Chapter 90: Meeting in the woods (1)

"Haa... you don't even need to translate it."

Cranberry sighed and said before Zombie could explain what Blueberry was saying.

"Our little birdie got excited and threw off her master without even realizing it, isn't that right?"

The red-haired girl leaned to the side to look in the griffin's eyes with scorn.

"S-skwee...! Skwee... (Bu-but mommy, I smelled daddy, and I kind of...! Started flying faster, and didn't check if master is still holding on...) Skweee... (I'm sorryyy...)"

Blueberry screeched lowering her head apologetically.

"Graough. (She's apologizing.)"

Zombie, who finally managed to get his head out from under the griffin's body, translated for his master.

"Yeah, I can see that."

Cranberry stepped away from Blueberry and started massaging her forehead.

"Well then, I expect that the other two life signatures that you've spotted are Mary and Arion following after her."

She looked at Zombie while pointing at the griffin with her thumb and picking the baseball bat that she dropped before.

"Skwee? (Arion? But only me and master were flying here?)"

Blueberry tilted her head in confusion.

"Graough. (Master, she says that it should be only Mary.)"

Zombie, using the confusion, already pulled half of his body from under the griffin.

"Ha? Then who...?"

"Ah! Someone's there!"

Cranberry's question was answered before she even finished asking it and by the very person that she was curious about to boot.

Because right then and there, from between the bushes came a short brown-haired girl with disheveled clothes.

She looked like she had a rather rough fall but somehow managed not to break any bone or even get a bruise.

Though, looking back at her clothes...

The shirt that seemed a size or two too small to contain her breasts was ripped and the girl was holding a light jacket - too big for her body size - over it to cover herself prudently.

While it could be that this was simply the girl's style, the jacket alone looked far more expensive than anything else she was wearing, and, more importantly, it didn't have any traces of the fall like the rest of her clothes.

So, where did she get it from?

"L-lady Pride!"

As if to answer that riddle, a young blond-haired man showed up right after the brown-haired lass, wearing an expensive-looking set of clothes.

Every piece of it was supposed to make a grand impression, but somehow it seemed that the set was missing something.

Something like a jacket.

Cranberry's brows inadvertently raised up in slight confusion after looking at the odd pairing.

"Graough! (Oh, hey! It's the weakling prince!) Graough? (What is he doing with Mary?)"

Zombie, who managed to get out from underneath the griffin, pointed out while dusting off his clothes.

Yes, the blond man was obviously the prince, Roan Greed, and the girl next to him simply must have been Mary.

Honestly, her childish face didn't seem to change at all from when she was ten while only her body grew.

As for Mary herself, she was looking between the prince and the pair standing beside her griffin, horribly confused.

"Ah, um... my prince? By lady Pride, do you mean THE lady Pride...? You, you don't right...?"

Mary asked the prince, glancing nervously at the red-haired girl as if Cranberry had no right to be standing there.

For some reason, something in her voice suggested that it was their first meeting.

And more importantly... Mary didn't call Cranberry by her name even though Cranberry had specifically told her she could and should do that.

"Haa..."

That made Cranberry sigh and shake her head.

The system really did wipe out the part of the story where Mary became Canberry's follower.

It was annoying.

Really, really annoying.

Cranberry Pride wasn't someone who could just let go of either her property or the people she considered friends.

"Lady Pride! This is such a lucky coincidence!"

But Roan completely ignored the short girl and hurriedly walked towards Cranberry and Zombie.

"I'm so happy to see you in a good health, my lady."

As if his high and mighty attitude from their previous meeting was just an illusion, the prince bowed with full courtesy to the red-haired girl.

"Ha. Likewise, Roan, what is a man next in line to the throne doing in the depths of the wood together with a... less than appropriately dressed escort?"

Cranberry straightened her back and glared down at both of them.

"Were you two indulging in some kind of adulterous play before you got here?"

She added looking critically at the expensive jacket covering Mary's breasts.

"Graough? (An escort?) Graough! (Master, don't you recognize her? It's Mary!)"

Zombie growled giving Cranberry a strange look, causing the red-haired to frown.

Cranberry wanted to loudly sigh and complain that he should be able to read her mood by now - and she was in a terrible mood considering that the girl she thought of as a friend, was acting like a stranger.

"...! I-I'm not a...!"

Mary got red and made sure to properly cover herself with the jacket before she proudly raised her head.

"Who? She? Oh, she's no one. On my way to your home, I saw someone falling off from an emperor griffin's back and came to check who that was."

Roan straightened his back and started explaining so fast that he startled Mary.

"It turned out to be this girl from our first kill party. My lady, do you remember her? She's the one who tamed the wolf! I had no idea she had also tamed a griffin!"

The prince started blushing from the excitement while sneaking glances at the said griffin peacefully standing by the Master-Servant pair as if she belonged there.

"So you say, but why are you two here alone? Where is the rest of your group? Are you telling me that you, a prince, were traveling alone, without even a single bodyguard? Isn't that convenient..."

Cranberry crossed her arms and smirked mockingly.

"You know, you don't have to come up with some random excuse. You can be an easy man whenever you want. We just have to break off the engagement and you will have all the freedom that you could ever wish for."

Her smirk turned into a benevolent smile and she opened her arms while trying out some of the acting tips that she had been researching since the failure at the Durian's mansion.

"A... umm... hah...? Umm...? Wait, what...?"