The Villainess and I, her Zombie

When they arrived at the Prides mansion, the sun had already set - if they stayed in the village any longer or had any sort of trouble on the road, they would surely have to spend the night outside.

...though... was it really such a bad alternative considering just who was waiting at them...?

"....nnn..."

As Lord Blackberry helped out Zombie to climb down while carrying the sleeping Cranberry, the red-haired girl made a cute noise and cuddled up to the blue undead.

"I guess there's no reason to wake her up for a supper... I will take her to her room."

Lord Blackberry smiled at his daughter's innocent face and spoke in a hushed voice to not wake her up.

"...Is what I would like to say but since we are slightly later than expected, I should go and talk to my wife about everything that happened, so I'll be leaving her to you, Zombie."

He added and his smile dimmed a whole lot, although he tried to keep it up while looking at the blue undead.

"You. Guide this boy to my daughter's room... pffft..."

Lord Blackberry waved at one of the passing servants and suddenly snickered.

"Sorry... it's just that I never expected to say those words, and especially not while she's so young."

He giggled to himself, waving his hand apologetically at the blue boy.

"Of course, my lor- HIIIH! Is that a monster?!"

The called servant, a maid, bowed her head with a professional expression and... screeched in horror the moment that she faced the undead familiar piggybacking the sleeping Cranberry – because as much as Zombie didn't want to admit it, he wasn't strong enough to princess carry her.

The maid not only screeched, she literally fell back on her butt and started crawling away as if she was faced with the most dangerous and grotesque beast.

"What are you doing acting like this?! Get up and pull yourself together! This is the Family house of Prides, every servant is expected to act like that – if a single undead is too much for you, then you should resign immediately."

Lord Blackberry glared down at her and shook his head with disgust.

"Nnnnn...!"

Cranberry fidgetted on Zombie's back and nuzzled against his neck.

"If she wakes up, you will get fired anyway – so get up and guide him to her room."

The bespectacled man added with a grim expression.

"Goodnight."

Then he waved at the blue boy and walked off to the mansion.

"..."

Zombie glanced at the still fearful maid, trying to remember whether or not he saw her during the first playthrough, but the early days of him being in the mansion were all fogged up not only by the now absent rotten brain skill but also because those were the times where he almost lost his free will.

Either way, he had no idea whether or not that maid kept her job or not.

|Interesting. So it is like that... Much sooner than expected...|

|Huh...?|

Patience suddenly spoke up inside of Zombie's head and made him flinch in surprise.

|Help her stand up.|

Patience instructed without any other explanation.

|Why? You're not going to tell me I'll have to be nice to everyone in the mansion now? Like, come on! It's already annoying enough that I have to pick and choose who I am allowed to kill!|

Zombie frowned and put his foot down on the matter.

|I'm not telling you to be nice to anyone – I am telling you to be as nice as possible to this particular maid. Memorize that maid's face for now and don't make sure that both you and Cranberry will be extremely friendly towards her. Alright? Both. It will make things easier for the next step.|

Patience sounded as if she shook her head and still stubbornly didn't explain a thing.

|Is there any reason for you keeping secrets from me other than being jealous over Cranberry?|

Zombie sighed and rolled his eyes.

|Wh-wha...?! SHUT UP! IDIOT! STUPID REINCARNATION! ME JEALOUS?! ABOUT WHO?! SHUT UP! IDIOT! IDIOT!|

As it turned out, his words had hit the bullseye since he had never before heard Patience get so embarrassed and trying to hide her embarrassment with anger so much as at that very moment.

|Can you at least promise me that it's about something important?|

Similarly, Zombie had never sighed so deeply before but ended up asking anyway.

|IDIO...! Oh...? So now you try to act nice?! Hmph!|

Even if he didn't calm her down, he at least succeeded in making her stop screaming inside of his head.

|...do you even have to ask, seriously... And for your knowledge, my jealousy has nothing to do with it this time! It's just if you know who she is, you might accidentally let it slip too soon and ruin everything, making our plans much more difficult to accomplish!|

...or maybe he did calm her down since she at least told him why she doesn't want to reveal anything more about the mysterious maid.

|I see. If you say I shouldn't know who she really is then I won't even try thinking about it.|

Zombie didn't miss the opportunity and ended the subject...

|..so you are jealous but not enough for it to cloud your judgment, huh. Good.|

...before driving in one final cheeky remark.

|You're awful! Do you know that?! You bully!|

Patience cried out but since there was no actual anger or spite in her voice this time, Zombie just ended the conversation and approached the maid who was still on the ground, staring at him in unease as if expecting to be attacked at any moment.

"Miss. Sorry for scaring you. I can assure you that although I look like I look, I am in fact completely harmless for our allies."

He spoke in a reassuring voice, making sure not to speak too loud to not wake up the girl on his back.

The blue boy then leaned forward so that the red-haired wouldn't fall off, stopped supporting her with one hand, and offered that hand to the shocked, wide-eyed maid.

"Looks aren't everything, wouldn't you say? Here."

Zombie winked with a soft laugh and helped the maid back up on her feet.

"I... I guess they are not..."

The woman spoke in a timid voice while holding the spot where Zombie touched her.

"Let's go to young lady's room..."

She said in the same manner and walked towards the mansion, then she stopped and turned away, making sure that the blue undead is following her, and began walking again.

|Huh... there is something odd about her...|

Zombie muttered to himself, staring at the maid's back.

|You promised to not even think about it!|

Patience instantly scolded him in a baffled voice of a betrayed maiden.

|Ugh...! Right. I did. I'll stop now.|

Zombie flinched and apologized, hurriedly looking away after being caught red-handed.

The rest of the way went on completely normal, with a slight detour when the maid actually lost her way because she turned into a wrong hallway – as much as it annoyed the blue undead, he didn't correct her since it would be rather odd to have him already know when Cranberry's room was with this being his first visit to the Prides mansion – thankfully, the maid realized her mistake within less than two minutes, so it wasn't that bad.

"Here it is."

The maid spoke in the same timid voice and opened the door to the correct room and let them in while bowing.

"Thank you very much. I'll make sure to let Lord Blackberry know that you did a great job, so don't worry about what happened before – if something happens just come and find me or Cranberry, and I'm sure that we'll figure something out!"

He added bowing back to her with a cheerful smile.

|...now you are pushing it a little too much, you want to be friendly, not to seduce her.|

Patience pointed out while sounding as if she was pouting.

|Shhh... Enough with the jealousy. It will be fine, she's much older than me anyway.|

Zombie hushed her and laughed it off internally.

|...|

It was hard to say whether the sealed overseer's sigh was an agreement or her giving up, but either way, it ended their conversation as the maid backed off and Zombie put Cranberry to bed still in her clothes and put a blanket over her...

"Alright, time to do some weight training for that status points increase! Kopia, you can hear me, right? Don't answer! You might wake up Cranberry. Let's play for a bit - but quietly!"

...while he himself pulled out Kopia from her fancy sheath and made hushed her once he felt she was about to make her blade vibrate to release a high-frequency nose to respond to him - and what she ended up doing was increasing her weight to allow for various muscle building exercises.

"Perfect. Thanks!"

Zombie smiled and caressed the pommel and the crossguard of the weapon with a grateful smile.