Zombie was standing motionless in the corner of the library, staring at the wall absentmindedly like some dumb corpse, while the setting sun was peeking at him from the window.
In recent times he found himself doing that whenever he was deep in thought.
And, truth to be told, he was quite bothered at the moment, so he had a lot to think about.
Mostly about his master.
About the events of the game that was surely starting too... but mostly about his master.
She really decided to kill her own mother, and with poison - his corpse devouring venom - off all the available methods!
In the past, Zombie considered many times to attack lady Raspberry for what she did to Cranberry.
Yet he never acted on those impulses.
After all, no matter what, lady Raspberry was Cranberry's mother.
In the past, no matter how badly she was treated, no matter how much lady Raspberry was trying to control her life - what skills she trained, what food she ate, what clothes she wore, - Cranberry was always giving her best, trying to win her mother's approval.
But it seemed that the master of the eternal servant finally become fed up with all of that.
Funnily enough, Zombie had no trouble accepting Cranberry's decision at all.
What he was worried about was whether she could complete her plan without getting caught or not.
Even if they were mother and daughter, their relationship wasn't good enough for Cranberry to suddenly arrive on lady Raspberry's doorstep and offer her a nice glass of chilled beverage without raising any suspicion.
And since even Zombie knew that then everyone else in the mansion knew it too.
She had so many other assassination methods to chose from.
Well, not necessarily assassination ones either.
With how strong she was, Cranberry could always simply rip lady Raspberry's head off after the daily scolding too.
"...graough... (...she still doubts me...)"
Zombie sulked.
He figured out that the method his master had chosen was a major test of his loyalty.
Why else would she want to do it in such a roundabout way?
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Of course, Zombie had offered even more direct help but Cranberry refused him instantly without even a word of explanation...
*click*
The door to the room opened and the red-haired girl entered.
"Graough...! (Master...!)"
Zombie growled in a voice full of worry nervously and grabbed the wrist of his right hand.
"Haa... done."
Cranberry smiled triumphantly.
"..."
Zombie furrowed his brows and glared at her.
"Wh-what...?"
She leaned back, unsure of his intentions.
"Graough. (Here.)"
The blue undead pulled off his right hand and put it against Cranberry's face, or more accurately, her right cheek.
"...does it even show...?"
Cranberry smirked sadly and pressed the offered hand to the spot where her mother hit her.
"Haa... it doesn't matter anymore, today was the last time after all."
She looked up at her Zombie and her face brightened.
"Graough? (How did you do it in the first place?) Graough? (Won't someone notice?) Graough? (Won't your mother notice?) Graough...? (What if she has poison immunity, or venom immunity and the message will pop up...?)"
Zombie barraged her with questions.
"Everything will be fine. I managed to mix your venom with my mother's sleeping medicine. It's an expensive concoction that supposedly nourishes her during sleep so no one else even dares to touch it."
Cranberry passed Zombie and patted his chest reassuringly.
"And as for the messages that will show up for her after she takes the poison?"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})She shrugged her shoulders indifferently.
"The medicine takes her out in less than ten seconds, with how her body normally is, she won't react in time no matter what. And as for her resistances...? There's no need to bother about that."
Cranberry breathed out with relief.
"Graough...? (How can you be so sure...?) Graough? (What if my venom doesn't work that well when it's drunk by someone?)"
Still, worried Zombie grabbed onto Cranberry's clothes and growled in a hushed voice.
"Oh, it works. Your would soul devouring venom will definitely work..."
Cranberry smiled, walking towards the shelves and tapping one of the books with her index finger.
"Graough? (Elven history?)"
Zombie read the title and tilted his head.
"You might not realize it but the skills and titles that you possess, make you quite a big deal."
Cranberry said calmly, checking him out from the side.
"The venom you produce is up there with the most dangerous poisons. Although it truly shines when it mixes with blood, it's plenty dangerous when it simply splashes on any living tissue."
She explained, joyfully sharing her knowledge.
"Fun fact: if you spit your venom at a tree growing out in the field, it will start rooting immediately, but if you spill your venom on the dried-up wood, nothing will happen to it."
She revealed excitedly and pointed at the baseball bat that Zombie was carrying in the case on his back.
"That's why our combination skill works~!"
Her eyes were sparkling as she said that.
"Haa... honestly, aren't you an amazing guy?"
Cranberry laughed and climbed on her tiptoes to pat Zombie's head.
Zombie lowered his head so that his master had easier access.
"Who knows, maybe someone will write a book about you someday?"
She said with a hint of melancholy in her voice.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Graough! (About us!)"
Zombie corrected her, making a grumpy face.
"Graough! (Master, don't make it sound as if you were about to leave me behind at some point!)"
"Pffft...! Ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha!"
Cranberry couldn't hold herself back and started laughing.
That laugh was certainly something unique to Cranberry.
It actually sounded more like dog barks than anything else, but somehow, it was a very Cranberry-like sound.
She never before allowed herself to laugh so loud like that inside the mansion since her mother hated it and all.
"Haa... Yes, Zombie, about us."
She breathed out and confirmed, wiping out a single tear from the corner of her eye.
"Still, there should still be some time before she'll drink it, so I've been thinking that maybe..."
Cranberry's face turned slightly pink as she furrowed her brows trying to not look too obvious, and started fidgeting.
She even looked away, dodging making any further eye contact unable to find the right words.
"...?"
Zombie tilted his head and blinked curiously, waiting for her to continue talking.
"You know... I think that you should stay in my room again tonight... Just in case the plan would end up in a failure and we would have to escape... or something...!"
She explained hurriedly, doing her best to sound calm and composed.
"Graough? (Escape?) Graough, graough? (But if your mother activated her domain and used the overpower skill, both of us would be stopped immediately anyway?)"
Zombie asked, showing a surprising amount of foresight.
"...haa... why can't you be dumb when it would benefit me..."
Cranberry muttered under her breath in defeat.
"...how am I supposed to say it without sounding like complete lunatic...?"
She sighed looking away in distress.
"This may sound awful, but I want to be awake when the system will notify us about her death."
She confessed looking down, as if ashamed of what she had just said.
Zombie approached her and gently touched her face with his left hand.
"?!?!?!??"
Cranberry jolted up in complete shock, but before she could say anything Zombie spoke first.
"Graough. (It's not awful at all. Not after what you've been through.)
He shook his head with a serious expression and smiled.
"Graough. (If you fall asleep, I'll wake you up so you could see it for yourself.)"
He added reassuringly and straightened his back.
"Graough. (I always end up restless when I can't see you anyway, so this is perfect.)"
He smiled innocently and walked towards the door.
"Graough? (Are we going already?) Graough? (Do you want me to bring you dinner to bed?)"
The blue undead sounded so genuinely happy that Cranberry started feeling a little bad.
"Well... yes. I would love that."
But only a tiny bit.
...
...
It was already dark outside.
Zombie was sitting on the floor by Cranberry's bed and was holding her hand.
Cranberry herself was completely buried under the covers, and only her hand grabbing onto Zombie was poking out.
The calm silence was disturbed only by Cranberry's peaceful breaths.
"Graough? (Are you awake?)"
Zombie asked gently.
"...yes..."
Embarrassed Cranberry responded in a muffled voice.
"Grao... (Say, don't you think that it's taking too...)
/Servant's skill upgrade
Soul devouring venom ( +1[max])
"...ugh... (long...)"
The message interrupted Zombie's groan.
"So it has begun~"
Cranberry hummed happily waiting for another message to announce lady Raspberry's death and the system granting her a new role.
Another message did show up right after...
...but its content wasn't anything that Cranberry or Zombie ever expected.
/Story event - start
/Night of the hungry wolves
/Servant receives a global story entry quest
Hide until the daybreak
Reward: New skill: Sneak
/Master receives a global story entry quest
Get your powers stolen and die
Reward: ---
"GROUGH...! (YOU MUST BE...!)
Zombie roared furiously.
"FUCKING KIDDING ME!"
Cranberry jumped out of her bed and finished Zombie's sentence - her eyes burning with pure aggression.
