Although Zombie was originally going to stay in the village only for a few hours – checking up on Cranberry and leaving as soon as Olive would be done with fooling the blue undead's pursuers from the main branch of the Envy family, but that honestly was no longer feasible...
As for why...
"(Master!)"
The young red dragon, Baron, ran out of the storage shed by Mirabelle's house – while said shed was of course turned into a rather cozy lair for the growing monster – and began rubbing his head against Zombie's chest like a dog or a cat yearning attention.
"Hey there, good to see you, Baron. Are you properly guarding Cranberry as I asked you to?"
Zombie smiled, patting and scratching the scaly head and neck of the red monster with his right hand.
"(I do! I never go too far from her even when we are hunting monsters with the elves!)"
Baron exclaimed proudly while his tail was wagging from side to side with enough power to become a serious threat for anyone foolish enough to approach him from behind.
"But he doesn't have to! I already told him many times that I can't really get stronger if I am constantly babysat by him! In one of the books in the library, I've read that the bigger the danger the better the training results!"
And the reason for Zombie being unable to just leave straight away spoke up as she clung to his right arm with all of her might.
"(Hey! I am doing what my master told me! I wish I could be traveling with him too – don't act like you're the only one who likes him!)"
Baron frowned and scoffed at the red-hared girl hanging on Zombie's arm in a way that made it impossible for the blue undead to use that arm to pat the dragon – hence the dissatisfaction in Baron's telepathic message.
"If you really want it that much then just let me train properly! I don't need you to come to protect me from every single attack! How am I supposed to train the HP regeneration I got from the Troll slayer title if I never lose any HP?!"
Cranberry complained, furrowing her brows, putting, and stomping her foot in an angry manner.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"(You can train other skills! And stop trying to make it sound like I'm interrupting your training! I only block protect you from the attacks that you are unable to dodge! And I don't even attack – I only train defense like that – so if anything – it's you who is messing with my training!)"
But despite her confident act, Baron wasn't going to back out at all and faced the girl head-on.
"Khahaha! Everyone's working hard I see. Good, good."
Zombie laughed and patted first the red dragon and then the red-haired girl.
"Zombie! What's with that subject of yours – you are my familiar, right? Shouldn't they all be listening to me too?!"
Cranberry complained, tugging on the blue undead's arm doing everything she could to get him to focus solely on her.
"Ssss. (A master of my master is not my master.)"
The golden snake using as an earring, Monty, looked down on the fuming girl and hissed all high and mighty despite its meager size.
"Shut up, Monty! I don't know what you hissed about, but I'm sure it was something stupid!"
"Sssss! (Stupid?! You're stupid! That was smart! It was written on the piece of jewelry that master give me as a snack yesterday!)"
Cranberry scoffed at it, which prompted a furious hiss of self-defense from the small golden serpent.
"Red girl, Monty is right, surprisingly enough, – master is our master, you might be his master, but you are not our master and you will never be."
As if that situation was not odd enough, Kopia, the sentient sword jumped out of her expensive cozy scabbard at Zombie's waist and changed into her humanoid form with a flash of white light.
"That's stupid! If I ask Zombie to make you do something, then you will have to do it and it will be the same as if you just listened to me in the first place!"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})The red-haired girl made a sour expression seeing the crimson-haired older girl in a fancy fluffy dress hug Zombie's right arm and leaning forward to glance at her with a slightly mocking smirk that she undoubtedly picked up from the blue undead himself.
"That would be convenient only for you though. I don't know about the gold and red since they are monsters, but I, as a piece of equipment do not care about making things easy for anyone other than my master."
Kopia declared with a light shrug and rested her head on Zombie's shoulder.
"Uuuuugh...! Zombie! Tell her something!"
Cranberry cried out and admitted defeat by directly appealing to the person of interest.
"Hey – The are my subjects – I do not decide things for them... and Kopia is my beloved sword so I have no reason to upset her."
"LIAR!"
The blue undead shrugged his shoulders indifferently, escaping the responsibility by straight-up lying about the inability to order his subjects around – about what he was called out immediately by the red-haired girl pouting so much that her cheeks looked as if they were about to explode.
"Cranbaby, the dinner's rea...! Oh? Zombie, you're already here?"
Mirabelle, who took an unscheduled day off from her duties of the village elder, popped out of her house, calling out – and raised her brows once she saw the blue undead surrounded from all sides.
"Mom...!"
Cranberry cried out in embarrassment for the nickname Mirabelle used, but at the same time, she felt incredibly happy because of that nickname.
"You will stay the night, won't you? Our Cranbaby will turn into a crybaby if you leave so soon."
The elven woman laughed – effortlessly reading the situation and Zombie's original intention with just a single glance.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Y-you're not going back yet, are you...?"
Before the blue undead could say anything in response, the red-haired girl forgot all about throwing a hissy fit and clenched his hand in actual panic, as if him leaving would be the actual worst thing that could happen to her.
The little girl was looking up at him with tearful eyes and her chin was already starting to tremble.
|I don't know whether this Cranberry is just so cunning or is she actually that soft-hearted, but... haa... I didn't even need another proof that she's not my Cranberry. This feels... haa...|
Zombie thought, clenching his right hand so hard that his knuckles turned light-blue, but showed nothing aside from a soft warm smile towards the little red-haired girl on his left.
"...master, it's alright...."
Kopia, who was both holding onto his right arm and reading his mind murmured reassuringly and rubbed her forehead against his shoulder reassuringly.
"Of course I'm staying the night – but I will be leaving right at dawn, so be prepared to get teased until you will go to sleep."
Zombie's responded jokingly – which only made Cranberry blush and look down bashfully.
Then, all of them ate the dinner prepared by Mirabelle together, Baron was peeking through the window, while Even little Monty got its own tiny plate on which Zombie prepared for it a few pieces of golden and silver jewelry and a few precious stones. Zombie and Kopia did not require food – thankfully - since judging from Cranberry's reaction, the village elder's cooking was just as bad as Olive proclaimed it to be on multiple occasions in the past, yet the crimson-haired girl ate everything to the last crumb and thanked her elven mother for a meal with a bright, grateful smile.
Seeing that was enough to actually make Zombie smile for real.
This was the outcome he wanted.
To give this Cranberry everything that was taken away from his Cranberry.
That's how things were supposed to be... right...?
