At the Northern Fort V3C20

At the Northern Fort V3C20: Consulting Hyderin!

The place where we arrived was a large hollow carved into the side of a steep rock face. It wasn’t as deep as a cavern, but it was a fairly wide space.

Here, the time appeared to be in the early morning, as the while sunlight was blurred by the low-hanging clouds. 

Before searching for Granny Hyderin, I was curious about what was at the bottom of the precipitous cliff, so I tried peeking over it and found a stormy sea far below us. It was a height from which falling would definitely be fatal. 

Even though it was a place where just standing still made my legs tremble, the strong sea winds made it so that I had to brace my legs, lest I get blown away.

“The wind’s a level stronger today…….!”

Hyllis firmly grabbed onto Kugalg’s head as she murmured. All three of us were light in weight, so we were blown back and forth, completely at the wind’s mercy. However, for a wind spirit like Hyllis to look like she was about to be blown away, what in the world was happening?

“Hyllis! Stop the wind!”

“I can’t!”

The wind blew into my mouth as I spoke, so my upper lip was flapping with the breeze. And my fluffy long fur was being blown straight backwards by the wind. Maybe next time I have a bedhead, I’ll come here to get it fixed. 

The three of us clung together stiffly, our eyes closed as we endured the howling winds. At times, an even stronger wind would blow, and unable to bear it, I stumbled back a few steps. 

After taking a single step, I gained momentum and became unable to stop myself. Pressed on by the wind, I started to tumble further and further.

“Awawa-”

Thankfully, I wasn’t being pushed towards the ocean, but at this rate, I might crash into the rockface inside of the hollow. It was at the moment I had that thought.

Poof! -I felt a soft sensation as I was enveloped by a faint pea-green plumage. 

It was as comfortable as throwing myself on top of a thick down quilt. 

“A rather small guest has arrived.”

Suddenly, a strange voice came from above, resembling that of a young girl, but also that of a grandmother with a plethora of experience. 

And then, a large beak drew near, picking me up and pulling me out of the down that I had been buried in.

I blankly looked up at the other person and murmured.

“Granny Hyderin……?”

The wind spirit that was Hyllis’ grandmother was an extremely large bird. She was larger than Father’s head when he was in his serpent form. Her body was almost the same size as the hollow in the rockface, so she looked a little cramped. 

Her plumage was the same colour as Hyllis’, but the yellow at the corner of her eyes was more vibrant, her crest was sharper, and she was even more flashy in comparison. 

“Granny, you say? That’s the first time I’ve been referred to as that.”

Granny Hyderin laughed and said. After calling her that, I was worried that she would be unhappy at being called a ‘granny’, so I was about to correct myself, but it seemed to have made her happy instead. 

“Now then, why don’t the two of you come here as well?”

She raised her head and called to Hyllis and Kugalg. Before we realised it, the wind had stopped blowing. No, there was still the usual wind striking the tall cliff around us, but while we could hear the wind blowing across it, it seemed as though the wind itself was avoiding the hollow that we were in. 

Hyllis landed on Granny Hyderin’s head, and Kugalg cautiously approached with his posture lowered. 

“So? What business do you have today, Hyllis? Don’t tell me you caused more trouble again!”

“I-I haven’t!”

After being glared at by the large eyes underneath her, Hyllis jumped up once.

“It seems like Milfiria is worried about some human matters, so I figured she should consult Hyderin about it and brought her here!”
“Milfiria? Meaning that this white one is the rumoured Child of Snow? She seems kind of round, and her expression doesn’t resemble Snowlea much. I’ve heard from Hyllis that you’re a strange spirit that says Waterust is your father, and is also affectionate with humans.” 

Being carefully observed by the two large, pea-green gem-like eyes made me a little nervous. 

“I’m sure that God made a mistake somehow when creating you. They accidentally added some human components as well.”

Hearing Granny Hyderin’s words made my shoulders jump in fright. 

However, Granny Hyderin naturally had not noticed that I had memories of my previous life. Her words just now were just a result of saying exactly what she thought, without any particularly deep meaning behind them, as she appeared mystified with my reaction and asked, “What are you surprised about?”. I quickly made an excuse. 

“I-I was surprised that a spirit like Granny Hyderin would believe in God.”

I might’ve spoken a bit too fast. However, nobody, including Hyllis and Kugalg, showed any signs of doubting me.

“Those who were just born like the two of you may not know, but if you live for a long time, you will notice that there is still an unknown existence above you.”

“If you live for a long time? ……then, does my Father know as well?”

“Who knows? Who can say? That man is rather thick-headed after all.”

After saying that, Granny Hyderin chatter continued without end, perhaps because she had various thoughts about Father since he was a fellow who had also lived around a thousand years. 

“Perhaps because he doesn’t have any interest in his surroundings, most of his long life has been spent sleeping. Goodness gracious. Whenever a dispute occurred between spirits, I, together with the younger Daphine, have run around to prevent it from becoming a large matter. Despite that, that man didn’t even notice that a dispute was even occurring! Was there a single instance where that man was useful whenever there were issues between spirits!? There wasn’t! At all! He didn’t cause any problems himself, but he also hasn’t fulfilled his duties as a senior spirit!”

“W-We get it, Hyderin.”

In an attempt to calm her grandmother, Hyllis pulled on Hyderin’s crest and spoke.

“Oh dear. I got a bit too excited there.”

“U-Umm…do you…hate my Father……?”

I walked around to Granny Hyderin’s front and timidly asked. In response, her eyes widened as though I had asked an unexpected question.

“Not at all. Between Waterust’s indifference, and my tendency to become involved with the matters of various spirits, neither is an incorrect approach to things. However, I just get a little angry sometimes when I think about how Waterust doesn’t help out in the way that I want him to. I don’t have such a strong emotion as hate for him. Don’t worry.”

“Okay, then that’s good.”

“You truly are a strange child. For you to be worried about whether or not I hate Waterust. Not even Waterust would care about something like that. If you worry too much about small trifles like that, eventually that beautiful fur of yours will go bald.”

“I don’t want that!”

I reflexively yelled. The idea of a furball like me going bald was simply dreadful. 

“Milfiria, why don’t you ask about your other matter already?”

When I started trembling at the thought of me being shiny and bald, Hyllis brought the conversation back to the main topic.

“A consultation, hm? What is it? Did something happen with Snowlea?”

“No, it’s not about Mother……”

I went over the explanation that I was giving for the nth time to Granny Hyderin. I feel like I’m gradually getting better at telling the story.

After she finished hearing the matter between Rekka-san and Tina-san, Granny Hyderin began grooming herself like Hyllis had before as well. She sat on the ground with her wings folded up and was tidying up the plumage around her chest.

Even though it wasn’t at all in disarray. 

“I don’t know anything about such minor human problems. Don’t ask me.”

No way! The exact same reaction as Hyllis!

I knew that it was pointless to ask other spirits about such matters, but I thought it’d be good to get an adult opinion on things. I suppose it couldn’t be helped because none of them knew Rekka-san or Tina-san personally. 

I didn’t have any other spirit acquaintances, so I graciously decided to give up on asking others for advice.

I laid down on the spot to take a breather and then caught the eye of Kugalg in front of me, who was similarly sitting down on the ground.

Huh? This might be bad. 

Kugalg’s glittering red eyes seemed to be asking, ‘If you’re done with your business, then play with me’. 

If I tried to quickly run away, then he’d just chase me, so I first turned my face away and gave off the air that I didn’t feel like playing right now.

“Hm hm, hmmm.”

When I purposely started to hum, Hyllis and Granny Hyderin looked at me with weird expressions. 

Glance, -I peeked at Kugalg’s current state, only to find that he was still glaring at me. His long tail that had a flame at the end of it was swaying back and forth at a set rhythm, as though he were planning out when he should pounce at me.

His desire to ‘play!’ hadn’t weakened one bit. Things won’t be good at this rate. 

I quietly readied my posture, trying to stretch before standing up. I pretended to nonchalantly hide myself behind Granny Hyderin’s body. 

But, just as I had half-sat up, Kugalg instantly closed the distance between us with a pounce.

His momentum sent the two of us rolling together, but being on the bottom would put me at a disadvantage, so I quickly stood back up.

Then, Kugalg raised his forepaw, so before he could punch me, I opened my mouth up widely and tried to bite his paw. 

However, I couldn’t bite it properly, so I then lifted one of my forepaws and slapped back at Kugalg’s paw. 

As we slapped back and forth close to my face, I got scared of Kugalg’s paw hitting my eye, so I ended up closing my eyes. 

Thus, because I couldn’t see what was in front of me, my attacks didn’t land. On top of that, Kugalg wasn’t at all scared of my weak, novice punches, so he kept his eyes open like normal. 

And then, Kugalg took advantage of the gap in my defences and pressed my forehead back with his paw.

My arms lost in length to his, so when he held me back like this, all my punches would fail to make any contact, no matter how much I swung at him. Even when I shook both my arms vigorously, they didn’t hit Kugalg’s face.

You! -I got worked up and grabbed Kugalg’s interfering forepaw with both my paws in an attempt to grapple it off from my face.

And then, as soon as I succeeded in pulling it off of me, I immediately escaped and ran off. However, Kugalg kept on persistently chasing after me, so I growled while baring my fangs, at times turning around to intimidate him, all while running around the hollow in the cliff. 

Like that, the two of us noisily made a racket when-

“Both of you, don’t run around! You’ll fall in the ocean!”

-Granny Hyderin scolded us. 

“The two of you don’t have wings, so what do you plan on doing if you fall? Come over here!”

We had a previous record of falling into a lake after growing absorbed in playing, so Kugalg and I dejectedly returned to Granny’s side. She poked at our bodies with her beak and then put us underneath her fluffy breast. It was as though we were little chicks. 

Strangely enough, she didn’t feel heavy, but there was a comfortable feeling of pressure on top of us. The feeling of Granny Hyderin’s bodily warmth, as well as her fluffy down drew Kugalg and I into a drowsy state. 

Even though I wasn’t particularly sleepy, being placed underneath her belly seemed to cast a magic that made my eyelids feel heavy.

How mysterious, I thought to myself as I closed my eyes.

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Translator Comments:

Sorry about the missed release last week. For some reason this chapter was harder to translate than usual and I got busy with celebrations in RL. I’ll aim to do a multi-release during the coming holidays to make up for the missed weeks, but no promises there.