The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"Zombie! Explain to me what is going on?! What is this about being your ally or enemy?! Of course, we are your allies!"

The powder-pink-haired elven blade dancer called out – but what showcased his goodwill far better than his words was his stance – even after seeing his father getting kicked into the ground, the young elf didn't even try to grab his sword and rush the blue undead, instead opting for approaching him in a trustful way – Cranbie was shocked, but he didn't doubt that Zombie had his reasons even for a moment.

"Do you want the short version or the long one?"

Zombie looked at him with a soft smirk and asked in a casual voice.

"…e-eh…?"

Cranbie gasped in shock as if he didn't expect that the blue undead would actually be willing to explain anything.

"The thing is that the curse that killed your mother got reactivated, and you might be the next one to die unless the curse bearer will be killed – it just so happens that a friend of Cranberry and I is the curse bearer and we even received a quest about dispelling the damn thing. Cranberry is back in your mother's workroom apparently checking the only other way of dealing with the curse that wouldn't require killing our friend off, but your father here wasn't willing to wait for the result – and even went ahead and attacked me while I dropped my guard willing to believe him."

Zombie explained on his own even without the powder-pink-haired elf picking an option.

"Ah… oh… umm… okay…? Was that the short one or the long one…?"

Cranbie blinked repeatedly and asked awkwardly, tilting his head to the side like a confused puppy.

"Who knows~?"

Zombie smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

"You know what? I will help you with taking Gooseberry back to your house – but promise me to not try to heal him at least until my Cranberry will be done with testing out her solution, alright?"

He added while looking down at the unconscious purple-haired elf with his head stuck in the ground.

"…a-alright…"

Cranbie looked between his father and the blue undead before ending up nodding his head and crouching down to delicately excavate the purple-haired elf's head without casing him any additional harm.

"…umm… Zombie… I don't really have a healing skill in the normal sense, but can't I at least try to do something about the bleeding…?"

The powder-pink-haired elf asked in a timid voice as his face become pale and his shoulders trembled at the sight of his father's wounds.

"Sure – I did almost tore off his ear after all. Still – nothing that could wake him up – or I will have to knock him back out."

The blue undead knight shrugged his shoulders before raising his fist in a threatening manner.

"Of course!"

Cranbie gasped and nodded his head vigorously while his ears slumped down as if they had a will on their own and tried to hide from the undead's sight under the elf's hair.

——–

At the same time inside the mushroom-shaped outbuilding…

"…aren't you worried about the purple dude…?"

Lairs raised her brow and asked looking at the shattered glass from the broken window that fell inside and spread over some books and the floor.

"…haa… Zombie gave him a chance – and he actually wanted to be nice for once… as long as he will not kill uncle it should be fine. I hope."

The red-haired girl breathed out with a concerned expression and massaged her temples.

"Oh? And out of curiosity, what happened in the other life? How did my other self react to my supposed uncle being hellbent on fucking killing me without even allowing trying out a different method?"

The black-haired elven mange frowned and asked, playing around with her crystal ball to hide her anxiety.

"Pffft….! Ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha! Good one!"

Cranberry burst out into laughter and shook her head in disbelief.

"What…? The fuck? What was so funny?"

Lairs asked furrowing her brows in confusion.

"Bold of you to assume that this elven village survived an encounter with Zombie – interestingly enough, it was thanks to that slaughter Zombie knew that there will be many useful artifacts here – including those – thanks to what he could formulate a plan of rescuing me."

The red-haired girl answered boldly, showing off her left hand with the ancient wedding ring glistening in the sunrays bursting in through the broken window.

"…I shouldn't have asked…"

Lairs's expression turned sour and she looked away.

"…Lai-lai, lady Cranberry, could you please lower your voices a little bit – I am not very proficient with using invidia – also, Lai-lai – please, try to not move around as much…"

The green-eyed half-elf, Mason, fidgetted on the chair right by the black-haired elven mage and asked in a nervous voice while holding the half-plant green centipede on his lap.

"Master is angry."

The centipede raised his head segment and looked towards the window before sighing heavily and speaking in a low voice.

"…he suspects what needs to happen for the guest to be completed – although he does hope that he is wrong…"

Cranberry breathed out, not sounding very excited, and confirmed the centipede's words.

"Sorry for that, George, out of the other six remnants – you are the only one who is required to perish for the secret quest to be completed."

The red-haired girl lowered her head and explained in an apologetic manner.

"…I know… I do have the knowledge of the spirit god, Saint, remember?"

George sounded as if he smiled with a bit of nostalgia, but because of his appearance, the only indication aside from his voice was the distinct movement of his mandibles.

"…and you are aware that it will not be the same as before – there will be no coming back to life like it was when you were turning into the sigil monster…"

The red-haired girl straight up looked away and murmured, using the detection+ [hearing] to make sure that Zombie isn't anywhere near enough to overhear her saying that.

"…master's wife… did I stutter or something…?"

The green centipede raised his head segment even higher and scoffed proudly.

"Mister George…? Please, neither Lai-lai nor you are supposed to move…! I'm sorry but invidia is really troublesome…"

Mason flinched and grabbed the centipede's bushy carapace and brought him down with two fingers to return him to the previous position.

"…cheeky humans…"

George scoffed, nervously snapping his mandibles but in the end, he obediently stayed in place.

The glistening green fog surrounding the centipede and the black-haired elf started condensing, locking the two in shining green cocoons.

…

……

The seconds turned into minutes and the green-eyed Mason was literally sweating buckets as the powerful avatar-exclusive skill was draining him mana at a record speed – but still, in the end…

/Special quest progression

Dispell the curse [completed]\

"…!"

A system message popped up for everyone taking part in the quest making them flinch.

——

/Special quest progression

Dispell the curse [completed]\

"…!"

*thump*

"Zombie! You promised to be careful with him!"

The system message showed up for the blue undead too, and he ended up dropping what he was carrying at the moment – and that something coincidentally turned out to be the purple-haired elf.

"…!"

For a blissful second, Zombie thought that he was overthinking things before and that George didn't have to take Lairs's place after all…

…but that thought was very short-lived…

"…master, this is a goodbye…"

"!!!!"

The blue undead heard a weak voice and instantly turned in the direction that it was coming from and…

…he saw a small centipede standing in the broken window of the mushroom-shaped outbuilding…

"Zombie, hey, what happ-?!"

*crack*

"-UMMMPFHHH…!

Confused Cranbie who didn't realize what was going on, asked in a confused voice and came closer to the blue undead to get his attention – but in response Zombie merely reached out his hand without sparing him a single glance and blocked the elf's mouth ending up accidentally breaking Cranbie's nose in the process.

…it only happened before Zombie couldn't take his eyes off of George…

And that was because although it was undoubtedly George, his carapace wasn't lush green and bushy anymore, but rather completely wilted and brown…

…and it was turning black with a fearsome speed…

"…bye-bye… I love you…"

Then, George clicked his mandibles for the last time and turned to dust right where he stood – and the passing breeze blew his remains off of the widow…

/One of your subjects have died\

/You received the compensation\

/Level up\

/All status points, skills, and affinities increased.\

/You receive **** ** * ******* *******\

/Quest -cursed sister- completed\

/Reward granted\

/The wheels of fate begin to crumble away\

The series of messages showed up, leaving the blue undead speechless.