The Villainess and I, her Zombie

Chapter 78: System reset

/...

/...

/Rebooting the system...

/Installing the update...

/Adjusting the world setting...

Time remaining: 3 years 5 months 17 days

/Warning

/Unpredictable side-effects of spending three years in a vegetative state may occur

/Calculating...

/Solution:

To prevent the dissonance between bodies and minds of the population, false memories should be implemented

/...

/Adjusting the memories...

/...

/Error

/Servant holds the superbia skill

Unable to adjust Servant's memories

/Error

/Master-Servant bond level reached level 3

Servant holds the superbia skill

Unable to adjust Master's memories

/Calculating...

/Abandoning the memories adjustment process for Master and Servant

/...

/World setting adjustment complete

/False memories implemented

/Update complete

Zombie opened his eyes, feeling as if he was just sucked out of an endless void.

He has found himself sitting by Cranberry's bed.

"...graough...? (...what the...?) Graough?! (Cranberry?!)"

He growled horrified when his mind cleared and he remembered the state his master was in when he last saw her before everything went black.

How much time has passed since then?

What exactly happened then?

And where is his master now?

Is she even alive?

Those questions were bludgeoning every other thought in his head.

Zombie decided to run out of the room to scour the battlefield, searching for the wounded red-haired girl.

"Graough...! (Whoa...!)"

But as soon as he stood up he realized all too late that his left hand is tied up to the bed, and it resulted in his feet kicking up in the air and him smashing his back against the floor.

"Nnn..."

Someone on the bed made an annoyed voice.

"Graough...? (Huh...?)"

Zombie shook his head and looked at what was holding him down.

It was...

A hand sticking out of the bundle of covers that had its fingers intertwined with his own.

And the person holding on to him must have had quite the monstrous strength to hold him back like that.

"G-graough...! (N-no way...!)"

Zombie gasped and awkwardly crawled on the bed.

Feeling way more nervous than he should be able to as an undead, Zombie slowly hooked the edge of the blanket on the paralyzed fingers of his right arm and pulled it down.

"Graough...? (Eh...? Um...? Master...?)"

He growled in confusion.

The red-haired girl wearing a blue pajama was sleeping peacefully on the mattress.

She was the one holding Zombie's hand.

She looked very similar to Cranberry.

But was it really her...?

Zombie wasn't able to say with certainty whether she was Cranberry or not...

For example...

He clearly remembered his master being almost fifteen years old while the lady in front of him was already a young adult, most likely around eighteen or nineteen years old.

She was taller and her features seemed softer than Cranberry in Zombie's memories.

"Gra-graough...? (Ma-master, is that you...?)"

Zombie growled shyly and tugged on the girl's pajama.

"...nnn...!"

She frowned and made a very Cranberry-like sound, bud didn't wake up.

Zombie looked around befuddled.

On one hand, he wanted to check the battlefield just in case, but something inside of him was telling him, that this sleeping girl was Cranberry herself.

But then how did she suddenly got over three years older in only...

Zombie flinched.

How long exactly...?

The last thing he remembered was the countdown finishing and a system message informing about the restart popping up.

And then he woke up.

There was seemingly no delay, but at the same time, he had this strange gut feeling that it has been quite some time.

Realizing that was quite an achievement for him, considering that Zombie's rotten brain title usually dulled his intuition to the point of blind ignorance.

"Graough... (How much time has passed since everything turned dark...?)"

Zombie muttered to himself.

He sat on the bed and closed his eyes trying to recall anything.

He knew that whatever caused Cranberry to suddenly get older, must have had something to do with that sudden darkness enveloping everything.

Zombie opened his eyes and looked at the girl.

He saw a long thin scar going all the way from her shoulder to her wrist and felt anger remembering the frenzied werewolf who managed to reach his master.

But then the blue undead looked back at Cranberry's face, searching for other scars that she could have suffered when he wasn't able to reach her.

There was one, a small one, around her left ear but nothing else.

It was to be expected though, Cranberry knew how to protect herself after all.

Zombie's eyes slid down her face and, after a big detour, ended on her stomach.

The memory of all the blood and pink intestines that were almost spilling from the terrible wound caused by the werewolf's bite echoed in his mind.

He tensed up at the mere thought of it, feeling the anger build up remembering the overwhelming amount of opponents swarming the single girl and trying to eat her alive.

There was no doubt that an injury like that should have been fatal.

If her right arm ended up with a large scar like that then... how did the more terrible one looks now?

Without any more hesitation, the blue undead reached over to the girl's stomach with his useless paralyzed hand and pulled up her pajama's top slightly.

On a pale stomach with clearly defined muscles many tiny scars were lining up creating the outline of a beast's bitemark.

"Graough...! (You are my master..!)"

The surge of relief crashed against Zombie's cold heart and left him shedding tears of happiness.

"Graough! (Master! Master, you're alive!)"

He cried, lowering his head and gently pulling Cranberry's hand to his forehead.

He no longer felt the need to go anywhere, this was the only place he ever wanted to be.

Since his master was safe, there was nothing that he wanted more than to stay by her side.

"...?"

Cranberry, who probably feeling a draft on her stomach, opened her sleepy eyes just a tiny bit.

"...haa... so you followed me even in death...?"

She mumbled half asleep and pulled on Zombie's hand and the surprised undead ended up in her embrace.

"...my sweet rotten brain~..."

Cranberry purred, hugging Zombie's head, and nuzzled her face against his hair.

For a second, Zombie had no idea how to respond, considering the position he ended up in.

"Ghaough...! (Master, you're not dead...!)"

Zombie's groan was muffled since his face was smushed between Cranberry's chest.

"...? Haa...? Oh, please, Zombie, as if anyone could have lived after losing that much blood... haa... that werewolf got me goo..."

She breathed out, dismissing Zombie's comment with a lethargic voice when suddenly she twitched and opened her eyes.

"...d?"

She hugged Zombie tighter as if she wanted to keep him safe, and keenly looked around.

She realized that something was off.

"I highly doubt that the afterlife, if such place even exists, looks like my bedroom..."

Cranberry said carefully weighing her words, checking everything in sight.

"..."

She sat up - with Zombie's head still firmly stuck, and while leaning to the side she pulled up her pajama's top, a lot higher than what Zombie did before, in a lot bolder move.

"Ha..."

She frowned when she saw the exact same scars that Zombie discovered before.

Then she extended one arm, checking its length, and finally got off the bed and stood up only to realize how much taller she was now.

...and she did all of that while pulling Zombie with her, holding him in her embrace...

"...haa..."

Cranberry raised her brow and made a sour expression.

/Master's skill upgrade

Charm (level 21)

Only when a system message popped up Cranberry looked down at her servant, and her face became crimson red.

She hurriedly let go of him and took a step back.

"Ekhem... a-at least now we know that whatever happened, the system still works...!"

Cranberry cleared her throat and said the first thing that came to her mind to hide her embarrassment.

"Graough? (Master, do you remember what happened?) Graough! (There was that girl, and she was doing something weird to you!) Graough! (And, and there was this strange green light coming out of you!)"

Zombie started growling in a worried voice.

"I... have no idea what you are talking about, Zombie..."

Cranberry tilted her head.

"I remember sending you off so you wouldn't see me dying in such a pathetic way..."

She started massaging her temples trying to jog her memory.

"Graough?! (Wait! So there really were no potions in your room?!)"

Zombie growled feeling betrayed.

"Yeah. Rotten brain, why would there be any potions here? We were keeping adventuring a secret from my mother, remember?"

Cranberry rolled her eyes and sighed in disappointment.

"I am quite sure though that I've heard your voice calling me and...!"

Suddenly she stopped talking and blushed harder than before.

"Graough! (I was...!) Graough! (And also, I was so panicked that I destroyed a whole...!)"

Zombie growled, completely missing her reaction.

Instead, he himself closed his mouth and started looking around the room.

"Graough... (Master, I'm pretty sure that I caused a part of the mansion to collapse...) Graough... (Including this room...)"

He groaned confused.

"And I'm certain that one of the werewolves had run away with your right arm, too..."

Cranberry added pointing at Zombie's right hand attached together with red stitches.

"Haa... Just... what does it all mean...?"

Cranberry started massaging her forehead and sighed.