The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"My prince... the situation is clearly out of control, have you seen their faces...?"

Mary leaned from behind a corner, glancing past the group of ten vacant-faced slaves dragging their feet like a bunch of hollow puppets – they didn't communicate with each other in any way and did not make any noises besides the rustling of their clothes and their footsteps – which was already muffled for some odd reason even though none of them seemed to be making a conscious effort to be stealthy.

"...I should return...! It is far too dangerous to oppose Durian like that... Even if we escape my family will surely suffer the consequences of my disobedience...!"

She hide back behind the building, leaned against the wall, and slid down until she ended up crouching on the ground – hiding her face in her knees.

"No, it will not! Durian might have become influential, but still whatever power he holds it's nothing compared to my mother's strength...!"

Roan carefully approached the horribly worried girl and put his hand on his shoulder reassuringly – though even he himself flinched once he realized that what he said did not exactly hold true anymore.

After all his mother's power was enormous – but it was tied directly to the private treasury underneath the royal castle.

A private treasury that was currently empty...

Even so, as long as Durian didn't know about it, there was still a chance to escape the potential repercussions by threatening him while acting as if the underground room was still filled to the brim...

Whether that would pass or not would be down to luck – and since both Druian and Roan were both from the Greed family and their LUC stat was set since birth, it would come down to who was born more lucky.

...that is as long as no one else would be involved in their verbal encounter – and as long as their confrontation would stay as the verbal encounter and nothing else...

"...but my family..."

"Do you think that your family would want you to end up as a plaything of that bastard?! No! You told me that you were adopted by sir Hope because you had the potential of becoming someone great – and that definitely did not mean being one of the Durian's slaves!"

Mary spoke in a shaking voice, slowly raising her head, but the blond prince grabbed both of her shoulders and shook her while looking straight into her eyes and declaring with conviction.

"I don't know – I mean, I am his slave but I do feel like I'm quite great... you know?"

"!!!!!"

"!!!!!!"

Then, all of a sudden a new voice joined in on the private secret talk between the captured target and the heroine – causing both Roan and Mary to jump up in shock.

When they turned around, they saw a young man of average height, who seemed just a year or two older than them.

He gave off the impression as if he was easygoing but was mocking them relentlessly at the same time.

Honestly, it was a rather familiar feeling...

"Who... are you...?"

Roan gasped, shielding Mary with his own body while his body began glowing white.

"Luke...!"

Mary peeked from Roan's side and gasped, grabbing onto the blond-haired prince's clothes with urgency and terror.

"Luke...?"

Roan furrowed his brows and asked in confusion, unsure what that name was supposed to tell him about the mockingly smiling young man with unknown intentions.

The new arrival lacked the staple vacant expression of every single slave that they hid from up until that point – but he had admitted to being one of Durian's slaves himself at the same time...

"My prince...! We need to be extremely careful around him!"

Mary gulped down her saliva and whispered into Roan's ear, constantly keeping an eye on the smirking man.

"Yeah, I know... but... There are two of us... Could we not just overpower him...?"

The blond-haired prince flinched and murmured under his breath while glaring at the shorter man standing just a few steps away from him in a rather casual pose, without activating a single skill even though Roan was glowing rather brightly betraying the usage of either a few low-tier skills or one high-tier one...

Normally, at least SOME precaution would be in place, but the man named Luke seemed either blissfully unaware about the danger...

...or he was sure that there was no danger at all...

"Pffft...! Overpower me? The two of you and what army? Miss, go on, tell him about me – I'll wait until you finish."

"...!"

Luke's shoulders shook from the held-back giggle and he waved his hand at the tense Mary – who flinched as soon as he made even that none threatening move.

"...Mary...?"

Roan looked between the easygoing man and the brown-haired girl and asked in confusion.

"Luke is an extremely talented healer who after receiving the slave crest and all benefits that come with willingly accepting it became one of the strongest – if not THE strongest – healer in this world. He is Durian's greatest asset and one of his elite slaves..."

The brown-haired heroine explained with a trembling voice.

...they were so close to the stables too...!

In fact, Luke seemed to have approached them after exiting the stable and was their only obstacle before getting to Mary's tamed monster, the champion griffin, Anry.

"Healer...? Just a healer, not a holy magician? What are you worried about, healers have barely any attack spells!"

Roan frowned and shook his head in disbelief, breathing out in relief - thinking that dealing with a single opponent like that will be easy.

"My prince...! Please! Do! No! Anger! Him!"

Mary urgently tugged on Roan's clothes and gasped through her gritted teeth, fearfully observing Luke, as if she expected the healer to jump at them at any point.

"Miss, you can relax – first of all I said that I will let you finish, and you still didn't say the most important thing."

Luke stopped smirking and raised his brow surprised by Mary's reaction as the only interaction they had was a short exchange of greetings that lasted at most twenty seconds, and nothing else.

"And second of all, I don't plan on stopping you from escaping either."

The healer waved his hand dismissively, before trying to smile reassuringly at the scared girl.

"Oh! Did you hear him? In that case..."

Roan flinched and straightened his back as the light of his skills faded away and he took a step forward.

"I said that I don't plan on stopping miss Mary. Your highness, you are a different case."

But before he could walk any further, Luke blocked his way while shaking his head making sure that Roan won't be able to pass him.

"..."

Roan leaned back, glaring down at the mockingly smirking healer, before glancing back at the brown-haired girl who was on pins and needles again.

"Mary... what is more important than the information that he is the best at what he's doing...?"

The blond prince asked, expecting the answer to clear up the situation to him.

"Luke is... Zombie's childhood friend..."

"Ah...! So that's why...!"

Mary explained, causing Roan to exclaim in understanding as he finally realized what the mocking aura reminds him of!

Luke was copying Zombie's behavior!

"Exactly. Thank you, miss."

The healer nodded to the heroine and then turned to the blond prince who didn't seem to understand the situation he got himself in...

"Living and training with Zombie had taught me a few things."

Luke lowered his head and nodded as if reminiscing the old memories.

"One of them was to never forgive anyone who hurts your friends."

He revealed and his body began glowing with a pure white enchantment many times stronger than what Roan had going on before.

"My prince! You have to run!"

Mary panicked and tried to pull roan away but failed because of the difference in both levels and stats between the two of them.

"Why? I never hurt his friends though?"

The first prince furrowed his brows and asked, weirded out.

"But your mother kept him sealed for over eight years – and from what you have said before I showed up – it sounded like you could have just asked her to release him at any point but did nothing. If you ask me – that makes you just as guilty as she is. Don't worry – I will make it quick."

Luke shrugged his shoulders dismissively, before explaining his reasoning and...

*BOOOOOOOM*