At the Northern Fort

A verdant and dazzling May.

Snowlea Mountain was covered in pure white as always, but on the plains, the snow had melted and a late spring had arrived around the Northern Fort.

A little over three years have passed since I reincarnated into this world as a snow spirit. I'm finally 3 years old.

When I first arrived at the Northern Fort, I was 1 year old, and I first became able to transform into human form when I hit the age of two. If I had to say how much I've grown since then, I honestly feel like……I haven't grown at all internally. And my outer appearance has hardly changed as well.

Normal dogs and cats would have indisputably hit adulthood by the time they were three years old. However, my fox form was still as round as usual, with a large head, short legs – visibly still in its infancy. I couldn't accept it at all.

Even though I want to be more elegant-looking like Mother!

And speaking of the elegant and beautiful fox that Mother was——that is, the Snow Spirit Snowlea-

"Milfiria, it is about time that you wake up."

Today as well, she kindly woke me up as I slept in the cave that was our nest.

I don't wanna get up yet~, lemme laze around for a bit more~ -I murmured in my heart as I turned over, making snorting noises with my nose. Using my voice to speak with human words was a pain, so I responded with my nose.

However, while Mother often indulged me, she was strict when it came to my education, and thus she rolled me over with the tip of her nose as she spoke.

"Come, today let us go do some special tree climbing training."

"Huh? ……tree climbing?"

After licking away my dripping drool, I absentmindedly gazed at Mother with sleepy eyes.

"Children must be raised to be tough and strong!" -was Mother's motto. While she hadn't done anything like dropping me from a cliff, at times she would, like this, suddenly start some hard-to-understand special training sessions.

On the other hand, I didn't at all feel that I wanted to become strong, so I very reluctantly took part in her training. Since I had been reborn as a spirit with a vixen form after all, I wanted to live more leisurely.

I want to live by pouring all my efforts into sleeping, eating, and playing.

"Stand, Milfiria. Let us go."

While I tried to hold onto the ground for dear life, Mother softly bit the nape of my neck and started to try to bring me outside.

I cried out in protest, 'kyun kyun', desperately digging my nails into the ground, but I was tragically dragged along.

"Mother, I feel like the wind is a bit strong today! Climbing trees in this weather would be dangerous!"

Just as we exited the cave, a wind blew, so I took the opportunity to request the suspension of the training.

However, Mother just said, "What a hopeless child", and didn't show any signs of stopping her legs. How horrible. I felt like a criminal being brought to the execution grounds.

Just why does a snow spirit need to become capable of climbing trees? It's not like I'd be particularly inconvenienced if I wasn't able to do it for the rest of my life. It's not like I have any business being at the top of a tree.

While I wanted to make that complaint, it would probably just end with Mother scolding me by saying, "Don't whine", so-

"Woof, woof……!"

I cried in an incredibly small voice, weakly showing my rebellious attitude.

Mother ignored me.

When I continued to woof persistently, Mother stopped walking and placed me on top of the snow.

"Doing such training is for your sake. I cannot help but be worried for you. You are so small and adorable, so weak, that I am unsure if you will be able to survive on your own in the future when you need to part from your parents……"

Mother said as tears started to faintly accumulate within her eyes.

No no, even if you worry about when I'll have to leave the nest, I feel like that's still tens of years off into the future. And at that time, I'll have properly grown up, so it's not like I'll be small forever.

I'm happy at being so loved by Mother, but as usual she was a worrywart.

——it was the moment when I had such a thought that-

A conspicuously strong wind blew, dropping a light brown paper before us.

Mother looked at it doubtfully as she transformed into her human form. As a spirit with silver hair and skin that was as white as snow, she was a beauty that drew one's eyes, even though she was my mother.

While it was just a single piece of paper that had fallen before us, Mother did not take it as garbage, instead showing a cautious demeanor towards it.

Considering how this was the top of a snowy mountain without a single soul on it, I could understand her feelings of caution from finding something like this flying all the way here. It was a relatively thick piece of paper, and even if the wind was blowing it around, the chances of it arriving all the way to the mountain's summit seemed unlikely.

Mother picked up the fallen paper from atop the snow and looked at its surface.

While I couldn't see it because of my short height, it seemed that something was written on it. As her eyes scanned across the words, a furrow appeared on Mother's brow as she tore the paper apart and threw it away.

"Mother? W-What's wrong?"

I asked, confused as I looked back and forth between the fluttering pieces of paper being carried away by the wind and Mother.

"Was something…written on it?"

"No, it's nothing."

Mother glared at the sky as she responded in a low voice.

This definitely wasn't just 'nothing'.

Could it be that paper was a letter that someone purposely sent flying to Mother?

But, just who could it be? A human wouldn't be able to do something like that.

"Hey, what did it say? Are you okay?"

I grew concerned, thinking that something hurtful was written on it.

As I restlessly paced on the snow while looking up at Mother, she looked down at me and made a faint smile.

"It's alright, there's no need to worry."

However, right after she said that, she let out a deep sigh.

"My goodness, nothing good ever comes of being involved with Hilg."

Hilg was the name of the fire spirit who was Kugalg's father.

He said, "Calling me [Fire Spirit-san] is too formal", and thus told me his name, so lately I've also been calling him Hilg-papa.

Could the letter just now possibly be a love letter from Hilg-papa?

While he didn't possess the feelings of 'love' that a human might have, it did seem as though Hilg-papa liked Mother. He didn't come as often as Kugalg did, but during the summer he would sometimes come here to play as well.

The combination of summer and a fire spirit was the worst sort of match-up for a snow spirit, so Mother always bluntly turned him away though.

[Summer itself is already hot. If I had to add your overbearing heat on top of that, I wouldn't be able to stand it! Why do you always come in the summertime!?]

[Winter on Snowlea Mountain is too cold so I don't feel like coming then! Sorry!]

[Why must you apologise to me!? I didn't say that I wanted you to come visit anyways!]

[I thought that you were lonely!]

[Don't be stupid!]

I feel like a similar exchange occurred during last year's summer.

Mother generally got angry whenever she spoke with Hilg-papa. Hilg-papa's voice is loud, and Mother ends up shouting when she's angry, so it becomes incredibly noisy when they are together.

After sending Hilg-papa back, Mother always ends up panting from the exertion and has to spend some time catching her breath.

The other side doesn't seem to think that their compatibility is all that bad, and his attitude never changes, despite the fact that Mother rejects him every time.

If he were to stay nearby for a long period of time, the ones to grow weak would be us, so I don't think it can really be helped.

On that point, I was relieved that Kugalg was still young. Since he isn't fully grown as a spirit, he didn't produce the same degree of heat that Fire Spirit-san does.

And perhaps because he was often with me, it feels like he's become more capable of controlling his powers compared to Fire Spirit-san. I don't know if he's been doing it consciously or unconsciously, but he seems to be properly keeping the amount of heat he emits in check.

Kugalg's actually a pretty considerate child.

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