Chapter 45: Mutual
"The iron was certainly there, but it was lacking, wasn’t it?" King Angus looked at the report.
"Well, the soil mining is picking up. But with this, we can decrease more than 30% of our iron imports," Prime Minister Darius said. Despite the lower-than-expected yield, he remained optimistic. It was just a matter of time before iron production sped up. They could release the commercial treaty anytime.
"Don’t decrease them just yet. War is upon us. We only have four symbiote lineages in the entirety of Litmus, except Hiro, and Hiro is not a combat symbiote. How is Mutual?"
"Well, a symbiote for a symbiote, they say... Um... Will they be satisfied with Hiro?" Darius muttered. While he was happy to have Hiro who brought prosperity, he knew Hiro was not a real symbiote, and thus, Mutual might not see him favorably.
"Malus?"
"As long as none of their symbiotes have an appraisal-type ability... it should be safe. Moreover, we have also lent a blocking bracelet to Luna. She must wear it at all times."
King Angus sighed. Mutual was also a country. They wouldn’t lend one of their symbiote willingly, so they imposed a rather cold-hearted logic. They sent one of their symbiotes to us, and we sent one to them. We traded one of our lesser combat-oriented symbiotes, and they sent us one of their combat-focused symbiotes.
"As long as the symbiote they lent us is alive, we can ask for Luna back, right?"
Logically, even if they didn’t get back Luna, it wouldn’t matter. Hiro could be duplicated as many times as he wish. Nevertheless, Luna was his daughter. There is no way King Angus would want her to stay in Mutual forever.
"We have instructed her not to display Hiro’s full talent. Just kill some random monsters and convert them to iron ores. Unlike us, Mutual has many mines. They are not as worried about iron ores as we are. But Hiro must show some value," Darius replied.
"But they have Jonathan... He is an assassin specialist. We don’t know when he will strike," King Angus groaned. Symbiote users are powerful, but they are not immortal. Assassination techniques such as poison and ambushes were the best way to kill them.