The Dandelions were invited by a bunch of young soldiers to celebrate the victory with them and left the two girls and three monsters behind with apologetic smiles.
"To bear with all of that with your levels and stats..."
Cranberry was smiling while looking at Mary like a proud parent.
"Your memories might have changed but the pride I saw in you when we were kids is still good after all. I was really worried before when I saw you with Roan back in the woods near our territory."
She nodded and rises her clenched fist triumphantly.
"Forgive me lady Pride, even though some of my monsters may support your story about some other version of the world that got replaced because of some reset or whatnot, the only thing I remember about you is that you were always very mean to me."
Mary grumbled looking away but glanced back once she noticed the red-haired girl flinched because of her words.
"Ha! Maybe if you weren't such a little wimp acting like a damsel in distress instead of...!"
*pat*
"...?!"
"Maryl, call this stubborn girl by her first name and without any honorifics."
Zombie used Cranberry's head as an armrest which completely threw the red-haired girl off and confused her more than anything she witnessed up until that point.
"What? No! I've heard what lady Pride does to people that are rude to her! I'm not going to fall for that!"
Mary shook her head and backed off, putting up both her hands and shaking her head from left to right.
"Nah, I'm serious. You probably can't tell - that cute ball of aggression and violence is only acting tough, in reality she's sulking right now but is too proud to show that in an obvious way."
The blue undead giggled and moved his arms so that now he was tightly hugging the red-haired girl from behind while resting his chin on the top of her head.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"...!"
Which was an extremely efficient method to stop Cranberry from speaking up since she was too overwhelmed with various emotions ranging from happiness all the way to embarrassment.
"Sulking...?! The villainess is sulking because I, the heroine, am not intimate enough with her?!"
Mary shook her head in disbelief and asked.
"...this takes way too long. Marion, you want to get the titan-class monsters corpses or not?"
Zombie rolled his eyes and frowned.
"I... I want them..."
Mary lowered her head and nodded.
"Then repeat after me."
The undead nodded back and propped the unbelievably embarrassed Cranberry to face the brown-haired girl.
"Cranberry. It's good to see you. Let's train together again."
"Cranberry. It's good to see you. Let's train together again."
Zombie spoke and Mary repeated after him, while carefully watching the red-haired girl's reaction.
"...!"
Even though it was staged - for just a split second, Cranberry's expression changed into a hopeful one, as if she really wanted to believe in the girl's words...
"Haa... this is dumb. Zombie, stop this before I'll get mad at you, you rotten brain."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})But then her expression soured and she stood up from Zombie's lap and scoffed at him.
"..."
Mary also turned away, but instead of getting angry, she fell deeply in thoughts.
"Alright. Blueberry, comfort your mommy for a moment - I'll go fetch the monster corpses I promised Morty, and be right back."
Zombie patted the griffin's side and stood up as well.
"Skwee...! (Mommy, don't be sad!)"
Given the permission, Blueberry shimmied closer towards the red-haired girl and wrapped around her like a cat looking for affection.
"...Blueberry, your daddy is not playing fair..."
Cranberry muttered before giving in and burrowing herself in the soft feathers while hugging the blue griffin.
"...?"
Zombie was about to leave towards the mountain but he stopped in place once he glanced at Blueberry's talons...
...and realized that one of them was missing and it didn't look like an old wound either...
"...Madison, what is the meaning of this...?"
His happy demeanor disappeared and he transformed back into the furious, terrifying monster.
"...?! Wh-what are you talking about...?!"
Mary backed off and took cover behind Arion.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"You can heal your monsters, I saw you healing Arion before. Even if your mend is painful, it sure beats having an open wound like this...!"
He growled pointing at Blueberry's missing talon.
"Neither you nor Arion are wounded, it's only Blueberry... are you bullying my daughter...?!"
He glared down at the trembling heroine and his body began glowing violet.
"...wha...?! No! It's not like that!"
Mary freaked out and panicky waved her arms in denial.
"Skwee. (Daddy, it's not like that.) Skwee. (Master's skill is just too low-level to affect me.) Skwee. (She really tried her best but it just didn't work without Avocado aiding her.)"
Blueberry hurriedly clenched her talons, hiding the wound, and screeched in an explanation.
"...how did you even get that wound in the first place? It doesn't look like something caused by fighting a large monster..."
Zombie deactivated his skills and asked.
"..."
The blue griffin lowered her head with embarrassment and didn't answer.
"Raor, raor. (Big brother Zombie, Blueberry got wounded when she tried to keep that girl safe.)"
The one who answered in her stead was the large black wolf.
Arion stood up and looked towards the ashen-haired girl talking with some medics.
"Her? She seems a bit stronger than the others... so? What happened? Did your talon broke against the armor of one of those big monsters or something?"
Zombie nodded after glancing at the young girl with his glowing red eyes.
"...skwee... (...not exactly...)"
Blueberry screeched silently and shook her head in embarrassment.
"Wait! That's right! If you are going to be mad anyway, be mad at that crazy brat!"
Mary gasped and stood up, suddenly realizing that she didn't have to hide her disdain towards the ashen-haired girl anymore since the special quest was over and they didn't have to cooperate in order to survive.
"Do you two want to know how my Blueberry lost her talon?! She and Shanks were risking their lives to save that snot-nosed idiot over there, but that ungrateful brat ripped off Blueberry's talon to jump back into the fight with no plan!"
The brown-haired girl poured out all of her anger out, venting off to the only two other people who cared about the giant griffin just as much or even more than she did.
"Zombie. I won't be able to hold back, so you take care of it. Don't kill her. Make her suffer."
Cranberry lifted her head up from Blueberry's feathers and ordered in a cold voice brimming with pure hatred as she clenched her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white.
"W-wait...! That's not what I was after...! She's the daughter of the avatar of wrath and has a unique role in the global event too...!"
Mary flinched and shivered from fear, looking at the Master-Servant pair seething with the purest wrath and glowing brightly with the myriad of skills.
"Who cares about that? The system is flexible enough - it always adjusted when we killed any esential characters - why would a little punishment be any different?."
Cranberry scoffed and went back to showering Blueberry with love and affection.
"My poor baby... haa... mommy and daddy should have returned sooner..."
She breathed out and nuzzled against the griffin's neck.
"No, seriously! Don't! That girl might be a brat but she's extremely stro... -eh...?!"
Mary flinched and realized that Zombie was no longer there, and she's talking to the thin air.
His departure was completely silent but the moment he got to the ashen-haired girl, was not...
*BOOOOOOOOM*
