The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"Been a while, little Mace."

Cranberry tilted her head in a cute way and smirked at the supposed old friend.

According to the diary entries, Mason was a frequent guest at the Pride's mansion and Cranberry even gave him an affectionate nickname like that.

It was meant to be an endearing nickname since a mace is a blunt weapon and those were favored by Cranberry.

Funnily enough, even though the two of them as kids were presented by the diary to be the best of friends - the relationship between the two houses they were born in was frigid cold, to say the least.

…It was an open verbal hostility, though Cranberry was more than a little bit convinced that the Envys didn't just stop at words, no matter if before or after the reset…

Still, that only meant that the things remained the same between the house of Pride and the house of Envy…

Only that now it was the Pride family that was nearing its fall and Envys were the influential ones in this setting.

At least on the surface level...

"Big sister Cranberry! It's so good to see you! Why haven't you wrote me a letter that you will come to visit Tart?!"

Mason was a moderately tall guy, he was taller than Cranberry by only by an inch or two - which put him around the same height as the blond prince Roan.

He had silky-smooth short brown hair and almond-shaped deep green eyes.

His ears were slightly pointy which coupled with rosy cheeks made him look like a cheerful rowdy kid, even though he was younger than Cranberry by only a couple of months.

He walked in front of the rest of his group, skillfully moving past the other people, and when he got to Cranberry, he went straight for a brotherly hug.

"…!"

Cranberry tensed up - gritting her teeth and clenching her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white - but didn't block nor pushed the brown-haired boy away.

"...haa..."

But she did breathe out in barely hidden annoyance or - as Zombie would recognize if he was there - borderline anger that was only a step from spilling, which would result in deaths of not only the all too friendly Mason Envy, but everyone in the same room too.

"Mace, I would like to point out that I've been on the road for some time already, and I haven't taken a bath since coming to this lovely city of yours…"

She didn't even try to return the hug, and instead tapped Mason's back while complaining.

"I'm serious, it actually has been a while since I even saw a propped bathtub. So back off a bit, will you?"

The red-haired girl spat through her teeth, barely managing to hold back a somewhat friendly smile, getting really pissed about the excessive physical contact.

"Ah! Sorry! Sorry! I was just so happy to see you! Recently you haven't been responding to any of my letters and I thought that..."

Mason stepped back and lowered his head apologetically while looking at his companions that flinched and started gesturing at him to stop talking.

"…you know… forgot about me…"

He ended up finishing his sentence rather awkwardly – it was all too obvious that it wasn't what he wanted to say originally.

"...Ha... I see..."

Seeing that Cranberry nodded and breathed out in preparation.

To make her plan work, she needed to fool the friendly Envy boy into thinking that she's the same person that he 'knew for all those years' – of fake memories.

Well then…

Cranberry looked to the side forcing her brain to recall the details from the diary that she honestly wanted to forget, or at least never think about ever.

So… What was it again?

Mason was her precious little brother...

Precious little brother...

...that information wasn't helpful at all - the red-haired girl never had nor wanted to have even a single sibling before...

So, that left precious...

…someone precious…

Precious - then someone she loved...?

So... like, basically Zombie...?

Her eternal servant was the only one to come to her mind when thinking about that phrase.

Well, alright, there was her father too in some capacity, but in his case, it was more of a respect thing than any actual warm feeling…

Should she treat him like her cute blue undead, or like her father…?

That was an important part to consider.

In the first place, Cranberry could use the charm skill but recently it got so powerful that she could accidentally fry her target's brain... after all, even the prince went crazy for her for a bit... Which was most likely the reason he hasn't return to her side yet… probably…

Actually, that thing with Roan could turn out to be problematic…

No!

That certainly wasn't a good time and place to think about the blond prince!

To complete the optional quest properly and reap the best reward, she had to act smart and think things through...

There was something in the diary about Mason not getting along with the rest of his family...

What was it about... was he... shunned...?

He certainly didn't seem to be in a good relationship with his father – even though he really wanted to be accepted…

As for the rest of his relatives… the living ones that is…

He thought that they hate him because he isn't beautiful enough…

Then…

Cranberry looked between the brown-haired boy who was actually very handsome, and the rest of the group he came to the shop with - they all were stunningly beautiful with no exception.

…But the past interrogation that she performed, although cut short, already shone enough light on the secret behind that beauty…

The bad relationship between him and them… it could only be one thing, right?

If his looks were actually natural, it was clear that the others would bully him out of envy.

How fitting!

Cranberry held back a nasty smirk that was forcing its way on her face.

There was a way for her to act like the empty-headed girl that the system wanted to force her to be, without completely faking everything!

Cranberry nodded to herself and stepped in front of her friend that was supposed to be close like a brother to her but the truth was that he was a total stranger - and spread her hands, shielded him from the rest of the group.

"Are you guys trying to get Mace in trouble again?!"

She furrowed her brows and growled angrily.