Briley and the three pleiades had finally arrived at Cedar Village and were currently overlooking their destination after following the path up a small hill. To no surprise, the village was as small as the map had made it out to be. A river ran to its left and had a sawmill with a water wheel attached to it sitting close by. Next to this were five buildings that were separated by the path, two resided to the left and three to the right. After the buildings, several circular huts served as housing to the permanent residents of the village. All this was enclosed by a wooden fence that stopped at two points, because of the river, and left two entrances where the main path ran through the village. The crop fields and animal pens, which seemed to be the purpose for such a village existing, sat outside the fence. Overall, the village seemed simple and nothing stood out, it certainly made sense as to why it was not named on most maps.

Lupus brought one hand to her hip and the other up to her face, pinching her chin.

"This is it? Are there actually humans living here? Looks kinda miserable and deserted." She said, not really having any high expectations considering it was not Nazarick.

Briley was by no means a devout patriot for his village, it was simply the only thing he'd ever known, but felt the need to at least justify its existence. He had completely missed the fact that Lupus referred to the people as "humans", it probably had something to do with the fatigue that was starting to weigh heavy on him after a long supply run.

"Not much, I know. But the people are good, they work hard and the nature around the place can be nice to look at sometimes." He said, trying to keep a positive attitude.

"The fence is made of wood. It would not stop an attack." CZ added with an analytical point of view.

This statement caught Briley off guard and when he took a second to think about it, realized that he never gave the fence a serious thought. Still, he couldn't really find a positive spin to this, those bandits from a few days ago didn't necessarily attack but the fence certainly didn't stop them.

"No, I guess not…" Briley solemnly uttered. "Anyway, let's get going while we still have a little bit of sunlight left, I can show you guys around. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes, considering how small we are."

"Well aren't you just eager to escort us new comers around huh?" Lupus provocatively said with a sly smile. Briley's face heated up at this, still finding her strange sense of humor to be a deadly match with her looks.

The group of four were now entering the village and almost immediately after doing so, Briley decided that he was going to go drop off his supply bag at the shop. There was no need to carry such a heavy bag over his shoulder as he showed the three around.

"uh, hey I'm going to go drop this stuff off really quick, the shop is this building right here-" he said motioning to the structure near the fence entrance. "- I'll be right back and then I can show you all around." Briley climbed the two steps into the building's entrance and disappeared. The maids took this time to talk amongst themselves.

"Lupus, Shizu, why are we allowing this human to show us around? We've already confirmed this village's existence, why not just keep heading towards our main destination?" Entoma had inquired.

"Entoma don't you remember what Lord Ainz said? He said to interact with this new world and learn things! Besides we might just find ourselves having a little fun with these humans. Who knows what secrets they try to hide, especially in a place as remote as this." Lupus said, her eyes sharpening at her last two statements.

"Lupus is right this time, we should not overlook the smallest details. Lord Ainz did not and he now has humans working for him in Carne Village." CZ added, using Lord Ainz's recent actions as a guide.

Entoma, now with a better understanding replied, "Ok I get it now. I forgot how Lord Ainz expects us to go beyond our regular task."

"Exactly!" Lupus joyously vocalized. "It's like I said before, as long as we keep an eye out for things that will benefit Lord Ainz and Nazarick, we will have exceeded our mission! So, let's see if any of these humans have something that would interest Lord Ainz!"

Inside the shop…

Briley entered the shop and looked around for the owner, Allan. He saw that Allan was not at the front desk and proceeded to walk towards the back of the store where a set of stairs led to the basement. He stood atop of the stairs and loudly called down.

"Hey Al! I got your supplies here! I'll leave them behind the counter!"

"Yes, that's fine!" an old voice hollered back

Briley turned around to go, but then remembered something he said he would do. He called back down.

"Al! You have any extra meat to sell?" Wanting to give that girl Entoma her snack.

"Nah! No more of that unfortunately! There's some apples by the grain barrels if you want them!" Allan responded

Briley was slightly disappointed but thought maybe this worked out for the best. This way he could give each of the girls something to eat. He unloaded his cargo, his tired back instantly relieving, and went to fetch the apples.

Briley stepped out of the shop to see the group of three conversing amongst themselves.

"Alright, now that I got that done, I can show you guys around a little bit and here I got these for you, there was no meat unfortunately." He said looking apologetically towards Entoma.

All three were curious as to how the food in this new world compared to Nazarick. They knew it wouldn't be as good, they simply wanted to see how far below it truly was. They each took an apple and then a bite.

Lupus was the first to react. "Wow this is bitter. Aren't apples supposed to be sweet? Well I guess I can't compare this to something that Nazer-" Lupus stopped herself then began again, "Well I suppose it's a source of food for something…" she said tossing the apple up and down in her hand.

CZ swallowed her very small bite and said, "This apple was picked too early."

Entoma brought her apple underneath her face cover, as to not show that she was using her "neck" to eat. She finished it quickly and simply replied, "I've had tastier food."

Lupus and CZ handed their portions back to Briley. Briley took them, but surprisingly was not fazed by their disappointment. Instead he was now wondering where exactly these three were from, Lupus's little sentence fumble had left him questioning himself on why he had not asked before.

"I guess we're used to the taste…by the way, I never asked where you three hailed from. It seems like wherever it is certainly held high standards."

"We'd rather not say. Now how about you give us that tour!" Lupus quickly answered.

At this point, Briley was too tired to try and dig for an answer.

"Oh, ok. Well then follow me and I'll tell you what each building does. Shouldn't take long." Briley ended by walking forward into the village and gesturing for the girls to follow.

Briley leisurely strolled throughout the village with the battle maids. He explained how the two buildings to the left worked with the sawmill to refine wood and make crafts to sell to larger cities. The three buildings adjacent to each other on the right served as an inn, a bar, and of course the store. He then walked further up to show them the housing of the people. Briley also went on to explain what kind of crops they grew and what animals they raised, but the girls seemed extremely disinterested during this part. Although the maids started to get bored, the villagers could only become more interested as Briley was showing them around. The three instantly drew the eyes of all, especially the men, and the villagers began to talk up a storm within their circles. Some saying how they couldn't believe such a beauty could be in such a remote place, referring to Lupus. Others saying that the girl with the eyepatch was cute and had such an amazing eye color. Entoma was also receiving stares but because of her robe and partial face cover up, had the villagers thinking she was some sort of assassin that acted as the bodyguard of the group. As Briley was finishing up his quick tour, he noticed another villager approaching them. When he turned his head to get a better look, he instantly recognized this person to be his good friend, Garin.

As Briley casually waved to his friend, Garin in turn approached not being able to look in the girl's direction, he was nervous. Garin finally drew close to his friend and softly spoke.

"Hey Briley, glad you're back-" Garin finally looked over at the girls, toward CZ's direction specifically. "-who's that…ahem...well I mean...who are they…not just…just her."

Briley's face scrunched up at his friend's awkwardness, not that he had done any better when first meeting these three.

"uh…hey Garin, these are-" Briley tried to begin introductions before unsurprisingly getting cut off by a certain energetic individual.

"You can call me Lupus! That's Entoma and Shizu! We're travelers and this village was a stop of ours. Looks like you're giving Shizu a real look over! I wonder why that is?" Lupus stepped over to Shizu and wrapped an arm around her, continuing her playful banter. "I guess she's kinda cute, and her shortness does have an endearing quality to it. Although I don't think you two have too much in common…I know! Let's poke that eye of yours out and then you can wear an eyepatch like her! It can also double as a lesson in not staring so strangely at people you've just met!" She ended her spiel with wide grin and leaning her head on top of Shizu's.

Briley not expecting such an outburst, especially since they seemed so bored before, couldn't find his words. Garin immediately felt the pressure, it didn't help that he was shorter than Lupus and thus already felt a bit inadequate about approaching the group made up of three new girls.

"I didn't mean to stare! Really, I just…I was just wondering who she was…or who you all were! You all have a good look…or I mean, a unique look! We don't get many visitors and it's good to meet new people. I'm Gar...ahem…Garin." He ended his attempt at speech with an awkward wave to the new comers, he was a shorter individual of 17 years with light brown hair and a shy demeaner overall.

To everyone's surprise Shizu was the first to speak up after this small episode, "Lupus you're drawing attention…stop it." She nearly whispered. Garin's heart skipped a beat at the sound of her soothing voice.

Lupus unattached herself from Shizu, "Sorry! Just wanted to have a little fun haha!"

Garin was left with a distinct blush as his friend Briley was finally able to get ahold of his own words. "um, anyway that's pretty much the village and I assume you guys are staying the night. I'm close with the inn owner if you want a room for a discount."

"We'll stay the night, but we don't want a discount, we're broke so we'll take it for free." Lupus said confidently.

Briley raised a brow at this, quickly trying to come up with a solution, he would feel bad if he left the girls out in the cold. Lupus was certainly an interesting person, a bit unrefined, but not a bad person as far as he knew. Entoma and Shizu seemed young and we're probably just following the older girl's lead he thought.

Garin suddenly spoke up, "If I tell the owner, Greta, that I'll work for her for a while, I'm sure she'll let you guys stay the night. Is that okay?"

Briley was surprised at his friend's tenacity and looked over at the girls to see if they were fine with the deal. They shot each other looks and then looked back as if to say, "We'll allow it".

The maids now resided in a room at the River inn, named for the village's most appealing attraction. The room was one of the few with two beds, not that the maids truly intended to sleep on them. A desk and chair took space in the corner and a shabby couch sat close to the desk. As the sisters reviewed their room, they each immediately started to formulate plans in order to pass the night. In their eyes, they had gone the extra mile to engage with the humans and accept their offerings. They felt that this was something that Lord Ainz would do in order to advance his grand plans and that they were doing good so far in terms of excelling.

Entoma had gotten an idea and chose to share it, "I haven't had meat all day, I think I'll go do some hunting."

"Entoma, hunting humans who do not pose a threat was not permitted by Lord Ainz, we can obtain meat from Nazarick." CZ responded at the same time trying to compromise with Entoma.

"Yea, but I want to have some fun, we've worked hard all day and Lord Ainz would be proud of us. Also, I didn't say I would hunt humans, I'll make sure to only go after other animals, unless I meet a hostile human, is that fine?"

CZ took a moment to think and decided to agree with Entoma's logic for once. "Fine, make sure you keep your disguise on. If you wear that and use the cover of night, your concealment to anyone is at its maximum." Entoma nodded at Shizu's suggestion.

Lupus smiled at seeing her two younger sisters agree and took this feel good moment to announce her own plans for the night, "Since Entoma is having some fun, I think I will too! I'm going to snoop around the village a little, maybe break into some homes and see if anyone has any secrets. You don't gotta worry about me getting caught!" Lupus smugly announced that last bit knowing she could use invisibility to avoid everyone.

Shizu decided that her sisters likely needed to release some energy and that's why they suggested having some "fun". While she didn't see Entoma's task as completely productive to the mission, Lupus's activity could yield good results if she found anything. Shizu herself only wanted to work on the mission.

"Very well, I will work on writing the daily report for Lord Ainz. I will also return to Nazarick and ask for some currency usable for this world, I believe I heard Lord Ainz mention he had acquired some. Perhaps this will show Lord Ainz that we can learn from a day's activities and think ahead."

"sounds good!" Lupus cheered.

With all this said, each of the battle maids began to move according to their individual tasks that they had set for themselves.

At the same time, in a cave not too far away.

A tall, burly man sat inside a large cave cavern running his hand through his messy mohawk. His name was Oxton, and he was the leader of the Oxmen bandit group, named after himself. He was an ex-adventurer who had left that occupation many years ago in order to build his own fortune. While adventuring was a true profession that was sanctioned by kingdoms, it was brutally competitive and paid too little. He didn't leave to become a bandit, life had just ended up that way but so far, he had no regrets. He had power and had about forty men at his command, a feat for any leader of a rag tag bandit group, usually someone would choose to seize power by killing the leader. Oxton had managed to keep this operation going by doing two things, choosing to extort small villages to keep themselves unnoticed and moving around constantly, although this was starting to prove difficult with the size of the group. Overall, his group was a cut above the rest and he was able to build this by not acting like your average fool, he was disciplined. As he was resting and thinking about the various plans they had in motion, a fellow Oxmen appeared before him.

"Yo Ox, we're all set, you coming with us or not?"

Ox sat up straighter and looked his subordinate in the eye before speaking, "No, this is an easy job and if you can't handle it, don't bother coming back unless you're looking for me to finish you."

"Alright, yea I got it, we'll see you soon." The man kept a calm demeanor but mentally scolded himself for not realizing that this mission was supposed to be simple.

This mission was the group's first step into a very lucrative business, slave trade. Oxton had avoided this trade for a while now, believing that it was too much work for the pay. Afterall it wasn't as simple as taking people and selling them. The trade had several dangers that didn't involve the law. Those dangers coming from the people they kidnapped, people fought back, people would try and rescue each other, and people would escape and spread their name. While the spreading of one's name was seen as a positive in the criminal world, he wanted to avoid this. Sometimes he wondered why he even named the group but it was convenient and the members at the time rallied around the name. The mission was simple, eight men would ride into Cedar Village in the dead of night and capture three young women and two young males, they would be easy to subdue. The eight men had the means to restrain people and conceal their presence. They had originally gone to Cedar Village to extort supplies, after seeing how isolate the village was and how soft the people were, Oxton had decided that this was a good place to start their new "business". Even though they would only take five people, they could train themselves with that and eventually move on to capturing more in the future. Oxton smiled to himself, amused by the new step they were about to take, he couldn't help but picture himself as the leader of a bandit group that had hundreds of men working under him. Yes, this would be the beginning of something far larger than anyone could have ever imagined.

A/N: Hey. Thanks to 0November0, Guest (and all future guests), and RyuujiVantek for the reviews. To November, from what I've read, nobody knows who the youngest sister really is, Ainz even avoided the topic. Chapter might be a little slow, but the fun is in the world building. Thanks for the bookmarks and favorites. Action soon to begin.