"Graough?! (How can it be?!) Graough?! (Wait... so those hearts are like a special animation for her or something?!)"

Zombie growled, peeking at Claymore from behind Cranberry's shoulder.

"Don't look at her! You're the reason for this so just stay away for a moment, you rotten brain!"

Cranberry's face twisted in fury and she snapped at her servant.

"Did she said anything about getting in the mood?!"

She clicked her lips and focused back on the girl that was slowly releasing light-blue steam.

"Graough...? (Mood...?) Graough?! (So that's what she meant?!)"

/Warning

/Dominion of Lust is expanding

Iron will (level 2) active

/Calculating...

/Master resisted the effects of the dominion

/Rotten brain +1[max] active

/Calculating...

/Servant resisted the effects of the dominion

The air was filling up with overwhelming pressure.

"I told you to shut up!"

Cranberry glared back at her servant which caused him to promptly close his mouth and back off a step.

With that, Cranberry turned back to the heavily breathing Claymore and firmly grabbed her head.

"Claymore. If you let loose now, I will never talk or write to you again."

She spoke clearly in an ice-cold voice.

"...!"

That seemed to work.

"Yo-you're joking... You've said that you're my friend, right...? Friends can lend each other a man, right?"

Claymore flinched and her eyes widened.

"We've been exchanging letters for so long and you still dare to say something like that...?"

The temperature in the room seemed to drop by more than a few degrees, as Cranberry expression matched her voice.

"B-but you've said that you don't mind lending your books...! What's the difference...?!"

Claymore twitched and tried to argue back while constantly sending lustful glances at the blue undead hunched behind Cranberry, making an annoyed expression.

"Graough! (Master!) Graough! (I don't want to go anywhere without you!) Graough! (I refuse to be lent to anyone!)"

Zombie grunted angrily and turned away from the fussy girl.

"Books are my property and Zombie is also my property."

The red-haired girl shrugged her shoulders and said indifferently.

"Then...!"

"I'm willing to lend the books, but Zombie is only mine, and only for me. Both are my property and therefore it's up to me to decide what I want to do with either. So don't you even dare to tell me what should I do."

Cranberry spoke over Claymore and explained giving off enough pressure to make the room feel stuffy.

"Graough! (That's right!) Graough! (I'm more important for her than some books!)"

Zombie scoffed at Claymore and from his position he was unable to notice that Cranberry's ears got a little bit red.

"Cheapskate! You wrote me that you're not using him anyway, so why won't you just lend him to me?! I'm not asking you to give him to me forever! And I'm not going to break him either! If anything, he will be doing the breaking instead!"

Claymore shouted and the amount of blue steam that she was releasing doubled in an instant as she began stomping her feet like a spoiled brat.

"Graough? (What is that supposed to mean?) Graough? (I will be doing the breaking?) Graough? (So, what?) Graough? (Does she want me to help her defeat some monsters or something?)"

Zombie tilted his head and growled in confusion.

It was the straw that broke the camel's back, and Claymore's behavior seemed to be too much to take even for Cranberry.

Without another word, she picked up her baseball bat and swung it a mere inch in front of Claymore's face.

The air pressure of the swing alone was so strong that the girl tumbled back like a tumbleweed and stopped against the wall next to the doors.

"Uhyy!"

Clamore loudly sucked in some air in complete shock.

/Warning

/Dominion of Lust is expanding

Iron will (level 2) active

/Calculating...

/Master resisted the effects of the dominion

/Rotten brain +1[max] active

/Calculating...

/Servant resisted the effects of the dominion

The light-blue mist might have been blown away but the pressure from Claymore's skill increased even more instead.

"You...! You just...!"

Claymore was breathing heavily, but her eyes cleared out a bit, and specks of sanity could be seen in between the sparkling light-blue hearts.

Cranberry threw away her bat and crouched in front of the fuming Claymore.

"Claymore. I'm serious. I will never talk or write to you again.."

She said looking straight into her eyes.

"You won't...?"

Claymore's eyes widened and her chin trembled.

The pressure started dissipating and the pale-blue hearts began fading from her big brown eyes.

"Ever."

Cranberry confirmed with a dead-serious expression.

"B-but, we friends, right...? You have written that yourself before... right...?"

Claymore blinked and smiled awkwardly, but panic in her voice was crystal clear.

"Well, I'll just break our friendship then."

The red-haired girl shrugged her shoulders indifferently.

"N-nooo!"

Claymore's eyes returned to normal and she threw herself at Cranberry.

"No! Cranberry! Don't say that! Don't!"

The petite girl cried pitifully with steams of tears running down her face as she clung to Cranberry with all her might.

/Dominion of lust deactivated

"Haa..."

Cranberry breathed out with relief and started patting Claymore's head.

"Now, now. It's okay already."

She said gently.

"Cran... Don't hate me...! Don't stop being my frieeeend...!"

Claymore was bawling her eyes pitifully, there were no traces of the unique skill left.

"You stopped yourself so there's no reason for me to do that, isn't that right?"

Cranberry smiled and gently pulled Claymore away.

"I'm sorry for threatening you like that, but I was following exactly what you have written to me. I had to stop you."

Cranberry apologized and patted Claymore's head one more time.

"Y-yeah... Thank y-you.."

The petite girl sobbed and nodded.

"..."

Zombie was standing by the door and looking at the two of them with utter confusion.

"Haa... well... I guess I should explain to you what just happened..."

Cranberry sighed glancing at her servant.

"So that you won't do stupid shit like that to Claymore ever again...!"

"...!"

She frowned making Zombie frown and look away..

"Because that situation just now was one hundred percent your fault, and it could have caused a huge trouble for all of us!"

"..."

"Haa... Rotten brain..."

After not receiving even one remorseful grunt Cranberry shook her head in annoyance.