At the Northern Fort V3C16: Tina-san’s Worries
“I’m gonna go see Tina-san.”
After reporting the list of things I needed to do to Branch Captain-san, I said my farewells and went out into the hall. I wonder where Tina-san is?
Right now it was the afternoon break time, so I tried heading to the dining hall, but she wasn’t there. However, instead I managed to obtain testimony from the other knights that, “It seems like she went to see Woodbaum”, so I headed outside.
“Tina-san, Woodbaum!”
Still carrying the bunny rucksack on my back, I dashed towards the two who were sitting in the shade of a tree. It looked like Tina-san was brushing Woodbaum’s fur.
Maybe due to the effects of the lake from before, Woodbaum’s fur appeared to have regained some of its gloss. Even so, I’m sure that his true appearance was a far more handsome buck.
“Ah, Mil-chan.”
Tina-san turned towards me with a smile.
“Woodbaum, you look comfy.”
“Yup, it feels quite good.”
Woodbaum was languidly laying his head against the ground as he sat, relaxing as he extended his neck.
“In the morning, Rekka also helped to wipe my body down. She does it every day. It’s not ordinary dirt, so no matter how much brushing or wiping is done, my body does not really get much cleaner, but the knights’ feelings make me happy. Somehow it makes my heart feel warmer.”
“I get that.”
I licked the bridge of Woodbaum’s nose in an attempt to groom him. It tastes like a tree.
“That feels nice and cold.”
My tongue apparently felt cold to Woodbaum.
“Incidentally, Tina-san.”
As I licked my own nose, I turned towards Tina-san.
“You’ve got a package. It seems like it’s from your mom.”
“Thanks. I wonder what it is?”
Tina-san lifted up my forelegs, took off the bunny rucksack, and took out the small package from within it.
Unlike Gilles, she carefully opened the bundle. Inside it was a short letter and some delicious-looking cookies.
Tina-san first opened the letter and began to read out loud.
“[Dear Tina. Are you doing well? I baked cookies for the first time in a while, so have some. Your dad and big sister wouldn’t eat them for me, but Tina’s liked them since you were young. It’s the same every year, but the north will probably be cold, so take care of your health. Come back to visit again when spring comes. I’ll be waiting for you. Love, Mom.] -it says.”
Seeing Tina-san smile happily made me feel warm and fluffy inside.
Woodbaum also smiled as he said.
“I see, it might only be natural, but humans also have those kinds of warm parent-child bonds, huh. Do parents still worry about their children even after they become adults?”
“To my mom, I’ll probably always be a child to her, no matter how old I get.”
Tina-san said a little embarrassedly. After seeing me curiously sniffing at the cookies, she said, “You want one?” and held one out to me.
“Is it okay?”
“I’ve got a lot after all. But it’s a fairly hard cookie, so be careful. I like how hard it is, but it’s unpopular amongst my family members. Even my mom, who makes them, doesn’t eat them.”
I guess they’re hard-baked cookies? I like both crunchy and soft cookies, but I also like hard ones too.
“Here, ahh.”
Tina-san was feeding me, so I stuffed my cheeks with a slightly thick piece that was just big enough for one mouthful.
I made a grinding sound as I tried to chew on it with my teeth, but I couldn’t whittle it down at all. The heck’s this? A rock?
“Woodbaum’s also welcome to some. Say ‘ahh’.”
“Thanks. It looks delicious………..hm?”
Woodbaum and I rolled the hard cookies inside our mouths in bafflement. Meanwhile, Tina-san put a cookie inside her mouth and easily bit it apart. Her teeth are so strong.
“Ahh, so yummy! Mom’s really bad at cooking, but these cookies of hers are the only thing she makes that taste delicious.”
She put a second cookie into her mouth while muttering as if she were talking to herself.
Bad at cooking? Did that mean that her cooking skills were as devastatingly bad as Tina-san’s plushie-making skills?
Which means that these cookies weren’t purposely made to be hard-baked, but were this hard as a result of a mistake while cooking? Tina-san’s mom always failed whenever she tried to bake cookies, but only Tina-san would happily eat the cookies she made?
I stood in a daze while licking the cookie that was as hard as candy. With the utter lack of moisture in these cookies, they might be good as emergency rations. I wonder if they could be accepted for use as food to be brought on the Knight’s Order’s expeditions? I guess it wouldn’t work cause their teeth would break.
“Would the two of you like another?”
“Naw, the first one’s still in my mouth……”
“Me too……”
Even though it had absorbed all of the moisture in my mouth, the cookie wasn’t getting softer at all. What in the world is this substance?
However, thankfully the taste was that of a proper cookie. It didn’t taste bad, so leaving it in my mouth didn’t cause any suffering. As long as I kept sucking on it, it’d probably get softer eventually.
I chewed on it as I changed the subject and asked Tina-san.
“Now that I think of it, what happened to Rekka-san? Did she switch to a single room?”
“No, it doesn’t seem so.”
Tina-san’s face darkened as she finished a cookie and shook her head.
“Vice Cap probably told her that she couldn’t. Only the Branch Captain and Vice Captain have single rooms after all.”
“I see.”
“Say, Mil-chan. I have a request……”
Tina-san said softly.
“If your Mother gives permission to do so, would you like to stay in my room tonight?”
“In your room?”
“Yeah, I want you to check whether or not I do anything weird in my sleep. It could be that I snore incredibly loudly, or I grind my teeth, or sleep-talk loudly. Maybe that’s why Rekka-san doesn’t want to-…….”
Tina-san seriously seemed worried that her snoring or sleep talking was the cause. Though I didn’t think that was it.
“When I went on my errand in the spring, we stayed in the same room at the inn. You were okay then.”
“At that time it wasn’t my usual single room, so I hadn’t completely relaxed, so it might’ve just happened to be okay at the time. Please, Mil-chan. I’m worried. Even though I’ve finally been able to work together with the person I admire, I don’t want to be hated by her.”
Tina-san took my left forepaw in hand as I sat, and held it with both her hands as she asked that with a serious expression.
She didn’t realise the possibility that I would also sleep like a log at night, so I probably wouldn’t wake up unless it was a particularly bad snore. Since Tina-san was begging this much, I couldn’t refuse.
“Alright, sure.”
“Really? Thanks, Mil-chan!”
She swung the forepaw she was holding like she was doing a handshake as Tina-san let out a sigh of relief.
“Just what in the world are you two talking about?”
Woodbaum, who had been silent up until then, opened his mouth and asked. Tina-san apparently hadn’t been asking the other knights for advice about this matter, but I figured that there wouldn’t be any problems even if we told Woodbaum, who didn’t have much relation with the matter. Thus, I explained what had been happening with Rekka-san.
When I did so, Woodbaum nonchalantly responded.
“Are you sure that Rekka didn’t just happen to want to be able to sleep on her own quietly?”
No no, if Rekka-san really requested a single room just for a reason like that then she’d be acting too freely.
“You shouldn’t worry about it so much, Tina-san. It’s not like she’s said that she dislikes you to your face, right?”
“It’s just human to worry about it.”
If I were in the same situation as Tina-san, I think that I’d also be extremely concerned.
“I see, humans have it rough.”
They really do, I agreed. Compared to that, living as a fox cub was such a comfortable thing. All I had to do was play, eat, and sleep after all.
The only slightly terrible things were Mother’s special training, and the fact that I had to visit everyone at the fort, Father, as well as Kugalg equally or else they’d sulk. I had to pay quite a bit of attention to that.
(Ah, now that I think of it, I haven’t gone to see Father in a while……)
Lately it’s been quite busy after all, I thought to myself. For the time being, I put Father’s matter aside and called out to Tina-san and Woodbaum.
“I’m gonna go to the One-Eyed Knight for a bit. I’ll come back at night.”
“Sure, thanks Mil-chan.”
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Translator Comments:
Poor Snake-papa….you’ve been abandoned by your child.
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