The Villainess and I, her Zombie

The beast that slithered into the arena had to be escorted by a dozen of people to be fully contained, not because it was trying to break free from the magic bindings like the moss troll was, but simply because its body was too long.

"What even is this...?!"

"A stone snake? Crystal snake?"

"The royal family had outdone themselves, I haven't even read about such beasts, is it a champion or a king no one had ever encountered?"

"Maybe it's a whole new species?!"

The audience exploded into gasps of shock and awe at the marble-like snake that looked as if it was made out of various separate minerals molded together by some sort of natural mistake.

With the size that made it fill up more than half the arena, the snake tried to camouflage and its segmented multicolored body with spots that looked like rubies, sapphires, emeralds, all connected by the veins of gold running through all of its impressive length, suddenly changed to match the color of the arena's ground – and if not for the fact that everyone was keenly observing it without even breathing or blinking, it would essentially become invisible – that's how good its camouflage skill actually was.

"...."

The blond prince, Roan, didn't look particularly scared, but the size comparison of the child and the marble snake was rather ridiculous.

|Honestly, that's a pretty good match-up for someone with the Giant Slayer affinity.|

Zombie pointed out with a shrug after the initial shock had passed.

|That's what it may look like for a bystander... Still, that is NOT the monster that the prince was supposed to fight in the game – thankfully there's no change in the seal of the Eternal. But, ugh... I can't understand how someone from the greed family was able to get their hands on this thing!|

Patience sounded as if she shook her head, still unable to calm down.

|Whew... then we're safe, huh...|

The blue undead furrowed his brows both relieved and concerned about patience's words.

|So you know what this is? Why doesn't it have a life signature – it must be alive, it moves... and it ate the guy I knocked out, though he seems to be still fine somehow...|

He added, furrowing his brows.

|That's a treasure trove serpent – the second rarest encounter in the game, it doesn't even properly count as a monster as it lacks the ability to fight back so it counts like an item that you have to break to gain EXP and resources – in the game, it was basically the best thing that any player could encounter since defeating it would max out every resource they had... but it had ridiculously low odds of showing up – the joke amongst the player base was that it was ten times more probable to die while playing the game than to encounter that thing.|

The sealed overseer did not disappoint with her explanation, going as far as to throw a little bonus trivia at the end... showing the same amount of concern for the swallowed man as her host – none.

|That explains why no one else knows what this is – I bet that even if someone ever saw that thing, no one believed them.|

|I think there's actually only one of this thing in the whole world, and it usually does not show up, so, you know... Kind of a bid deal, sorry, our troll was nowhere near as impressive.|

Zombie nodded and Patience sighed sounding as if she was making an apologetic face.

|Yeah, hard to argue with that...|

The blue undead sighed internally and glanced at the red-haired girl by his side.

But if he expected to see the girl getting upset that she was outdone in terms of the presentation, well, he was wrong.

"Zombie! This is so amazing! I wish mom and dad could see it too!"

Cranberry was looking at the monster with sparkling eyes, holding on to Zombie's clothes with one hand and pulling on them excitedly.

"Ah, that's right, your mom is sick, isn't she?"

Mary, sitting on Cranberry's side, flinched and turned to the red-haired girl and asked with a compassionate face.

"Ha? No, she's not – why would you even say that?!"

Cranberry straightened her back and stared Mary down, actually upset about such a question.

"E-eh...?! B-But wasn't lady Pride suffering from some unknown disease even since before you were born...?"

The future heroine flinched and cowered, blinking in confusion as her voice shook nervously.

"...ha...? Oh! You've meant her! Sorry. Yeah, sure, that one is super sick. Hope she dies soon."

The red-haired girl gasped in a realization and nodded, waving her hand dismissively before turning back to watch what the prince will fair in his fight.

"Y-you hope she will...?!"

...leaving Mary utterly confused and lost, staring at her wide-eyed.

---

In the middle of the arena, the young first prince was facing the treasure trove serpent without knowing its proper name.

He knew one thing – his Giant Slayer affinity that he was born with, activating at full force.

Everything should work out fine – after all, even his mother assured him that the odd monster does not attack back, no matter the danger be it threats or actual damage – it only ever tires to go invisible and wait until the opponent is gone.

Literally the easiest kill that could happen.

"..."

*thump*

Roan breathed out and released the straps holding his giant sword in place, making the heavy blade burrow into the ground.

The young prince proceeded to turn around and pick up the weapon, trying to not get embarrassed, since he forgot that he should have left one strap on so that he could easily grab the grip... but it worked out fine – since no one was laughing at him, it must have not look that bad...

"..."

The prince couldn't help himself and glanced back at his seat to check the reaction of the blue undead.

Roan could feel that no matter what he cannot embarrass himself in front of that familiar no matter what or he will be teased relentlessly despite his social status.

It was an odd thing considering that the prince was well aware that there should not be many occasions for the two of them to interact, and considering that Pride's familiar was an undead, he really should not have felt like that.

…but he did...

"...!"

Thankfully, though it also came as a bit of a surprise to Roan, Zombie was looking very serious, no, he was straight up glaring at the snake monster – that despite camouflaging pretty well, from Roan's point was pretty much visible – after all it was hard to not realize that a mound of dirt should not be right there, only someone incredibly dense or controlled by some higher power would think that there was nothing there anymore and finish the encounter...

"Hmph!"

Roan scoffed, nodding to himself and looking back at the stagnant monster...

"Huh...?"

The young prince let out a surprised gasp because it turned out that no, the giant snake was no longer stagnant.

It raised its head and around three-quarters of its body and suddenly twisted around as if it was trying to wring itself like a wet rag and...!

*SQUISH*

An unpleasant wet sound resounded from inside its body and some thick dark red liquid poured out from the cracks between the two segments near his head.

"What the...?!"

Roan gasped and clenched his hands on his weapon – was the monster realized that there was no way out from this situation and decided to kill itself?!

"Oh, no you don't!"

The prince roared and rushed at the serpent using the run-up to wind up for a wide vertical slash as the top of the monster's had begun glowing with a pulsating reddish mark that inscribed itself into its scales out of nowhere.

"OH, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"

Roan did not look back, but he certainly recognized the voice of the blue undead – now filled with disbelief and anger...

Well...

The prince actually wanted to look back but in that exact moment...

*BOOOOOOOOOM*

"!!!!!!!!!!"

The snake monster's body exploded with a terrifying force and the blond boy was launched away by the force of the shockwave alone.