Hilma looked around and observed the other leaders one by one. She had worked with them these st few years, bckmailing nobles, hiring people, and purchasing buildings. All to ensure that Eight Fingers' hold on Re-Estize was as tight as it could be. They had all but achieved that goal and had become stagnant afterward. Now they were doing nothing but bleeding the kingdom dry.

  The parasite had grown too big and greedy, too numerous. It was now killing its host and leaving nothing behind.

  What they would do after this, Hilma did not know. But what was certain was that she would have to fight everyone at this table for the right to hold territory within a fractured Re-Estize in the future. That should have been the case, at least—not anymore. She had met someone who would turn the tides, and by sheer luck, the monster favored her.

  She had not asked it why—she didn’t dare to. She knew when someone was interested in her. It was like an instinct, or maybe her years as a courtesan had sharpened the parts of her mind responsible for social interactions. Either way, her point stood, and the monster? Her gut told her that it wasn’t interested in her at all. It just viewed her as some kind of tool to push whatever sinister pn had formed within its iron mind.

  Everyone was still unaware of what was about to befall them, and Hilma thought that it was best they didn’t know. The monster said it meant no harm, and she had seen what it could do when it did want to inflict pain. She closed her eyes, trying—and failing—to wash away the memories of the pile in the atrium of her mansion. She had yet to clean it. The meeting was higher on her priority list, but she would eventually. She just hoped the stench wouldn’t stay.

  The Six Arms stood somewhere around this room, probably talking to one another. They were powerful enough to fight Blue Rose—some members, at least—but that didn’t mean anything when facing the thing she was now serving.

  "What is so important that you called for us, Hilma?" scowled Cocco Doll, the leader of the sve department. He gave her a once-over, his expression sour. "You're also losing a lot of money, aren't you? You shouldn't be calling meetings!"

  Hilma wanted to roll her eyes, but she forced a smile instead. It came out as naturally as a smile could be. "I have good news." Hilma unwrapped the weapon that the creature had given her for everyone to see. "This is a weapon, and I will be getting an entire crate of it soon."

  "What is that?" Olin, the head of the rceny department, asked with curiosity but also a raised eyebrow. He was doubting her. "Some kind of spear?"

  "It's better if I show you." Hilma lifted the rifle and pointed it at the creature she knew would prove the weapon's strength while ensuring there were no casualties—Davernoc, the Elder Lich.

  She fired a shot before anyone could speak. The bullet pierced through the Lich's hand, and the end result was it falling to the ground. Everyone stared at Hilma in shock. It was Noah who broke the silence. "And where did you get that?"

  A swirling mass of red energy opened behind Hilma at that instant. Everyone but her began to panic. Zero, Six Arms' leader, noticed her calm state and realized what the swirling mass of energy actually was—a high-level spell.

  A creature of steel stepped out of the portal. It looked around with emotionless eyes made of bright lights and regarded everyone in the room. Its eyes briefly stopped at Davernoc. "An Elder Lich."

  The undead stared. Davernoc’s eyes did not have the same constrained hostility they possessed when looking at everything and everyone. "You're not alive."

  That expins it, Hilma thought bitterly. Undead hated the living, and it seemed the Elder Lich had confirmed what the creature had told her—that it was not alive, just a being made of metal. How it came about was beyond her, honestly.

  "Where did you spawn?" Instead of replying to Davernoc, the creature asked a question. "I am curious where such a potent aura of death can be found."

  "Katze Pins," Davernoc answered simply. The Lich ended the topic there and shifted it to something more recent—something more relevant to Hilma. "You're the one who gave her that weapon?"

  "Yes," the creature nodded. "Why?"

  "Teach me magic."

  The Elder Lich's procmation caused everyone to pause, and Zero to look panicked. Then the creature ughed, and Davernoc seemingly knew what it meant. "I will serve you with everything I have in exchange."

  "Several Elder Liches already live where I stay," said the creature in the same way someone would describe the weather. "Lord Ainz would be gd to have one that spawned naturally in his retinue, but I would have to ask him first."

  "I will be waiting and hoping your Lord approves." The Lich bowed and went silent.

  The creature, thinking that the conversation was now done, turned to the leaders of Eight Fingers and saw them all flinch. Luckily for them, Zero stepped in at the next instant.

  "Oi! You can't just poach one of my guys!"

  The creature tilted its head. "And who might you be?"

  "The leader of the Lich you just convinced to leave my group!"

  Zero was tough, and Oscas, the leader of the security department, even said that he was on par with Gazef Stronoff, but Hilma knew he stood no chance.

  Still, the leader of Six Arms moved toward the creature, a gre shooting out of his eyes, his face twisted into an ugly scowl. The buffalo tattoo on his chest glowed, an event that attracted the creature’s attention, and Zero's muscles visibly swelled.

  "You're dead!"

  Zero punched the creature’s chest, but it was he who pulled his hand back, screaming in pain. His hand broke from punching it?! Hilma looked at the creature—it didn’t even look fazed...

  "That is fascinating," it said, moving toward a fearful Zero and dipping its head until its eyes were perpendicur to the tattoo on the man's chest. "And I assume your tattoos all have the same effects?"

  "W-what’s it to you?!" Zero held his hand in a nursing manner.

  "Nothing, I am merely curious. Know that your knowledge has kept you alive from your previous transgression against me. You will pay by telling me how these marks work after you wake up."

  The creature spped Zero away, sending him flying into a wall. Zero crashed into it with force, shattering the wood and causing dust to kick up into the air.

  The rest of Six Arms didn’t even move, shocked at the sight.

  The creature faced the leaders of Eight Fingers. "Now then, how about we discuss what I came here to talk about?"

  None of them objected, with Hilma herself beginning to understand just how vast the chasm between this thing and their own power was. It held all the cards, and from the way it negotiated, the creature knew this.