The estate that they finally arrived at the end of their journey turned out to be just an ordinary farm on the outskirts of one of the cities in the Envy territory.

"I'll take care of the rest, you go introduce the new kid to the other two."

The scrawny coachman – who turned out to be Laura's helper and not just some random hired guy – declared after Laura and Zombie get out of the carriage.

"Thanks, Papaya. They sure were excited to get a new friend after the older ones went back to their families."

Laura smiled thankfully and reached her hand towards Zombie as if expecting that he will grab onto by pure force of habit.

"..."

Unfortunately enough, the boy hasn't developed such a habit in this life, so instead, he began walking towards the main building without waiting for the woman.

"Aren't you interested in who were we talking about...?"

Laura easily caught up to him and asked, trying to get him to talk.

"No."

Zombie shook his head without even looking her way.

"Where is your training ground? I've wasted enough time already and want to refresh the basic moves before noon."

Instead, he began looking around with great interest.

"...I will take you there right after you met with your new friends."

Laura instantly tried a different approach, unbothered by the initial cold response.

"I don't want t..."

|Zombie. Meet those two she's talking about. Elves are not the only characters of interest we should have our eyes on. We can really set up a few nice situations for the future if we play our cards right – that is, if you won't be trying to rush things like you are doing right now.|

Zombie was in the middle of refusing once more but then got interrupted by Patience.

"..."

The boy gritted his teeth before relaxing his muscles and turning to face his new guardian for the foreseeable future.

"Will they be nice to me?"

Zombie thought about a question that a child his age could ask and spoke up making a worried face.

"Of course they will! As long as you will be nice to them, that is. That's how it works."

Laura explained with an encouraging smile as if she was happy that she saw a glimpse of hope for Zombie's redemption, and lead him to the front door of the medium-sized house.

"We're back!"

Laura called out loudly instead of knocking and simply pushed the door open.

"..."

With the only exception of the fact that they were locked.

"Sorry for that."

Laura laughed and began rummaging through her clothes in search of the key – which she found relatively easy – and then unlocked the door.

"Mia! Luke! It's me, Laura! I came back with a new friend just like I've said I would!"

She called out into the empty hallway.

Meanwhile Zombie...

"...?!"

|She did NOT just say those names! Durian's slaves, the woman that knocked me down, and the annoyingly hard to kill prodigy healer guy?!|

Gasped internally with great disbelief.

|Oh, Laura most definitely did call those exact pair. What, did you not expect to meet those two in the Envys territory?|

Patience asked with amusement, sounding as if they were tilting their head and smiling.

|Those two are the two essential characters that you personally killed, while not as important as someone else, those two do have an important role to play and are absolutely necessary for accomplishing the secret true ending. According to the game knowledge I possess now, those two will be here for around four to five years, so hopefully not as long as you. Make sure to leave them with a good impression or the event at Durian's mansion will be almost impossible to complete the way we want it to go.|

They went ahead and gave a scolding in the guise of an explanation.

|...I'll try my best, but I can't promise anything more than a mediocre first impression. I don't know how to talk with kids.|

Zombie sighed and shrugged internally.

|Good enough. Just don't make them hate you and we will somehow manage in the future.|

Patience sounded as if they nodded, sealing the deal.

"Mia? Luke?"

Laura called out again, and this time her voice turned cautious with worry.

"...teacher, is that really you...?"

"...!"

A cautious voice coming from the end of the hallway got the attention of both the woman and the boy by her side.

And that voice belonged to a dark-skinned girl with shoulder-length curly hair looking cautiously from behind the corner while grabbing onto what looked like a makeshift mace made out of a broken chair leg.

"Mia! What is going on? Why are you acting like this? Where's Luke?!"

Laura moved past Zombie and hurriedly walked towards the girl.

"STOP! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!"

"...!"

But the dark-skinned girl shouted out with panic mixed in her voice and stepped out from behind the cover while pointed her weapon towards the bewildered woman.

As it turned out she was holding hands with a scrawny little boy that looked around five or six years old.

"Prove that you are not one of those people from the Envy family that came here three days ago...!"

Mia tried her hardest to act brave but both her voice and her mace were shaking.

"Envy family...? But I have a deal with the avatar of... Wait, are you saying that some low-level branch family Envy scums tried to do something to you two?!"

What at first was just a confusion turned out into an outburst of anger – Laura's body began to shine with a bright white light and she reached for the sword strapped to her wais while already turning around as if she was going to rush into the outside world to chop some heads.

"Teacher!"

*clung*

Apparently, such a reaction was exactly what Mia was waiting for since she dropped the makeshift weapon and ran over to the tall woman and hugged her, while Luke timidly did the same thing.

"...!"

That made Laura calm down a little and she deactivated her skills and hugged the children back.

"I'm sorry that I took so long... tell me what happened while I was gone!"

She said with a pale face while making sure that the kids weren't hurt.

|Seems like we have a peculiar situation on our hands.|

Zombie pointed out in his mind.

|Whatever it is, it's not important for the ending that we want, so do whatever you want... As long as those two won't actually get abducted or killed. They need to be alive and well to WILLINGLY join Durian a few years later.|

Patience pointed out and instructed the boy.