The room's windows were boarded up tight, plunging the place into murky darkness, silent as a grave. Only EeDechi's wild laughter echoed through, shattering the suffocating stillness.
Her laugh was reckless, more bold than sweet, jarring as hell, but it chased away some of the fear gnawing at Barrett, Stella, and Sean's hearts.
After all, the captain's badass combat skills were no secret. Even a necromancer with 4th Tier magic got one-shotted by her sword, so maybe there wasn't much to worry about.
Everyone knew, whether among humans, elves, or other races, those who wielded magic were the fat cats. Supernatural power let them rake in endless coin.
Barrett got the memo loud and clear. Feeling a bit more at ease, he slipped into his adventurer side hustle.
In this abandoned house, he rummaged through cabinets, yanked open drawers, tore down the curtains, and flipped over a sandalwood desk. Jackpot came quick.
He scored an ivory snuffbox inlaid with gold; a ruby ring that seemed to hum with some cryptic magic; four gold coins, six silver, and two copper, all wedged in the cracks of a cushy chair.
Barrett kept digging through the shelves; Sean stood guard by Stella, sword in hand, while Stella knelt beside the body of James the mage, figuring out how to haul her teacher's corpse out; EeDechi, cradling The Mystery of Magic, squatted on a chair, lost in her reading.
In this creepy, dim-ass living room, a weird kind of calm settled in. If the castle's original owner were to see this, they would probably be outraged—y'all here for an adventure or a damn vacation?
EeDechi flipped a page, engrossed in her book; Barrett slipped two freshly found shattered magic crystals into his spatial ring; Sean carefully arranged the legs and arms of James the mage's corpse; Stella traced a magic circle around the body, trying to whip up a temporary storage space to stash her teacher's remains.
Everyone was busy with their own thing, not stepping on each other's toes, vibing in perfect sync.
Until…
Thump, thump, thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. A knock at the door.
EeDechi looked up from her book, Barrett froze mid-motion, Stella lowered her wand, and Sean grabbed his hand crossbow. All four turned toward a sealed door in the living room.
The door was red sandalwood, etched with dark gold patterns. The sudden knocking came from right there.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The knocks came again, steady and unhurried, like whoever was out there had all the manners in the world.
"May I come in?" The knocking stopped, and a clear, pleasant female voice called from beyond the door.
The four in the living room exchanged looks, totally thrown. Even EeDechi, who was usually chill as hell, was a bit dumbfounded.
"Come in?" Barrett said, testing the waters.
The second the words left his mouth, he wanted to slap himself. He was a seasoned elite adventurer, for fuck's sake—how could he just blurt that out? In a creepy-ass situation like this, you gear up for a fight, not roll out the welcome mat!
In a manor crawling with undead and vampires, where even the owners were long dead, was the knocker some crazy dangerous monster—or, what, a maid delivering coffee?
Creak. The not-so-heavy wooden door eased open, and a figure stood in the doorway. Barrett, gripping his longsword, leaned forward to peek. Hold up—was that actually a maid?
Outside the door stood a young woman, dressed in a black-and-white maid outfit, a light gray sash cinched at her waist, white embroidery decorating the collar and cuffs. Her sleek black hair was tied up in a neat bun, and a pair of narrow-rimmed glasses perched on her high-bridged nose.
She looked poised and proper, the picture-perfect maid every noble house would kill for.
The only unusual thing was the three-finger-wide diamond-studded iron collar tightly fitted around her pale, slender neck, as if it were meant to keep something from falling off.
In a place crawling with hidden dangers, the four adventurers were caught off guard by the sight of this elegant maid, freezing for a split second.
But then they all clocked it: her hands were fitted with massive, heavy steel gauntlets, each the size of a grown man's head, studded with finger-thick iron spikes that gleamed with a cold, deadly sheen.
Holy shit, those wolf tooth gloves! Barrett swallowed hard. A maid packing heat like that wasn't just brewing tea or dusting shelves.
EeDechi waved a hand, signaling everyone to chill. "No need to freak out, her Justice Value is 150, she's in the good camp, she's a good—"
Before she could finish, the maid lunged forward, charging into the living room. Her massive steel gauntlets swung up, aiming straight for EeDechi's face.
If EeDechi hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed this prim maid could snap into such a textbook-perfect attack in a heartbeat.
As the wolf tooth gloves came whistling toward her face, EeDechi didn't budge an inch. In one smooth motion, she yanked the giant sword from her back, and with a deafening clang, steel met steel!
The maid blocked EeDechi's sword with one hand, her other hand snapping back before launching a fist at the weak spot in EeDechi's abdomen. EeDechi gripped her sword with both hands, slashing upward at an angle, forcing the maid's iron gauntlet back.
The maid, her face still a blank mask despite the missed attack, pulled her fist back to guard her front. Her feet stomped rapidly, and with a quick forward slide, she closed the gap to EeDechi, her right hook swinging hard toward the adventurer captain's head.
Even with the reach of her weapon, EeDechi found herself on the back foot for a split second. She stepped back, twisting to dodge the punch, then swung her giant sword with force, clashing once more against the maid's wolf-tooth gloves.
The two traded blows, each countering the other's moves with precision. The maid's floor-length dress didn't slow her down one bit—she moved with the agility of a top-tier boxer, darting in close to EeDechi again and again, unleashing a barrage of ferocious punches.
But our adventurer captain wasn't one to be underestimated. Her giant sword roared through the air, breaking through the maid's assaults time after time.
The indoor parlor was a terrible place for a fight, cramped and confining, but it didn't hinder EeDechi's long weapon in the slightest. Wherever her blade went, destruction followed. The round table was cleaved in two, the crystal chandelier shattered into a shower of glass dust, the bookshelf split down the middle, its books fluttering to the floor like scattered butterflies. Even the walls bore deep gashes from her sword.
Sean had hoped to provide support with his bow, but EeDechi and the maid's lightning-fast movements made it impossible to aim, so he gave up. Stella, dragging their teacher's body, huddled in the corner with Barrett, steering clear of their captain's wild, indiscriminate sword swings.
…
Right now, the castle was a chaotic battlefield, but outside its walls, the client for the Last Defender of the Way adventurer team's latest mission—an elderly gentleman named Sebas Tian—stood at the manor's entrance.
He gazed at the castle within the estate, his expression grim, and turned to the blonde woman beside him. "What's the situation now?"
The blonde was Solution Epsilon, a member of the Pleiades battle maid squad from the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Level: 57, Justice Value: -400; Race: Predator Slime. Ainz had assigned her to work with Sebas Tian, traveling abroad to gather intelligence for Nazarick. She typically played the part of a noblewoman, with Sebas as her aged butler. But in truth, given his rank and authority, Sebas was her direct superior, a line she could never cross.
Solution flicked her delicate hand, unfurling a message scroll. "Lady Shalltear's undead and vampires, created from the castle's living creatures, have all been wiped out. Yuri's gone in now, but we don't know the current state of things."
At this, Solution's usually haughty expression betrayed a hint of unease.
Yuri Alpha, the poised iron-fisted maid, was another of Nazarick's battle maids, just like Solution. Within the Pleiades, Yuri was the big-sister figure, and Solution couldn't help but worry about how Yuri would fare against that adventurer of unknown strength—and who would come out on top.
With a deafening boom, a massive hole blasted open in the second-floor wall of the castle, chunks of marble and brick dust scattering everywhere. A figure in black and white leaped through the breach—none other than Yuri Alpha, clad in her maid outfit.
Seeing her comrade in a rough spot, Solution tensed, ready to rush to her aid, but Sebas placed a firm hand on her shoulder. "Hold off," he instructed. "Yuri broke the wall herself—she's taking the fight outside. Let's keep watching for now."
As the leader of the Pleiades battle maid squad, Sebas felt a pang of concern seeing his subordinate at a disadvantage. But Lord Ainz had tasked him with observing and recording, and with surveillance magic and items currently malfunctioning, he needed to meticulously document EeDechi's combat performance. Acting rashly wasn't an option.
The focus of their attention, EeDechi, finally appeared, leaping through the wall's breach after the maid. The two landed in the birch forest outside the castle, where giant sword met iron gauntlet, and their brutal clash continued.
The adventurer captain wielded her giant sword with sweeping, powerful strikes, forcing Yuri, the battle maid, to retreat step by step. EeDechi held the upper hand, but it didn't seem like she could completely overpower Yuri just yet.
Sebas watched their duel from a distance. As one of the four most skilled close-combat warriors in the Great Tomb of Nazarick, he calmly assessed EeDechi's strength.
"Yuri's racial and class levels combined make her level 51. Based on this fight, EeDechi's around level 56. She wields a two-handed sword, excels in close-quarters weapon combat, and hasn't used any high-tier magic. Hmm, that's about it."
Beside him stood the blonde maid Solution, her black quill trembling as she scribbled Sebas's words onto a parchment scroll with precision.
Satisfied that they'd seen enough, Sebas gave a nod. "Send in Entoma. Have her team up with Yuri to capture EeDechi and bring her back to the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Let's hope Lord Ainz doesn't harm her."