“Woodbaum, Kugalg is…….”
“Hm? What is it?”
The moment Woodbaum tilted his head and looked at me, a black panther cub landed on Woodbaum’s back.
“Uwahh!?”
However, Woodbaum, who hadn’t noticed Kugalg’s presence, startled at the sudden sensation of something descending onto his back, and reared with a loud neigh.
At the same time, Kugalg rolled onto the ground, and then for some reason my body—
“Eh, what, what……!?”
—suddenly rose into the air and rapidly ascended upwards.
“Mil!”
After surpassing the One-Eyed Knight’s height, I had gone about 3-4 metres into the sky when I stopped and my surroundings were covered by thickly growing green leaves. Thin branches went underneath my legs and belly, supporting my body.
……this is a…tree?
Apparently, the instant Woodbaum was startled, a tree grew at my feet.
I gently tried peeking down. It appeared that the tree had grown straight up from the ground, with three branching trunks intertwining each other as they extended upwards. It was a tree with a slightly strange shape.
“S-So high……”
I wasn’t on a particularly thick branch, so my footing was unstable and it felt like I would fall if I moved around too much.
“Milfiria!”
Kugalg had initially been preoccupied with his first meeting with Woodbaum, but as soon as he knew I was on the tree, he immediately started to climb up. As usual, he was good at climbing trees.
However, while he managed to reach me easily enough, it was difficult for Kugalg alone to rescue me. He tried to bite the nape of my neck and drag me along, but since our bodies didn’t differ much in size, things didn’t go so well.
“W-Wait, Kugalg. My hind leg is caught in a branch.”
Even after I said that, Kugalg still continued to try to solve things with strength, single-mindedly pulling on me with all his strength.
The leaves on the branch rustled loudly, screaming under the weight of our panther and fox cub bodies, until finally, it couldn’t endure us any longer and broke with a snap!
“Ah……”
We’re gonna fall! -the instant that thought passed through my mind, Kugalg and I plummeted through the foliage, passing through the gaps between the branches as we fell headfirst towards the ground.
“Mil!”
However, as we passed through an area of densely packed leaves and branches, I saw that the knights were standing there, prepared to catch us.
Among them, the one who most accurately managed to discern our landing point was the One-Eyed Knight, as he caught us just before we collided with the ground.
“Wahhhh, so they were over there!”
It seemed like Woodbaum had been trying to catch us with his back, but he had been standing at the wrong location. He hastily ran to us. I wonder if he’s just a natural airhead?
“I’m sorry, it seems like I ended up using my power from surprise. Are you okay?”
Woodbaum, in his deer form, peered at us as we lay in the One-Eyed Knight’s arms. He used his mouth to remove the leaves stuck to our fur and gobbled them up while he was at it.
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
I responded as he ate the leaves sitting on my head. Ah, don’t eat my fur too.
When I looked around at the surroundings, I found that Tina-san and Rekka-san were also looking this way with relieved expressions. And then, Rekka-san took out a folded piece of paper out from her pocket and looked at Kugalg before murmuring-
“So that’s the child of the fire spirit……things to note include ‘Mil gets overheated when he sticks to her for too long, so pull him off of her at those times’.”
-as she reviewed how to handle Kugalg. I wonder if that was the data on spirits that she received from Branch Captain-san.
Then, Branch Captain-san, who had received notice of our presence, arrived.
“A deer, huh……”
Branch Captain-san maintained his icy mask as his cheeks flushed faintly at the sight of Woodbaum. He was oozing with happiness from having more animals around.
I once again introduced Woodbaum to Branch Captain-san and Kugalg and explained the situation.
Thus, Branch Captain-san nodded and permitted Woodbaum’s stay at the fort. For humans, it certainly wasn’t a bad thing to have a spirit in their debt after all.
“Thank goodness. I’ll be in your care. You don’t need to pay much attention to me, just continue your work as usual.”
I think it’d be harder to not pay any attention to a deer lazing on the grounds though, I thought to myself after hearing Woodbaum’s words. Branch Captain-san in particular seemed like he’d be spending some restless days in the future.
“Is your fur all dishevelled because of your sickness?”
After descending from the One-Eyed Knight’s arms, Kugalg asked that while walking warily around Woodbaum. Kugalg was a bit of a neat-freak, so seeing Woodbaum’s dirty and messy fur was probably rough for him.
Woodbaum’s short fur certainly did have some dirty patches on it. The fur had lost all its gloss, appearing dried out, and it was sticking up in weird spots, like how my fur was just after waking up. If you compared it to his hairstyle in his human form, the kink in his fur was around the same place where his bangs were.
“That’s right. In the past, my fur coat was much cleaner.”
Woodbaum said dejectedly. Upon hearing that, Rekka-san made a hesitant proposal.
“Um, Spirit-sama, if it is alright with you, may I try cleaning your body?”
“We can also try brushing your fur.”
Following her was Tina-san. Woodbaum’s brown eyes widened slightly as he responded.
“Thank you. To think that humans would treat me so kindly. I do not know if that will make me any cleaner, but please do.”
“Then, please wait a moment.”
Rekka-san made a polite bow and then went together with Tina-san to grab a towel, warm water, and a brush.
Then, with all the preparations complete, they worked together with the other knights to clean Woodbaum up.
“Wah, that tickles, fufufu.”
At first, Woodbaum wriggled around and stamped his feet, his short tail trembling as he twisted his body, but eventually he seemed to get used to it.
“This actually might feel pretty good.”
“Right?”
Tina-san said while using a large brush meant for horses to untangle Woodbaum’s fur. Then, I took advantage of the situation to have the One-Eyed Knight (whose hands were free) use my personal brush to brush me down.
When the brush stroked my head and back, I ended up stretching out my four limbs as I laid on my belly atop the grass. My body ended up melting like mochi. After my back was finished, I was rolled over, and then the belly course began.
Kugalg didn’t really like other people touching him, so he was grooming himself.
Branch Captain-san had been watching everyone else touch Woodbaum and myself with eyes of envy. Probably because he understood that his sense of reason would completely collapse if he did the brushing himself, he was simply grinding his molars, remaining unmoving from his spot outside of the bustling circle.
Everyone pretended to not notice Branch Captain-san’s dark aura that was being emitted behind them. On the other hand, Rekka-san wiped away some sweat and spoke after having done her utmost to wipe down Woodbaum’s body with a wet towel.
“The dirt isn’t quite coming off.”
No matter how much everyone wiped or brushed, Woodbaum’s fur coat didn’t get the slightest bit cleaner. It was still frizzy and dull as before.
“Yup, like I thought, until my power returns, I won’t be able to get any cleaner.”
Woodbaum said with some disappointment, but then he smiled and followed with this.
“But having my body wiped felt good. Thank you very much.”
When he said that, somehow it seemed like some of the chaos in his fur settled a little. Did he get a bit energised from having everyone treat him well?
His worn out atmosphere also disappeared. While he did still seem tired, his expression was bright.
“That’s good. I’m sure that if you stay here for a while, you’ll get even better.”
I laid face-up while having the One-Eyed Knight brush my belly as I leisurely said that.
Woodbaum nodded, “Yup” as he said-
“……but I think you might be letting your guard down a little too much around humans, Milfiria.”
-and laughed at me.
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