Zach looked at Chick and said, "Put him down, or he won't shut up."
Chick followed Zach's order and placed Cerberus on the ground.
[Hmph! Foolish servant!] Cerberus sat in front of Zach and looked up at him while wagging his tail.
"So. What happened? What did I do? And… why are you in puppy form?" Zach asked with a gloomy face.
[Let's just say that things happened and… shit happened. There is no point discussing it as it won't change anything. But if you want to know what happened in simple words, you went berserk and almost became a mindless demon.]
"Those simple words weigh heavy…" He let out a weary sigh and asked, "Did you stop me…?"
[I want to say yes, but unfortunately, I didn't. It was this lowly servant.]
"How did she bring me back to my senses?"
[Sadly, I don't know. My eyes were closed when all that happened.]
Zach turned to Chick and asked, "What did you do? And how did you come out of my shadow without any orders?"<sub>pᴀɴᴅᴀ-ɴ0ᴠᴇʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ</sub>
Chick slowly sat up and sat in the same pose as Cerberus. Seemingly she was imitating him.
"..." Zach raised his brow and wondered, 'Did her IQ degrade even more than the last time? I knew she couldn't speak, but I expected her to tell me something in sign or at least write something on the ground. But she is becoming more and more like a mindless puppet.'
Zach lowered his gaze and gritted his teeth in annoyance.
"What have I done? I used necromancy on a dead human and made her like this. I didn't even let her soul pass peacefully. This is no different than defining a corpse to pleasure oneself.
Now I know why Aria warned me to not use it on a human. This girl had it cruel. She was shunned and betrayed by her sister and lover. I didn't want to kill her, but I was forced to since I had no other choice but to stop her from using that annoying ability.
And then I used necromancy on her and put her in an even crueler state…"
Zach covered his face with his hands and took a deep breath.
Cerberus glanced at Chick and then turned to Zach:
[My liege, I think you are mistaken.]<sub> pᴀɴᴅᴀ ɴ0ᴠᴇʟ</sub>
"What do you mean?" Zach asked with his hands still covering his face.
[It's my honor to serve you, and I am glad to have you as my master,] Cerberus stated proudly.
"I wasn't talking about you, Cerberus. I was talking about her."
[She feels the same.]
"Huh?" Zach removed his hands and asked, "What do you mean?"
[Since we are both undead, we can kind of communicate without speaking. We share the same master and space. And she is saying that she is glad that you revived her,] Cerberus asserted calmly.
Zach furrowed his brows and asked, "You are not lying, are you?"
[Why would I lie to you?]
"To make me feel good so I don't regret my actions?" Zach wondered.<sub> ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ</sub>
[No. You are our master, and we are ever loyal to you. We would never lie or betray you,] Cerberus uttered with his utmost sincerity.
"Then what if she is saying all that because I am her master? You said you all are loyal and would never lie to me, then doesn't that mean you are not saying it because you are loyal to me, but saying it because I am your master?"
[I am not sure I quite understood what you were trying to say, but are you implying that we serve you because you are our master and not because we want to serve you?]
"Yeah," Zach nodded.
[My liege, what do you know about necromancy?]
"Actually… nothing…"
[I thought so. I don't have enough knowledge on it myself, but you can't use necromancy on someone who doesn't want to be your servant. And you can't use necromancy on everyone. Sometimes, it would fail too.]
pᴀɴᴅᴀ-ɴ0ᴠᴇʟ "Hmm. I had a faint idea about that since I failed to use it on the other players I had killed in the ten-battle tournament; it only worked on this girl. So does that mean she was okay with being my servant?" Zach asked with a curious and confused look on his face.
[Precisely.]
SIGH!
Zach sighed in relief and said, "Thank you for telling me this. Now I feel a little better knowing I didn't ruin someone's life just to sate my curiosity. But still, I can't see this girl in such a degraded state."
Zach glanced at Chick and saw her smiling at him with an innocent look on her face.
"Yeah, I can't…" he repeated.
Zach recalled how naming Cerberus had evolved him and how he officially became his servant after that. He swore his unyielding loyalty to him and became his best undead companion beast.
"Say, Cerberus, if I name this girl, would she regain the ability to talk and have conversations like a normal human girl?"
[It depends on the bonds between you too. And uhh… I can't recall the correct word, but it was something related to… well, her feelings towards you..] Cerberus responded in an awkward manner.
"Hmm…" Zach patted Click on the head and uttered, "Do you want me to name you? I don't know your real name since you had some weird nickname."
The Chick didn't reply and stared at Zach with puppy eyes.
"I will take that as a yes." After pondering for a few seconds, Zach took a deep breath and uttered, "From here onwards, your name shall be Layla."
As soon as Zach uttered that, Chick's body was enveloped by a bright light that blinded both Zach and Cerberus.
When Zach opened his eyes, he almost couldn't recognize Layla. Her body had become a lot like a human. Her skin was soft, and her hair had become silky. Her eyes looked lively, and her lips seemed juicy.
If someone saw her, they would think of her as an NPC since there was no tag on her head.
