Zombie's wounds were healed to the best of the local medics' abilities, but most of them ended up leaving pale scars anyway.

|Curious, I never before got wounded like that. Not in this world that is.|

Zombie thought to himself while looking into the mirror, tracing the thin pinkish line going across his forehead.

|Better get used to it, since the eternal servant's option is blocked for you, you can kiss goodbye the perfect regeneration.|

Patience pointed out.

|That only means I need to try harder to get the HP regeneration skill.|

The boy shrugged his shoulders and glanced at his exposed forearms at countless small scars left by Zombie himself in order to procure the skill - which up to this point remained only pointless self-harm since it looked like the boy had no talent for healing.

|But changing the subject to more positive things, a carriage looking as if it traveled a long way arrived at the village not long after we've returned from the training. Do you think it's finally our ex-adventurer?|

Zombie smirked, looking into his reflection's eyes.

|Hopefully. It's been almost two weeks since you've dealt with the sigil monster. Plenty of time for your father to send out a letter to his friend, not sure about the response though. The carriage might bring them or it might have brought a letter from them.|

Patience sounded as if they responded while shrugging their shoulders.

|True.|

Zombie nodded with a sour expression.

There are some things you shouldn't rush. There are still more than three and a half years before you met Cranberry for the first time. The plan we came up with is good, it will be alright. Just remember to not over-level your skills or they might become dangerous for you once you become undead and your stats and level drop.

"...yeah. I'll try to keep that in mind..."

Patience reminded him, which made the boy nodded with a solemn expression.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

"...?"

Zombie picked up a silent knock, not to his room's door, but to the front door of the house, and tilted his head.

|Guess we will find out right away, huh.|

Patience sounded as if they smirked.

The noises of people bustling downstairs - with a voice that the boy didn't recognize mixed in with his parents - prevented Zombie from going down immediately as he decided it would be too bothersome.

Finally, after the few initial minutes, things seemed to settle down a bit and with no sound of someone leaving the house, the visitor must have stayed for a longer talk.

Though, this might have been just his father's business partner coming from faraway to discuss another deal too...

|We won't know for sure unless they call you or we check on them.|

Patience pointed out encouragingly, which made Zombie open the door and walk out.

"...me wrong, it's just I find it hard to believe that a child of you two would turn out into such a rascal."

The unknown voice that was coming from the dining room belonged to a woman, and she didn't sound convinced.

"Rascal? That's putting it lightly! That little demon almost killed our poor Caramel! We've tried to talk with him multiple times but it was like talking to a wall!"

The other voice belonged to Zombie's mother, Nectarine, who sounded very tilted.

"...Kiwi is... a bad person..."

"...!"

And it was followed by the barely audible voice of Zombie's most hated person in the entire world, Caramel herself - which caused the staircase-descending boy to be flooded by an ice-cold fury.

"...?"

"Laura? Is something wrong?"

Zombie's father's surprised voice made the boy remember where he was and instantly calm down.

"....nothing... I must be still on edge after that stray griffin attacked my carriage yesterday, I thought I've sensed a monster's bloodlust just now..."

The unknown woman breathed out and explained with a dismissive laugh.

|Laura? So an essential character?|

Zombie stopped on the last step and asked the being sealed inside of him.

|Oh! So your father was in fact a friend with her! Laura is an instructor that can teach the characters from the player's party many useful offensive skills around the mid-game. She has a questline about avenging some of her students and if that's completed correctly, she can even become a party member for a limited time. Still, Caramel didn't try to recruit her during your first playthrough since she is considered only a B+ rank character according to the player community and the fake savior was going for the S and S+ ones.|

Patience had an explanation readily available.

|So what, she was just chilling in the Envy territory the whole time during the last playthrough?|

Zombie asked, tilting his head.

|Yes. She really does help the troubled youths find their path. If you and your villainess took your time in the Envy territory, you would have encountered her in one of the northern cities. Though she would most definitely be hostile since the Brave Swords were once her students before they've become the adventurers.|

|Lucky her.|

Zombie shrugged his shoulders dismissively at the casual jab from Patience.

The boy proceeded to walk towards the dining room and stopped in the doorway once he saw the muscular back of a tall woman with braided reddish-brown hair.

"...say, she seemed to sense my anger just now, it will be alright if I test something...?|

Zombie smirked to himself while already reaching for the kitchen knife just laying on the cupboard in the hallway, most likely left there by Nectarine who was in the middle of preparing breakfast right when the guest arrived.

|Just don't get yourself killed accidentally. Laura is strong and has good senses, she also tends to rely on her reflexes first, so if she'll mistake you for a threat, she will strike you back before she even properly looks at you.|

Patience warned him, but the boy didn't seem worried at all...

|That's what I want to check. Will she be able to help me get stronger or not, I want to know...!|

...it actually had the exact opposite effect.

"..."

Zombie breathed out and took a stance.

With the kitchen knife held like a sword, his eyes and the blade began giving off a pale white light as Zombie focused on the sitting woman's neck.

*SLAM*

"LAURA?!"

And as soon as he did that, the woman rapidly stood up and turned around, pushing her chair out of the way - which caused Zombie's father to shout out in shock - and reached for her own sword strapped to her waist, pale as a ghost, but otherwise completely battle-ready.

"EH...?!"

Which is why the expression she made once she realized that the 'enemy' she reacted to, was just a skinny three-year-old boy holding a kitchen knife while grinning with excitement.

"Khahaha! You are a real deal, huh...?"

Zombie snorted and nodded his head with a satisfied expression, deactivating his skills and putting the knife back where he found it.

"...eh...?!"

Laura, which turned out to look much younger than Zombie expected after hearing that she was a retired adventurer, shook her head from shock and blinked repeatedly while watching the child that had to climb on his tiptoes juts to reach the top of the cupboard to put back the big knife that was shining with the light of a skill just a moment ago.

"Laura, what happe... Kiwi!"

Then Pear approached the shocked woman from behind and touched her shoulder with a worried expression, before turning to check what she was looking at and noticing his son.

"What were you trying to...?! No. Nevermind. Since you are already here, come join us at the table, this whole thing is about you anyway."

At first, it looked like he would get angry, but then Pear seemed to change his mind halfway and instead let go of Laura's shoulder and beckoned his son to enter the dining room.