You have to understand—Emperor Gilknifer of the Empire is no fool. He's cunning, shrewd, and a master of manipulation. Simple lies won't get past him, not by a long shot.
"That's something you don't need to worry about," Feishu said calmly. "When the time comes, someone will explain things to the Emperor on your behalf. And mark my words, the Emperor has no right to trample over the Great Tomb of Nazarick that my comrades and I built. The one who owes explanations isn't you—it's him."
"Ourelle Omega," Feishu continued, his tone firm, "you and your four strategists will go to the Imperial Palace. I'll temporarily redeploy others to guard the Eighth Floor's Sakura Sanctuary. If necessary, don't hesitate to apply pressure—make sure His Majesty the Emperor provides me with the explanation I deserve."
Ourelle immediately went down on one knee, acknowledging the command. Then, gathering the four strategists, she departed from the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Once they stepped out onto the surface, onto real soil instead of the tomb's cold, echoing halls, all four strategists exhaled in unison—a long, trembling breath of relief.
But as they turned back to glance at the entrance to Nazarick, their emotions grew complicated. They had come in brimming with confidence, not giving a second thought to the ruins before them.
Now, after just one expedition, it felt as though they had been dragged through hell itself. Those fellow adventurers, once celebrated throughout the Empire, were now suffering horrifically inside the tomb. They had been lucky to survive—but even they were shackled, both literally and figuratively.
"Ourelle-sama," one strategist said, hesitating, "the Empire sent someone to monitor us as well. The new Imperial Knight Captain—he's a Steel-Class adventurer, renowned across the Empire. If we don't want to provoke a conflict… please, go easy on him."
It was only upon leaving Nazarick that the strategists remembered the others left behind to guard their position—Ren Kuroda and his companions.
Even though they had signed contracts with the Great Tomb, that didn't mean the four strategists had completely forsaken their humanity. They still had a baseline of decency, a sense of conscience—and that had been the reason Ren Kuroda had saved them before.
Ren Kuroda had warned them repeatedly, but they had been reckless. Despite that, he had treated them fairly, which was why the strategists now wanted to repay that debt in any way they could.
Ren Kuroda, the Battle Ghost, was a Steel-Class adventurer with a massive reputation in the human world. A true powerhouse.
Before, anyone like him would have seemed invincible to the strategists.
But after a single visit to Nazarick, their perspective had shifted entirely. Human strength—no matter how celebrated—was meaningless in the face of monsters like those.
In short, they knew that Ren Kuroda, famous as he was, could never hope to contend with Ourelle.
They also worried that if Ren Kuroda spoke too bluntly, the shrine maiden standing beside him might take offense and… deal with him decisively.
The reason they dared to speak at all was that Ourelle seemed approachable—a negotiable force, unlike the others they had encountered in Nazarick, each radiating pure malice.
"Father… it's been so long. You have no idea how much I've longed to see you, or to visit the Eighth Floor and be near Ourelle-sama," Ourelle said, swinging her small, childlike body in Ren Kuroda's embrace like a pendulum. "And Yuli… you're so lucky. You get to stay by Father's side all the time. By relationship alone, it should be me—the one most closely connected to Father among the Anshu Star Cluster's maids."
The four strategists gaped. They had imagined many scenarios: Ren Kuroda being forced into a contract like them, or worse, being eliminated.
But they never expected that the Empire's new Knight Captain was allied with the undead!
And wait—Father? The Emperor had tasked them with searching the Knight Captain's residence…