At first, things looked good for Lairs.

Other captured elves escaped, just as she intended, lord Envy was only defending and the other two didn't even try to interfere, and she even saw Zombie running down the secret passage for about a split of a second.

The elves who were kept in the basement the longest have said that the thing that allows Envy to influence their race is hidden there, and clearly, Cranberry, who opened the passage in the first place and went inside earlier, must have dealt with that thing.

Surely with both of them there, there was no need for Lairs to worry - that haughty noble lady and her undead puppet would surely get out of there in just a few seconds...

Surely...

But then a minute has passed.

Then five minutes...

Surely...!

And then ten...

Lairs was drenched in a cold sweat.

She didn't have a plan at all, the whole stepping up to take revenge on her mother thing was suddenly looking incredibly stupid to her.

Shanks would hew definitely call her an idiot for not running away the first chance she got.

Seriously... as a member of the Dandelions, survival should be her top priority.

It seemed that Rotte's recklessness was rubbing off on her recently...

"...what a bother... I'm going to complain so much to that little brother of mine..."

Lairs whispered while throwing another lightning bolt.

She had already depleted three-quarters of her mana and was slowly approaching her limit.

Since there was no sign of either Cranberry or Zombie returning, the best option would be to run away after all, preferably while not being hit in the back by her opponent.

And for that, she needed a distraction.

Therefore she switched back to the fire skills and created a fireball large enough to create a smokescreen.

"Take that!"

*BOOOM*

"GAAAHH!"

But right then another fireball shot at her, caused her skill to explode right in her face and sent her crashing against the wall.

"Did... did I got her...?"

Mason, the brown-haired half-elf opened his eyes and lowered his trembling hand.

"You did it! Good job, Mason! We can't just wait here for the rescue after all!"

His mother, Salak, patted her son's head and turned to the sickly-looking short avatar of envy by her side.

"Rambutan, no one is coming, we have to escape on our own!"

*Skreech*

She said grabbing onto the metal bars blocking her way, and using a skill to bend them enough for her to slip through.

"But...! But what will...?!"

Lord Envy gasped looking fearfully at the basement's ceiling.

"Saint is dead! I've seen the system message and all the other elves should have too! There's no going back anymore! Let's kill that girl and just get away from... Huh...?!"

Salak shook her head and pointed at the Lairs...

...who was no longer by the wall.

"No! We can't let her escape!"

Salak panicked and ran after the escapee.

"BITCH!"

"Guhuah!"

Just to be greeted by a glowing fist to the face as soon as she turned the corner.

"Salak!"

"Mother!"

The moment of satisfaction that Lairs just couldn't let pass cost her the precious seconds necessary for escaping.

"You're not getting away with this!"

As the elven mage turned around and ran towards the stairs, Mason kneeling by his mother - whose broken nose was bleeding profusely - shouted and reached his hand forward and his eyes and palm shone.

*rumble*

"Fuck...!"

The ceiling trebled and caved in, blocking the way outside and almost crashing Lairs.

Thankfully, the elven mage managed to dodge the rocks and dirt at the last second.

"ARGH...! You fucking...!"

Unfortunately, that left her wide open to the attacks from the back that she was so worried about.

She got hit with a shock spell that caused temporary paralysis and made her tumble on the floor like a sack of potatoes.

"Fucking... traitor...!"

She ended up facing the approaching three in a rather unrefined position and tried to spat towards her mother, but because of the paralysis, she ended up only salivating excessively.

"That's what you get for not showing respect to your elders."

Salak smirked raising her hand with tiny lightning bolts dancing atop her palm.

"...you fucker...! You've abandoned me when I was four and betrayed our entire race... you even fucked the worst enemy of the elves and birthed his bastard... and you still fucking dare to speak about receiving a FUCKING RESPECT...?!"

Lairs growled doing her best to break through the shock skill effect - in vain.

"..."

Mason fidgeted nervously and glanced anxiously at his mother.

"What a black-haired which can know about me?"

"...!"

Salak indifferent words made Lairs flinch.

The black-haired elf trembled and although she tried to stop it, her eyes filled with tears.

"Just die already."

Salak scoffed and shoot out the lightning at the defenseless Lairs.

"...fuck..."

Lairs cursed and closed her eyes.

And nothing happened.

No sudden burst of pain.

No excruciating waves of torment.

No nothing.

"...?"

Lairs slowly opened her eyes, almost expecting that her mother waited for her to do that for some twisted reason only a traitor like her could understand, but the thing she saw was the imposing blue-skinned corpse puppet in a fancy outfit.

"Haa... it's refreshing to know that I'm not the only person who had a bad relationship with their mother."

A step behind him stood a tall girl with blood-red hair wearing a simple hunter's garb that made her look like a newbie adventurer, wielding something akin to a black branch as a weapon.

"Young lady...? Fuck me... what took you two so long...?"

Lairs sighed feeling all the tension leaving her body.

"Oh, you know... stuff..."

Cranberry's face became just as red as her hair and she started fidgeting while glancing at her blue undead.

"Big sister Cranberry?! Why are you protecting that evil elf?!"

Mason was the first one of his little family to shake off the confusion and ended up asking in a confused voice.

"Haa? So you're evil now? Do you belong to an evil elven organization?"

Cranberry smirked mockingly and raised her brow looking at Lairs.

"Does that mean we now have convection with some crime syndicate? Cool!"

Zombie laughed excitedly, shaking off the charred dust from the spot on his stomach where Salak's lightning spell hit him.

"Y-you! Pride girl! Don't interfere with the private affairs of the Envy family!"

Lord Envy stepped up and shouted at Cranberry in a commanding tone.

"Ha?"

The red-haired girl tilted her head and asked with a frown, glaring down at the short man.

"Wait... what? Tha-that's how Rambutan Envy really looks? Ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha! I can't...! The difference is too much! Ha ha! Ha ha! No way! And people actually compared you to my father?! Ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha! I can't...! That's so ridiculous!"

But once she recognized him, she couldn't hold back her ugly laughter at all and laughed so much that she even grabbed her stomach because it started hurting.

"You...!"

Lord Envy bit his lips and lowered his gaze.

After all, he was the one who knew best how he looked.

"Big sister! Don't insult my father like that! It's all this witch's fault and...!"

"Mace. Shut up."

Mason stepped in in defense of his father, pointing at the immobile Lairs, but Cranberry cut him off with a single ice-cold command that made him shudder.

The speed at which Cranberry changed from joyful mockery into an icy indifference only added to the shock value.

"How dare you talk like that to Rambutan?! He's an avatar of envy and a good...!"

Salak got offended in the place of her lover as if it was her place to interfere when the nobles from the seven main families were talking.

"Haa... you... what was your name again...?"

Cranberry asked, interrupting the angry rant, and massaged her forehead.

"Ah, right. Mrs. Fucking Traitor, you too should stay quiet, you know? I'm a Pride, and we hate when absolute morons with nothing of worth to say interrupt our conversations."

The red-haired girl shrugged her shoulders and her body started glowing with skills.

"...!"

Salak flinched and stepped back.

Her offensive skills were nothing to write home about so she wasn't going to test herself against the opponent of unknown strength.

"So, mister Envy. Got anything to say in your defense?"

Without deactivating her skills, Cranberry asked lightheartedly and took a step towards the short avatar of envy.

"...! It's Lord Envy for you! Even with my inferior looks, my title and position in the kingdom deserves respect!"

Rambutan raised his head and declared.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's not like the main house of Envy is the one supporting the kingdom and you won't be alive for much longer anyway, for the matter."

Cranberry laughed and waved her hand dismissively.

"What did you...?!"

"Big sis...!"

"My master ordered you to shut up, hasn't she?"

Rambutan and Mason started talking at the same time, but both went silent when Zombie growled at them and his body released a violet light.

"Ha! Hey it looks almost as if they understood you."

Cranberry smirked and nudged her blue undead in the ribs.

"Probably because they did."

Zombie shrugged his shoulders.

"Ha?!"

"Right?! I don't know since when, but it seems like I no longer groan and talk normally instead."

"No way...! Ha?! Wait?! NOw that I think about it... You seriously haven't been groaning for a while!"

"Looks like it."

For a second it looked like the Master-Servant pair forgot where they are.

"Big sister...?"

"..."

But as soon as Mason opened his mouth uninvited once again, they both turned to him with the same annoyed expression.

"Haa... Who's your sister? Know your place, trash."

The red-haired girl breathed out and finally said the thing that was bothering her the most this whole time.

"...!"

The brown-haired half-elf's eyes widened and it looked like he forgot how to speak.

"Now. One thing that's left for us to do here is to confront you about the elves..."

Cranberry's face twisted with the evil smile and she turned to the avatar of envy...