The Villainess and I, her Zombie

|Ah... if not for the fact that poor cute monsters are getting killed right in front of me, it honestly would be relaxing to watch this whole thing since this time there were no emergency quests popping up.|

Zombie leaned against Claymore's chair and used their head as an elbow rest, and the poor young avatar of lust was too afraid to tell him off or ask for help.

|If you say so... You seem quite easy to please today... By the way, aren't you worried that you will flip their switch?|

Patience asked curiously, but since that, there was no trace of worry in her voice it was rather obvious that she knew such an outcome would not happen – and Zombie read it exactly like that too.

|You say so, but in actuality, don't you also think that it be fun to watch the chaos unfold...? Cranberry and I have the rings that protect from control and charms and since the control of the avatar of pride did not broke through it, I doubt that young Claymore would pull it off just yet without openly using bindings of lust against us -and for we both know that his family members would step in to stop that immediately before it could develop into a political crisis.|

The blue undead scoffed, glancing towards the audience, where a few life essences in particular were getting agitated seeing him mess around with the young Lust, and just to mess with them even more, he started gently poking Claymore's face.

"Nnnnghghghg...!"

The androgynous child flinched and fidgetted, letting out both funny and adorable voice, but did not say anything besides that to stop the blue undead.

"Zombie! Stop bullying them already!"

Cranberry grabbed onto his clothes and tugged on them with a frown, trying to sound strict, but ended up coming off as needy.

"That's not bullying if I like them though. It's called teasing. Don't you worry, I'll bother you plenty later."

Zombie scoffed and shrugged his shoulders, winking to the red-haired girl who instantly turned bright red and looked down in embarrassment.

/Proficiency level reached

You receive a skill

Heartthrob (level 1)

|Excuse me...?|

Zombie furrowed his brows looking at the surprising system message.

|EXCUSE YOU?! EXCUSE ME! WHY DID YOU JUST GET TIER 1 SKILL NECESSARY FOR RECEIVING LUXURIA, YOU ROTTEN-HEARTED PLAYBOY?! THAT'S SKILL SHOULD BE EXCLUSIVE FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE LUST FAMILY, NO TO MENTION THAT YOU ARE AN UNDEAD IN THE FIRST PLACE!|

Patience seemed to heave lost her head for a moment there, but that made Zombie roll his eyes and look down on the avatar of lust that he was playing around...

|Ah, that's your reason, probably.|

The blue undead realized once he looked into the big eyes of the androgynous child staring at him in disbelief while a slight blush was dying their face more and more pink.

|...what are you doing seducing another capture target?! Love-blessed disruptor is their role!|

The sealed overseer scoffed weakly, sounding completely done, but that did not really bother Zombie in the slightest.

Instead, the blue undead smirked at the brown-haired child and squished their cheeks together from both sides making them do a duck face.

"That's right, I like you even while your love-blessed body doesn't work on me. Keep that in mind later on."

He grinned at them and winked before letting him go and returning to Cranberry's side, leaving the young avatar very confused and very, very red.

|You are terrifying sometimes...|

patience sounded as if she was shaking her head at him.

|Huh?! Only sometimes?! And why do you sound like that? I thought that that's why you love me so much?!|

...at which the blue undead responded with the overly dramatic and obviously fake exasperation.

|...I begin to regret making a deal with you...|

|Don't worry, I will always love you – te-he~!|

|SH-SHUT UP ALREADY, ALRIGHT?!|

No one was safe from Zombie's teasing.

No one – especially not the sealed overseer.

"Young lord Orange Tart."

The high priest who had no idea what was going on amongst the small group of the most important kids called out and a tall, thin boy with a spiked mace, who up until a moment ago was carefully observing the scene between Zombie and Claymore, stood up and passed the returning Bread's boy on his way.

He faced a striped black and brown clam the size of a big treasure chest.

"Ooh!"

Almost everyone present let out a shocked gasp.

"That's! That's...!"

Roan gasped in excitement.

"Ah! I know what that is! - I forgot the name, but it's a sea monster that sometimes can have a pearl that raises the status point inside its shell!

Cranberry gasped and looked between the Roan, Claymore, and Mary.

"Whoa...! That sounds too good! I wonder if there will be one!"

Mary jumped up in the excitement and turned back to the clam with sparkling eyes.

"..."

Zombie watched as Fig, disguised as Orange Tart, raises her mace and awkwardly hits the monster again and again until the hard shell got shattered.

|I wonder if she got a skill from doing that.|

|Doubtful, she was way too awkward – you need a certain level of technique to actually fill up the necessary proficiency meter to gain a skill, you know?|

The blue undead thought curiously and received an instant reply.

|Ah, I see, so that means that the real culprit behind my heartthrob skill is you, crushing on me since day one of the second playthrough?|

He giggled internally.

|...I will make use of my right to remain silent....|

Patience murmured under her breath, sounding as if she was looking away in embarrassment.

|...You, are not under arrest though....|

Zombie tilted his head, shocked by the effectiveness of his attack.

*crack*

"Ah! It's there!"

Once the clam's shell broke completely, someone couldn't keep their voice down and shouted.

Just as during the first playthrough, there was a pearl, big as an adult's fist, between the pieces of the striped shell.

The member of the Envy family disguised as the Orange Tart who just defeated the clam claimed her reward and turned around, facing the seats as if she considered something.

|Hey, how big is the reach of a level 1 heartthrob skill?|

|Why are you even asking me tha...?|

Zombie asked, but before Patience had any real-time to respond to that, the blue undead went ahead and winked right at Fig as his eye shone with the pale-blue light of the lust-based skill.