"So, could you introduce us to your [symbiote]?" Marissa asked, handing a registration form to one of her knights. It was the form for registering as a knight.
"Okay… Hiro…" Rebecca, Cecile, and Nana called out, and Hiro slithered up from their crotches to their hands, moving under their dresses. Cecile and Nana's eyes went blank as they felt a wave of pleasure build inside them, while Rebecca remained unaffected. Hiro wondered if he should ease up on their training.
"All three of you have a [symbiote]? Amazing…"
"Yes, we were lucky. Hiro saved us from bandits in the Latvin Kingdom," Rebecca explained.
"I see… so, is this an attack-type symbiote? King Angus also has a [symbiote], so this is quite unique." Marissa touched Hiro with her fingers, a hint of envy and longing in her eyes. Hiro entwined his tentacle around her hand, but Rebecca quickly pulled him back, her expression cautious.
"Not really; our stats have also increased, right, Nana?" Rebecca continued.
"Yes. It's all thanks to Hiro!" Nana chimed in.
"I see. It's an all-rounder, isn't it? Not only can it attack directly, but it also augments your stats. What kind of attack does Hiro use?" Marissa looked at her knights.
"Some kind of life-stealing technique, perhaps? The bodies were all shriveled up," one of the knights responded.
"I see. Touching it is quite a unique sensation," Marissa noted.
"Um… Marissa, we don't know much about [symbiotes]. Do you know how to care for one?" Cecile asked.
"It's not too complicated. You just need to eat well and lend your body to it occasionally," Marissa replied flatly.
"Lend your body occasionally, huh?" Rebecca frowned. Marissa's statement wasn't meant to be perverted. Normal symbiotes have sentience and often wish to experience life like humans. They frequently make pacts with their hosts to borrow their bodies for enjoyable activities such as drinking alcohol or playing games. This is why symbiote users are often described as having multiple personas.
"By the way, Marissa, or should I call you Lady Marissa? Are you sure becoming your knight is the best option? Won't we become enemies of the kingdom, too? You are an exile, right?"
"Yes, I am an exile, but only because of my legs, you see. I have no real political enemies." That was a lie. While other nobles didn't harbor any direct hatred for her, if they learned Marissa had three knights with [symbiotes], they would do everything they could to win Hiro's girls over to their side.
The mention of being exiled for being considered useless struck a deep chord with Rebecca. She was in a similar situation. Her weak stats had caused her family to scorn her. Even after she obtained a symbiote, her family still didn't regard her. She felt a sense of camaraderie with Marissa. Hiro, giving up on his girls' intelligence, slithered up from Cecile and presented the iron ore to Marissa.
"Hmm? What's this?" Marissa tilted her head. Hiro despaired at the scene. It seemed like no one was intelligent enough to recognize it as something valuable, but one of her knights told her. He was blessed as one of her knights seemed to know what it was.
"It looks like an iron ore. And quite a high-grade one, too," said the knight, her face stern with a cool beauty. Cecile was cuter, but this knight's body was more supple, with curves in all the right places and a robust appearance. Hiro wondered if all the females in this world were born as beautiful girls. He would love to slither over her body.
"Really? Does that mean we have a potential iron mine nearby, and Hiro could find it?"
"Um… I think not. Hiro spit out these rocks after he ate the iron pangolin's scales," Rebecca explained.
"Really? Excellent! Wonderful! We have a blacksmith nearby. If we can turn low-quality ores from iron pangolin scales into high-quality ones, we could enhance the tools for the whole village! Or we could even sell the ores directly! Iron pangolins are a pest here!" Marissa was elated. The scales from iron pangolins were mixed with other substances such as calcium, carbon, and even other metals. When melted in a small village pot, these impurities would contaminate the iron and the smelter, reducing its quality. However, Hiro's skill could filter them out, extracting only the pure iron.
"So, how much could he produce?" Marissa asked, and Hiro gave her all the iron he had.
"Hm… about a kilo? This should be good. If we can hunt these rats and pangolins regularly, we could probably produce more. I shall pay you an additional 5 silver," Marissa nodded. She then asked her servants to bring the money. After the transaction was done, she instructed her servants to carry her home in her litter chair.
"Wow! So much money!" Cecile rejoiced. She hugged Hiro with elation. "You are the best!"
"Tomorrow, we need to get some weapons with this money," Nana said.
Hiro was thrilled by the praise. When the three went to their respective bedrooms, Hiro started to slither out of Cecile. He then bound her hands and carried her to the bed.
"Eh? Didn't we just play yesterday? If we do this every day, I won't last…" Cecile complained. Cecile was stronger than Hiro, but she didn't resist and accepted his touch. Hiro brought her to her bed and, after stripping her naked, began to massage her shoulder.
"Hnn…" Cecile's body relaxed. Hiro's flesh was warm, soft, and comforting; the fatigue from the battle that afternoon soon faded away as she drifted off to sleep. Hiro sighed, realizing he wouldn't be able to do anything lewd with her today. He then shifted his focus to Rebecca, who was playing with his tentacle in the other room.
"That tickles!" Rebecca giggled. Even when Hiro caressed all of her sensitive areas, she merely giggled. Hiro almost gave up at this point. He now saw her more like a little sister or a pet, just playing with her.
"Hah… sorry for being useless. I know I might not be the best host, but please… lend me your strength. I want to prove that I'm not useless," Rebecca pleaded. But her words fell on deaf ears.
Hiro had felt the same way before he was reincarnated as a worm. Like Rebecca, he had also wanted to excel. But he soon gave up. The world was unfair. Those who excelled were given more work. Those who didn't were cast aside. The rich became richer, and the poor became poorer. Even now, even when he wanted to help Rebecca, she was a mage. Hiro did not have anything that could help a mage. The world was cruel sometimes.
Hiro thought it was probably a good thing that he died. The robbers who broke into his house were likely no better off—perhaps a homeless drug addict in desperate need of money. Hiro felt sad about his sister dying with him, though. Unlike him, she seemed to have been more successful in life.
Besides, even if Hiro helped Rebecca, in her father's eyes, it wouldn't be her achievement but the tentacles inside her doing the work. Hiro quickly understood that Rebecca's father was cunning and corrupt, willing to use anything to get what he wanted. No doubt he'd prefer if Hiro was transferred to his more promising daughter.
"Sorry," Rebecca said as she lay down on the bed made of flesh. "Mmn… this is more comfortable than I thought. It still looks disgusting, though."
Hiro didn't know it, but Rebecca viewed sex as unnecessarily painful, mainly due to her first experience with Alex. He had deflowered her without properly lubricating her, and Rebecca could only endure the pain of something foreign invading her body. She felt she had to serve Alex because he was her fiancé, and she did like him as a person. But this incident caused her to see sex in a negative light. So, no matter what Hiro did to her, even if he forced her to climax, she felt no pleasure.
"Alright! I have word from the blacksmith in our neighboring village. It is indeed high-quality iron ore. If we could produce more, they would buy it. Let's get to work! If we produce more, we could even export this as our main product!" The group was led to Marissa's home in the village the following day.
"So, is it just Cecile's symbiote that can digest the iron pangolin's skin and turn it into iron ingots? We have to be quick because the pangolin is a monster, and the corpse will disappear in an hour. We have to descale it with a hammer and chisel before the corpse disappears."
The girls looked at each other and shrugged. Hiro couldn't talk to them, so they wouldn't know for sure. Nevertheless, the task at hand remained the same. Marissa ordered them to get to work. After splitting into two teams, one heading east and the other north, they discovered that all of Cecile team's symbiote were capable of digesting the pangolin.
"Hm… I thought every [symbiote] was unique. But all of these girl's symbiote seem to have the same skill, right?"
"Yes, Lady Marissa." Hiro then emerged from Rebecca and approached Marissa. She stroked his flesh and greeted him warmly. "This symbiote seems to like us."
"It's a wild symbiote. Maybe they have a strong affinity for females. I saw it caressing Clarissa's ear before," Cecile reported Hiro's playful behavior toward the female knight to Marissa. The two female knights were stern, but they were surprisingly ticklish. The way they squealed and giggled when he touched them was a sight for sore eyes.
"I see."
"This iron ore is quite valuable. I'm not an expert, but high-purity iron ore won't damage the smithy, and it's easier to control the mixture to create ancient steel. We could sell this for 10 gold per kilo. If we kill 3 pangolins a day, that means 3 kilos of this ore every day," Marissa estimated. Cecile's eyes widened as she calculated the potential earnings from selling the ore.
"30 gold every day?!"
"Well, this is the stampede season, so there will be more monsters. I hope you work hard, girls. I'll give you 20% of the profits if this iron ore is as valuable as I think."
"20%?"
"Someone has to cover the transport fees. I also need to share the money with my fellow knights, Clarissa and Maroon. And I need to invest in developing this village. Remember, you're my knights now, not just mere adventurers."
"Ugh… just make sure to protect us later, okay?" Rebecca grumbled.
"Don't worry. I could even get our king involved if this iron ore is as valuable as I believe."
"Um… Rebecca, I think we need to head to the adventurer's guild," Cecile suggested.
"It's getting late. Should we do it tomorrow?"
"Clarissa, could you lend them our horses? It would take barely an hour to get to John's village with them. Can any of you ride?" Marissa asked. The girls exchanged glances before responding.
"I can ride a horse, but Rebecca can't," Nana answered. She then looked at Cecile.
"Um… I can handle a horse, but I'm not sure I can make it sprint…" Cecile admitted.
"Well then, Clarissa, Maroon, I'm sorry, but you'll have to carry Cecile and Nana with you, okay?"
"Yes, ma'am," Clarissa saluted.
"But what about your safety?" Maroon complained.
"It'll be quick. I'll have Bertha lock the door. No need to worry about me; I can manage for an hour or two."
"Yes, ma'am."
The journey was straightforward. The girls rode to John's village and spoke to the guild receptionist there. They accepted some quests to kill rats in Marissa's village. What they didn't know was that Count Evesys, Rebecca's father, had taken advantage of the adventurer's guild system. He requested information on Rebecca's whereabouts. If someone was still an active adventurer, the guild would provide that information.
And so, Count Evesys discovered Rebecca's location. He quickly drafted a letter requesting the deportation of Rebecca, Cecile, and Nana. With the use of a magic communication device, the letter could be delivered to the Litmus Kingdom in a day.
That letter arrived to King Angus the very next day. But that is a story for tomorrow, as Hiro had a nightly engagement with his girls.