"I... I... I am... y-yo-young lady... "

Apple started trembling and bowed deeply in front of the girl.

All of his bravado disappeared, probably because the small demonstration had sobered him up completely and he realized the terrible position he got himself into.

"Good."

Cranberry nodded benevolently.

"Now, tell me what the Envy family is doing in the shadows."

She smiled happily and asked.

"N-nothing! The Envy family isn't doing a-anything suspicious! I swear!"

Apple shouted in a panicked voice but his eyes darting all over the place clearly showed that he knew something, and was lying about it.

"Ooh... I see, I see..."

Cranberry nodded and quickly reached towards Apple's shaking hands.

Before the man could realize what was happening, the red-haired girl got a hold of the pinky finger of his right hand and pulled on it.

"AAAAUUUGGHHHHAAAAHHHH...!!!"

Apple squealed like a butchered animal when his finger got ripped off and blood gushed from the meaty wound.

"So maybe it's not the whole family, but just some of the members?"

"I don't...! I-I really d-d-don't...!"

Apple was bobbing back and forth in his chair while clenching his hand close to his body, trying to stop the bleeding.

"Ooh... I see, I see..."

Cranberry nodded, grabbed Apple's elbow, and forced him to raise his hand.

Then she grabbed his ring finger and pulled it up.

"AAAAAAARRGGHAAAAAAHHHH...!"

The Apple's eyes bulged out as his voice raised high and the blood from his new wound splashed on the inn's floor near the fallen innkeeper.

"Then, maybe it's not a few but..."

"Everyone! It's everyone from the Envy family!"

Cranberry was asking another careful question but Apple's pitiful cry interrupted her mid-sentence.

"Oh, so every Envy is doing something suspicious on their own?"

Cranberry asked already reaching for his middle finger.

"NO! No! I-it's not like that! They are all doing the same thing! Everyone, everyone, everyone!"

The man was shaking like a leaf in the wind while clenching his remaking fingers tightly, desperately trying his best to protect them.

"And what is that activity they are doing?"

Cranberry's smile became wider and she asked in a friendly tone that somehow was the most terrifying thing that she could do.

"The rumors are true...! They... the Envys... they are kidnapping elves... what else could they do?!"

/Quest progression

/*learn about what the Envy family is doing in the shadows (completed)

/(20% completion - +25 LUC)

/2nd tier reward granted

/Master and Servant base status points increased

Messages that popped up proved that Apple's words were true.

Cranberry smirked and let go of the man's arm and let him crumble at her feet into a sobbing, bleeding mess.

"Haa... Zombie, seeing that only that part of the quest was completed, it seems I still have to talk with all the other people in here, throw one over here!"

Cranberry sighed and called at her blue undead who - thanks to his amazing speed - was blocking the door and all the windows for all the unlucky frightened villagers who were trying to get out.

"Graough! (As you wish!)"

Zombie growled happily, grabbed the closest villager who tried to pass by the belt, and threw him across the inn right to Cranberry's feet.

"Good."

The red-haired girl smiled and opened her hand.

Two bloody fingers fell from her palm and bounced on the floor causing the new victim to become green in the face.

"Now then, what can you tell me?"

Cranberry smiled friendly and asked after leaning forward and wiping her bloodied hands against the villager's clothes.

...

/Quest progression

/*talk with the people in the inn (completed)

/(30% completion - free skill)

/3rd tier reward granted

/Master and servant receive a free skill

(To select a skill pick and chose one from the skill list menu)

"...haa... finally..."

The red-haired girl breathed out in annoyance.

About an hour later, after Cranberry was done traumatized every single patron of the only inn in the village, a series of messages has finally shown up and freed the Master-Servant pair from the chore of questioning every single villager one more time just to be sure.

Mostly because some of the said villagers would not have enough fingers to last them through another round of questions.

As it turned out, only Apple had any relevant information, the others could only repeat rumors or tried to lie their way out of a friendly conversation with Cranberry, but they all ended up just like Apple in the end.

Fingerless and severely traumatized.

"Zombie, it's enough, let's go to our room."

Cranberry waved at her eternal servant and motioned with her chin at the stairs leading on to the second floor.

Then she started walking there, careful not to step on any of the many ripped-off fingers littering the bloodied floor.

Zombie hurriedly followed after her, but in his case, he didn't bother to check what is getting crushed or pierced by his heels.

"We've accidentally stumbled onto some weird quest... Route c... ha..."

Cranberry muttered to herself.

"Don't you have any hunch about what this all means? Those whole routes and that v/w thing?"

She asked Zombie without any hopes of getting a reasonable answers.

"Graough. (Routes are the stories of particular capture targets.) Graough...? (As for the v/w, I guess it could be the villainess/win condition or something...?) Graough. (Each route should have the win-lose scenario for the heroine anyway but I guess it's the same for the villainess too.)"

Zombie shrugged his shoulders and answered as if it was nothing.

And then he passed the frozen red-haired girl on the stairs.

"Graough? (Huh? Master? What happened?)"

He asked cluelessly, looking into Cranberry's wide opened eyes.

"That... haa... that makes a lot of sense actually..."

Cranberry breathed out trying to calm down and nodded at Zombie.

"Does that mean we forced our way right into another capture target's route then?"

She asked flaming her shocked heart.

"Graough. (Yeah, seems like we triggered an event.)"

Zombie agreed.

"By any chance, do you know who is the route c's capture target ...?"

Cranberry brushed her hair to the side and asked trying to remain calm but failing.

"Graough. (No, sorry.) Graough. (I've never played this game and have no idea what's to come.)"

"Haa... no, it's fine. Don't worry."

Zombie bowed apologetically and Cranberry waved her hand dismissively.

"Let's try to complete more of this optional quest tomorrow... haa... what the hell is going on here... what game is he even talking about...?"

"Graough! (Lets!)"

The master decided and let out a heavy sigh while the servant agreed with a cheerful groan.