"So why were you in such a western part of the continent anyway? Have the monsters from the east penetrated the defenses that deeply?"
Aka walked, with a longbow and quiver slung on her back, in the same forest that led to the river, as she talked to Red Lotus.
"Human, I understand your wish for the answer to this question, but you should sleep more first. Your circadian rhythm is misaligned."
"Can't you just fix that like you did with my fear?", Aka asked.
"I do not want to fix your problems for free, human. I had used a bit of your blood to alleviate your fear at that moment. You must understand these changes come at a price.", Red Lotus educated.
Aka narrowed her eyes, "Wait. You drank my own blood? Was that why I was hungrier than usual today?"
"Affirmative. It was one of the reasons. However, the larger problem is your sleep debt. Can you be sure that you will land any arrows with that bow?"
"I'll be fine. I can take down at least one critter, even if I am sleep deprived.", Aka laughed.
She was so excited at the prospect of growing in strength that she couldn't sleep a wink. She meticulously waited until the sun rose and conducted her daily duties with great speed.
Once she was done, she had told her mother that she wanted to go hunt.
Her mother was surprised. Aka never went hunting, and she had seemed to develop some kind of hate for it, but here she was, eager to go.
It was odd, but she was pleased.
Of course, Aka didn't go hunting for normal reasons…
Meanwhile, two cloaked men stood atop a tree branch, secretly conversing, "There is another person, a woman, detouring off the river path. It seems the intention is to go hunting.", one of them spoke to the other.
The other nodded and replied, "Alright, I'll go handle it."
Just like that, the two disappeared and parted ways.
…
Fwoosh!
An arrow flew through the air as Aka had trained her sights on what looked to be a hare.
The arrow flew and missed the hare by several inches, causing the hare to be alerted and flee for its life.
"Tch, I am just a bit rusty.", Aka spat.
"No, human. You aren't capable with a bow. Not to mention that your mental capabilities are rapidly falling.", Red Lotus corrected.
Aka rolled her eyes, "Shut up already about my sleep, I'm fine. And shut up about my bow skills too while you're at it."
"...", Red Lotus responded with silence.
She pulled out and picked up the failed arrow stuck into the grass and stored it back into her quiver. She thought about the number of hares she's encountered today.
Back then, before the village was reformed, hunting was absolutely necessary unless you had wealth to spare. Now though, food was typically cheap enough from all the numerous imports that there was no longer any worry.
Still, many of the original villagers that hunted as a lifeline still continued. Whether that was to save money or simply for the enjoyment of it.
"The good thing is that there are a lot of hares now after the beasts were driven away. I should be able to kill at least one. All I need is one.", Aka thought out loud.
Since the beasts were driven away from the forest a few years back, the number of predators reduced harshly, allowing for the prey underneath them in the food chain to grow extensively.
Aka was no ecologist, but she could understand this much.
As for why Aka didn't go hunting usually for food... It was embarrassing, but she had no talent in using bows.
When Aka was young, her father had taught both her and Ao how to hunt in the wild, specifically using the bow and arrow.
But she sucked!
Even her father back then had recommended her to stay away from hunting and do something else after realising her lack of talent.
As for Ao, she had no problems using a bow. This added salt on the wound that was Aka's inferiority complex and ever since then, she let Ao do the hunting. After Ao left, Aka resolved the matter of getting food by purchasing it. She stayed away from hunting and the bow with no intention of coming back.
However, how else can Aka get blood and feed it to Red Lotus without anyone knowing but to hunt for it herself? That was the conclusion she came up with while staying up all night.
She continued to hunt. As she was moving around with light footsteps, a shrouded figure in a cloak hidden in the trees observed her.
"This woman! This is her sixth miss, how does she have the gall to use a bow? This is just plain embarrassing. She isn't even holding the bow right.", the shrouded man made a disgusted facial expression.
The figure in the cloak did not recognise Aka. Though she was part of Ao's family, the most famous person in the village, she wasn't the one who was famous after all. At most, people generally had knowledge that Ao had a sister, just not their name nor appearance.
Nodding to himself, he made a decision, "I have to do something, or this will never be over. She said she only needed one hare just now? Alright. The last thing I would want to happen is for her to run into a blood path monster by accident."
Some time later, Aka found another hare in the distance. She loaded the bow and pulled back the string, aiming with all the precision her tired eyes could muster.
Fwoosh!
The arrow whistled through the air. Half-expecting for the arrow to miss again, Aka mentally prepared herself to go and pick up the arrow.
To her surprise, both a small 'yelp' and a 'puch' sounded and entered her ears, as the image of the projectile penetrating the hare's neck entered her view!
"Yes! Finally got one!", Aka celebrated with fulfilment. She rushed over to the hare.
She picked up the hare's corpse as she communicated with Red Lotus, "All I need to do is pour the hare's blood onto you and you'll unlock my magic ability, right?", she asked with excitement. She thought that the method of feeding was through Red Lotus' exterior.
Crushing her excitement, Red Lotus answered, "Negative, human. The method of feeding me is through the host orally ingesting the blood. In other words, you need to drink the animal's blood."
"...Huh?", Aka's smile froze.
"Drink the blood? No! What do you think I am, a vampire? No way, that's too disgusting.", she immediately denied. She had no problem with seeing and handling blood, but drinking it was too much.
"'Vampire'? That is a suitable term for our combined existence.", Red Lotus judged and would've nodded if he had a head.
"...No way… I really have to drink this?", Aka's anxiety was starting to set in.
Red Lotus put on an annoyed tone of voice as he reasoned, "Human, what is the price to pay for power if it is not to suffer? Drinking blood from a corpse is one of the smallest prices to pay for power. Many would laugh at you for being so hesitant. Do you wish to be inferior to your blood sibling, Ao, forever?"
"...That's true… but…", she tried to say why this felt too wrong, but failed to put it into words. She felt like she would lose a part of herself if she decided to drink the blood of an animal corpse.
"Enough. Whether you choose to be hesitant or resolute can wait, human. You should make your choice when we are at a secluded location.", Aka turned from hesitant to confused upon hearing Red Lotus.
"'Secluded location'? This place isn't dangerous, isn't it?", Aka became alert.
"No. In fact, we are much safer than usual, and that is the problem.", Red Lotus answered cryptically.
"...I'm failing to follow."
"We are being watched by someone who can use magic. It is likely they are one of the guards who were covertly assigned to protect civilians like yourself. If you were to be observed drinking blood, the consequences will result in both of us being killed."
Aka's eyes widened as she fought the impulsive action of checking out her surroundings.
"How do you know? I thought the mages would have dealt with the monsters already?"
"I know because your arrow's trajectory just now was altered slightly mid-flight. You hadn't noticed because the human brain isn't designed to store unimportant memories. I, however, can. The path the arrow took was clearly unnatural, leading to the conclusion that a magician used magic on the arrow.", to Red Lotus, the sensations that Aka experiences through things like sight and sound were akin to video files. It can easily capture every frame and grasp every detail.
"As for their objective to slaughter my brethren, I do not know how much progress they've made. Though it seems that the mages protecting this village are still weary, regardless of progress.", Red Lotus evaluated.
"...Okay, I'll head back.", Aka did not question further as she pulled out a small, disposable bag to carry the hare's corpse. She made her way back to the village, trying to not look suspicious to her protector.
Whatever happened, she must absolutely never get caught being Red Lotus' host. If it wasn't the village and it's mages that killed her, it would be the blood path parasite that would kill her before itself.
Once she entered the village, she felt a weight lift off her shoulders as she carried the bag in hand. If Red Lotus was right, her 'protector' should have stopped tailing her at this point.
But then the matter of drinking the hare's blood came back to her mind, and she once again felt a weight.
Could she really drink a corpse's blood? She grimaced. The thought of it made her stomach scrunch up inside.
On the other hand, did she have a choice? If she did not drink the blood, it was easy to tell what Red Lotus would do. In addition, if she did drink it, she would gain the benefit of unlocking her magic capabilities.
She looked up to the orange sky with a complicated expression in the middle of the road. The sun was starting to set.
"A secluded place… A secluded place…", Aka repeated to herself in her head. "I think I know one."