The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"What do you mean by – the church is involved - ?"

Cranberry furrowed her brows and stared at Zombie in confusion.

"Uh-huh. So, is it something that I'm not supposed to know or is it really something new?"

The blue undead raised his brow and asked calmly while he was in the middle of searching through the headquarter's building together with the Dandelions.

"...I... I actually don't know anything about it – there was the thing about the church knowing about the prophecy of the Eternal, as it was mentioned with In're's quest, but it did not involve them messing around with the monster city... It doesn't make sense..."

The red-haired girl shook her head and frowned in concern.

"Huh... then it really sucks that the Spawner went and almost changed into the sigil monster and had to kill him."

Zombie just shrugged his shoulders ad was about to go about another chest – maybe this one would not be empty like the previous three...

*tug*

"...?"

But then he felt something pulling on his arm and when he turned around he was faced with actually concerned Cranberry.

"No, Zombie, you don't understand – in In're's questline she was banished from the church because she had the inborn skill that allowed her to control undead. The people of the system's faith should, by all means, hate the undead monsters – they should have no information about you or any undead for that matter, that would be able to interact with the super-secret last boss."

The girl looked so worried that the blue undead didn't even joke around and just carefully observed the red-haired villainess waiting for her to continue.

"In're's quest was supposed to start soon after we would finish setting up the village – as the church would catch the wind of one of their banished black sheep getting too influential and they would send out an assassin to deal with her quickly- that would start a whole chain of events that would lead us to run some errands for the church to forgive and forget about our dead-infatuated saint. The final errand would be to deal with the lord-rank undead that had been raising in power very close to the monster city."

Cranberry explained biting her lips and looking away in distress.

"I... I don't feel the seal of the Eternal getting closer to unlocking or anything, but that is very bothersome on its own. Why is the system's faith church suddenly getting chummy with both normal and undead monsters...? This is..."

The red-haired girl flinched and her eyes widened.

"...say, back when I was sealed and we were both in the sin of origin nucleus, you said that the piece of human filth that is supposed to be my sister in this world has been doing exactly what she should be doing..."

Zombie read well into her expression and lowered his head, hiding his own face.

"!!!!"

Cranberry didn't say anything but since she was holding onto the blue undead's arm, he could feel that she tensed up at the question – confirming his suspicion.

"Huh... that's not very encouraging... do you think that she would be able to influence anyone important so that they would actually change their policy about my kind?"

"..."

Zombie didn't feel obliged to play around with the question and simply asked it straight, making the red-haired girl let go of his hand and back off.

"...as far as I know, she didn't seek anyone from the system's faith in particular... before you got sealed for eight years..."

The girl spoke up without looking the blue undead knight in the eyes.

"I see. Then I can assume that she managed to get herself at least a stable foothold in their organization – if not getting straight to the tom and is actually pulling the strings from behind. Great. Perfect!"

Zombie read Cranberry's behavior as the sign admitting to the absolute worst outcome and just nodded his head, gritting his teeth harder and harder with each second.

"Superb... istn;t that just... I AM GOING TO FUCKING TEAR THAT REPUGNANT FILTH LIMB FROM LIMB!"

*THUMP*

*RUMBLE*

"!!!!"

The blue undead continued nodding and tapping his foot until he exploded into a furious roar, and stomped on the ground s heard that he caused an actual small-scale earthquake that shook the entire building, despite it having a quite sturdy construction.

"Zombie...!"

Cranberry staggered and called out in shock staring at the outraged undead knight.

"I AM CALM!"

Zombie roared, clenching his fists that started glowing first with white and then with violet light.

"What fucking event is worth keeping her alive!? If not that bullshit about her being the essential character I would have already laid waste to that pile of spoiled garbage!"

He asked, glaring at the red-haired girl with the intensity she never expected him to show.

"She... haa... After all, the secret quests from all the capture targets would be completed, she is necessary for triggering the question that would lead us back to In're who would give us the info about the location of the temple of the Eternal – but In're will only learn that location after we complete her quest about reconciling her with the church!"

Cranberry made a pitiful expression and explained, lowering her head and looking away as if she was ashamed of something.

"..."

The blue undead straightened his back taken aback, watching the suddenly embarrassed red-haired girl.

"Wait... putting this playthrough aside for a moment – are you saying that in our first playthrough we fucked ourselves up basically from the start? That's why Patience couldn't make the secret route happen was because we literally killed the most important quest giver within five minutes of meeting her...?"

"..."

The blue undead asked, blinking repeatedly in disbelief, and seeing Cranberry grit her teeth and turn away, even more, told him that he was completely right.

"...stupid idiot..."

"...!"

Zombie sighed and shook his head- before walking to the ashamed red-haired girl and locking her in a protective, comfortably cool, embrace.

"...I didn't really want to tell you why In're was so important..."

Cranberry admitted with her forehead pressed against the cold plate of Zombie's chestplate.

"Yeah, I imagine that you must feel pretty stupid knowing that you were directly responsible for bringing your own downfall. Still... sorry for freaking out. I just really want to kill Caramel already. Being on the same planet as she is already filling me with rage."

The blue undead sighed and apologized, lowering his head enough to kiss the top of the red-haired girl's head.

"...ehem..."

"...?"

"...!"

A soft cough has caught them both off guard and the pair flinched and turn to face the rat-faced Shanks standing with a respectable distance away from them.

"Sorry to bother you after you just reconciled, but we are done with securing the perimeter – there was nothing of an immediate monetary value, but we've found those..."

Shanks raised his hand holding a neat stack of meticulously filled-out paper.

"This is something quite interesting, and I thought that you would like to have a look."

He revealed with a smirk.

"You might find it interesting to know that the ruler of the monster city had created quite an interesting trade route using the chain of villages the taken from humans... If the reports in here are actually true, our journey might involve something aside from slaughtering everything we will come in contact with~"