The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"A convenient artifact like this exists in this world huh... Wish that Pati would have told me about it sooner."

Zombie snorted, looking at the shiny metal signet that he decided to put on his index finger.

Apparently, it was an outstandingly useful thing – a unique item too – just as Zombie was about to leave the village, the artifact was delivered to him by the powder-pink-haired elf blushing so heavily that it looked like his face was on fire – especially when he touched Zombie's hand as he was passing him the signet – not to mention that the older boy almost c... fainted when Zombie smiled and hugged him as a thank you.

As for the properties of the peculiar ring – it was a ring of illusion, but not just any kind of illusion.

It had the ability to confuse everyone looking at its bearer.

The funny thing was – it did not influence how the user actually looked like.

Zombie tried it out back in the village and even Cranberry, so his master, could not tell that it was him – she ended up thinking that she was standing in front of ANOTHER BLUE SKINNED UNDEAD – but one who wasn't Zombie – seriously, it was amazing ability!

And since it was a unique artifact made by the elves, there was no counter-measure available on the market for Envy's to get their hands on!

For such an item to exist...

"I have a feeling that this was either a DLC or a prototype item in the game that the idiot god who made this world copied and brought to existence without giving it any thoughts... oh well, I can't really say that I'm against having it."

The blue undead who did not appear as Zombie laughed to himself.

"I still know that it's you, master."

Kopia pointed out from her scabbard in a muffled high-pitched voice.

"That's because you're an item – how could any distraction or illusion skill work on you in the first place? That wouldn't make any sense."

Zombie smiled and patted her crossguard while explaining.

"Ssss? (What about me then?) Ssss! (I know that it's you too, master!)"

Monty hissed curiously into Zombie's right ear.

"Are you asking why you, a remnant of a god, so an administrator who was above the system, is immune to the effects of the item that uses the power of the system?"

Zombie smirked asking the self-explanatory question.

"Ssss. (Yes, I am very curious, actually, master.)"

Monty hissed, nodding its little head completely serious.

"Stupid."

Kopia scoffed, vibrating in her scabbard.

"Ssss! (No, you are stupid!)"

Monty hissed back without giving it any thought at all.

But it was okay, after all, in Zombie's eyes...

"Khahaha! Hey, my cute underlings, no quarreling while we're on the road– this ring makes us unrecognizable but there's no reason for getting more attention than necessary. There's no countermeasure for it in stores, but the same isn't necessarily true when it comes to skills. You will have plenty of time to bicker around when we get to the capital of the Envy territory>

The blue undead declared, gently but sternly tapping both the tiny head of the golden snake as well as the shining crossguard of the Kopia's shortsword form.

"Sss. (Sorry, master.)"

"Alright, master."

The two apologized and went silent as the occasional travelers were freaking out and running away at the sight of an unidentified blue undead walking freely without any sign of a necromancer or a tamer around.

Zombie had time and certainly didn't want to be too hasty about things – he most certainly didn't want to hear a horrified gasp inside his head when Patience would finally decide to show up and would find out that he had killed someone essential for a sidequest that would be necessary to trigger another quest and so on and so on.

Hence, even with the protection provided by the signet, the blue undead was not going to use his skills to out himself as the target of the Envy family.

His first target was the capital of the Envy territory.

The city of corruption and decadence where the boundaries between a scam artist and a merchant did not exist and anyone could buy their way out of trouble as long as they provided enough money.

Though, of course, the city itself was not as important as the Envy's family mansion in which in the hidden basement beneath the basement where the imprisoned elves with their beauty stolen were kept in the terrible conditions far worse than monster pens, a remnant of the spirit god Saint was waiting to be released.

Zombie wasn't silly enough to want to just march on there, basically giving himself in hands of the Envy family – after all, when he and Cranberry get there in the first playthrough, they were much, much stronger than Zombie was at this point in time in this playthrough, not to mention that he was alone, and didn't really remember the plans of the mansion since he didn't really bother to memorize it.

What he did remember though was the fact that the avatar of Envy, Rambutan Envy would definitely be alarmed once anyone passed through the door to the basement without his permission.

A least that's how it looked for him during the first playthrough.

He needed information – and wouldn't that scenario be simply perfect for him to also train the heartthrob skill?

With enough patience, he could fish out a servant from the mansion and mess up their brain with a lust-based skill enough for them to become his informant – and if not...?

Oh, well. Depending on the clothes worn, the skin color isn't that hard to hide... What's one more corpse added to the pile?

And with that rather villainous approach, the blue undead moved forward without stopping as he had no need for sleep nor food.

Yet, the journey couldn't be said to be completely peaceful...

With his walking speed, Zombie was catching up to a big carriage that must have belonged to a traveling merchant selling their wares from the carriage- judging from all the marketable goods hanging down both sides of the cart at least.

He was going to overtake it when...

"Stop right there, you ruffians!"

A tall boy with a childish face jumped in front of the carriage and pulled out a large, pure-white sword at the coachman.

"We know about your heinous ways – return the stolen wares and come with us to be handed in the hand of justice!"

The boy declared, clearly suggesting that he was not alone

"..."

Zombie glanced at him, and furrowed his brows – that guy had a life signature that the blue undead recognized – same with the most likely companion of his, whose signature was clearly visible for the blue undead although far beyond his reach – at least while he was trying to stay incognito.

Anyway – that whole situation was clearly none of Zombie's business, and the blue undead was simply going to bypass the overly excited youth – in naught.

"!!!!! Lychee! Those bastards got themselves a monster for protection! I'll take care of him, you watch them!"

The young man with a childish face shouted out and a mysterious, ninja-looking dark-haired girl appeared out of nowhere and put a knife to the throat of the traveling merchant to make him realize his position, while the youngster was holding the pure white blade right at the undead's chest.

"...There has been a misunderstanding, I..."

Zombie tried to explain himself, but unsurprisingly, the hard-headed youth was having none of the explanation given by a monster he already deemed as evil.

...though the whole evil part wasn't that far off, was it...?

"There's no place for misunderstanding, everybody knows that undead are dangerous – my name is Cherry, I'm an aspiring adventurer, and I will not let a threat such as yourself to walk freely like that - return to earth, beast"

The aspiring adventurer roared and his holy-looking weapon shone and unleashed an overwhelming holy magic aura.