At the same time Lu-el’s group first encountered the naked, aroused undead in Labyrinth Canyon; back in Florescence Town.

A grand feast was being held in celebration of the Goddess’s Trial.

From the morning after the opening ceremony and the parade of participants, the townsfolk prepared their offerings, shared their meals, sang praises to the goddess, whispered prayers for the good health of the Duchess and her husband, and cheered for the coming of age of the Duchess’s heir.

All without knowing the horror the participants had encountered in Labyrinth Canyon—until that same horror rose within Florescence Town itself, at the town square where the center of the celebration was being held in the presence of Mio, Kanae, and Hanae.

"GAAHHH—!"

"GYAHHH—!"

The songs and cheers were replaced by screams of pain and panic as several townsfolk—both men and women—including soldiers, adventurers, and even some of the Duchess’s maids and butlers, who seemed to be under the corruption of a curse, began attacking others as if they had turned undead.

While the soldiers, with the assistance of adventurers, handled the chaos and restrained the rampaging townsfolk, priestesses from the church and across town were deployed to purify the curse afflicting those who had been arrested.

"Please let me help too, Melrose," Mio said, refusing to remain hidden backstage as the head maid instructed.

Although she had only recently turned eighteen and still wasn’t a full-fledged Priestess, Mio was confident that she at least had enough mana to cast purification spells and help a few cursed maids and butlers.

Regardless, Mio’s life as the heir of House von Fleur was too valuable to risk for the sake of a few servants.

Not to mention, it wasn’t only the threat of the rampaging townsfolk that endangered her. Amid the chaos, assassins seeking to bring down House von Fleur could easily slip into the confusion and target her life.

It was Melrose’s responsibility, as the current head maid of the von Fleur noble house, to protect her at all costs. Besides, the maids, with their Handmaiden class, could use purification spells as well.

"The maids of House von Fleur were trained to handle this kind of situation," Melrose said, reassuring Mio that the situation would soon be under control. "You can leave the rest to them."

Still, Mio felt conflicted just hiding and doing nothing while the people of their town were in danger.

"At least let me go out there and help with the evacuation," Mio pleaded, remaining firm in her resolve to help others.

Melrose sighed, knowing how persistent Mio could be because of her kind and caring nature.

"If you want to help, Lady Mio," Melrose said, aiming to distract her attention elsewhere, "why don’t you try calming down Lady Hanae?"

Glancing in the direction Melrose pointed, Mio finally became aware of the commotion involving her younger sisters, Hanae and Kanae, and the half-dozen maids assigned to guard them.

"Just let me go already..." Hanae muttered while slowly dragging the five maids trying to restrain her as she attempted to head for the back door with a sword in hand.

Kanae, meanwhile, was being restrained by a single maid much shorter than her, yet she couldn’t break free, nor could she decide whether to follow Hanae or remain with Mio.

"There’s no way we’re letting you go outside to help restrain the rampaging townsfolk, Lady Hanae," Melrose said, assuming Hanae was being as stubborn as Mio was persistent.

"Protecting the people is important..." Hanae murmured while slowly overpowering five full-fledged Handmaidens despite not yet being a full-fledged Valkyrie, "...but my intuition is telling me something else is out there."

Confident and talented, with instincts as sharp as her blade, Hanae was a prodigy swordmaster. Yet she often acted on impulse without being able to properly explain her intuition—not that she fully understood it herself.

Fortunately, her twin sister, though usually shy and quiet, could at least explain enough for her.

"What exactly is Hanae talking about, Kanae?" Mio asked, seeking an interpretation of Hanae’s intuition.

Gripping her mage staff with both hands while still being embraced from behind by the maid restraining her, Kanae opened her lips and responded with her usual cold and blank expression—not because she was distant toward her sisters, but because she struggled to express herself unlike her cheerful and bright twin sister.

"Kaori has returned..." Kanae said, giving a short interpretation of Hanae’s intuition.

***

"You won’t get away with this..." muttered a young maid with short blonde hair as she gasped in pain and exhaustion.

She had been captured amid the chaos caused by the rampaging townsfolk and dragged into a dark alley to be toyed with and tortured using poisoned needles—weapons that left her black-and-white maid uniform completely unscratched.

Still, her pride as a maid of House von Fleur would not allow her to surrender to an assassin seeking to bring ruin to their noble house.

She grabbed her knives with both hands, intending to fight until the bitter end.

"I really like that face of yours. That’s why I picked you among all the maids," said the assassin—Quinn, Sera’s companion, who had distributed refreshments laced with the curse that caused severe erection among the participants and townsfolk.

The curse was powerful enough to corrupt anyone and drive them into a rampage like the undead while also turning them into actual undead the moment they died. It could even spread if cursed men shared intimacy with their lovers in an attempt to relieve their erection.

Although he had followed Sera’s plan to disrupt the Goddess’s Trial, Quinn had his own agenda—to disguise himself as one of House von Fleur’s maids and infiltrate their ranks amid the chaos in order to assassinate the Duchess’s daughter.

"Though it would be a shame to shorten my hair once I wear your face and disguise myself," Quinn said as he rushed toward the blonde maid, intending to kill her and steal her clothes.

Realizing she would neither survive nor escape, the blonde maid tried to slash and ruin her own uniform. Yet the poison spreading through her body had already weakened her movements. Her knives slipped from her hands as her knees dropped to the ground.

"I’ll make sure to look after your lover tonight better than you ever could," Quinn added, trying to provoke a desperate reaction from the maid. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Yet the maid only continued glaring at him, refusing to yield despite the poisoned needles hovering inches away from her eyes—until Quinn suddenly halted his charge, swiftly pulling back his hands to defend himself as he abruptly turned around.

A silver-white knife slashed across his throat as he desperately pressed his left hand against the gaping wound, trying to stop the blood from spurting out.

A silver-white dagger followed, piercing through his right hand as he struggled to hold it back, keeping the blade from plunging into his heart.

"You will die for hurting her, bastard." Kaori said coldly as she drove her Moonlight Beast Fang into her prey’s heart.