Although Zombie was originally going to stay in the village only for a few hours – checking up on Cranberry and leaving as soon as Olive would be done with fooling the blue undead's pursuers from the main branch of the Envy family, but that honestly was no longer feasible...
As for why...
"(Master!)"
The young red dragon, Baron, ran out of the storage shed by Mirabelle's house – while said shed was of course turned into a rather cozy lair for the growing monster – and began rubbing his head against Zombie's chest like a dog or a cat yearning attention.
"Hey there, good to see you, Baron. Are you properly guarding Cranberry as I asked you to?"
Zombie smiled, patting and scratching the scaly head and neck of the red monster with his right hand.
"(I do! I never go too far from her even when we are hunting monsters with the elves!)"
