The best inn in the city, King's apple, the inn that hosted the royal family whenever they were visiting the Wrath's territory, was reserved for the night for very special visitors.

...though, there was a more fitting word for the situation...

​​

Rather than being reserved, it was being occupied.

Soon after a considerably big explosion reverberated through the city and many patrons went outside to check what was the cause of it - whether some adventurers were having trouble with a subdued monster or maybe someone has pissed off one of the people from the Wrath family.

Still, the answer was far more surprising.

"That's not fair! You cheated!"

A loud voice came from outside even before the person showed up at the door.

"Haa... and since when wasn't it allowed for us to help the guys? Ha? You were clearly using some skills the whole time - all the way since the very begging."

Another voice responded dismissively.

"I was only using an acceleration skill to boost Arion's own speed! That doesn't count! You straight-up used blink to gain an unfair advantage when it became clear that we will be the one to win!"

"Ha! Look at you, getting angry that you lost even with the advantage of Zombie limiting his speed not to kill Corvus."

The two voices were having a friendly banter, but once the name of the well-known white-haired adopted son of the Wrath family was mentioned, everyone inside the inn went silent.

"We didn't lose! It doesn't count because you've cheated!"

"Ha ha! Since when this friendly race even had any rules?"

"Ah! Arion! Zombie! Did you hear that?! She admitted that she didn't follow the rules!"

And soon enough the owners of the voices showed up right at the very door of the King's Apple.

It was two young women, one tall and the other one short, both endowed well enough for it to be visible even with all the strange high-quality armor they were wearing.

The tall one had shoulder-length red hair, not the pretty kind of red but rather one that was eerily similar to the dark blood. She also had many freckles on her face and overall couldn't be described as conventional beautiful no matter how one looked at her features.

Even though she was smiling, or rather because she was smiling, her whole face was giving off the impression of a mean, overly confident girl.

As for the short one, the one who was far more agitated, she had slightly longer brown hair and a childish face that was giving off a youthful and innocent feel.

Even though she was frowning and arguing with the red-haired girl very ferociously, with a face like that the threatening effect was extremely meager and basically close to none.

"??!!!??!?!!?!"

Which couldn't be said about the next pair, or rather a trio, that followed right after the girls.

There was a huge wolf with bristly black fur with orange glint walking silently behind the innocent-looking brown-haired girl.

It was truly massive, basically, the size of a small horse but two or even three times as wide, and its intelligent eyes were glaring at anyone who dared to stare at the girl in front of him too much.

Though what was more important for all the bystanders, there was a very unconscious white-haired young man who was well known to everyone in the territory.

"..."

People started whispering to each other in concern and ended up ignoring the other monster - a tall blue corpse puppet with black hair and black eyes, wearing the same kind of armor that the two girls in front while also sporting the high heel boots, although it was hard to say that they were boots since it put the armor on its legs on top of them.

"...Tsk..."

The amount of living surrounding the corpse puppet certainly didn't sit well with it, since the puppet clicked its tongue while glaring around making a disgusted face as if it was forced to step into the whole field of putrid manure.

"And...!"

"Mary, pardon me for a bit."

The brown-haired girl looked like she wasn't going to let go of the whole cheating, but the red-haired girl raised her hand to stop her for a moment and stepped towards the corpse puppet.

"...!"

And to the shock and even disgust of all the citizens in the inn, she proceeded to grab the puppet's left hand rather intimately and intertwined their fingers while looking up at its face.

"Zombie, try to relax. Think about them as some filth on the side of the road. If I can stop myself then so can you, right?"

"!!!!"

Her calming voice caused the angry murmur to arise and circulate amongst the more intoxicated patrons.

"I want to turn them all into the filth on the side of the road...! This is so infuriating! I thought that after I regain my free will the urge to kill the living will subside, but it got so much worse instead...!"

The corpse puppet bared its teeth and its eyes began glowing murky red as it stared down at any living who dared to met his glare.

"But you told me that it gets better if you are by my side, so don't bother with some trash and just focus on me."

*peck*

The red-haired girl shrugged her shoulders and confidently got on her tiptoes to lightly kiss the corpse puppet's cheek.

"Better?"

She asked with a slight blush.

"..."

The blue corpse puppet didn't respond straight away, instead, it leaned down and...

*peck*

Kissed the girl's cheek right back.

"As long as you are fine, I'm good."

The corpse puppet said with a soft smile, observing as the red-haired girl's face gets brighter and brighter from a cute blush.

"Kyaah! Wait, since when are the two of you like that?!"

The brown-haired girl covered her eyes with her hands but looked at the two with sparkling eyes through the spaces she left between her fingers.

"Ha? What? Are you jealous? He's a capture target so of course I captured him~!"

The red-haired girl hummed happily and hugged the corpse puppet with a triumphant smile.

"Pssh! Capturing the capture target is the heroine's job, miss villainess!"

The brown-haired girl instantly moved her hands from her face right to her waist and proudly puffed out her chest.

"Yeah, about that... you better not aim for my Zombie, I will kill you if you try to take him away from me, you have my word."

The red-haired girl's voice and eyes grew so cold that the temperature inside the inn seemed to drop below the water freezing point as she looked at the brown-haired girl without releasing her embrace on the corpse puppet.

"...duly noted... after thorough consideration, I've decided to not aim for the harem route anyway..."

The brown-haired girl nodded while discreetly backing off behind the black wolf that although shaking in fear ended up stepping in front of her defensively.

"...harem route...?"

The red-haired girl didn't look convinced and hugged the corpse puppet a bit tighter giving off an aggressive aura.

"No! I'm serious! Just look at what I would have to deal with if I attempted making a harem!"

Mary waved her hands in denial and then pointed at the unconscious Corvus sprawled at the wolf's back.

"Pffft! That was so rude! Ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha!"

In an instant, all the anger disappeared from the red-haired girl's face and she busted into laughter that sounded more like dog's barks than anything else.

"Haa... I will believe you, but my promise still stands, no one can take my Zombie away."

The red-haired girl breathed out and declared while shamelessly nuzzling against the corpse puppet.

"With that said, let's get ourselves a table."

She added with a lighthearted smile.

"Excuse me, but we do not serve freaks that get chummy with some stinking undead."

In response to the red-haired girl's remark, one of the waitresses walked up to their group and declared with confidence.