The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"Haa..."

Cranberry woke up and sighed.

She was buried under the covers, but in a completely different position than how she fell asleep in.

Without getting out, she stretched carefully, testing the mobility of all of her limbs.

"..."

Nothing felt wrong, but honestly, that was exactly what was making her confused.

In the end, Cranberry couldn't just stay hidden forever, so she took a deep breath and pulled the covers off.

There it was, her room.

"You actually didn't kill me."

She spoke, staring at the familiar ceiling, and turned towards the blue undead casually sitting on the floor beside her bed, as if that was the place he belonged.

"Graough? (Did you really thought I'd do that?)"

Zombie tilted his head in confusion.

"Well... Yes."

Cranberry's eyes darted to the left.

"Graough?! (Master, how could you even think that?!)"

Zombie gasped deeply offended.

"Graough... (I could understand you having a fear like that if I was a stranger...) Graough? (But we've been together for how long already?) Graough...?! (I would think I deserve at least some trust, right...?!)"

"..."

Cranberry didn't pay much mind to her fuming servant, instead, she looked back up at the ceiling, thinking deeply over something.

"Graough! (Please, don't ignore me like that!) Graough... (Now that I know that you do understand me, a treatment like that really hurts...)"

Zombie lowered his head pitifully.

"...cute..."

"?!?!"

Cranberry muttered and Zombie looked up at her in shock.

The red-haired girl in a blue pajama was looking at him with an absentminded smie.

"Graough...? (Who? Me...?)"

The undead servant asked, tilting his head in confusion and pointing at his own face.

"Say, Zombie..."

But instead of answering that, Cranberry spoke as if she actually hadn't understood his growls.

"Does that means that you really are on my side?"

The tension in her voice betrayed how important this information was for her.

"Graough! (Of course, I am!) Graough! (Always was, always will be!)"

Zombie shook off the sadness and heartily confirmed his allegiance without any hesitation.

"And you swear that you will never betray me?"

Cranberry still partially hidden under the covers tensed up, clenching her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white.

"Graough! (I do!)"

Once again, Zombie's confirmation came without a second thought.

"Haa..."

Cranberry breathed out and got out of the bed.

She reached for the nightstand, opened a drawer, and pulled out a simple glass goblet that she had to have prepared beforehand.

"Here."

She offered the empty goblet to her servant.

"Graough...? (If you want me to bring you something to drink, wouldn't it be better if I take...?) Graough! (Hey, the jug is still half full!)"

Zombie groaned and pointing at the jug with water placed on the nightstand next to a glass.

"...haa..."

Cranberry lowered her head with a heavy sigh.

"You know? Since you got that +1 added to your rotten brain title, it seems that you have become even less sharp than ever."

She said shaking her hand in an attempt to make Zombie take the goblet.

"Are you on my side or not?!"

Cranberry burst out angrily.

"Graough! (I am!)"

Zombie nodded decisively but didn't make any other movement.

"Then take the damn goblet!"

Cranberry shook from fury and stomped her foot.

/Master's skill upgrade

Charm (level 19[max])

A sudden system message popped up for both of them.

"...!"

Zombie flinched but didn't comment.

"Ha...?"

Cranberry frowned, glaring at the message.

"HA?!"

She shouted when she read through what it said.

Her face became completely red and her shoulders trembled.

"Y-you dare to tease me?!"

Her voice rose a few octaves and she showed quite an astounding amount of control by not breaking the fragile glass in her hand.

"Graough? (No, why would I?)"

And Zombie showed a great amount of denseness by asking in such an innocent tone.

"Then how do you explain my charm skill going up?!"

The red-haired girl trembled and furrowed her brows doing her best to hide her embarrassment.

"And since when was it that high anyway?! I clearly remember it being level 15 not too long ago!"

She scoffed shaking her head.

"..."

Now it was Zombie's turn to look away.

"...haa... what did you do...?"

Cranberry sighed, momentarily forgetting about the goblet, and trying to not get her hopes up while keeping the excited fidgeting to a bare minimum.

"...graough... (...nothing...)"

Her blue undead stubbornly refused to give a proper answer.

But that only added to the girl's expectations.

"Haa? It looks like someone was doing something more than just watching over his master while she slept~"

The red-haired girl hummed happily.

"...graough... (...It's not my fault, okay...?)"

"Eh...?"

Zombie grumbled, causing Cranberry to blink repeatably in confusion.

"What do you mean by 'not your fault'? What happened?"

She asked feeling a cold sweat dripping down her back.

...could... could it be that she did something outrageous...?

"Graough... (Master, when you have bad dreams you...) Graough... (Make really cute noises and get clingy.) Graough. (Very clingy.)"

The blue undead gave up and confessed with a hint of embarrassment.

"...!"

Cranberry straightened her back and started looking around the room, unable to figure out a good response to that.

"...graough... (...you were crying about your mother again...)"

Zombie added, in a much more serious voice.

"..."

At the mere mention of the word 'mother' Cranberry's fluffy mood disappeared without a trace and her eyes turned ice-cold as if a switch inside of her was flipped.

"Take it."

The red-haired girl demanded, pushing the glass into the blue undead's face.

And that time Zombie took it and looked at it questioningly.

"Fill it."

Cranberry instructed in an indifferent voice.

"Graough...? (With what...?)"

Since Zombie couldn't feel pain, he never truly learned to fear Cranberry, and even after witnessing the complete change in the atmosphere, he still didn't know any better.

"Haa... venom, you rotten brain. Fill it with your soul devouring venom."

Cranberry breathed out and explained surprisingly patiently.

"Graough... (Master, before I do that, you must promise me that you won't drink it...)"

Zombie looked between the goblet and his master and his face became deadly serious.

"..."

Cranberry took a long deep breath, raised her leg, and placed her foot on Zombie's forehead.

"Graough....? (Umm, master...?)"

The servant asked in confusion.

"I can't even imagine how you come up with such ideas... No, Zombie, I am not my own target."

She said rubbing her foot against his head.

"Unless you are acting like this because you want to betray me..."

Both her glare and voice turned even colder in an instant, and she pulled back her leg.

"..."

Zombie made a sour expression and raised the goblet to his face.

"Graough. (Just don't look too closely, it will be kinda gross.)"

He warned her, remembering how she first acted when he used that skill.

Then he opened his mouth.

His eyes started glowing and within the same time frame, a translucent liquid began dripping from his bared teeth.

After a second, the amount increased to an equivalent of a small stream gushing out from the source.

Of course, Zombie skillfully caught every single drop to the goblet and stopped producing the venom as soon as it reached the brim.

"...that really was nasty..."

Cranberry flinched and her body trembled.

"Graough. (Yeah, told you.)"

Zombie shrugged and licked his teeth clean.

Then he carefully placed the goblet on the nightstand.

Cranberry watched him and nodded with satisfaction.

"Two days ago I found out something interesting."

She said without looking away from the translucent venom that managed to kill the overpowered healer not that long ago.

"The global event had begun and the system assigned everyone a specific role... but do you know that in the early stage a role can be stolen?"

Cranberry smiled, observing the liquid with much interest.

"Let's say that one person kills another person - what would happen to their roles? Obviously, the system would have no choice but to assign the role that was lost to someone else."

Her smile became wider.

"Apparently, if the character doing the killing originally had an unimportant role and the one getting killed was supposed to be someone special, the special role of the victim would get assigned to the killer. It's similar to getting a unique title for killing a rare monster."

Her wide smile changed into an even wider grin.

"You follow me on that?"

She asked and after getting a nod of confirmation, she continued.

"I just need to find someone with a special role and take it for myself~"

Cranberry giggled maliciously.

"Though it would be suspicious if I walked to every single person and asked what's their role is... But thankfully I found out that no matter what, every time there was a global event in the past, some of the most important roles were always given to the avatars of pride. Without any exceptions. That's actually one of the reasons my family has such a high position."

The red-haired girl turned to her blue undead and started humming.

"Doesn't the scenario write itself~?"

She stood up and walked to the wardrobe and started pulling out various clothes.

"We're going to kill two birds with one stone~ It really couldn't get any better~"

Her steps were light as a feather, and honestly, Zombie couldn't remember how many times did he seen his master so elated.

"Graough... (Master... don't tell me...)"

He groaned cautiously.

"Ah? Even you picked up on it?"

Cranberry laughed and twirled around holding a simple blue blouse - one of the many clothes that her mother never allowed her to wear because she thought that it doesn't suit her.

"I'm going to assure my spot in the global event and..."

She looked at herself in the mirror and grinned at her own reflection.

"Get rid of my mother!"