The Villainess and I, her Zombie

The blue undead looked at the red-haired girl and walked up to her before she could react.

He gently touched her face and made her look up to face him.

"How many secret quests got activated?"

He asked in a shockingly calm voice – Cranberry honestly expected him to get angry enough to receive the Ira skill again, but her initial guess turned out to be completely wrong.

"Five..."

She looked into his eyes and declared in an apologetic voice.

"Five? Five out of the remaining six? How is that possible – wasn't Xavi supposed to be the one to activate half of them? Does that means that only mine isn't ready to happen as of yet?"

The blue undead knight inquired slowly caressing Cranberry's cheeks with his thumbs.

"...about her..."

Cranberry sighed and moved her head while glancing to the side.

"...?"

Zombie looked in the same direction just to face the wall of one of the buildings.

"Huh...?"

He scoffed, raising his brows and his eyes shone with the murky red light as he activate the life signature detection skill.

"..."

...and ended up instantly gritting his teeth in annoyance...

Judging by the position of Xavi's life signature, she was chained to a wall or immobilized in some other similar way.

"...that filth's suggestion...?

Zombie's face twisted in disgust as he asked, glaring at the wall of the building as if he was considering bringing it down with a single well-aimed kick.

"...yes... Caramel isn't messing around – but at the same time – her actions show that her target is different from what I initially expected."

The red-haired girl fidgetted and spoke up, grabbing the blue undead knight's hands and nuzzling her face against them.

"Cranberry – do not try to play the guessing game with me again – this isn't some sort of quest where I can experience personal growth by facing the difficulties and solving puzzles on my own."

Zombie sighed and made a stern expression.

"Haa..."

Cranberry breathed out heavily as if the thing she was going to share was something she greatly despised.

"Even though it seems slightly better - you aren't going to like it either way."

The red-haired girl declared, before looking back at her undead knight.

"Of course, I won't like it – I hate everything that this filth does – I honestly thought I made it obvious."

Zombie scoffed rolling his eyes and pinching the girl's cheeks, squishing and spreading them apart like a stress ball.

"Shthop ith."

"Finally."

Cranberry demanded and her gaze grew stern enough for the blue undead to smirk with satisfaction and step away from her.

"Then...? What are we dealing with?"

He asked looking around at all the human adventurers and intelligent monsters peeking at them with worried expressions.

"Do you remember when I become my current self? I said that I was an amalgamation of the Cranberry from the first playthrough, the Cranberry from this playthrough, and a fragment of Patience."

The red-haired girl said before waving her hand at Zombie before she started walking towards the small but somewhat luxurious-looking building not looking behind, certain that he would follow her – and he was.

"...yeah – I do recall you saying something like that..."

Zombie nodded his head, squinting his eyes staring intently at the back of the girl's head.

"You never asked me what did I meant by just a fragment."

The girl responded while casually opening the door and entering the building, letting the blue undead knight enter first.

"...don't be like that – I had other things to worry about at that time – your life being the major one."

Zombie rolled his eyes and sat heavily on the comfortable sofa.

"Yeah... yeah... And I never mentioned it before because I thought we have a lot of time since I could see the percentage of Eternal's seal being released and all."

Cranberry nodded her head with a solemn expression before walking over and seating herself right on the undead's lap ignoring the spot that he left hor her by his side.

"The situation sounds worse and worse for us by the second, and you didn't even get to the point."

Zombie breathed out, sounding more done with the farce than he ever was in any of his lives.

"Well then? How deep is the pile of crap we are buried right now?"

He asked, hugging the red-haired girl from behind and resting his chin on her head.

"...going with your unsanitary example – haa... - it is currently piling way over our heads..."

Cranberry sighed nesting herself in his protective embrace and touching his hands with almost apologetic gentleness.

"According to Patience's memories, once the system reset happened and eternal was swapped with her inside your body, it didn't simply change places – only a small portion of your favorite system overseer became a part of you – the nice part that actually wanted to change the system in order to make it a better place like she always wanted – but unfortunately, there was also the rest of her being which was fully committed to carrying the will of her creator – no matter how idiotic and selfish it was - and that part got mixed up with Eternal itself."

"...!"

The red-haired girl revealed bitterly, feeling all the more terrible once she felt the blue undead knight flinch at her words.

"...Zombie... how would you react if I told you that I might know about the percentage of the Eternal's seal only because the part of Patience that got mixed with it allowed me to do that – and what if the current percentage I see – the same one that hasn't drop a single percent since the fight with the pleonexus hydra – because that's exactly what Patience wants me to see?"

Cranberry asked in a worried voice, grasping Zombie's hands and squeezing them tightly.

"Hold on – now you are making it sound as if that piece of shield knew about everything and was trying to deal with Eternal for the good of the world! No. Just, no. That's not possible – that pile of human waste isn't a hero – I refuse to believe that!"

Zombie scoffed, shaking his head from left to right.

"Are you sure you aren't under the influence of her suggestion? She got to me, she got to Xavi – and she got to you in the first playthrough too!"

The blue undead knight declared leaning forward and lowering his head so that he was looking at Cranberry's face.

"No – impossible – My new skill set is just as good at repelling suggestions as your Superbia and..."

She shook her head and her body started shining with pure white light.

"...I made sure to use them all regularly just to be sure that Caramel isn't messing with me this time around."

The red-haired said with a bitter smile...

"...also the remnant of the chaos god Love might have contacted me telepathically and explained everything while you were checking up the empty lake in the Gluttony's territory..."

She added, biting her lips and looking away ashamed...

"How do you know that the lake was empty...! Oh for fuck's sake...!"

Zombie gasped in disbelief before his eyes widened in realization and he released the threatening aura again.

"Yes... I didn't want to tell you that because I knew how you would react but... Caramel is actually trying to save this world because you are here – surprisingly enough it seems that because the current you bullied her so much during her childhood, she clung to the memories of her original past life and swore to find the reincarnation of the boy she obsessed so much about... and that can't be done until Eternal is gone."

"..."

Cranberry revealed in shame causing the blue undead knight to shudder.