The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"E-eh...? Who? My senior, of course!"

Mary grabbed Zombie's hand and pulled it enough away from her face to be able to talk normally.

"...Light-brown-hair? Acts as if she wants the best for you? Pissess herself if anyone around her mentions either kiwis or little brothers? Has a dream giver affinity that she uses to feed you weird dreams?"

"...eh....?!"

Zombie asked with a bitter face without looking back at the stunned brown-haired girl.

"W-wait... do you know my senior? And what was that about that dream affinity?!"

Mary exclaimed in confusion and backed off – but only because Zombie let go of her on his own.

"Because that would be my older sister, a repugnant pile of human waste, Caramel. She gave you that, huh..."

Zombie scoffed, shrugging his shoulders.

"Did she told you that our father runs a shop with magic stones in a certain little village in the Greeds territory?"

He added with a soft smile, before throwing the scepter right into Mary's arms.

"Eh?! What does it have to do with anythi...?"

"That thing is just some basic cheap stuff for low-level adventurers that you can buy in the most basic equipment store you can find. And it was made not that long ago – you can tell because neither the rod nor the magic stone bears any sign of getting worn down through the years – I doubt your adoptive father even saw that thing and it is literally impossible that he had used it in his youth."

Zombie shook his head and walked back towards the red-haired girl pouting because he ignored her before – but not before he stopped by Mary's side and put his hand on her shoulder.

"If I were you, I would watch out for that lying rotted scum."

He whispered into the future heroine's ear and walked over to Cranberry.

"Now, now. Don't be angry. You know how much I like teasing people."

The blue undead laughed and climbed up to his tiptoes to reach to the girl's head and pat her reassuringly.

"I do! But can't you at least hold yourself back at the first meeting?! Those three were nice enough to come up to me and started a conversation on their own! And you are bullying them! If you don't apologize to them I'm not going to talk to you for a whole day!"

Cranberry stomped her foot angrily and declared with a very serious expression.

"Oh my, things are serious, aren't they, a whole day?"

Zombie gasped and acted as if he was very threatened while holding back the laughter.

|You are a horrible person.|

|Yeah. I love you too, Pati.|

|STOP DOING THAT, YOU ROTTEN-HEARTED PLAYBOY!|

It was really, REALLY hard for Zombie to keep up a straight face through that situation but he somehow pulled it off.

"Oh, but now that you said it... there's one more person I haven't played around with yet, isn't there..."

"!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Zombie's smile grew dangerously and he leaned to the red-haired girl's side and looked right at the young Claymore – who flinched and looked around searching for a spot to hide until finally, they ended up hurrying over to Cranberry and hiding behind her back while facing away from the black eyes of the blue undead.

"Don't you even dare! Seriously! Zombie! If you will not calm down I will stop talking to you for a whole week!"

Cranberry furrowed her brows and stomped her foot, fuming in a rather adorable way.

|I don't know about the Cranberry from the first playthrough, but this one would not be able to endure not talking to you for more than a few hours – do you think that she realizes that her so-called punishment is of more threat to herself than anything?|

Patience scoffed, sounding as if she was shaking her head in disbelief.

|Shhhh... let her be like that. That's more of how a kid her age should act compared to how my Cranberry from the previous playthrough was.|

Zombie responded to her softly.

"As you wish."

Was what he had said out loud and bowed to the red-haired girl.

"Apologize to Roan and Mary!"

Cranberry added, riding on the flow.

"No."

"...ha...?"

But a short answer cut her off as the blue undead shook his head and passed her too, walking towards one of the other children present, of which all were staring at the spectacle performed by the little group.

"I might be your familiar, but I am not your servant. Want someone apologizing to them, do it yourself – time to teach you how an owner of a rude familiar feels when the familiar gets in trouble. I'll be joining you during the initiation. For now, I'll excuse myself."

The blue boy waved his hand at her without looking back and the other children moved out of his way until he ended up by the door, where he leaned against the wall and glanced at the tall skinny boy with the spiky mace at his side – who looked as if we wanted nothing to do with him at all.

"Whew... She changed a lot, wouldn't you say?"

Zombie murmured while looking back at the three essential characters and Cranberry – it seemwd that he cleared any possible doubt about who might be the bad person out of the kids' minds because although they all kept sending evil glares his way none of that anger was directed at Cranberry – it actually looked like they treated the red-haired girl as one of the victims of Zombie's bullying instead, so, one of them.

|Ugh... you just had to realize, hadn't you...|

Patience read the blue undead mind and sounded as if she rolled her eyes...

...because she knew that Zombie wasn't talking to her.

"It's all because of you, you know? Telling her all that stuff and actually showing her the way, you were a little bit too harsh for my taste but I can't argue with the result that it brought."

Zombie continued talking in a hushed voice that coupled with his cold appearance made it look like he was chanting threats under his breath making the rest of the kids move as far back as they could.

...all except for one...

The tall boy with a spiked mace didn't even flinch once Zombie started talking, but at the same time even though he had his back turned to him, he did not get away and instead was keenly listening to the blue undead's voice.

|I don't remember checking the life signatures of anyone during the first kill party in the first playthrough, but this didn't happen then, did it?|

Zombie asked internally, a little bit curious.

|Back then it was similar, but it was someone else replacing that guy. This is how things should be for the secret ending that we aim for.|

Patience confirmed without getting into too much detail.

|I see... Good.|

Zombie nodded and glanced at the tall boy.

"That said since you have been the person responsible for her change, I hope that you will not try to put her in harm's way now – return to the Prides mansion included."

He added, putting his head against the wall and breathing out heavily.

"...mister familiar, I have no idea what you are talking about. My name is Orange Tart and I never..."

The boy straightened his back and turned to the blue undead for the first time.

"...not informing the Pride family instantly shouldn't be too much to ask out of a spy from the Envy family in the first place. Wouldn't you agree, Fig?"

...but Zombie interrupted him, or rather her, with a shrug.