The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"...I don't understand..."

Cranberry lowered her head over a book and admitted with embarrassment, not wanting to face the person who was helping her study.

"Don't worry, the understanding of the process will come naturally with time. It's not something that you can just succeed at on your first try, for now, try to just imagine the sparks of electricity jumping around atop the palm of your hand."

Mirabelle patted the little girl's head with one hand and demonstrated what she meant with her other hand – her palm shone with white light and violet and gold sparks rose up and formed into a sphere of high-voltage electricity ready to be launched at an opponent.

"But I don't understand how am I supposed to protect myself from the power of the offensive skill – it's not like I have lightning immunity skill! I only have fire immunity!"

The red-haired girl spoke dispirited, fidgetting under the elven woman's hand as if she was unsure at how she should react to being patted.

"Aww... sweetie, it's okay, when you use offensive skills you don't need the resistance skills of the same attribute unless you are using a cloaking skill."

Mirabelle laughed and continuously caressed Cranberry's red hair to calm her down.

"But it's an offensive skill, why doesn't it hurt me back – it hurts the enemy as soon as it shoots out..."

Cranberry fidgetted, horribly worried that she is angering the elf, but it was something that she needed to know to really comprehend the magic skill that she was trying to learn.

"About that..."

Mirabelle furrowed her brows and looked up trying to come up with a good example.

"Think about your drool."

Suddenly her face lighted up and she declared with satisfaction.

"...ha...? My... my drool...?"

The red-haired girl blinked repeatedly and gasped in disbelief.

"Yeah, drool."

Mirabelle nodded and smiled at the girl's confused face.

"It's fine while it's in your mouth, and it's still alright when you let it out a little bit, like this."

The elven woman spoke and let a little line of drool out of her mouth before sucking it back in before it could detach.

"But if it's completely out, you don't want to lick it back in or even touch it.

She said and leaned to the side, opening her mouth and let a little bit of her saliva drop on the floor.

"Eww...!"

Cranberry half laughed-half frowned at the presentation.

"Right? It suddenly becomes gross."

Mirabelle laughed and patted Cranberry's head again.

"It's the same with offensive spells – you create them using your mana, and they aren't gross - or dangerous as long as you are in contact with them – but when you release them into the wild, they become like the drool on the floor. Did that helped?"

The village elder asked with a bright smile.

"Mhmm. I think so...?"

Cranberry made a serious expression and nodded, although she didn't sound too confident.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Mirabelle! Did you have to spit on the floor? Who the fuck explains high-concept like magic, using drool as an example anyway?! If the brat is too stupid to understand just make her do some basic training to raise her MP and call it a day – she will gain skills naturally anyway once she starts leveling up."

But then a purple-haired elf passed by, spotted the spit on the otherwise perfectly clean floor, and complained out loud.

"!!!!"

His words made Cranberry flinch and lower her head as she clenched her fists so hard that her knuckles turned whi-

"Shut the fuck up, Gooseberry! Who asked you for input, huh?! I'll have you know that Cranberry is really fucking smart and she learned multiple fire-based skills without any trouble past these few weeks! She just needs a little bit of time to learn something else!"

Mirabelle hugged the red-haired girl protectively and shouted back at the purple-haired elf, absolutely furious because of his words.

"Who do you think you are anyway, you old fuck! My little girl said that she wants to learn spells to catch up to her familiar, and I'll be fucking damned if I don't help her with that! I'm going to spit around all this fucking library and more if that will make it easier for her to understand things!"

She added, fuming.

"It's okay, don't listen to him, he's just an old cranky fart that feels lonely because his son is growing up and doesn't want to hang around him anymore."

Mirabelle leaned down and told Cranberry while patting her head reassuringly.

"...YOUR little girl...?"

Gooseberry straightened his back and raised his brows, looking at the village elder with disbelief.

"Sh-shut the fuck up!"

Mirabelle blushed all the way to the roots of her hair and cursed at the purple-haired elf, but did not ease the protective hug on the stunned Cranberry even a little.

"Pffft! Oh, Mirabelle, you never was a material for a fucking teacher anyway, even if that human brat is as smart as you believe her to b-"

"Mo-nngh...!"

Cranberry twisted in Mirabelle's hug so that she faced Gooseberry and began to speak up but she suddenly closed her mouth in embarrassment, but even if she stuttered, she definitely accomplished getting the attention of the purple-haired elf away from the village elder.

"Miss Mirabelle is a great teacher! Go away! You are interrupting our lesson!"

But soon Cranberry managed to compose herself and scoffed at the mean elf, showing off her prideful nature.

"..."

Gooseberry glared down at her but the little girl braved through the prolonged eye contact while glaring back at the elf.

"Pffft...! Sure, fine whatever – it's not like I'm the fucking guardian of this archive or anything."

The purple-haired elf scoffed and walked away shaking his head, leaving the two alone.

Cranberry turned around in Mirabelle's arms and looked up at her visibly proud of herself.

"I think I get it a little now, but can you show me how you activate the skill again...?"

She asked going back to being timid.

"Of course! I wasn't joking when I said I will help you learn!"

Mirabelle responded with a cheerful smile and even though she released the red-haired girl from her embrace, she sat right by her before she extended her hand and activated the skill.