Mark opened his eyes slowly and the first thing he saw was sunlight filtering through the tent fabric, casting a warm glow inside.

"..."

It was already daytime.

He lay still looking at the fabric ceiling for a few seconds without moving.

"I’m no longer sure these are just dreams..." he murmured quietly.

Because the first time he had been able to convince himself it was a product of the fever and exhaustion. Just his brain, fried by illness, generating random images while he slept.

But this was the second time, he wasn’t sick, he wasn’t exhausted, he had slept in perfect conditions, and yet she had appeared again.

’Best to set it aside for now...’ Mark thought, turning his head to one side. ’Maybe if I ask Rose she’ll know something about mental connections between—’

Then Mark’s thoughts stopped when he saw the blanket in front of him moving.

And then from under the blanket emerged a pair of black rabbit ears, followed by a bronzed face with golden eyes looking directly at him.

"Huh?" Mark said, somewhat confused. "Zilu? What are you doing here?"

Zilu finished pulling her head out from under the blanket and looked at him from below with an obviously nervous expression.

"I... wanted to continue yesterday’s conversation, Master" she said in a quiet voice.

"What conversa—?"

But before Mark could finish the sentence, Zilu pushed herself up on the blanket and placed one hand on each side of Mark’s body, with her knees on either side of his legs, positioning herself directly on top of him.

Her black hair fell forward, brushing Mark’s face, her rabbit ears were trembling slightly, and her golden eyes looked down at him steadily from above.

’Seems like I’m not going to have a moment’s rest for a long time...’ he thought, looking at Zilu on top of him.

"Couldn’t you wait until I was awake?" Mark asked in a calm tone.

"No..." Zilu replied, shaking her head. "I wanted it to be in private, without the others listening."

"And so you snuck into my tent while I was sleeping?" 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Yes..."

Mark looked at her in silence for a few seconds.

"Alright," he said, letting out a sigh. "What do you want to talk about?"

"...First promise me something, Master."

"What?"

"That you’ll be honest with me."

"...Okay, I promise," Mark said, a little confused.

Hearing his answer, Zilu took a deep breath and then spoke.

"The others are undead, aren’t they?"

Mark froze.

’What...?’

His brain stopped for a second, trying to process how Zilu could have possibly reached that conclusion.

Because neither he nor anyone else had told her.

And Mark’s subordinates, while technically undead, looked and acted completely normal.

They walked, talked, fought, argued, and did everything any living person would do.

’How did she figure it out?’

Mark was deep in his thoughts when Zilu’s voice brought him back to reality.

"Master... please, answer me" she said, looking at him without blinking.

In the end Mark let out a long sigh.

"...Yes, they are."

Zilu closed her eyes for a second and then opened them again.

"Thank you for telling me the truth," she said in a tone that sounded relieved.

"How did you figure it out?"

Zilu climbed off him and sat beside him on the blanket, crossing her legs and resting her hands on her knees.

"It was small details," she said, lowering her gaze slightly. "Things that individually don’t mean much, but that together started not adding up for me."

"Like what?"

"Well, to start, the comment about not being able to have children," Zilu said, raising a finger. "When Miss Ely and Miss Aria explained the... Hierarchy to me..."

Zilu blushed slightly at the memory of that conversation.

"They mentioned they couldn’t have children," she continued. "And I found that strange but didn’t give it much thought at the time."

"And after that?"

"Then I noticed that none of them sleep," Zilu said, raising a second finger. "Last night I stayed awake for a while and I could hear how they were all active throughout the entire night, talking among themselves."

"..."

"They also never look tired," Zilu added, raising a third finger. "We’ve spent a full day walking through the forest and not one of them showed the slightest exhaustion, no sweat, no heavy breathing, nothing."

Zilu paused.

"But what confirmed everything for me," she said, lowering her hand, "was their body temperature."

"What about their temperature?"

"They’re cold..." Zilu said, looking at him directly. "When I’m near any of them I can feel a faint chill coming from their bodies, it’s not very strong, but it’s there."

"..."

"You haven’t felt it?" Zilu asked with a surprised expression.

Mark was quiet for a moment.

"At first yes," he admitted. "When I had just revived them I could notice their temperature was lower than normal, but eventually I stopped noticing it."

"You stopped noticing it?"

"Yes, after a while I just felt them like anyone else."

Zilu kept looking at him with a thoughtful expression.

"So that’s how you perceive them..." she said quietly.

Mark looked at her in silence and a question that had been turning over in his head for a while finally found its way to his lips.

"Don’t you think I’m despicable or something like that?" Mark asked. "You know... for what I do."

"For reanimating the dead?"

"Yes..."

"How could I think that?" she said, shaking her head. "You saved my life and offered me a place to belong..."

Zilu lowered her gaze slightly.

"What you do with your power doesn’t change what you did for me," she said. "...For me, you will always be the person who saved me."

"...Thank you, Zilu," Mark said with a smile.

Zilu gave him back a small, still slightly shy smile.

"Well," Mark said, starting to sit up. "I think it’s time to go back to the oth—"

But then she placed a hand on his chest and laid him back down.

"Zilu?"

"There’s still one more thing pending, Master," Zilu said, positioning herself on top of him.

"What?"

Zilu’s golden eyes locked onto his.

"...You had sex with Sarah, didn’t you?"

And with that, silence settled between them.

Zilu’s ears were completely upright and rigid, pointing straight up without moving a millimeter.

"Hmm... No?" Mark replied, looking slightly away to one side.

"You’re a very bad liar, Master," she said, narrowing her eyes.

"Nothing happened between—"

"I could smell your scent on Sarah, Master."

"..."

"When she hugged me to say goodbye," Zilu continued without looking away, "your smell was all over her body, on her neck, in her hair, on her clothes."

Mark went completely quiet.

"Demi-humans have quite a developed sense of smell, Master," Zilu explained in a tone that was no longer shy but direct. "And mine is especially sensitive."

"...Maybe you were confused," Mark tried to lie with a nervous laugh. "We were talking inside her house for quite a while and it’s normal that—"

"Master."

"Yes?"

"Don’t insult my nose" Zilu said as she leaned toward him and kissed him.

But this kiss was nothing like the one the previous night.

This one was deep and decisive, Zilu’s lips pressing against his with a firmness Mark hadn’t expected from her, while one of her hands closed around the fabric of his clothes at chest height.