At the Northern Fort V3C5

At the Northern Fort V3C5: Playing with Big Bro

“So, the new person at the fort is called Rekka-san.”

“I see.”

Three days had passed since I had first met Rekka-san. As I went on patrol with Mother, I continued to incessantly talk about the fort’s circumstances. Mother was apparently not terribly interested in the knights at the fort, so she was giving half-hearted responses.

Mother relaxedly walked over the snow, but because of the difference in the length of our legs, at times I was forced to break into a trot to keep up.

I crossed the snow in small leaps as I continued.

“Rekka-san is pretty and kind. She’s very polite to me too.”

She might be starting to catch onto my foolish side, but currently she is still treating me as a respected spirit.

“That is good.”

“But she’s still not getting along so well with Kix and the others……”

I was talking while restlessly moving my legs, so eventually I started to get out of breath. Seeing that, Mother stopped and licked my head with a cold tongue. 

Rekka-san was polite to me, and always smiled towards me. She was courteous and sincere towards Branch Captain-san and the One-Eyed Knight, and was kind towards Tina-san. 

However, she furrowed her brow at Kix’s overly casual treatment of me and yesterday she had another exchange with him at the dining hall over such matters.

After I finished eating my meal, Kix took the opportunity when the One-Eyed Knight had left his seat to come and bother me. It was a slightly unpleasant time.

[Isn’t it fine, just let me pet you as much as I want. I’m tired from work~]

[No.]

I always want to be petted by the One-Eyed Knight. However, for someone like Kix who was rough with his petting, I had times where I was okay with being petted by him, and times when I didn’t really want him to touch me. 

And today my feelings were in the latter state. 

[Please! Your belly fur! Let me touch your fluffy belly fur!]

[No no no.]

He flipped me over so I was facing upwards, and then proceeded to bury his face into my belly, so I used my short legs to kick at him. It was something that I couldn’t really do with the One-Eyed Knight or Branch Captain-san or Tina-san, so this was fun in its own way.

However, it was then that Rekka-san appeared. She seemed to believe that I truly disliked his actions from the bottom of my heart, so she gave Kix a warning.

[Kix, stop it. Mil-sama doesn’t like it. Didn’t I tell you that you should treat an honourable spirit like her with more respect?]

[……I don’t like having a newbie like you telling me what to do.]

In an instant, the atmosphere grew worse. Being stuck between them, I timidly got up and said this to Rekka-san, while feeling like I was about to go bald from stress.

[Rekka-san, thank you…….but, I do think of Kix as something like a friend. Everyone at the fort is my family. I’d find it unpleasant if they all started to treat me respectfully at this point in time.]

Rekka-san appeared a little perplexed, but she soon lowered her head.

[Is that so? I went too far. My apologies.]

[N-No, you don’t need to apologise! Ah, Rekka-san……!]

[Leave her alone.]

Rekka-san left the dining hall and that was that.

Ahh, I wonder what the atmosphere at the fort is like today? I’m a bit scared of going. I don’t know what’s happened overnight, but I hope that something or another has happened and now they’re all getting along fine. 

Kix is the only one who has had direct disagreements with Rekka-san, but her cold and formal attitude has continued with the other members of the fort too. While it can’t really be helped since it’s only been three days since she arrived at the fort, it might take some time for her to become familiar with everyone.

As expected, the attempt to shut her into the storehouse by her colleagues at the main branch is continuing to affect her. It’s made her wary, and it feels like she’s constantly on guard like a wild animal, constantly doing everything she can to avoid exposing any weakness. 

While Kix certainly is a bit ill-mannered, he has his good points too, like how he’s willing to be my playmate. There wasn’t any need to be wary of everyone else at the fort either, so I’d like her to understand that soon.

“Milfiria, it’s already the afternoon and you still have a bed head.”

“I hope Rekka-san eases up soon.”

“Why is there a vortex of hair in a place like this? Just how are you sleeping for it to get like this?”

Being licked felt good, and as I flopped down onto the snow, my mismatching conversation with Mother continued. 

After finishing the patrol with Mother, I used the transfer technique to head to the fort. The One-Eyed Knight was still in the middle of work in his office, so I decided to go outside to play until he finished.

I tried going to the stables, but perhaps because Leader and the rest were let out to graze, the inside was empty.

What should I do?

Seeking out a human presence, I walked around in front of the building and found Big Bro Gatekeeper standing around the gate. While there were other knights who did the same job, and there were times when Big Bro Gatekeeper wasn’t working as the gatekeeper, instead working as Big Bro Patrolman, or Big Bro in the Middle of Training, or Big Bro Choreguy, today he was properly working as a gatekeeper. Though it might be strange to say that he was ‘properly’ working.

“Big Bro~”

I dashed up to Big Bro.

“Mil.”

Big Bro knelt down and stroked my head. I smiled with my tongue sticking out and then slid between Big Bro’s legs. It felt nice with him blocking out the sun.

Big Bro’s aura somehow felt similar to the One-Eyed Knight’s. Like how reliable he felt, or how he rarely seemed to get angry, or his hairstyle.

But his facial features were more gentle compared to the One-Eyed Knight’s, and amongst the knights at the Northern Fort, his ‘threat level’ was on the lower side. Though he did still have a ‘military man’-like atmosphere to him.

He also seemed like the sort to perform tasks flawlessly. He also seemed diligent, and seemed like the type to be popular with women. 

“Mil, there’s a whirlpool of hair on your flank, what’s with this?”

That’s my bed fur.

Big Bro used his hands to comb through my fur, but it wasn’t that easy to fix.

It’s fine, I don’t mind it. More importantly, the One-Eyed Knight’s still working, so play with me.

Just as I had such thoughts, Big Bro seemed to accurately pick up on them, as he went to take a toy out from the guardroom next to the gate.

It was the wooden ring toy that I begged to have made.

Everyone eagerly made me a ton, so there were always some in reserve all over the fort.

Lately, rather than rolling it along the ground, the common playing method between the knights and I has been to throw it like a frisbee. 

“Here you go!”

Big Bro threw the ring far away, so I happily chased after it. Since it wasn’t as light as a frisbee, it normally wouldn’t fly that far, but the knights at the fort all had plenty of arm strength, so it always flew away rapidly.

Incidentally, when the One-Eyed Knight throws it, it goes so far that I lose any will to chase after it.

The wood hurts when it hits the inside of my mouth, and my athletic ability wasn’t nearly as good as a border collie, so I couldn’t at all catch the ring in midair. I would only finally catch up to it a few seconds after the toy had already hit the ground. But it was fun.

I picked up the toy with my mouth and dashed straight back to Big Bro. But just picking up the toy off the ground gave me an exhilarating rush of, ‘I did it! Look! I managed to pick it up!’ as I charged back to Big Bro.

“There there, good girl.”

And just as I released the toy and was having Big Bro spoil me-

“Mil?”

I heard a calm, low voice from behind me. When I whirled around in realisation, I saw the One-Eyed Knight standing there. Apparently he was done working.

My paw pads slowly but steadily started to sweat.

“Good work.”

After nodding in greeting to Big Bro, the One-Eyed Knight once again looked towards me.

I felt fidgety, as though I had just been caught having an affair.

My face awkwardly stiffened as I quietly distanced myself from Big Bro.

And then, I cheerfully went to the One-Eyed Knight’s side and casually clung to his leg, while still not making any eye contact with him. My heart was thumping.

What broke the silence was the One-Eyed Knight and Big Bro bursting into laughter at the same time.

“Shall we go eat?”

The One-Eyed Knight picked me up and said that without blaming me for my infidelity.

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Translator Comments:

The mental image of Mil feeling like she’s been caught having an affair is hilarious, lol. I do wonder if dogs/cats ever feel that way when they have fun with people other than their usual human best friends.

I decided to take the liberty of translating ‘Aniki’ into ‘Big Bro’ for this chapter for localisation purposes, though I’m not too sure if it sounds too awkward or not. I know most people that read this will get commonly used terms like ‘nii-chan’ and so on, but ‘aniki’ isn’t always used that often. For those who don’t know, it’s a pretty informal way of calling an older brother. I’ve most commonly seen it used in anime/manga by yakuza or delinquent characters to refer to the higher ranking members of their gang. Although on the rare occasion you get tomboy little sister characters calling their older brothers that too. FYI, the female version of ‘aniki’ is ‘aneki’.