Chapter 483: Durian's mansion (7) - The decision

Mia and Zombie were catching up for quite some time - and would most likely continue it all the way to the morning if not for the new system message that popped up for the blue undead...

/Do not leave the quest location

"...and after that...!"

Mia was in the middle of the sentence when she seemingly also get a system message on her own as her eyes suddenly moved from right to left reading the text, only visible to her.

|Is this okay...? Why did I get only a piece of information and not an actual quest?|

Zombie straightened his back and asked the sealed being inside of him.

|Because you are not the main hero of this event - or are you telling me that you were secretly the prince all along...?|

|True.|

The sealed being responded sounding as if she shrugged her shoulders dismissively and the blue undead could not refute her answer at all.

"Zombie... you guys did not come here to peacefully attend the wedding, did you...?"

Mia breathed out and scowled at the undead next to her.

"Say... at the beginning of our little talk you said that joining Durian was the best short-term decision that you could have made... Why only short-term...?"

The blue undead casually sprawled on his chair and instead of answering Mia's question, he asked one on his own, looking at her with a curious expression.

"Do not change the subject!"

"I am not, you are changing the subject - I am merely continuing the small talk that you suddenly cut into with that question of yours."

The dark-skinned woman scoffed and shook her head but the blue undead snickered and waved his hand dismissively before tilting his head and staring at her intently.

"Why short-term?"

He pressed, making Mia lean away - clearly about to walk out of the room.

"Zombie, I just got a quest about protecting the mansion from the intruders - if the people you came here together with are not the ones that my quests mention, then just say it so I could go and look for the real danger."

The woman sighed and glared at him with overly serious eyes.

"Oh, don't worry - we are definitely the ones in your quest - that's why you can just stay here with me for a little while longer..."

|Zombie, check up on Roan - he cannot die, and something tells me that he is going to if we will not babysit him.|

"...is what I won't tell you to do..."

"...eh...?"

Zombie's words got interrupted b the sealed being inside of him and the blue undead instantly changed the direction of his sentence, causing the dark0skinned woman to flinch and furrow her brows in confusion.

"...!"

The blue undead glanced to the side to the last location that he remembered Roan wandering about, and his eyes widened once he realized that the life signature belonging to the blond prince is running through the hallways of the mansion hand in hand with the life signature that could only belong to the brown-haired heroine herself!

"Your intuition is correct - Roan, Cranberry, and I have all come here to not let the wedding happen - our dear first prince can not allow his friend to be just a sacrificial pawn in the political game played by his mother and uncle - honestly, I thought that his plan was dumb and set for a failure, so I did not plan to get involved, but everything changed once I realized that you are here."

"!!!!"

As if under some sort of a spell, the blue undead completely changed his act - instead of confident and condescending - he suddenly turned meek and leaned towards Mia, reaching out for the dark-skinned woman's hand and grabbing it gently while making himself sound moved to tears - which was what made Mia get so confused she just started staring at him speechless.

"If there is someone on the inside willing to help us save Marceline - this reckless plan might work - that's why I'm asking you again - why did you call it best short-term decision and not just your best decision?"

Zombie lowered his head, clenching Mia's hands as if he seriously was feeling deeply about the whole situation of the pitiful soon-to-be bride, and repeated his original question.

"...I..."

The dark-haired woman stuttered and gulped down her saliva.

She seemed to be torn apart about what to do - on one hand, she just received a clear answer that indeed the group that arrived posing as mere guests were, in fact, the disruptors set on messing with the ceremony planned by her master - and on the other hand, there was her childhood friend - now older, not to mention blue and an undead - asking her for help about saving someone she knew would end up pitiful and miserable...

Even though Mia sold her independence in exchange for power, she did not get rid of her conscience and moral compass...

"...it was only short term thing because Durian's power is beneficial for the agreeing slaves only until they are around late middle-levels or early high-levels if a slave has a high magic defense - after they reach around that moment, Durian's magic starts to slowly gnaw on on their free will essentially turning them into the same type of mindless slave that the ones forced to become one would have."

In the end, Mia closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and revealed.

"Then, the thing about Durian's magic having two modes was..."

Zombie furrowed his brows, gitting his teeth in anger.

"...a sweet lie that was supposed to bait the adventurers with the too good to be true kind of deal. And, as I just said - the deal was too good."

The dark-skinned woman nodded with a solemn expression.

"There is a way to leave - have a high enough MDF and LUC stats - but even if you have everything required, Durian's magic works in such a way that the slave is required to pay him off for leaving his service - and that payment is skills that the slave had leveled up during their service. I don't know if it's true but apparently once took all of the slaves he didn't want to let go."

Mia added while fidgeting anxiously - but she was not as nervous as Zombie was - he could clearly see Roan and Mary's life essences barely getting away from being spotted by Durian's slaves on high alert.

...one of the slaves was going straight for the empty chambers where Mary was until Roan didn't come for her, and it was easy to imagine what will happen next...

...still, probably the most disturbing part of the whole situation was the monster chained up in the cell in the mansion's basement - funnily enough, as far as the blue undead could recall, that was the same cell that he was put in during the first playthrough...

...and speaking of similarities, that monster also seemed to be somewhat familiar...

"...I'm reaching the late mid-levels already, and it's a high time for me to start thinking about leaving... Still... I'm not sure whether I want to risk losing all of my skills, even for you - and especially not for some girl..."

Mia seemed to have come to a conclusion, and everything was looking like she was going to reject Zombie's convincingly heartfelt belief - but that was also the very same moment, that the one slave reached Mary's chamber - and seeing her not being there - they used some kind of skill...

...that was also the moment where the real event began...

"Argh...! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHH...!"

The life signature of Durian Greed - on whom the blue undead was also keeping an eye this whole time just in case - lighted up with the fluctuating mana and he used a skill - and whatever skill it was it caused the dark-skinned woman next to Zombie, fell down from her seat and howl in pain while clenching her head as her nose, eyes, and even ears started bleeding.