*BOOOOOOM*
With no intention of explaining anything to the elves that he had left behind, Zombie caused a cloud of dust to be thrown up in the air as he went from laying down straight into a full-on sprint augmented with both strong kick and whirlwind kick skills consecutively.
"Zombie?! What happened?!"
Olive called out after him but the blue undead was already disparaging from his view.
|What's your plan?|
Patience asked calmly as if she had complete faith in her host, which was honestly a rather new experience for the said host – it was certainly not a bad feeling though.
|I set her up, but I didn't straight up give away her locations nor what her plans were – even with Pitaya's teleportation it would not be that easy to pinpoint Banana. We're going to check the places she might try to hide.|
Zombie explained hurriedly, quite pleased that he had someone to talk to – well, think to – like he was now.
Before he could try to emulate it with Kopia, but the sentient sword could not respond to him despite being able to read his mind so it wasn't the same at all.
|Ha... I see... according to the memories I memorized, it seems that Xavi is quite apt in the art of escaping, so she indeed should be able to dodge the queen's spies for at least a couple of days, not too much though – Ti's mother is really annoying bloodhound at Greeds playlist.
Sounding as if she didn't even bat an eye, the sealed overseer dropped a rather juicy piece of info into the mix as if it was nothing.
|Khahaha! I knew that they had to be related – so she really was her mother – say, will that info be of use to us later on?|
Going with the flow, the blue undead felt his initial tension releasing – but whether that was due to how Patience's presence was easing his mind or whether that was only part of the machine mind skill effects was really hard to guess correctly, so let's say that it was a little bit of both.
|Not really – Ti isn't really a necessary character for our ending. She would be a nice addition, but if she'll ever piss you off, feel free to lob her head off~|
Patience giggled and ended her sentence sounding as if she was winking at the blue undead mischievously.
|Oh, and you know that by showing off so much you will out yourself to the queen and the other Greeds as someone who tried to scam them? Their family doesn't take kindly to such people.|
She added getting back into her serious mode.
|Be careful.|
She ended up saying before going quiet, satisfied with herself and her speech.
"..."
Zombie smirked to himself and concentrated on running and dodging the sparse travelers on the road leading to the city where his adventurer's guild was.
It just so happened that the guild was the first place of interest to check for – though it was on the list only because it was so obvious hiding spot that the queen's spies might have everything Banana vel Xavi's intelligence and common sense.
*WHAM*
"Hey! Is guild master here?!"
With completely no regard to the guild's property, Zombie busted down the door with a single devastating kick and basically flew inside, shouting a question over the heads of the shocked and adventurers – of whom most became horrified once they recognized the intruder.
"You! Grape! Do you know where Banana is?!"
While using the acrobatics skill to land safely on top of the counter, and crouched down, leaning over the male kobold, staring holes at him, tilting his head like a monstrous owl.
"Th-the guild master isn't here..."
The kobold hurriedly shook her head while almost falling off of the chair he was standing on to attend the adventurers.
"Grape – it's important. Greeds are after her... though I guess you are working with them..."
Zombie squinted his eyes suspiciously.
"Who's working with them! I would never betray miss Banana!"
The kobold took it quite personally and actually got angry.
"Those bastards knocked me out and stole my appearance – don't you dare to think that I was complying with those greedy bastards!"
Actually angry, angry enough for Zombie to give him a pass, even though he had no solid proof that whatever Grape was saying was indeed true.
"Umm... excuse me...? Who allowed a monster into the guild – and more importantly – I was first, no cutting in line!"
Just as the blue undead was about to stand up the annoying voice from behind scolded both him and the male kobold behind the counter.
"Shut up, Mia. You are still too weak to try to act so tough."
"!!!!!!!!"
Zombie scoffed at the owner of the voice without even looking back nodded at Grape.
"If you see her, tell her to try to get the hell away, the deal with Greeds is off, they are after her for real now."
He declared and saw the kobold's eyes widening from actual fear once he realized the weight of the blue undead's words.
"H-hold on a second...! Y-you... no...! You can't be...! Zombie...?! Wha- How?! Why do you look so much older?! No, wait, first of all, why are you an actual undead?"
As the blue undead stood up and turned around, he glanced down at the flabbergasted dark-skinned young woman with a mace strapped to her waist.
She was staring at his face absolutely horrified.
|...ah... now that she knows she will surely tell Laura... ugh... do you think that it will be troublesome...?|
Zombie sighed internally and asked his reliable sealed-in tutorial guide.
|Oh, she will for sure – I mean, Laura activates your secret quest, mister capture target, of course, there should be some sort of troublesome connection between you.|
He got the explanation that he wanted and it turned out to be way more significant than he thought.
|...I thought I was nothing but trouble for her. Not to mention that I was sure that my secret quest would have something to do with the Sloths and maybe that Cranberry who would be alive thanks to us following the secret route would activate it.|
"...?"
Zombie furrowed his brows – which on the outside looked as if he was glaring down at Mia judging whether she was worthy to receive a response from him or not.
|Ha ha! Nope! As if~!|
Patience laughed openly, making it sound like she was shaking her hand dismissively.
|Also, about you and Laura – well, in my opinion, you are the most lovable person, and I bet that she actually really liked your wild character. After all, despite you sneaking out every night to hunt monsters and whatnots she never punished you and diligently trained you. That would go in accordance with how it was in the game – Zombie was Laura's favorite pupil.|
She divulged more details sounding as if she was laying on the ground and rolling around mischievously, like some sort of a house cat.
|Oh-ho...!|
Zombie gasped in a rather pleasant surprise and ended up smirking – which due to the difference in height, with him still standing on top of the counter, ended up looking as if he was mocking the dark-skinned girl.
"You got stronger, but do you think that it is really enough? Sometimes, you have to push yourself as far out of your comfort zone as possible to get the results you wish for."
The blue undead declared, shrugging his shoulders, not responding to Mia's words simply because he forgot what she said – he chose the words that he thought would push her closer to Durian Greed and his allure of easy gains.
"!!!!!"
And judging by Mia's expression, he chose well.
"Grape, make sure to warn Banana if she shows up."
Zombie moved his head slightly and reminded the male kobold receptionist, before...
*BOOOOM*
...breaking the counter into splinters as he used it as a launching pad and disappeared through the broken door before anyone else could react.
"N-no! Zombie! Wait!"
Mia turned around and run after him out of the guild, but there was already no trace of the blue undead anywhere in sight.
...
...
|...Zombie... do not go in there.|
As the blue undead was about to enter a certain building in the entertainment district, the sealed overseer called out in his mind sounding rather grumpy.
|Huh...? You know that Banana uses this place as a hideout, right? I am not entering it for fun.|
Zombie froze with his hand raised halfway to the doorknob, and he tilted his head in confusion.
|I know. I also do not have anything against anyone working here, but the idea of you being in such a place feels me with...|
|...unease...?|
Zombie tried to play it off jokingly, finishing Patience's sentence, but she certainly didn't seem in the mood for playing along with that.
|Unbridled rage, envy, and urge to kill. So yes, you could call it unease.|
Patience breathed out in annoyance, sounding as if she was clenching her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white.
|Envy? Why envy? Not to mention the other two...|
Zombie furrowed his brows and inquired.
|Everyone in here can touch you while I can't. Isn't that enough of a reason to end them all...?|
The sealed overseer sounded as if she frowned and looked away – knowing that she was in the wrong but not trying to try to take back her words.
|Don't be like that, they can touch my body but you can touch my soul~|
Zombie smirked and decided to try to lift Patience's mood even a little bit – after all, they were able to communicate again after so long, he didn't want her to be feeling down. Like that.
|Pffft...! Corny! So corny! What cheap romance novel did you read that in?! Rotten brain! Ha ha! Ha ha! Ha ha!|
Well, although it wasn't exactly the effect that he wanted, Patience's mood certainly was lifted quite a bit.
|Alright, ready to go?|
|Haa... Yeah, sure.|
The two came to an agreement and Zombie entered the building.