As it turned out, while Laura and Papaya were away, their little farm was harassed quite a few times by the increasingly bold people calling themselves the members of the envy family.

At first, they were just asking a few questions, without taking any actions but just three days prior they actually tried to abduct both Mia and Luke but ran off once Mia screamed that Laura will be coming back soon and will find them.

Since they left – it meant that they weren't actually members of the main Envy family, maybe they weren't even members of the Envy family at all, since those wouldn't have backed off as easily as that.

"The audacity of those people!"

Laura clenched her fists and growled.

"I'm going to report them straight to lord Pomegranate! Such actions can not go unpunished!"

She exclaimed getting red in the face.

"...as they were leaving, one of them shouted that they will sell me off to a brothel... And that I will surely be popular because of my skin's color..."

"...!"

Mia added in a hushed, embarrassed voice, making Laura's red face turn pale as a sheet.

"How many were there?"

Zombie suddenly joined in the conversation that took place in the small but cozy kitchen.

"E-eh...?"

Mia flinched and looked at him in shock, for the first time noticing his presence.

"Opponents, how many were there?"

Zombie repeated his question looking straight into the confused eyes of the dark-skinned girl.

"Th-three..."

She answered reflexively, not really sure where the conversation will go from that point.

"Three, huh... and you had a kid to worry about too... good call not engaging them. Still, I think that if you focus on leveling thrash or maybe some other area of effect skill, you will no longer be in a position where you would have to restore to lying. The opponent may call out your bluff next time and things might get really bad. It's best to kill off people like that right away."

Zombie nodded and gave his advice with a serious face.

"Eh...? Um... Wh-who are you...?"

Mia fidgeted uncomfortably and asked looking at the strange bloodthirsty boy who spoke like an adult.

"Oh, right. This guy is Kiwi. A troublesome son of a friend of mine. He's similar to the two of you but he's a bit more... angry..."

Laura had a hard time explaining Zombie's situation without outing him as a serial bully with a history of severely injuring his older sister, which already revealed her goodwill and trust that the boy won't try to hurt the other two outright, while also not realizing herself that she didn't refer to him as 'child' or 'kid'.

"Oh... I see... H-hello Kiwi, my name is Mia, and this is..."

Mia nodded towards the boy and then patted the shoulder of the scrawny boy sucking on his thumb.

"Luh. Niche to meech chu."

The boy older than Zombie introduced himself without taking the thumb out of his mouth.

"He's Luke and he said..."

"It's alright, I understood him. Hello Mia, hello Luke, my name is Zombie, it's nice to meet the both of you."

Mia was going to explain the gibberish that came out of Like's mouth, but Zombie raised his hand and smiled at her with understanding, saving her from wasting the effort.

"Zhombhi...?"

Luke asked in confusion, looking first at the younger boy and then at Laura who introduced him with a different name.

"Yes, Luke, Zombie. My parents gave me a different name but it's not important at all. I will be very happy if you two will call me Zombie."

Zombie explained with a gentle smile.

"Ohay. Hewwo Zhombhi."

Luke said and reached out his left hand for a handshake as his right hand was preoccupied with having its thumb firmly stuck in Luke's mouth.

Zombie's smile became a little bit more sincere and he reached out his left hand too, which resulted in the two boys exchanging a friendly handshake.

|Hey, that wasn't bad.|

Patience complimented Zombie's action while sounding as if they nodded with content.

|He's lucky that he offered the left hand, if he tried to touch me with his right hand covered in his disgusting living drool I would flip out and kick his head off.|

Zombie responded without a moment of hesitation.

|...don't do that...|

Patience asked sounding a lot less confident than before.

"But going back to those potentially fake Envy, though I wouldn't put it past the scum from their family to act like that, the best option would be to get you strong enough so that you could confidently defend yourself. Might start on it right away. Laura, let's go to that training ground you promised to show me."

Zombie took the reins of the conversation without giving the others a moment to think things through.

"Hold up a minute. We should at least eat something. It has been a long journey, you especially must be starving."

Laura spoke up, not bothered at all about the sudden informal way of addressing her by the boy.

"The food will taste much better after we break a sweat, also, at least for Mia's sake, it would be best if we could take her mind off of the unpleasant situation."

Zombie shrugged and countered her proposition without even batting an eye.

"Well..."

Laura furrowed her brows and rubbed her chin deep in thoughts.

"I'll prepare a meal, Zombie has a point, moving around should help Mia and Luke cheer up."

Surprisingly, Papaya joined Zombie's side and encouraged the hesitant Laura.

"...well... Sure, let's go. But not for long, just a few practice swings or something. Mia, you go grab the practice swords from the back."

She nodded and motioned with her chin at the door.

"Yes, teacher!"

The dark-skinned girl agreed instantly and stood up.

"Hold up. You shouldn't be using a sword."

But got stopped by Zombie suddenly speaking up.'

"Eh...?"

"And why is that?"

Mia flinched in confusion and Laura furrowed her brows and asked.

"Huh...? What, you seriously don't know...?"

It was Zombie's turn to flinch and ask in bewilderment.

"When she was scared, she didn't go for the practice swords you had hidden in the storage or whatever, and she didn't go for a knife either. She went for a blunt weapon, a mace, to boost her confidence. That's a sign that she might be more suited for those weapons."

He explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world even though he knew it because during the first playthrough Cranberry found that advice in some obscure long-forgotten book in the back of the Pride's library when they were still children.

"But she has already leveled up her sword affinity to level five and she's barely thirteen, she's clearly talented with that."

Laura disagreed with him...

"But she still went for a blunt weapon when she was scared. Just let her try it for a bit. Geez."

Zombie scoffed and rolled his eyes as if Laura was a difficult child in this situation.

"...fine, it's not like it will be a problem if she waves a mace around for a few minutes. Mia. Try using the chair leg you had with you when we arrived."

Laura sighed and gave in in the end.