The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"..."

Zombie woke up feeling physically rested, but very miserable mentally.

He looked around and saw that Kopia was still in the high-quality sheath by the bed he left her in yesterday and his already bad mood worsen even more as the feeling of guilt punched him in the gut.

"...hey... it's okay for you to turn into your humanoid form if you like, you know? I should have told them about you too and ask to prepare a separate bed..."

He rolled over and reached his hand to caress the pommel and grip of the sword.

"Eh? Why? Master, I like it here! It's super comfy!"

Kopia's blade vibrated with a high frequency and let out a sound that turned into enthusiastic words, partly muffled by the sheath.

|Don't forget that in this playthrough Kopia is a thing, she's a weapon with a humanoid form and not a human who can turn into a weapon - there's a big difference between the two. Isn't this also why we went and ordered the best quality sheath to be custom made for her?|

Patience pointed out, joining in the morning conversation.

"You sure it's alright?"

Zombie asked softly as if he expected that both Patience and Kopia were just saying things to not make him feel bad.

"Yeah! Master! Let's go train! I want to cut something!"

Kopia moved around and jumped a little bit in her sheath, showing the sharp blade ready to tear through the flesh.

"Maybe we will encounter a monster on our way back to the forest entrance before picking up Jackfruit..."

Zombie squinted his eyes and frowned.

"Though if he really won't wake up before we will get to him, then maybe we will have some time to practice before leaving the village. Either way, I'm not promising any live targets, sorry."

The boy added cautiously, not wanting to set his expectations too high.

"Ehhh...? Uuu... okay..."

Kopia flinched and let out a disappointed shrill.

|See?|

Patience sounded as if she smirked.

|Also... it's a bit annoying seeing how much you two are in sync...|

She added in a tiny voice.

|Somebody sounds jealous~|

|Sh-shut up! No, I'm not! Hmph!|

Zombie closed his mouth and smirked which caused Patience to instantly scoff in denial, sounding as if she turned her back at him.

With that, Zombie got up and left the room that the elves prepared for him in just his undershirt and thin trousers he always wore under the barrel armor - after the previous day's jog, the smell of the rust grew in intensity, but since he had nothing else to change into, well, he preferred staying in it to parading around naked.

Once he left the empty house unnoticed he turned around and went down one of the routes without the slightest bit of hesitation.

"...?!"

A few passing elves were shocked enough to need a double-take on the boy, surprised by his hair as dark-brown hair were almost completely absent from their race usual color scheme, and were even more shocked while realizing that the child wasn't even an elf in the first place since there was a complete absence of pointy ears on him - but even so, the boy's fast pace improved by the well-executed use of the whirlwind kick was astoundingly useful for getting out of their sight before anyone could have a proper second look.

Zombie's behavior begged the question - where was he going?

And the answer to that was rather simple.

To the training ground or more like a playground for the young elves.

Even though in this playthrough zombie was visiting the hidden village for the first time, its layout from when he scoured it while killing off every single living being was burnt into his memory as he was incredibly furious and didn't want to miss a single person - and the training/playground was the place where surprisingly many villagers gathered at the time.

...anyway...

Regardless of the source of the knowledge, Zombie was going for the playground with the full intention of doing his usual morning routine, expecting to have the spot all to himself since the only Olive was the acting guardian of the village, being so good at it that he singlehandedly rendered the need for training a group of guards useless, and it was still far too early for any children to show up there to play around.

...or it was supposed to...

"Eh? Hello!"

"...oh crap..."

Hence the situation he has found himself in...

Face to face with an eleven-year-old-looking boy elvish boy with powder-pink hair, big round gray eyes, upturned nose, and generally female-leaning facial features.

The powder-pink-haired boy lowered the training bow he was doing the target practice with, and turned to Zombie with an innocent, trusting smile.

"Did you come to train too? I haven't seen you before... ah!? Could it be that your family just moved to our village?!"

The boy gasped excitedly and instantly approached Zombie before the younger boy could retreat, or even respond for that matter...

"My name is Cranberry! What's your name?"

"!!!!"

|Zombie! Zombie, calm down! It's natural that with the finite amount of fruits in the world that name would repeat - breath! Breath and calm down!|

As soon as the boy introduced himself, Zombie turned green in the face and he felt as if someone grabbed his heart and ripped it out of his chest - which prompted Patience to start calming him down without even a second of delay.

"Oh no! Are you not feeling well? I'll go call for help!"

Cranberry called out, very worried about the sudden change in the new boy's appearance.

|Zombie, relax, this doesn't mean any... EH?!|

Patience was doing her best to help Zombie deal with the sudden panic attack...

...until she went ahead and read his mind and realized that it was not a panic attack at all...

"You... how many kids your age are in this village...?"

|ZOMBIE, DON'T! YOU CAN'T! THE ELVES WILL TURN AGAINST YOU!|

Zombie spat through his teeth, barely able to hold himself back, while Patience was screaming inside his head.

"How many...? Oh. Um... It's a funny thing, really. There's ten years difference between any older or younger people than me... my mom told me that's because sometimes our kind is really susceptible to the changes of mana in the air and it's really difficult for little elves to be born. I was really lucky..."

The elven boy explained, fidgeting awkwardly as if it was something embarrassing.

|ZOMBIE! PLEASE! THINK OF YOUR VILLAINESS! JUST FORGET ABOUT THE PAST! YOU ALREADY KILLED HIM IN THE FIRST PLAYTHROUGH!|

Patience cited out in absolute horror, but Zombie was deaf to her words.

"...I see..."

"?"

Instead, the brown-haired boy whispered, with his head down, and put his hand up on the powder-pink-haired boy's shoulder, making him tilt his head curiously for the new boy's intentions.

"Umm...? Hey, what's wrong with your ears?"

Then Cranberry noticed that something was wrong with the new child...

|Zombie! Please!|

Patience tried one last time but already knew that it was in vain, instead, she started thinking about a plan that would allow Zombie to escape the village...

"You are that fucking idiot who shot those warning arrows and then tried to kill my Cranberry..."

Zombie muttered, tightening the grip on the elven boy's shoulder.

"Ah! I forgot about cursing! Mom would scold me for... wait... what did you sa-URGH...!"

*WHAM*

Cranberry gasped in realization just before the Zombie's knee hit him in the solar plexus so hard that his feet lost contact with the ground for a good four seconds, taking the child's breath away.

"...!"

The elven boy tried to cry out as the wave of pain crushed against his body when he fell face-first onto the ground but was unable to catch a breath after the sudden attack.

"Olive and even Mirabelle are one thing..."

Zombie muttered gritting his teeth as a bloodthirsty grin slowly took me over his face.

*wham*

The young boy kicked the powder-pink-haired boy over and stepped over him, staring straight into his tear-stained face.

"Ghu-ugh...!"

Then he proceeded to sit on the elven boy's stomach, pushing whatever air managed to get in the child's lungs back out.

"...but you... a fucking idiot like you needs to be taught what's their place...!"

With a sadistic smile in full bloom, Zombie raised his fist...

*WHAM*

*crack*

...and brought it down right at the elven boy's face, breaking his nose in a single strike.

|Please... please, just try not to kill him, and maybe we will manage to salvage it...|

Patience sounded as if she was shaking her head in defeat, doing her best to not watch as the hail of punches rains down on the terrified elven boy....