"It's all done by this one person?" Unerolia asked in disbelief, looking through the files that Mother had passed over to her.

"Ufufufu~ That's right~ I believe little Une is aware of the existence of Off-Worlders, yes?"

The Marchioness frowned and looked down at the picture of the hooded man, "This person is an Off-Worlder? Are we really sure about this?"

"Ufufufu~ Are you going to say that he doesn't look like an Off-Worlder?"

"I mean… You can't even see his face so that wasn't what I was going to say. I mean he doesn't look that special right? How does one even tell that he's an Off-Worlder?"

Mary was the one who answered, "Because we have caught him saying it to himself."

"Hmm… I see… So there's Off-Worlders like this… But why is he kidnapping slaves then?"

Mary shook her head, "Unfortunately, that is one of the things we have yet to figure out. The place that he has hidden himself only has one entrance and we are not able to enter it without being seen."

"Wait… You already know where he-- Oh, I see it now. As expected of the Nilm Family I suppose… What about the slaves that he has already taken?"

"We have seen a few slaves escape earlier but the thirty slaves that were taken from your store have not been seen after they had been taken inside the hideout."

Unerolia raised an eyebrow, "The slaves escaped?"

Mary nodded, "A few of the crime slaves that he had kidnapped earlier left the manor and never returned. Since they had left the hideout by escaping through the building's windows instead of the front door, we believe the Off-Worlder did not give them permission to leave."

"I see… What kind of hideout does he have?"

"It's an abandoned manor a short distance away from the city. The place used to be a farm before monsters attacked the manor and killed the inhabitants. No one had tried to reclaim it after that and it was left in disrepair. It seems the Off-Worlder had then taken up residence in that place and made it his base."

The Marchioness then turned to Mother, "And what is the plan to deal with this Off-Worlder?"

Mother giggled, "Ufufufu~ My little one will be dealing with him~"

Unerolia turned to me with a surprised look on her face, "Eh? You will? Ah, you will be bringing your Head Maid along with you right? That would make sense."

I shook my head, "No, I will only be bringing my own maid along. I will deal with him myself."

She blinked at me, "Why would you choose to fight him alone? If you want to, I can also accompany you to deal with him!"

Mother giggled, "Ufufufu~ There's no need, little Une~ Did you forget? My little one had beaten you in your sparring session~ My little one is able to handle herself~"

"But I heard that Off-Worlders have supposedly extremely powerful skills and are even able to take on entire armies on their own?"

I looked at Mother in confusion, wondering just where did Unerolia hear of such ridiculous things.

Then I realised that with my Shadow Guards, I could be considered to be one such person so nevermind…

I wondered if I should just tell her that I was also an Off-Worlder but Mother spoke up before I could, "My little one has defeated Off-Worlders on her own before, there's no need for you to worry~"

"Eh?! Lady Aster has fought Off Worlders before? And you won?!"

I nodded, "Not all Off-Worlders are that strong. Most of them might be stronger than the average Mercenary and Dungeoneer but there are those who do not have combat talents."

"I see… In that case, what about this kidnapper? Does he have combat skills?"

This time it was Esmeral turn to cut in, "Mistress. Please do not run off to attempt to fight this Off-Worlder just because they might be strong. You still have to deal with the problem of those slaves running away."

The Marchioness pouted, "Oh come on! I will be with Aster anyway! With the two of us together, I'm sure we can deal with the Off-Worlder quickly and I can come back and deal with this afterwards!" Read exclusive adventures at empire

"No," Was Esmeral's single reply.

Unerolia pouted even more but chose not to argue, making me wonder just who was the mistress in this relationship.

The Marchioness then turned to me, "Fine… In that case, is it possible for you to bring this Off-Worlder back alive? I have some questions to ask him."

I understood that as Unerolia wanting to torture him.

"I will try… But if it's not possible…" I trailed off.

"Ah, don't worry about it," Unerolia assured me with a wave of her hand. "I don't want you to risk your life just to do that so if he's more trouble than he's worth, just go ahead and kill him."

She said the last one so flippantly like his life really didn't matter that much to her.

"I'll try my best…"

Mary then turned to me, "Shall I send you there right now, Mistress? Or do you require more time to prepare?"

I shook my head and stood up, taking off my mask as I did so, "I can go right now. Katsuki?"

My Inugami maid bowed, "I am ready as well, Mistress."

The Head Maid then took a moment to chant the spell to create the portal and pretty soon, a tear opened in the space in front of her.

I smoothened my dress and stepped towards the portal with Katsuki following close behind me.

Stepping out of the portal, I found myself standing in the middle of a clearing that was overgrown with tall grass and what looked like some kind of crop that had been left unattended.

Guess this was the farmland that Mary had mentioned so where's the-- Oh, there it is.

The manor house that the Off-Worlder should be using as his base was just up ahead.

The building had two floors with vines growing all around the exterior walls and it looked like a part of the building on the far left had collapsed into itself.

I could also see that quite a number of the windows were broken and on the window at the furthest end of the building from me was a cloth rope that was dangling down towards the ground.

I guess that was what some of the slaves used to escape from the building though I wonder why the Off-Worlder didn't take care of that?

Was it because he didn't know about it or he didn't care?

Either way, I at least knew we were in the right place.

"Mistress, shall I do a quick survey around the area?"

I was about to tell her that it was unnecessary but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.

I nodded and Katsuki's figure immediately disappeared, almost as if she had simply been an illusion.

While she was gone, I decided to do my own survey by looking around the place to see what I could find but before I could even do that, Katsuki reappeared at where she had disappeared from with a bow.

"I have returned, Mistress."

That was fast…

I nodded at her to go ahead.

"As Head Maid Mary had said, this building only has one entrance with the back of the building having collapsed into a pile of rubble. Unless we sift through the rubble behind the building, we'll most likely not be able to enter through there. I also believe that the building has a basement due to some of the scents I picked up close to the ground near the building but I do not see a hatch that leads to a lower floor. My assumption is that the entrance to the basement should be inside the house itself. Also, I believe the place is also trapped as I found several runes that had been inscribed at certain places around the building."

She really got all that information in just a few seconds I see… As expected of my personal maid!

That's why I couldn't help but reach out and pat her on the head, "Good work, Katsuki!"

"There is no need to thank me, Mistress, this is simply what was expected of me," She protested.

Ha! Deny it all you want but I can see your tail wagging up a storm behind you after I had started praising you!

Unnngghhh… If it wasn't because we were in enemy territory, I would have told her to turn around so that I could start fluffing that tail of hers~

Katsuki enjoyed the headpatting for a while before asking, "How would you like to enter the manor, Mistress?"

I thought about just climbing up using the cloth rope but then an idea came to me.

"Let's just knock and pretend we're investigators looking for the missing slaves. We could determine his position by questioning him and I can get a scan of his capabilities if I can see him."

I thought Katsuki would protest but she simply bowed, "As you wish, Mistress."

Well… Alright then~ Let's go and knock on the front door!

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