Pear Flakes, a maid working in the Pride's mansion was shimming through the darkness towards the wall behind the rose garden.

She was sneaking out to meet with the stable boy, Loquat.

Yes, the maid was having an affair during work.

It might have been night already but Pear was supposed to be doing the dishwashing duty in the kitchen since she lost the bet she made with the rest of the staff.

"...!"

She cautiously checked her surroundings and almost had a heart attack when she saw that the light was still on in lady Raspberry's room but quickly sighed with relief realizing that no silhouette was standing there.

She was still safe.

Pear smirked to herself and hurried behind the hedge.

The luck must have been on her side, the full moon showed up from behind the clouds and illuminated her way.

The young woman could barely stop herself from humming - everything looked like their secret meeting would be a success...!

She trembled in anticipation thinking about Loquat's strong arms that were going to embrace her in just a few short minutes...!

After a little bit more walking, Pear arrived at the meeting spot.

But right then and there, her luck must have run out.

The moon hid behind the thick clouds and the maid had to walk in complete darkness.

She didn't have any light source with her since that could bring the attention of someone from the mansion, and the two of them getting discovered was unacceptable after all - Pear was older than Loquat, and not to mention that the stable boy was already married.

So Pear was carefully taking one step after the other, using the cold bumpy surface of the wall as her guideline.

*bump*

"Kyah...!"

It was going well until she suddenly tripped over something big and fell down.

"What the...?"

She groaned feeling around with her hands.

She touched something large, warm, and...

"Wet and sticky...?"

She murmured bringing her hand to her nose to smell whatever she touched.

The substance had this odd metallic smell...

*groooowl*

"Eh...?"

Hearing the grumbling, Pear grabbed her belly, embarrassed by a mere thought that Loquat might have heard her stomach making such embarrassing sounds.

"No, wait... but I already had supper...?"

Pear realized furrowing her brows.

*drip*

Suddenly something wet glopped on the grass right next to her arm.

"Huh?!"

She looked up and...

"What in the...?!"

Pear gasped, staring befuddled at many pairs of glowing eyes peering at her from the top of the walls.

The clouds cleared once more and the moonlight illuminated the area.

The grass, wet with blood...

...the bottom half of a human body lying limply beneath the wall...

...the shocked maid kneeling in steaming intestines...

The whole pack of humanoid wolves clad in various mixed and matched armors was perched on the walls, salivating and staring hungrily at the maid.

"We-werewolves...?"

Pear muttered.

"Why.... House of Gluttto...?"

*CHOMP*

Before the maid could finish, one of the werewolves opened their mouth, their jaws started shining, and a black mass spilled from it, engulfing the woman beneath and ripping off her head in one go, only to be sucked back into the monster's mouth.

*crunch* *crunch*

The werewolf slowly chewed the head.

*gulp*

And swallowed it with an almost comical sound.

"Good staff..."

The werewolf wiped their lips and smiled at the pun they've made.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if the rest of those bastards is on a similar level, I think we got ourselves a feast tonight!"

The werewolf that bit off Pear's head, clearly the leader, laughed and stood up to look over the hedges of the rose garden.

"The two weakest ones should stay here and finish these leftovers, the rest of us will proceed with the plan."

They commanded.

Every monster growled with approval.

"Whatever happens, remember our true objective..."

The leader growled at the rest of their pack.

"...if only we would have learned that information sooner... So many years wasted ... I wish that lady Goji could have come with us, but the search is just as important..."

The leader werewolf shook their head with melancholy.

"Leader, hey, leader!"

One of the werewolves wagged their tail excitedly, unable to read the mood.

"Those flowers smell so good, can I eat them?"

The monster was staring at the garden in front of them and producing a lot more saliva than anyone around.

"No. Your level of devour is still low, you will upset your stomach with the thorns."

The leader shook their head, dismissing the idea.

"Then I would only eat the..."

"Enough."

The flower-hungry werewolf was interrupted and shushed.

The leader bared their teeth in a terrifying grin and waved their clawed front paw.

"Attack. Devour to your hand content. Just keep howling to a bare minimum."

They said and the whole pack nodded and soundly jumped down the wall and charged towards the mansion.

The two youngest ones, a gray one and a hazelnut-brown one, stayed behind by the corpses and started eating them using the devour skill.

A black mass would emerge from their mouths allowing them to bite off a lot more than they should physically be able to.

The hazelnut one suddenly started shaking, his body shrunk, or maybe that just how it looked without all the excess fur, and a young man showed up.

"Lemon, others warned us to not recall the transformation on the enemy grounds..."

The gray one shook their head before downing a whole leg.

"I know...! It's just..."

The man that showed up got embarrassed and looked away, chewing on the torso and clothes of the victims.

"I hate eating with wolf's mouth, no cheeks..."

He mumbled with his mouth full.

"Lemon..."

The gray werewolf sighed.

"H-hey, do you know anything about the head's search?"

Lemon seemed desperate to change the subject.

"Only that she really regrets her previous decision."

The gray one shrugged, munching on the ribcage.

"Who told her to get rid of the weakest kid? We're not wild animals."

Lemon grumbled while snacking on the fingers of the dead maid.

"He he! Right? And now that we have all those information on Envys, she is losing her mind! Maybe I should challenge her for the domination fight next time?"

*splat*

"What do you think?"

The gray werewolf laughed and turned to his companion.

What they saw was the headless corpse of Lemon being flattened to the ground by a large blue-skinned undead in an extravagant outfit, shining with all kinds of active skills.

"H-hu...?!"

*THUNK* *splat*

The next second the gray werewolf's head got obliterated by a baseball bat.

/Middle-level player character defeated

Master and servant receive the EXP

"Haa... We can't escape."

Cranberry sighed and pulled on her weapon that got embedded into the wall together with what remained of the monster's head.

"Graough...? (Are you sure...?)"

Zombie stood up and wiped the soles of his boots on the grass.

Cranberry made a sour expression and threw her bat over the wall.

*thunk*

/Unable to leave the area

Story event in progress

The bloodied weapon hit the invisible wall and fell back inside, causing a message to pop up.

"...graough... (...I really hate those system barriers...)"

Zombie grunted spitefully.