Is this really happening? I am not daydreaming, am I? There are a lot of girls, not just any girls. Girls with wings, cat ears, elf ears, fins, snake waists, flaming bodies, there is even a decapitated one with her head on her arms.
As I look at the scene in bewilderment, I feel a jab on my sides.
"Ow!" I cry out.
"Look only at me, okay? They aren't your wife," Susan complains grumpily, dissatisfied by my lack of attention to her, but my reaction was extremely normal. Who would believe the ferocious monsters lurking out here would all be… women? Not to mention they're all extremely attractive, just like Susan.
A peculiar thought enters my mind. I stare at Susan, thinking about the possibility. The more I ponder, the more convincing it seems.
"Susan, are you a-"
"Monster girl? Yeah, I am one of them." She plays it off like it isn't a big deal while giving me a teasing grin.
"But you don't look different from other human beings, except for looking exceptionally beautiful."
"Ehehe, Mike called me beautiful! ♡"
Noticing my odd stare, she coughs to herself and gets back on topic.
"Ahem, right. So basically, I am a vampire subspecies, but unlike the main bloodline, ours is heavily mutated. We don't have vampiric blood drinking tendencies, but in return, there isn't any significant boost to our strength. We are just stronger than any adult male, like most monster girls. Thankfully, we don't get sunburnt either. We also don't have a particular name for us, as there are just too many subspecies lines to count since monster girls are prone to mutation. There are many more than the animal kingdom itself, some subspecies lines are limited to extremely small families as well."
This is a bit much for me to take in at once.
"So uh, you're a vampire? A subspecies one at that?"
"Yup"
As we are talking, my gaze is distracted by a long series of trucks coming from the same shelter we went through.
Many shrieks of monster girls are followed by, as if they have been anticipating them.
"What's... in those trucks?" I ask while pointing at them.
"Those are the soldiers we just saw earlier."
"Wait, soldiers? What?"
"There's a lot to explain. Let's take things slowly. For starters, monster girls are an existence that can only give birth to girls from their species. This results in our world being completely devoid of male presence.
The solution to this is to get human men. Monster girls throughout the centuries have adapted to either seduce or forcefully bring back men. Though slowly, we ended up dominating the world thanks to our natural gifts. Humans simply weren't able to cope up with our strengths and development, so they simply gave themselves up to us. This led to the inception of Eucidia, a country filled with monster girls. They also refer it to as the golden age.
The current system we have agreed on is to let humanity isolate themselves in various shelters. They gift out men to us in exchange for developmental help such as food, technology, information, resources. There are many shelters out there according to our population density. They call the one you belonged to 'Block A12'. There are like hundreds of them, I think.
These men will be put up for bidding and bought by other monster girls. You would be one of them if you continued your military service."
The huge info dump just blows my mind. We were all basically cattle being sold for the interest of the nations. Everything we learned was useless. In the end, our fate was to end up as some husbands for thirsty, beautiful women…?
"Why are we being fed lies then? I am sure men would be more willing to come here if the truth were to be exposed."
Susan gives a troubled expression. Something isn't right.
"Well, what you're saying is true. Problem is, monster girls are simply too popular. In the current age, men would hop at the chance of getting a monster girl. We tried to experiment with the idea and exposed the secrets to one of the shelters. What followed was a deep human birth decline rate and a lot of lonely women. Too many human males wanted to export to Eucidia. It inevitably led to the collapse of the shelter and all the humans who knew the truth were relocated into our populace."
I feel a bit ashamed hearing that about our race. A whole settlement ruined just for the prospect to end up with passionate girls…
"Anyway, let's go take a look there. They will soon bring out the men." She tugs me along to the crowd of monster girls. As I scan the area, I finally get to see the men placed in some sort of capsule. They were entirely buck naked. It exposes even their adulthood. I feel embarrassed thinking that I might've been in their position.
A lot of the girls were holding up their ID before inputting a number inside. It is what I can only assume as bidding. They are fighting amongst each other to get the best man for themselves, but I notice a peculiarity. Some average looking men are especially popular, even their manhood isn't worth mentioning. Just the normal size. Susan notices my stare and perks up.
"Ah, you might see some men being really popular with the girls. If you look closely, a lot of them hoist their arm up before bidding. That's because they are checking the man's siphon energy. For monster girls, looks and physique end up becoming secondary. Siphon energy is something like pheromones which attracts us. Is it mostly invisible and does nothing outside of seducing monster girls. Most men naturally come to develop it at the age of 20, but we have devices that let us invoke siphon energy at 18. I don't care about it though since I have Mike ♡, but we will still need to get yours checked as per citizenship requirements."
"Ah is that so…" I feel creeps run up my arms thinking that I might've been also sold off like some pet knowing no better. Taking a closer look at the numbers, I notice a lot of digits. It seems to be some sort of pricing, but my lack of understanding doesn't help evaluate how valuable those numbers may be.
"Susan, how much does a normal male cost about?"
"Hmm… to give a rough estimate… say about a middle-class house?"
I almost choke when I hear that. An entire house? I never imagined it to be so much.
"Yeah, it can be really expensive for some monster girls, so most girls like my mum go through artificial insemination. I personally had the opportunity to go to the shelter as a special inspector, thanks to my good grades both during preschool and highschool. That's how I met you ♡!"
She rubs her head against my arm as she says that. Susan is being a lot more clingy than I remember her being, but considering the context, it is almost impossible to avoid the fate of ending up as her husband.
As my eyes slowly travel along with the capsules, I remember about Kyle. How is he doing right now? Is he fine without me? I never even got to say my goodbyes to him.
"What's wrong Mike, you suddenly look down? If this is too much for you, then we can head to our new home." Susan tries to soothe me.
"That's not it, I am simply worried about Kyle. Will he also end up here like these men?"
"Oh, Kyle… I am not sure how to tell this to you, Mike, but… Kyle was a monster girl. She is a subspecies of some mimic line. She was disguising herself using her abilities. Kyle is a special case of monster girl allowed to live in shelters due to how humane her attributes are. It's likely she will settle for some man in the shelter. You probably won't get to see her again unless we get a chance to enter the shelter. I am very sorry."
Susan just drops a huge bomb, Kyle, my best bro, was a monster girl? Was he, I mean she, aiming for me perhaps? As if Susan can hear my thoughts, she answers my queries with almost an eerie amount of accuracy.
"You don't have to worry, Mike. Kyle wasn't aiming for you in the first place. If she was, then she wouldn't have waited so long to confess to you. Monster girls are very direct creatures, they hold no bars when telling someone their feelings. Well, that's true for monster girls grown in Eucidia at least."
"I am sorry, what was the last part?" Susan looks flustered when I ask.
"Oh, that's nothing, I spoke that unintentionally. Anyway, for Kyle, we can just hope that she ends up with a good man."
"Yeah, that might be for the best," I say while trying to pacify myself. I just lost my best friend. I hope he isn't too disheartened by my disappearance.
"Aww Mike, don't be sad. Regardless of whether Kyle is here, I'll make up for her presence. I know you love to play those video games, right? My sister has a lot of those, we could play them together. The games here are much superior in quality compared to the ones made by humans." She tries to quell my sadness, though it isn't a great attempt.
"I am alright, I just miss him… I will be better soon for sure." There is an awkward silence remaining after our conversation. Susan quickly changes the topic.
"Oh, by the way, I forgot to take off my coloured lens." She touches her pupils and a dark brown filament comes out. Behind them, I see her scarlet eyes. They are spellbinding, I can't take my eyes off of them, but for some reason, an instinctive feeling of fear rises within me. There is an odd sense of familiarity. Something in my body feels like it's warning me to avoid looking at them, but the eyes are like a whirlpool, attracting all my attention to it.
"Is anything wrong, Mike? If you stare so much then I'll feel embarrassed." As Susan says that, I snap out of my daydream. What was that? Is this some part of her vampiric abilities?
"Ah, nothing, what's our next destination? Are we heading to your home?"
"Oh no, though we will be heading home soon, we first need to complete your registration by checking your siphon energy. Then you will get to meet the rest of my family and I can introduce you to them as my husband!"
"Is the rest of your family like you?"
"Hmm, sort of. We share the same hair colour and eyes. We also have a dog girl staying at our home. She's the daughter of my mother's friend, but we can't leave her alone for the time being, so she's settled in our home for a few weeks. Anyway, enough about them. Let's head to the Testing Office already!"
We continue our chatter along the way as she borrows a taxi. What impresses me that the automobile is fully automated and functions through intractable AI drivers. She wasn't joking when she said that shelters trade for their technology. From what I can see, they are leagues ahead of us.
As we go past the various buildings, I notice something interesting. A lot of the homes are just like the ones in the shelter, but there are quite a few colonies which looked like their own miniature habitats. Some had the theme of a forest, while others were like a barren volcano. I am just astounded by how different they are to each other.
As I am distracted by the enthralling housing of the monster girls, Susan informs me of our arrival.
"We're here Mike, let's get your siphon energy tested."