysia said.

“Ah, the kingdom that worships symbiotes.” Cecile nodded.

“But we are symbiote users; why do we need to be careful?” Rebecca asked.

“Lady Marissa said they might try some unscrupulous methods to recruit us,” Elysia whispered.

But none came to talk to them, even after they reached the knights’ headquarters. There, an old man was negotiating with the general.

“Greetings, honorable symbiotes from Hiro’s lineage. Cecile, Rebecca, Elysia, and Nana, right? Let me introduce myself. I am Gorn, a vice commander of the Mutual army.”

“Hello. Um… are you a symbiote user?”

“Symbiote user? Ah. I am not a Divine Host, my dear. I am merely a servant. The Divine Host is currently preserving her strength.”

“Alright. You may sit or stand at the back. So, Gorn, when do you think we should attack Sicily?” The general went straight to the point.

“That depends on the almighty Altair and her boon, the one we serve. But I heard they planned it to be sometime in the following week.”

“I see. That works well. We shall prepare for the attack.”

The group soon moved the discussion toward supplies and enemy intel. The general also gave them the gun they had plundered from the supply cart.

“That went better than I expected,” Cecile muttered after the general dismissed them.

“Yeah. I am glad that we got someone with a better attitude,” the general said.

“But he didn’t appear in the meeting. How can you be sure he had a better attitude?”

“We didn’t hear any reports about someone making a fuss. That already constitutes a better attitude in my book.”

“They are that bad, huh?”

“Not really. Most can be pleased with praise and booze. But we don’t have them here, and we can’t let a symbiote user drink booze before a fight. That’s why they might get raunchy, especially to anyone who didn’t show them respect.”

“I see.”

“Well, see you next week. If you want to help, you are welcome anytime at the barracks.”

“Let’s go to the restaurant.” Cecile hopped out of the stuffy meeting hall. The meeting was taking forever; it was already lunchtime when they were done.

“Apologies, our Divine Host is dining here. You may not enter.” A knight in a white dress stopped Cecile and the others who wanted to go inside a restaurant.Peeking from outside, Cecile could see a girl dining with refined manners. Unlike other knights, she wore a white cloak with golden embroidery. Her golden eye met Cecile’s. It glowed, and Hiro could sense motes of light emanating from her hair.

She then stood up, approaching the group as knights kneeled beside her.

“Don’t clean the table just yet. I am not done.”

“Yes, milady.”

“Ah. The symbiote user is a girl. I didn’t realize.” Cecile muttered.

“That’s rich coming from you. You yourself are female, right? Pleased to meet you. I am Altair.”

“Ah. I am sorry. I-I do not mean to stare.” Cecile bowed.

“It’s fine. I understand my eyes and hair are a bit unique. Not as unique as the flower on your head though. Come, have a seat. You may dine with me. As a fellow symbiote user, you do not need to lower your head.”

“Um…” Cecile looked around. Twenty knights adorned in ceremonial armor stood guard. Hiro inwardly sighed. Cecile was shy, so being watched by this many people while eating must have been torturous, but she knew she couldn’t just refuse—it would be impolite. Symbiote users were regarded higher than even nobles among their people.

“It was an honor to dine with you, Divine Host of Mutual,” Rebecca said. “May we join you?”

“You may come. But the maid may not.”

“Yes, honored Divine Host. I shall take my leave.” Elysia left without surprise. She had seen the knights’ gazes. They tolerated her, but beneath their composure she knew they felt disgust. Elysia was a lich—a monster.

She was not sad, for she had Hiro and the girls with her. Her loneliness had disappeared ever since she had accepted Hiro as her companion. Whenever villagers cast nasty eyes at her and it saddened her, Hiro would cheer her up by kneading her cheeks.

“Alright. To what may I owe the honor of the Divine Host inviting us to dine with you?” Rebecca, who had once been a noble and learned more than most girls, began with eloquence.

“I was curious about Hiro, that’s all.” Altair gazed at the flowers on top of Cecile and Nana’s heads, then at Rebecca’s wings. “I see. So that’s what Litmus has been hiding from us. How fascinating.”

“Hm? What do you see?” Rebecca tilted her head.

“The fact that Hiro is not a symbiote.” Altair’s hair shifted and merged into a tentacle. It slithered toward Cecile and the others, seemingly picking a fight. “Lissy, we should not. This is their problem.”

Cecile, Nana, and Rebecca gasped as they pushed back their chairs. Their eyes darted toward the door and the windows, already thinking of escape.

“Relax. I just want to talk. You see, if this meeting had happened two or three months ago, I would have killed you on the spot. The parasitic tentacle was a dangerous monster—one that had to be slain on sight. But since I know you are still yourselves, I’ve decided to make an exception. I owe this parasitic tentacle a favor, after all.”

Hiro trembled. His cover was blown with just a glance. He had forgotten that symbiotes could tell if others were symbiotes with just a glance. But Luna was fine! She hadn’t been caught. So what gave it away?

“Could you please come out? I just want to check whether or not you are harmful to humanity. Cecile, Rebecca, are you still yourselves?” Altair asked.

“Erm… yes.” The girls nodded.

“How long have you had Hiro?”

“We have had him for almost a year now.”

“I see. Other humans would have been devoured by parasitic tentacles within a week. The fact that you survived for almost a year tells me that Hiro might be a variant of that hateful parasitic tentacle. A word of advice: you should cut that wing and flower on your head. Looking at that parasite attached to a human is revolting.”

Hiro quickly shed the wings and flowers on his girls. He was a bit saddened by the lost of nutrients and cell storage, but if that’s how Altair could tell whether he was a parasitic tentacle, then he would cast them out without hesitation. He could just make more if the situation demanded it.

“That’s better. Hm… I see that you are not harmed. Good. I see Hiro has some tact and aesthetic sense; they are not as revolting as the original. You see, parasitic tentacle forests do not only exist in Latvin—they also exist in the southern border of Mutual.

“Unfortunate adventurers who went there were often preyed on by those tentacles. Then the parasite took over their bodies, and they came over to towns, attacking them.”

Hiro tilted his head. Altair didn’t seem to be lying, but parasitic tentacles are not scavengers. They cannot survive on corpses. Elysia is the proof—Hiro could not take any nutrients from her. His core inside her had to be manually replenished by other cores periodically.

Hiro then realized. The answer lay in the new skills Hiro had after his evolution: the flower and the roots. The reason Hiro didn’t realize this was because the flower only gave mana, not nutrients. As for the roots, Hiro didn’t realize they could be planted inside a corpse, not just dug into the ground.

Of course, since all of Hiro’s hosts were still alive, such methods would not work. But Altair had firsthand experience with how revolting it was—decaying corpses like zombies, composed of monsters and humans, marched from the forest toward the human settlement.

The mana gathered from the flower fueled the tentacle to move the body, while its roots dug deep into the corpse, converting it into nutrients.

“Thank you for letting us go….” Rebecca said. “May I ask why? I believe this is our first time we've met. What favor do you owe Hiro? I do not think mere iron ingots could make you let us go like this.”

“Iron ingots? Pfft, ah haha. Oh yeah, I almost forgot that Litmus has no natural resources. They used Hiro to convert dirt into ingots. Ah, but I heard he can do more than iron ingots, right? I heard adamantite and mythril are not out of the question for him, as long as we provide the source,” Altair laughed.

“Then…”

“Ahem. No, I am not talking about that ability. I am talking about his healing ability. Claire is my sister. She worked as a healer in the church inside Mutual. Her ability is unique in that she could heal almost any kind of disease by transferring it to her own body.”

“Hiro healed her?”

“Yeah, by replacing his flesh. I am good at healing magic, you see, but even I could not heal her. Yet, for some reason, this tentacle could. That’s why I said I owe him one,” Altair said.

“Ah. I see.”

“Geez. I helped people too, but my sister is on another level. I won’t risk my health to do it. She didn’t hesitate to sacrifice her own body to heal a patient. Philanthropists are such a pain, aren’t they? Maybe it was just my sister,” Altair sighed. “I heard she will start healing people again next week. Good lord.”

Hiro, who had seen the sister in question, nodded his tentacle. That sister saw her own body as nothing more than a tool to help others. He wondered what drove her to such an extent. She didn’t care for her own body.

“So, in return for me keeping your secret safe, you will help my sister if she needed a replacement body in the future. Do we have a deal?”

Hiro slithered out from Cecile and nodded his tentacle.

“Alright, it’s a deal. I can’t believe I made a pact with devils. I was supposed to destroy ilks like you, but I guess there are some good tentacles in this world. That was a surprise,” Altair said. “Alright. See you. Please don’t forget your promise. I will mail you when I need your help.”

The food they ordered had arrived just in time. Now that he had his alliance with Mutual, it was time to crush Latvin.