The Villainess and I, her Zombie

Arion the wolf monster, woke up when Mary used her mend skill on him.

"...raor... raor..."

He was moping around and complaining, looking at Zombie with a grudge.

"Graough... (Arion, I'm sorry. We only wanted to awaken your fighting spirit...) Graough! (I didn't mean the things I've said!)"

Zombie was crouching by his side and scratching and patting the wolf's sides.

"Graough...? (Will you forgive me...?)"

"...raor..."

Arion turned his head away from the blue boy, but when Zombie started scratching him at the good spot on his back, his hind leg started shaking and kicking against his will.

"Graough. (Please? If you're angry that you've lost, then we will train you.)"

"Raor..."

After another minute of apologizing and patting, Arion gave up and forgave Zombie, and the two of them started playing just as they were during their first meeting.

After all, Zombie's right hand was already basically detached so it was easy to use it for playing fetch.

"Skwee!"

Blueberry screeched impatiently looking at them, clearly wanting to join in, but she was held back by Cranberry.

"No, wait. First, Mary will use her taming skill on you, only then you can go play with them."

"...skwee..."

The baby griffin was brooding and started digging in the ground with the talons of her front left leg.

"It will be just a moment, Blueberry."

Mary promised and her eyes started shining.

The baby griffin flinched and shook her head.

"Skwee...?"

She screeched and glared at the brown-haired girl.

"Yes, yes, that's it. Now we're connected, you can join the boys now."

"Skwee!"

Mary patted Blueberry's head and made way for her, so that she could gallop towards the blue boy and the wolf monster.

"Skwee!"

Bluenerry's next screech made Mary flinch.

"What is it?"

Cranberry tilted her head and looked at Mary since the baby griffin was looking at her.

"She's... she was confirming whether or not she can go."

Mary answered slowly.

"Ha ha! She's such a well-behaved girl!"

Cranberry laughed, watching how the three started playing together.

"Our bond is only level 1 so I can't understand her that good yet, but..."

Mary scratched her cheek awkwardly.

"But...?"

Cranberry raised her brow.

"Well, I get the feeling that Blueberry thinks about the two of you as her parents..."

Mary fidgeted and glanced at Cranberry to judge her reaction.

"Haa...? What a weird chick. We killed her parents before we caught her, you know? In front of her."

The red-haired girl smiled gently and stared back at Mary.

"Maybe she had the same thoughts as I at some point..."

She added sounding a bit melancholic.

"...! Wh-what do you mean by that...?"

Mary gulped down her saliva and trembled.

Instead of answering with her words, Cranberry's smile became wider and she looked towards the three pets.

The atmosphere around the two girls became a bit stuffy, Mary didn't know whether she should pick up some random subject or straight up go and join her tamed beasts and Zombie.

"I made a schedule for your training."

But in the end, it was Cranberry who broke the silence while handing a piece of paper to Mary.

"I wrote it under the assumption that you have no titles connected with defeating monsters so that's what it focuses on."

She explained.

"Even something as easy as killing one hundred frenzied rabbits will give you a rabbit slayer title. Although it sounds funny it adds +2 to every stat, so it's worth getting as soon as possible."

Cranberry pointed out the first line of text on the paper.

"It's a shame that you're already level 15, no matter how small, a title grants modifiers that boost the status points gained during a level up."

"Y-you know a lot, are you perhaps...?"

Mary blinked a few times and asked shyly.

"Haa...? I guess I read a lot. Around one hundred and fifty years ago Redcurrant Gluttony wrote an excellent book about the hidden benefits of the titles, I'll ask my mother if I can lend it to you."

Cranberry shrugged and pointed at the paper again.

"If we help you to gather enough rabbits at once we'll be done with it relatively quickly and we'll be able to focus on getting you a wolf slayer title, this one is a bit harder to get since it requires you to kill two hundred and fifty frenzied wolves so that will take us at least one or two days but..."

"Whoa! Cranberry, wait! That tempo is too extreme! And are there even enough monsters in the area?"

Mary interrupted her with a frightened face, stuttering but Cranberry just raised her brow in slight confusion.

"Of course there are, frenzy rabbits are breeding so much that Blueberry should be getting a rabbit bane title any day now. One hundred shouldn't be a problem."

Cranberry waved her hand dismissively.

"Though wolves are a different case. Still, we left them alone so their numbers should be just enough. After that..."

"Wait! I'm only allowed to stay for one week! A hundred rabbits and two hundred fifty wolves are already too much!"

Mary shook her head and made a cross with her arms.

"No, I take that back! Killing so many monsters is way too much to be accomplished within a week!"

She declared, but it only made Cranberry look at her as if she heard a good joke.

"What? Nah, no way that's it! I used the Dandelions to scout the area for me and found out a bunch of useful places where we can get titles!"

Cranberry laughed off her concerns.

"But I'll tell you a secret, if you'll manage to accomplish this plan, we'll let you tag along on a real hunt."

She added with a mysterious smile.

"I... That sound's scary, what do you mean by a real hunt? A quarter of a thousand wolves is already a war!"

"Ha ha! Good one!"

Mary tried to reason with Cranberry but the red-haired girl busted out in a loud laugh and patted her shoulder.

"A war... I swear, you would defecate while standing if you had to deal with goblins... haa... a pack of wolves a war, I swear..."

After a good laugh, Cranberry straightened her back and shook her head to clear her mind.

"Alright, Zombie! We're going!"

She raised her voice turning everyone's attention to her.

"Graough! (You've heard my master! It's time to start the training session!)"

Zombie groaned energetically and grabbed both Blueberry and Arion as if they were sacks of flour.

"Like... like now?! We're going now?!"

Mary gasped panicked.

"Yeah."

Cranberry simply nodded.