The Villainess and I, her Zombie

It's been over a week since Roan's unfortunate visit and Cranberry was enjoying destroying the renewed population of the local monsters together with Zombie in the meantime.

Many of the monsters that were showing up were much stronger than before and, unsurprisingly, gave lots of EXP.

Too bad the monsters weren't strong enough to protect themselves from the Master-Servant pair.

Too bad for them that is.

"...graough...? (...master, do you think that Blueberry will remember us...?)"

While scraping off the blood mixed with broken feathers and scraps of fur from his boots, Zombie asked with a concerned expressiom.

Cranberry who was standing on top of a pile of dead griffins, flinched and furrowed her brows.

"I... Haa... I haven't thought about that... I'm guessing she will be like the others, the system should have some level of control over monsters after all. Messing with her should be even easier than with us humans, right...?"

She pointed out sounding disheartened, then she jumped down and waved at Zombie to follow her.

They walked for a few minutes until they came upon another pile of dead monsters - the corpses in that one were already decomposing.

"Graough?! (Hey! Aren't those ones of ours?!) Graough! (I thought the Dandelions would take care of it by now!)"

Zombie growled angrily.

"Graough?! (System might have rewritten their memory, but those guys should hop on the easy job, right?!)"

He groaned.

"Maybe I have worded the letter too lightly... Or, with how the system made things to be, they are in a good enough situation that they don't need the money as they've used to..."

Cranberry shrugged her shoulders reminiscing about the report that the inept family servants have painstakingly gathered for her.

"Haa... but to think that some adventurers would have the guts to ignore a request from someone from one of the main families... I guess Pride's name has fallen to that extent... Oh well, if they don't have a reason to listen to me this time, I'll just have to create one."

She breathed out and smirked, looking at her confused eternal servant.

"That means we should pay them a visit."

...

With the end of the lull, the adventurers guild in Salamagundi was busier than ever before.

While it never closed down completely, many adventurers retired or downscaled their range of offered services, but now, when everyone has regained access to the system and all of their skills, the full cast of adventurers returned.

And what awaited them were tens and hundreds of requests to deal with various dangerous monsters that used the three years when intelligent races could barely protect themselves and took over most of the land.⁹

"We shouldn't have ever left the fucking branch office. This shit-stained city is making me fucking nauseous."

The beautiful elven mage with quite the potty-mouth, Lairs, slammed the tankard on the table and leaned back in the chair.

"Where else were we supposed to find a job?"

Rotte, the muscular warrior with way more brawl than brains answered with his forehead pressed against the same table that Lairs just hit.

"I can't even feel my arms anymore, were frenzy wolves that strong, or is something wrong with my memory?"

He complained.

"Nothing wrong with you, I also remember things differently."

Shanks, the rat-faced thief and the leader of the group, sighed while playing around with the silver wedding ring on his left hand.

The Dandelions gathered in the tavern right by the adventurers guild to unwind after a tough day.

"Gray ones are one thing, but it's ridiculous that I can't stealth-kill even the basic brown ones in one hit."

Shanks sighed heavily.

"There is more work now, but it's all at least twice as dangerous as it was in the past... I almost regret that the lull is over."

"Oh, shut the fuck up, Shan-shan, do you know how fucking many elven villages got destroyed by the monsters? If the fucking system didn't wake the fuck up, the same could happen to the whole fucking kingdom!"

Lairs growled at Shanks after emptying her tankard.

"I'm with Lairs on this one, Shanks, that was dumb of you to say."

Rotte said, waving at the barmaid to bring another round of beer to their table.

"I've said almost, didn't I?"

Shanks furrowed his brows and also finished his beer.

"...but... you two know what I mean!"

He groaned and shook his head.

"Uresha and I got married a while ago, and... and we're thinking about having kids."

Shanks face mellowed when he glanced at the silver ring on his finger.

"Also... she might not say it outright, but Uresha is too kindhearted for this line of work. She misses tending to crops and livestock, she's the farm girl through and through."

"Yeah... if not for you begging her to join our group back when we were dumb kids, Ure-ure would have stayed behind trying to rebuild everything on her own."

Lairs nodded, smiling at the memories.

"Exactly. You know... I've been secretly saving up all of my parts of the rewards..."

Shanks looked to the sides conspicuously and leaned forward, and the other two did the same.

"I'm saving up to buy back the spot where Uresha's family farm was."

"Man, are you crazy? Our village got wiped out before the lull even started! Why would you want to buy a piece of land infested with monsters?"

Rotte waved his hand dismissively, seemingly skeptical about the idea.

"Unless you want the Dandelions to clear out that place. But for that, you would have to promise me I would be able to buy back the spot where the old Currant's forge was."

The large warrior straightened his back and laughed.

"I've promised that old bastard that I would take over his business one day."

He added.

"Rotte...!"

Shanks's face lighted up.

"Hah! It seems that you two fuckers have it all figured out!"

Lairs exchanged the empty tankard for the full one and winked at the barmaid, but got completely ignored.

Then she turned back to her companions.

"Say... if it all goes well and the village would get rebuilt, do you think that there will be a need for a place like the one miss Peach ran? You know, where the three of us had grown up?"

She asked getting all timid all of a sudden.

"You would like to open an orphanage?"

Rotte and Shanks looked at each other...

"No way! The kids will start crying as soon as you'll open your mouth!"

"We all know that you had a crush on Miss Peach, but, isn't your personality totally not suited for following in her footsteps?"

...and burst into hearty laughter.

"Sh-shut the fuck up! I can stop cursing whenever the fuck I want!"

Lairs slammed her tankard on the table again and spilled most of her beer.

"Pffft...!"

"Yeah, we can hear that!"

Both of her companions snorted into their own tankards, causing the elf to blush.

"This one doesn't fucking count!"

She looked away embarrassed.

"Hey, what's going on here?"

Uresha, the tall burly woman who was the tank of the party, returned to their table and sat by Shanks.

"I'm gone for five minutes and you're already teasing Lairs? Aren't you two too old for that?"

She sighed and took a sip of juice from her glass.

She was the only member of the Dandelions who would abstain from alcohol if she was on her day off.

"I'm the one who's always getting the short end on the stick. At least let me have this."

Rotte put his hands together, jokingly pleading, and tilted his head trying to act cute.

"Ugh, fuck you, Rotte!"

Lairs sniffled.

"Ahahaha!"

Shanks started laughing.

"You three never change, do you?"

Uresha smiled looking at her friends having fun.

"Hey! Come look! Someone is stirring trouble in front of the guild!"

Some other patron called out to everyone else while looking through the tavern's window.

"...?"

Many guests left their tables and gathered to watch how the scene would play out.

But Dandelions weren't among them.

"Probably another poor sod that got chased out of their home by monsters..."

Rotte stared into his half-empty tankard and sighed.

"Speaking about poor fucking sods, Shanks, are we seriously ignoring the mission from the fucking Prides'?"

Lairs glanced at their leader and rubbed her wrist nervously.

"Of course, their offer isn't bad, but it would require us to go through the griffins' territory!"

Shanks shook his head and his face turned serious.

"We've lost In're in almost the same kind of circumstances, and with how strong the monsters got during the lull, going there would be nothing but a suicide!"

"But... fuck me... you know... they're THE Prides, right...?"

Lairs, Rotte, and Uresha all looked at Shanks with worried eyes.

Shanks took a large gulp of beer and continued.

"Everyone knows that the Pride family has lost their avatar of sin title, their wealth is diminishing with each day, and apparently Envys pitched the idea of taking away Prides' position as one of the main families of the kingdom and instead grant it to one of the other noble houses. We have nothing to worry about."

He assured them.

"Hehehe! The Brave Swords came out of the guild! That redhead and weirdly dressed corpse puppet are going to get destroyed!"

Someone peering from the window laughed with excitement.