The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"Ha... looking closely, there are some crumbled rocks to the left of the fort... The trolls must have passed by here but those who aggroed on the fort were dealt with..."

Cranberry breathed out and pointed out after checking out the outpost from behind the cover of the vegetation.

"...sir Zombie, you are asking what does it change? It changes everything! Moss trolls are middle-rank monsters! There is a ridiculous difference between normal goblins and moss trolls!"

Shanks groan shaking his head.

"Trolls, in general, are dangerous because of their ridiculous regeneration, but even a weak moss troll can pose a threat to low-level adventurers with their strength! And what about their numbers?! How many of them are there...?"

"Slightly below one-hundred-fifty."

The rat-faced man shook his head in disbelief and asked – receiving the answer immediately.

"..."

That made him close his mouth and breath out as if he was doing his best to stay calm.

"...then, from what we know we are up against a one-hundred and fifty units strong group of humanoid monsters that look similar to goblins but are each as strong as goblin champions or lords...

That's like fighting completely unknown monsters"

Shanks declared, closing his eyes as he started massaging his temples with an exhausted expression.

"We might have fought with a whole army of trolls but those only aggroed one by one as long as we're careful, and now we have clearly fully organized force to deal with? Screw this! Lairs, you and the young miss should go on ahead and blow it to all hell while we get the upper hand from an ambush!"

He breathed out and declared getting slightly agitated.

"And then what? This is the worst scenario and the monsters have literally taken over and appropriated every single settlement, we will be simply warning them what's to come. What if they retreat to gather more troops and by the time we reach your village we will be faced with an army that's a couple thousand strong? No, rejected. We will deal with them without wiping out the fort itself – besides, if we are reclaiming the land it would be best to use existing structures instead of wasting time, effort, and resources on erecting new ones."

Cranberry decisively cut the rat-faced man off, refusing his opinion on the matter.

"And how do you want to achieve that, young miss?"

Shanks rolled his eye and stared at the red-haired girl with a bitter expression.

"...asked the stealthiest member of our group..."

Cranberry glared back at him and raised her brow.

"Miss – since we are basically clueless about the capabilities of those goblin-like creatures we can't be sure that they don't have a detection skill – they might not fond us out yet, but that doesn't mean that won't change if I sneak in and start cutting their throats in their sleep. A wide-scale attack that will wipe them out at once is the best option."

The rat-faced man shook his head and crossed his arm, adamant about his decision.

"Yeah, what about their resistances? What if the spells we use will not work as good as you think and we will get them all hot at our trail?|

Cranberry scoffed back at him.

"Nonsense, primal-rank spells outright ignore resistances and lower made nullification block only one-third of damage! Both of you can use primal-type spells and as we are now you have more than enough time to cast it without trouble!"

Shanks shrugged his shoulders dismissively, not looking convinced in the slightest.

"OR! Lai-lai, In're, and I can cast high-level cloaking and blocking spells that would cut the fort from the outside world while you all go in and deal with the goblins up close!"

Cranberry stomped her foot – but not too loud to not accidentally alarm the goblins' lookout at the top of the guard tower.

"Wha...?! Those spells are a continuous-cast type of spells, right? To make that plan work you would be exposed to danger while we will getting ourselves overrun there! No! Rejected! It's so stupid that it doesn't even get to be put up to vote!"

Shanks declared getting as angry as Cranberry.

"...you...!"

The red-haired girl gritted her teeth, clenching her fists on her baseball bat – with a brand new magic crystal in place – so hard that her knuckles turned white.

"Hey, Marshmallow, come here."

"...?"

All of a sudden, the blue undead turned back and beckoned Uresha to approach him, and the surprised woman walked up to him with a confused expression.

"Wh-what do you want from her...?"

Shanks flinched and put down his hands, ready to grab a knife if the need arose.

"I have something to discuss with a pretty lady of course. What? Jealous?"

"!!!"

"!!!!!!!!!!"

The blue undead knight smirked mockingly, looking down at the much shorter man and not only beckoned Uresha to lean down, but once she lowered her head, he put his arm over her shoulders and got her very close to whisper into her ear – which resulted in the very angry grimaces of Shanks ad Cranberry, although both of them were being jealous over someone else.

"S-sir Zombie...?"

"Shh... listen... We're making Shank's jealous now, alright? He has been feeling too good with no guys approaching you and all."

The large woman with a personality of a small animal gasped in confusion – but the words of the blue undead certainly didn't clear anything for her. 𝒇𝑟𝐞𝐞w𝐞𝑏𝙣𝑜vℯl.co𝑚

"E-eh...? EH?!"

On the contrary, it got her even more shocked and she wanted to back off but Zombie had a strong grip on her shoulders and did not let her.

"Shh... no, seriously. I've heard from Cranberry that the two of you are somehow still not together. And since you seem to be too shy to confess to him first, we got to make him worked up enough to show any sort of reaction, don't you think?"

Zombie grinned at Uresha before glancing back at the short rat-faced man who looked as if he had a lot to say but was still somehow keeping it down.

"S-sir Zombie, this is not a time and place for talking about embarrassing stuff like that...!"

Uresha blushed deeply and fidgetted pitifully crying in a soft shy voice.

"Nonsense. Listen, we will go with my wife's plan, alright? But with slight adjustments – only I will be going to clear out the fort. As long as you, Rotte, and your pint-sized loverboy, Shiv, will all stay back and guard all the magic casters there should be no problem, don't you think?"

The blue undead waved his hand dismissively and declared.

"But that will be dangerous for you!"

Uresha made a worried expression and shook her head.

"Whoa, seriously, don't give me that look, you are a cutie but I am married already, alright?"

"E-eh?! N-no! I didn't mean it like that...! a-and his name is Shanks..."

The blud undead raised his brows and showed up his left hand with the ancient wedding ring, causing the large woman to get even more embarrassed.

"I know, I know – but why don't you try talking like that to Shiv? You will get a perfect chance while I will be clearing out the fort. With that in mind, you will agree with my adjustment to the proposition, right?"

Zombie had no intention of letting her go if she didn't agree, after all, he really wanted to level up his shield and poison skills, and their entire group constantly getting in his way he would never get anywhere near the amount of practice that he wanted.

Getting his way and helping out the pair of adventurers – those were the two birds he was currently aiming at.

"You do know what Kopia is capable of doing, right? Just go along with my plan and you'll see that everything will be fine~"

Zombie smirked but at the same time, he could feel the furious gaze of Cranberry dilling into his back.

Although she was the one who told Zombie to help Shanks and Uresha get together, she clearly didn't consider Zombie going for the jealousy strategy.

..after all, she was definitely the most jealous person there and she was already on the verge of keeping her word about executing any woman that will get too cozy with her husband...

"...a... alright..."

And just in time – Uresha fold in and agreed!