The Mavericks. They were a group of orphans and street children blessed with becoming a beneficiary of the kindness and wisdom of the Rouen Kingdom's hero, the Dark Elf, Lime.

The hero trained those children in various ways of combat and espionage. She funded businesses that the orphanage would run and/or benefit from. And more importantly, she taught the children how to live after reaching adult age, mainly brainwashing them that they should become employers instead of employees, and if that's unachievable for some reason, they should at least be able to secure a proper position in society, like a maid of a respectable (likable) noble family.

Many could say that they are probably the luckiest group of orphans in the whole continent.

One of those orphans was Kristoffer.

Now that the hero had gone missing for the past decade, it became his responsibility to lead the orphanage with the director. While the entire country was skeptical about the current state and condition of their hero, Kristoffer was not. Not because he did not care, but it was because he was favored enough to be told a special secret.

.....

After picking the locks of the chains, Kristoffer finally managed to pull free the Maverick. Although he was starting to wish that he should have just taken the time to look around the house for something to break the chains as Quill's foul mood was still obvious despite the visible smile on her face.

Quill already mentioned to him that she understood how much those magic scrolls helped him defeat the vampire and how lucky he was that he got to use it so that probably meant that she has already forgiven him or at least would forgive him, but it still hurt that Quill was disappointed in him.

"Why didn't you borrow money from me then?" she cheerfully continued.

Yep, she's still upset about it, Kristoffer thought. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

"I'm not looking for an apology, young man," she said, "I was asking you why you didn't come to me."

It was because he thought it would be shameful of him to do so. Kristoffer didn't say anything back because she most likely already knew that was going to be his answer. Why ask then? Was she perhaps telling him in a roundabout way that he should rely on her more, that there's nothing to be ashamed about? Perhaps she's right. He only just realized that he did drag her into this creepy house shamelessly, and she just went along, so why be ashamed about borrowing money from her?

"I don't understand," Victor began, "Why would the boss be upset about you pawning something that isn't hers. Unless..." Victor looked at Kristoffer, then at Quill, "it WAS hers."

Quill just continued smiling and Kristoffer grew stiff at the comment.

"Great, we have a detective here," Carl said, "but you guys should take a look at this."

They all turned to see what Carl discovered and currently pointing at--a small triangular hole on the wall. Victor didn't understand what's so interesting about it.

Kristoffer approached. "Is that a keyhole?"

"What?" Victor couldn't believe it. "Yeah, you're right. It really is!"

Then Kristoffer suddenly realized something. If there's a keyhole, you needed a key. This one was weird too since it would use a triangular key at that. "You didn't want to give us the keys earlier because you didn't want us to look for this, did you?"

But that would only be correct if the triangular key was bound together with the keys for the chains and by the succubus' reaction, he was most likely right. If she didn't want them to see the room beyond this door then it must be hiding something important.

Unless she was only acting and this was a trap all along. Kristoffer scanned his companions and by the looks of it, they also thought the same. Still, they couldn't ignore it, all they could do was be careful.

"Hey, Victor," Kristoffer called, "Do you think you could get her to spit out the keys?"

"Sure thing." With that, Victor loomed upon the succubus, cracking his knuckles. "You better start talking before my fists start working."

And it surprisingly worked, the succubus didn't bother resisting and told them where to find it. Well, she did know that hiding it any longer wouldn't do any good for her.

...

Within the bundle of keys that Victor grasped, the golden triangular key eclipsed the rest. Checking on his companions, he finally inserted and turned. A click. Then the stone wall parted with a blood-curdling sight... Multiple glass jars, probably two dozens, encompassed one of the most gruesome parasites known to mankind: braineaters.

"W-why do you have these... things?" Victor asked, his body shivering just at the thought of releasing these ghastly worm-like creatures. These things looked like anthropods at first glance until one latches onto a humanoid and a tentacled worm crawls out of its shell.

"...Wow."

Everyone paused at the comment.

"Wow," Quill said once more, weakening her grasp on the succubus' arm and walking closer to the jars to touch them. Her face was full of excitement like a mad person who discovered something that shouldn't be allowed to see the day. "With all my years, this is the first time I've seen live braineaters before they have successfully entered a human. Look at those legs strong enough to stop a grown man's arms from flailing as they use their tentacles to pass through one's ear and force the poor victim to open its mouth and then-"

"Stop it," Victor cut her, "Please, stop it. Don't you understand? Look! Five of these jars are already EMPTY. There's no time to admire these things, we have to search for them."

"For what?" Quill asked dryly.

"Huh?"

"I'm asking you, what would you do after you found them already inside, let's say, a girl passing through a street, hm? Will you abduct them? Ask them to peacefully surrender?"

"...What's your point exactly?"

"It's too late for them, Victor. A braineater successfully entering a host meant that you can no longer save them."

"What do you want me to do then?! Just stand around like nothing happened? How can you even be sure that it's already late, what if these things were still out there looking for their victims, huh?"

Quill sighed. "We already found them."

"What did you just say?"

"Two days ago, one of the guys found a braineater almost getting its mark. After a short discussion with the crew, we figured we had to call a specialist. He set up a bunch of traps throughout town yet he caught none."

"His traps didn't work, he was a sham then? That means they are still out there!"

"No, Victor. That was two days ago. Two days. If a braineater hunter couldn't catch even one stupid worm on the first day, that only meant that there are no longer braineaters in the area. So he did one last thing to make sure--look for shells."

Victor's face contorts in horrifying realization. "No... don't tell me..."

"At different points in town, he found four shells. Including the first one who failed, that counts five."

"No! No, no, no no! This shouldn't be happening. Tell me you're lying. Wait... You are lying. You said you discussed this, but why haven't I heard anything? The hunter placed traps but how come I didn't see anything like it?" Victor pointed a finger at Quill in accusation, his expression grim. "Don't even think that you can make yourself look good in front of us by claiming lies."

Quill didn't answer, aside from the mocking grin that slowly appeared that was. This seemed to have agitated Victor.

"You monster... You could have combed the town, you have the power and the numbers, yet you let this happen!" he said, swiping his arm towards the direction of the empty containers.

Carl and Kristoffer's eyes met.

Now he's spouting nonsense. Victor obviously wasn't thinking clearly.

Nevertheless, when Victor started accusing Quill, she suddenly showed a clear lack of concern, just smirking and shrugging at his outburst. This, of course, didn't reassure Victor and after ultimately reaching his boiling point, he grabbed the hilt of his dagger.

In a blink of an eye, Kristoffer already caught Victor's wrist, stopping him from doing something stupid. So this was her plan all along! Damn it, Quill, don't provoke your subordinate just because they irritate you.

At the corner of Kristoffer's eye, Carl already brandished a small metal object, at the ready at his side.

"Let go of me," Victor fumed.

"Let me just tell you that you started spewing lies at the end there," Kristoffer jabbed. "Quill did try to scour the entire town with her crew last night but...something happened."

"And how would you even know that when I didn't? Things are clear to me, she didn't try hard enough and now we have five people dead and something horrific pretending to be them."

"Victor, you know you can't beat her," Kristoffer said, "We can talk about this later, but right now we have more pressing issues before us."

Victor didn't care if he died as long as he could take this monster with him to the ground. Yet, it would mean the two good men with him would have to die as well for that to have any chance of happening.

"Victor, you're smarter than this," Carl chimed, scratching his head, "but you're acting like an idiot right now."

"Huh?"

Carl stood between him and Quill, slowly looming on his face. "I know you're angry, very much so. But what did you do? Rather... where were you? Are you sure that you are not blaming Quill to justify your own...lack of action?"

Then it hit Victor like a rock.

Driven by emotions he started blaming other people for something that he couldn't do himself. And the reason he did not know any of this happening was...yes, he was out of town until earlier.

Victor took a peek at Quill and met eyes with her. She no longer had that mocking grin.

Realizing all of these, he finally knew that his anger was misplaced. Quill wasn't a champion of justice either. He knew that. She was the leader of an underground syndicate that spread throughout the country so what did he expect from her.

Glaring at Quill, he relented for the moment, "...Alright, for now we should destroy these abominations before-"

*Giggle*

"Damn fools."

They all turned towards the source of the voice, but they were all too late.

The succubus took the chance while they were bickering among themselves and before they could react, she activated her skill [Possess] and leaped into Quill.

Quill tried to swing at her but her arm only passed through the astral form, allowing the succubus to sink into her body.

For a few seconds, Quill just blanked out, unmoving, until an evil smile returned. However, it was not the familiar smile they were used to get from Quill, but something else.

Pure sinister. No room for surrender.

"Ku-kukuku, hahahaha!" Looking at the three humans before her, she couldn't stop laughing to herself as they foolishly let her possess this powerful body. In fact, just feeling the mana flowing through her, she figured this might even be powerful enough to destroy an entire fortress. How glad she was that she succeeded in taking control.

Although, she felt a bit stupid not thinking of this earlier but whatever.

Just look at their faces. Did they really think she'd go along with them peacefully if they let their guard down too much? What morons.

That said, she should thank them. If they didn't discover this room, I would have completely forgotten about my [Possess] skill.

"Well, then. Shall we have fun?" The humans quickly backed up towards the door, still facing her.

Oh, planning to escape, eh? It's not like they can outrun me, though.

She could already think of a dozen things she could do to torment them. But just as she finished her first step, however, a great pain assaulted her from the inside.