Chapter 377: Entering the hidden village

"...CK HAPPENED TO YOU?!"

Mirabelle's reaction to seeing Zombie's new appearance was exactly the same as Olive's - very loud and terrified.

"Hello~!"

The blue boy only raised his hand cheerfully in a greeting, already fully prepared for this situation thanks to practicing on Olive a while back.

"...!"

Well, even though he was ready - Cranberry most certainly wasn't since she flinched and clenched her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white, clearly taking the shocked scream as a part of the scolding, since, she the one directly responsible for the blue boy's current appearance.

"What hello?! You turned into an undead?! Wha- how?! Before you left I clearly told you to not work yourself to death! So what the fuck is this supposed to be?!"

They weren't even in the village yet, the real entrance was open, but their group was stopped by Mirabelle bolting out from inside.

"Well, actually, it's not like I died from getting too strong... Do you remember the sigil monsters? Like the ant that showed up at the old training ground? Well, one of the horses pulling the carriage that Cranberry was riding in suddenly turned into one of those and I was got in its way - it ranked up into a bicorn and skewered me like thwap! Right through my chest - I mean, I killed him by stabbing through the sigil on its head while stabbing through myself... but I was already dying anyway, so it definitely wasn't suicide!"

Zombie raised his hands, in an attempt to keep the village elder at bay, and explained calmly.

"Th-thwap?! Wait! YOU FUCKING STABBED YOURSELF?!"

But all of that was in naught - the next moment Mirabelle grabbed his face and lifted him up, stretching his cheek with a furious expression.

"HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID!? HEALERS EXIST FOR A REASON! WOUNDS CAUSED BY A BICORN'S HORNS AREN'T THAT HARD TO HEAL, YOU KNOW?!"

The woman howled, gritting her teeth, shaking the little, and surprisingly stretchy, blue undead around.

"Eashy for you to shay! Huumans ahen't sho shkilled ash you!"

Zombie complained, grabbing onto Mirabelle's wrists - not to break free but to simply not let her accidentally tear off the skin off of his face.

"Hey! Stop hurting him! Put my Zombie down!"

"Eh...?"

"kHuh...?"

Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, the red-haired Cranberry bravely stepped up to the platinum-haired elven woman and tugged on her clothes while glaring at her...

...with tearful eyes which slightly messed up with the effect the little girl was aiming for, but still...

...and made both Mirabelle and Zombie gasped out loud in shock.

"Your familiar...? Not your undead?"

The elven village elder raised her brow and looked between the blue boy - whose cheeks she continued stretching as a punishment even despite the red-haired girl's words, and the girl herself.

"My magic is Dark Arts! Not necromancy! Zombie is undead, but he is my familiar first! Let go of him!"

Cranberry stomped her foot and began pulling on Mirabelle's clothes - with no visible effect since there was a jarring difference in their skill points - but at the same time, she explained enough for the elven woman to clear out some misunderstanding.

"Dark Arts...? But that's a magic type that's way more common for the elves than humans..."

Mirabelle furrowed her brows and glanced at Olive - who shrugged his shoulders with an awkward expression, letting her know that he was just as much lost as she was.

"Let go of him, or you will regret it!"

"Alright, alright - fuck, what an attitude! You two are really alike."

Cranberry was about to start punching Mirabelle's leg in desperation, but the woman was faster and actually put down the blue undead who instantly started massaging his face making sure that nothing was out of place.

'Zombie! Are you alright?!"

Cranberry instantly let go of the elven village elder and walked up to him making a worried face.

"Nah, she is our ally, she didn't mean any harm... but she certainly got a lot more touchy since the last time I was here."

Zombie smiled back at her reassuringly but then frowned and glared at Mirabelle.

"Brat! It wasn't me who got fucking killed and returned as a monster!"

The woman squinted her eyes at him and scoffed.

"But I see that you at least managed to help the one you wanted to save."

Yet soon enough her cloudy expression changed into a smile when she looked at rings at the childrens' fingers.

"Yeah!"

"...haa...?"

Zombie showed his teeth in a happy grin while Cranberry frowned and tilted her head in confusion.

"Hmph~ good for you, kid."

The elven woman nodded her head.

"What's your name, little lady?"

She then went ahead and asked.

"..."

This was honestly a moment that Zombie was dreading the most - how will the elves actually react to someone from the seven main families...?

Should he stop Cranberry from introducing herself?

But wouldn't that just put more suspicion and pressure n her instead?"

"My name is Cranberry Pride, I am an only daughter of the Pride family!"

The red-haired girl made a decision for him and introduced herself with enough pride to follow up her surname.

"Pride you say? I see..."

Mirabelle didn't even flinch - if she got something to say about Cranberry's origin, she sure did well to hold herself back from doing so.

"My... my mother doesn't like me... she was hitting me and then Zombie returned and rescued me. That's why I forbid you from being mean to him!"

"...!"

Then, the little girl went ahead and spoke up about something that another her from the first playthrough never even admitted openly to Zombie, and followed it by a strongwilled statement!

|Is... is this happening thanks to her talking with that maid...?!|

Zombie asked internally, not entirely believing his own ears.

|That should be the main reason, yes.|

Patience confirmed, sounding as if she nodded.

"I see... Good job making it all the way here, both of you."

Mirabelle smiled softly and affectionately patted the two children in front of her.

Zombie only smirked, but Cranberry froze in place with her eyes wide open from shock as if she never expected such a reaction.

"I was wondering what the fuck had set off your illusions..."

The elven woman walked past the children and tapped Olive's shoulder while motioning at the young red dragon sitting politely behind the old elf.

"Good thing you stopped them all in time."

She winked to him and nodded benevolently.

"...uuuuuuuuugh.... that's not even remotely close to what fucking happened..."

But in response to that, Olive rolled his eyes and let out a huge sigh before glaring daggers at the straight-sword sheathed in the scabbard at Zombie's waist.

"Eh...? What do you...?"

Mirabelle hesitated and took a step back.

"Apparently that's a long fucking story and the kid will tell us once we get them a place to stay - are there any free hou..."

"Don't be fucking stupid! They will be staying at my place! I'm not going to make the same fucking mistake twice!"

Olive shrugged his shoulders and sighed... and got instantly scolded before he could even finish asking the question.

"E-even the dragon?"

He gasped in disbelief looking back at the red monster the size of a small horse.

"There is that toolshed I'm not using anyway, he looks very polite, so it should be fine. Come on, let's go - I bet the kids are tired."

The village elder waved her hand dismissively and already started walking, leading the group into the hidden elven village.

"Mira... Mira! That's not a dog or just some draconid - that's a real dragon! It won't just comply with..."

"(Oh, no, no. Don't worry about me, as long as I'm near my master, everything will be okay.)"

Bu just as Olive was trying to stop Mirabelle, the dragon used a telepathy skill and spoke softly in their minds - leaving the old elf speechless.

"You heard him."

The village elder shrugged and casually walked through the entrance.

|That went easier than expected.|

Seeing all of that play out, Zombie breathed out with relief and declared in his mind.

|If you say so... I was half expecting to sense Eternal waking up, but apparently this plan of yours is allowed even though nothing like this was ever mentioned in your character's backstory in the game, but sure.|

Patience scoffed, sounding irked off.

|Huh? You can sense when there's something happening to Eternal? And you're telling me only now?|

Zombie flinched and stopped in place while Olive and even Baron passed him while following after Mirabelle.

|Not just something - I can tell at what stage is his seal, - and I did tell you about it before, - as for the seal, it still sits on over 98% power, so that's why the sigil monsters we've encountered so far were so weak. With time things will get way worse, so you better prepare yourself and your villainess while you have time between the mandatory events.|

The sealed overseer explained lightheartedly, dampening the blue boy's mood quite a bit.

Still, he could not just stay there when everyone else was waiting for him behind the village entrance already...

Though, he wasn't the only one lagging behind.

The wide-eyed Canberry was still next to him, and she was gently touching the top of her head as if she was checking if everything was okay with it.

"Cranberry, you're okay? Let's go."

Zombie took it upon himself to take the first step and offered his hand to the confused red-haired girl.

"...ha...? Ah! Right! Let's go - I want to see that elven village that you told me about while we were flying!"

She gasped looking at the blue undead as if he suddenly appeared in front of her out of the thin air but almost instantly she shook her head and her attitude returned right as she took the blue boy's hand.