The Villainess and I, her Zombie

Claymore was prudently sitting on the bed with an apologetic look on her face.

Cranberry was sitting on the chair by the desk, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees.

She was staring daggers at Zombie who was attempting to act like a dumb corpse and continued to stubbornly stare into the distance.

"First of all, now that it's safe, apologize to her."

Cranberry demanded coldly and Zombie flinched.

"...graough...? (...and why should I...?)"

The blue undead turned his head to the side and raised his shoulders defensively.

"Don't you dare groan back at me like that!"

Cranberry scoffed at him and crossed her arms.

"Cranberry... Don't be too harsh on him... It was all on me anywa..."

Claymore joined the conversion with a weak voice.

"No. You are my friend and my guest, this rotten brain had no reason to get all touchy with you in the first place!"

Cranberry interrupted her and shook her head in anger.

"He's my servant, and he should know better than that! Haa! To even try to...uching another woman!"

It seemed like in her irritation she bit her tongue and stuttered.

"...Cranberry... are you jealous...?"

Though it seemed that Claymore had a different idea about that, and asked curiously.

"Ng...!"

Cranberry's whole body jolted and her face became a bit pink.

"N-no! Don't be ridiculous. It's not my business that my Zombie is helping you level up your charm or seduction skills or whatever...!"

Cranberry straightened her back and raised her head proudly attempting to make her voice sound as indifferent as possible.

"Graough...? (Help her level up her skills...?)"

"Help me level up my skills?"

Both the avatar of lust and the eternal servant asked confused at the same time looking at Cranberry as if she blurted out something that didn't make any sense.

Which was exactly what she did.

Under their surprised looks Cranberry fidgeted nervously and made an awkward expression.

"What? You mean that none of your lust-base skills leveled up...? Even with all that flir... playing around?"

Cranberry's head bobbed from Claymore to Zombie as if she thought that they were just messing with her.

"Graough? (Master, what do you mean?) Graough. (That girl and her silly hair were just getting on my nerves.) Graough! (You getting angry at me for that just isn't fair!) Graough, graough! (You know I get anxious and act rashly when you're not around for too long!)"

"Umm... apologies accepted...?"

Zombie strayed sulking but somehow his growls were misinterpreted by Claymore as an apology.

"Haa... Claymore, don't be that easy to fool, my Zombie is not sorry at all."

Cranberry shook her head with a sour expression and frowned at her servant.

"I told you to apologize."

She started tapping her fingers on her forearm.

"..."

Zombie looked away once again, and send one angry glare at Claymore.

"Ah! Handsome~!"

But that only caused her to shiver with rather suspicious intentions.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

Cranberry stood up and walked right up to Zombie and poked at his chest with her index finger.

"You have some guts glaring at my friend like that!"

She grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down with enough force to level a small house.

Thankfully, both the structural integrity of the mansion and Zombie's body survived that with the latter only bending his back and ending up on the same eye level as his master.

"...graough... (...master, this really isn't my fau...)"

He started groaning grumpily but was interrupted almost immediately.

"Zombie, shut up and listen. Claymore has a special condition, she is the third person in her entire bloodline with an ideal body for the avatar of lust."

Cranberry leaned in even closer and started whispering to Zombie's ear.

"When something excites her, she unintentionally unleashes her inborn skills, and all of them are based around the sin of lust. She still can't control that, and always feels really shitty for causing trouble for others, at least that's what she wrote me."

Cranberry paused and glanced at the girl on the bed.

Claymore was staring at them wide-eyed, she wasn't sitting properly anymore either, instead, she pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs which wasn't the most sensible way of sitting while wearing a dress.

"Right now she seems to be infatuated with how rough you were with her, so if you start acting all apologetically, she should return to normal."

Cranberry explained.

"Graough...? (But master, she's already acting normal, no...?)"

Zombie groaned in a hushed voice.

"...Zombie, you don't know how she normally acts at all... I only realized it after you two left to see my mother, but Claymore got excited the moment you kicked her carriage."

Cranberry pulled away and looked Zombie in the eyes.

"No matter what she said, she was already in the mood from then on."

She said slowly, making sure that Zombie will understand her.

"And she will not return to her usual state unless you turn her off. You started it, you have to end it."

She let go of his shirt and patted his chest.

"So go ahead and act like a wuss for a while, okay?"

She smiled a little and turned away.

"Apologize!"

Cranberry turned back and demanded making an angry face.

"Graough! (Yes, master!)"

Zombie growled and walked over to the bed where Claymore was sitting and fell on his knees.

"Graough...! (I'm sorry...!) Graough...! (I'm so sorry...!) Graough! (Please forgive, kind miss!) Graough! (I am a pathetic corpse! Please forgive me!)"

He started growling and crying pitifully repeatedly bowing his head.

"...eh...?"

Claymore opened her eyes in shock and stared at the scene, she looked at Cranberry for any explanation but the red-haired girl was conveniently looking the other way.

"...you just give in like that...?"

Claymore asked with such crushing disappointment that even Zombie felt bad for her for a moment.

"So... do you accept his apologies...?"

Cranberry asked innocently.

"...yeah..."

Claymore nodded disheartened.

With that answer, Zombie stood up and walked back to his master's side and they both carefully watched Claymore.

The petite girl pulled her legs down from the bed and straightened her dress.

She was furrowing her brows while staring at the floor as if something was bothering her.

The tuft of hair standing up on top of her head wavered and fell flat, completely assimilating with her hairstyle. 

Then she raised one hand and covered her eyes.

Then she raised the other one, leaned forward, and burrowed her face in both hands.

"I guess this is our proper meeting then...?"

Cranberry asked cautiously.

"...I really didn't want to show you that side of me during our first meeting, Cranberry..."

Claymore's muffled voice was full of intense shame and regret.

"Sorry for not noticing sooner."

Cranberry approached her and patted her shoulder.

"...Maybe it's better that you have seen me like that right from the getgo..."

Claymore put her hands down and lowered her head to Cranberry.

When she straightened her back after that, she had a neutral expression, which in turn made her look very plain.

"This is so embarrassing. After so much trouble of getting permission to leave my house, I end up like that. Once again, I'm really sorry for the trouble."

Claymore in her base state was a polite and serious person.

Cranberry shrugged her shoulders and smiled reassuringly.

"With that out of the way, should we start creating your training regime? You have to tell me your current stats and skills first though."

She pulled out few sheets of paper and a pencil and sat down beside Claymore.

"Thank you. I really, really appreciate that. So, I'm level..."