The Villainess and I, her Zombie

|Why is she hesitating?|

Zombie furrowed his brows and asked internally.

|The elves have said that those are not anything sketchy, right? Are you sure that you don't know anything about them?|

He insisted a wit a bit more intensely while looking around worried that someone might try to interrupt the initiation process that was supposed to be very important for the artifacts to work properly.

|I know only as much as you do, sorry. The rings like those certainly didn't show up in the game, so they must be simply something that has spawned into this world on its own, or it was a scrapped item that never make it to the real game but popped up here.|

Patience responded in a tense voice, she sounded just as worried as Zombie.

|I'll have you know that we barely dodged the worse outcome – right before you were turned into an undead, the message that popped up about you becoming a familiar... that wasn't supposed to happen at all! I don't know why but something must have made the system twist the event a bit...|

She added sounding as if she was furrowing her brows.

|But I'm an undead, right? So everything is how it was supposed to be, right?|

The boy tensed up and insisted.

|Yes, yes. It's just a backstory event so everything is fine. More than fine I should say.|

Patience scoffed.

|More than fine? Explain... khaha... look how cute she is...|

Zombie asked while observing a deep blush taking over Cranberry's whole face, ears, and even neck turning her red as a ripe cranberry.

|...yeah... You heard her talk to her father, haven't you? She said that she awakened to a Dark Arts instead of necromancy.|

The sealed overseer sounded as if she frowned with a grumpy expression but started explaining anyway.

|Of course I did. And?|

Zombie asked while cautiously watching the red-haired girl in front of him fidgetting while glancing at him bashfully – a behavior he witnessed from her only a handful of times during the first playthrough.

|Dark Arts is a broader version of necromancy.|

|The hell? Broader version?|

|Yes. While is not a rank up, and can actually be considered a rank down since it won't grant her skills like create a death knight or mass skeleton summoning, Dark Arts will give her access to some very basic necromancy while also giving her access to a range of destructive spells from the magic skill tree the elves use. Overall, for the secret true ending that we are aiming for, this is simply amazing - since, without the high-tier necromancy specific skills, she will not be involved in some optional side quests that have nothing to do with the true ending and are quite risky to boot. Hence, everything is more than fine.|

Patience sounded as if she nodded and explained everything.

|I see...|

Zombie nodded internally and fell into deep thoughts.

|Anyway... She seems to be looking at some message a whole lot... Not being able to see her messages sure is inconvenient...|

He sighed to himself.

|It's exactly like I told you before. Sharing system messages, as well as an easy time leveling up, were both perks that you could enjoy only thanks to the benefits of being the eternal servant. With that option locked, you need to work around it.|

Patience pointed out, sounding as if she shrugged her shoulders.

|Yeah... I know...|

Zombie had no other choice but to nod with melancholy...

"...do you promise that you will always be by my side...?"

Suddenly, the red-haired girl in front of him asked in a timid voice.

"Of course."

Instead of getting shocked by the unexpeted question, the blue boy became serious and gave a straight answer without any hesitation or delay as if he was ready for the question.

"...I'll have you know that I will never forgive you if you betray me, my mother told me that I have an awful personality, so you better think twice..."

Cranberry added with a downcast look, sounding slightly dispirited as if she expected that information to make the blue boy back away.

"I don't give a damn about your mother, you are the only living that matters to me."

"!!!"

Zombie smirked and snorted, making the girl flinch and look at him in disbelief as if she couldn't believe her ears.

...probably because she couldn't, since this was the first time she heard anyone talking so carefree about her mother...

"And as for your personality... I would prefer to get to know you myself if that is okay with you."

He added lowering his head and looking up at the girl's face.

"...haa..."

That made Cranberry close her eyes and breath out as if she was preparing for some life-altering decision and...

"Fine. I do. And you better not regret it! You're mine forever now!"

She opened her eyes and declared.

|Wow. That sounded as if she agreed to a marriage proposal or something.|

Patience pointed out while scoffing mockingly.

|Shhh! Don't make it weird!|

Zombie scoffed and scolded her as the two rings shone briefly with a bright white light.

|Everything seems to follow what Olive and Mirabelle have told us.|

|Indeed – all good!|

Zombie smirked with satisfaction and Patience confirmed it cheerfully.

"I won't fail you."

He said out loud, gently squeezing her hand in reassurance.

...

"Sweetie, we will have to wait for a bit, let's go rest in the inn for the meantime.... oh...? Well, aren't you already quite friendly with your familiar! As expected from the Pride family!"

Lord Blackberry turned back to his daughter and saw the two children holding hands and smiled.

"Ah! Dad means that the two of us are like the progenitor of my family, lady Pride and Wing, the god of flames that she tamed! Did you know? It's because she did that, that everyone from the Prides bloodline is born with fire resistance!"

Cranberry perked up and explained with eyes sparkling from joy as she got to talk about something that she read in one of the books from her family library.

"I had no idea! That's amazing! It's such a useful skill, especially in combat!"

Zombie gasped in awe and looked between Cranberry and Lord Blackberry – which made the red-haired girl puff out her chest from pride and the bespectacled man smile benevolently.

|...you are one convincing liar, you know...?|

Patience muttered sounding as if she was squinting her eyes.

|Oh, shut it.|

...and she got instantly silenced.

"That said... Zombie, the villagers say that you are not a local... what were you even doing in the middle of the road? And how come you were so strong to win against that odd monster? You need to tell us all about yourself!"

Lord Blackberry walked behind the two children and gently pushed them forward to make them move towards the inn he already mentioned just a bit earlier.

"They've said what? Of course, I am a local! Before I got to become an undead I was the youngest child of the owner of the shop with magic stones right there!"

Zombie frowned in disbelief at Lord Blackberry's words and pointed at the building with the most impressive storefront in the very middle of the village.

"It really is Kiwi!"

"Dear system! Quick! Someone call Pear and Nectarine!"

As soon as he said that, the few villagers that remained, watching the three of them from a distance erupted in shocked voices.

"If that's the case, I need to have a talk with your parents."

Lord Blackberry's face turned serious and he followed the villagers running towards the magic stone shop with his eyes.

"Ugh... can we not, please...?"

Zombie trembled with disgust and put his hand on the empty expensive-looking scabbard, winding up for a sigh...

...wait...

...empty scabbard...?

"...?!"

Zombie flinched and stepped back, looking all over the ground in search of Kopia, of which he had completely forgotten up until that point...

"!!!"

...but she was nowhere to be found!