The Villainess and I, her Zombie

The three humans cautiously entered the secret chamber.

The private treasury of the Greed family – where each monarch would meticulously store the surplus of gold from the kingdom's official treasury.

It was both a deal and a requirement that the first Greed had with the other avatars of sin when they were creating the Fruit Salad kingdom...

...as long as the official treasury is full, the avatar of greed is allowed to take the rest for themselves...

Such an arrangement was made so that the future of the kingdom could be assured at any time... but it should be more than obvious that Greeds found an easy way around it – making the official treasury smaller and whatnot, for example.

Because of that, the private treasury of the avatars of greed through the history of the kingdom was always the one decked out to a ridiculous extent even if the country was ravaged by famine.

Hence – the initial exasperated gasp of the silver-haired Carambola, who was well aware of the fact.

His gasp and utter shock were all in place, considering that all the mountains of gold slabs and coins, hills of precious stones of various shapes and colors, mounds of artifacts with amazing skills and abilities, and piles of priceless works of art...

...were nowhere to be seen...

Carambola, Roan, and Cranberry were all greeted by a dark, dusty room of roughly the same size as the throne room in the castle above the ground level and a single chest placed under the wall opposite to the entrance.

...alright, fine- Carambola wasn't gasping at the emptiness – what took his attention was the thing pinned to the wall right above the chest.

The thing, or rather a person – a male - had the shape of a teenage human wearing only long blackish pants that seemed to have lost their color thorough the years – while his completely blue, bare muscular torso was out there for all to see.

What kept him pinned to the wall was a set of peculiar shackles – the handcuffs that covered the prisoner's whole hands, bolted to the wall with no room for any movement, a tight collar, similarly bolted to the wall, and a half-mask covering the prisoner's upper half of the face that was attached to the wall with a chain at its back.

Out of the whole set, only the collar looked like it was supposed to open – seemingly to allow the prisoner to hang down and be fed – but considering the amount of dust gathered both on the floor and the completely still prisoner, it was obvious that this place hadn't been visited for a long time.

There was also one more detail that added to the overall shock.

The rescue party was able to see all those details not because of some night vision skills that they were using, but rather a light-blue light that the hanging prisoner was producing, lighting up the whole room.

"...by any chance... did we enter the wrong room...?"

Carambola moved in front of the red-haired girl taking a defensive stance, ready to intercept any possible danger coming their way.

"How many secret treasure rooms do we have here?!"

The blond-haired prince managed to shake off his bewilderment and scoffed at the silver-haired gentleman for an out-of-place joke.

"More than you thought apparently, my prince – this one here for example hosts someone using sloth-based skills as shown by the color of the light. The last time I met him, young lord Zombie was emitting violet light that matched the pride-based skills. Not to mention that this place can hardly be called a treasury..."

The old man shrugged his shoulders and looked around with an unimpressed expression.

"...unless the real treasure was the dust your mother gathered here through the years..."

He added slightly mockingly, moving his leg around and leaving a trail in the thick layer covering the floor of unidentifiable color.

"This is the right room!"

Roan frowned and waved his hand around.

"All the stuff must have been moved or something, and about that undead on the wall..."

"...Zombie..."

He scoffed and pointed at the glowing prisoner hanging on the wall like some tasteless yet oddly tasteful decoration – but instantly stopped talking once Cranberry whispered a name of her familiar and moved past him without hesitation.

"My lady! Only humans are supposed to be able to show off two colors of light while using skills – the neutral white one and then the colored light reserved for the direct sin-based skills, monsters are bound to one. Although lord Zombie showed off both white and violet light – there is no possible way for him to suddenly produce pale-blue light of sloth! Even humans – and the restriction still includes only the avatar of sin and their heir – once they learn one sin-based skill, they are locked for that sin-based branch of skills forever. That is not your husband."

The old gentleman explained explicitly, but the red-haired girl didn't react to him although she heard him just fine.

"I know my Zombie when I see him."

She declared, looking up at the muscular torso of the blue undead who aside from the pale-blue light did not change at all from the last time she peaked on hi... - from the last time she saw him.

"But the light of the skill..."

*THUMP*

"!!!!!"

Just as Carambola was shaking his head and repeating his argument, the prisoner hanging off the wall suddenly released a shockwave of energy that riled up the dust, and the pale-blue light intensified for just a split of a second, before flashing and turning into a vibrant violet glow that could not be mistaken.

That was most definitely the light of the pride-based skill.

"Dear heavens..."

The silver-haired gentleman gasped, taking a step back, staring in disbelief at the undead releasing a threatening aura.

Carambolas one pride-based skill he had in his arsenal – loyalty – was acting up, as if recognizing one of its kind, causing the old butler to get more and more taken aback.

"See? I told you that he is my..."

*whoosh*

Cranberry said triumphantly, but then with just the tiniest sound, the treasure chest under the blue undead shone with yellow light and vanished into nothingness.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The three humans all looked at each other with concern – and although the silver-haired butler was very much disturbed over the sudden disappearance of a whole large storage container filled with valuables, Cranberry and Roan were the ones really concerned.

"This isn't a wrong treasury after all, is it..."

The red-haired girl muttered, looking at the blond prince for confirmation.

"...I... think that it's safe to assume that this was the treasury... but... it must have been emptied by whatever skill my mother was using against Zombie."

Roan gulped down his saliva and looked away from the red-haired girl and straight at the violet-glowing blue undead.

"Either wishing well or even avaritia itself... And seeing the state of the room, your mother never bothered to take a look inside, so she probably didn't even know how much wealth she was exchanging for the skill's upkeep..."

Cranberry nodded and also faced the blue undead.

"We need to get out of here as soon as we can. Carambola, help me get him do...!"

*CLING* *CLING* *CLING* *CLING*

*CLANG*

*thump*

The blue undead suddenly flinched and started moving - without the need to be freed by anyone else he tore the handcuffs and collar right off the wall and broke the chain on his way down to the ground – where funnily enough the end of the chain was faster to land than he was.

"Haaaa... Huh...? What the hell is this shit supposed to be...?"

The blue undead crouching at the same place where the vanished chest was before, let out a long sigh before flinching and realizing that he was very much blindfolded, and his hands were encased in metal.