The Villainess and I, her Zombie

While the blood was slowly trickling down the headless neck and staining the fancy clothes of the dead captive, Cranberry turned around gritting her teeth.

She passed Zombie and pushed his right arm into his hand and beelined right to the blond prince by the door.

"Roan, find me those people Lime talked about!"

She demanded while her eyes shone with a powerful skill.

"I... ah.... I..."

For a moment the blond prince was just staring sheepishly into Cranberry's eyes as if he was hit with a sledgehammer.

"It shouldn't be too hard, how many women from the Envy family have a daughter who'll be ten this year? You'll do that for me, right?"

The red-haired girl pinned the prince to the wall and was completely disregarding his personal space, but Roan could only stare into her glowing eyes thoroughly bewitched.

"I... I will! Everything for my beloved fiance!"

The wide love-struck smile that appeared on his face almost couldn't be distinguished from a face of a madman.

"Go."

Cranberry nodded and stepped back.

Roan nodded and still with the crazy-looking smile plastered all over his face he threw himself at the door and ran out of the basement as fast as he could without looking back.

The remaining Dandelions, that managed to get themselves back up, were all glancing at Cranberry with unease.

"Haa... What? You're going to complain about how I'm trying to help YOUR team member?"

Cranberry breathed out and glared back at them with a frown.

"...!"

"Not at all, young lady! We're very grateful for what you're doing. But... is it wise to... Charm the prince?"

Uresha and Rotte only flinched and stayed silent, but Shanks spoke up and voiced the question they all have been thinking about.

"Graough?! (Huh?! You've used the charm skill on him?!)"

Zombie who was just about done with reattaching his right arm, growled in surprise.

"How else are we supposed to learn where to find Lairs? Unless any one of you knows what some administrator has to do with all of this? Because that name showed up when that guy died! So it was their fault!"

The annoyed Cranberry pointed back at the headless corpse and shook her head in annoyance.

"Graough. (It must have been talking about the system's administrator.)"

Zombie growled with a shrug.

"Graough... (A bit weird, I was sure that there are no administrators in this world...) Graough, graough? (Remember? Like, the system couldn't make the decision which route the story should follow?) Graough? (If the administrator was present, they should have done something themselves, right?)"

Zombie complained opening his arms and shaking his head at a loss.

"...what....?"

Cranberry's hand dropped and she stared at Zombie with wide eyes.

"Graough? (What is it?)"

Zombie tilted his head and furrowed his brows.

"System administrator? The System? The System has an administrator?"

She asked taken aback.

"Graough? (Why wouldn't it?)"

Zombie asked back even more confused.

Whether it was because he was aware that this world was that of a game, or simply because the rotten brain title has dulled his common sense, such a conclusion was obvious for him.

But of course, it wasn't as clear for Cranberry.

Up until now she was convinced that the system was just a convenient tool that was misunderstood as a God by some of the people of the world.

A tool without an owner nor guardian, just another force of nature.

But now the person she decided to put her trust in bestowed her with a revelation that an actual overseer exists.

It was like learning that the wind or the ocean have owners.

"Graough... (But it's really odd...)"

Zombie, unaware of the mental shock that he caused to his master, continued groaning as if it was nothing.

"Graough? (Why did they kill this guy?)"

He pondered.

"Young lady... what's going on...?"

Although Cranberry did understand her blue servant's growls and groans, no one else did so their conversation looked a bit odd for the bystanders.

"...haa..."

The red-haired girl shook her head and breathed out.

She started walking in circles around the basement while massaging her forehead with both hands.

"Graough...? (Master...?)"

"Young lady?"

This caused some concerns for the others but she didn't bother even looking at them.

"You three, check the body whether or not this guy had some clues on him."

She waved her hand dismissively at the Dandelions while continuing circling.

"..."

"...sure."

They glanced at each other and nodded after a short pause.

While the three people were going through the dead captive's stuff as if he was a monster corpse to be dismantled, Zombie started following his master steps.

"...if we look at this that way... it makes sense... but then this... no, that would..."

Cranberry was mumbling to herself engrossed in her own thoughts.

While doing so she strayed from her path and was going right into the corner where Zombie was playing with dust.

"Graough! (Ah, watch out!)"

Zombie growled.

He didn't care about his silly drawing getting stepped on, but he certainly didn't want his master bumping into walls like some dazed insect.

"?!?!?!?!"

So he grabbed Cranberry from behind and lifted her up a few inches, causing the girl to get extremely confused and flail her legs as if she thought she was falling.

"Wh-what are you d-doing?!"

It was the first time that Cranberry let out such a high-pitched voice, she flailed a bit and got embarrassed about her own reaction.

"Graough. (Master, there's a wall.)"

Zombie explained calmly.

"Of course there's a wall! What, do you think I'm bli...?! Ha?"

She was about to chew him out, feeling the bewildered stares of the other three on her, but then she looked down at the floor and gasped.

It was Zombie's dust drawing.

A landscape out of this world.

By clearing out the dust from parts of the floor, the blue undead recreated the cityscape of his old world with all the high-rise buildings, roads, cars, and people.

"Graough? (Oh? I was practicing perspective.)"

Zombie glanced from over Cranberry's shoulder to see what she was looking at explained.

Cranberry stared intensely at the drawing, she even bent down while still in Zombie's embrace to look at it closer.

"Are those... buildings...? And roads?"

She asked pointing at the skyscrapers and multi-store offices.

"Graough! (Yes! I'm quite proud of how they turned out!)"

Zombie growled, once again unaware of the effects of his actions.

"Put me down for a bit."

Cranberry tapped Zombie's arm wrapping around her stomach and the blue undead hurriedly complied.

Only the three adventurers currently searching through the corpse's clothes noticed that Cranberry's words suggest that she wants to be picked up again later.

"Did you draw this out of your imagination or is it one of the things you just know?"