The next few days at the mansion after the charade were peaceful, and no one bothered my lady during breakfast because she had stopped talking to everyone in the family. The loving stepmother wasn’t cursed, the two beautiful sisters were ignored, and the Marquis got indifference as always, albeit my lady was holding dreadful grudges against him for incriminating me.

The Academy had been different, though, and hounding at home had now shifted to the Academy. Adolescent boys mocked her as a fake bitch, the girls stayed away from her since she spread false rumors, and the heroine tried her best to beg for my lady’s forgiveness which only escalated the snickers of her entourage and fans. She was even reprimanded by the mentors a couple of times for destroying the reputation of her sisters, but mostly the heroine.

And my lady’s reaction to this travesty? Indifference and a few grunts. She accompanied me most of the days under the banyan-like tree, resting against my arms at times or playing with my hair at others. Obviously, ordering me around like a dog came first to her. We stopped eating in the Academy’s mess and ate bread from my favorite bakehouse, thanks to my bread lad. It was good two weeks, and my lady had started learning under my tutelage. There was no progress in these two weeks, and she had lost the ability to cast her three basic spells, much to her disbelief.

So, here she was, looming over me threatening, as I slept under my favorite tree, away from the eyes of everyone in the school.

“You promised to teach me spells, mongrel! But, you made me forget the ones I already know!” she kicked me, albeit there was not much force like before. “You filthy scum! You ignorant proletariat!”

“Who taught you that word, my lady?” I asked in surprise, and she smiled at me. Yeah, she had started smiling at me. A few weeks ago, the smile was reserved only for the prince and her two friends, but the former had lost it now.

“You wanna know, mongrel?” she asked, and I watched two girls walking in our direction. I mentally sighed as I saw shirts tied around their waist, gowns torn at the bottom erratically, both brunettes.

“Ruddy!” The girl on the left, Beth, cheered, waving her free hand, the other sprawled around the companion’s shoulder.

“Lady Beth and Lady Casey,” I was about to stand up, but Casey’s wave stopped me as she flaunted her hair that had grown longer over the past two weeks. Both of them had cut their hair while rebelling against their houses and ultimately suffered the brute force of suspension, thereby were grounded within their mansion gates. They were the famous bullies of the Academy, along with my villainess, of course.

“You never change, do you?” Beth laughed. “Always flirting with Leti like it’s the most natural thing to do.”

She kissed Casey on the lips within my [Ward], and I got up to cover my lady’s eyes, much to her displeasure. I earned a smack, but well, wasn't she still too young? For an undead, no age is old.

“This is how you flirt, bastard,” Beth pitched in, taking a seat on the lawn with everyone else following her suit, including me. It was an isolated location on the campus, and we rarely had commuters around this area.

“How’s life, Ruddy? I heard you took Leti outside the gates a couple of weeks ago.”

“Yes, lady Beth. My bread lad helped us get away with the formalities.”

“That man at the gates? He is such a pervert, so we tease the hell out of him every day,” Casey said, earning a laugh from my lady. “One of these days, we gotta spank the redhead too. He slapped you in public, we heard. And that a butler got beheaded.”

Only I called the prince a redhead, so I glanced at Letitia, who gave me a brief nod. She had informed her girlfriends about the farce.

“Please, lady Casey, rumors are nothing more than rumors. My lady was humiliated, yes, and I was indeed slapped. But no one got killed.”

Beth grabbed my hair and pulled it hard, and I saw a bunch of my grey hairs in her hands.

"Don't touch him, Beth!" My lady slapped her friend's back, but she was ignored amidst Casey's giggles.

“I’m surprised you got vitality left, Ruddy. My grandad’s grey hair can’t even resist my strength. Last time, I plucked the last four strands on his head with ease and earned some good smacks, ” Beth said, admiring the stands of hair in her hands before burning it away. She was a rare Dark attribute mage, having enough aptitude for fire, too, while Casey was a lightning attribute mage.

Well, I was getting maltreated here, but they were my lady’s only friends. It would take some time to accept them as my own since they are one mischievous bunch. And it’s coming from an undead who has lived for a millennium. I was even blatantly given a bread that encased pepper, chili, and some terrible hot spices of this world. The fact that I didn’t hate bread after that alone was proof of my unrivaled loyalty.

My lady was always less talkative among the bunch, but she enjoyed their company despite having a stoic expression most of the time. Her two friends respected the fact and pulled her along for their mischief, be it burning the Academs hair, electrocuting the heroine, trashing her entourage, and so forth. They were bullies who never bullied anyone weaker than them, so I never really considered them bullies. For me, they were my lady’s honest friends who genuinely cared about her.

“How are your grades, lady Beth and lady Casey?” I asked as my lady leaned against my shoulders. I lowered my shoulders slightly so that she could rest comfortably in the nook of my neck. I was much taller than my lady, so it took considerable effort.

“We are gonna fail this term too, Ruddy. You got plans for helping us cheat?” Beth asked, moving her thumb over Casey’s lips. “I’m fine if Casey fails too. We can elope together.”

I would say illicit relationships with the same gender were frowned upon in this world, so they were really surprised to gain my acceptance. It was a usual day when they had talked to my lady about it, probably a year ago, and she had confessed everything to me, reassuring them that I would help out. That was the beginning of this ill-fated friendship amongst mortals and undead. They needed private space, they looked for my [Ward], taking me for granted.

“My lady is learning with me at the moment. You want to join, lady Beth?” I asked.

“I heard she forgot the basic three spells after leaning with you,” Casey pitched in. “You trying us scam us young girls?”

“If I told you the Academy’s teaching you shit, I mean nothing, would you believe me?”

“One hundred percent,” Casey and Beth said in unison and grinned at each other.

“Then there’s no harm in learning from another crappy teacher, is there?”

“If you are scamming us, Ruddy, then it will make a difference. Though we know you are a pretty good mage, that doesn’t automatically make you a good teacher now, does it? I’m fucking tired with the school schedule already, and your hectic dose will take my quality time with Casey. I’m not sure if I should take this risk.”

My lady’s breathing had evened out, and I cast a second [Ward] around her. “Anyway, if you wanna join, talk to my lady. She might not agree after all.”

“Yea,” Casey looked at my lady’s sleeping face and sighed. “She’s such a beauty, isn’t she?”

“True,” Beth said, biting Casey’s earlobe. “And so are you, Casey.”

“Please, not here,” I said in exasperation. “If someone sees you groping each other, I’m not sure how I would look as a spectator.”

I was jesting because if someone actually caught them, then, well, I don’t want to imagine the consequences. It was probably another death flag for villainess's aides. Then again, if they become strong mages, they won’t have to worry about anything. And once my lady becomes a full-fledged villainess, they would have a smooth paved road before them without any thorny bushes.

“Now that would be interesting,” Casey laughed. “We love you for who you are, Ruddy, so we can accept your fetishes with ease.”

I sighed and glanced at the moving clouds of the sky, that were strangely similar in most of the worlds.

“Hey, Ruddy,” Beth called out. “How about we stay over at the Marquis mansion for training?”

Casey’s eyes lit up, and I didn’t miss the genuine mirth concealed in her expression. “If it’s for studying magic, then I doubt my old man would have any opposition. The same goes for Volch.”

Volch was the heir of Baron Hesroeder house and the only one who scared Casey. The title of Baron ranks third in the nobility, if you exclude Duke, just behind Marquis and Earl. They don’t particularly enjoy any military might like the Marquis and Earl but manage the guilds in various cities of the kingdom. In the capital, Baron Hesroeder administrated the merchant guild, and Baron Flan oversaw the mercenary guild.

“Can you do a better job at concealing your intentions, noble ladies? My lady is the one making decisions for me, so you need to ask her.”

“You faithful dog!” Beth snarled, pulling another fistful of my hair. “Help us this one time, Ruddy. If we can get a single room in your mansion, we are fine with not getting timely meals.”

“I’ll ask my lady,” I sighed. “But don’t expect much. My lady has many great foes in the house, so you might have it rough if you come over.”

“That makes it better!” Beth rubbed her fist on her right palm. She was left-handed. “I’ve meant to teach those obnoxious sisters a lesson one of these days. We were suspended for a reason, Ruddy, so don’t worry about us. Leti is our sisterhood, and her foes are our archenemies!”

That reassured me, albeit not enough to make decisions for my lady.

Beth and Casey continued the chatter, this time talking amongst themselves, Beth’s hands doing most of the job. They hadn’t seen each other for over two weeks, so their impatience was understandable. Fortunately for them, I wasn’t a horny male, and they might have realized this fact already. Women’s intuition, they say, and I respect it. I don’t have a leery gaze like my bread lad, nor do I feel stimulated when I watch people copulating before me.

Erectile dysfunction? Not really, but when you live as long as an undead, nothing can excite you. Mind you, even nothing happened when I tortured the maid or cut her tongue or killed the guard or stabbed myself. So, don’t categorize me as either a sadist or a masochist. They are too restrictive for this undead.

You thought I was jesting about the tongue? Well, anyone who insults my lady won’t have it easy.

Nevertheless, I have a terrible memory, and I forget most things within a thousand years if I don’t use [Memory Make] spell. So, consider yourself lucky if you can live past a thousand years. For I won’t remember you.