Around a month has passed since Mary's visit.
She kept writing letters to Cranberry reporting on her progress and how her monster complain that their growth is so much slower when Zombie's not around.
As for Cranberry and Zombie, the two of them were using every possible excuse to get out of the mansion and then sneak out to complete the adventurer missions using the Dandelions as a cover.
...
"Fuck... I'm telling you guys, if we keep on completing every impossible request like that, someone will fucking notice something's off...!"
Lairs the mage grumbled while hiding behind a bush.
"Shut up! Do you want that thing to notice us?!"
The rat-faced thief, Shanks, hushed her from behind a tree.
"It doesn't sit well with me, to just, you know, hide when there's a fight."
"Are you insane?! You know what that thing could do to you?!"
Rotte the warrior complained but was fiercely scolded by Shanks.
"That's why you're not the leader anymore...! We wouldn't be in this position if not for your dumb decisions!"
Shanks scoffed at Rotte and finally looked like he had said everything he wanted.
"I-it's not so bad..."
Uresha, the tank hiding behind the tree together with Shanks, murmured bashfully while fidgeting.
For a while, the forest was completely silent, not even an insect buzz disturbed it.
It was a rather stark difference from the terrible rumble that was happening just a few minutes before.
"...You think that they defeated it...?"
Rotte couldn't hold back and asked.
"Fuck if I know, and fuck if I care."
Lairs shrugged her shoulders and pulled the hood over her face.
"As long as we'll get out of here alive, that crazy bitch can get torn to fucking shreds."
"Haha! Yeah, I think the same."
Rotte agreed with her.
"Graough. (And I think that if you don't move your asses I'm going to get angry.)"
Zombie showed up out of nowhere and groaned at the adventurers with disgust.
"Shit! Fuck! Bastard!"
Lairs got so scared of the sudden arrival that she slipped on the leaves and barely kept her balance while spouting profanities.
"...do you think that he heard us talking smack...?"
Rotte covered his mouth and asked stealthily.
Zombie sighed and approached him and...
...kicked him in the stomach...
"Ghueh!"
The bile and the previous meal that Rotte ate, suddenly decided they want to see the light of day again and splattered on the ground as the warrior threw up magnificently.
Before anyone could react, Zombie was already by Lairs and kicked her in the stomach just as he did with Rotte.
The effect was exactly the same.
"Fahing bashtard...!"
Lairs cursed between the spasms of vomiting.
"We can safely assume that he did hear both of you."
Shanks sighed disappointed and bowed to the blue boy.
"I'm terribly sorry for my ungrateful companions' act."
He apologized profusely but Zombie was already walking away.
"Graough. (Come. You should do your part.)"
He growled and beckoned them to follow him.
The Dandelions followed after managing to get the incapacitated half of the group to stand up.
"...ugh... he's just like his master, no sense of humor..."
Rotte burped and grumbled.
"Graough. (If I'll catch you cursing at my master ever again, I will kill you.) Graough. (That's a final warning.)"
Zombie glanced at the Dandelions and groaned with a shrug.
"Huh? Does anyone knows what he might have said?"
Rotte looked at his companions with confusion.
"If I had to guess he was threatening us, so would you kindly shut the fuck up already?!"
Shanks looked like he had enough and snapped at the ex-leader.
After a few minutes of fast marching, they arrived at the clearing.
Not a natural one though.
It became a clearing only because the tall trees in seventy feet radius got toppled.
And at the center a tall red-haired girl in a hunter's clothes was standing calmly, holding a baseball bat dripping with blood.
In front of her, a corpse of a large monster was sprawled on the ground.
The beast looked weird, to say the least.
It was mostly a giant red head with the face of a flat-faced dog, big yellow teeth sticking out of its mouth with long white hair, short arms growing from where the ears would be in a human head, and stumpy legs from where the neck should be.
Though right now the giant head was split in half and beady black eyes were looking in two different directions while the blood and brain matter was spilling from the crushed skull.
"What in the world is this thing?!"
Uresha gasped looking at the dead monster that was at least one twice her height.
"It's something that shouldn't be here."
Cranberry clicked her tongue and wiped the blood off of her weapon against the nearby bush.
"Gorut, a beast that lives near volcanoes all the way from the northern to the southern lands. It's said to bring fortune and eat children."
She explained.
"That doesn't sound like a good fortune..."
Uresha shrunk back, looking both disturbed and sad.
"That's just a superstition, it's just a monster that eats the unaware travelers. The thing is, there are no active volcanoes in Fruit Basket. Someone must have brought it here. Illegally, may I add."
Cranberry frowned and started massaging her forehead.
"You said that who exactly put up the mission to hunt this thing?"
She turned to Shanks and tilted her head.
"The exact name wasn't reviled, but it was supposedly some wealthy noble. But once the promising newbie party, the Lucky Star, was wiped out, the guild changed the mission listing from the middle-tier to emergency."
Shanks explained with a bitter expression.
"They allowed a bunch of newbies to take on a middle-tier mission...?"
Cranberry frowned hearing something so preposterous.
"They were newbie adventurers, but experienced players. Apparently, their leader was a level 51 brawler."
"Level 51! As if! Even an average level 51 would be able to hold this one back. It doesn't make sense..."
Cranberry rejected Shanks's explanation and poked the monster's clouded eyeball with the bat.
"It doesn't make sense that they couldn't kill it... So they must have not tried to kill it..."
She groaned and rolled her eyes.
"Damn it...! What are you waiting for?! Dismantle this thing and return to the guild to report it!"
Cranberry got angry all of a sudden and shouted at the Dandelions.
"...!"
The adventurers hurriedly jumped into action using the new skill they all got in their short time together with the Master-Servant duo.
"Graough...? (Master, did you figure out something...?)"
Zombie tugged on Cranberry's sleeve and groaned curiously.
"Haa... I could bet you my honor that this beast was a secret gift to the Greeds and it somehow got away during the transport."
Cranberry breathed out and started explaining to him in a hushed voice.
"Whoever was organizing it, created a make-shift adventurer party and ordered them to capture the beast alive, but they all failed and got eaten."
She shrugged her shoulders dismissively but her eyes were deadly serious.
"What worries me is that those so-called promising rookies were killed even though they were supposed to be strong. They were either insanely greedy, scared, or loyal. Either one of those implies the involvement of the main families."
Cranberry bit her lips and glared at the Corpse that was already half-skinned.
"Graugh... (That means we shouldn't get involved...)"
Zombie growled cautiously.
"That means we definitely shouldn't get involved."
Cranberry declared strongly and looked Zombie in the eyes.
"Whether it's something that could be used or not, we cannot give my mother any more power. I refuse to do her biddings and certainly won't give her any information that would grant her political advantage over anyone. Next thing we know, she'll try to marry me into one of the other main families to take control over it!"
The red-haired girl shuddered with disgust.
"Graough! (Understood! No marriage!)"
Zombie straightened his back and saluted.
"Ha ha! That's the spirit!"
Cranberry was beaming and patted Zombie on the shoulder.