The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"Zombie bring out George."

Cranberry looked up at her blue undead knight and commanded in a serious expression.

"True – I the middle of the forest e will be a serious powerhouse~ As I currently am I don't think I can defeat Gooseberry without harming him, just on my own."

Zombie nodded his head and smirked, reaching out his hand and opening his palm...

"...haa... that's not why we need your pet..."

The red-haired girl fidgeted and looked away with ha n awkward expression earning herself the confused look from Mason, but both Lairs and Zombie were too busy – the black-haired elf took out her crystal ball and was clenching it firmly in both hands while the blue undead was simply too preoccupied on using one of his skills...

"George!"

He commanded and with the flashes of white light the green half-plant centipede with the lush green carapace showed up in the palm of his hand.

"...hmmm...?"

The centipede lifted herself up and looked around in confusion, shaking his head segment to get rid of the dizziness caused by the basically instantaneous transmission between two faraway places.

"Hello there, little bugger. You feeling up for a little exercise?"

Zombie smiled at the centipede and moved him close to his face.

"AH! MASTER~!"

George screeched in delight and jumped over to the blue undead torso, coiling himself around his neck and then climbing up before showering his master with ticklish kisses.

"Whoa there! Someone got really lonely! Didn't you have others to play with?"

Zombie laughed in surprise and asked while patting the bushy carapace of his subject.

"...I don't care about the others... I only need master..."

George declared timidly in a low voice and nervously tapped his many legs on the pleasantly cool skin of the blue undead.

"Aww~ Little cuddle bug~"

Zombie melted over the adorableness of his subject and nuzzled against him – with Goerge instantly nuzzling right back against his face – even though George was a centipede without any human-like features, even one glance was enough to tell the others how happy he was about being reunited with his beloved master.

"Sorry for always leaving you behind – but guess what – since it looks like we might be getting secret quest after secret quest activated regardless of our will, I will definitely want to keep you around."

Zombie declared with a soft smile, leaning slightly back so that the half-plant centipede could enter his field of vision.

"...secret quests...?"

"...?"

But to his great surprise, George didn't jump up with joy – and instead, the green remnant of the spirit god, Saint, flinched and scuttled slightly back as if very much distressed.

"Oh, don't worry – it will be fine – for now we called you so that we could incapacitate a certain old old elf who is rather strong, without harming him – at least without harming him too much. I will need your help. Are you up to the task?"

The blue undead knight asked with a cheerful smile looking into the segmented eyes of his little subject nervously moving his mandibles.

"...master... I don't think that..."

"Sorry, zombie, but we will need him here for dispelling the curse – you need to stop uncle on your own."

George lowered his head segment and looked away, visibly dispirited – and Cranberry stepped forward and reached out her hand for him.

"No..."

Zombie furrowed his brows and instinctively took a step back when someone else wanted to take his property away from him.

"First of all, explain what do you meant that you will need him for dispelling the curse – the journal clearly said that only by killing the curse bearer the curse can be taken care of properly."

Zombie frowned, squinting his eyes with suspicion at the red-haired girl, all while shielding the green centipede with his hand.

...truth be told, he already had a very bad feeling and a really worrying suspicion about the possible reasons for Cranberry's request.

"That's because the author of that book didn't have the remnant of the god at hand – what o you expect a normal elf or any other creature casually writing a solution to the problem that's supposed to be a challenge of the secret quest that leads to defeating Eternal?"

The red-haired girl scoffed, shaking her head in disbelief, and waved her hand dismissively before reaching it right back out expectantly towards her blue undead knight.

"...you know you are a terrible actor, right...?"

Zombie straightened his back and frowned, looking down at the red-haired girl.

"Master – it's alright! I know what has to be done - there's nothing for you to worry about!"

"George...?!"

Suddenly, the green centipede called out and jumped over to Cranberry's hand, nimbly moving around the blue hand spread out to protect him.

The half-plant bug monster coiled around Cranberry's palm and raised up facing the shocked blue undead.

"Master, everything will be alright! It's about the black-haired elf, right? I know exactly what needs to be done – leave everything to me!"

George called out raising his head segment with pride and snapping his mandibles.

"Watch out for yourself and don't be too rough with uncle, okay?"

Cranberry took back her hand with the remnant monster on top of it and started patting his bushy carapace as if to reassure Zombie that she doesn't have any bad intentions towards the creature.

"..."

The blue undead knight furrowed his brows, looking between the two in silence for a couple of seconds – he also glanced at Lairs and Mason as the two of them also couldn't really remain still in the pressing situation – and finally, he glanced towards the wall – judging by the life signature outside, Gooseberry was already waiting for them.

He wasn't using any skills as of yet, but that might have been merely caused by the fact that he didn't want to attack the black-haired elf while she was inside his late wife's research room – though, the blue undead also felt like the purple-haired elf didn't want to harm Cranberry either, which was uplifting once he thought about it.

"...alright... I imagine that Gooseberry at least expected us to try and pick up a fight since he bothered evacuating the other villagers from within the range of his spells... Let me be clear – I will do my best to stop him, but honestly, since I'm not supposed to kill him, the situation might turn bad on me really fast...."

Zombie declared, breathing out and turning away to face the door.

"Don't worry – I'm sure that uncle will not try to kill you either."

"..."

Cranberry declared with fake confidence – which the blue undead most definitely caught on to.

"Khahaha! I doubt that – He might like me but I am nowhere near important to his as Cranbie."

Zombie shook his head and laughed out loud mockingly shaking his head.

"..."

Cranberry made a bitter expression and confirmed the guess with her silence before the blue undead walked outside.

"...come the fuck on... you must have seen at least some research... there is no other fucking way – you don't want my son to die either, don't you? Let's just kill Lairs as painlessly as possible and be done with it."

The purple-haired keeper of the archives shook his head seeing the blue undead knight exiting the mushroom-shaped outbuilding and breathed out in a tired voice.

"Nope... no can do – we are in the middle of the quest completion, and there are having a breakthrough over there. How about the two of us just wait here nice and peaceful until they are done?"

Zombie shook his head and offered in a friendly manner.

"...kid... you didn't see your loved ones literally crumbling away in your arms...!"

"...are you sure about that...?"

Gooseberry scoffed, clenching his fist but Zombie merely scoffed with indifference and looked at his own arms – the vision of the horribly wounded Cranberry getting evaporated by the system's light right out of his hands passed through his mind and filled his voice with bitterness that stopped the purple-haired elf from talking.

"...If you don't want to do it yourself or at least get her here, then at least move..."

Gooseberry sighed and asked – genuinely disliking the idea of fighting the blue undead.

"I will not let you do that."

Zombie shook his head with a solemn expression and his body shone with vivid violet light enhanced by the white and even blue light of other skills – the only one he had available and didn't use was the beast's maw – the gluttony-based devouring skill.

"...yes, you will..."

Gooseberry frowned and his body shone with pure white light.