At the Northern Fort V3Ex2

At the Northern Fort V3Ex2: Everyone’s Happy Dreams

With the night I had spent in Rekka-san and Tina-san’s room as the impetus, I ended up also staying the night in the One-Eyed Knight’s room, as he seemed lonely.

But, after I did that, Kix and Branch Captain-san got jealous, so in the end I ended up staying in everyone’s rooms in turn.

On top of that, when we were making the schedule, I ended up needing to make stays in Rekka-san, Tina-san and the One-Eyed Knight’s rooms for some reason. Being popular is hard.

As for the order, um……first is Branch Captain-san, then Kix, then Tina-san, and then Rekka-san. The two women stayed in the same room, but I was going to take turns sleeping in each of their beds. And the last one was the One-Eyed Knight.

On that note, today let’s go to Branch Captain-san’s room!

☆☆☆

Cromwell was in his own office. The inside of the room was covered in pink colours and flowery patterns, lace and frills, plush toys, and dolls. It was like the room of a young princess. 

Previously, it had a more ‘work room’ feel to it, without any unnecessary items in the space, but it had reached this state unnoticed. 

“I might’ve gone a bit too far……”

It was at this point when he came to his senses and reflected on himself.

The numerous fancy, cute, and pretty things in the room were things collected for Mil. He had gathered cute things so that Mil would come to play in his office, and before he knew it, the office had reached this state. 

However, no matter how you looked at it, this was bad. This was an office in the fort. A room for working. He mustn’t confuse work with private matters. And this room was one that his subordinates would come into often—at which point, he suddenly realised it.

There was absolutely no way he could let his subordinates see this room. If they saw it, they’d lose all their trust in him as their Branch Captain. 

“I must hurry up and clean this up.”

Cromwell immediately grew flustered and started to clean up the room.

First was this small princess bed. He had it custom-made by a furniture artisan for Mil’s sake, and it even had a proper canopy on it. The sheets had flower patterns on it, and the pillow had frills. A soft mat. It was Mil’s favourite bed, but he couldn’t leave it in this room.

However, just when Cromwell was about to move it-

“Are you going to throw that out?”

He heard Mil’s voice coming from beside his desk.

“Mil, you were here?”

“Say, are you going to throw it out?”

Mil, who was wearing a frilly dress meant for dogs, lowered her tail as she asked that sadly. In the past, she disliked wearing these kinds of dresses, but lately she has been wearing them delightedly. 

Cromwell grew flustered at the sight of Mil as she looked towards him with tear-filled eyes.

“Don’t throw it out……it’s my favourite.”

And then, as she pleaded thus, Cromwell was left with but a single choice.

“Okay. I won’t.”

“Thanks!”

It was so cute how Mil jumped at him in joy. -Cromwell thought to himself while secretly laughing ‘hehehe’ to himself. As he did so, he headed towards the small closet that was in the corner of the room.

This was also something he had specially made by a craftsman. The closet was a beautiful white colour, and its doors were elegantly adorned with carvings of plants and small birds. Inside of it were dresses, hats, ribbons, and other accessories for Mil’s use. Mil didn’t seem to dislike the dresses, so he had gotten carried away and bought a ton of them.

“I have to move this out too.”

“Ehh!? Don’t throw it away!”

Mil panicked and flusteredly ran towards him. The hem of the dress seemed to be hindering her movements.

Cromwell looked back at her and spoke.

“I’m not throwing it away. I was just thinking that I should move it to my room in the barracks.”

“Moving it is no good either! I want you to keep it here.”

“But……”

“Pleaaase, Bwanch Captain-san.”

“Alright.”

Cromwell nodded. It didn’t feel like he could reject Mil’s request.

“But, I’d like to deal with a large part of those plushies.”

He looked down at the overflowing number of plushies that were left around the room while saying that. There was a large teddy bear, a cute rabbit doll, a fox that resembled Mil, a dog, a cat, and a doll of a small girl, among others. Altogether there were over twenty of them. It really made him wonder why he had bought so many of them.

However, Cromwell was blocked by Mil for a third time.

“No no! Don’t throw the dolls out. Please.”

“Uh……”

Cromwell racked his brains.

The sight of Mil buried amongst these dolls was certainly supremely cute. And while the place where the teddy bear was currently located made it a terrible nuisance, seeing Mil sleep between its legs was so cute it soothed the soul.

It was hard for Cromwell too, thinking that he wouldn’t be able to see such a cute scene anymore.

In the end, he decided against getting rid of the dolls.

 Next, he was thinking of throwing out the strawberry-patterned curtains and the pink rug, but Mil also opposed that, so he didn’t.

“It’s fine like this. Bwanch Captain-san is here, and there are a lot of cute things. I love this big room.”

Mil plopped down on the ground, still wearing her dress, and said.

“I see. If Mil says that then……I’ll leave the room like this.”

“Thanks, Bwanch Captain-san! I love you!”

When he hugged up Mil as she grinned happily, she began to lick his face as thanks.

There was probably no greater happiness than seeing the cute Mil surrounded by cute things. 

“What should I buy next?”

However, the instant he murmured that, Cromwell’s consciousness returned to reality.

He woke up, laying on top of a bed, the morning light leaking through his curtains.

“So it was a dream……”

Glancing to the side, he saw Mil curled up into a ball, peacefully sleeping. That’s right, he recalled, last night Mil stayed in his room.

So when you sleep with Mil, you see dreams of Mil, he thought to himself as he extended a hand towards her fluffy fur and began stroking it. Happiness right from the morning. 

However, if the real Mil would happily wear dresses, then that would make him even happier. That is what Cromwell thought to himself.

[Cromwell’s happy dream]

☆☆☆

Kix carried a box full of packages under his arm as he walked down the fort’s hallways. Just because he was caught playing a small prank during training by one of the senior knights, he was given the task of distributing the packages delivered to the fort as punishment. 

Most packages were letters, clothes, or foodstuffs sent by the knights’ families. 

There were many knights who were out patrolling or had gone out to take care of the border security, so Kix decided to leave their packages in front of the doors of their rooms in the barracks.

“Haah, it’s heavy……”

As he walked while spitting complaints, he realised that there was the small rhythmic pitter patters following behind him.

He immediately realised that these were the sounds of Mil’s claws striking against the floor, and Kix whirled around with a smile.

“Hey, Mil.”

When he did so, Mil was there as expected. Mil wagged her tail as she rubbed herself up against Kix’s leg.

“Hm? What’s wrong, it’s rare for you to act spoiled with me.”

Kix said, surprised. She had never acted like this before.

“Just felt like it.”

Even as Mil said that, she didn’t leave Kix’s leg.

Although Kix was someone who loved to tease people, it shook him when people took an unexpected attitude towards him.

Feeling a little panicked, he avoided Mil and walked as she continued to try nuzzling him like a cat. 

“That’s dangerous. It feels like I might accidentally kick you.”

Despite warning her thusly, Mil didn’t go away, so he temporarily put down the packages and stroked her head.

“What’s wrong, really. Did something happen?”

“Nothing in particular has happened.”

When he stroked her, Mil narrowed her eyes comfortably, and eventually rolled over onto the floor, exposing her belly. It seemed like she wanted him to stroke the fluff on her belly.

What’s with this extra service……Kix wondered to himself. After all, it was because he always teased Mil that she acted cautiously towards him.

(Ah, I got it. Must be because Vice Cap and everyone are out.)

However, Kix soon came up with a reason as to why Mil was acting like such a spoiled child towards him. The truth was, three days ago Cromwell, Grail, as well as Tina and Rekka all went to the Capital for work, and were absent from the fort.

It would be another month before the four of them returned.

If you thought about it carefully, there were plenty of strange points – whether it be what in the world they were doing in the Capital for over a month, or whether the fort would be okay with both its Branch Captain and Vice Captain absent, or why Tina and Rekka had to go with them. 

However, right now Kix couldn’t care less about such things. Because he had to skillfully dote on Mil, who was depending on him……

And then after that, Mil spent the whole day clinging to Kix. Wherever Kix walked, Mil walked, and if Kix sat down, she’d immediately climb into his lap.

When he trained, Mil watched from the sidelines, but cried ‘kyun kyun’ as she got lonely, making Kix’s face break out into a grin. Then, when he was patrolling, she didn’t want to house sit, so she rode on Kix’s horse together with him.

“What’s with this? I’m way too blessed……”

Even now, Mil was sitting on Kix’s lap as he ate dinner. As an experiment, he tried putting her down, but she cried ‘kyun kyun’ and clung to him.

Then, when he once again placed her on his lap, she hugged him as if to say, “I definitely won’t go down anymore!”. 

“S-So cute……”

Kix was at a loss for words as he covered his eyes with his hand and looked up at the heavens.

The surrounding knights were spouting words like, “I’m so jealous. Go die”. 

Kix laughed triumphantly.

“Hahaha! That’s right, ain’t you jealous!”

He was so happy, he couldn’t stop laughing.

Hahahahaha!

However, that was when the scene in front of his eyes gradually started to grow dark.

“Hahahaha……”

Kix awoke to the sound of his own laughter. The room was still dark, but he could tell that he was laying in the bed in his room at the barracks.

“It was a dream?”

Kix said as he returned to reality. But what a great dream it was.

Then he suddenly looked down to see Mil sleeping on top of his chest.

Before, there was a time when he had braided Mil’s fur when she was taking an afternoon nap. As a result, she seemed to have been holding a grudge against him, so when entering the bed, she said, “I’d hate for Kix to play a prank on me while I’m sleeping”, and went to sleep at the very foot of the bed. However, she seemed to have approached him, unnoticed.

“Even if reality’s just got this, I’m unbelievably happy.”

Although she won’t stick so closely to him like she did in his dream, this was plenty, Kix thought to himself, smiling as he fell back asleep. 

[Kix’s happy dream]

☆☆☆

Lately, Tina felt like her skills in making dolls had gone up. She was originally rather bad at sewing, but she enjoyed making things for Mil, and as she did so, her craftsmanship had steadily gone up. 

Previously, when she tried to create the things she pictured in her head, they always missed out on some of the fine details. I wanted to make things a bit more like this, -she had many of such thoughts.

However, lately it wasn’t like that. Now, she was able to create dolls exactly as she imagined them.

“This came out wonderfully.”

Before, when her comrade knights saw her dolls, they’d say things like, “The heck is that ‘creature’?”, or “Scary”, or “It makes my heart stir”, or “Just looking at it makes me anxious”. But now, they didn’t hold back as they complimented her.

“Tina’s a doll-making genius.”

“All you’ve got is talent.”

“You’re a ball of great taste.”

“Now you can only call this ‘art’.”

Kix also spoke in admiration when he saw the cute baby pig doll she had just created.

“Tina, you should open a store. This looks like a real artisan made it.”

Tina bashfully responded.

“Oh gosh. I’ll get embarrassed if you praise me so much. You can hold off on the flattery.”

“It’s not flattery! I’m saying that seriously. I think you should show people around the world this talent.”

“Ufufu, thanks.”

Even as she fidgeted restlessly, Tina gave her thanks with a face that showed she wasn’t nearly as dissatisfied as her words would lead one to believe. Lately, she had grown scared of her own talent.

But to begin with, these dolls were things she made to make Mil happy. That is why nothing could make Tina happier than seeing Mil enjoy them.

“Tina-saaan!”

Mil, who came to play at the fort, panted as she ran towards them.

And then, she looked up at Tina with innocent, child-like eyes.

“Tina-san, is the doll ready?”

“Yes, it is. Here it is.”

When she held out the pink baby piglet, Mil’s tail wagged happily.

“Yaay! It’s so cute! Tina-san’s so amazing to be able to make such a cute doll!”

“Even Mil-chan’s complimenting me. Thanks. Do you like it?”

“Yeah! I’ll treasure it!”

After saying that, Mil began to snuggle her head up against the doll. Tina laughed and continued.

“Do you want me to make something else?”

“Yay! You’ll make another for me? Next, hmm…….I know, a baby chick would be good!”

“A chick, huh. Leave it to me.”

“Tina-san, thanks!”

Seeing Mil get so happy also made Tina feel happy. The sight of Mil hugging onto a doll that she had made was cute. She must like it a lot.

“Ml-chan……I’ll make another one for you, kay……”

Tina woke up as she sleep-talked. 

“Huh? A dream?”

The sky outside the window had just started to brighten, and she could hear the sound of the morning birdsong.

“Aw gosh. That sucks.”

Near Tina’s pillow was a rectangular, light-blue doll. When Mil saw it, she asked, “Is it a pencil case?”, but it was supposed to be Mil’s father, the Water Spirit. In other words, she had been attempting to make a snake, but for some reason the edges had made it more rectangular. It was a vexing result. 

Tina thought that she had good taste, but felt that her sewing technique couldn’t keep up with it.

“All I can do is practice.”

In the future, she had to make even more dolls to elevate her technique. 

However, Mil, who was sleeping in Tina’s bed, was hugging the rectangular snack doll as she slept. Perhaps it was just right as a body pillow? Or maybe it suited her fancy? Either way, it made her happy to have created it.

“What should I make next?”

Tina stroked the sleeping Mil as she cheerfully murmured to herself.

[Tina’s happy dream]

☆☆☆

On that day, Rekka had the night shift. For the sake of patrolling, she held a lantern in one hand as she walked around the fort’s buildings.

However, she did not show any symptoms of her nyctophobia. She was no longer afraid of the dark, nor of being in enclosed spaces.

While feeling proud about having conquered her phobias, Rekka continued her patrol. From the bottom of heart, she felt glad to have come to the Northern Fort.

“Rekka-san!”

It was then that a white shadow emerged from the darkness. Rekka immediately recognised the identity of the shadow and wasn’t afraid, but spoke with some surprise.

“Mil-sama? What’s wrong, for you to come in the middle of the night like this.”

“I couldn’t sleep, so I came to play.”

Mil cheerfully wagged her tail.

“IS that so? But, this is a bit troubling. While I would love to play with you, right now I’m in the middle of work. Everyone else is probably sleeping too……”

Troubled, she looked around the surroundings, but the only people awake were those like Rekka, who were on nightwatch.

“Then, can I join you in your patrol?”

“Yes, I don’t mind.”

On that note, the two of them patrolled the fort together. With Mil, the night shift was more enjoyable. 

However, as they rounded the corner of the building, Rekka was startled.

“Mil-sama!?”

Surprisingly, standing there was Mil.

However, Mil was also at her feet. 

“Eh, why……”

“Rekka-saaaaan!”

Even as Rekka fell into confusion, she picked up the Mil who was panting after having run towards her.

“There are two Mil-samas……”

“Rekka-san, I want to be hugged too.”

The first Mil that appeared pleaded thus, so she held the lantern with one hand as the other held the two Mils. 

And then, as she continued forward in her bewildered state, a third Mil appeared. 

“Rekka-san! Play with me!”

“Another Mil-sama……”

For the time being, she retrieved the third Mil, holding her with one hand.

“What in the world is going on?”

She murmured as she arrived at the front of the fort. There, she noticed that there was a faint light, even though it was the middle of the night. It was like nighttime after a day of snowfall. 

However, today there wasn’t any snowfall. Instead, there was a large number of Mils.

“Ehh!?”

The cute fox cubs were everywhere, crying ‘kyun kyun’. 

“Ah, it’s Rekka-san!”

“Rekka-saaaan!”

Seeing the bustling Mils as they approached, Rekka spoke with agitation.

“M-Mil-sama……? Why have you become so many?”

“Why, you ask? There’s always been a hundred of me from the start.”

“A hundred…….I see……that’s right.”

Rekka nodded. She didn’t know why she had forgotten, but Mil wasn’t just a twin, but a ‘centuplet’. 

And, as Rekka recalled that fact, the Mils started to do as they pleased. Over there, the 88th-born Mil started to mess around with the 9th-born Mil. Then the 23rd-born, 50th-born, and 11th-born joined in. Over on this side, the 36th-born Mil started to dig a hole. Opposite to her, the 74th-Mil tripped while running around, and was squeaking. 

Rekka panicked and first hugged up the Mil who had tripped. One of her hands was already carrying three Mils, so she left the lantern on the ground before lifting the new one up.

Following that, the Mils who had been messing around started to get into a bit of a fight, so she separated the 88th, 9th, 23rd, 50th, and 11th Mils. Then, she filled up the hole dug up by the 36th Mil.

However, she was completely short of hands. The Mils here and there started to frolic around again, digging holes, and gnawing at the lantern’s handle.

And then—

“I wanna be hugged up too.”

“Me too!”

“Rekka-san, me too!”

Suddenly, the other Mils who noticed that the 1st, 37th, 95th, and 100th Mils were being hugged demanded that they, too, be hugged as they approached Rekka. 

She was happy to be sought out by the Mils, but it was impossible to hug all of them at once.

“One at a time……ah.”

As Rekka fell on her backside, the Mils started to climb onto her body, until Rekka was finally forced into a supine position.

“Rekka-san.”

“I love you!”

“Play with me!”

The Mils licked her face, and climbed atop Rekka’s body. Feeling the soft sensation of her paw pads, and the light and fluffy fur, Rekka felt that she might be happy to die buried like this. 

(What in the world is this blissful feeling……)

The moment she closed her eyes in bliss, the Rekka in reality opened her eyelids.

(So it was a dream?)

The inside of the room was still dark.

However, even in reality, she could feel the same soft feeling on her mouth. 

When she turned to check, she found Mil, who was sleeping in her bed, covering Rekka’s lips with her tail. It was a little hard to breathe, so she moved away from the tail a bit and smiled.

“Yeah, I’m happy.”

And then, burying her face into Mil’s fluffy body, Rekka once again fell asleep.

[Rekka’s happy dream]

☆☆☆

As Grail worked in his office, Mil came to play from her nest.

Mil, who arrived after using the transfer technique, was as cute as she was when they first met, but her body had grown larger compared to back then. Now she was around the size of a medium-sized dog.

Her fluffy fur was as round as always, making her limbs appear thin as they stretched out.

“Mil, you’ve grown.”

“One-Eyed Knight, even though we see each other every day, what are you talking about at this point in time?”

Her manner of speaking, which used to contain a bit of a lisp, had also changed from a toddler’s voice to that of a child’s. 

Grail felt gratified at Mil’s growth as he laughed and said.

“No, I was just thinking about it.”

“I’ll keep growing even bigger in the future. Once I become an adult, I’ll be as big as Mother.”

“I’m happy for Mil’s growth, but it’s fine to take things a bit slower.”

However, the passage of time was fast.

In an instant, over ten years had passed, and Mil had grown to the size of a wolf. 

“One-Eyed Knight!”

The big Mil, with her fluffy, pure white fur, panted with her tongue out as she ran towards him. Then, she jumped using the momentum of her run. As expected, even Grail had to brace his legs, or he would be sent flying. 

Even if her body grew larger, Mil still liked to act like a spoiled child. After running around and playing with her for a while, Grail joined Mil, whose energy ran out first, in her break.

“As always, you have so much stamina, One-Eyed Knight.”

“I have to keep up with my training so that I can keep playing with Mil after all.”

Once Mil caught her breath, she sat up and started to speak in a more formal manner.

“Um, One-Eyed Knight.”

“What is it, Mil?”

“Umm……actually, I’m…thinking of getting married.”

“Hm?”

The topic came too suddenly, and Grail failed to hear the word ‘marry’. 

Mil repeated her words a second time.

“I’m thinking of getting married.”

“Married?”

What was marriage?, he thought. Even though it was a simple word, he couldn’t remember its meaning. Rather, his head was refusing to remember it.

However, Grail’s face eventually stiffened as he spoke.

“Married……? Isn’t it still too early for you, Mil?”

“It isn’t.”

“Wait. Who is your partner? Is it Kugalg?”

He did not know if it was from anxiety or agitation, but sweat steadily started to ooze out from his forehead. His heart also started to palpitate. Hearing talks of Mil’s marriage was bad for his heart.

However, if her partner was Kugalg, then that might be more preferable. Kugalg had always gotten along well with Mil since she was a child, plus Kugalg always seemed to have liked her as well. So if it was Kugalg, then he’d probably protect Mil and wouldn’t do things that would make her sad. 

That being said, he didn’t intend on allowing him to marry Mil so easily.

For now, he’d see how strong Kugalg had grown, and whether he could truly protect Mil. He had to exchange fists to ‘talk’ with him. If he lost to Grail, then marriage was out of the question.

In Grail’s head, Mil’s marriage partner had already become Kugalg. After all, when you thought of members of the opposite sex that got along with Mil and were around her age range, there was only Kugalg.

Or perhaps Mil had become friendly with another spirit in a place that Grail didn’t know about?

Mil smiled and said.

“Actually, today I brought my partner with me.”

“What?”

Grail stood up and furrowed his brow. He didn’t know what kind of spirit had come, but unless it was a perfect partner whom he could leave Mil to, Grail planned on opposing the marriage staunchly, even if he had to be the bad guy. 

Rather, he felt that it was still too early for Mil to get married, so even if her partner was perfect, he still intended on opposing it.

In other words, he absolutely intended on opposing the marriage.

“Ah, he’s here, he’s here! Heey, over here!”

Mil’s tail wagged as she called her partner. Even though Grail had thought the other would appear using the transfer technique, he walked in normally from the gate. What in the world was the gatekeeper doing?

(A human?)

The man who was steadily approaching did not appear to be a spirit. He did not have the characteristic beauty or otherworldliness of a spirit. 

When considering humans that Mil was intimate with, those only really included the knights at the Northern Fort, but he did not appear to be a knight either. He seemed like a normal commoner, but he was dressed in a slightly slovenly manner. His clothes weren’t particularly worn out, but it did feel like he was wearing a slightly larger size for his frame. 

And then, upon seeing Grail, the approaching youth raised a hand.

“Yo! Hey there, good to meetcha~”

The man, whose reddish brown hair extended to his shoulders, continued in a flippant manner.

“You her old man? Ah, no, her father was someone else, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right. But the One-Eyed Knight is also like one of my guardians.”

Mil answered the man’s question.

Seeing that sight gave birth to a dark, gloomy feeling inside of Grail’s chest.

“It’s seriously a pain to have so many guardians~”

“Don’t say that, I want you to meet everyone.”

“Too tiring~”

“Everyone is important to me.”

“But for me they’re just strangers~. It’s really tiring.”

The man was even more careless than Kix, even more flippant than Kix, and on top of being even more frivolous than Kix, he did not seem to have any of the strength, sincerity, or kindness that Kix had. 

Grail could tell that a vein had started to pulsate on his forehead. It seemed like it would burst at any moment. His clenched fist had started to tremble. 

Why did Mil fall in love with a man like this? Was it because he had failed to educate her properly? He probably should have properly developed her eye for men better. It was a common story for sheltered ladies to be charmed by bad men. Surely for Mil, she had never met a man like this before, and ended up attracted to the fresh feeling he brought. 

“……now you listen.”

Grail slowly approached the man who kept repeating, ‘tiring~’ and spoke with a voice that seemed to have crawled up from the depths of hell.

“I will never permit you to marry Mil. —I will not permit it, and today I will kill you here.”

The Iron Man—or rather, Grail who had transformed into a demon—said that as he drew his sword.

“……I will turn you into mince…meat……”

Grail arose while grinding his teeth.

And then, he suddenly raised his upper body.

“……………so it was a dream?”

What an unpleasant dream. But thank goodness it was just a dream. He was grateful that it hadn’t been reality.

After Grail let out a deep and long sigh, he glanced at Mil, who was sleeping together with him. Her body was still small. It was the usual Mil.

Even if he knew that Mil’s talks of marriage were just a dream, Grail became somewhat anxious and gently shook Mil, who had been sleeping comfortably, awake.

“Mil. Mil.”

“Hmm……what is it……?”

With her eyes still closed, she rolled over and grumbled.

Grail asked earnestly.

“Mil won’t marry yet, right?”

“……marry? I dun wanna……marry yet. Wanna stay with One-Eyed Knight…forever……”

After saying that, Mil hugged Grails large hand and once again fell back into a slumber.

As for Grail, after hearing the words “Stay with One-Eyed Knight forever”, his anxiety was blown away in one go, and he felt relieved from the bottom of his heart.

[Grail’s Happy (in the sense that he realised the happiness of reality) Dream]

---

Author Comments:

Incidentally, Mother’s happy dream was [The dream where Mil grew up to be strong and reliable].

Father’s happy dream was [The dream where Mil and Snowlea moved to live in his nest].

---

Translator Comments:

Apologies for the late release. I hadn’t realised how long this extra chapter would be – it was a whole 14 pages of translated text! Most chapters average at around 5-6 pages of text. Nevertheless, this chapter was entertaining – 100 Mils and Mil getting married, lol.

---

<–Previous Chapter | Next Chapter–>