The Villainess and I, her Zombie

|Ha. That skill is ridiculously useful.|

Patience breathed out in Zombie's head, sounding honestly impressed.

|No matter how useful the mindbreak skill is with making people want to do help us out, we did not get any closer to finding Xavi.|

Zombie frowned, very disappointed – not only the secret room was empty with no traces of being used since Zombie and Banana – so Xavi – had a talk in there – but none of the girls had any clue where Xavi could be.

Though making contact with as few people as possible was a rather good idea on the hunted woman's part, it certainly made looking for her that much more annoying and the blue undead had nothing else but himself to blame for letting things end up in that way.

"Where the hell did she go, making me run around the city..."

But being self-reflective and humble certainly weren't in the current Zombie character's sheet – which was perfectly portrayed by the blue undead clicking his tongue and using the life signature detection skill to scan his surroundings.

That particular skill was very useful but with its current level it could not compare to the one built-in in the body of the eternal servant from the first playthrough – case in point, Zombie could not properly point out a single life signature in the literal sea of other signatures constantly moving around, living their own lives – he at least focused on the brothel behind his back to make sure that Xavi wasn't actually hiding there and the girls working there were just that highly trained to resist the lust-based control skill he used while inquiring about the woman.

...though as it turned out – it wasn't the case – Xavi really wasn't there...

...at least not alive...

|Anyway, I guess we could just go to the Greeds and ask about her... Though I doubt that they would tell me the truth even if they had her.|

Zombie furrowed his brows and complained.

|True – but it's still worth a shot, wouldn't you say?|

Patience decided to be the ray of sunshine on Zombie's gloominess and asked curiously.

|I gue... oh! Would you look at that!|

The blue undead was about to close his eyes and agree when he noticed a very specific life signature.

It wasn't a monster, but at the same time, the flow of mana betraying the use of skill was completely different than anyone else around it.

"Khahaha! I almost forgot that we have a tail~"

He laughed out loud and smirked triumphantly watching the spy from the branch of the Envy family that was subordinate to the Greeds.

As for how he knew that it couldn't be anyone else – well, it was all about the difference in the mana movement around the life signature.

The peculiar flow was caused by a very specific tier 2 illusion type skill that on top of Envys inborn appearance steal skill was making them completely immune to basically all detection skills...

...with the life signature detection skill being the most reliable one to ignore all of that...

Truly, Zombie's existence was a natural counter to anyone trying to hide their presence.

Anyway. The spy's presence was a very welcomed coincidence – Zombie could try to play it out as if he didn't have the special ring that caused others to not recognize him as a part of his plan – but honestly, he simply forgot about it and left it behind in the elven village.

Still, coincidence or not, that caused the spy paid by the Greeds family to find him with ease – and now the blue undead was going to use the spy to get straight to the greeds.

"Howdy."

After a bit of walking, Zombie sat by an elderly man resting his weary bones on the empty crates someone had thrown away and nodded at him with a friendly smile.

"It's an odd sight to see a corpse puppet walking around freely – where is your puppeteer, my blue friend?"

The old man was taken aback slightly but he certainly did not look scared or disgusted like most of the people following the system's faith.

"Nope, not a corpse puppet, just a wild undead on the loose – I'm going to eat your grandchildren, groargh~!"

Zombie laughed mockingly and playfully clawed towards the old man.

"...I don't have any... not anymore... the one I thought of as a granddaughter was killed while keeping an eye on you. What do you want from me, sir Zombie?"

As if the blue undead struck a nerve, the old man tensed up and straightened his back, losing the feeble aura while glaring right into his eyes.

"Granddaughter, you say? Sadly, the main Envys wanted me gone and they obviously weren't keen on having a spy from the more prominent branch family roam around on their turf. Still, you have my condolences, I'm sure she was a good kid."

Zombie tilted his head and shrugged his shoulders while giving the flattest condolences one can imagine.

"...what do you want from me, sir Zombie?"

The old man gritted his teeth and repeated the question.

"Oh, nothing much, I just want to go see miss Banana, but I can't find her anywhere – I guess that's your doing?"

Zombie moved his head, tilting it to the other side and shrugging his shoulders again.

He of course didn't mean the old man, in particular, just the branch or 'good' Envys as a whole.

"I did receive an order to help you whenever necessary, so let me tell you one thing."

The man frowned and sighed as if disappointed that the blue undead isn't trying to pick a fight with him – or using any skill for that matter – and spoke up.

"The avatar of greed doesn't need anyone's help to get whatever they want – as long as they have the wealth that would compensate for their wish – everything is within their reach. And you are the one who gave the queen a ridiculous amount of valuables."

"..."

Zombie frowned at the man's words.

|He is talking about Monty's shed outer shell, the royal avaritia form. That thing must have weighed tens of thousands of pounds, maybe hundreds... And I wish that I was reaching here...|

Zombie sighed internally.

|Is he serious about the avatar of greed's powers? I remember turning her to ash before she could even lift a finger during the first playthrough.|

He added slightly curious and very much worried.

|She can. The Greeds strive for the greatest wealth for the entire kingdom because they obviously have access to the royal treasury. Have you never wondered why Fruit Salad didn't get attacked by any foreign power in a couple of hundreds of years? It's because other countries are scared shitless. Apparently, there was a powerful kingdom that wanted to seize our lands around a thousand years ago. Prides agreed that it was enough of a threat to bypass the normal warfare and straight-up use Greeds power. That kingdom was called Holly Kingdom Biel. And because of the work of the avatar of greed of that time, the great lake of Bieltears was created~|

Patience explained, clearly taking great pleasure in sharing her knowledge.

|A whole kingdom was nuked enough to create a lake?|

Zombie asked in disbelief, momentarily forgetting about the outside world.

|A moment, please...|

The sealed overseer stopped him, taking the time to read his mind to see what he meant about the whole nuking.

|Ha? No, it wasn't something so weak. I understand your confusion – when I said great lake, you must have imagined just a big lake – the thing is, people of that time had a very peculiar taste in names, and purposefully decided that they dislike the name 'inner sea'. My lovely rotten brain, Bieltears is bigger than Fruit Salad.|

Patience explained affectionately, sounding as if she was nuzzling against Zombie's shoulder.

|Though a power like that is impossible to recreate now – apparently over 90% of the world's resources were used up on that attack – fun fact, that is also a reason why the intelligent races started using monster parts as materials.|

She added happily.

|...I think I need a receipt for that 90% thing, how come you know about that...? That's quite a claim...|

Zombie asked, furrowing his brows.

|Ha? Are you asking the system's overseer how does she know how many resources of the world that she watches over were used?|

Patience also sounded as if she furrowed her brows and asked back.

|Point taken. Alright, so this is serious...|

After hearing that argument being brought up, Zombie instantly got back to the situation at hand – and the old man glaring at him.

"Then, miss Banana is dead?"

The blue undead asked, furrowing his brows, feeling his insides churning up from realization.

"Dead? By the system, of course not – before that our dearest queen wanted to question her about many things... you included. She simply made that woman appear in the palace, in front of her."

"..."

Somewhat, the answer given to Zombie felt even worse than what he originally expected.

By far.

If the queen had the power to simply make anyone she wanted to appear in front of her despite all the precautions and protective artifacts, she surely had the power to make that someone speak only the truth...

"..."

The blue undead gritted his teeth and then he started glaring down at the old man – the old man who got visibly happier because of that reaction.

"You aren't here to tail me."

The blue undead did not ask, he merely stated the fact.

"Sir Zombie. Will you go with me to the Greeds territory to explain a couple of things to the queen or should I report to her that she needs to bring you in herself?"

The old man – now all smiles – asked, leaning back confidently.