The Villainess and I, her Zombie

|This... is a much better outcome than I expected...|

Despite the words she used, Patience didn't actually sound relieved in the slightest.

Even with the rather horrifying beginning, Zombie's unrelenting beating of the elven boy who happened to share the name with the only daughter of the Pride family stopped just after around half a minute mark.

Zombie's fist stopped over the powder-pink-haired boy's face, right before delivering another hit.

"Uuuugh...! Uuu...! I'm sorry...! I don't know what I did wrong, but I'm sorry...!"

"..."

And that was the reason why.

Cranberry, the eleven-year-old elven boy was sobbing while desperately trying to protect his head while continuing to apologize.

"I'm sorry...!"

He cried out pitifully.

"Fuck... I feel like such a piece of shit... what am I even trying to accomplish here...?"

Zombie sighed, all of his aggression gone.

He got off the elven boy and sat heavily next to him.

"I don't have any attack skills that relate to fists, you know...?"

Zombie scoffed and raised up his trembling bloodied fists with both middle and ring fingers dislocated from losing against the other boy's cheekbone in terms of durability.

"I'm sor..."

"Don't apologize. I'm the fucking bastard here. I attacked you even though current you haven't done anything wrong... Curse at me or something, get angry... please..."

Cranberry tried to apologize again but got stopped by Zombie's miserable voice.

|Where did this change of behavior came from, if you don't mind me asking...?|

Patience asked curiously.

|He reminds me of some small scared domesticated animal... He has no idea what he did wrong but even so, he doesn't retaliate... Beating him up doesn't feel good at all... and killing him would probably feel even worse.|

Zombie gave up and sighed internally, facing away from the confused boy slowly getting up.

"I'm the one who's sorry... hit me back or go tell on me to your parents."

|Whoa! Stop right there! You may be feeling bad but don't encourage him to go mess up our original plan!|

Patience gasped in disbelief at Zombie's words.

"...*sniffle* N-no... I-it's alright... My mom told me that everyone has their own problems and a hero is supposed to help everyone... *sniffle* you are actually really hurting inside, right? I know. I was born with a hidden affinity called heart read so I can tell."

Cranberry declared, giving his best trying to keep it together, but his speech ended up as jumbled sobs.

"Hero? Heart read?"

Zombie furrowed his brows and looked at the elf in disbelief.

|I don't know about that hero business, but heart read affinity allows its user to perceive the true feelings of anyone they come in physical contact with.|

Patience explained sounding just as confused as Zombie.

"Wait... you read my heart while I was punching you? That's why you kept apologizing, insead of fighting back?"

The young boy flinched and asked while gritting his teeth.

"...yes... *sniffle* ...ow...!"

Cranberry nodded and tried to wipe his nose and cried out in pain since it was broken and extremely sensitive.

"Huh..."

Zombie nodded with an awkward expression, unable to find the right words to express the odd feeling inside his chest.

"...what's the deal with the hero business...?"

So instead, he asked the first question he came up with.

"*sniffle* A hero is a hero... Like in the stories that my mom read me since I was little. A hero is someone who protects everyone. Someone who can bring happiness to everyone! I want to become someone like that!"

The powder-pink-haired boy sniffled one more time before proudly puffing out his chest and declaring...

...which looked rather pitiful coupled with the bleeding broken nose and a big black eye that was getting darker and darker as the time passed.

"...you're a good kid, aren't you..."

Zombie looked at him and smiled softly.

"H-hey..! Don't call me a kid! My name is Cranberry and besides, aren't you a lot younger than me!"

Cranberry frowned and complained while pouting.

|Zombie, elves just so happen to put a lot of attention to the age difference, you are on track to make up for your little freakout, don't mess it up, please.|

Patience sighed, sounding as if she was closing her eyes and shaking her head at the boy.

|Yeah, you're right... Hmm... my Cranberry mentioned something about that too... And if I remember correctly, it had something to do with how Lairs addressed Shanks and Uresha...|

Zombie nodded internally and concentrated on the memory from the first playthrough.

|Just don't overdo it.|

Patience warned him.

"Yes, you are. Once again, sorry for attacking you, Cran-cran."

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Zombie ended up smiling apologetically and bowed to the elven boy – which resulted in the said boy blushing heavily and hiding his face with both hands.

"...?"

|Hold up, did I overdid it just with that?|

Zombie asked internally, taken aback by the unexpectedly strong reaction.

|...that's up for debate... The way you called him is really special for the elves. I think that you might have done exactly what needed to be done to save our original plan, but we need to wait and see...|

Patience sounded hesitant but leaning into positivity.

"Cran-cran...? Are you okay?"

"!!!!!!"

Zombie leaned to the side to peek at the boy's face and asked, which resulted in Cranberry fidgeting and blushing even harder.

"Cran-cra...?"

"W-wait a bit...!"

As Zombie was calling out to him for the third time, the powder-pink-haired boy reached out his hand to stop him.

"My heart isn't ready... I never had a younger sibling...! Wait, let me just... Mend!"

*crack*

"Urgh...!"

'!!!"

The elven boy said and his body flashed with white light and the sound of cartilage being reassembled left Zombie in shock.

|Umm... why does he have the most painful healing skill ever...?|

Zombie asked in confusion.

|Not everyone is suitable for using holy magic and mend is the only healing skill that doesn't require an affinity with it.|

Patience responded, sounding as if she shrugged her shoulders.

"Ugh... Hey, it's not very pleasant but do you want me to heal you too?"

Cranberry groaned and showed up his face again – there was just a very thin pink scar on his nose but other than that there was no other visible evidence of getting beaten up, even the black eye and any trace of nosebleed had disappeared!

The elven boy also reached out his hand and pointed at Zombie's dislocated fingers that were swelling up despite the HP recovery skill working in the background.

"Sure."

Zombie nodded and leaned forward.

"Hey, if me calling you Cran-cran is too embarrassing, then maybe you would prefer if I called you Cranbie?"

He asked as soon as Cranberry touched him.

"Cranbie...?"

The powder-pink-haired boy asked, tilting his head.

"Cranbie... Yes. That would make it a bit easier on my heart. Sure!"

Cranbie repeated a nickname one more time and nodded with a relieved smile.

|Why is he talking so much about his heart...?|

|No idea.|

Zombie asked and got an immediate answer from the being sealed inside of him.

"Alright then. Better brace yourself, getting healed with mend hurts more than getting wounded."

Cranbie warned Zombie and closed his eyes to better focus on the skill.

"Mend."

*crack*

He said and instantly a jolt of sharp pain spread through Zombie's hand followed by the dry sound of flesh and bones returning to their rightful place.

"..."

Zombie blinked a few times and frowned.

|That's it...?|

He asked, sounding almost disappointed.

|You just dislocated two fingers, did you expected to level up your pain resistance or something?|

Patience sighed in response

*crack*

Suddenly another dry sound resounded through the training area...

...but it wasn't anything caused by the skill of either of the boys.

Instead, the sound came from the middle of the field – right from the growing mound of dirt that just appeared all on its own...

"What is that?"

Cranbie tilted his head in confusion, staring at the mound.

"SCRUHI! (BLOOD! FOOD! ME EAT!)"

Right after that, the earth exploded and the head of a giant ant appeared from underneath the ground with a bloodcurdling screech and the click of mandibles the size of a grown man's arms.

"No way...!"

Zombie jumped up on his feet, all tens, staring at the monster crawling out of the ground.

"SCRUHI! (FOOD!) SCRUHIII! (ME EAT, ME EEEEEEAT!)"

The insect's shrill pierced the air and its carapace unleashed a torrent of red and black smoke that spread through the training ground and formed walls around it while a burning mark appeared on the top of the monster ant's head.

|A sigil monster?! Here?! Why?! And how?!|

Patience was every bit as shocked as the two boys.

"SCRUHIIIII! (ME EAT, HUMAN LARVA, ELF LARVA, YOU DIE!)"

The monster ant shook its head to get rid of the remains of dirt covering its carapace and instantly charged at the children, hungrily snapping its mandibles.