Chapter 81: A talk in the office

Cranberry and Zombie were sitting outside one of the rooms of the Prides' mansion, waiting patiently.

The red-haired girl was calm and composed while the blue undead was fidgeting feeling uneasy.

"Graough...? (Master, aren't you worried about what will he say...?)"

In the end, Zombie couldn't stop himself and asked.

"Why would I be?"

Cranberry shrugged her shoulders making an indifferent expression.

"Graough... (You've said that things have changed...) Graough, graough... (That weakling prince seemed to really think that you were his fiancé and so did everyone else...) Graough, graough? (Aren't you worried that the system changed your father and made him, I don't know, just like your mother was?)"

Zombie leaned forward while still sitting so that he could see Cranberry's face clearly form below to watch her reaction.

The girl looked at him, raised her hand, and touched his head.

"Rotten brain. Even with changed memories Roan still acted just as he did during the first kill party, the only thing that changed about him were his memories about me, not his behavior in general. We'll be fine."

She pulled his head onto her lap and started patting him with a soft smile.

"Without my mother's influence, father should return to his normal self."

"Graough...! (Oooh, I see...!)"

Zombie's eyes closed lazily.

"Say, Zombie, could you tell me exactly what you saw before everything went dark?"

Cranberry asked while continuously stroking his head.

"Graough. (As you wish, master.)"

The blue undead nodded.

"Graough. (When I got back with the potions, I saw a strange guy waiting for something and a weird girl grabbing your face.) Graough, graough. (That girl looked like she was using a skill, but instead of emitting a normal light, she was absorbing the green light that you were emitting)"

He groaned and his expression darkened.

"Did you recognize any of them?"

Cranberry asked in a warm voice, honestly, she looked like she wasn't paying that much attention to Zombie's words and was just enjoying having him on her lap.

"Graough... (No, I did not...)"

Zombie denied it with disappointment.

"They could be the werewolves, or simply came with them but stayed hidden..."

Even while only paying a little bit of attention to Zombie's words, Cranberry was still able to come to a reasonable conclusion.

"Graough...! (No, that's the thing...!)"

Zombie fidgeted feeling uneasy as if there was something he should have know but his rotten brain title was blocking him from realizing it.

"Graough! (They both were wearing bloodied clothes! Graough! (The maid outfit and the butler's outfit just like the rest of the house servants!). Graough! (But none of them...!)"

But at that moment the door by which the Master-Servant pair was waiting opened with an audible click.

"Come in."

The voice called them from the inside.

"Haa... we will have to finish another time..."

Cranberry seemed a bit dissatisfied that the quality time with her servant was cut short when the atmosphere was so nice.

Nevertheless, she gently nudged Zombie, encouraging him to get up, and stood up on her own to lead Zombie inside the room which turned out to be an office.

Cranberry's father, lord Blackberry Pride, was sitting behind a large desk.

His hand was still shining with the active skill and the bespectacled man was staring at it intensely.

"So the lull really is over, at last..."

Lord Blackberry muttered to himself.

"Father."

Cranberry bowed her head slightly in a greeting.

"Why did you called for us?"

She asked in a calm voice.

Blackberry took his eyes off of his hand and looked at his daughter, raising his brow.

"Why, you ask? Didn't you just kill one of the servants, your personal butler no less?"

"Graough?! (That rude bastard was your personal butler?!)"

Zombie growled in disbelief but was ignored.

"He had entered my room without my permission, offended me multiple times, and was bringing shame upon the name of the Pride family by basically licking Roan Greeds boots in the middle of the entrance hall of our family home."

Cranberry counted on her fingers and looked back at her father.

"Considering such major offenses, I'd say that the only problem here is that I haven't executed the guards who had the audacity of allowing in an intruder who hadn't confirmed with you, father, whether he can visit the Prides' mansion or not."

Cranberry declared with a stoic expression.

"A small mistake that can be corrected immediately."

She added without batting an eye.

"..."

Blackberry's hand stopped shining and he put it on the desk. He tilted his head slightly and looked at his daughter in shock.

"Wasn't that intruder your beloved fiancé...? I would have expected you to be jumping with joy that he paid you any attention at all."

The man put his hands together on the desk and leaned forward, posing a question.

"Haa... father, I had a lot of time to think during the lull, and came to a realization, that pursuing the marriage is pointless."

Cranberry slowly shook her head from side to side and opened her arms, showing that there is nothing that she can do.

"I will never become a good wife and mother that my mother wanted me to."

She declared which caused Blackberry's brow to shot up.

"To tell the truth your change of stance towards the little prince does come to me as a relief but..."

Lord Blackberry rubbed his hands together and sighed.

"Isn't it too soon for you to take such stance towards the marriage altogether? I clearly remember seeing you so happy when you were planning your wedding."

The slight change in her father's voice made Cranberry smile.

He seemed to be more concerned over her happiness than about how she acted in front of the very prince of the kingdom.

"Honestly, I pushed for your engagement with the prince for only two reasons."

Lord Blackberry confessed.

"First, you seemed to be head over heels for him. Second, because of the unfortunate circumstances on top of a sudden lull, our family's position had suffered greatly, some voices even call for pushing us out of the rightful spot as one of the main families."

He rubbed his hands together and frowned.

"The loss of the avatar of pride title, even during the time when the system stopped working, was a severe blow to our reputation."

He sighed.

"Sadly, even now that the system is functioning again, it might get be even worse. If only your mother was still alive..."

"Father, say, do you miss mother...?"

"Wh-what...?!"

Cranberry's sudden question seemed to throw Blackberry off.

He flinched and leaned back in his chair.

"This... haa... so be it, I think that you are old enough already to learn the truth."

Lord Blackberry breathed out heavily and looked his daughter in the eyes.

"My marriage with your mother wasn't my idea, it was decided by your late grandfather and honestly, it thoroughly ruined my relationship with the girl I loved."

He said, breaking eye contact and staring at the ceiling with a sour expression.

"Things happened, and I've even transferred the title of the avatar to your mother with the help of the said girl, well, of the said woman, to save your mother's life. I can only imagine that my former beloved misunderstood it as a sign of me trying to leave the Pride family name and return to her but..."

Lord Blackberry took a deep breath and looked at his silent daughter.

"I know I told you that the werewolves that attacked us over three years ago were just a bunch of feral monsters, but the truth is I expect them have been sent by that woman..."

The man went silent for a moment as if gathering courage.

"Cranberry, I'm sorry."

He bowed deeply to his daughter.

"You've lost your mother and our family name lost its prestige all because of your foolish father's past mistakes."

Lord Blackberry gave a heartfelt apology.

"If your sudden change has anything to do with the results of my actions, please think it over. Don't be like me and consider your own happiness first."

"With your permission, I'll do just that."

Cranberry bowed back to her father.

"All that said, you should refrain from outright killing our servants. It was hard enough to hire the full staff after the werewolves devoured all of the previous ones."

Lord Blackberry straightened his back.

"But since it was a good lesson to not underestimate their employer, I think there is no need for you to apologize."

He smirked.

"I'll deal with the misguided guards."

He added.

"And since the system is operating again I expect that you will start training again? Notify me if you won't be returning home for supper."

"As you wish. We'll be going now."

Cranberry smiled back at him and opened the door.

Lord Blackberry twitched again when she said 'we' and glanced at Zombie with confusion. It seemed that he also believed that Cranberry thought of her servant as a nuisance before, and the sudden change surprised him.

"Graough. (Goodbye, master's father.)"

Meanwhile, Zombie politely bowed to him before closing the door and following his master.

"Even though the system changed a lot of things about our history, it seems that father is still the same."

Cranberry was waiting for Zombie outside her father's office and linked arms with him as soon as he closed the door.

"This might be the case for all the others too..."

She furrowed her brows and leaned on Zombie's shoulder.

"Could it be that..."

Worried Cranberry snuggled up to Zombie and looked down, falling deep in thoughts without even finishing her sentence.