"Useless girl, you couldn't even awaken to pyromancy or healing."

As per usual, lady Raspberry got out from her bed and was standing imposingly in front of her daughter.

"I'm sorry, mother."

Cranberry apologized with her head down.

"All you can do is swing that barbaric stick around like an ape. I'm ashamed of you."

"I'm sorry, mother."

"You even selfishly rejected the necromancy that's why you ended up with some ridiculous magic! Do you know how much shame this family had to suffer through because of you?!"

"I'm sorry, mother."

Even though Cranberry called it a talk when she explaining the reason why her mother was calling for her every evening, it was just the mother scolding and berating her apologizing child.

"The only good part about you is that boy! But you even ruined that! You ruined his future! If you didn't stubbornly ask my husband to take you with him that time, the boy would be alive, and become a player character like the others! But because of you, he is stuck as an undead! How could my daughter do something like that?!"

Raspberry shouted.

"I-I'm sorry..."

Cranberry's shoulders trembled and she clenched her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white.

"Stop doing that, you stupid girl, you're going to ruin your nails even more."

Her mother scoffed at her and Cranberry instantly opened her hands.

"I can't believe I sacrificed my health to give birth to such a worthless girl."

Lady Raspberry shook her head and put her hand against her forehead.

"Year after year you turn out to be even more of a failure. You refuse to learn how to use a proper weapon. You have no manners and eat like a pig in front of your own low-class guests. You're gaining useless fat on your body. Is that how someone from the Pride family should act."

The tall, sickly woman counted on her fingers explaining Cranberry's faults.

"You fight too much, you read too much, you're not interested in learning how to be a good wife. Even after my husband somehow salvaged the whole catastrophe during your first-kill party, you were so tall unappealing that the king chose Fillia Envy to be the fiance of his son instead of you! How is it even possible to be such a failure?"

"..."

Lady Raspberry sighed and started massaging her forehead while Cranberry was just standing there with her head down, staring at her feet.

"I'm looking through the list of suitors for your hand, better prepare, as soon as I pick someone good you will leave the mansion."

"..."

Lady Raspberry declared but Cranberry didn't react whatsoever.

"I can only hope that being a wife will clear your head even a little bit.

"..."

Even after a comment like that Cranberry stayed still.

"If you somehow won't ruin your chances for a marriage, I decided that you will give Zombie to me."

"...!"

That caused a reaction.

Cranberry flinched and started slowly raising her head.

"...he belongs to me..."

She whispered.

"What?"

Lady Raspberry raised her brow and laughed.

"Naive girl! I've told you before that he hates you. As soon as I allow him to, he'll come running. Who would want to stay with you?"

Lady Raspberry mocked her daughter.

"Zombie would never...!"

*SLAP*

"...eh...?"

Cranberry clenched her fists and looked her mother straight in the eye.

But before she could even finish her sentence, her mother swung her hand at her.

She slapped her face.

Cranberry didn't even felt the pain, her mother's strength stat was far too low to even register to Cranberry.

But the slap itself was what shook the red-haired girl to the core.

Cranberry slowly raised her hand and touched her cheek.

The spot that her mother hit started to tingle, then scratch, and finally it was burning.

Cranberry didn't suffer any damage, but it was burning.

She pressed her hand against her cheek and lowered her head to hide that her eyes were tearing up.

"How dare you speak to me like that, you ungrateful brat!"

Lady Raspberry shouted while holding her numb hand.

"Everything I'm doing, I'm doing out of my love for you! And that's how you repay me?!"

*SLAP*

And even though the first slap hurt her palm, she slapped her daughter's face again.

"..."

Cranberry started shaking but stayed silent while her mother started to rage.

"An ungrateful girl like you should have never been born! When Zombie brought home a griffin I thought it was a gift for me so I could level up and get better but you said it was for your friend who was a tamer. But you haven't told me that this friend was a low-born Hope's brat! That's not how your life is supposed to be! That's not how I planned it for you! How dare you be such a disappointment?!"

*SLAP*

Lady Raspberry ended her outburst with yet another hit.

At that point, Cranberry was barely holding back her tears.

Yet she didn't cry.

She didn't shed any tears in front of her mother - if she did, it would mean that her mother has won.

She was only standing in front of her, in a dress that her mother chose for her, trembling.

"Get out of my sight, I feel like I have enough of your ungratefulness for a month."

Lady Raspberry shooed her daughter away, and Cranberry turned away without a word and walked to the door.

"I'll call you again if I hear about any other disgraceful act."

Lady Raspberry called after her before she managed to close the door.

Cranberry was a strong-willed person.

She didn't let her tears flow while she walked the silent hallways.

She would never allow a chance that anyone would see her tears.

Along the way to her room she passed a few maids that looked at her with fear, Cranberry said nothing to them.

Her shoulders were trembling more and more, but her room was almost there, few more steps and she'll be able to bury herself in the pillow and...

"Graough. (Master.)"