<h4>Chapter 232: Catching up</h4>


    "...the wolves..."


    Mary spoke up while staring down at her own feet.


    "Yeah. The six cute doggies."


    Zombie nodded, smiling brightly, and looked at the brown-haired girl expectantly, which only made her, Arion, and Blueberry feel all the more terrible.


    "...I''m sorry... I can''t do that..."


    Mary clenched her fists and shook her head.


    "...? Huh? Ohe on, you don''t think I would do something to them! Even if they cked off and are really weak, there''s no way that I would be angry at them!"


    Zombie scoffed and assured the girl.


    "..."


    But Mary didn''t raise her head.


    "...skwee... (...daddy, it''s not like master doesn''t want to...) ...skwee... (...she really can''t summon them anymore...)"


    Blueberry hover nervously and screeched sadly, lowering her head.


    "What is that supposed to mean?"


    Zombie furrowed his brows and looked between the brown-haired girl and the blue griffin.


    "...raor... (...it''s because they are dead...)"


    "...!"


    Even so, the answer came from the ck wolf right by his side and caused the blue undead to stood up and re down at the brown-haired girl.


    "What is the meaning of this?"


    His body begun glowing violet as he took a step forward.


    "I didn''t assist in taming them and certainly didn''t help them start their training just so some ipetent living would waste all their potential and let them die...!"


    "...!"


    Even though Zombie''s voice never reached the volume of anything louder than a casual conversation, Mary felt as if she was punched in the guts and cowered in fear, and so did Arion and even Blueberry even though the blue undead''s anger wasn''t directed at them.


    The overwhelming pressure was weighing down on Mary so hard as if she was going to get crushed by it at any moment.


    "Skwee! (Daddy! Don''t be angry at master!) Skwee! (It wasn''t her fault!)"


    Blueberry raised her head and screeched pleadingly.


    "Sweetie, you don''t have to protect her."


    Zombie nced at the blue griffin and shook his head.


    "Raor...! (N-no...! Blueberry''s serious...!) Raor! (Mary didn''t want any of that to happen!)"


    Arion bravely stepped in front of the blue undead to stop him from approaching the trembling brown-haired girl.


    "..."


    Out of their small group, Cranberry was the only person who didn''t understand what the wolf and the griffin were barking and screeching about, so without the full picture, she just continued hugging Blueberry and observed how will the situation unfold.


    "...what happened?"


    Zombie looked at Blueberry and Arion, sighed, and asked Mary after deactivating his skills.


    ...


    ...


    "..."


    Zombie - now wearing a dirty set of armor pulled out from the remains of thest outpost of the second defense line - was sitting by the hastily put together campfire and staring intently at the Dandelions huddled together across it.


    "Lairs."


    The blue undead sitting between the blue griffin and the ck wolf pointed at the ck-haired elf.


    "Ha! Fucking told you he would remember me!"


    Lairs raised her hand triumphantly and cheered.


    "Not so fast Laii! You''ve said that he will remember only you!"


    The warrior sitting right by her pointed out, cooling down the elf''s excitement.


    "..."


    Zombie moved on to him and tilted his head making aplicated expression.


    "...Moldde...?"


    He asked while squinting his eyes.


    "Pffft...!"


    Lairs snorted swing the defeated expression made by the warrior.


    "...it''s Rotte..."


    The warrior pointed out.


    "Tsk! Rot! Not Mold!"


    Zombie clicked his tongue and shook his head.


    And he moved on to the rat-faced man.


    "Shiv!"


    He stated with a lot of confidence.


    "Quite close actually, it''s Shanks though."


    Shanks waved his hand dismissively and exined.


    Then it came the turn for the very tall woman in heavy armor.


    "..."


    Zombie full-on crossed his arms and tilted his head in utter confusion.


    "Marshmallow."


    The blue undead took a wild guess and failed miserably.


    "Sorry, Zombie, my name is Uresha, but I am fine with the name you came up with."


    Uresha fidgeted and smiled friendly.


    "Oh! Uresha! That''s why! The other three have names that I can connect with negative things!"


    Zombie nodded to himself, ignoring the fact that the three with negative sounding names all made bitter expressions - even Lairs who had won the bet they made amongst themselves before seating down.


    "How about our group''s name?"


    Rotte asked.


    "Easy. Sunflowers. No...! Wait! Daffodils!"


    "Dandelions."


    Zombie''s futile struggle to remember the things he himself called unimportant before, was interrupted by the red-haired Cranberry, now sporting a set of armor just like every member of the Dandelions and Sloth soldiers.


    Hers was also pulled out from underneath the debris but unlike Zombie, she made sure to clean it first before puting it on.


    "It''s all flowers, I was close enough."


    Zombie looked up at her and smiled, very proud of himself despite the rather awful result of his memory test.


    "With that out of the way. Shanks, why didn''t you told us that you were a noble from the Sloth family? If we knew that beforehand I would make sure to get some advice from you before we would depart three months ago."


    Cranberry furrowed her brows and stared down the rat-faced man.


    "Please, forgive me, youngdy. But, truth to be told, even if you knew about my origin and I knew where we''re you going, I would most likely still said nothing."


    The rat-faced man bowed down his head and apologized.


    "The elusive Sloth family... say, Shanks, since you were pardoned by the higher-ups or whatever, won''t you be our guide? I would like to greet the famous avatar of sloth at least once given the chance."


    Cranberry smiled innocently but her eyes shed with rather malicious intent.


    "That... I would be d to assist you, youngdy, but as you can see..."


    Shanks shook his head apologetically and pointed at the giant wall of thick mist far in the distance.


    "The sea of mist condensing like that means that the current avatar of lush went into a slumber and all audiences will have to wait until a new one is selected. Sorry."


    Shanks bowed his head again.


    "So right now the spot of the avatar is technically vacant, huh? Isn''t that nice..."


    Cranberry smirked and muttered to herself and tapped Zombie''s shoulder.


    "Here."


    Zombie leaned to the side without standing up or anything and instead tapped hisp - which Cranberry promptly used as a seat without even a moment of hesitation.


    "...I still think I deserve an apology..."


    Suddenly, Mary who up until then was sitting by Arion''s other side sulking in silence, pouted and spoke up.


    "I did my best to help everyone, lost most of my precious monsters in the process, and then not only I was not shown any sympathy - I was almost beaten up because of it, even though none of it was my fault!"


    Sheined while pulling her knees to her chin and rubbing her feet together.


    "Arion has told me about his quest to eat ten humanoid titan-ss monsters. I definitely wasn''t in the wrong, but I am willing to go back into the mountains and get you all the remaining corpses that are needed for that quest''s - there should be some in fairly good condition that should count topletion..."


    "No way?! You will?!"


    Before Zombie even finished, Mary straightened her back and looked at the blue undead form over Arion''s back.


    "...only if you agree on bing Cranberry''s follower again."


    "Could you stop saying that?! You''re making me look pathetic!"


    Zombie ended his sentence with augh and smiled mockingly at the red-haired girl who frowned and looked away.