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At the Northern Fort V2C12: Shadowing the Fox Cub (2)
The next town over, like the town close to the fort, was a small settlement created with agriculture as its focus.
Grail and the rest often visited it during their patrol, but for Mil and Kugalg, this was probably their first time coming here.
“Somehow there’s a lot of houses there! Is that the Capital!?”
Kugalg panted as he ran, but Mil responded in the negative, relying on her vague gut feeling.
“I don’t think so! The Capital should have a more……. ‘ROYAL CAPITAL!’-feel to it! Also, there’s no castle here!”
“Then, we don’t have any business here?”
“Yup, none!”
Even though they should’ve taken a short rest, the two of them didn’t take the branch in the road that led to the town, and instead continued to dash down the highway.
The fairy guiding them appeared to be in a good mood as it flew, happy that Mil didn’t take another detour.
“If they don’t slow down their pace, they’ll get exhausted.”
Tina murmured in a worried manner, but there was no way the two of them would hear that mutter. A short while after passing by the next town over, Mil’s steps suddenly grew heavier.
For a while now, her mouth was open with her tongue sticking out completely, so it was apparent that she was about to reach her limits.
Kugalg also showed some signs of tiring, as he started to walk slowly to match Mil’s pace.
“Haa, haa……so tiring……”
Mil said as she took short breaths.
The movement of her legs had grown sluggish, and at times her right and left forepaws got tangled up, making it look like she was about to trip.
And every time it seemed like she was about to trip, Cromwell would gasp in surprise next to Grail, making Grail wish that Mil would just walk normally without being too reckless for the sake of Cromwell’s heart.
“Look, there’s a river. Let’s get a drink.”
Discovering a small creek that intersected the highway, Mil staggered unsteadily towards it.
After judging that there wasn’t any danger since there wasn’t much water and the creek itself was narrow, Grail continued to follow her from behind.
When Mil lowered her head in an attempt to drink water, the ears of the bunny rucksack fell towards her head, dipping them into the water and soaking them. Though such an incident occurred, she seemed to recover somewhat after wetting her thirst.
Either because Kugalg did not have the habit of drinking water, or because he was bad with water due to being a fire spirit, he did not dip his tongue into the water. Instead, he nimbly jumped over the creek, crossing over to the opposite side of it.
“……”
Seeing that, Mil also decided to try and jump over the creek, despite the fact that she probably should refrain from doing so.
The creek wasn’t wider than one metre in width, so it wasn’t a particularly reckless challenge, but there was a bridge right next to her. One that she didn’t appear to have any intention of using.
Mil would lift her forepaw, then lower it, take a forward-bent stance, then stand back up. After doing that a number of times, she finally resolved herself and kicked off the ground.
Then, in the next instant there was a loud ‘SPLASH!’, as she landed right in the middle of the creek.
The water only reached Mil’s ankles, so she simply stood on the spot without drowning.
“PFF-……!”
Kix started to tremble in an attempt to restrain his laughter.
They had thought that she’d soon climb out of the water herself, but contrary to their expectations, Mil seemed so surprised at her failure——she had probably imagined herself elegantly flying over the river——that she simply stood there dumbfounded, not showing any signs of movement.
“Milfiria, are you okay!?”
Kugalg flusteredly approached her, bit onto the scruff of Mil’s neck, and dragged her ashore.
“I thought that I’d be able to jump over it……”
Mil murmured absentmindedly.
“It’s cold……”
Gazing at her wet paws, Mil made a sad expression as they walked away from the creek.
She trudged forward for a while, but around the time when her paws started to dry, she had returned to her usual self.
While he hoped that she’d remember this failure as a lesson for the future so that she wouldn’t put herself in danger when coming across similar ‘challenges’, seeing her carefree face as she chatted happily with Kugalg, it was apparent that she had already forgotten about it.
Grail was making a bitter smile at that when suddenly he looked up ahead, seeing a pedestrian approaching from further up the deserted highway.
The fairy flying in the lead noticed that fact and concealed itself underneath Mil’s shawl.
The pedestrian appeared to be a farmer transporting vegetables on a cart that was being pulled by a donkey.
Riding on his cart while holding the donkey’s reins, the farmer noticed Mil and Kugalg as they approached and stared at them with surprise.
He probably had not realised that they were spirits, instead thinking that they were some dog and a large cat.
Not only that, but the dog was wearing a shawl and a bunny rucksack, so he was probably mystified, thinking, “What’s with these animals?”.
On the other hand, since this was the first time she came across a human since leaving the fort, Mil seemed to be longing for company.
Though this was a complete stranger, having been a few hours since she last saw a human, her tail was flapping back and forth.
Kugalg appeared to have zero interest in humans, but Mil came to a stop and gazed at the pedestrian with eyes filled with expectation.
However, from the beginning to the end of the interaction, the pedestrian merely gazed at Mil and Kugalg with uncomprehending eyes, passing by them without stopping the donkey at all.
Disappointed, Mil began to walk once more. Behind her, the pedestrian was then surprised by Grail and the rest.
“……sir knights? What’s with that?”
Grail ambiguously waved his hand at the question. The pedestrian’s head was left with nothing but question marks until the very end as he left.
“Ah, there’s more people coming.”
Kix looked ahead and said.
This time there were two travellers carrying large packages approaching Mil and Kugalg from just ahead of them.
Mil’s tail once again began to wag as she stopped in place.
The travellers were a young couple, and it was the wife who noticed Mil and Kugalg before raising her voice in laughter.
“My, how cute.”
“It’s probably the pet dog of some rich household. To think that they’d even make their pets wear clothes…….is that a…cat? Though I feel like it’s a bit different from one……”
For a person that had never seen a panther before, they probably wouldn’t be able to think of what animal Kugalg was on the spur of the moment.
Seeing the approaching couple’s legs come to a stop, Mil seemed to judge that this time things would go well. Her tail wagged grandly as she rushed towards them.
When she drew closer to the wife, who seemed to like animals more, she made an extremely happy face as the wife petted her head.
“Isn’t it about time that we meet up with Mil?”
The words, ‘I’d be willing to pet her head as much as she wants!’ were completely written across his face as Cromwell said that to Grail. However, that was when Kix cut in with-
“It’s still too early. Not even half a day has passed yet.”
“That’s right, isn’t it quite amusing to watch her from behind? Sometimes it’s nice to be able to travel leisurely like this.”
-Gauss said in support.
However, Grail then retorted.
“But it looks like she’s just about to go off with them.”
Mil was running circles around the couple just as they were about to leave, becoming an obstruction on the path.
Her cries of ‘kyun kyun’ probably meant something on the lines of, “You’re already going?” “Pet me for a bit longer” “How about you come with me to the Capital?”.
“Well, if she really goes with them, then we’ll just recover her and give her a good scolding.”
Kix crossed his arms atop the horse and said.
“Sorry, bye.”
However, as the couple waved their hands and departed, Mil seemed to give up dejectedly.
Following the fairy, who came flying out from her shawl, she once again began to walk forth obediently.
“Even though she looked back just now, she didn’t realise that it was us.”
“She was probably just looking at that couple.”
Grail replied to Kix as he spoke doubtfully.
“Those round eyes are really just a cute decoration.”
As the couple passed by the five people, they noticed that they were knights and lightly bowed their heads in greeting.
“But, as expected, she really should notice us following her sometime today.”
Tina said that and laughed, as Kix also threw out an interjection.
“That’s right, that’s what would be expected……”