Chapter 97: Jade

Morning came early for the dovekins. Birds perched atop branches, chirping with a beautiful, annoying melody. None of Hiro’s girls liked mornings. With last night’s scouting activity, they were even more annoyed with nature’s song.

“Hiro…” Nana pouted. Her frustration was even more pronounced because her supposed quality time with Hiro was interrupted.

“Let’s go,” Cecile said as they wore their adventurer gear. “What’s our agenda for today?”

“We are going to the captain’s lodging. Then we will go to the chief’s house,” Rebecca said.

Sara followed them while yawning. Rebecca thought she was just being polite, but when she insisted on following them everywhere they went, Rebecca then realized that she was tasked to tail Litmus’ diplomats. It was understandable. The diplomats came from Litmus. They didn’t know whether Rebecca came with good intentions or not.

They had nothing to hide, so they let Sara follow them to the knights’ headquarters. The knights’ captain greeted them with an ashen face. Leafa also sat at the table next to him.

“So, what did the two soldiers say about themselves? Was the report mistaken?”

“No. The report was not mistaken. Through our investigation yesterday, they claimed they threw the bodies into the house and burned them,” the captain said. Rebecca could see his hand trembling as he delivered the report. Sara cocked her hips, relishing the victory.

Hiro sighed, wondering why the knight captain even trembled. It’s not like it was him who killed the batkins. Even if it were proven that they did something, it was his underlings who would take the blame. Was he feeling guilty for his men? Hiro supposed that was a good quality on Litmus’ culture.

“I see. Thank you for your honest report, Commander,” Rebecca nodded.

“It has now been proven! You are killing helpless tribal villagers! You must atone for your crimes! Blood for blood!” Sara said. Rebecca motioned for her to calm down.

“We will punish the soldiers. However, we ask you to spare their lives. Judging from the circumstances… No. We are sorry. I hope for your understanding,” Leafa said. She tried hard to defend the knights. If Hiro were an outsider, he would have sided with Sara fully on the matter. But after knowing the secret ritual about batkins yesterday, he begged to differ. These knights were just hot-headed, not evil.

“We will try to mediate to the best of our ability,” Rebecca said. Just as she was about to leave the mining village, Leafa came over.

“Ah, about the new mineral we found here. We nicknamed it purple jade,” Leafa said.

Hiro bristled when hearing the name. Jade was an extremely precious stone, often used in jewelry. In a certain Asian country, it was even regarded as more precious than gold. Hiro could practically see Litmus being the evil corporation enslaving helpless tribal villagers to mine the jade.

“Is it precious?” Rebecca asked. She had never heard about jade before.

“Well. It is useless. We can polish it to some degree, and it has some artistic value, but it is hard. Marble is much better,” Leafa shrugged. “I don’t expect demand for this jade to rise anytime soon.”

Hiro blinked his nonexistent eye at how Leafa, the count’s daughter of Litmus’ metallurgy, just dismissed jade like that.

In Earth’s history, jade was not only used as a gemstone, but it also had some practical value as tools. But Litmus already had steel technology before they found this jade, which rendered it useless.

As for using it as a gemstone, just like Leafa said, jade was hard. Marble was easier to work with. If they wanted gemstones, they could have used real gems such as ruby, emerald, or even diamonds. Jade being somewhat in the middle between stones and gems made it mediocre.

“You won’t wage war with the dovekin just for this mineral, right?”

“No. We will continue mining it, but we won’t kill someone for this. It’s not that valuable,” Leafa said. “The only thing it has going for it now is its rarity.”

“I see. Good. We shall focus on our peace negotiation effort.”

“Yes. Um… please do your best. I know it’s our fault. If we could compensate them, we would. Try to find out what they need. Maybe we can make some arrangements,” Leafa said.

“We will try,” Rebecca said.

When they returned to the dovekin village, Sara bristled at how meek Rebecca was behaving.

“See. They are in the wrong! They have acknowledged it!”

“Even if they were in the wrong, and they were, killing the knights was not the solution. It’s not like killing them would bring the dead family back, right? You were the one who said that you wanted peace. We should try to solve this peacefully without any further bloodshed,” Rebecca said.

Her words made Sara frown. Rebecca had used her own words against her.

“Sorry. I let my emotions get a hold of me back there.” Sara sighed. Rebecca was right, killing the knights won’t bring anything to the village, but how should she explain this to the batkins?

“Now we shall meet Elizabeth. I wonder how we should approach this. Do you think there is something they could possibly want? They refused money, but maybe we can give them sheep or cows every month for ten years?” Rebecca said.

“Well, that would certainly be more enticing than money, but I don’t think they would accept such reparations easily,” Sara said.

“Ugh… Wait. Let’s go back to the village. We should give them cows as gifts before meeting,” Rebecca stopped and turned back toward the village. It would be much more expensive to buy livestock here than in any other Litmus territory. But beggars can’t be choosers.

The main problem with batkins was vengeance. If she could soften them with gifts, they should be open to negotiation. Hiro didn’t like how Rebecca did it. He thought it was a bit underhanded, but this was for peace’s sake, not profit. So he made an exception. It’s not like the batkins had any valuables inside this desolate forest. Litmus just wanted to apologize without harming its knights.

“That’s a good idea. It’s just a gift, right?” Sara said.

“Yeah. It’s just a gift. No strings attached. I think Elizabeth had warmed up to the idea of forgiving us. The problem mainly came from her people. If we can prove that the village was more useful than what they saw initially, we could come to terms… as long as the mining villagers didn’t see the gestation ceremony…” Rebecca frowned as the image of what happened last night resurfaced. The way the batkin lady seemed manic as she bit into the dovekin’s arms was frankly, terrifying.

“Huh? G-g-gestation ceremony? W-w-what do you mean?” Sara widened her eyes.

“We saw how the batkins conceived children yesterday. So we know about it,” Rebecca said flatly. “Well, as long as you are okay with it. I mean, you are okay being treated like that, right?”

“You!” Sara was bewildered. Her body shook hard. “You knew?”

“Yes. About batkins’ history. We don’t know about yours, though. What’s your history? I mean, most people wouldn’t be willing to be subjected to that kind of treatment.”

“…” Sara was silently judging them. She then contemplated, sighing all the while. “Well. We wanted them to make amends.”

“Is that all? Were you coerced in any way?”

“No! Please don’t assume things! We really wanted the vam… the batkins to make amends! Our forefathers had made it their goal!”

“Your forefathers are not you, right? Will you really uphold this agreement?” Rebecca asked.

“…Yes. I mean, the batkins have difficult births. It wouldn’t be right to just leave them. And it worked, right? The batkins haven’t killed people in over four hundred years until this incident,” Sara said.

“Well, I guess you are right.” As Rebecca turned inside the village, toward a ranch, she met a group of wandering soldiers. When one of the soldiers met Cecile’s eyes, he went up to her and struck a conversation with a troubled face.

“Hey. Um… have you seen this guy?” He displayed a drawing of a wanted man. From the outside, the girls looked just like normal adventurers or travelers, so Rebecca could understand that these soldiers probably mistook them for adventurers, not knights.

However, they had just come out from the knights’ headquarters not too long ago. Were these soldiers not there?

“Um… no. I don’t think I have seen this man. Is he a criminal?”

“No. This man is a miner. He has gone missing since this morning.”

“Hm? This morning? How long?” Rebecca frowned. The sun hadn’t even reached its peak; it was still morning. This was an adult man, not a child. Why would the soldiers be looking for him?

“Yeah. I know it sounds weird. This man never skipped work, but today he just went missing. We came to his lodging and found no one there. All his belongings were still there.”

“Probably just passed out drunk somewhere,” Rebecca shrugged.

“If you guys see him near the birdkin village, give us a call, alright?” Rebecca then understood that these men knew exactly who she was. They asked her about this man because they wanted Rebecca to look for him in the forest. But since the forest was technically dovekin territory, they had to ask Rebecca instead.

“What do you mean? Why would a human be inside our settlement? Are you accusing us again? Just so you know, we have proved that your knights were the ones at fault! They have killed innocent batkin!” Sara roared.

“I never said that. I was just wondering if he got lost in the forest,” the soldier said. “Sorry for interrupting your time.” The soldiers saluted and left.

“Geez, now I am having doubts about Litmus. Are you sure they really wanted peace?” Sara said.

“…We don’t know. I shall ask Leafa later whether there are hidden agendas here. Maybe the soldiers here are still convinced they killed vampires, not beastkin.”

“But they are killing innocent villagers!”

“You guys have already injured their men too, right? About fifteen guys the last time I saw the report. Not just the knights, but miners as well. The miners are innocent too,” Rebecca countered.

With such a perfect comeback, Sara could only pout.

“Let’s buy the cows and sheep. How about two cows and three sheep for starters?” Rebecca said.

“Can’t we just buy the meat? Why buy the whole livestock?” Cecile asked.

“Buying just the meat and giving it to them looks more like a bribe. Besides, livestock has blood, right? Don’t batkins need blood to survive?”

“Ah. I forgot. You are right.” Cecile nodded.

“By the way, where would the meat go if batkins only drink the blood, Sara?”

“It’s often given to us. But since we do not preserve it, we often cook and eat it on the spot. So we didn’t have anything to give you last time. Besides, those who eat the meat have to donate their blood later. That’s the pact,” Sara said.

“I see. Let’s meet with Elizabeth now,” Rebecca sighed. This new race was getting more and more crazy. She wondered whether Litmus should tolerate these ex-vampires.

[You have leveled up to level 4][You have leveled up to level 5]

Hiro suddenly got a level-up notification. Moreover, twice? What had he done?