The Villainess and I, her Zombie

Since Zombie wasn't just making things up and was actually repeating what he himself witnessed, there was no hesitation in his steady voice, he seemed almost indifferent – and maybe because of that indifference, his words were that much more frightening to the young red dragon.

"(...I don't want that...!)"

It cried out in a terrified voice, visibly shaking.

"Then come with me. My name is Zombie – I am a familiar of a girl called Cranberry Pride. Let me tell you, that if there is one family in the whole world that can oppose the royal family and stop them from pursuing you, it is the Pride family. If you give me your word that you will follow me, then I will protect you."

The blue boy declared and reached out his hand just as he did when he initially found the young monster.

"(...)"

The dragon shook its wings, looking at the hand for far longer than it was necessary.

"..."

And the blue boy didn't rush it at all either – if the dragon was as smart as their species was supposed to be, then it will definitely choose the right answer.

"(...)"

After some more time has passed, the young dragon flinched and began inching towards the undead's hand.

"(...so be it...)"

The young dragon made his decision and reached out with its head towards Zombie's hand until it felt the boy patting the top of his scaly head.

"(...from this point I pledge the allegiance to you, and acknowledge you as my one and only master...)"

"Wha...?! I didn't mean it like tha...!"

Zombie tried to stop the dragon from putting itself in a much lower position than it ever had to, but the monster's body was already shining with some unknown skill as the beast closed its eyes as if it was enjoying the pleasant coolness of the blue boy's dead flesh...

/Red dragon of Ruin offered you his servitude

Do you accept?

Yes/No

...and a rather sinister-looking message has popped up in front of Zombie's eyes.

|...please, check if that has to do something with some dangerous quest...|

The boy's face turned grim once he read the message.

|Nothing. That's just the title it has – it might be a sign of this world trying to reject the story of the game and coin its own lore, but that's not likely – that would happen only if we complete the global event of the otome game.|

Patience answered indifferently sounding as if she just shrugged her shoulders.

|Will I share the experience with him if I accept...?|

Zombie asked another question in suspicion.

|Also, no, the way the message is phrased means that the dragon will become your subject – you will be able to order him around, but you won't share experience unless you will participate in a fight together - until you will become the avatar of pride and level up a certain skill that is.|

Patience eased his worries in a lighthearted tone.

"(...please, don't abandon me...)"

It seemed that Zombie's attempt to scare the little dragon was far too proficient as since he was taking too long on deciding, the little dragon actually used telepathy to cry pitifully into his head while looking up at him with tearful eyes.

"System, yes."

The confirmation from the sealed overseer together with the cuteness of the little dragon ended up with the blue boy agreeing with a slight sigh.

/Choice confirmed

Choose a name for your subject

|What, like, right now?|

|Right now.|

Zombie gasped internally in confusion and Patience answered him sounding as if she was rolling her eyes.

"Fine. From now on, your name will be... Baron."

After a brief hesitation, the blue boy picked a first name that came to his mind after looking at the red-winged lizard-like beast.

/Name selected

1st subject registered

Red dragon of Ruin, Baron.

A new message popped up confirming Zombie's choice.

"(Baron...? Master, why did you choose that name? Is it because dragons are like the monsters royalty?)"

Baron asked, crawling out of the cave and sitting right by Zombie going as far as even resting its head at his shoulder.

"Erm... be-because you are red..."

Unfortunately, the answer it received was far less grand than it expected – or was it?

"Anyway! Let's get you a bit stronger before we return to the mansion, shall we? I want to at least be sure that you can fly!"

Either way, the blue undead clapped his hands together and pulled out Kopia from her sheath, and threw her in the air – where she flashed with white light and landed on the ground already in her humanoid form.

"Tehehe! Hello, little one! Let's kill a lot of things together!"

Kopia jumped up and exclaimed, approaching the shocked red dragon, and put her arm around its torso.

"I can't accompany you yet since if I kill something my master would receive a portion of the experience. Kopia, I leave him to you, don't take too long and rush back at once if you notice something that could harm either one of you."

Zombie instructed, ignoring the flabergasted dragon with its jaw hanging loose staring at the humanoid weapon being so casual with it, without any introduction.

"Yes, master!"

"(...HUUUUUUUUH...?!)"

She cheered and actually dashed away while holding the absolutely bewildered dragon under her arm like an oversized plush toy.

|Aren't you worried, letting her ran off like that...?|

Patience asked in confusion as the blue undead calmly watched the disappearing pair of humanoid weapon and a monster.

"Hmph...!"

Zombie only smirked and shook his head as if he was about to drop some profound knowledge onto the sealed overseer, and...

"Of course I'm worried!"

Suddenly his body began glowing with intense violet light and his legs added a layer of white light on top of it and he kicked off the ground with a grand wind pressure caused by the whirlwind kick, as he charged after the two while his eyes shone reddish when he was looking around watching out for the search party sent after the dragon.

|Any idea how much time do we have until anyone connected to the Gluttony family will come by?|

He asked while circling around the dragon who just pounced at the frenzy rabbit and missed miserably since the little monster wasn't going to just stand in one place waiting to be eaten.

|No. not really. Sorry.|

The answer he received wasn't very informative, but he said nothing to that since the thing he was doing was already reaching pretty far from the original story.