Chapter 30 - Raid

After that night where I don't remember what happened, except that Lambert's aunt came out of the room in the morning and wasn't wobbly, it seems like nothing serious happened.

Except for me, my waist really hurts, like I did a bad stretch.

I was returning with Barbara in a carriage.

We were both severely tired.

She was clinging to my arm and giving me kisses on my cheek.

I can officially say that my future mother-in-law is my mistress.

The future mother of my children.

It feels a little obscene to say that, but at the same time I will make a mother and her daughter happy.

Before she put something in my drink, she told me to keep it a secret from Eli and Lily until graduation.

When I´ll be the duke, I can freely have mistresses, she said she was going to get me the best women I can look for.

Rosenberg Household needs a lot of children, so she demanded that she be the priority in ending up pregnant because of her age.

I would like to find a way to make her younger.

Then we could have more babies.

But right now I'm worried about back pain.

Once we arrived at the mansion, Glenn greeted us.

Barbara acted as if she had drunk for too much drinks and thanks to my back pain I was able to pretend to carry her.

Some servants came and took her straight to the bathroom, as for me. I went straight to sleep, I'm tired and my back hurts.

At least it was a good night.

◇◇◇

Razel was sound asleep.

Lily went to his room to wake him up.

She thought. (They had a lot of fun at that party.)

She touched his cheek with her index finger to see if he would wake up. But he only drooled more.

She decided to let him sleep and went to breakfast.

She walked down the long hallway, and ran into Cordelia.

"Good morning."

"Good morning, Lily ojou-sama."

Lily held up her hands because of the polite greeting.

"No need for such politeness! Besides, I'm not yet an official member of this family. And being called that still feels strange to me."

It's only been weeks since she's been living in a huge household of nobles. She wears elegant, not secondhand clothes and eats delicacies every day.

Cordelia said. "In that case, what would you like me to call you?"

Lily answered her. "Just Lily will suffice, at least, until I get used to being a member of the nobility after a few years."

The head maid saw her and bowed her head.

That made her huge cleavage hang in the air and then come up jumping up and down very fast.

Lily was amazed by that mighty cleavage.

"In that case, I'll call her Lily-san when no one is around so as not to cause misunderstandings, is that okay with you?"

"S-Sure."

"Then, if you'll excuse me, I'll go and continue doing my work."

"Y-Yes."

Cordelia did a very graceful half-turn, that turn causing her breasts to wildly gyrate sharply.

A loud smacking sound was heard briefly.

She walked in a normal manner.

But Lily from behind watched as those fleshy globes jumped with each step.

(U-Unbelievable! Moms are much bigger... no, maybe those are huge?)

She swallowed a little saliva as watched her walk away.

(I wonder if my breasts will grow that big?)

Lily massaged her breasts a little, they were big for a teenager, but the women she saw at home were a different scale.

She continued on her way straight to the dining room.

◇◇◇

Once breakfast was over, she and Eli were going to go see if Razel was still sleep.

But they weren't.

Someone was outside the mansion, requesting to speak to the Duchess or whoever was in charge.

Glenn, via an antique telephone, spoke to the guard at the gate.

"I understand. Send him in."

He hung up the phone and stopped Eli.

"Eli ojou-sama, hold on a moment please."

"Yes? Is something wrong Glenn?"

Eli stopped along with Lily, she was answering the butler a little intrigued by the call.

"I'm sorry to ask this of you, but your fiancé and mother are still asleep after arriving a few hours ago. So, since you are the only one with authority, I ask you to attend the visitor."

Something like that was not uncommon, but all the same, Eli asked.

"I understand, let him through."

◇◇◇

A man arrived at the mansion, it was Baron Grin.

Eli greeted him and Glenn served him tea.

Once he finished drinking, he spoke.

"I thank you for the tea, it was very delicious."

"Thank you."

Baron Grin looked around like an eager child, but it was in a very unpleasant way.

"I came to give you this."

He pulled out a letter and handed it to Eli.

She opened it and her eyes widened like saucers in surprise.

"This is it!"

"Yes."

He smiled in a wicked way.

"I am a palace official servant, just carrying out orders, but I was notified in advance of the contents in case you had questions and so to answer you."

Eli looked at that letter and sweat ran down his forehead.

"B-But, what you are asking me to do is impossible!"

She stood up and pointed to the letter.

"The contents of this letter demand that some vassal of Rosenberg Household goes and exterminate earth-eating worms in the territory!"

"We have no associate adventurers or knights capable of doing this!"

"It is impossible for us to accomplish this!"

But Baron Grin smiled slightly.

"Miss Rosenberg, the moment you accepted the letter the fulfillment of the acceptance was realized."

"That's absurd! We weren't even notified of this beforehand so as to take measures like refusing or postponing it!"

Eli did not understand why the palace sent them something as absurd as that. To make it worse, having "accepted" the "order", Rosenberg Household is forced to honor the agreement.

"I'm sorry, but there is nothing I can do to help you. The palace sent this perhaps, to check if you have any use for Rosenberg Household. Now, if you will excuse me..."

Baron Grin stood up and picked up his coat and hat as he walked to the door.

A servant was there to open the door for him, but stopped immediately.

"Oh, right, I forgot."

His wicked laugh was unpleasant.

"The time limit is one week. Those worms are annoying to us. I wish you the best of luck."

The baron left.

◇◇◇

Eli slumped down on the couch as he clutched his face fervently.

"Are you fucking kidding me!"

"Is it impossible to do something like that without vassals!"

Rosenberg Household was just recovering after several years of losing good subordinates, the problem with the new and remaining ones was, they are inexperienced people.

The ones that were left after what happened are servants or official servants of their faction.

The new ones are inexperienced knights.

It is impossible to accept something like this.

"Besides, what's this about earth eating worms in our territory?"

"How do they know there are such monsters in our territory!!!?"

Glenn poured her some tea, Eli got up very lazily to take the cup.

As he did so, Glenn said to her.

"Maybe this what´s your mother said when we went to the duke's meeting."

"...?"

"She told me that hostility towards us, her family, increased for regaining what was lost. As you must know, there were many nobles who had companies or manors in the duchy, but after recovering it thanks to the future duke. They were very angry."

"In that case it should be to the palace and not us that they should focus their anger on, or am I wrong?"

Without changing his serious expression, Glenn replied.

"I'm afraid that's impossible, everyone knows that, if they try to damage the image of the imperial family, that man would come to finish them off. If the palace is denigrated it doesn't matter, but the emperor is untouchable."

Eli had heard rumors of the emperor's protector.

The saint of twilight.

A man who is so strong, that the first time he was seen on the battlefield, he killed over 500,000 soldiers in less time than it takes to brew tea.

Also, they say that once there was an attempted rebellion of a corrupt house, in the game they were known as the Hardie family. Enemies that would come out in the second year of the academy, but it seems they were eliminated before that.

The head of the house was tortured for seven days without killing him.

He died when he heartily regretted trying to take over the palace.

She heard that story as a child and it sounded like a horror story to her.

Eli muttered to herself.

"It would be really bad if they thought we were rebels and sent him after us. But, we don't have anyone to send."

Glenn commented.

"Lady Elize, if I may have a word."

"Say it."

"How about asking your fiancé to do it?"

Razel popped into her mind. That warmed Eli's heart.

"Rejected. My fiancé is going on a mission with Prince Cid and the dukes soon. Asking something like this of him is impossible."

"In that case I..."

"Glenn..."

Eli stared at the butler.

"Don't you remember my grandfather telling you that you no longer needed to do that?"

"I remember perfectly well my lady but..."

"But nothing. I will fulfill my grandfather's wish and that you never hurt yourself for us again."

"Then what will you do?"

Eli stood up.

"The answer is obvious. We, the women of this house will take that order!"

Glenn opened his eyes like saucers upon hearing such barbarism.

◇◇◇

Eli ordered Glenn to bring his fiancé's concubines into the room.

A couple of minutes passed and the last one that took a while to arrive was Celia who was still in her pajamas.

Once she heard what the legal wife said, she....

"EEEEEEEHHHHHHH!"

She lost her temper.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!"

"No. I'm perfectly sane."

"What you're saying doesn't indicate that!"

The others instead silently accepted what Eli said, only Celia resisted.

"Rejected! Impossible! I don't believe it! Not a chance!"

Eli was giving her a disappointed look.

"Why don't we let honey have this, isn't it the duty of the men or the future duke to take over the territory?"

"Besides-"

Eli grabbed Celia's chin, it looked like a squashed squeaky toy.

Celia was startled as she looked into Eli's eyes.

(What is this?)

The beautiful cherry colored eyes turned into bright and sinister demonic eyes.

His mouth showed that the girl he was seeing generated repulsion in him.

This was the villainess Elize in all her glory.

"You're saying you're the kind of woman who expects her man to do all the work for her, right?"

Eli's strength was increasing as was her wicked look.

"Razel will undoubtedly be the head of these lands in the future, as his future wife, I must stand by his side and see the safety of the duchy as he does."

Celia understood what she was saying.

"You seem to be forgetting this."

But that only frightened her more.

"You are only a concubine, the only reason for your existence is for your womb, the household of my children's future cousins. As the future wife and mistress of this house, I don't want my little ones hanging out with bad company."

"You think I can't undo the fact that you are a concubine? You think I can't make it so that, despite you having his children, you won't get a single copper coin? Huh?"

Celia thought as she looked at the villainess.

(What's wrong with this girl!!! She's so scary! Her personality totally changed and now she looks like a demon!)

She trembled.

"Answer, will you move that ass to help the house? Or, are you only good to make my man happy when I'm not around?"

She wanted to cry, not because of what she said, but because of her face.

It was the face of the villainess of the game that made her suffer.

"I will help! It will be an honor to serve Rosenberg Household! I am extremely happy!"

Hearing those words, Eli's demonic face returned to that of a sweet girl.

"Good! With that said, girls, let's get ready to leave. We can't have the only man be the only one who have to protect the household."

"Let's go!"

They all raised their hands and yelled out bursting with energy.

Only Celia stood there and once the others left the room.

"What the hell was that!"

She screamed at the top of her lungs.

◇◇◇

The girls were inside a carriage heading to the location on the map.

It was a deep cave near one of the borders of the duchy.

The four girls were dressed in adventurers clothing, the clothing was light armor that only covered the arms, elbows, legs and back.

Eli wore a sword as she was a Lyonnet Style apprentice, but was never able to finish the course.

Lily had some arrows and a cudgel, she was practicing a lot due to the last time she went to one.

Evelyn used a staff, such a thing was old fashioned, but no one said anything about it.

And finally, Celia used an expensive rifle with magic bullets.

She was the only one among all qualified as a real adventurer, she was by her father.

Her adventurer name was Cecilia the sleeper, a D rank despite her age.

She told them everything they should know about being an adventurer and the dangers involved.

Among them, she told them that earth-eating worms are dangerous as they eat dirt and this causes landslides and tremors, but if one of them consumes human flesh, it becomes a man-eating worm. No doubt it was a dangerous creature, the rank required to hunt it was rank B and above.

Eli upon learning about it, cursed the man who gave them the letter and the palace.

A day passed and they finally arrived at the cave.

After disembarking, they entered ready to face the dangers.

◇◇◇

"Guh, this place is horrible."

Celia was giving a cheerful commentary on her adventure with the girls.

At the head was Eli, followed by Lily, behind her was Evelyn and finally Celia.

The reason for being at the back was not to be cowardly, it was to watch the others from the rear.

The place was dark and cold, but thanks to a magical artifact known as a [golem lamp] the place was illuminated.

They were sold at a very cheap price and its duration was three days' maximum, but depending on the intensity of the place it lasted two days.

Once they entered, Evelyn took out the flying lamps in the shape of a round bat and began to light up the equivalent of a VIP room in a stadium.

The girls had been walking for a few hours, and Celia calculated the time.

"Let's rest here for the day."

"No use walking all over this place if we're tired."

They all agreed.

Evelyn lit a magical campfire with a soda can-like device which created a magic circle and flames shot out of it.

To prevent any monsters from approaching, Evelyn activated a spell.

"Thread magic: friendly guardians."

A blue thread came out of the sphere of her staff and formed different animal shapes.

Once they were safe, they proceeded to eat.

◇◇◇

"It was delicious~"

The girls finished their dinner.

They were all happy about the food, it was just the first day of their adventure and despite their situation, they were happy.

Eli was enjoying spending time with her sister and her "friends".

To kill time, they decided to talk about themselves.

Eli told her story, Lily too, both new girls watched as they blushed when they talked about how Razel saved them.

Next to speak was Evelyn.

"I don't meet my mother; my father was taking care of me since I was a baby."

"He took care of me all by himself and taught me everything I know. The day he became a holy wizard, he was happy that his research was a success. Of course, I was happy too."

"And when did you find out about the engagement?" -Eli asked curiously.

"I wouldn't know how to tell you. Razel-kun is a classmate that i didn't interact with at all. I met Celia-chan during the attack on the academy since she comforted me from crying."

"And... I think that's all. I like it here, I never got to socialize with people other than my dad. At the academy I would go back to my room to study or sleep."

"If what you say is true, and what we saw we added, how did you end up in the lowest class? It's not to criticize you since Prince Cid and Razel are there too."

Evelyn smiled as she told them.

"I did it on purpose. Getting a bad grade, my father took a test with possible or old questions and I got 100 points."

"Huh?"

They all made the same startled gesture.

"Why did you do that?" -Lily asked. "I'm sure you'd go to the best class if you'd gotten an excellent grade."

Her smile was still on her face.

"Before I walked into the classroom that day, I saw it. A group of kids laughing merrily."

"They all looked normal, another group of kids were studying and another was bragging about their family accomplishments."

"That's when I asked myself, ´What if I were like them? I'm sure I'd get a good grade; they look like those rumored slacker kids the teachers talk about so much. If, I went to the class where the snooty boys are, would I be laughing like them? Would I be able to make friends with them, right?"

"The answer was obvious… of course not!"

"The place where I would be having fun would undoubtedly be with the carefree boys. Of course, this decision came up at the time, it was too late to get a good grade, and when I got home I told my father."

"Do you know what he said to me?"

"Was he upset?"

Evelyn denied it.

"He said to me. ´As long as it makes you happy, experience it. Joy, sadness, pain, hate. Every emotion a human being should experience I want you to be able to understand it. There's nothing wrong with your actions as long as it's to prove you're human´"

The girls were a bit puzzled by that one afterwards, they expected something else.

The last to speak was Celia, she spoke after giving a sigh.

"I like money, every human being needs it, there's nothing wrong with it."

Eli said nothing as she knows that money is the most precious thing in the world, but she knew that there is something that is much more important.

"A couple of years ago, my mother left us a big debt. It wasn't like your, princess, but, it was very big. My mother... that slut got into debt with a casino and put our territory as a payment offer, you can imagine what happened."

Celia's face showed how upset she was at the memory.

She was eight years old when she watched as her home was taken over by the casino, her territory and relatives scattered as some lived in the same county.

Her mother disappeared with a man, she was beautiful, Celia took her beauty from her.

They had nowhere to live, so they had to become adventurous both.

On the first day her father became a D-rank....

"Daddy!"

He came back with a scar on his face.

He was attacked by a low level monster. But it was still dangerous.

His father told her.

"I'm fine, it's just a jinx of the trade."

But she knew it was a lie, the pain of the scar reflected in his forced smile.

When she turned twelve, she was promoted to D-rank adventurer just like her father her talent was firearms.

Her marksmanship was top notch.

She was called a sleepyhead because she was always sleeping.

She would stay up late several nights to make sure her father returned safely.

One day she learned that she fought a spider queen, but a strange boy helped him and from that day on her father smiled.

It seems he found a friend.

"When my dad told me about the engagement, I said. ´I don't care, as long as he supports me and isn't an abusive man, for me he can have all the women in the world. I couldn't tell you if I would love him as I don't believe in such things, but I haven't seen his greatness either so he seems like a normal guy to me."

That was Celia's opinion.

A normal opinion.

She could be a concubine to Razel, but no one requires her to love him.

Unfortunately, she said the wrong words.

"Hey."

And that made someone upset.

"What was it you said about Razel-kun?"

The cheerful Lily was showing black eyes and a dark smile as Celia stepped back.

"Hey, say it again, did you say Razel-kun was a simpleton boy? You did say that, didn't you?"

"I didn't say that! You heard wrong!"

(First the legal wife is aggressive and now her adopted sister is going crazy, what's wrong with this family?)

Just like a certain horror movie, Lily crawled straight at Celia, her black eyes terrified her.

"What's wrong!"

As luck or misfortune would have it, a tremor was occurring.

They all went on their guard.

Quickly Lily was back to normal and Celia didn't believe how this pure and cheerful girl changed her gloomy expression to an innocent one.

"Is the worm coming?"

"No, it's something else!"

"Earth-eating worms make noise from the bottom, this noise is different! Whatever it is, it's approaching from the bottom of this place!"

Everyone's gaze focused on one place.

Something was coming, and very fast.

In that dark tunnel, a large body was approaching.

The girls were terrified and ready to fight.

But their resolve was crushed as they noticed something that was not what they said in the letter.

"It can't be..."

What they were not told.

"...You must be joking?"

And it was unaware of the palace.

"There's no way a bunch of pretty girls can fight that!"

It's just that this place wasn't a hideout for earth-eating worms, it was....

"What the hell is an earth dragon doing here!!!"

A nest of earth dragons.