The Villainess and I, her Zombie

|This marionette-looking thing is Kopia?|

Zombie gasped internally, unable to pull his eyes away from the creature looking around in confusion even though it didn't have any eyes.

|Here's another interesting fact, Kopia isn't actually treated as a living being by the system.|

Patience happily explained.

|Cool, and...? What about it?|

Zombie tilted his head not quite following up Patience's train of thoughts.

|If you'll be lucky enough then you will see. Go! Before it will choose to turn into someone from the Envys' group!|

Patience hurried the boy up since the marionette-like Kopia was already slowly following the voices of the disappearing people.

"..."

Zombie looked back to see if no one entered the alleyway and hurried towards the glitchy character.

"Hey! Kopia! Wait up!"

"...!"

He called out loud enough only for the featureless being to pick up on it and flinch.

|It seems interested...|

Zombie smirked and laughed internally.

"..."

But then just as if the boy in a barrel-like armor wasn't worth its attention, the base-form Kopia turned right back and walked surprisingly briskly after the last person from the Envy's group in sight.

|Tsk... oh, well... The luck wasn't on your sight in the end... But since Kopia isn't an actual essential character, you can just kill it while...|

"Hey! Kopia! At least let's talk or something!"

Zombie furrowed his brows and his legs shone with a pale white light – and before Kopia could make another step, Zombie was right by its side, reaching his hand towards its shoulder.

|Wh-what are you doing?! Don't touch it before it transforms!|

Patience shouted inside of Zombie's head, but they were just a fraction of a second too late...

*)&^%$#$%^&(*

"What the hell...?!|

As soon as Zombie's palm made contact with the glitch character, its body literally bugged out and turned into a distortion of space, making the boy back out immediately.

|Why would you try to touch it?!|

Patience cried out a complaint.

|Wh-whay did I do?! Did I messed something up?!|

Zombie's face became pale as a sheet as he asked the being sealed inside of him while watching the distortion in space slowly reform back into a humanoid shape.

But this time it wasn't just some marionette-like featureless mannequin...

|You didn't mess anything up per se... but... you made it read your mind. No, since I was the most active, you made it read min... No, never mind. It just read both of our minds, alright?|

Patience began to explain but then back out immediately.

And the being in front of them formed completely... or rather incompletely.

Kopia that stood in front of them, was a short genderless person with long crimson-red hair covering it like a coat and piercing blue eyes.

It looked basically identical to how Kopia from the first playthrough looked before their death.

But at the same time, this Kopia didn't act or felt like the previous Kopia – or rather, there was a complete lack of any feeling of life coming from it.

Like, they looked like a living breathing human, but they weren't.

While it wasn't scary or threatening, it was certainly unsettling.

"Master."

And then it spoke, looking at Zombie with its big, piercing blue eyes.

|It did not say what I think it just has said...|

Zombie straightened his back and stared at the strange glitched character looking back at him with almost child-like innocence.

If a thing could be called innocent.

|Why does it seem like you are not beliving your ears surprisingly often...?|

Patience asked although they themselves sounded just as taken aback as the undead in the body of a young boy.

"Master... I will help..."

Kopia spoke and reached out its hand.

|Is it safe to touch it now...?|

Zombie asked cautiously, staring at the outstretched pale arm.

|Oh, now you are willing to take your time?|

Patience scoffed at him.

|Don't start getting pouty on me now! What am I supposed to do with them?|

Zombie scoffed internally and asked while frowning.

"Master... angry...? Kopia... bad...?"

Kopia's voice trembled and its hand dropped.

|Now you can do whatever you want, keep it, throw it away – you broke it, then it's your business!|

Patience scoffed back.

|Wait, I broke it?!|

Zombie straightened his back in shock.

|How?! When?!"|

He asked in denial.

| Its ego was slowly forming after being brought into this world, but when you touched it, it suddenly got flooded by hundreds of foreign memories and experiences that it didn't actually live through, so it broke. You can tell, right? In the first playthrough, Kopia was a person. This thing here is... just a person-shaped object that happens to be able to talk. It won't be as useful as I hoped for, but it can still be extremely dangerous if it will just walk away free. So, it's your choice. Keep it, or get rid of it - permanently.|

|Fine. I'll deal with it then.|

Zombie scoffed after hearing all of Patience's explanation.

"...Master is angry... Kopia is sorry..."

Kopia bowed its head apologetically.

*pat*

"...?"

...as it did, it felt a warm hand gently patting its head.

"I'm not angry. Don't worry. Apparently, I broke you, so at least I'll make sure that you will have a place to stay."

Zombie assured while continuing to pat the crimson hair.

|That's not what I meant when I said permanently.|

Patience pointed out.

|But you said that it was my decision too. So shush.|

Zombie scoffed at them and smiled at the wide-eyed broken doll.

|Just admit that you have a thing for red-haired characters!|

Patience scoffed with accusation.

|Shhhhhhhhhhush...!|

...but Zombie wasn't pulled into their peace.

"Master, Kopia will help."

The object of their concerns spoke up and reached its hand towards Zombie's waist – or rather towards his sword.

"Whoa! Not you too! I'm not going to kill someone I don't feel angry at. You don't have an aura of a living, so you're good in my books."

Zombie grabbed its wrist and shook his head.

"Master...?"

But Kopia just tilted its head and asked in a confused voice.

"...huh... You didn't mean it like that... sorry. Here."

Zombie furrowed his brows and apologized before pulling out the sword with a dull and rusted blade that he picked up in the goblins' nest.

|And now you're even giving it a weapon?|

|Shhhhhhh|

|Don't you shhhh me, you little cheeky...!|

*chomp*

As Zombie and Patience had an intense exchange, Kopia went ahead and bit into the rusted sword as if it was a cob of corn...

"...huh...?"

|...eh...?|

Causing both of them to instantly stop bickering.

Not only Kopia didn't break its teeth on the blade, they actually took a big bite out of it... and as if that was not enough, its long hair suddenly sprung to life and gravitated towards the weapon like hundreds upon hundreds of thin, crimson-red feelers.

"...!"

Suddenly Kopia's body began glowing with white light and...

*clang*

It disappeared and in its place, a brand new shining bastard sword fell on the pavement with a metallic sound.