The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"We are almost there!"

Mary turned around and called out pointing at the city down below to Roan, who was embracing her a lot tighter than it would be appropriate normally – but while riding a griffin high into the sky, that level of precaution was understandable.

"…oh, thank the heavens…"

The blond prince breathed out, pale as a ghost.

There was one thing that he learned on their air journey – while he was completely okay with short distance flights – he most certainly couldn't handle the long ones and was considering trying to use the powers of the avatar of greed to try and buy his access to teleporting from the unstable back of the winged monster right back onto the stable ground.

…and he did try it – just for a system message to show up informing him about insufficient funds and that his request couldn't be granted…

"I have heard that the capital of the Wraths territory is a very interesting city – my prince if the opportunity arises maybe we could go check it out, just the two of us?"

As Anry the griffin was lowering his flight, adjusting his trajectory for a soft landing to not inconvenience the sick-looking prince, Mary fidgeted nervously and asked as her face became slightly red.

"Sure… Mary, please, just let me down and make the shaking stop – I'll do whatever you want…"

"!!!"

Roan yelped pitifully, closing his eyes and pressing his face between Mary's shoulder and neck – he wasn't trying to flirt or anything, he was just that done with the long flight already, but that still made Mary face become hot as she tensed up form excitement.

Then…

*WHOOOSH*

*BOOOOM*

"GYAAAAAAAAA…!"

A rather large fireball barely missed the jet-black griffin right wing and exploded dangerously close to his tail almost singing the fur on his butt.

The shockwave and heat from the explosion caused the monster to struggle quite a bit to regain his balance and not drop the pair on his back – which of course wasn't met with the calm reaction of the blond prince who was already nearing his limit with the regular calm flight – resulting in him letting out a panicked scream and changing the position of his hand in a desperate struggle not to fall off.

"!!!!!!"

Well – at least one of his hands did find a certain squishy and soft spot prime for the grabbing which resulted in the already blushing girl to feeze up as her head blank out momentarily.

"SCREE?! (HUH?!) SCREE! (MASTER, SOMEONE IS ATTACKING US!)"

Anry, who had no idea about the groping accident happening on his back, called out and his body shone with the light of the skill as he flapped his wings and accelerated…

*WHOOSH*

*BOOM*

*WHOOSH*

*BOOM*

*WHOOSH*

*BOOM*

*SWISH*

*ZAP*

*WHOOSH*

*BOOM*

…just in time to dodge a whole barrage of incoming fireballs and occasional ice-spear and an electrical discharge.

"WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS?!"

Mary shouted in panic, calling out to Anry.

"Scree?! (And how should I know?!)"

"Don't they know that they are shooting at the prince?! Is this a rebellion or something?!"

The brown-haired heroine gritted her teeth in disbelief and muttered under her breath.

"Scree? (Master – do they even know that the prince is together with us?)"

"!!!"

Surprisingly enough her jet-black griffin did hear her properly and asked back while dodging and weaving through all the spells, showing off his agility and skills.

"Mary…"

"!!!"

Roan stuck to the heroine's back was on the verge of fainting from all the spinning and dodging at a height far above comfort ended up whispering weakly into the girl's ear – his voice caused quite an effect, but not really the one he intended…

"Anry! Go down! Whoever is shooting at us shouldn't be stupid enough to launch an explosive spell on something only a few feet away – we will force them to take a careful look at us!"

The brown-haired girl commanded in a stern, confident voice, lowering herself closer to the griffin's body and patting the side of his neck.

"Scree…? (Master, you want to be seen like this…?) …scree… (…mom, that will be so embarrassing though…)"

"..eh…?"

Anry quickly glanced back at his riders and shook his feathery head, letting out a soft, quiet screech that made him sound like a kid who didn't want his friends to meet his weird parents – and caused Mary to gasp in confusion.

"Scree! (Nothing!) Scree! (One charge without damaging the opponent – roger!)"

The jet-black griffin shook his head dismissively, ignoring the shocked master of his, and instantly changed his trajectory – instead of circling around the perimeter of the city, he dived straight down like a rock – causing quite a stir amongst the attackers who couldn't quite focus their spells for the next few seconds – long enough for the griffin to get right in front of them, flapping his wings wildly to stop himself from splattering against the ground.

"STOP! WE AREN'T ENEMIES!"

To make things easier to understand, Anry lowered his head to properly show off the humans riding on his back and Mary used the chance to raise her hands and call out.

"I'm a tamer – and this my tamed griffin, Anry – we are traveling from the Greeds territory together with the prince Roan Greed! You are attacking the royal prince and the next king – cease this madness!"

She demanded immediately after seeing that some of the people were still raising their hands to aim all the offensive spells at them after her initial call.

"…the prince…?"

The elf on the forefront flinched and glanced to the side at the short man furrowing his brows.

"Lord Cri… is that really…?"

The elf asked nervously, looking between the pair on the griffin and the other man.

"…probably…"

The man called Cri shrugged his shoulders and crossed his arms with a mixed expression.

"Though the prince I remember wasn't groping girls chest."

Cri leaned to the side to catch a glimpse of the face of the blond young man who was still stuck to the brown-haired heroine.

"Wha…?! Ah! N-noo!"

Mary flinched, realizing that Roan still hasn't changed the placement of his hand, and was still holding onto her rather firmly – which resulted in the heroine getting red from embarrassment and shaking the prince off…

"What the?!"

*thump*

…resulting in him gasping in shock before falling off the griffin's back and landing on the pavement with a surprisingly soft sound…

"…yeah – that's more like prince Roan…"

"It IS the prince?! Everyone, quick! Help his majesty up!"

Cri nodded his head and while his elven friend was panicking over the fallen prince, he ended up walking towards Mary and Anry.

"Sir Cri… what is the meaning of this? You know all of us – why were we attacked?! Ah, thank you."

Mary gasped – but ended up grabbing the hand that the man who wasn't all that much older than her, silently offered her in order to help her get down from the griffin's back.

"Sorry – I do know you – but while something soars high in the sky it's hard to tell the difference between deep blue and black. That's kind of on you for not realizing that it might be a problem."

Cri apologized by bowing his head lightly but then waved his hand, pointing up with a bitter expression.

"Eh…? What is that supposed to mean…?"

Mary's eyes widened and she asked, tilting her head in confusion and also looking up.

"Oh… so you didn't come here as early reinforcements that we asked for…"

The man's expression became even more bitter and he sighed with disappointment.

"…"

The brown-haired girl was standing still in complete silence and staring at the former queen's bodyguard, blinking repeatedly.

"You see, miss Hope – we have a little griffin problem on our hands that we cannot really deal with on our own."

Cri took a deep breath and started explaining.

"Eh? But I was sure that all major griffin nesting grounds are in Prides territory though…?"

The brown-haired girl muttered in confusion.

"It's not about a flock – we have problem with just a single one – but before you will laugh at us, let me explain that form all that we know – it's other than the extremely dangerous emperor griffin – the subspecies that lives in the Sloth territory and is known for hunting down dragons."

The man added, looking up at the heroine and declaring.

"To make everything even more shocking – the attacks started immediately after a certain member of the Wrath's house who was pronounced dead over twenty-something years ago was thrown at our doorstep…"

"!!!"

Cri looked to the side, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck as if embarrassed that the story he was reporting sounded as if he was making it up on the spot…

…but the heroine wasn't really paying attention to him – she was far too busy staring at the system message that popped up for her as Cri mentioned the family member who was thought to be dead but returned…

/Special quest -Let there be ruin!- activated

Quest objectives:

Learn about the troubles of the Wrath family [completed]

Stop the griffin's attack*

Survive*

[*Avatar of wrath is required to be in the party]\