"Gh...! Wh-why are you doing this...?!"

Jackfruit groaned in pain, clenching his left leg, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.

"Got your tendons, huh... That sucks, I know how that feels."

Zombie nodded with a bitter expression while slowly tapping his shoulder with the blade of the scimitar, ignoring the wounded merchant's words.

"Master... I'm sorry. I didn't want to upset you..."

The sword's blade vibrated and let out a high-pitched noise that turned into apologetic words, and of course, the apology wasn't directed to the actual victim.

"Don't mind, don't mind. It's just that this reminded me of my past life, nothing of importance."

The boy laughed it off and waved his hand dismissively before gently patting the blunt side of the dragon wing-shaped sword's blade.

"You won't get away with this...! I may be just... just a bastard from the branch family, but I have earned myself quite a high position amongst the main branch Envys henchmen ladder...! Even if you get rid of me, it won't end up just like that!"

Jackfruit's groans turned more threatening just as the man himself was feeling his life rapidly reaching its inevitable end.

"Oh-ho! You girls heard that? A wealthy merchant is actually even bigger fish than we thought..."

Zombie scoffed and a mocking smirk spouted on his face.

|Isn't that perfect then? There's no need to kill him outright, let's use his life as a bargaining chip – if the elves won't help us we'll threaten to kill him which would get them in deep trouble with all the people the main branch of the Envy family would send to learn what happened with him. If he is saying the truth.|

Patience pointed out sounding as if she was smiling with satisfaction and nodding.

"Master, I'll kill him whenever you like, so don't be sad!"

The weapon in the boy's hand let out a spirited shrill.

"Who are you anyway...? An exiled dwarf with a talking sword... ugh... doesn't matter, if you kill me here, no one will be able to help you anyway...!"

Jackfruit growled furiously, glaring at the supposed dwarf.

"Pffft...! Oh well, if your death will cause trouble only to some exiled dwarf, then so be it... Why do you care so much? It's not like my future will make a difference for your corpse anyway."

"!!!!"

Zombie snorted and shook his head in amusement, making the already ghastly pale man get even paler.

"...urgh... You may not care for your own life, you suicidal dwarf, but what about that redhead you arrived with? Huh? Or were you banished for betraying your comrades and have no shame to do it a second time?!"

Jackfruit spat through his teeth – seeing that none of his arguments get through to the indifferent dwarf, he just lost himself in anger and simply tried to wipe off the mocking smile from the supposed dwarf's face.

|Huh? Are the dwarfs in this world that prideful or something?|

|Yes, but is it really that different from the image of the dwarf you knew from your old world? Every piece of media that had them in portrayed them similarly. At least that's what I've seen while browsing through your memories.|

Patience mentioned innocently and sounded as if she shrugged her shoulders by the end of her sentence.

"..."

"HA!"

Zombie frowned, which got Jackfruit to think that he had made a dent in the supposed dwarf's pride although in truth that assumption couldn't be farther from the actual reality.

|So you were browsing through my memories, huh... Who even gave you permission to do that?|

Zombie scoffed internally, without caring for what the merchant was doing or saying.

|You did. When you baited me into merging with you by the very end of the first playthrough.|

|...|

There was literally nothing that Zombie could say in response to that.

Well, there was, but none of them seemed like a good enough response to a witty comeback like that.

|That big dog your family had when you were little, Lori, she was very cute. I wished there were creatures like her in this world.|

|...!|

Patience's next unexpected words taken Zombie by surprise and made him unable to be mad at the sealed being residing inside of him.

|Yeah... she was.|

He smirked softly being reminded about the dog from his past life.

"Big sis is so smart! Master is no longer angry!"

Kopia still in her weapon form exclaimed in the high-pitched frequency, completely betraying Patience's motives for mentioning the past life's pet.

|...and you are really not that smart, Kopia...|

Patience sighed deeply.

*rustle*

"Huh...?"

Before Zombie could comment on the exchange between the sealed overseer and the shapeshifting special character, the shrub a few feet away from him shook...

"Grrrrrr...!"

"!!!!"

And a giant pure-white wolf jumped out of it, salivating while bearing its enormous fangs at the young boy.

"What the...?!"

Even though Zombie got surprised by the sudden arrival, he didn't back off and instead took a battle stance.

"Master...?"

Kopia shrilled in confusion.

"Just as we were talking about big dogs, khahaha! Just my luck I guess... I don't reckon that you want to talk it out, huh, pupper?"

Zombie laughed in annoyance and raised his sword to be ready to either strike or defend at any time and asked the wolf cautiously.

|Zombie, what are you doing...?|

Patience asked sounding as if she was blinking repeatably in shock.

"Grrrrrrrr!"

The white wolf took a step forward, leaning to the side, and began circling the young boy.

|At least she doesn't seem to be interested in our bargaining chip.|

Zombie smirked internally without taking his eyes off of the monster.

"...?"

Kopia's blade vibrated silently as she had no clue what was going on.

|Still, it's odd... Why can't I understand what she's saying? Is she just that angry that she's only growling without any other meaning behind it...? Or is there something blocking the beast master affinity...?|

Zombie furrowed his brows, making a concerned expression.

"GRRRRR...! GROUGH!"

The wolf monster roared and tried to feint the boy, but the fake attack didn't even make Zombie blink, even though the monster's jaws could easily tear him in half in a single chomp.

"Hey, come on, puppy. Let's talk – why are you so angry about? Are your kids nearby? It's alright, I won't approach them without your permission."

Zombie declared in a calm voice and smiled in a friendly manner.

|...I'm going to check what in the world is he talking about...|

Patience sounded as if she frowned and declared.

"Master... who are you talking to?"

Kopia straight up asked, modulating her frequency to sound just as worried as she actually felt.

"..."

Zombie flinched and his expression grew cold.

|Whoa! That's what you're seeing?! No wonder you are on your guard! That wolf looks like she could gulp down a griffin in one bite! But, Zombie – she's definitely not real – I am looking through your eyes but don't see a thing – same with Kopia. It's an illusion.|

Patience exclaimed and instantly explained what was going on.

|...and that means that Olive is already observing us...|

Zombie's voice was ice-cold even inside his own head.

|U-ummm... Zombie...? Why do you sound so angry...?|

Patience asked with concern.

|This doggy looks really fluffy, but is only an illusion... how can I not be angry?!|

Zombie scoffed back gritting his teeth, trying to focus enough to see through the hallucination, but it wasn't something that affected him directly – Olive's skill simply created a mirage in the space in front of the boy and didn't directly affect his brain, which is why superbia didn't trigger at all.