The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"And, we need to have a talk."

Zombie added, looming over the fidgeting Kopia as the two of them were leaving the scene of the carnage, passing by the city guards as if it was nothing – after all if the Carambola – one of the more promiscuous underlings of the Envy family past the last fifty years let go of the pair even after the masked man beat up a dozen of Envys, who were they to stop them?

"...I don't really remember much about the quests, I can only recognize whether something bad is about to happen..."

The humanoid sword hurriedly murmured an explanation, but...

"Do you think you are fooling someone with that?"

"...uuuuu..."

Zombie scoffed at her making her slump her head own and cry out pitifully as her attempt at lying her way out of trouble was seen through instantly.

"Haaah... I kind of knew that the personality you have is far more similar to Pati, but I never actually thought that you literally copied it together with memories. Seriously..."

The blue undead shook his head walking along with his remorseful weapon, shaking his head in disbelief.

"...master... I..."

"H-hey! You two!"

Kopia raised her head looking up at him attempting to do the puppy-dog eyes – and doing pretty well – when a small kobold child shouted at them from the broken doorway.

"...that shop should have a backdoor. Fine."

"Eh...?"

Zombie muttered to himself and grabbed Kopia's arm, pulling her with him towards the shouting girl.

"You broke my stuff! You broke the door! Do you think that you can just go and wa-MPFGHP...!"

The kobold girl, quite unaware about who exactly she was dealing with, went ahead and started listing complaints in a rather experienced way for her age, but it was all for nothing as soon as she got into Zombie's arms reach, she got grabbed by the face and carried inside by the blue undead like a piece uncommonly shaped luggage.

"Monty, sorry for asking you to eat trash but could you do something about the broken door?"

Zombie asked the golden snake on his ear while the little kobold was desperately struggling to break free from the suffocating grip of the disguised undead's left hand.

"Ssss... (I really don't want to...) Ssss... (But I don't mind doing it for you, master...)"

The gold serpent posing as earring hissed out heavily and slithered down Zombie's body and through the floor – where it hoovered up all the broken fake display swords like a minuscule vacuum cleaner, and as its body began glowing with a distinct yellowish light, it vomited out a colorful, fully functional door made out of the colored glass and painted wood.

"Kopia."

Zombie let go of the crimson-haired girl's arm and gestured at the brand new door lying on the floor.

"..."

She looked at him still trying to get his pity but went ahead, lifted the colorful door, and placed it on the hinges.

"Oh....! They fit really well!"

She raised her brows, noticing that there was no need for any adjustment – as the door not only fit the frame but even locked properly.

"Ssss! (Of course, I'm the remnant of Happy – god of luck!)"

Monty went ahead and hissed proudly from the floor, not hesitant at all to reveal that it wasn't something that it planned but rather a wild stroke of good fortune...

"...good... as for this one..."

Zombie nodded and finally paid attention to the little kobold struggling against his arm.

...and was right about to crush her head to get rid of the annoyance when...

"Master! No! She's an important character for your good ending!"

Kopia cried out and jumped at his left arm, and clung to it while pushing the little kobold away, removing Zombie's glove in the process.

"Guhuah...! Uuuu...! ...uuuuu...! GRAN-GRANDPAAAAAAAAAAA...!"

The little kobold girl hit the wall and the first thing she did after hitting her back against the wall was to start bawling her eyes out in the most pitiful way possible.

"An important character? She is...?"

Zombie frowned and asked, lifting Kopia up to his eye-level by raising the arm she was continuing to cling on to.

"Yes! She's an enchanter that gives lots of quests! And she will, later on, settle in the village that will be the main hub for...!"

The humanoid sword exclaimed hurriedly, speaking as fast as she could until she suddenly flinched and shut her mouth.

"...forget about the village, alright, master...? For now... it's way too soon to be worrying about that..."

She added with a very serious expression – that certainly didn't fit someone hanging down from somebody's arm.

"Anyway... Do not kill her! Raika will be important!"

"GRAAAANDPAAA! GRAAAN... eh...? Wh-why do you know my name...?"

Kopia declared and her words caused the little kobold girl – whose name was apparently Raika – to stop crying out for her grandfather and look at her in confusion with tearful eyes.

"..."

Zombie furrowed his brows, but was there really room for discussion in the current situation?

Kopia knew about the quests, he didn't.

And she certainly liked killing the living as much as he did, so if she was telling him to not extinguish someone's life, she must have meant it.

"...how come that Envy territory has so many potentially important characters, huh...?"

The disguised blue undead sighed, putting Kopia back on the floor.

"Ah, that's because Envys are the ones who steal and kidnap a lot!"

The humanoid blade perked up and exclaimed with joy, happy that she could explain something.

"...sure..."

But her answer certainly didn't lift Zombie's mood.

Killing Raika would make things easier, honestly.

He asked Monty to reveal itself as not being only a normal earring because he was sure that the kobold girl won't be alive to tell the tale.

That was the very same reason why he wasn't very nice to her from the beginning either.

But now...

With the reveal that she will be someone important...

"Hey. Raika. Where's your grandfather?"

Changing his demeanor at the drop of a hat was already second nature to him, hence getting rid of the threatening aura and starting to act all nice wasn't the problem.

"...!"

The problem was the unpredictable reaction of the child...

"Raika?"

Zombie walked over to her and crouched – she flinched and looked down when she asked her about the person for who she was crying for, so that suggested it was the right dialogue option to pursue.

"Aside from us, there is no one else in this building. Where is your grandfather?"

Zombie asked...

...while his black eyes shone with a pale-blue light...

"!!!!"

Little kobold girl shoulders and chin trembled.

"...Envys took him together with his swords... two weeks ago..."

Raika cried out pitifully and clenched her little fists, as tears of anger rolled down her face.

"What a coincidence – say... this fancily dressed big sister and I are going to visit the Envys mansion... How about we look around for your grandfather once we will be there?"

"You will?!"

The little kobold girl trembled and looked up at Zombie in disbelief.

"We will – but under one condition..."

The blue undead smirked under his veil and put his left hand on top of Raika's head, and started caressing her short hair.

"You will have to listen to me, and keep everything that happened here a secret... okay...?"

Zombie nodded, making sure to look straight into the child's eye so that the skill would properly activate and break through any defenses that the little important character could have built up against him due to being treated so roughly before...

"I will! I swear!"

Thankfully – for her that is – Raika nodded her head vigorously and agreed without any objection, though, that was kind of expected considering that her level couldn't be that high.... no, she probably wasn't even a player character yet, to begin with so maybe she was only level 1.