The Villainess and I, her Zombie

The simple carriage without any marking stopped at the entrance to the prosperous village somewhere in the Greeds territory.

Although the village was relatively small, it had a couple of inns, a residential appraiser, and a stationary shop dealing with the most valuable magic stones, which made it far more advanced than many towns and even some cities in the area.

"Kids, we're here."

The coachman, who turned out to be Papaya, the apothecary who always helped Laura, knocked on the carriage's wall and called out.

The door opened and a young, at most a seven-year-old brown-haired boy walked out and looked around all the buildings and people moving around busy with their own lives.

"...it is finally time..."

The boy muttered to himself with a serious expression, before smirking to himself.

"Zombie, are you sure you don't want us to take you all the way to your home?"

Papaya leaned down and asked, making a concerned expression.

"There's no need. I don't want to hold you back - the last thing I want is making Luke late to interview at the temple."

Zombie turned to the man and shook his head before waving his head dismissively.

"It's your big day, I know you will get the scholarship, your healing magic is amazing, and you are only going to become a player character in a few months."

The boy turned back and smiled at another child, a skinny boy looking at him with tearful eyes.

"Huh...? Hey, what is it about, Luke? Shouldn't you be happy that you are getting rid of your rival?"

Zombie giggled and winked at the silently sulking boy.

"Don't even joke like that...! Without you I would never awaken to healing magic! You might be my rival but you are my best friend first!"

Luke hurriedly wiped his face with the sleeve of a light-brown robe with green linings and left his seat to approach Zombie.

"You will see. I might not be as strong as you, but I will make sure to find a way for my healing magic to make myself invincible! Then the three of us will be able to form a team and go on many different adventures together! I pro...! I promi... I... I prom...uuuuu....!"

Luke was almost done with giving a very nice farewell speech, but the emotions won over him and he started sobbing right by the end.

"Now, now. It is not like I am leaving forever, I'm just returning home after my reeducation is done. We will surely meet again and who knows? Maybe we really will go adventuring together. That's why you need to get strong - stronger than any of those scrubs at the temple!"

Zombie laughed and reached out his left hand for a handshake.

"...heh... ye-yesh, for sure...!"

Luke laughed through the tears also offered his left hand while sniffling into his right one.

"Do you have everything with you?"

Papaya asked while stealthily wiping a single tear from the corner of his eye.

"Sure, I don't have many things with me, only the bare necessities."

Zombie stepped away from the crying Luke and spread his arms - in one hand he was holding a small traveling pouch filled with some personal belongings, while in the other he held an expensive-looking scabbard with a simple one-handed sword sheathed inside.

"The farm will feel empty without you all, especially since Laura wants to take a short vacation away from the Envys territory - and I can't blame her, apparently her old acquaintance, miss Banana, has been visiting her all the time recently."

Papaya sighed and smiled softly at the two boys.

"The guild master has offered to sponsor me and groom me into their next best adventurer, but I don't really feel like it, at least not for now."

Zombie laughed in response, and patted his chest pocket, bulging out because of the tiny box tucked inside.

"I have something really important to do before I could commit to anything else."

He added before strapping the scabbard to his waist and throwing the pouch over his shoulder.

"You two really should go already - it soon will be the time to serve dinner, and there is still a bit of the way for you, isn't there?"

Zombie shrugged his shoulders and started walking while continuing to look back at the simple carriage, the thin coachman, and the scrawny kid unable to hold back his tears.

"Yes, you're right. Don't overdo your training. You can keep it slow for a while longer."

Papaya nodded at him and gave him one last piece of advice.

"Khahaha! You know that I can't promise you something like that! Good luck with Laura!"

The brown-haired boy laughed and shook his head cheerfully.

"Zombie! Bye-bye! Don't forget us!"

Luke closed the carriage's door but was leaning out of the window while waving at the other boy.

"There's no way that I could even if I tried! See you, Luke!"

Zombie smirked and turned his back on the other two, raising his hand in a final wave while walking into the village.

*click*

He didn't turn back when he heard Papaya clicking his tongue at the domesticated monsters making them move and neither did he glance at the carriage turning right and following a road that didn't run through the village.

|That kid likes you way too much. But, at least, even if the jealousy won't spark his competitive spirit, we can still count on his yearning to catch up to you to stand by your side, so everything should be fine.|

Patience complained a bit but ended her sentence with a relieved sigh... although a relieved sigh that wasn't completely free from sarcasm.

|Yeah, can't blame him for that though, since both he and Mia are important for achieving the secret true ending, I might have been a little bit too lenient with them... maybe even doting... oh, well.|

Zombie responded internally with a smirk and a shrug.

|It is almost time, are you ready?|

|Even though I can't wait to become an undead, being ready for my own death isn't as easy as I thought.|

Patience's voice became serious while Zombie's response was just as serious but somehow lighthearted at the same time.

|Getting cold feet? Don't tell me you want to call everything off?|

|Pffft...! Are you crazy?|

Patience asked but Zombie only snorted, barely able to keep himself from bursting into loud laughter.

|You know, we could... ah...! They're here!|

For a moment Patience sounded as if she wanted to propose some alternative plan, but that got scrapped as soon as a luxurious carriage with the crest of the Pride family appeared in the cloud of dust, speeding through the road as the coachman lost control over the horses.

"Right on time."

Zombie smirked softly while positioning himself right in the middle of the road, just as he was forced to do in the first playthrough.

"...the way...!"

Just as in his memories, the pale as a sheet coachman was shouting and waving his hand at him from the distance.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY, KID!"

The panicked coachman roared, but Zombie only smiled and closed his eyes, relaxing his body and making sure he won't activate any defensive skills out of reflex.

"It's time for everything to begin."

The boy muttered as the shadow of the horse's hoof loomed over his face and...

*CRUSH*