The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"Uuuugh... I don't want to see another gutted rabbit monster in my entire life...!"

The deflated Mary was leaning back in a chair by the dining table.

She was so tired that she didn't even have any appetite, especially after the gore-fest that she had partaken in.

"Skwee!"

"Raor!"

Completely opposite to their master, the baby griffin Blueberry and the wolf monster Arion were wolfing down their food like there was no tomorrow.

Even though in the morning they were complete strangers, now two monsters were eating side by side as if they were the best of friends.

"If you got over the disgust it would end much sooner, we're behind the schedule now... We'll need to make rounds to monster dens even before breakfast or you won't make it in time."

Cranberry tapped the note with the index finger of her left hand while she was busy stuffing her face with food using her right hand.

"But even so, we ended up getting super lucky and a champion frenzy rabbit showed up. We all got a special title just for killing that one. Good job!"

Cranberry grinned at Mary who sighed and faced the ceiling.

"...uugh... I thought I was going to die... Killer rabbit is such a dumb title to risk my life for..."

She groaned.

"...thank you Zombie, if it weren't for your help, I would have been chomped in half like a carrot..."

"Graough. (You're welcome.)"

Zombie waved at her from his seat.

"Graough. (Master, you should chew your food properly.)"

The blue boy groaned at Cranberry.

"Zombie is worried that you don't chew your food enough, Cranberry."

Mary turned her head towards the red-haired girl.

"If you have so much free time that you can watch me eat then maybe you should practice drawing instead."

Cranberry scoffed at Zombie, but she ended up correcting her posture and started carefully chew every bite.

"Drawing?"

Mary perked up and look curiously between the two.

"Graough. (An inside joke, don't mind it.)"

Zombie waved his hand dismissively, then his eyes lighted up playfully.

"Graough. (Oh, you can tell my master that I like watching her because she's just the cutest when she's eating.)"

"EGHUH!"

Just as Zombie was groaning, Cranberry suddenly choked on her food and ended up coughing violently, which made her face completely red.

"GRAOUGH! (MASTER!)"

Zombie was by her side in the blink of an eye and started rubbing her back and offered her a glass of juice.

"Graough... (After all, maybe don't tell her that...) Graough. (I don't want to make her think I'm making fun of her.)"

Zombie smiled gently, looking at his struggling master, and groaned apologetically towards Mary.

For some reason, the brown-haired girl became almost as red as Cranberry.

"A-anyway..."

Cranberry managed to clear her throat and attempted to return to the cold persona.

"Tomorrow we will focus on crushing a few dens, just remember to leave one or two survivors from each of them, and the next day we should have a wolf king of the area gather as many underlings as possible. It should be enough to get you three a title."

She said, glancing at Zombie from time to time.

"I-isn't it too dangerous? My father said that wolf kings are usually around level 60, usually even higher than that. And they are in a totally different league than frenzied wolves!"

Mary sounded terrified at the mere thought.

"Oh, that shouldn't be the case."

Cranberry shrugged her shoulders.

"The new king should be around level 35... Maybe even lower."

She explained.

"That's still a lot higher tha...!"

Mary cut in with complaint but then her eyes widened when she realized what Cranberry had said.

"Wait, new king...?"

She asked cautiously.

"Yeah. The old one died so there should be a new one already."

Cranberry explained the obvious.

"I've read that normally the wolf king lives to five or six hundred years, and a new one is born only when the system senses that the old one is nearing his end. The situation is a bit different when a strong king is unexpectedly killed. In such case, the system selects a pup from the youngest generation and forcibly upgrades it to a new king."

"O-okay... but how do you know that the old king died sudden..."

"Graough! (Oh! I see, those pups back then were barely level 2!) Graough. (Yes, that makes sense.)"

Zombie nodded and Mary slumped back on her chair.

"You know what, I won't even bother thinking about it. New wolf king won't be stronger than level 35. I'll just take your word for it."

She gave up and waved her hand.

"Just out of curiosity... how strong was the old king...?"

Mary glanced at Cranberry.

Even Arion and Blueberry stopped eating and looked towards the red-haired girl.

"It's hard to say..."

Cranberry frowned.

"Graough... (Yeah...)"

Zombie made a troubled face.

"Eh? What's with that reaction? I thought that you definitely read somewhere how to tell the level of a monster based on the looks."

Mary asked surprised and sat up properly.

"Well... I did... but we kind of..."

Cranberry fidgeted and glance at Zombie.

"Graough... (We kind of took him by surprise...)"

Zombie awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

"We went all out on it and killed it in one shot, but then the rest of the king's pack jumped at us and..."

"Graough... (When we were done, it was basically impossible to differentiate what was what...)"

"In our defense, we encountered the king and his pack by pure coincidence, and we kind of overreacted."

"Graough. (That's right, it was a spur of a moment thing.)"

It was kind of amazing how Cranberry and Zombie could coordinate telling a story like that.

"Are you even sure it was a king?"

Mary asked nervously.

"Yes, both of us got a kingslayer title. A message popped up and all."

"Graough. (Yes, we did.)

Cranberry assured her and Zombie confirmed with a growl.

"..."

Mary hid her face in her hands.

"...I can't even with you two..."

She sighed heavily.

Cranberry shrugged her shoulders and get back to eating and Zombie continued watching her going at it.

After a while, Mary calmed herself enough to start feeling hungry so she pulled her chair closer to the table and helped herself to the food.

For a while, everyone, except Zombie, was too busy with filling their stomachs to talk.

*knock* *knock*

Suddenly someone knocked on the dining room's door and an older maid came inside.

"Miss, the lady is requesting your presence."

The maid bowed and said.

In an instant, the temperature in the room seemed to fell below freezing.

Zombie stiffened and made a furious expression.

*cling*

Cranberry dropped her fork and it hit the floor with an ominous sound.

"Umm... did something happened...?"

Mary asked frightfully.

"..."

Cranberry just shook her head and stood up from the table.

"Cran..."

"Graough. (Don't. It's their private business.)"

Mary tried to inquire but was stopped by an extremely serious Zombie.

"Don't wait for me. Mary, tomorrow will be having an early day so you should go to sleep after you're finished. Zombie will take you to your room."

Cranberry's voice was cold and straight to the point.

Without waiting for the answer she turned to the maid and nodded.

"Let's go."

Then she left together with the maid leaving others in the dining room.

"Zombie... is Cranberry in trouble because she invited me...?"

Mary fidgeted in her seat and leaned towards the blue boy.

"Graough. (It's nothing. Just do what my master asked you to.)"

Zombie dodged the question just as he dodged looking into Mary's eyes.

"What is happening...?"

Mary wasn't giving up.

"Graough. (Nothing.) Graough. (Tell me when you'll be finished and we'll go to your room.)"

But Zombie was even more stubborn.