The Villainess and I, her Zombie-Chapter 480 - Durians Mansion (part 4) - Setup

The maid had shown all the early guests to their rooms that were – in fact – already prepared and bowed down slightly intimidated by the high status of the people in front of her.

"Noble guests, please, make yourselves at home – I will inform lord Durian and young lady Mary about your arrival and return to tell you when you will be able to meet them."

She said nervously, unsure whether it was rude or not to turn her back on the first prince of the kingdom, so she merely shimmied awkwardly around the group without rising her head but constantly facing them all, especially the nervous Roan.

"You will inform Durian and Mary? What does that mean?! Are they together right now?!"

The blond prince read far too much into the maid's words and took a step forward, clenching his fists and demanding answers with a pale face.

"E-eh...? N-no... Both lord Durian and the young lady are busy with their own preparations, also, it's bad luck for a groom to be seeing the bride during the week before the ceremony, and you, your majesty, should know best that Greeds family doesn't like to play around with their luck..."

The maid was taken aback but her answer was more than satisfactory.

"Ah! Right! Of course...!"

Roan breathed out and relaxed his tense muscles, stepping away and nodded to himself.

|The whole week? Wasn't that supposed to be only right before the ceremony?|

Zombie asked curiously.

|Only in your old world. Though, honestly, no one other than the Greed family is taking this old tradition seriously. But I can't really blame them – since almost all members cannot raise their LUC stat at all.|

The sealed being answered casually, sounding as if she shrugged her shoulders.

"Be fast about it."

"At once, your highness...!" 𝒇𝔯e𝚎𝘄𝑒𝑏𝙣𝑜𝚟𝗲𝑙.c𝘰𝚖

The blond prince looked down at the maid and motioned at her to go away and not waste any more time and the worried maid gasped and hurriedly backstepped all the way to the corner of the hallway before she actually started running the moment that she could not be seen by any of the guests.

"Roan, I should not have to tell you this – but I will – do not act rash."

Cranberry tried to rest her head against Zombie's shoulder, but in his current form, the blue undead wasn't at the right height that would allow that, hence she had to set for leaning towards his head while cautiously observing the blond prince.

"Not act rash? What is that supposed to mean?!"

Roan frowned and glared at the red-haired girl though he quickly stopped once he met the real murderous glare of the shorter blue undead who seemed to have been gearing up for kicking him in the esophagus...

"What do you mean, Cranberry? I am calm..."

Even though the blond prince had been in many fights already, and never missed a day of training, the sole aura surrounding the blue undead was enough to efficiently deter him from seeking conflict.

"We first need to learn about how Mary sees this whole situation – with how tight-lipped your uncle's slaves are, even your mother's spies were unable to learn why did she agree to his proposal."

Cranberry rolled her eyes and explained while intertwining her fingers with Zombie's.

"Yeah, tight – they couldn't... as if I believe that obvious lie!"

Roan scoffed and shook his head.

"...?"

My mother doesn't mind Durian growing in power, remember? I bet you that she withheld any important information because she does want to gain control over the Hope family – and since Mary has been chosen as the heir of the Hope family, then of course my mother would not want us saving Mary from the clutches of that fat bastard!"

The blond prince shook his head and explained clenching his fists harder and harder as he spoke.

|Hey, I had an old unfinished business with Durian myself, but what is it about that fat bastard thing...? Durian in my memories was huge, but only because of the muscles – is this another change that sets this playthrough apart from the previous one...? I wanted to fight him with close combat and leg power, but if he will have a lot of fat on him to insulate his organs from the blunt damage, then I might as well just take Kopia... What do you think?|

Zombie furrowed his brows and asked the sealed being inside of him for advice.

|...ha...? N-no. That was supposed to be an insult, Durian is as you said, big but only because he is a really bulky guy...|

The sealed being sounded as if she was taken aback by the lack of understanding on Zombie's part.

|...did... did you relearned rotten brain or something...? Roan is just angry...|

She added as her tone changed from shock into genuine worry.

|Not really. I just wanted to make you feel like the old times. No jokes from now on.|

|...?|

The blue undead rolled his eyes and explained, but ironically, it was the sealed being who did not realize what the blue undead was referencing and somehow managed to make her silence feel as if she was tilting her head in confusion.

"For now, we should just wait in our rooms for the maid to return."

Back in the outside world Cranberry said and pulled her undead familiar towards her assigned room.

"Why would we need to go to the rooms? The maid said that she will be right back!"

Roan shook his head and complained in response.

"She will be doing her best but that doesn't mean that your uncle will answer her right away – or are you saying that you never dismissed a servant before even listening to what they had to say first?"

"...!"

The red-haired girl smirked and looked over her shoulder, raising her brow while the blond prince flinched and opened his mouth only to close it back up once he realized what she meant...

|Zombie, I know that this Cranberry has defused the situation – but that is exactly the opposite of what we want. Roan must be anxious and agitated enough to start acting as soon as the sun will set.|

...and would probably just relax just a little bit – but unfortunately, the sealed being inside of the blue undead gave out an instruction – and the blue undead had no problem with following it through.

"Yeah, go sit tight in the room while your uncle gets busy with his future wife or whatever."

"!!!!!"

"Zombie?!"

The blue undead shrugged his shoulders and smirked at the blond prince – who looked as if he was struck by thunder – and did not stop talking even when the red-haired girl at his side scolded him in a voice full of disbelief.

"Durian's magic allows him to use the skills of his slaves, right? Why would he have to bother with some LUC stat and tradition anyway? Though, after a bit of consideration, he might want to actually get some stuff done during the day to have time to do something else at night. And in the first place – how can we even be sure that Mary isn't under his slave seal already? Maybe tonight she will come in her wedding dress to his room and they will have a little bit of practice in before their official first night~"

Zombie shrugged his shoulders awhile tilting his head and snuck out of Cranberry's embrace, as she, Roan, and Carambola were all looking at him with various degrees of shock and appall.

"Oh, and since we got four rooms – I'm taking this one. Gramps, let me know when we will be going to meet the future couple~!"

The blue undead smirked and winked at the silver-haired Carambola before disappearing into the nearest room and shutting the door behind his back.

|...haa... this is my fault... I should tell you to make Roan agitated enough for him to want to check up on Mary and sneak out at night – and NOT to make him furious enough to want to murder his uncle...|

The sealed being sighed in a pained voice, sounding as if she was massaging her temples with both hands.

|Nah - I knew what you wanted me to do, I just wanted to get back at you by showing off what it feels like to work with an overachiever.|

The blue undead smirked and sat down cross-legged in the middle of the room ignoring the chairs and bed and activated presence detection.

|Oh-ho!|

He gasped internally, pleasantly surprised by what – or rather who – he saw.

|Say, are they important only for this event, or are we supposed to recruit them just like the current Cranberry did with gramps?|

Zombie asked playfully, watching the life signature of the maid that lead them inside the mansion had run into another - far more recognizable - life signature, and judging by the frequency of the pulsation she was feverishly explaining something to the other person.

|Khahaha! My oh, my - look how strong she got~! And that snot-nosed brat too~|

The blue undead laughed happily looking towards the opposite side of the mansion and focused on a different life signature.

|A little bit of both.|

|Nice.|