"Ah! Lord Envy! It's such an honor to be able to have you show up at my inn!"
A robust dwarf with a long jet black beard was bowing deep towards a stunning man standing at the front of a small group of incredibly beautiful people dressed up in the most expensive clothes.
"We're fucking cursed!"
Lairs gritted her teeth while pulling her hood as far over her face as she could and sunk in her seat.
The Dandelions and the Master-Servant pair were seated by the table around the center of the inn, at a perfectly visible spot.
"The one in front is from the main branch, but he isn't direct descendants of the head. The rest is just some branch family no names."
Cranberry commented disinterested while chowing down on a delicious meal like there was no tomorrow.
"Young lady, by any chance do you remember the faces of every member of the main families...?"
Shanks asked curiously while making sure that Uresha and Rotte are shielding Lairs from being seen by the newly arrived Envys.
"More or less."
Cranberry shrugged her shoulders.
Even if she wanted to say that she did know every face and name by heart but the system reset and everyone suddenly become over three years older, therefore, changing at least a bit making it difficult to be a hundred percent sure, but that would be pointless.
After all, everyone else had vivid memories of the missing years, and apparently, only Cranberry, Zombie, and the monsters of the world knew that something was amiss.
"...you think we can get the fuck out of here? Please...?"
The usual confidence and boldness of Lairs were nowhere to be seen, the elven mage was visibly scared.
It wasn't a reaction that Cranberry expected and it made her put down the cutlery.
"...say... before, you had a really strong reaction when Envys were mentioned... are the rumors actually...?"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"...! fuck... I-it's nothing like that...!"
The red-haired girl leaned in tilting her head curiously but that caused Lairs to almost burst into tears.
Whatever happened between Lairs, or maybe even all elves, and the Envy family, must have been gravely serious to cause such a reaction.
"Please, follow me. I'll make sure that you'll get the best seats!"
The dwarven innkeeper hurriedly led the guests to the table that happened to be right next to the Dandelions.
"...!"
With the escape route cut of Lairs looked like she was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
She was pulling her hood down so much that only trembling chin was visible and she basically slipped under the table while shaking uncontrollably.
While Cranberry was looking at her with utter confusion the elf's companions seemed very calm about it.
Or at least they were trying to act that way.
All three of them were doing their best so that Lairs was out of sight of the people from the Envy family seated next to them.
It looked like it wasn't their first time doing something like that.
Meanwhile, Zombie was looking at them all with a confused expression.
"Graough, groaugh... (Weird... I remember her saying that she dislikes Envys more than she dislikes us, but this is way over the top...)"
He groaned while pouring more juice into Cranberry's almost empty mug.
"...oh...? Ha!"
The red-haired girl glanced at him, let out a small gasp, and smirked.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"Young lady... we'll wait in the carriage after all."
Shanks said with a sour expression and was rubbing his hands together nervously.
"Sure, I don't min... ah...!"
Cranberry shrugged her shoulders and nodded benevolently but as soon as she did, she looked to the sides and her eyes locked with one of the beautiful people from the Envys group.
"Well, I'll be damned! Isn't that young lady Cranberry?!"
A black-haired man with perfect silky complexion and big almond-shaped gray eyes called out loudly with so much happiness that one might have missed the slight mockery that slipped in by the end.
It seemed that the man found it funny that he had to call Cranberry a young lady.
And of course, his loud voice, which didn't really match the delicate face, brought the attention of everyone present right at the Dandelions table, which inadvertently foiled the ongoing Lairs extraction scheme.
Cranberry was at the crossroad. Should she engage in a conversation with the beautiful bunch the trouble may arise when Lairs will be noticed.
Still not doing anything could very much bring just the exact same result too...
"Young lady Cranberry Pride in person! My, oh my! Young lady, you've been stirring some troubles left and right recently? Why? Is it because your engagement with prince Roan is in jeopardy?"
Another one from their group, this time a woman laughed, and funnily enough her voice also didn't quite match the face.
"Now now, don't be rude, everyone. Not everyone can be beautiful enough to be worthy of the prince..."
This time even the leader of the group also spoke up obviously poking fun at Cranberry's face that didn't really match their standards.
"..."
Cranberry barely held back the need to roll her eyes.
Roan's presence would cut all of it short, but he was still lying unconscious in a carriage.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Those childish insults sounded pretty cute if she compared them to what her own mother had told her before.
Honestly, sitting there taking it with her head held high and looking at the Envys with pity was probably the best choice.
"Oh? Young lady? Why aren't you returning our greetings? Did we mention touched a sore spot? I'm terribly, terribly so-!"
*crunch*
When the leader of the Envys' group was in the middle of another mockery, Zombie stood up from his seat without a single groan, walked over to the man, and crushed his groins with a single well-aimed kick.
"!!!"
The whole tavern froze in silence.
Even Cranberry was staring at her eternal servant in utter confusion.
"...aaaaaahhhhh..."
Meanwhile, the man who got kicked, slowly fell to his knees while making a quiet kettle-like noise, unable to even raise his voice to scream in pain.
Zombie hadn't used a skill neither did he used his full strength.
But still, even though he wasn't a chef, he made the perfect scrambled eggs.
In the absolute silence that has befallen the inn, Zombie took out a bunch of small neatly written cards.
"Graough. (I was hoping those would come in handy someday.)"
He growled happily while shuffling through them, and handed one to the mortified man beside the fallen one, all with a professional smile.
If you disrespect my master again, I will kill you all
Said the card.
