The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"C-can I pet him...?"

Mary asked, approaching the young dragon fearfully but unable to hold herself back.

"Ask him, not me I do not make decisions for him. Baron isn't my pet, he is my subject."

Zombie, sitting on the ground rather unceremoniously, shrugged his shoulders and shooed the future heroine away without looking up from his hands that his HP regeneration skill was slowly recovering back to a 'healthy' blue color.

"(I don't mind, it is understandable that others are awed by my greatness to the point that they feel the need to touch me!)"

The young red dragon, sitting by his master raised his head and nodded benevolently at the bashful brown-haired girl.

"Baron, ease up on the pompous talk – you might regret talking like that when you get older."

"(Yes, master. I'm sorry.)"

The blue undead commanded, directly contradicting himself from just a moment ago, and the red dragon lowered his head apologetically in response.

"(Yes, it's okay to pet me, but watch for the wings – they are kind of ticklish.)"

Then Baron turned back to the stunned Mary and explained using telepathy.

"Hey, didn't you say that you want to rank up before the appraisal? What's with the wait?"

Cranberry, who was sitting by Zombie's other side, asked curiously, leaning against his shoulder and looking curiously at the short undead – undoubtedly wondering how will he look like after the said rank up.

"We still have time, and I want to make things easier for the future."

The blue undead shrugged his shoulders again, still looking at his hands...

...no...

Zombie wasn't looking at his hands – he was looking past them, at the ground beneath, where a little soft-shelled rubbery egg, smaller than the tip of a human's finger, was tossing itself from side to side as if the creature inside of it was already trying their hardest to break free – the blue undead was waiting for it to come out.

"...haa... just let me know if there's something wrong, okay?"

Cranberry sighed and rolled her eyes – it seemed like she didn't notice the real reason for Zombie's passive behavior and was worried that it was some hidden damage dealt by the sigil monster that her undead familiar was too proud of to talk about.

Meanwhile, a few feet away from them, a whole army of people was dealing or trying to deal with the enormous amount of valuables that the royal avaritia form of the first incarnation of the remnant of Happy had left behind – of course, it would all go straight for the Kingdom's – or rather Greeds – treasury, with the prior promise from the queen to divide it according to the contribution – but she did not get into any much more detail.

Zombie did not really care about any of that or the moment, but he certainly did not expect to actually see even a broken piece of sapphire out of the entire mountain of treasure.

But that really wasn't important...

*snap*

"...!"

The rubbery shell has broken open with a popping sound and a minuscule golden snake slithered out of it, shaking its head in a very animated motion for a normal animal – it looked like it was trying to shake off the haziness that was filling its head.

"Well, well, well... If it isn't the second incarnation of the physical remnants of Happy."

Zombie giggled lowering his head to have a better look at the golden noodle laying on the ground trying to catch a breath after just being born again.

"Ssss...? (Huh... Eh...?)"

The tiny golden snake flinched and slowly looked up at the face of the undead that was covering the sky above its head.

"Sssssss...! (Ugh- aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgghhhhhhh...!)"

Then, all of a sudden the tiny-tiny monster trembled and dramatically fell over, rolling on its back and laying dead with its mouth wide open and little split tongue sticking out.

"...out of all things, I didn't expect you to be hognose subspecies..."

The blue undead snorted and shook his head – and reached for the seemingly dead snake, picking it up gently and putting it on the palm of his left hand.

"..."

The golden noodle adjusted its position, making sure that its white belly was clearly showing to get rid of any doubt that it was alive.

"Eh? Zombie, what is this snake – don't tell me...!"

Cranberry flinched and gasped, seeing her familiar suddenly grab a golden snake out of nowhere.

"I will explain everything later. For now, please don't make a fuss."

Zombie glanced at her and asked with a soft smile that made the red-haired girl blush and complied without another word.

"You do know that you are not fooling me, right? I know that you're alive, you literally just moved."

Zombie turned back to the tiny sneak n his palm and sighed.

"...ssss... (...no, I'm not – I clearly had a heart attack and died – go ahead and throw me away, already, thank you...)"

Without changing its position, the remnant of Happy let out a tiny hiss and continued playing dead.

"You... wait a second – you are actually stupid? But, I thought that...!"

The blue undead's brows shot up as he gasped taken aback by the monster's behavior when...

"Sssss! (Hey! Who are you calling stupid?!)"

The golden snake snapped right back up and hissed furiously.

"Sss..! (Ah...!)"

Then it flinched again and...

"S-sssssss...! (I-I mean – arrrrrrggggghhhh – I'm so dead, oh no...!)"

Before it go and dramatically fell on its back – FOR THE SECOND TIME.

"..."

Zombie looked at it and blinked in disbelief, he even turned to the side and made eye contact with an equally flabbergasted Baron, looking over curiously as both Mary and Claymore – who got there who knows when – were rubbing his side.

"(...ummm... what will you do with this one, master?)"

The red dragon asked, weirded out quite a bit.

"An idiot or not, it's a physical remnant of a god – it should give us plenty of experience points if we continue killing it over and over again as it reincarnates."

Zombie shrugged his shoulders and answered in a bored voice.

"SSSSS! (N-NOW HOLD ON A SECOND!)"

As soon as it heard that response, the golden snake jumped back up without any hesitation and hissed in a panicked voice.