The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"I'll be gone for a little bit, one or two days at most... With your mother still staying in bed, will you be able to cover for my absence?"

Zombie asked the red-haired girl still burrowed under the blankets as the hour was ungodly early for anyone to be up.

"Nnn... yes... Fig promised to help me with that too."

Cranberry let out a sleepy sound and nodded obediently while rubbing her eyes in an attempt to stay awake..

"Hey, remember to close the window behind me, or else you're going to catch a cold sleeping in the draft."

Zombie smirked and leaned down to match the eye level of the lying girl.

"...Zombie... do you really have to go...?"

The girl asked in a sleepy voice and looked at the blue boy making puppy-dog eyes.

"Don't sound so sad, I've told you I'll be gone only for a little bit – I'm going to check something important and be right back – I am most definitely not leaving you or anything."

The blue familiar snorted and waved his hand dismissively.

"...you will return...?"

The sleepy Cranberry sniffled in an adorable voice.

"Of course I will!"

Zombie assured her unable to stop smiling at how cute the red-haired girl was acting.

"...promise...?"

The girl didn't give up and even reached out her right hand towards the blue boy, sticking out her pinky finger.

"I promise. I promise. I will definitely come back to you. Always."

Zombie laughed and made a pinky promise with her.

"Close the window!"

Zombie said for the last time, making sure that the meaning of his words reaches the girl who was already falling back asleep and simply jumped out from the said window, soundlessly landing on the ground below with the help of his acrobatics skill combined with the whirlwind kick skill.

|Do you think that she will close it?|

Zombie asked in his mind, looking up.

|Oh for the...! Who cares?! If she won't then you will just nurse her to health or something! Geez! Stop with the window talk – you aren't her parental figure!|

Patience complained in annoyance.

|...alright, sorry...|

Funnily enough, that made Zombie pout and he rushed out, kicking the ground and propelling himself with the continuous use of the whirlwind kick to reach the rose garden with record speed.

"..."

He made sure with his limited range life signature detection skill - which this time didn't come as a part of the max level undead body skill – maybe because the undead body skill was merely on level 1 – that no one was around to see him enter the place, and snuck in, moving alongside the hedge.

It didn't take him long to find the spot he was looking for – a carefully hidden burrow made by a small rodent monster – a frenzy rabbit.

Even though Zombie's memory from the beginning from the early days of the first playthrough was quite foggy, he sure did remember his first encounter with a real monster – though, from the perspective of what he lived through, his struggle at that time sure did seem a little bit pathetic...

But of course, he wasn't there for something as silly as pity revenge – since even though the level ups were supposed to be much harder in this playthrough, he wasn't going to scare the red-haired girl by killing a monster and making her powerlessly look at the message informing her about the experience gain.

No.

His objective was very different.

"...get out or I will skewer you like some cheap street-vendor snack."

The boy growled and pulled out his sword.

Kopia flashed white without delay and turned from her shortsword form right into the intimidating morbid blade – but there was a twist – even though she looked like the demonic curved blade, she kept the weight and the attack power of the shortsword.

...but the frenzy rabbit inside its little burrow had no idea...

"SKWEEE?! (UWAAAAH?!) SKWEE! (ATTACK?! DANGER! DANGER!)

...and when the sword sunk into the ground in a calculated strike that barely missed it – it freaked out just as Zombie had wanted and jumped right out of its home while screeching in panic.

"Now that I got your attention..."

The blue boy smirked at the rabbit monster the size of a small dog – or a rather big rabbit depending who you're asking.

"SKWEE!? (HUH?! HUMAN KIT DARES TO SCARE ME?!) SKWE-eee... (ME WILL KILL- y-you...)"

The monster screeched with fury but once Zombie's body began glowing with vibrant violet light and the demonic sword in his hands shone with a threatening white light, the little monster lost a lot of its steam.

"I'll give you one chance, bunny. Scram, or you'll end up in a stew!"

The blue boy laughed threateningly and waved his weapon right at the frozen monster.

"SKWEEEEEE! (N-NOOOOOO!)"

The creature folded its ears alongside its body and rapidly dashed away from the blade's trajectory.

*SWOOOOOOSH*

"SKWEE! (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!)"

It continued screeching in pure terror as it felt the gust of wind caused by the weapon caress  the fur on its butt.

"That's right, little bunny! Run! Run as if you were a step from death!"

The boy howled and followed closely after the monster, swinging his blade again.

|Are you sure that it won't turn around and attack you?|

Patience asked with a voice full of doubt.

|No. Not as long as it thinks it has a chance of getting away. It will attack only if I force it against a wall.|

Zombie scoffed back shrugging his shoulders.

|Though I guess I should ease up a little bit, or it might die from a heart attack. Poor little fellow. It is so fluffy and cute.|

The boy added and indeed slowed down a little bit so that the rabbit could have a little more breathing space.

|Are you even sure that it will work? The last time you poisoned it so hard that it was a miracle that it survived. Why would you think that it will run to the exact same spot?|

The sealed overseer asked in confusion.

|Simple. Severely damage or not, it will try to hide – if it is scared enough, it will ignore any new hiding spots and go straight to the place where it thinks is the safest.|

Zombie explained with a bright smile...

"SKWEEE! (NOOOO! ME WILL BE EATEN! ME NOT WANT!)"

….which made the horrified frenzy rabbit screech in fear even though Zombie wasn't even swinging the sword at it.

|Are you sure about that...? It doesn't seem smart enough to remember which hiding spot was the safest...|

Patience asked skeptically.

|Oh, I am absolutely sure. I'll have you know that my Cranberry and I have almost completely eradicated its species around the Prides territory in the first playthrough and got the bane of rabbits titles. I know their pattern by heart.|

Zombie answered with a proud grin.

|...I see... so during your first playthrough you didn't find those little buggers cute enough to not massacre them, but now you do because...?|

The sealed overseer proved to be very talkative while the frenzy rabbit was running around, twisting and sharply turning doing its best to lose the unrelenting chase but failing miserably.

|The previous playthrough doesn't count! I had the rotten brain skill! I was brainwashed too! Come on! Don't make me think about it! I feel bad about this little fellow enough as it is!|

The blue undead complained as they were chasing the rabbit farther and farther away.

|Sure, sure. Well, whatever... It won't be my fault if you waste two whole days on running it to death if you're wrong.|

Patience sighed in defeat, sounding as if she was shaking her head with a sour expression.

…

…...

The scared frenzy rabbit sure had way too much energy to spare – it actually took the blue undead a whole day to just made it tire enough to barely walk.

But with that, came the doubt – will his plan actually work...?

What if the little monster really was too stupid to remember the safest spot – or maybe during the first playthrough it didn't manage to get that far to begin with?

His doubts got to him to such extent that the blue undead actually stopped, intending to just let the frenzy rabbit go on its way...

But just then, as the blue boy stopped chasing it, the little monster used the chance and dived into nearby bushes and...

"SKWEEE-...?! (WHY IS YOU HER-...?!)"

It horrified screech echoed as if it was squeaking from the bottom of a well and...

*CHOMP*

Ended abruptly with a short but powerful sounding clap of jaws, before it could finish its sentence.

|Khahahaha! Hey, who would have thought. Our guest of honor is here!|

Zombie smiled internally and hurriedly walked towards the bushes and spread them apart revealing an entrance to a cave, rather low but wide enough for even a big animal to squeeze right in if it really wanted to.

|Well, I'll be damned... you actually found him!|

Patience whistled, impressed, as something much bigger than a frenzy rabbit twitched and cowered at the far back of the relatively shallow cave.

"(S-stay away, wh-whoever you are...!)"

A scared high-pitched voice resounded in Zombie's brain, and it wasn't the voice of the sealed overseer.

"(I-I am a scary, scary dragon...! I will eat you if you come any closer, you know...?! Like the rabbit!)"

The bright red-winged reptile the size of a slightly smaller horse, bared its fangs still wet from the blood of the frenzy rabbit that it devoured hungrily, shaking from fear but trying to act as tough as it could.

"Oh my god, he is so cute...!"

Zombie was so overwhelmed by the young dragon that he spoke his thoughts out loud, gasping in awe.