Previously: Liz of the Underground Guild was approaching the hideout of Zenos, the man she believed to be the ruler of the slums.
The following afternoon.
On the side of a road not far from the clinic, a woman lay face down, her head turned to the side. Her lustrous, purple hair spread out on the dirt like waves.
This was Liz, the woman who usually lurked in the shadows, plotting to seize control of the slums.
“Now, someone find me and offer me to the ruler.”
Liz smiled inwardly as she lay there.
Here was the plan.
The ruler of the slums was apparently quite the womanizer, having kept an elven child and imprisoned a woman on the second floor. So, if Liz pretended to be ill and collapsed on the street, the ruler’s underlings who found her would automatically deliver her to the enemy, thinking to offer her as a gift.
If she visited suddenly, she would be met with caution, but as a presented offering, she could slip into the enemy’s inner circle without arousing suspicion. After that, she just had to wait for an opportunity to be alone with the ruler and use her succubus powers to control him.
The reason she hadn’t acted immediately yesterday was that she had considered the possibility that the woman Gaion, her subordinate, had seen beckoning from the second floor might have been a trap. It was possible that the woman had spotted them and reported to the ruler, so Liz had waited and watched for a while, but there was no particular movement.
She decided to carry out the plan the next day.
“Come on, find me quickly.”
She didn’t like getting sunburned, but she had to choose the daytime because there was a risk that no one would find her if she collapsed at night. She was disgusted by the sunlight and the smell of dirt, but it was unavoidable if she wanted to gain control of the surface. She was a woman who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals. That was who she was.
After a while, she heard the sound of multiple footsteps approaching.
“Hey, there’s a woman collapsed here.”
“Are you alright?”
Looking through slightly opened eyes, she saw that they were werewolves.
“Hey, what should we do? Should we take her to the doctor?”
“Yeah, let’s do that. She seems to still be breathing. Hey!”
As her shoulder was shaken, Liz secretly rejoiced that they had taken the bait so quickly. The “doctor” was probably the ruler. He seemed to be quite an arrogant man to have his subordinates call him “doctor.”
Fine, I’ll just pretend to be unconscious and let them carry me to the ruler’s hideout.
As Liz was making these calculations, the men were about to pick her up when—
“Wait.”
A sharp voice cut in.
Approaching from the back was a woman with gray hair and large beast ears.
“Ah, Boss.”
“What is it?”
The men responded respectfully.
“The werewolf boss… Ringa the Brutal.”
Liz, being held by the men, looked at the woman through slightly opened eyes. The female leader who controlled the werewolves. Her appearance roughly matched what Gaion had told her. Ringa spoke to her subordinates in a cold tone.
“Ringa wants to know what you intend to do with that woman.”
“Well, she was collapsed on the road, so we were going to take her to the doctor. Is there a problem?”
“Ringa is against it.”
Liz’s heart skipped a beat.
“Could she have noticed?”
The men she had taken control of during her patrols should have had hazy memories. She watched the situation, trying not to show her agitation. The werewolf men looked at each other in confusion.
“Um, why is that, Boss?”
“Look closely at that woman’s face.”
Thump, thump, thump.
Her heart was beating faster. She felt the werewolf leader’s gaze intensely observing her face.
“This is bad. Why…? They shouldn’t know my face.”
Had she underestimated the leaders of the three major demi-human groups? Keeping her eyes closed, Liz felt a cold sweat forming on her forehead. Ringa continued, staring intently at her.
“She’s not as good as Ringa, but this woman has a fairly pretty face.”
“Huh?”
The subordinates joined in, peering at Liz’s face.
“Y-Yeah, I guess so.”
“What about it?”
“Don’t you get it, you fools?”
Ringa said in an irritated tone.
“Ringa thinks we might needlessly increase our rivals.”
“What?”
The men, still holding the bewildered Liz, nodded their heads for some reason, as if they understood.
“Ah, oh, I see.”
“That’s what you mean.”
“Yes, that’s right. So, let’s just leave that woman there.”
“W-Wait a minute!”
“Huh?”
“Oh, crap.”
She had accidentally spoken out loud because she was about to be thrown away for such a strange reason.
“Did she just talk?”
“I thought I heard something…”
“But, there’s no reaction.”
The werewolves looked suspiciously at Liz, who was desperately squeezing her eyes shut. She couldn’t let them notice her no matter what. She had to play the perfect collapsed woman. She would play the part of a collapsed woman if it was necessary to achieve her goal. That was who she was.
After a while, Ringa shrugged as if she had given up.
“…Well, I guess it can’t be helped. I’d really like to leave her, but if she has an infectious disease and we leave her, Zenos will be angry. Let’s take her… “
Grumbling reluctantly, Ringa instructed her subordinates to carry Liz.
“Oh, thank goodness… I’ve cleared the first stage for now.”
Liz breathed a sigh of relief, wiping away her cold sweat. She had wondered what would happen, but it seemed that her infiltration of the hideout would be successful for now.
“But still…”
She wondered if the name Zenos, which Ringa had just mentioned, was the ruler’s name. She thought she had heard it somewhere before, but since it might not be his real name, she couldn’t be sure.
The werewolves proceeded through the buildings of the ruined city and arrived in front of the hideout.
“Lord Zenos, Ringa has brought a collapsed woman.”
Ringa called out and put her hand on the door. The entrance to the demon world creaked open slowly, making a sound like a scream.
The moment the men carrying her crossed the threshold, Liz felt a chill. It was a premonition, as if she had stepped into a terrible place.
“Hehe… good. This is exciting. No matter who the opponent is, as long as he’s a man, I’ll be the one in control in the end.”
No matter how powerful the enemy might be, she would even play the part of a sacrifice if it was necessary to achieve her goal.
That was who she was.
Liz, the heroine of the underground guild, made that resolution and disappeared into the depths of the doorway as if being sucked in.
What will be Liz’s fate…?
A/N: Happy New Year. Thank you for your continued support this year.