The Villainess and I, her Zombie

The baseball bat crackling with electricity got swung time after time and with each hit the monster was brought down.

"M-maybe we should try negotiation after all...?"

Uresha spoke awkwardly, looking at the pitiful creatures spasming on the ground as the electricity was coursing through their bodies constantly refreshing the paralysis status effect.

"Negotiating, with those...?"

*WHAM*

*SPLAT*

The red-haired Cranberry furrowed her brows before bringing the blunt weapon to the moss-covered head of the stone troll, splitting it apart and causing the brain matter to spill to the sides.

"Do monsters negotiate with humans? Did they negotiate with your village before raiding it, killing your neighbors, and razing your homes?"

The red-haired girl raised her brow and shrugged her shoulders, shaking off the viscera from her baseball bat and moving onto the other troll - finishing it off with the same indifference as every single one before.

"...well..."

The big woman fidgeted, the short answer was no - but it didn't sit well with the kindhearted tank of the Dandelions.

"Sometimes the best revenge is living a good peaceful life."

She went ahead and punted out, as Cranberry was walking from one monster to the other getting rid of all of them.

"Good for you - being the bigger person figuratively and literally. It suits your personality - but not mine."

The red-haired girl, making the jet black baseball bat catch on fire with a spell to clean it up and resting the weapon on her shoulder afterward.

"I got the EXP from helping to kill the sigil monster but it wasn't enough to get me to the high-level category and I need to change that. My lovely husband is already a high-ranked monster, early high-rank but a high-rank nonetheless."

She added, shrugging her shoulders and sounding as if that has explained everything.

"That's right! Your husband, Zombie - is he really okay with the violence towards monsters?"

Uresha perked up and asked as if she just got a new set of arguments to continue proving her point.

"...haa... Uresha, not every monster that can imitate human speech is as intelligent as you think it is..."

Cranberry shook her head and spoke in a slightly tired voice - they two of them were been killing stone trolls since early morning - or rather Cranberry was killing them while Uresha was making sure that the red-haired girl will cot get harmed in the process while trying to deter her from the slaughter.

"I am not saying that those who can be negotiated with do not exist but... really Uresha? Trolls? Forget about humans, they kill everything that enters disturbs their slumber be it another monster, an animal, or a passing human... you did see how the old camp we've passed on our way here looked - do you think that they were actively trying to get slaughtered or are you suddenly an advocate for the monsters right of indiscriminately killing everything because of their nature."

The red-haired girl breathed out and started a lengthy explanation while waving her hand, showing off tens of sleeping stone trolls that didn't even wake up from their slumber even while their neighbors got destroyed.

"...no..."

For a second it looked like the large woman was going to try and argue back but she lost the fighting spirit and slouched before shaking her head.

"Good thing that we have cleared that out. I almost thought that you were going to say something about humans disturbing the natural habitat of the stone trolls while those beasts we have here are migrating because there is literally nothing weak enough for them to kill and devour in their old location."

Cranberry nodded and declared before she walked up to another slumbering beast - getting in the extremely short range of their detection and aggroing it.

"Your kindness isn't a bad thing, alright? The problem is that sometimes kindheartedness is only a step away from naive misconception. Monsters are not animals - as long as we don't eradicate the entire species and get the extinction achievement, the monsters that you are killing will continue to spawn into the world. Do you understand? No balance will get disturbed."

The red-haired girl changed the electrical augmentations on her baseball bat for the less obvious water one and actually lobbed the standing-up troll's head off with a single, perfectly performed, and executed swing.

"All that said - I got a question for you."

Cranberry smirked seeing one of the trolls get hit with the head of his dead colleague and was looking around in confusion.

"What it is, Mrs...?"

The large woman furrowed her brows, tilting her head.

"Back in our camp, as you were cooking, I noticed that neither you nor Shanks are wearing your rings... did something happen?"

The red-haired girl asked with concern, looking back at the shocked eight-foot-tall woman.

"Rings...? But we do? I have two ring artifacts, one raising my HP the more I fight, and the other that increases the range of my taunt. Shanks have at least four that raise his agility and physical damage."

Uresha answered, sounding innocently confused.

"Haa..."

Cranberry breathed out and shook her head.

"Artifacts are good, but I don't mean those kinds of rings - I meant this."

She declared, raising her left hand, showing off the ancient wedding ring placed upon her ring finger by her beloved undead.

"Even if you are saving up all your money in order for buying out the land where your village was, getting a wedding ring that's also enchanted isn't that expensive - and let me tell you this, showing off to other people that you are married does feel pretty good."

Cranberry boasted, wiggling her ring finger to the sides

"...!"

"...?"

But as Uresha flinched and put her hands to her face to hide it - even though she was already wearing a full helmet covering it, made Cranberry furrow her brows.

"M-mrs... Sh-shanks and I aren't married...!"

The large woman let out a cute voice and crouched down turning away in embarrassment.

"...ha....? HA?! What do you mean you aren't married?!"

The red-haired girl asked, dumbfounded.

"Uuu... Mrs... don't tease me, please, how did you figure out I like him in the first place...?"

The large woman cried out like a squeaky toy and glanced at the red-haired girl before turning right back and shaking her head. ƒ𝐫𝒆𝐞w𝗲𝚋𝗻૦𝘷e𝙡.c𝑜𝙢

"I was trying so hard not to make it obvious..."

Uresha cried pitifully.

"..."

Cranberry didn't even need to say anything else and the large woman already started talking on her own.

"It's weird, right? Someone so needlessly big like me liking someone else... I bet Shanks would like someone shorter than me... I don't have a chance, so why even bother..."

She started sulking and even Raised her shield and hid herself from the red-haired girl's sight.

"...and here I thought that we've missed on that event..."

"Eh...? Mrs...?"

Cranberry muttered to herself, causing Uresha's confusion.

"Alright. First order of business after we'll be done with the stone trolls here - getting you two together."

"EH?!"

Cranberry made a serious face and nodded - making the large woman gasp in disbelief.