The Villainess and I, her Zombie

A familiar entrance to the familiar cave – that was the impression that both Zombie and Cranberry got while walking down the tunnel leading to the phoenix's lair under the active volcano where the streams of burning hot lava were crossing the steaming ground creating ponds and islands which were perfect habitat for the various types of fire-based monsters.

/Secret quest -the proudest of the proud- activated

Quest objectives:

Find the phoenix's lair [completed]

Defeat the phoenix

Challange the *******\\

The system message that popped up didn't particularly faze either the blue undead knight or the red-haired girl.

"Say – is the number of stars random or is one equal to a single letter?"

Zombie tilted his head and asked curiously staring a the fading window as if he expected the coded word to reveal itself on its own.

"Haa... yes – it does say Eternal – your quest is supposed to be a final one before the heroine could go back to In're and Xavi and receive the localization of the seal of the Eternal – now we are certain that the special quest for the avatar of sloth has already started too – or else it would be impossible to trigger yours."

The red-haired girl breathed out and rolled her eyes – she already knew what her blue undead knight was hinting at and straight-up answered him without trying to hide anything.

"Huh... curious – say who is the current avatar of sloth anyway – because if it's actually still Shank's older brother I call bullshit."

Zombie nodded and asked stretching out as the random patch of flames sprouted out from the ground and licked his jet-black armor before it sizzled down because of the layer of ice created by Cranberry continuously casting the feezing spell to protect the two of them from the unpleasant and annoying side effects of walking through literal hell on earth – or rather hell under earth.

"Nope – since Patience no longer preys upon the Sloth family they are basically just another noble family – just much, much stronger than average since they still can raise their level over the human cap. The current avatar of sloth is called Severine – he is the same age as us and supposedly is a lot more lively than the rest of his family – he tends to fight on the frontline and is friends with many Sloth Soldiers. And is Shanks's nephew."

The red-haired girl shrugged her shoulders and explained casually, enjoying returning to her role of a tutorial.

"Wild."

"..."

Zombie gasped with so much sarcasm that Cranberry had to close her mouth and glared at him while considering turning off her ice spell just for a moment so the cheeky blue undead of hers would turn at least medium-rare – but of course, she didn't actually follow it up since in this playthrough she couldn't share her fire immunity skill with Zombie.

Of course, the blue undead could use the overpower skill on Cranberry's fire immunity – but that wouldn't be a good use of the important skill when it could be used far more efficiently on defeating the phoenix waiting for them at the bottom layer of the lair.

"I remember the small fries here being really annoying at the beginning – shooting fireballs and diving in and out of lava... do you mind if I take them all down at once?"

Zombie asked while his eyes and throat were already shining with a white light of a devastating breath skill.

"...I think that my poison resistance is high enough... haa.. sure. Go for it."

Cranberry furrowed her brows, momentarily considering the pros and cons, and ended up nodding her head benevolently while also pulling out a handkerchief and freezing it with a spell before covering her mouth and nose just to be sure that things won't go south.

"Perfect."

Zombie nodded in response and took a really deep breath before leaning forward and unleashing a torrent of noxious fumes straight out of his mouth.

*WHOOOOOSH*

The breath attack stirred up the scorching hot air, spreading through the flood, sticking to every available surface – alive or not – and creating a thick – air-tight barrier after getting in contact with flames and magma.

The brown-haired heroine, Mary Hope, patted the back of the blond-haired capture target, Roan Greed.

"I know that my words will not help ease our pain, but I am here for you."

Mary spoke in a soft, slightly sad voice as the four guards were escorting the chained-up King – Roan's father, to the cell down below the royal castle.

"...you are wrong about that, Mary – your compassion is greatly aiding me in this terrible situation...

The blond-haired young man shook his head lightly and turned to the heroine with a weak smile.

"I just... never expected that both my mother and father could ever do all the things that we just learned about... I want to believe them both being good people but their behavior ended up being so unreasonable in my eyes that I honestly don't know how to deal with it."

He explained turning around towards the brown-haired girl and grabbing her hand.

"Even though we are of the Greed family – my own greed would never allow me to sacrifice my loved ones while both mother and father just..."

"My prince – you said it yourself – the greed driving them is – or was – different than yours – that's all there is to it. I will not tell you to completely ignore it – but you definitely shouldn't feel like you must comprehend their motives."

Roan sighed in a bitter voice – but Mary didn't let him delve into the dark thoughts for too long.

"...yes..."

The blond-haired prince nodded with a bitter expression, which caused the brown-haired heroine to make a worried expression...

"...!"

Until she realized something and her eyes lighted up.

"My prince – the kingdom is in the good hands of your uncle – and with your new title of the avatar of greed no one would dare question your right to succession..."

"...indeed... where are you going with this...?

Mary gasped, shaking the hand that Roan was holding on to causing the blond boy to furrow his brows and ask in a slightly curious voice.

"Still the coronation ceremony will surely take some time to prepare – even the hastiest one – why won't we at least try to look for that older brother of yours...? Back when we were searching researching for the evidence for the mastermind of your mother's murder, you did say that you wished to meet him."

The brown-haired girl pointed out while motioning towards the world outside the castle's window.

"You said that the woman who told you about him also said that he was found and brought up by the Wraths family – we don't even need to bother anyone with the teleportation skill – let's just hop on Anry's back and go check it out. That ought to get your mind off of this terrible situation!"

Mary declared, forcing herself to sound cheerful, and pulled on Roan's arm.

"Well... You know what? That would be best – I do wish to meet him."

The blond prince easily accepted the proposition and his expression brightened up.

…

…...

Around an hour later the two of them were already on the back of the jet-black silver-beaked griffin nervously kicking the ground under his front clawed legs while spreading and closing his winds.

"Now, now, Anry – relax and don't try to show off too much or our prince might fall."

"SCREE! (Master, I want the prince to praise me too!)"

Mary patted the side of her griffin – who screeched loudly and looked turned his head to take a peek at the nervous blond young man.

"I might fall? Wait – why would Anry want to show off in the first place – does he think that I'm his competitor or something?"

Roan twitched, fidgetting nervously on the saddle, cautiously glancing at the winged monster sparkling eyes.

"Pffft...! N-no, my prince – quite the opposite – Anry likes you very much and wants you to praise how strong he become since the last time."

Mary raised her hand to her mouth and giggled cutely, before realizing that she might come off as rude and hurriedly explained the griffin's screech to the worried prince.

"Wait – really?"

Roan gasped, straightening his back and raising his brows in confusion.

"Anry you seriously like me?"

He added looking at the monster with suspicion.

"S-scree... (N-not really...) Scree... SCREE! (I just kind of look up to you, dad, and how you care about momm... I mean, master!) Scree! (How you care about master!) Scree! (And I didn't call you dad just now!)"

Anry screeched, revealing his real feelings and instantly getting embarrassed over them, and screeched some more to cover it all up – although it wasn't really necessary since, without Mary's translation, the blond prince had no idea what any of the screeches meant.

"Screee! (Master – do not tell him I said that!)"

The jet-black griffin screeched again in embarrassment while hooving around extremely embarrassed.

"...he doesn't sound as if he likes me all that much..."

Roan furrowed his brows and looked back at Mary with a worried expression.

"Oh, don't worry – he does – just doesn't know how to properly convey it."

The brown-haired heroine waved her hand dismissively and declared with a smile.

"...If you say so..."

The blond prince slouched down without any conviction behind his words and he just kept quiet while glancing at the griffin from time to time.

"Now then – Anry – it's time for us – our target is the Wraths territory – the Wraths family manor – let's learn about our prince's long lost brother!"

"Scree! (Yes!)

Mary declared and pointed towards the sky, causing the jet-black griffin to use a skill and flap his wings, getting them all off of the ground within a single heartbeat.