The Villainess and I, her Zombie

The blue undead was sitting by the dining table on the first floor of the kobold's weapon shop, crossing his arms deep in thoughts.

Next to him, the crimson-haired humanoid blade was playing around with the tiny golden snake, although maybe the more proper word for that would be training – the golden snake was using one of its skills to make itself larger – or rather created an outer shell made out of some of the precious materials it ate up until that point and was battling it out with Kopia's weaponized fingers turned into blades.

Behind them, the little kobold girl was preparing a meal for herself.

"Have I really been that outrageous?"

Finally, the blue undead spoke up, leaning back in his chair and putting his arms behind his head.

"...master..."

Kopia looked away from Monty and let out a sigh.

"You remember that Patience told you that that girl is already how she should be for the story to progress the way you want – why did you have to go there and mess with her so much that you even increased a skill's rank?"

She said with a pout while Monty was dodging and weaving around her lively fingerblades, too focused on them to join in the conversation.

"You say that – but even if something will go wrong, I can go ahead and use the ranked up skill to set things straight – you conveniently forgetting that I can use it like that."

Zombie responded with a shrug.

"Sure – and when Patience will return she will tell us that the seal is at 3% what will you do if that's the case?"

Kopia countered with a very reasonable argument.

"..."

Zombie didn't like the reasonable arguments when they worked against his plans...

"Well, I wouldn't be doing anything risque like that if you or Pati didn't try to keep secrets from me and just be clear about what needs to be done."

He frowned, looking away grumpily.

"Master... Look at what happened yesterday. You almost broke that girl even though you knew that she was important – and Patience went and told you she was important!"

Kopia complained right back at him.

"Yeah, but she didn't tell me who she really was! And besides – I didn't end up either killing or even hurting her for the matter- so look who was wrong after all."

The blue undead scoffed looking away since he kind of expected what sort of argument Kopia will pull out against him.

"Master you know that it wasn't because of your self-control or anything, but only thanks to the machine mind skill – without it, that girl would be dead and the ending you wish for would be blocked."

...and the crimson-haired humanoid blade delivered exactly that...

"Is there even a difference? In the end, the outcome is the same! I put the basement exploration plans into motion and even learned what happened with Raika's grandfather..."

*clang*

Zombie shrugged his shoulders, furrowing his brows at the sound of cutlery hitting the floor.

He closed his mouth and looked around.

The little kobold girl, pale as a sheet, dropped a fork the moment that she heard him say the word grandfather.

"..."

Zombie frowned and made a bitter expression.

When he returned the previous night, he confirmed with Kopia whether it was alright or not to reveal the fate of the old kobold to his granddaughter, and the humanoid blade confirmed with him that there was no reason to hold it back as on every future quest that involved her, Raika was always aware of the reason for her grandfather demise.

Though...

That didn't change the fact that suddenly learning that the only other member of her family was no longer alive certainly didn't do any good to the young kobold's mental health.

"Here... I made some for you all too..."

The child walked towards the table holding plates with sandwiches and put them in front of the blue undead, the crimson-haired humanoid bade, and even the tiny golden snake, before returning to the kitchen and bringing one for herself.

"I don't eat."

Kopia shook her head without as much as taking a single look at the food that she had no way of ingesting.

"Ssssssss. (It's a soft organic matter – at least give me something like wood, the expensive one preferably.)"

Monty also turned away in a theatrical way and pushed the little plate aside with the tip of its tail.

"..."

Raika sitting on the other side of the table flinched and looked down at her knees, looking as if she was about to cry.

"..."

Zombie frowned, looking at the sandwiches with disgust – he never actually enjoyed eating – right after sleeping, it was the activity he was the happiest to abandon once he turned into an undead.

That's why obviously he...

"Your loss, more for me."

...shrugged his shoulders and pulled both plates his sentient sword and his second subject rejected while picking up one of the sandwiches that Raika put in front of him before and putting it into his mouth.

"M-master...?!"

"Ssss? (Master, won't you get sick?)"

Kopia and Monty gasped in shock, but the blue undead did not react to that at all and carefully chewed on the food.

The sandwiches had absolutely no taste for him – no, even worse, they felt like he was chewing on a half-dried mud – the undead were not supposed to ingest the food prepared by the living for the living under any circumstances.

"Those are really good, kid. Good job."

Zombie gulped down the mush and smiled, nodding at the shocked kobold girl.

"I... I can make more...! If you want...!"

Raika gasped and offered, jumping up lively, before backing down, as if worried that she would scare the blue undead off.

"Let me just dig through all of those delicacies first, alright~?"

Zombie hummed in response, picking yet another sandwich, and reached out his free hand to pat the child's head.

"Yes."

Raika nodded, smiling softly under the pleasantly cold blue hand.

"...?"

Kopia tilted her head and sent out a few threads of her crimson hair to could around Zombie's right arm.

|You said yourself that she will be important, right? If she will like us, she will be more helpful in the future when the time comes. Still, that doesn't mean that either you or Monty have to eat any of this stuff – leave it all to me – I am a responsible master after all.|

Zombie explained in his mind and winked at his sentient sword – and Kopia's eyes widened before she nodded and retracted her hair.