Cranberry watched the playful two with a soft smile...

"...!"

...until she realized that there was a literal army of people staring all three of them - yes, that included herself as well, her very own self wearing just a set of fireproof underwear and nothing else...!

The red-haired girl carefully shimmied first to the side and then forward towards the Blueberry so that the griffin's large body would cover her from the unwanted attention.

The very welcomed side effect of that action was...

*pomf*

...Cranberry being close enough to bury her face into soft feathers of her aerially-inclined daughter.

"...hey there little chick, mommy missed you very much..."

Cranberry sighed with relief, rubbing her forehead against the griffin's neck.

"Skwee! (Mommy! I missed you so much too!)"

Blueberry screeched sounding like she was tearing up and was doing her best to nuzzle against both the blue undead and the red-haired girl at the same time.

---

"...!"

The scene that was playing out in front of all the defenders - from north and south alike - made them all speechless.

For once, it was already borderline insane to even imagine a monster as proud as the emperor griffin to be tamed by someone - but Mary Hope was the living evidence that it was possible.

...but this...?

A proud beast that was powerful enough to hunt dragons and true demons alike, even go against the titan-class monsters to some degree - was acting like the cutest of puppies that have met their most beloved people in the whole wide world.

The longer the touching scene was going on, the more people were glancing at the supposed owner of the griffin.

...and her wolf...

"Raor...! (Mary...!) Raor...! (I don't know why but...!) Raor! (I'm really happy to see that undead!) Roar! (I don't even feel hungry!)"

...her extremely excited wolf that couldn't sit still, unable to stop his tail from wagging wildly from side to side with enough power to cause a gusts of find.

"...? Huh? You can't be serious! Don't tell me you actually are like Blueberry and have some twisted memories about knowing them before?!"

Mary gasped, leaning in and whispering worriedly into Arion's ear.

"Roar! (No, I don't!) Raor, raor...! (But...! There is something about that guy that makes the beast part of my brain so incredibly happy...!)"

Arion whimpered and started hopping on his front paws unable to contain himself.

"...why...?"

Mary raised her brows and looked towards the blue undead in utter confusion.

She did so just in time to see that the undead let go of Blueberry and turned towards them.

*clap* *clap*

But instead of approaching them, he squatted and clapped his hands together while smiling brightly.

"Arion! Come here, boy!"

He called and reached out his arms expectantly.

"...!"

---

"Arion! Don't!"

The moment that Zombie called out his name, terribly skinny black wolf with orange luster to his fur lost all self-control and rushed at him without paying any attention to his tamer's voice, and straight-up jumped into the undead's arms.

"Who's a good boy! Who is?"

Zombie laughed, closing one eye when the wolf licked his face, and started patting and rubbing the wolf's fur affectionately.

"!!!"

Unable to bear all the eyes focused on her, Mary clenched her fists and did her best to casually walk after her tamed beasts, hoping to at least fooling a few people into thinking that it was all planned and not her completely losing control over her last two monsters.

"Geez, Arion, you were skinny before, but now you achieved something else! Are Cinnamon and the gang stealing your food or something? That won't do, you're their pack leader - or did Cinnamon overthrow you already?"

Zombie furrowed his brows and said in a worried voice as his hands patted down on the black wolf's ribs.

"...!"

"..."

The blue undead's words caused both Blueberry and Arion to flinch and lose most of their excitement.

"Huh? Hey, did I say something bad? Oh, right, where's the six of them? I missed them too! You two have grown up so much, they all should have too!"

Zombie frowned and started looking around as if expecting to see the other wolves approaching any second.

His eyes began glowing red...

"Oh? Hey, Cranberry, there are some living here that we know too!"

He turned around and called to the red-haired girl burrowed in the griffin's feathers.

But then he turned back and continued searching.

"Blueberry and you have turned out just as I was expecting, and I'm very proud of you two! You must have worked really hard to get this strong! Can't wait to see the others, why aren't they coming...? Did you leave them back home or something?"

Zombie smiled innocently and said to the frozen black wolf while rubbing him affectionately behind his left ear.

"I bet that Avocado's healing powers got really strong! Cherry and Fig should be the best at stealth and if nothing changed, Melon and Plum should have developed some really strong offensive magic. Ah! And what about Cinnamon? She must be giving you a run for your money, right, Arion? I remember her character being perfect for a great leader! We should all get together and search for some strong monsters to hunt!"

With each word that left Zombie's mouth, both Arion and Blueberry were looking more and more pitiful.

"...!"

Mary - who was already close enough to hear Zombie's words, flinched and gritted her teeth.

"Ah! Hey there, Meggie! You look like you got stronger. Maybe you want to become Cranberry's follower like before the system messed everything up?"

"...eh...?!"

Zombie saw her and waved at the brown-haired girl, which confused her so much that she took a step back.

"You... you can talk normally already...?!"

Mary gasped, looking around in panic.

"Oh! That's right, it's been a while since we talked, right? Khahaha! Sorry, this rotten brain of mine isn't that good with unimportant details."

Zombie knocked on his head with his right - the one made out of the strange smoke - hand and laughed.

"?!?!?!?!?"

Of which both the laugh and the black and red hand made the heroine shook her head and make a double-take.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?"

Zombie realized what the girl was staring at and made the red hand expand into a giant whip and instantly retract back into a standard hand-like shape.

"Anyway, you have those fancy tamer skills, like the instant summon or something, right? Be a good living and call for the other doggies. Then we can have a talk and you can become Cranberry's follower again or something so that she can finally stop crying in her sleep about wanting her friend back!"

The blue undead lighthearted shrugged his shoulders while continuously patting Arion's head with his left arm.

"?!?!?!?!"

"ZOMBIE, STOP TRYING TO EMBARRASS ME!"

At his words, Mary went wide-eyed and Cranberry shook her head while peeking at him from behind Blueberry's body.

"Khahaha! What do you want from me? I'm not lying about you missing contact with other living."

Zombie shrugged his shoulders dismissively and turned back to Mary.

"Come on. Bring out the doggies. I don't care that you don't remember it - I helped with their training, I demand a quality playtime!"

Zombie wasn't asking, he wasn't bargaining either - as he had said himself, he was demanding.

"...whoa..."

Even Cranberry gasped in shock since even though she knew that Zombie's act towards her changed during their training, this was the first time they came into contact with living members of the intelligent races therefore it was her first time seeing the blue undead interact with anyone other than her.

And it was only the beginning - that moment marked the point in time where the proudest corpse entered the story with all of his snarky glory.