The Villainess and I, her Zombie

Mika's question was a valid one considering the information at their disposal.

"Miss, don't make the same mistake that the Brave Swords did. Do not underestimate her."

Cal smirked and shook his head.

"How am I supposed not to underestimate her?! From every piece of information we have on her, she wasn't supposed to be anywhere near as capable and cunning to pull even one of the things in the report! Aren't her actions and behavior way too different from what they were in the past? Is she even the same person? If the report is really correct, it means that lady Cranberry must have had experienced some lucky break or a fateful encounter or something!"

It sounded almost as if Mika, of all people, was complaining about the unfairness of the system, and she did that while glancing at the annoyed Corvus, as if she feared that he would change his mind about her.

"Maybe she did, maybe she didn't, one thing is sure - she is strong, it seems that all the spectators that the investigator managed to find had confirmed it. There's no place for doubts."

Cal explained patiently, leaning forward and moving his hand around in a circular motion.

"Wasn't she capable of using a high-level charm skill all of a sudden too? Consider this. What if she simply charmed others into believing that she is so strong now, or, or she used it to fool everyone in the first place?"

Mika flinched but didn't back down at all, and instead came up with two other options.

"Miss, the people in the report were scared of Lady Cranberry, you cannot charm someone into being afraid of you, that's not how it works."

Cal spoke slowly to make sure that Mika would have to understand even if she didn't like what she heard.

"Then, it's the latter option! She had to be able to use charm since she was very young, and used it to trick everyone into thinking that she is a weakling! With that, once she wanted her big entrance, she simply had to stop using it!"

The ashen-haired girl seemed really proud of herself and the conclusion she came up with.

A shame it was as far away from the truth as possible, and so far out there - even from the perspective of people with false memories - that the rest of the group didn't even consider it for more than a few seconds.

"Her sudden change and increase in strength aren't really important for our case."

After a moment of silence that served no other purpose but to let Mika know that she had said something silly, Corvus sighed, rejoining the conversation with an annoyed expression.

"That's true. Figuring out the origin of her newly found strength isn't our objective at all, we are only required to find and bring her with us back to the royal castle if possible - and preferably unharmed."

Ti agreed with Corvus and shrugged.

"Considering how quickly and efficiently she and her corpse puppet were able to deal first with the Brave Swords and later with the main branch of the Envy family - we might be in for a hard time."

"Pffft... hahaha!"

Cal sighed and his head hung down in a theatrical display of despair and made Ti giggle, which seemed to be the whole point.

"Oh, that's right. The corpse puppet."

Mika livened up again and asked.

"Is it true that she has only a single one of those? Aren't they supposed to come in bulk or something?"

She tilted her head and furrowed her brows.

"Don't even joke like that, have you missed the part in the report where the investigator wrote that thing's stats?!"

Following Mika's question, the atmosphere turned serious and the ashen-haired girl earned a scornful stare from Ti.

"If lady Cranberry is something akin to a glass cannon with ridiculous power but equally ridiculously low defense for her level, then that corpse puppet is a moving fortress - the worst kind of opponent. Not to mention that he doesn't have the HP at all! What is that supposed to mean, is he unkillable or something...?"

Cal shuddered at the thought.

"...!"

Mika flinched and fearfully inched a bit closer to Ti for protection.

"Cal, don't scare our young miss."

Ti squinted her eyes at the scary-faced man and turned to the ashen-haired girl.

"There's nothing to worry about some corpse puppet that will turn into smoke after being hit with a holy magic type skill, and coincidentally holly magic type skills are Cri's specialty. Personally, I still believe that lady Cranberry is a bigger problem."

Ti tried to lift Mika's spirit up in her own way.

"How strong is supposed to be?"

Even though the report had stated her level and status points provided by two different appraisers, Mika still asked that question.

And she was right when she asked about it.

The two separate appraisal results put into the report weren't done long apart from each other, but the difference in STR alone was enormous when compared to the usual growth ratio of the status points.

"Her level isn't all that impressive, but her STR and MAT are ridiculously high."

Ti made a sour expression and looked through the window.

"But... that might also be used as a clue."

She added.

"...?"

"Yeah, it might be another lead."

Corvus and Mika were surprised by her words, but Cal nodded in agreement.

"You know about the requirement to become the honorary Sloth, don't you?"

Cranberry turned away from the window and smirked at the confused two.

"Ah!"

Mika gasped and clapped her hands together.

"We'll have a little talk with the Dandelions, but in case that they won't bring anything new to the table, we will continue checking the validity of the report while moving north."

Ti shrugged her shoulders and looked at the ceiling.

"If lady Cranberry wanted to hide from the royal family after what she had done, Sloths' territory would be the best place since she had already met the requirements to gain access and it's a pretty secluded location, to begin with. Thankfully, there are only two spots where she would be able to safely enter the sea of mist."

"Both of which are in very dangerous locations surrounded by monsters though."

Corvus pointed out with a frown.

"That's why we are checking whether there are any other leads before going there, aren't we?"

Ti smirked and shrugged her shoulders.