The Villainess and I, her Zombie

*CHOMP*

With a dry sound and a flash of orange light, the head of the single guard patrolling the inner side of the wall surrounding the Envy's mansion disappeared, leaving only the open wound of the neck.

/Low-level player character defeated

You receive EXP

*thump*

Propelled by the fountain of blood shooting out with shockingly high pressure, the decapitated body fell to the ground, twitching and flailing around like a, well, headless chicken.

*gulp*

"Khahahaha! I always wanted to try this. So efficient~!"

Zombie giggled maniacally while jumping down the wall and leaning down to search the corpse.

"How's the weapon?"

He asked, looking at the crimson thread extending from the pommel of his swords and carefully feeling around the sword at the waist of the deceased guard.

"It has a speed enchantment – I could add it to the ones I already have!"

Kopia vibrated happily and hundreds of crimson threads burst forth and enveloped the entire blade that the few ones before them pulled out from the sheath.

*CRUNCH*

With a sound way too fleshy to really be caused by devouring a metal, the threads retracted as if they never showed up in the first place, leaving only the empty sheath.

"...as for the valuables... Tsk! This cheapskate doesn't even have a single coin on him!"

Zombie clicked his tongue and complained.

"Sorry, Monty."

The blue undead frowned and apologized to the golden snake posing as an earring on his ear while kicking the no longer useful body under some conveniently placed ornamental shrubs, planted around to create the shape of a heart.

"Sssssss! (It's okay, master, I can smell some valuable stuff inside!)"

Monty hissed happily into his ear, not bothering at all by not getting an early snack like Kopia.

"As long as you'll be careful, I can let you go on your own snoop around – but just in case, don't eat any artifacts without consulting it with Kopia – some of them might turn out to be necessary for the future quests."

Zombie said after a moment of consideration while reaching out to his ear and pulling Monty down.

"Can you promise me that?"

The blue undead asked seriously.

"Sssss! (I won't eat artifacts!) Sssss! (Only valuables without any effects!) Ssss! (I promise, master!)"

The tiny golden snake on top of Zombie's palm went ahead and saluted to the blue undead by putting the tip of its tail to its scaly head and jumped off of his hand without waiting for any further approval.

"Was that a good idea to let him go alone like that...?"

Kopia asked sounding actually worried.

"It's okay – Monty's an idiot, but a lucky idiot. It will be fine."

Zombie smirked and patted her crossguard reassuringly.

"Now, as for what we should do next..."

Any trace of a smile disappeared from the masked face of the blue undead and his eyes shone reddish under the hood as he began scouring the area again in search for the life signatures around and in the mansion.

"Whatever the reason she came up with, Fillia did a good job. Good thing I didn't make her go crazy or kill her."

Zombie breathed out in relief as he prepared to move as fast as possible without the aid of any of the attack skills he usually used for running around since they would be too noisy and get the attention of the few guards spread through the mansion.

"...master... both Patience and I have told you many times to leave her alone..."

Kopia complained, but Zombie didn't even feel like explaining to her that it was supposed to be a dark joke since it wasn't even a good one, to begin with.

…

…...

"Well... this is awkward..."

A few moments later, Zombie muttered to himself, standing n front of the locked door leading to the basement.

"How about..."

*CHOM-thunk*

He frowned and his mouth and that shone with orange light – but a moment later he felt himself being repelled back.

It was rather obvious that the gluttony-based skill was too low-level to work against the sturdy door.

"Huh... I guess I could kick it open but..."

Zombie tilted his head, glancing to the side.

Only a few steps to his right, a life signature of a guard was casually strolling around in a perfect view of another life signature of yet another guard...

It would honestly be better to not make too much noise...

"...hmmmm..."

Zombie furrowed his brows and squinted his eyes looking at the keyhole in the door.

Without wasting even more time, the blue undead reached his hand to the side and...

"Monty."

He called out in a hushed voice, holdiung his hand palm-up.

"...sss....? (...h-huh...?) Ssss...? (What in the...?)"

With a flash of white light, the golden snake appeared right on it, looking around absolutely stunned.

"Hey there. I have work for you. Help me open this up, quietly."

Zombie tapped on Monty's head and pointed at the locked door.

"...ssssss... (...master, I was about to eat a whole bar of gold...)"

The golden snake stuck out its split tongue and complained in a dispirited hiss.

"And you will go right back to it as soon as you help me open this door and the one below."

The blue undead shrugged his shoulders dismissively and reached out towards the keyhole using the hand on which Monty was perched.

"Ssss...? (So you want a key, master...?) Ssss... (Oh well, fine...)"

Monty hissed and slithered towards Zombie's fingers, then it opened its jaws and vomited a dash of gold and silver right into the keyhole – and turned its head to the right.

*click*

The dry sound announced that the lock had been breached without any trouble.

"Good job. Now, the ones below and you can go back to eating Envys treasures.

Zombie smiled, gently patting the golden snake's head with the tip of his finger.

"Ssss! (They have a lot of tasty stuff!)"

Monty perked up at the mention of food just as the blue undead pulled the door open and began descending down the spiral staircase right into the heart of the secret of the main branch of the Envy family.

"Either those ones had an alarm or the next one will - either way, it is safe to assume that our countdown had already started - we should be fine, but stay on your guard anyway."

The blue undead explained and closed the door behind him.