The Villainess and I, her Zombie

After the mysterious stranger disappeared into the secret passage, none of the elves dared to move, or even speak.

Could it really be possible?

The stranger clearly sounded like he knew exactly what was happening between the Envy family and the elves – but... how...?

The progenitor of the Envy family, lady Envy herself – had stolen the powers of the ancient beast and used them to gain partial control over the long-eared beautiful forest dwellers.

Except for the elves who were banned by the power of the system from saying anything against the Envy family, and the members of the Envy family themselves, no one should be aware that something was very, very wrong.

It was serious to the point that the members of the Envy family married amongst each other just so no one would find out what their ancestor did – but that backfired horribly – perpetuating the endless cycle of kidnapping more elves to steal their beauty, fearing the repercussion of doing that, and marrying a family member to make sure that the secret will not be revealed to the outside world.

The most laughable part of that was that at some point, Envys started blaming the degrading looks of each generation of their family on a curse cast on them by elves, turning away from the real explanation, too proud or maybe too ashamed to face reality.

…and that was exactly why it was so hard to believe that someone else learned about everything and decided to do something...

Unless... maybe it was someone from the branch of the Envy family that split up from the main one soon after the first lady Envy passed away...

*rumble*

The distant tremors shook the basement, but the captured elves didn't dare to move.

Even if the masked stranger had good intentions – there was a huge difference between talking about doing something and actually accomplishing it.

All of the elves in the basement knew that the source of the power the Envys had over their kind was hidden deep below their feet, but no one truly knew what it was.

After all one of the precautious that the original Envy put in place was that no elf could go down there to see for themselves.

As far as they knew – the tremors they felt could have been the result of the masked stranger getting turned into a pulp or dying in another horrifying way.

That's why around an hour later...

"Huh...? Why in the world are you all still here...?"

"?!??!??!?!??!!"

When the masked stranger showed up coming out of the hidden passage and shook his head in shock seeing all the pitiful disfigured elves staying put in their cells.

"B-but... N-nothing changed..."

One of the prisoners dared to speak up, looking down at his messed-up body.

"Of course nothing changed – your looks were already stolen using skills, shouldn't it be obvious that to get those back you need to raise your MDF? You all can use magic, right? Go on, try it. Idiots."

The stranger scoffed in disbelief and waved his hands, hastening the terrified elves.

"..."

...of which no one wanted to be first to try using magic – after all, they knew best that if they tried using magic while in the basement, the system would force them to release the skill before its completion causing the painful rebound.

"..."

The stranger looked at them for a second before lifting his left arm.

"George, did the ruleset put in place by the original Envy included the elves in this basement turning into fucking morons?"

He spoke to the vividly green bushy-looking bracelet wrapped around his wrist

"Give me a break, master. It was centuries ago, how am I supposed to remember that?"

...and the bracelet... talked back to him...!

"..."

The elves looked at each other in shock.

Then, one of them gulped down his saliva and closed his eyes.

The white light enveloped his body and...

His body grew, the complexion cleared out, lazy eye straightened itself, and the thin yellowish hair with many bald spots turned into a thick golden-blond mane.

"...! I-It worked...! IT FUCKING WORKED!"

The elf called out in excitement, before busting out of his cell and running to his neighbor.

"!!!!!!"

In the blink of an eye all the elves got out – the ones who could use the MDF-increasing skills were using them on themselves and then on those who didn't possess it.

Within a few minutes, the basement was full of dirty, dehydrated, but undeniably beautiful elves.

"Everyone is back to normal now? Good. Now get the fuck out of here, and remember what I told you before! Don't engage Envys in combat – if you want revenge, go and contact the Greed family!"

The masked savior clapped his hands to get the attention of the ecstatic elves and called out, pointing at the open metal door and the round staircase leading up.

"Out! Now!"

"YES!"

He called out and received a very enthusiastic reply from the formerly imprisoned elves who were no longer bound by any of the rules set by the Envys using the stolen powers of the ancient beast.

---

Zombie stood by the metal door, patiently waiting until every single elf will leave the basement.

As they did, and he confirmed that their lie signatures left the mansion, he casually walked until he got in front of the very normal-looking door behind metal bars.

"Salak, open up. I have something to tell you."

"..."

He knocked on the door and called out, but only silence responded to him.

"I just so happen to know your daughter. Should I inform Lairs that you are alive, or would you like me to keep it a secret?"

The blue undead asked casually and smiled seeing the panicked movement of the life signature.

The door opened and the petite dark-blond-haired elven woman showed up, biting her lips in clear distress.

"Don't! I don' want to have anything to do with that cursed child!"

The elven traitor gasped, shaking her head from left to right.

"..."

Zombie furrowed his brows, taking a step back.

The truth was he wanted to use the mindbreak skill on the woman, to use her as a convenient pawn that would allow him to get rid of Rambutan whenever the time for that would come, but the things she said surprised him enough to hold back for a moment.

"Cursed...?"

He asked, raising his brow.

"Lairs is cursed?"

He clarified.

"Of course she is! That's why I abandoned her! Her filthy black hair is the sign of the curse!"

/Error

/Secret quest -cursed sister- cannot be triggered until the global event begins

/Try again later

Salak's words caused a rather shocking system message to appear before the speechless undead.

"..."

Zombie closed his eyes, breathed out, and...

"H-hey...! You! Where are you going?!"

....turned around and walked away to the exit, leaving the shouting elven woman behind.