At the Northern Fort V5C9: Drawing
And then, Tina-san opened up the other bento box and said,
“This one has a variety of meats. There are the meatballs and jerky that Mil-chan likes, as well as mutton ham. The mutton ham is lamb meat that has been cured with salt and spices, and then smoked for a period of time.”
“Hou……”
Just as Mother finished eating the hamburger, she licked her finger that still had some sauce on it, and then extended a hand towards the jerky and ham.
She was unaware of the eating etiquette, and held one in each hand as she ate the jerky and ham in turns. I’ll have to teach Mother ‘manners’ later.
“Mmm! Both are delicious!”
Mother’s eyes widened as she spoke. It was a little childish. But, I’m sure this was her first time eating this kind of human food after all.
On the other hand, pancakes and jam had been prepared for Father, who was watching over us partake in our meal endearingly.
Tina-san undid the ribbon of the final bundle, exposing cute, bite-sized pancakes inside of it. With them were three bottles of different types of jams.
“We heard from Mil-chan that Waterust-sama enjoyed the strawberry jam.”
The large amount of strawberries that Father brought back for me during the summer were turned into strawberry jam, which I then gave to Father to eat. At that time, we put them on scones to eat, and Father seemed to really enjoy the sweet jam.
“Um, but if you prefer meat, please have some of the jerky and ham here.”
Tina-san said carefully. She seemed to have difficulty believing that a grown man like Father – one who could turn into a giant snake at that – liked something sweet like jam.
“No, I’ll have jam……”
“I-Is that so! There are three types of jam – strawberry, blueberry, and cowberry.”
“Anything is fine as long as it’s jam……”
“U-Understood!”
Tina-san nodded nervously before picking up a small pancake and slathering a spoonful of strawberry jam on it. Then, she timidly handed it over to Father.
“Here you go……”
Father took the pancake, and after staring fixedly at it for a bit, opened his mouth widely like he did when in snake-form and ate it all in one bite.
“Remember to chew, Father.”
I promptly said, upon which Father, who looked as though he had been about to swallow it whole, began moving his jaw in a chewing motion. Then, he swallowed and began to stare at Tina-san.
“…..ah, would you like another one?”
Seeing Father nod silently, Tina-san diligently began to prepare the next pancake.
Sorry about my Father. He’s got an unexpected sweet tooth.
“Here you are.”
The next one was a pancake with blueberry jam on it.
Then, Father devoured it with a single bite, his eyes instantly brightening up the instant it touched his tongue. Since he had only eaten strawberry jam up until now, he seemed to be deeply moved from the new flavour.
And then, after swallowing it, he once again looked at Tina-san silently.
Rather, you can just pick up the pancakes and spread jam on them yourself if you wanna eat, you know.
“Next will be the cowberry jam!”
Tina-san’s nervousness seemed to melt away as she began to have fun watching Father’s reaction as he was moved at the novel taste of cowberry jam.
“The next will be strawberry again!”
“This thing you call jerky is quite delicious.”
Tina-san, who provided Father with a never ending supply of pancakes, and Mother, who seemed to have taken a liking to jerky. And me, who was still eating my hamburger.
It was then that Branch Captain-san started to dig through his own luggage. Then, he took out a sketchbook and objects that resembled crayons of various colours.
“I shall sketch the family happily having a meal together.”
Branch Captain-san picked up a crayon and said with a serious face. Now that I think of it, he did say he would give us a picture of our family trip to remember it by.
“A painting, huh. Draw us beautifully.”
Mother munched on the jerky while puffing out her chest pridefully, while Father continued to eat the pancakes without paying any heed. On the other hand, I tried to be careful to not bite into the hamburger with too big a bite.
Tina-san then raised a hand and said,
“I also want to draw!”
“Tina-san too……?”
Branch Captain-san’s face grew uneasy. I get it. Tina-san does, in a certain sense, have artistic talent, but her ability could be a hit or miss at times.
“I did bring several sketchbooks so that I could draw plenty of pictures of Mil and her family but……”
As he said that, Branch Captain-san passed a sketchbook over to Tina-san. When he did so, Kix also piped up.
“Then I’ll also draw! Rekka and Vice Cap should draw too. Let’s compete to see who can draw the best.”
Kix looked like he was having fun, but Rekka-san and the One-Eyed Knight seemed troubled at having been dragged in. Neither seemed particularly confident in their drawing skills. Though I did think that Kix would definitely suck at drawing.
However, all of them took a sketchbook and began drawing, using us eating as their models.
“……ah!”
Then, the One-Eyed Knight’s crayon quickly broke. It looked like he put too much strength behind it.
“Sorry, this is my first time using such tools……it is hard to control my strength.”
“No, I don’t think there is anything particularly difficult about it.”
Branch Captain-san retorted mildly. Crayons weren’t something that would break so easily with the arm and grip strength of a normal person after all.
The One-Eyed Knight took the new crayon handed to him by Branch Captain-san and began drawing again, but that one also broke fairly quickly.
“I-I’m sorry……”
And then, the third crayon he received also broke.
“My deepest apologies……I will stop here.”
Branch Captain-san wasn’t the sort to mind if you broke a few of his crayons, but the One-Eyed Knight’s heart seemed to have broken first. His shoulders dropped despondently as he shrivelled up. Cheer up, One-Eyed Knight!
On the other hand, the remaining four people each finished up their own drawings.
“Finished!”
“Me too.”
Tina-san said after Kix. They were so fast with completing their drawings that I started to grow a little concerned.
Branch Captain-san and Rekka-san seemed to be drawing carefully, so it was only after another ten minutes or so that they finished their drawings.
“Then, let’s have Mil and her family take a look.”
Kix said as he gathered up everyone’s paintings before handing them to us in order.
“First is this one. Branch Cap’s painting.”
“Wow, so good!”
I was surprised after receiving the sketchbook. Branch Captain-san’s drawing had a tender touch to it, and while there were some parts where things were slightly out of proportion, the overall work was skilled. Our expressions as parents and child were gently drawn.
And above all else, the fluffiness of my ears and tail were awfully apparent. Somehow, I could sense that those parts in particular were drawn with an extraordinary passion.
Right now, I was in my humanoid form, but if I had him draw me in my fox cub form, I’m sure that he’d be able to recreate the fluffy feeling of my body quite accurately.
“As expected of Branch Cap. Then next is Rekka’s.”
“I-It’s embarrassing……”
Despite Rekka-san’s embarrassment, we looked at her painting.
“Eh? It’s so cute!”
“Is that so? That’s great……”
While you couldn’t say that Rekka-san was particularly skilled at drawing, she had managed to draw us in an unexpectedly cute manner. It was like the drawing of a ten-year-old girl, in a fairy tale-style with plentiful flowers floating around it.
“Then next. Ohh……Tina’s huh.”
Kix, what’s with that, ‘ohh’?
However, as soon as I took a look at her painting, I also let out a similar sound.
“Ohhh……”
I muttered in a voice quieter than Kix’s so that Tina-san wouldn’t hear.
I did not possess the vocabulary to describe Tina-san’s drawing. All I could say was one thing. Tina-san’s painting was an explosion of the arts.
“Thanks, Tina-san.”
“You’re welcome. It’s fun to sew, but it was also quite fun to draw.”
Yup yup. I’m sure you had fun. There’s so much ‘fun’ here that I can’t even tell which one is me, Mother, or Father in this picture.
“Then, next is me.”
“Sureeee……”
I resolved myself to endure whatever Kix brought out, no matter how ‘amazing’ it was, as I received his sketchbook.
However, just a single glance of the picture made my eyes widen so far, it was like my eyeballs were about to fall out.
“I-Is this really something drawn by Kix?”
Branch Captain-san, the One-Eyed Knight, Tina-san, and Rekka-san, who were all peering at Kix’s painting with me were all surprised.
“That’s amazing.”
“Kix, you’re really good at drawing!”
Kix’s painting was delicate and accurate. He drew us realistically, down to the minute details of the bento and the hamburgers. The parts of the field that were to the front of the picture were drawn with a careful attention to detail, while the distant scenery was a little vague, creating a sense of distance.
No, isn’t it really difficult to use crayons to draw something so detailed? Just what kind of magic did he use?
“Kix, you’re amazing……”
“Aren’t I! I’m pretty dexterous after all.”
Kix laughed while responding. I thought he’d have zero artistic talent, but to think he’d be this good at drawing…….
Like this, the first part of our family trip ended. While we were unable to see the beautiful fields of flowers, we managed to discover Kix’s unexpected talent for the arts, so things ended delightfully.
Kiriko Translations 
Pingback: At the Northern Fort V5C8 | Kiriko Translations
Pingback: At the Northern Fort V5C10 | Kiriko Translations