At the Northern Fort V1MD1

At the Northern Fort V1MD1: Winter

Today was the first snow of the plains.
The snow stopped after leaving a thin white coat on the training grounds, but when I thought about how there’d be more snow coming, it made me happy.

Today the weather was completely different from yesterday – it was a warm day.
The sunlight was strong during the day, melting the thin layer of snow from yesterday and turning it into mud.
The condition of the ground was awful, so I decided to play inside the fort. I played tug-of-war using a towel with the One-Eyed Knight.

I’ve wondered something for a while now.
When Mother carries me, she bites the back of my neck. For some reason when she does that, my entire body loses strength. My legs end up hanging limply.
I’ve always found it mysterious, but lately I feel like I’ve come to understand the reason for that.
It’d be dangerous if I moved around while being carried and was dropped as a result, so surely it was an automatic instinct for me to relax as soon as the nape of my neck is bit.
Instincts are amazing.

Incidentally, when Father carries me, he often does it like this. He puts me in his mouth.
Though, I’m a little concerned that he might accidentally swallow me whole by accident, which makes my heart pitter-patter every time he carries me, so I’d like him to stop……

Human hands are wonderful.
They don’t have plush paw pads like me, but when my head is stroked in a way where their warm hand envelopes my head, it feels so good that I might just melt.
Tina-san and Branch Captain-san’s fingers are slender, and their petting method is gentle and delicate.
But I also love the One-Eyed Knight’s big and rugged hands. When I see them in front of me, I involuntarily start to nuzzle up against them.

When I went to the fort to play, Tina-san gave me a handmade rabbit doll as a present.
Apparently, sewing isn’t her forte. The stitches were a bit rough, and the rabbit’s face wasn’t cute, but I was very happy. I immediately held it in my mouth and started swinging it with all my might. So fun!
It was also quite nice biting the rabbit’s long ears and limbs, holding down its torso with my paws, and pulling it vigorously.
Tina-san apparently gave it as a doll to sleep with, so she was a bit startled at my violent playing method with it at first. Eventually she gave up and said, “Well, as long as Mil-chan is having fun”. Thanks. Then, I shan’t hold back.

Without lasting a single day, the doll’s head came off.
Sorry, Tina-san……

Tina-san said, “I’ll polish my sewing skills more so that I can make something that’ll be able to withstand Mil-chan’s intense playing. Then, I’ll give you another present, so wait for it!”. But after breaking the bunny doll, I was depressed for a while afterwards.
On a certain day after that, Branch Captain-san called me, and just as I was wondering what he wanted, he quietly presented me with a doll. It was a bisque doll made of porcelain.
It seemed that he had it made by a craftsman from the Capital, and he hadn’t held back at all on the details, from the pink dress it wore, to its stockings and shoes.
And of course, the doll itself was exquisitely made. It had the realistic face of a human child, beautiful blue eyes that seemed as though a soul dwelled within them, and golden curls that shone……
……Branch Captain-san, this isn’t right……you’ve got it all wrong.
The doll that I want isn’t something like this……

Because someone was leaving fruits in the trees and feeding them, small birds would come to the small yard that existed on the fort’s west end.
If you looked up from that yard, you could see the One-Eyed Knight’s and Branch Captain-san’s office window, so when everyone was busy with work, I’d often come here to kill time. The One-Eyed Knight would call me from the window once they finished work too.
Today when I was taking an afternoon nap there, the little birds started to gather around me before I realised it. They buried themselves into my fur to rest as well, and since it was too much trouble to drive them away, I ended up sleeping all day like that.
While I slept, the on-duty knights would sometimes pass by, and upon seeing the little birdies and me, they’d make gentle expressions.
It seemed that our carefree appearances stole away their drive to work.

I like cramming my body in between the feet of people who are standing around. Somehow this position feels soothing to me.
Thus, I often took up position in between the One-Eyed Knight’s feet, and while he seemed to be a bit troubled by that fact, he didn’t show any signs of stopping me.

Yesterday night heaps of snow fell, so today there was a massive amount of snow piled up on the ground. It’ll take a while for this to melt.
While giving a sidelong glance to everyone at the fort as they worked hard in shovelling the snow, I was extremely excited and ran all over the snow.
So~ fun~!

When I tried jumping on top of the snowman that Kix spent an hour building, I didn’t put enough strength into my jump and ended up knocking off its head with my front paws.
The snowman’s head that I knocked down fell onto the ground and broke into pieces tragically.
Kix said, “Even though I worked so hard on it”, depressed. I said I’m sorry.

Branch Captain-san said, “I have a present for you” and quietly abducted me, making me tremble in my boots at the thought——-I didn’t know what to do with the bisque doll that he gave to me last time. It felt like I might be cursed if I bit it after all——-but this time he didn’t give me a doll, but a dress.
It wasn’t a small dress meant for pets, but was a cute pink dress matching the one the bisque doll wore. So previously when Branch Captain-san was patting me all over to figure out my sizes, it was for this.
Even though I don’t have much interest in clothes or dresses, the elegant lace and refined embroidery unconsciously made my heart flutter. I am still a girl after all.
When I excitedly had them change me into it, I found that it really was order-made to fit my body precisely, but fit so snugly that it became hard to move.
Moving my legs became difficult, and it felt a bit tight.
Somehow I lost all my energy. I might be bad with clothes.
After Branch Captain-san finished admiring my appearance to his satisfaction, he showed my dressed appearance to the others in the fort, and they all praised me, saying, “It suits you”. However, even then my mood didn’t improve.
Being naked is the best.

I’m fluffy throughout the year, but during the winter my fluffiness level increases further. I can’t really tell myself, but everyone starts to stroke me more.
Even though it’s my own fur, I think it’s unfair that I can’t experience how good my own fluffiness feels like!

The dress that I previously received from Branch Captain-san definitely wasn’t some cheap article. Even if the price was less than what you’d pay for a dress to be used by humans, since it didn’t use up as much cloth.
However, ever since receiving it, I haven’t worn that dress again. I have felt Branch Captain-san’s expectant gaze, but I’ve been pretending not to see it.
Because clothes feel like restraints on my body. They steal away my liberty.
After seeing my tail drop the moment he showed me the dress, Branch Captain-san didn’t try to force me to wear it.
It seems that he hasn’t completely given up either though.
This time he gave me a cute shawl as a present. He really doesn’t need to buy all these different things for me.
But, I also kind of liked this shawl. It was cute and its design was elegant but not too childish, and above all else, it didn’t get in the way of my leg movements.
Since I barely get cold, I don’t really need clothes or things to protect me from the cold, but if it makes Branch Captain-san happy, it’s fine. I’ll wear it for him every now and then.

Whenever Kugalg comes to the snowy mountain to play, he always walks very carefully on top of the snow, ever since he first started coming. Even though he’s already come into contact with snow several times now.
He lifts his legs up unnaturally high, and tiptoes while walking, trying to decrease the area of contact with the snow as much as possible. Since snow covered the entire area, it was a pointless effort.
When I looked at Kugalg’s movements, it reminded me of a certain animal from my previous life. It was either a lizard or gecko that lives in the desert. Since the sand was too hot for its feet to maintain contact with it, it would alternate its feet constantly and take on a funny pose.
Though in Kugalg’s case, he’d start to get used to the snow after a while and be able to run normally on it.

After getting used to the snow, Kugalg gets energetic.
He’s strong, so whenever we play-wrestled, I always lost.
Even then, Kugalg was holding back his strength so that I wouldn’t get hurt, but when he got too excited from playing, it would get a bit dangerous.
While it was just play bites, he’d bite at my throat, or pounce on top of my body.
Thus, whenever I felt Kugalg was getting too excited, I’d quickly make a submissive pose.
Once I showed him my belly, he could not make any more attacks. Those were the rules after all.
Whenever I made the pose just as he started to get excited from playing, Kugalg would stop his attacks immediately, but would also make an extremely dissatisfied expression. It was probably a buzzkill for him.
But in order to protect myself, I plan on continuing to use the submission pose. I don’t have a single ounce of pride.

It was easier to maintain, so I normally stayed in my fox form, but sometimes I would take on human form and hold the One-Eyed Knight’s hand.
With my paws, all I can do is ‘shake’ after all.
I’d hold on tightly to the One-Eyed Knight’s finger and walk with him so that I wouldn’t get left behind.

I saw a wild fox on the mountain for the first time in a while. It was a real fox.
Its fur wasn’t silver like mine, instead running between yellow and tawny in hue, a truly fox-like colour. It looks delicious.
The ends of its slender legs were black, and its gaze was sharp and cool-looking.
Rather, were foxes normally that slender-looking?
……am I too round?

Today Father took me out onto the lake. I sat on Father’s head as he swam, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.
A tiny fox riding atop a giant snake to travel over a lake must make for an objectively surreal sight.

Today I went together with Mother to visit the human royals. Mother always takes on the human form when going to the castle, but I followed her in my fox form. Taking on human form was a bit tiring for me.
Being in front of the King and everyone made me nervous as always, so I hid in Mother’s shadow and stayed very still. The King and his guard escorts kept glancing my way, so I couldn’t calm down. Not only that, but everyone was pretty beautiful in their own right, so all the sparkly people made me even more nervous.
All of the Knight-sans were more refined than everyone at the Northern Fort, or rather, they weren’t all gruff, or they were classier……they made me think, “Ahh, so knights were originally supposed to be something like this”.
No, I do think that everyone at the fort was cool! It’s true!

Mother had something important to talk about with the King and went to another room, leaving me bewildered and alone in the audience room. The eldest prince, who had also been left behind, kindly talked to me.
It seems that the Prince was childhood friends with my bosom buddy, Branch Captain-san. That astonished me. Branch Captain-san, you had friends!?
Learning that Branch Captain-san wasn’t all alone somehow made me feel like crying. Thank goodness.
And after he told me he was Branch Captain-san’s friend, I somehow started to feel a sense of affinity for the Prince. The friend of a friend is a friend after all.
While I still wasn’t able to fully relax with him yet, he shared some cake with me and we were able to become friendlier with each other.
My first bite of cake in a long time was absolutely mouth-watering.

My heart rate increases whenever I see black ink.
Even though my front legs are completely clean now, I reflexively end up grooming myself.
Badump badump.

Kix used me for a worthless gag.
I absolutely will not forgive him.

While the One-Eyed Knight was guiding his subordinates on the training grounds, I obediently stayed at the edges of the field to avoid being a hindrance, but then a sword leaned against the wall caught my eye.
It was one that had been being used in their training, but likely because it was old, it ended up breaking into two pieces after being unable to endure the impact from sparring. Since it couldn’t be used anymore, it was placed out of the way on the side of the grounds.
In the centre of the training grounds, the knights were sparring with serious expressions on their faces. The One-Eyed Knight was observing them with a stern gaze, and wasn’t paying any attention to my actions.
I quietly approached the broken sword. As it was something used for training, the blade was dulled.
If that’s the case, then it shouldn’t be too dangerous, right?
I lightly pushed my front paws against the part of the sword that was leaned against the wall and knocked it on top of the snow. Biting the handle portion of the sword, I tried lifting it up. It’s pretty heavy!
So everyone’s been swinging around such a heavy object? Amazing!

When I was playing with the broken sword that I had picked up with my mouth, I was discovered by the One-Eyed Knight, who got mad at me.
While I have previously been gently cautioned by him up until now, I had never been scolded with such a stern tone of voice like this.
But it was only natural for the One-Eyed Knight to be angry. I was using the sword – something precious to knights – as a toy after all.
Even as I felt like I was about to cry, I somehow managed to squeeze out an, “I’m sorry……”, and then returned back to the mountain nest earlier than usual that day.

Today I didn’t go to the fort, and followed Mother on her patrol.
I wonder if the One-Eyed Knight is still mad……

Today as well, I did not go to the fort. Instead, I went together with Kugalg to play at Father’s place.
When Kugalg first saw Father’s appearance, he had a funny reaction, but I wasn’t really able to laugh all that well.

Today I thought about going to the fort to try and apologise to the One-Eyed Knight one more time, but as expected, I couldn’t bring up the courage to do so. The lake at the base of the mountain froze over for the first time this winter, so I played there.
My heart felt all gloomy, and it wasn’t any fun at all.

The next day, I readied my resolve and went to go see the One-Eyed Knight.
The One-Eyed Knight was in the middle of his work in his office, so he didn’t notice me when I appeared at his feet. Nervous, I cried out ‘kyun kyun’ and used my front paws to pull at his shoelaces lightly.
Though my heart felt as if it were about to explode, the moment he saw me, he made a relieved face and said, “I thought you wouldn’t come anymore”, while gently picking me up.
“Sorry, I was too harsh”, he said. The instant he petted my head, the dam in my heart burst. Once I understood that the One-Eyed Knight didn’t hate me, I felt incredibly relieved.
Tears overflowed as I repeated, “I’m sorry”, and the One-Eyed Knight gave a troubled smile as he said, “It’s fine already”.
Uwahhhh, thank goodness we managed to make up!
It seems that the One-Eyed Knight wasn’t angry because I used a ‘precious’ sword as a toy, but because I was playing with a ‘dangerous’ sword. In other words, he was worried that I would get injured and scolded me. I truly am sorry.
That day, I received Mother’s permission to stay the knight in the One-Eyed Knight’s room, and had him spoil me to my heart’s content. Hehehe.

Since I hadn’t come to visit the fort for three days, after making up with the One-Eyed Knight, I was once again asked to go save Branch Captain-san.
It seems that after learning of the sequence of events, Branch Captain-san was worried for me. I’m sorry!

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Translator Comments:

The text colour is slightly off, but I did my best to translate the illustrations into English as well. Hope everyone enjoyed them! The author did a great job in drawing out Mil and her daily life – everyone is so cute~

The images that didn’t have any text were directly linked to from where the author had posted them as an image gallery, but if you wanna check out the originals they’re all on the RAW site.