At the Northern Fort V1C14

At the Northern Fort V1C14: Disaster of the Baby Fox with Too Much Free Time

I was given a name.

My name giver was that female knight, Tina-san.

Here, my name was [Mil]. It’s apparently the ‘mil’ from ‘milk’, but I was surprised that it coincidentally overlapped with my actual name, Milfiria. 

Since I can’t speak yet, I am unable to give a self-introduction, but since I’d be sad if I were being called a different name from the one that Mother gave, I was happy to be called ‘Mil’. 

Thank goodness it wasn’t some simplistic name like ‘Shiro’ because I was white, or ‘Chibi’ because I was small. No, ‘Mil’ from milk is also pretty simplistic in and of itself.

But, if I were called something like ‘Chibi’, then I’d feel rather bad once I grew bigger. 

Now then, after safely escaping from the dining hall, where the number of people had started to rise, I walked quickly after the One-Eyed Knight down the corridor.

When we passed by people in the narrow corridor, I hid in the shadow of the One-Eyed Knight’s leg as much as possible. Because being seen by strangers made me nervous. 

I don’t think I was like this in my previous life, but in this life I have stranger anxiety. It might be because I’ve only come into contact with Mother ever since I was born.

The One-Eyed Knight seems to have a pretty high position here, as all the passing knights would greet him. Also, he was being called [Vice Captain]. 

Now that I think of it, I still don’t know the One-Eyed Knight’s name……

Going back to the barracks from the dining hall, we returned to the One-Eyed Knight’s room. The One-Eyed Knight put on his jacket, and prepared to go to work.

I wonder if he’ll take me with him. Or will I have to house-sit?

As I thought about that, I carefully observed the One-Eyed Knight’s every move. House-sitting would be boring, so if possible, I’d like to go with him.

“I’ll come back at noon.”

Although I looked at him with eyes filled with expectation, it was still no good. After the One-Eyed Knight finished his preparations, he looked down at me and said that.

House-sitting, huh……

My ears and tail visibly drooped.

“Today I’ll be going out on patrol with my subordinates for the whole morning. You can’t ride a horse, right?”

The One-Eyed Knight made a small laugh at seeing me sulking.

If it’s a horse, then I could also ride it. If he carries me onto its back, then I’ll be able to balance myself properly. And I’m pretty close with the horses in the stable too.

But I understood that if I went with him, I’d probably get in the way of his work. Since it can’t be helped, I’ll obediently stay home and housesit. 

Giving up, I headed for my bed – the basket with a blanket laid out in it.

Then, for some reason the One-Eyed Knight cheerfully came after me.

“I’ll be back at noon, okay?”

He said that and stroked my head.

You said that already.

Then, after having his fill of petting me for a full five minutes, the One-Eyed Knight headed off to work, looking slightly unwilling to part.

“I’ll be back at noon.”

I got it, I got it already. I heard you earlier. That’s the third time you’re saying that, you know?

I’ll wait like a good kid until noon.

After the One-Eyed Knight left the room, I promptly dove into my bed and slept. This body is wonderfully unrelated to insomnia. 

However, since I had plenty of sleep last night, I really couldn’t spend all the time until noon sleeping. 

I woke up after about an hour——though since I didn’t have a clock, I was just going based on feel——and then spent some time rolling around on my back on the blanket, or biting on the handle of the basket that was my bed, but……

I’m bored.

I’m seriously bored.

If I at least had some kind of toy, then I’d be able to amuse myself on my own. But in the One-Eyed Knight’s minimalistic room, there wasn’t anything that looked like something I could play with.

I looked out the window from my bed. However, the small me could only see the sky from it. It was because the window was set at a slightly tall position. 

The morning was sunny, but right now a heavy cloud cover blanketed the sky, sending snow falling down without pause. It was a kinda big and flat sort of cloud.

Flutter flutter, fwoosh

Flicker, flutter flutter

As I stared intently at the snow, my tail started to wag of its own accord. When I watch the snow fall, with its completely irregular movements, it makes me somewhat excited. Though when powder snow falls like rain, it doesn’t make me nearly as excited.

It was pretty fun watching the view from the window for a while, but in the end I got sick of it, and then I started to look around the room to figure out what to do next.

I climbed onto the One-Eyed Knight’s large bed with a slightly mischievous heart. The soft feeling underneath my feet was fun. But the bed was filled with the One-Eyed Knight’s scent, which made me feel a little embarrassed, so I hurriedly descended from it. What the heck are you doing, me?

The next thing that caught my eye was the desk near the window. On top of it were some documents still spread across it, as well as a quill and a bottle of ink. There were also a number of thick, old-looking books.

Now that I think of it, can I read this country’s language?

My interest drawn, I first tried to climb up onto the chair. I still don’t have the jumping power to reach the desk in a single jump.

I placed my forepaws on the chair, standing on my hind legs. There, I tried numerous times to hop up and somehow get onto it.

However, it wasn’t going too well. Damn my weak leg strength.

I’ll do it in the next jump! -I thought, and threw my entire body’s strength into the jump. And at the same time, I supported my body using the strength of my front legs.

The top half of my body was on the chair, so all that was left was the bottom half. I kicked my legs that were hanging in midair wildly, using the momentum to clamber up. It felt as if I’d slide off if I let my guard down even the slightest.

Uwohhh, keep at it, my biceps! Haul up my lower body!

Somehow managing to succeed in climbing on top of the chair, I savoured a light sense of accomplishment. My front legs were trembling.

After that, climbing to the table from the chair was far easier than climbing on the chair from the floor.

Looking down at the room’s scenery from on top of the table felt rather fresh. Having my field of vision so high hyped me up. 

Now then……I turned towards the numerous books piled up on top of the desk. I tried to read the words written on the spine of the books, but as expected I couldn’t decipher their meaning at all. Even after breaking them down into an alphabet, the characters looked a little complicated. I don’t remember seeing them in my previous life.

As I thought, I’ll have to study. Isn’t there some kind of way…….using my power as a spirit to go bam, and make it readable to me? That’s impossible, huh. I see.

In reality, it wasn’t like I was able to understand the spoken language either at first. I started to remember the words as Mother spoke to me. However, even then I think that my learning ability was higher than that of a human baby. Whether that was because I was a spirit, or because I had memories of my previous life, I didn’t know.

I used the tip of my nose to skillfully open the book at the top of the pile in front of me. The scent of ink and slightly damp paper spread out.

I scanned my eyes over the fine print written on the pages. Yup, I don’t get it!

When I get a bit bigger, let’s have Mother teach me how to write.

I gave up on trying to read the book, and started to roll my body on top of the narrow desk. Let’s go back to the chair and then back to the ground, I thought.

However, the moment I started to move, my front leg hit against something small and hard. The thing that I sent flying with a kick, was the ink bottle that didn’t have its lid properly fastened.

It goes without saying, but ink is a liquid. It hardly has any viscosity, and flows freely like water. In other words, the instant I knocked it over, the ink started to spread on top of the desk. I didn’t have the time to stop it.

And this also goes without saying, but ink is black. A black that couldn’t be any blacker.

I could not even panic at the sight of that pitch black darkness spreading on the important-looking documents, instead staring motionlessly at it.

Falling into crisis sometimes makes humans even calmer at times.

While watching the black ink staining the white documents and wooden desk, I even had careless thoughts like, “Ah, what should I do……”. My brain wouldn’t acknowledge the fact that I had spilt the ink.

Around the time when the spreading ink was about to reach the books, my brain finally started to move. Without hesitation, I started to push the books with my nose to drive them away from the inky menace.

But, I ended up pushing it too much, dropping them from the desk.

Rustle rustle rustle, the books made a loud sound as they scattered onto the floor. My brain activities once again came to a halt.

It’s okay, it’s okay.

Encouraging myself, I peeked over the edge of the desk at the floor. The corpses of the books that had been heartlessly forced to jump off the desk were right there. Ahh……

For the time being, I also jumped down to the floor. I could not return the ink that was spreading all over the desk back to its bottle. There was no helping that.

But, I should still be able to do something about the scattered books with my forepaws. 

Using my nose and mouth, as well as my forepaws, I lined up the books on the floor, one by one. I properly closed the ones that falled to the floor in an open state. 

Then, as I was in the middle of my task, I suddenly realised.

The fact that the books were stained with ink.

How strange. It was true that I dropped these books from the desk, but I thought that I had saved them from that pitch blackness.

As I searched for the source of this tragedy, I came across a terrible truth.

My forepaws……aren’t they stained by that black ink…….?

It seems that my foolish self hadn’t realised that my feet had been dipped in the ink on top of the desk.

I gulped down my saliva. My heart was thumping rapidly.

It’s okay, it’s okay. 

Even as I was filled with trepidation, I quietly looked around at the surroundings.

The floor and chair. Everywhere that I had walked had numerous black pawprints left behind, dirtying the room.

Ink trickled down from the desk, and even now was dripping onto the floor, creating a huge blotch.

Wait, this……ummm……

Don’t panic, don’t panic.

Isn’t there any way to fix this? -I desperately mobilised my tiny brain.

This world doesn’t seem like it’d have something convenient like tissues. The room also doesn’t have a dust cloth. Even if it did, I wouldn’t be able to use it that well with my paws, and it wasn’t like I’d be able to completely wipe away all the ink. All I’d do is spread it further.

“……”

A cold sweat spouted out from my paws.

W-W-W-W-What should I do!!

At this rate, the One-Eyed Knight is gonna get mad! Somehow, I have to return everything to its original state before he returns!

Unable to stand not doing anything, I flusteredly started pacing around the spot.

However, upon noticing that my pacing was making the floor even dirtier, I hastily stood still. It’s better not to move about recklessly. Right now my legs have been hit by the curse of the ink. I have to avoid increasing the damage done.

The spilled ink on the desk. The documents that had been corroded by it and stained black. And then the numerous black pawprints on the chair and floor, as well as the scattered books……

Feeling at a loss at the disastrous scene that made me want to avert my eyes, all I could do was stand there, petrified.

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Translator Comments:

Oh Mil……you’re too cute. Sometimes accidents happen, and all you can do is wonder how the heck you’re gonna clean it up. XD