*knock* *knock*

It was already morning and the sun was timidly shining into the windows of the chambers prepared in case of the foreign royalties' visit, ad a polite knocking on the door got the attention of the blue undead sitting right by the king-sized bed.

​​

"..."

He glanced at the door, using his life signature detection, and smirked.

"You may enter, Roan."

He called out to the person politely waiting in front of the door, just as his master has done the previous day.

Only that he betrayed that he was aware of the identity of the visitor.

"I... I hope that I don't interrupt anything...! Oh!"

The blond prince opened the door very slowly and only peeked over it just the tiniest bit as if he expected to be the unwilling witness of some unspeakable debauchery, so when he saw just the blue undead sitting right next to a big pile of blankets and pillows, he ended up letting out a surprised - but at the same time relieved - gasp.

"Go on, don't be shy."

Zombie waved his right hand, beckoning the royal prince to enter.

"S-sure."

Roan nodded and timidly walked inside.

"By the way, about my mother's proposition..."

The blond young man got to one of the chairs and sat down before asking, curiously observing the blue undead's reaction.

"Oh, yeah, we talked about it with my Cranberry. She is liking the idea - it seems she wanted to outsource the local governments anyway since when she talks about ruling the world she actually means conquering it. She said that holding all the power over all the races is far too much of a problem to deal with without a proper proxy and whatnot. In short, we're definitely on board."

The blue undead waved his right hand dismissively and shrugged his shoulders.

"...outsourcing...? Wait! You two agree?!"

At first, Roan furrowed his brows, taken aback by the new terminology but once he got over it, he jumped up and exclaimed.

"But, wait... you don't seem too happy about that though...?"

The blond prince suddenly stopped his cheers and looked at the blue undead with a confused expression.

"I'm just in a bad mood because I was reminded of something extremely unpleasant. Don't mind me. Anyway, is there something else that you came here for?"

Zombie shook his head and asked.

"Actually, I've come to ask if the two of you would want to join me for a breakfast, but I see that young lady Pride has already left to somewhere...?"

The prince responded opening his arms as if he was trying to show that he has nothing to hide and looked around curiously.

"Left? In the morning? My Cranberry...?"

With each question, Zombie was tilting his head more and more.

"Sh-she didn't...?"

Roan stopped in confusion and blinked a few times staring at the blue-skinned corpse puppet.

"Pffft...! Seriously... here, look."

Zombie snorted, covering his mouth with his right arm - and immediately after he pulled out his left hand that up until now he kept under the pile of blankets and...

"...nnnnnnng...!"

Once his left hand appeared outside, it did so with a pair of freckled arms wrapped around it, as well as a low dissatisfied growl coming from the stacked pile.

"...nnnnnnn...!"

After another growl, this one a bit angrier, the arms began pulling Zombie's left arm back under the pile of blankets.

"...what in the name of the system...?"

Roan watched the whole thing play out with his jaw dropped in disbelief.

"Once she is relaxed, my Cranberry turns into an extremely heavy sleeper with just as extremely low blood pressure in the morning. As long as I don't forcibly take away my hand from her, she will not wake up for at least another hour or so."

Zombie explained, looking at the pile of blankets with a gentle smile.

"Then what will happen if you do take your hand away? Will she just wake up suddenly?"

The blond prince asked curiously after finally closing his mouth, and looked at the blue undead as if he expected him to do another demonstration.

"If you think that I will do that and ruin probably the calmest sleep that she had in a few days, then you are either out of your mind or want to make me your enemy."

Zombie looked up at the prince and shrugged his shoulders with an indifferent voice, looking at Roan as if he expected him to be better.

"No, no! I would never...!"

The royal prince hurriedly denied, shaking his hands and backing himself up to a wall, clearly worried that the blue undead would instantly charge at him or something.

"If you want to have a meal with us so badly, you can wait for her to wake up whenever she wants, if not, then you can go. Unless you have something else that you want to talk about."

Zombie explained surprisingly politely - considering his yesterday's behavior.

Roan fidgeted nervously and even make a move once or twice that suggested that he's actually about to leave but in the end, he just got back on one of the chairs and sat there.

"I'll wait. There's also a thing about the wardrobe for the ball. Since the two of you will be participating, mother had given me the mission to escort you on your shopping as well as cover for all the possible purchases you will make."

Roan explained to the blue-skinned undead with a bright expression.

"Oh! That's nice! Congratulations, you got promoted from a useless prince to a wallet! Good job getting up in the hierarchy!"

Zombie closed his eyes and nodded at the blond prince with a benevolent smile.

"Oh! I almost forgot! There's one more thing I wanted to pass to young lady Pride!"

Suddenly Roan became a bit more lively and began talking again.

"While our people are still experiencing a bit of trouble with getting to lady Gluttony, we did contact and explain the situation to the avatar of lust! We are expecting them to arrive at the royal castle three days before the ball so..."

"Ha?! Claymore?! Clamore will visit us?!"

"!!!"

Suddenly the pile of blankets erupted and the barely clothed red-haired girl emerged, looking half asleep but surprisingly happy - which made Roan go wide-eyed.

"Yes, yes they will. Aren't you glad?"

Zombie instantly stood up and covered the girl with one of the blankets that just so happened to end up by his head, protecting her from Roan's sight.

"Of co-oo-ourse! I wonder how they've been!"

Cranberry yawned and rubbed her sleepy eyes while stretching, and then she nodded her head with a big smile.