The Villainess and I, her Zombie

|This all feels like it's going too well...|

Zombie thought in disbelief as he was observing the monster that he and Baron captured being escorted to the monster pens in the arena where the first kill party was going to start within an hour.

|I don't want to sound ungrateful but didn't those guys accepted my explanation way too easily? They stopped panicking the moment I told them I'm the familiar of the daughter of the Prides family - and they didn't question anything after that! I look like a blue seven-year-old!|

Zombie gritted his teeth, hurriedly walking past the more or less shocked people, he was worried that this might all be some sort of a trap and lady Raspbetty was waiting behind a corner to grab Cranberry and turn her life back into a miserable hell.

|Zombie, how high is your leadership level again...?|

Patience asked sounding as if she was massaging her forehead, tired of the blue undead's overly cautious behavior.

|Leadership...?|

Zombie furrowed his brows and tilted his head trying to remember the detail about one of his many skills.

|If I remember correctly it leveled up right as we were leaving the village and Cranbie's started crying and declared that he will keep training until he is strong enough to travel together with Cranberry and me... So... Around level... 5? 6?|

He finally answered after a few seconds of careful consideration.

|See?|

Patience scoffed, sounding as if she shrugged her shoulders.

|See what? That's just a tier-one skill, level six is not that much for those.|

The blue undead furrowed his brows and complained in confusion.

|Zombie, there are generals and kings with lower-level leadership – pair up level 6 and your natural charisma and you have a recipe for one trustworthy guy.|

Patience sounded as if she rolled her eyes and explained.

|That... doesn't sound right at all... But I guess I will believe it since you said so.|

|Good.|

Zombie sighed and shook his head with a bitter expression while the sealed overseer gave a short answer, sounding as if she nodded with satisfaction.

|Anyway – it kind of looks like the order I gave to the two Prides held on even though the overpower stopped working – good to know.|

The blue undead added after using the life signature detection skill, scanning the surroundings of the arena in search of anyone connected with the house of Pride, and finding out that there actually was one person like that present... but... despite staying in the same room as Cranberry, that person didn't even try to approach her and neither was she using any skills to contact anyone...

Even with that slight possible problem, since the members of the system faith simply accepted Cranberry's last-minute participation without even batting an eye, everything looked as if it was going to work out just fine.

...at least when it comes to being stopped by the members of the Pride family, hopefully...

The question was, whether someone else won't try anything...

...or is that person really on their side...

Zombie tensed up, turning slightly and began glaring at one certain life signature in particular.

|Don't. Or at least wait until the party will be over. If you go and thrash her now, someone will try to punish you for that. At least wait until a hit and run will be possible.|

Patience called out in a tired voice.

|Oh...? I thought that you will be completely opposed to me doing anything to that piece of filth... Do you love me so much that you are giving me a present...?|

The blue boy smirked and his shoulders shook from holding back the laughter.

|Sh-shut up! Idiot! I just know that you won't leave Caramel alone no matter what, so I try to damage control as much as possible!|

The sealed overseer cried out sounding as if she was trying to mask her embarrassment by getting angry and loud.

|Well... it's working. I'll wait until the ceremony is over until I go met this repugnant filth of a sister.|

Zombie smirked and nodded, looking away from Caramel's life signature, and make sure that Cranberry isn't bothered by any stranger.

|Oh...?|

And to his surprise, he realized that she is in fact surrounded, or rather accompanied by three very familiar life signatures instead.

|Oh-ho! This might be interesting.|

Patience gasped excitedly peeking into Zombie's mind.

|How will things play out between them, I wonder?|

She giggled, which only made the blue undead hasten his steps as he walked back to the room where all the children were waiting for the initiation ceremony.

|I want to say that things should be very different since this Cranberry isn't the same as my Cranberry, but if I said that I'm not worried – I would be lying.|

Zombie frowned – he wanted to use his skills to get to Cranberry's side faster, but he knew that he already looked really suspicious walking around freely like that being a monster and all, and if he actually used a skill to boost his mobility, people would undoubtedly think that he was a monster that broke free from the pen and would definitely try to subdue him.

|The only one she talked with during the first playthrough was the heroine, wasn't it? I wonder what happened that the other two approached her too...|

Patience certainly sounded intrigued while comparing the current situation with the memories of her undead host as well as the memories of the game events and how they played out.

|Yeah... now that I think about it... Cranberry doesn't have a whip or anything... and... even with Mary, she only talked to her after the initiation ceremony...|

Zombie shared the interest in the obvious change but he was more worried than anything.

That ended the conversation between them as the blue boy finally arrived at the right door, opened them, and snuck inside.

He walked between a bunch of ten-year-old, short enough to not show over any of them.

"Eww...! What is this?!"

"Ah! A monster! A monster escaped!"

"Don't be ridiculous! Look at its clothes, that's clearly someone's familiar."

Kids were talking amongst themselves, making the blue undead smirk – that was exactly the same reaction that he got during the first playthrough in the exact same situation.

What was not the same though was...

"Ah! There he is! Zombie! I'm here!"

Was the cheerful Cranberry calling out and waving to him from the other side of the room – it was actually really impressive that she noticed him... or maybe not, considering that she already had trained the detection [heairng] to level 3.

Either way, in no time at all the blue undead, got to the red-haired girl surrounded by three very familiar children.

The brown-haired future heroine, Mary Hope, tightly clenching a scepter with both hands.

The brown-haired androgynous child in gender-neutral clothing – the future capture target and current avatar of lust, Claymore Lust.

And finally the blond-haired boy with a sword over twice his size hanging across his back – none another future capture target and the current first prince of the kingdom, Roan Greed.

All the most, and only, important characters from the game who were present in the room.