The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"Ah, a baby girl! What will you name her?"

Marry blushed and asked all excited.

"I'm thinking of naming mine griffin either Anry or Roma!"

She added, blushing slightly harder while glancing at the blond prince on the other side of Cranberry.

"Pfft... Barely inconspicuous enough but it will do, I suppose."

"...?"

Cranberry instantly figured out her friend's naming sense and snorted, while Roan furrowed his brows, pouting at the male griffin just about to finish the dried meat under the watchful gaze of the black wolf.

"...I don't have anything right now, but first things first, my little girl is hungry..."

The red-haired girl changed the subject seeing that continuing the teasing will only result in Mary getting more and more pink from embarrassment, and looked back at the male chick just as Roan, though she wasn't looking at him with jealousy, but rather concern.

"The young griffins' diet should consist of meat as they are unable to digest plants until they are at least five years old... and yours is finishing all that we had on us..."

She murmured, falling deep in thoughts for a second or two.

"How about we call it a day? What do you two think?"

She raised her head and asked the brown-haired girl and the blond-haired boy.

"I... If that's okay with you all, I would prefer to not continue the hunt with the little ones... it might be too dangerous for them."

Mary shook her head and put on her serious face, pressing her hands to her chest.

"Mary's right – those two might have become your familiars, but they are literal babies. Let's get back."

Roan agreed, waving his hands dismissively.

"Good. And there should be an additional ration or two in Baron's bags..."

Cranberry nodded with satisfaction, before looking up at the sky barely visible from between the branches of the surrounding trees, and her eyes shone white.

"(Baron! Can you come to pick us up?)"

"Skwee? (Mommy, what are you doing?)"

Cranberry sent out a directed telepathic message and lowered her head to look at the curious griffin calmly enjoying being hugged.

"I'm calling for one of the subjects of my husband."

The red-haired girl explained while holding the baby monster with one hand while using the other one to gently pet the soft feathers on her head that managed to dry up and were overwhelmingly fluffy and amazing to touch.

"...ah, so that's why Arion is nuzzling against that one..."

Cranberry nodded to herself while using thinking how good it would feel to burrow her face in the soft yellow feathers when...

*CRUSH*

"KYAAAH!"

A red shape fell from the sky straight down, breaking the branches and even entire trees in its wake, completely destroying the barrier of brushes and other vegetation the griffin's nest originally had, not that there was much need for it now, though – and caused Mary to let out a surprised high-pitched scream and leaped all the way behind Roan, bypassing Cranberry altogether.

"(I'm here. Can we leave already? I can't stand the griffin's stench.)"

A reptile monster the size of a luxurious carriage, covered with crimson red scales, raised his head baring his fangs in discontent before unfolding and folding back his wings impatiently.

"That's right, dragons don't like griffins, right?"

Cranberry looked over her shoulder to face the red dragon of ruin, without fully turning around, and asked although she knew the answer.

"(Griffins are annoying, they think that they can do whatever they want because very specific subspecies that they all have a chance to rank up to can measure up to dragons. I'd say they don't know their place, and they are a little bit too chewy for my taste.)"

Baron scoffed, and his hot breath blew past the bloodied nest causing whatever was left of it to get blown apart, while he made sure to point out that he had no trouble hunting down the proud half-bird monsters.

"Oh. What about young griffins?"

Cranberry asked casually.

"(...like... are you asking about how I rate them as a snack?)"

Baron leaned back in confusion, glaring down at the red-haired girl clearly hiding something from him.

"No!"

Cranberry frowned speaking harshly.

"Tell me, do you dislike griffins enough to attack potentially friendly griffin chicks."

She asked while leaning to the side, in a very conspicuous way, prompting the dragon to look in that direction...

"(What in the world is that supposed to be?!)"

...and glare right at the utterly terrified male chick hiding underneath the black wolf and shaking from fear at the mere sight of the red dragon – well, considering that the little griffin probably never saw something so big as Baron was at least twice as large as the adult griffin that Cranberry's group killed earlier – not to mention that as Baron already confirmed, dragons and griffins didn't particularly like each other, it wasn't a surprising reaction.

"(Oh, come on! Weren't you supposed to hunt them?! Did you forget how to kill things or something?!)"

Baron growled furiously, angry at least to the same extent as the male griffin chick was scared.

"Hey, don't shout! You're scaring him! You could use directed telepathy and the base one, you know?"

The red-haired girl frowned and scolded the red dragon.

"Besides, Mary is a tamer – she had an opportunity to tame a griffin which is a very rare thing and she didn't miss her chance."

Cranberry shrugged her shoulders and motioned at the brown-haired girl still hiding behind the blond prince – although the four of them – Arion included – had traveled on Baron's back many times up until that point, the red dragon was still quite a terrifying existence to them.

...and considering that it was a true dragon and not a drake was making it that much worse...

"(You, huh... You're lucky that Kopia instructed all of us to not mess with you.)"

Baron scoffed towards the brown-haired girl who started trembling and looked back at the horrifying male chick.

"RAOR!"

Of course, his words did cause a reaction – the black wolf jumped up on all fours and roared furiously at the red dragon threatening his master.

"(Relax. I said I won't do anything to her, didn't I?)"

Baron shook his head and slowly walked towards the wolf and griffin.

"Raor!"

Causing Arion to growl at him with a warning.

"(I told you to relax, if I wanted to kill him I would have already done it.)"

Baron rolled his eyes and lowered his head just enough to sniff the general area above the two monsters.

"(Pffft! Pathetic! He smells like a champion monster, but didn't even flinch when I growled at his master. I sense no pride nor loyalty from him.)"

The red dragon raised his head and walked back to the red-haired girl while cackling mockingly.

"Mister Baron! Anry is still a baby!"

Surprisingly enough the roles seemed to be reversed as the tamer jumped forward to protect the familiar, as Mary moved from behind Roan, clenching her fists.

"(I thought that I was clear enough about my dislike for his species? He might be your familiar now, and I will carry it on my back, but I will not acknowledge cowards, no matter how old they are.)"

Baron merely scoffed, not taking Mary's words seriously.

"Ha. So you're saying that if there was a griffin that wasn't scared of you, you would acknowledge it...?"

Cranberry glanced down at her chest and then looked back at the dragon.

"(...I meant what I said...)"

Baron responded slowly, squinting his eyes in suspicion.

"Ha! That's great, because, you see..."

Cranberry's face suddenly brightened up with a wild smile as she turned around and extended her hands forward, showing off the yellow griffin chick in her arms.

"This is my second familiar! And, system, her name is Blueberry!"

/Initiation complete

Second familiar selected

Name: Blueberry

Race: Griffin

The red-haired girl used the chance to both introduce the female chick and officially register it in the system.

"Skwee! (Woooow!) (Skwee! (Mommy! Mommy!) Skwee?! (Who is this?!) Skweeee! (He looks so cool!)"

Meanwhile, the little Blueberry started flapping her wings and screeching excitedly, gazing up at the stunned red dragon with sparkling eyes, completely forgetting that she was hungry.

"Blueberry, this is Baron, he is your daddy's subject, and he will be your bodyguard... He also has food."

"Skwee?! (Really?!) Skwee! (Hurray!)"

Cranberry said with a smile and put Blueberry down on the ground – which made the baby griffin awkwardly sprint towards the speechless red dragon.

"Skwee! (Baron, you are so cool!) Skwee! (I like you!)"

Blueberry went as far as climbing on her hind legs and raising up to around Baron's ankle's height, which ended with her screeching all hyped-up.

*gurururururu*

Suddenly, a rather loud rumble came out of the tiny griffin's stomach.

"Skwee...? (Eh...?)"

Blueberry screeched in confusion and looked down, surprised by the sound that her stomach made.

"Skwee! (Ah!) Skwee! (Food!) Skwee! (Baron, give me food!)"

Without even the slightest bit of fear, the baby griffin screeched and scratched against dragon scales with her tiny claws.

"(...what...?)"

Baron stared down at her and managed to let out a single word while shaking his head and blinking repeatably as if expecting the boisterous griffin chick to be an illusion that would disappear if he did that.

"Zombie is your master, and I am his wife."

Cranberry declared, smiling at the red dragon and raising her left hand, wiggling her ring finger with the ancient wedding ring.

"And this girl is my daughter, so she's Zombie's daughter too. Be nice to her from now on – now, get your butt down, I need to take out the spare rations."

She explained and waved at the red dragon in a domineering way, pointing at custom-made large bags for storing loot and monster parts right by the red monster's hind legs.

"(...what...?!)"

Baron repeated, even more, taken aback than before.

"Skwee...! (Baron, food...!)"

While he did that, Blueberry screeched pitifully and scratched against his scales again.