The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"Haa... what a poor customer service."

Cranberry sighed sitting by the empty table that Zombie just finished cleaning from all the blood from last night.

"Graough...! (Master, don't be mean, I'm doing my best...!)"

Zombie growled at her sulkily from the kitchen.

The red-haired girl flinched and covered her eyes.

"I didn't mean you, Zombie, the owner of this place should be ashamed. No professionalism."

She shrugged, kicking a lost finger from underneath her seat.

"Graough? (The guy who got his face punched in?)"

Zombie growled in confusion.

"...really, not even a pity laugh...? haa..."

Cranberry mumbled under her breath and sighed.

"Graough! (Master, it's ready!) Graough! (Hope you'll like it!)."

The blue undead walked out of the inn's kitchen carrying a full course breakfast prepared especially for his beloved master.

He laid it all out in front of her and then sat on the opposite side of the table.

"Graough. (Here.)"

He pushed the biggest plate towards the girl and then put his hands on the table and rested his head on top.

His eyes were focused solely on Cranberry and he was almost trembling with anticipation.

"Thanks for the meal."

The red-haired girl smiled and picked up the fork.

Several minutes later, when Cranberry was already finished with the meal, the door to the inn opened and the leader of the Dandelions, Shanks, entered.

"Whoa...! What the...?!"

But he almost fell on his butt when the nightmarish scene showed up in his face.

Dried up blood, scraps of meat, and even whole fingers were littered all over chairs, benches, and tables.

And in the middle of it, by the only spotless table, the tall young woman with blood-red hair was sitting leisurely while playing around by throwing the severed fingers at the wall.

"Ah, Shanks, how's it going?"

Cranberry greeted the rat-faced man and threw the last finger, getting it embedded in the wood next to several others.

"Ha! I knew I will get a throwing skill!"

She suddenly raised her fist in the air and cheered.

"System, permanently share throw with my Zombie!"

She declared at the thin air with a smile.

"What do you want?"

Then she turned to Shanks as if she wasn't doing anything abnormal.

"I... I just... umm..."

The man felt lightheaded and could barely stay on his feet.

"Oh, right... You might have to wait outside. The flies swarming in the morning were annoying, so Zombie sprayed some of his venom around. The vapors killed every bug, but it must be very bad for humans too."

Cranberry shrugged her shoulders pointing at literal piles of dead bugs in the corner.

"Or you can stay, like me, and level up your resistances."

She added lightheartedly.

/Skill upgrade

Venom resistance (level 8)

Just as Shanks was about to pass out, his resistance did level up and his brain cleared up a bit.

Without testing his luck he went right back through the door he just came in through and breathed in the fresh morning air.

"Did you learned something about Lairs?"

Cranberry shouted after him.

"...what is wrong with her head...?"

Shanks gasped to himself, looking back at the cheerful red-haired girl sitting in the middle of the deadly-vapor-filled inn.

"...ugh... y-young lady..."

He had to take a few more breaths to calm down.

"We don't know if it's about Lairs, but one of the villagers had seen a black-haired elf somewhere in the forests to the west of here yesterday evening. Apparently, there are no elves living in that area - it might have been Lairs! What if she had gotten away from her abductors?!"

The rat-faced man regained some of his vigor and reported with excitement.

"..."

Cranberry furrowed her brows looking at him with hesitation.

If it was about the elves then even if it had nothing to do with Lairs, they might be able to progress the optional quest.

This whole - elf spotted in a place where they weren't supposed to be - thing was fitting awfully well with 'learn about the whereabouts of the elves' or  maybe with the 'investigate the hidden elven village', one of the two.

"Zombie, what do you think? You fancy a stroll in the woods with your master?"

Cranberry leaned all the way back on the chair and looked at the blue undead cleaning up in the kitchen.

"Graugh. (Sure.) Graough? (But who will check on that elf?) Graough? (Are the Dandelions really up to the task?) Graough... (Those guys we were fighting with were stronger than them...)"

The blue undead walked toward his master while wiping his wet hands in a rag.

"...pfft...!"

Cranberry snorted looked away to hide her smile.

"Have you told the others yet?"

She shook her head and asked in a serious voice, looking back at Shanks.

"They already went to check it."

Shanks reported with an awkward expression.

"...haa... Weren't you guys supposed to be the careful ones, that just wanted to survive...?"

Cranberry shook her head and stood up.

While doing that, she accidentally kicked a severed finger that shoot out and splattered on the wall.

"Should we check whether any of the villagers know something about the elves...?"

Cranberry squinted her eyes looking at the bloody smudge on the wall.

"W-we already asked around...! That was the first time that an elf was spotted in that area! That's why we're thinking that its Lairs!"

Shanks hurriedly explained, while doing his best not to look anywhere near the messed-up sights.

"Ha! I doubt that."

Cranberry chuckled and shook her head.

The quest she received was all about the Envy family - why would it try to lead them to travel across the kingdom in order to find some random hidden elven village to learn about them?

No. The hidden village simply had to be somewhere within the Envys' territory.

And the forest that was the western boundary of their lands just seemed to be the perfect hiding spot for the elves.

It might have been a bit too dangerous for the elves to settle basically at their enemies' doorstep, but knowing how the system worked, the ones who funded the village in such a place most likely received a quest that guided them in such an outlandish direction.

The red-haired girl wrapped her arms around Zombie's left arm and leaned on his shoulder.

"Anyway, let's check it out too."

"Graough. (Let's.)"

She declared and Zombie nodded.