Chapter 454: Backstory event that already started.

Pear Flakes, a maid working in the Pride's mansion was shimming through the darkness towards the wall behind the hedge surrounding the rose garden favored by lady Raspberry.

She was sneaking out to meet with the stable boy, Loquat.

Yes, the maid was having an affair during her work hours - not quite an office romance, but rather a house-duty romance.

It might have been night already but Pear was supposed to be doing the dishwashing duty in the kitchen since she lost the bet she made with the other maid, Fig, about young lady Cranberry getting in trouble - Pear bet that the red-haired girl will get scolded and punished for constantly sneaking out while the Fig said that nothing would be done.

Pear, of course, lost - but was ignoring her end of the deal, even though Fig strongly advised her to stay behind...

...was that girl on to Pear's secret affair...?

The maid sneaking around decided to warn Loquat about being affectionate around her...

"...!"

She cautiously checked her surroundings and almost had a heart attack when she saw that the light was still on in lady Raspberry's room but quickly sighed with relief realizing that no silhouette was standing there.

She was still safe - the sick lady of the house must have taken her medicine and forgot turning it off before the potion with a sleep side effect started working.

Pear smirked to herself and hurried along the hedge.

The luck was clearly on her side as the full moon showed up from behind the clouds and illuminated her way.

The young woman could barely stop herself from humming - everything looked like their secret meeting would be a success...!

She trembled in anticipation thinking about Loquat's strong arms that were going to embrace her in just a few short minutes...!

After a little bit more walking, Pear arrived at the meeting spot - and froze in terror.

Right as she turned the corner, the nauseating smell of blood and fresh viscera hit her like a speeding carriage and her eyes widened in terror once she laid them on the bottom half of a human body lying limply right by the wall - which bricks were stained in blood shining in the moonlight.

"HHUUUURGHH...!"

Just one look at the pile of steaming intestines caused the maid to dry heave as she blocked her mouth with one hand to stop the bile rising in her throat to pour outside as she stumbled back.

"Ah...? Oh my, boys and girls... I think that we messed this lady's plans... Pineapple, you made her date lose his head and stole his heart."

"...?"

Pear, too focus on the corpse to watch her surrounding heard a low, mocking giggle coming somewhere from above.

"Umm.. yeah...? Together with most of his torso...?"

Before she could even tear her eyes from the gore, another voice responded to the first one.

"...that was a joke..."

"...?!"

The first one sighed in disappointment, and the maid finally looked up at...!

The whole pack of humanoid wolves clad in uniform armors as if they were all part of the same unit, was perched along the wall surrounding the mansion, salivating and staring hungrily at the trembling woman who suddenly starter regretting dearly that she did not listen to the advice of the other maid.

"We-werewolves...?"

She muttered.

"Why.... House of Gluttony...?"

Pear gasped feeling her legs turning into jello from the fear set in.

"Why? We're here to save our dear friend and his daughter, of course - you trash filled with the watered-down blood of the Greed family!"

The largest, jet-black werewolf growled and his jaws and throat shone with white light.

*CHOMP*

Before the maid could respond to that, the werewolf opened his mouth and a black mass spilled from it, engulfing the woman beneath and ripping off her head in one go, only to be sucked back into the monster's mouth.

*crunch* *crunch*

The werewolf slowly chewed the head.

*gulp*

And swallowed it with an almost comical sound.

"She might have been a rotten person, but she was quite a good staff..."

The werewolf wiped his lips and smiled at another pun he made.

"My siblings, if the rest of those bastards are on a similar level, I think we underestimated how low that fake witch dragged my big brother's family."

The werewolf that bit off Pear's head, clearly the leader, laughed and stood up to look over the hedges of the rose garden, glaring furiously at the light lit up in one of the rooms on the second floor.

"The two weakest ones should stay here and finish these leftovers, the rest of us will proceed with the plan - do not harm the red-haired girl, understood?"

He growled a command, losing all the lighthearted aura that was surrounding him a moment ago.

"YES!"

Every monster growled with approval.

"Good. Let's hope that our informant was right."

The leader growled at the rest of their pack.

"If only we would have learned that that witch is using her skill to mess with my brother's will. So many years wasted...!"

The leader werewolf shook their head with melancholy.

"Boss, hey, boss!"

One of the werewolves wagged their tail excitedly, unable to read the mood.

"Those flowers smell so good, can I eat them?"

The monster was staring at the garden in front of them and producing a lot more saliva than anyone around.

"No. What are you, a pup? Your level of devour is still low, you will upset your stomach with the thorns."

The leader sighed and shook their head, dismissing the idea.

"Then I would only eat the..."

"Enough, seriously, if the main force wasn't busy searching for our young master together with lady Goji, I would have never agreed on taking you yellow-bellied recruits with me.."

The flower-hungry werewolf was interrupted and shushed by the extremely annoyed leader.

The largest werewolf bared his teeth in a terrifying grin and waved his clawed front paw in a domineering gesture.

"You all know the smell. Devour everyone who doesn't smell like a member of the Pride family! And keep howling to a bare minimum...."

"YES!"

He roared and the whole pack nodded and soundly jumped down the wall and charged towards the mansion.

The two youngest ones, a gray one and a hazelnut-brown one, stayed behind by the corpses and started eating them using the devour skill.

A black mass would emerge from their mouths allowing them to bite off a lot more than they should physically be able to.

The hazelnut one suddenly started shaking, his body shrunk, or maybe that was just how it looked without all the excess fur, and a young man showed up.

"Lemon, others warned us to not recall the transformation on the enemy grounds..."

The gray one shook their head before downing a whole leg.

"I know...! It's just..."

The man that showed up got embarrassed and looked away, chewing on the torso and clothes of the victims.

"I hate eating with wolf's mouth, no cheeks..."

He mumbled with his mouth full.

"So creepy..."

The gray werewolf sighed.

"H-hey, do you know anything about the head's search?"

Lemon seemed desperate to change the subject.

"Only that she really regrets her previous decision - she banished her youngest kid because he had the curse of starvation, thinking that one of her older ones will inherit gula - but they all got killed one by one by an unknown assassin and the cursed kid is the only one left that fulfills the requirements."

The gray one shrugged, munching on the ribcage.

"Huh... is that so... Say, isn't Sapotle too calm? Those are, well, were his own kids...?"

Lemon grumbled while snacking on the fingers of the dead maid.

"Are you nuts? Too calm? This whole operation takes place because Sapotle wants to get Blackberry's help to find out the culprit and obliterate them until there's nothing left. Why are you even asking about it, there's a limit to being forgetful, you know?"

The gray werewolf answered and then furrowed his brows in confusion.

"Oh...? ...really...? umm... I..."

Lemon nodded, suddenly swaying on his feet as if he got drunk.

"What's wrong?"

The gray werewolf frowned and stared at his companion in disbelief.

"...nothing... just... suddenly... slee...py..."

*thump*

"...zzz..."

The werewolf turned human suddenly slumped down and started snoring.

"H-huh...?!"

The gray werewolf stepped back and hurriedly looked around - just in time to see a glow of a magic crystal and a pair of eyes shining from behind the other part of the hedge.

"...we've been... noticed...?"

*thump*

"...zzz..."

The gray werewolf slumped down just as his companion and started snoring with his head against the wall.

"Haa... it worked..."

Cranberry breathed out and lowered her baseball-scepter trying to stay calm.

"Well... Isn't that a surprise..."

Roan leaned over from behind her and whistled looking at the mostly eaten corpses and the two snoring members of the Gluttony family.

"Cranberry... why did you put them to sleep, though...? It sounded as if they were on your side? You know, with how your parents are and all...?"

Mary leaned over from Roan's back and asked the red-haired girl while making a concerned face.

"Don't get me wrong, I am thankful towards the house of Gluttony for wanting to help the Pride family, but whoever came up with this plan is a fool."

Cranberry clicked her tongue and pointed at the two corpses.

"Kill everyone who doesn't smell like Pride? What nonsense is this? Do you have any idea how low our bloodline is in numbers? Of course, we are hiring people from other families - some might be spies, but there are plenty of the loyal ones too!"

She shook her head with a dark expression.

"Only a rash blockhead would think that killing them all would be beneficial! Something like that will only harm the Pride family in the long run!"

She breathed out and turned towards the mansion.

"Raor!"

The black wolf by Mary's side barked angrily, glaring at the red-haired girl but was ignored even by his own master.

"Sorry, if only I knew that something so outrageous as a backstory event was going to happen, I would never invite the two of you..."

Cranberry bit her lips and lowered her head apologetically.

"You three should get away from here. In the end, I can't just run away, I'll go back and try to stop this idiocy before it's too late... though I might wait until they deal with the woman who gave birth to me..."

She said looking to the side.

"...raor.."

While the humans were talking, the black wolf approached the sleeping werewolves and whimpered in confusion while sniffing them.

"Eh...?"

And whatever he said made Mary finally react to him.

"...what do you mean one of them doesn't smell like a member of the Gluttony family...? How do you know what they are supposed to smell like...?"

She asked in confusion while Arion flinched and looked away, lowering his tail.