The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"..."

The tall boy closed his mouth and sighed.

"What betrayed me? I didn't steal every part of the Tart kid's appearance, but I made sure to have the essentials."

He asked, giving up keeping up the cover and leaned against the wall right by the blue undead.

"Oh, no, the disguise of that level is really good, the thing is as an undead a have a little skill that's known as the life signature detection – every single life form has a unique life signature that cannot be recreated, at least as far as I know it - and that is what I can percive."

|Avatar and heir of envy can pull that off, actually.|

Patience interrupted him with a tutorial-like explanation that she didn't have the chance to do for quite a while.

"Huh... so it was something like that... good to know."

Fig, looking like Orange Tart, nodded with an indifferent expression, observing Cranberry, Mary, Claymore, and Roan.

"What are you doing here looking like that, anyway? More spying or...?"

The blue undead asked curiously glancing at the stone-faced person beside him.

"Doing a favor to the Tart family, believe it or not."

She shrugged and explained without even the slightest bit of hesitation.

"The real Orange is actually bedridden struck by an illness – nothing life-threatening but bad enough to stop him from traveling at all. The Tarts had put some serious money into acquiring the rare monster for him to show off to the other middle-tier families and it would all be wasted if Orange didn't kill it in front of everyone."

Fig explained, looking around to make sure that no one was listening in to her explanation.

"I wasn't originally chosen to be the one supposed to stand in for him, but I requested it and it was accepted."

She added, looking down and tapping her feet together.

"Khaha! And what was your reason for doing that?"

Zombie laughed and leaned in with a curious smirk.

"I had a feeling that the two of you will show up. Cranberry and I are, or at least were, similar. Let's just say that I wanted to check up on her."

The spy from the Envy family shrugged her shoulders and smirked back at the blue boy.

"Khaha! Interesting. Then, what is your opinion of her now?"

Zombie laughed again and nodded, before asking her another question.

"She's still nowhere near the realm of the pretty people, but her demeanor changed. She doesn't seem to be tormented by it nearly as much as before. Is it really thanks to my words?"

Fig answered and asked back, showing interest for the first time since they started talking.

"If not for you, she would never open up. There's still a lot of things she doesn't want to talk about, but she's on the right path."

Zombie nodded and glanced at the red-haired girl happily talking with the rest of her group – when she looked his way and noticed him observing her, she blushed, frowned, and showed him her tongue before getting back into the conversation.

"...I guess I should be listening to my own advice more – she changed, but I did not."

Fig sighed and lowered her head with a bitter expression.

"Well, let's not forget the part about her leaving behind the horrible environment that pushed her into hating herself in the first place. Maybe you could take the inspiration from that."

Zombie tilted his head and said.

"For all intent and purposes, she was kidnapped. Are you telling me that you will do the same for me?"

Fig scoffed and shook her head as she corrected the blue undead's statement.

"If you really want to break free, just as Cranberry did, I see no reason why not."

"!!!!"

Zombie's honest and clear answer made the disguised woman flinch and look away to hide the blush of embarrassment.

|...you are doing that on purpose, or does this come naturally for you...?|

Patience sighed, sounding as she was really done with her undead host.

"...no. If I've meet you even a little bit sooner, or a little bit later, then maybe I wouldn't even hesitate, but as things are now..."

Fig straightened her back and shook her head, taking Zombie's attention away from the sealed overseer.

"What do you mean...?"

The blue boy furrowed his brows, worried about the tone of voice of the disguised Envy.

"...Even someone like me wants to help her friends from time to time, you know? Don't worry, I'll make sure that everything will be alright."

Fig took a deep breath and declared, actually smiling at Zombie and then turning towards Cranberry with the same kind of expression.

|And cut! Perfect! The condition we needed fulfilled just got confirmed to be accomplished! Congratulations!|

Patience erupted in cheers despite the worrisome nature of the solemn smile that Fig had – even with the face of Orange Tart, she looked as if she was determined to do something...

|...great. Could you explain now what this whole thing was about?|

Zombie flinched and asked cautiously.

|Definitely not – the condition is fulfilled but it will all be in vain if you do something stupid because you cannot control your anger. It's best if you stay in the dark for a while longer – this will assure that the story plays out as it should on its own.|

The sealed overseer did not pull back and scolded the little blue undead mercilessly, sounding as if she was saying it all while crossing her arms and stomping her foot.

|Fine. I trust you on this – it better not come bite me back in the butt, you know?|

Zombie sighed internally and allowed himself to be told off, mainly since at least the things that Patience said about him were correct.

Besides, there was no more time for chit-chat, at least for the moment, since as if someone had the most impeccable timing, the big door opened wide and all the gathered children started walking outside towards the area where the initiation ceremony would take place.

"It would be better if you didn't talk to me more than necessary, things might get pretty awkward if my identity will get exposed."

Fig leaned towards the blue undead and whispered before walking off towards the area prepared by the members of the system faith just for the initiation ritual.

"Hey, if worse come to worst, you can always paint it as the Tart family's attempt to get closer to the Pride family."

Zombie shrugged, recalling how things happened during the first playthrough.

"...!"

He said it lightheartedly, without actually putting much thought into it, but Fig flinched ad fell into deep thoughts for a moment.

"...that... That could work out... that guy isn't even thinking about me anyway, so why should he get it..."

She mumbled to herself and left before Zombie had the chance to ask her what was she talking about with that last sentence.