It was already the final day of Mary's stay in the Pride's mansion.

Or rather the last night.

Everyone from their training group was in the dining room, Cranberry, Mary, Arion, Blueberry, and the six wolves, were eating their evening meal while Zombie was watching them as usual.

Of course, now all the new wolves had their own names.

The green-bellied one was now called Avocado, then was Cherry, Melon, Fig, Plum, and the long-clawed Cinnamon.

No one would be able to guess that all those large black wolves were simple weak brown frenzy wolves just a few days ago.

Blueberry was still the same but in her case, since she was a baby griffin, her outer appearance would change only after she would get a bit older.

Although, the one who changed the most was Arion.

Even though he was almost constantly eating, he lost most of the muscle mass he gained right at the beginning and was looking straight up skinny while consuming ridiculous amounts of the prepared food.

Talk about wolf's appetite...

Mary would leave together with her monster the next morning, right after the sunrise so they wouldn't be able to eat breakfast together.

The atmosphere was rather heavy, but not because of the sadness over the departure.

The one who was the most anxious was Cranberry.

Over these few days she was put on a strict diet by her mother, who decided that she was gaining too much weight, so there were no signs of her stuffing her face like she did the first day.

Even before she started the dietetic meal she looked a bit sick, and even when she was eating she was jumping in her seat over the smallest sound.

Everyone else knew what she was listening in for.

Every day during the supper a maid would come to tell Cranberry that her mother is calling for her, and the red-haired girl would leave the dining room and show up only in the morning.

Even Mary picked up that whatever Cranberry was talking about with her mother wasn't anything nice.

But just as Cranberry was looking anxious, Zombie was looking more and more furious.

With the hosts acting like that none of the guests dared to make a noise, not to mention a conversation.

Sadly, the more someone dreads the inevitable, the sooner it comes.

And just like that, all the wolves' ears perked up at the sound of footsteps.

*knock* *knock*

A polite knocking preceded the door opening, and a fragment of the maid's dress already showed up making Cranberry clench her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white.

"Young mi..."

*WHAM*

"KYAH!"

Before the maid could even properly enter the dining room, Zombie rushed at her from his seat and shut the door with a kick pushing the maid back and making her scream in a high-pitched voice.

"GRAOUGH! (FUCK OFF! SHE'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE!)"

The blue boy roared at the door so loud that all the tamed monsters flinched and cowered in fear.

"Zombie?! What are you doing?!"

Cranberry stood up and slammed her hands against the table.

"Graough! (Master! Don't go!) Graough! (Say that you're sick or something!)"

The blue boy turned to her and begged her.

"Graough...! (I don't know what that woman is doing to you, but you can't let her...!)"

"WHAT MY MOTHER IS TALKING ABOUT TO ME IS MY PRIVATE BUSINESS! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO STICK YOU NOSE INTO IT, YOU ROTTEN BRAIN!"

Cranberry went crimson red from anger and shattered the whole dining table into splinters and sent the food flying all over the room with a single punch.

Mary and her monsters hurriedly hid in the corner.

"Graough...! (I-I'm your servant..!) Graough! (Your eternal servant!)"

Zombie growled while backing off.

"Shut up with your dumb groans! I know full well that you hate me since my carriage killed you back then!"

Cranberry almost busted into tears and stormed out of the room.

"Gra-graough?! (Wh-what...? I hate her?!)"

Zombie's almost fell over after hearing that sentence.

"Raa... (Big brother...)"

Cinnamon walked over to him and rubbed her head against Zombie's leg.

Mary furrowed her brows deep in thoughts, she tilted her head as if she was considering something.

"Zombie, what was she talking about...?"

In the end, she stood up and asked.

"Graough?! (How am I supposed to know?! Why would she think I hate her?!)"

Zombie growled angrily and glared at Mary.

"No, no, not about the hating part."

Mary quickly cleared the misunderstanding.

"Cranberry killed you?"

Zombie straightened his back and gave the brown-haired girl an ice-cold stare.

"Graough. (The system killed me.)"

He said after Mary didn't back down.

"Graough. (I died in a scripted story event. There's no reason for me to blame my master.)"

Zombie sighed and started rubbing Cinnamon behind her ears.

"Graough. (I was just a random villager.) Graough... (I wanted to be just a random villager.)"

Zombie slumped down.

Blueberry and all the other wolves approached him and started rubbing against him comfortingly.

"Skree. (Dad, don't be sad.)"

The baby griffin screeched.

"Graough? (Say, Mary, have you heard about something called a global story event?)"

Zombie smiled and looked at the girl from over all the pets he was caressing.

"I... I do, actually..."

Mary nodded, weighing her words with hesitation.

"Apparently it happened a few times in the past. Every human was assigned a role and had their stories adjusted to fit the event. Each time a global event occurred, it changed the course of history rather dramatically."

She answered with an answer straight out of the history book.

"Graough. (During my accident, the system called me an essential character.) Graough. (And, as you probably already know, the essential characters exist only for the global events.)"

Zombie smiled while patting Blueberry.

"Graough. (After I learned that, any sort of negative feelings towards my master disappeared.)"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"Graough? (Why is she bringing that up now?)"

"My only guess is that her mother told her something."

Mary answered honestly.

Truth to be told that was a quite obvious answer, and it made Zombie flinch and sigh.

"Graough... (I need to explain it to her.) Graough. (I'm going to the study. Guess I'll be writing a lot.)"

He stood up and walked over the tamed monsters and exited the room.

"...would be best if you didn't attach yourself to a side character..."

Mary breathed out and murmured after him.

"...even if she is a part of your backstory..."