The group of powerful fighters that arrived had one thing in common.
Their uniforms were white and grey. They consisted of long pants layered with armor plating, and a thick layered jacket over a simple black shirt—I knew the last part because some of them did not even wear their jackets in this dusty wasteland.
There was also a repeating pattern of the number 969 written vertically on some parts of their uniform. It looked like their unit number or logo of their group.
"Ahaha, this is insane."
In less than ten minutes, the group of Jagan Basilisk had been subjugated.
These were the so-called monsters that had survived numerous apocalypses, but they fell to the twelve armed individuals who had just arrived.
The basilisks lay scattered, their bodies were broken and still as the last electricity they emitted was their plea for help. Even that too eventually dwindled.
And just like that, some of those individuals already began skinning and extracting the corpses of the Jagan Basilisk. They put the pieces into what appeared to be spatial boxes with bigger space inside them.
They did it rather fast and professionally too. It seemed like they had been doing this as a routine.
Organs were pulled out without waste, and scales were peeled in large sheets.
They also neatly collected all of my flying weapons. But they did not really know what to do with them.
It seemed like they detected an unknown magic circle unreadable by them. I could see one of them being told to appraise it.
She stared intensely and then shook her head.
I guess that was given since the Void Runes I made could only be deciphered by my Magic Savant.
Of course, I was currently interacting with one of the demons who saved me.
Well, I was being threatened by one of them, to be exact.
It was a woman with a large and muscular frame. She had a pair of wolf-like ears over short dark hair. She towered over me by more than a meter, but I was already used to that feeling at this point."
"Why is such a puny and weak dryad in Endia's Grave?"
The intimidation aside, I noted in my mind how the name of this place turned out to be as metal as how it looked.
But before I could answer, another demon with ashy short hair and a pair of horns nudged over the tall woman with her elbow.
She grinned. "This twerp is too little of a tree to be a dryad, you might want to correct yourself unless you want to be labeled as racist by one of those weirdo at the Heart Citadel."
Another one with bunny ears and yellow hair and a shorter frame jumped in.
Her beastly claw pointed at me, "She has a flower-like organ, maybe she is an alraune!"
Then they began to list off all of the plant demon races that they could think of, from Leshy, Kodama, an aberration of fae, and many more.
The big woman pointed once again, "This twerp is rather short, don't you think? Maybe she is a gnome!"
"Since when is gnome a plant demon?"
The horned woman leaned in a bit. "However, if you look at her closer, she is too beautiful to be a gnome, and I'm saying this doesn't find many demons attractive." Her face had gotten closer as there seemed to be a genuine curiosity plastered all over her smug face. "Maybe she is a fairy or some sort."
Before she could touch me, each of them got hit on the head.
They got knocked out to the ground by someone.
"Were you not supposed to get information after making them comfortable…? Instead, you make her uncomfortable and don't bother asking about any information!"
The woman that scolded them was a tall and mature catfolk of the Beast Demon category.
Though unlike some Beast Demons that before this who had more of the animal characteristics including a furred body, this woman was more of a human with slight cat-like characteristics.
She had pinkish hair and cat ears and cat-like gold eyes. There was a cat tail slipping out from her pants and jacket—this made the pants barely hanging, and I could see the V-lines of her crotch and the exposed curve of her hips because of that.
Aside from my concern of potential debris getting caught there, the cat lady could be a supermodel on her own with that face and body. Then I remembered that she fought rather wildly and gruesomely in comparison to others.
This made me think twice of that image I had in mind.
Also, what with demons having absolute gorgeous of an appearance, again? I noticed the lack of the large, menacing, and intimidating depiction of them that I had when I was just a normal human.
The cat lady coughed the awkwardness and then introduced herself. "I am Vese, the leader of the first squad of the Skittish Janitors. We are the legion that is ordered to clean up any unnatural conflict or potential intruder in Endia's Grave, this stink and outrageous shithole—
"And you are obviously none of that since you would just attack or run away the moment you saw the numbers on the uniform, so I hope that you can pardon the rudeness of my squad members, since they have been quite deprived of any entertainment as of late, ahaha…"
Well, I could relate to that.
"Are the Skittish Janitors like an elite force with how powerful all of you are?" I asked.
Vese felt like I was complimenting them, so she proudly confirmed, "Of course! We are a powerful legion in entirety that could even fight toe to toe with an established military prowess of the Seven Fingers The Jagan Basilisk are nothing but breakfast to us!"
『 You are surprisingly non-hostile to these people despite their rudeness earlier. If that was me, I would cut their tongue and punish them to be tortured inside my dungeon. 』
For one, I'm not a freak like you.
Secondly, since when are you this intolerant of a person??
『 You're an exception since you're one of my inheritor-to-be, my lovely Mesmer~ However, I don't take insult lightly, just so that you know. 』
So, should I stop with all the formality? I fear that it will come to bite me somehow.
『 Ah, no. Don't stop! Your feistiness is one of the most charming parts about you! 』
Since this is you that we're talking about, are you referring to that as in my personality or in bed?
『 You're nearly dommed completely by Lothair back then, though? 』
That was my first time! I'm not ready at all, so that doesn't count!
『 So you say that you can't wait for a revenge sex with her later, is that why you want to go back immediately instead of staying in that hole to attain another enlightenment. 』
Now you're just making me the pervert here!
『 You're though, just a closeted one~ 』
Shut up, I know a gaslighting when I hear one!
『 And you're fun to tease too. Just because of this alone, I ignore all of the insults you throw at me like they were your breakfast. 』
I'll never forget this exchange and I will call this out the moment you start to sulk over my demeanor toward you.
The minor setback aside with the so-called Cosmic Savant inside my head, I explained to Vese, the leader of the Skittish Janitors, on how I got here.
I briefly explained to them that I took a teleport scroll but somehow it sent me here. I accidentally fell into a pit trap with those large weapons over there, which I pointed to, and I engraved telekinesis magic circles to control them to fight.
The demon who was told to appraise the magic circles on the weapons were amazed with the unique type of my inscription method for the magic circuit, and she had been geeking about it to other members of the squad ever since in the background.
I also told Vese about all of my fights with the Jagan Basilisk and the Crimson Oni, and I thanked the squad for helping me since I no longer had any Demonic Essence to fight.
Though that last part was a lie since I technically had an indefinite amount of Demonic Essence with the Fool's Forge.
Vese acted awkward to my compliment once more, "It is only our job to arrive at any suspicious encounters. In fact, it is probably because of the faint Demonic Essence that you have that our squad could not pick up any abnormality in this area until that Crimson Oni called all of those Jagan Basilisk in one place."
Huh, so she caught on to the faintness of my Demonic Essence. I wonder if I could make it more faint even amongst the demons too.
『 You technically can, but that might result in an unexpected side effect like reduced output power, or reduced flexibility. 』
Ah, I won't try that anytime soon, then.
Vese then also proceeded to explain about the weaponry that I yoinked, "Those giant weapons are nothing but a durable hunk of metal with an unreadable magic circle on it. It is not really a reliable type of weaponry in this day and age, so the squad who used to handle this area turned them into part of a pitfall trap…
"I apologize to you that you got caught in it."
I told her that this was not her or her squad's fault. Then I said that I really wanted to continue to go to my destination that got interrupted by the faulty teleport scroll.
Vese then asked where I was going, "Just tell me the location! I will be happy to help escort you since my squad now has the loot of a pack of Jagan Basilisk to process and sell!"
Of course, I also consented to the acquisition of the materials from the Jagan Basilisk.
After all, it was them who singlehandedly defeated them.
I did tell them about the desiccated corpse of the Jagan Basilisk I defeated, however, in which they offered to help the processing and even deliver it to my place when everything on her end got sorted out.
Man, these people were one of the nicest dorks I met.
So, to answer Vese's question, I simply smiled. "I am going back to the Ravena Mansion."
I want to see if the Skittish Janitors were affiliated with Lothair. They were meant to control the area that was supposed to be near Lothair's territory, according to them, if Koil's word was to be true.
I had experience handling around dangerous individuals in the past aside from heroes. It was important to gauge the knowledge and intelligence of a potential information source without mentioning your affiliation or intent directly.
If the other person did not catch on, then you could simply move on and change the topic.
But if the other person reacted and realized, then they would know there was information being withheld.
And there was nothing scarier to an alarmed person than the unknown.
Just like I expected, Vese's expression changed when she heard the word Ravena Mansion.
Then she realized that I had not introduced my name this whole time.
"May I… know your name, my lady…?"
Pfft, did she think that I was some kind of distinguished big shot for her to suddenly act that formal?
『 You did introduced yourself to Lothair as a noble, maybe that information got spread as a rumor. 』
Ah, right, having a last name is like a very big deal in this world.
After confirming what I had to know, I gave a curtsy with my torn and ragged dress. "It is nice to meet you, leader of the first squad, my name is Mesmer Valentine."
Vese was dumbfounded.
Her jaw fell, and she had no idea what to say.
Despite their leader's reaction. the large and muscular woman got up and still pointed at me, "Why does a twerp like you even know about the existence of the Ravena Mansion?"
Vese simply hit that muscular woman in the head for the second time.
"Dumbass! Because it is obvious that she is the owner of it."
The people of the squad began chatting at each other with all sorts of expressions on their faces.
And of course, with the emergence of dumbass number one, there was also the existence of dumbass number two.
The demon with horns that got hit back then suddenly raised her hand, "Why does a twerp like her even own the Ravena Mansion to begin with?"
She got hit by Vese on the head again.
And this time, she got scolded by everyone in the squad.
"Read the room, idiot!"
"Damn it, Daina, you're going to get us killed with your words one day!"
"Please shut your mouth when this kind of situation happens!"
"I don't even know what is happening, but I know that you're being rude as heck, you dolt!"
At this point, I'm more surprised at how dense these two demons are.
"Still, I suppose it is my fault for not informing my squad beforehand…" Vese shook her head as she clutched her temple.
"So, leader, who is she again?" asked one of the demons in the background. "You know, in case that dumbass number three decided to appear."
that Vese pointed dramatically at me. "Obviously—the reason why she owned Ravena Mansion is because she is none other than the secret wife of the 'boss'!"
This greatly surprised everyone.
Me included.