by CHIROLU
After seriously drinking for once and causing an uproar, Dale returned to their room in the attic as usual, only to gulp at the dead silence awaiting him there.
He didn’t see Latina anywhere.
He timidly peeked under the covers. Dale thought for sure she’d be sulking in bed, but he found that it was cold and empty, causing his gaze to silently and nervously dart all about.
Perhaps he had missed the out-of-place feeling he should have picked up on when he climbed into the attic because he was drunk. Some of the items in the part of the attic used for storage had been shifted. The luggage that had been moved now formed a wall, separating off that section.
Dale was unable to speak up and tried to quietly peek inside, but as if to obstruct him from doing so, there was a partitioning screen set up in place of a door. It was the one that Latina normally used when she was changing.
That should have already told him all he needed to know, but even so, Dale steadied his breathing and searched carefully for her presence. Normally, there’d be no need for that, as he’d never mistake Latina’s presence, which only spoke to just how out of sorts Dale was.
Is this rebellious phase going to steal away all of my solace?!
Dale emitted a silent scream as something warm streamed from both his eyes, and the power drained from his body, causing him to collapse to his knees. The reason he stopped himself from voicing what he was feeling was because Latina was already asleep. That was proof of just how much of a hopeless, doting idiot he was.
A Certain Pup and the Time Before He Came to Town
Far from the center of Laband, deep in the mountains, there was a settlement. Thanks to the powerful blessing of Quirmizi, the god of the earth and the harvest, this mountain land was fertile and guaranteed good crops. All sorts of herbivores, big and small, lived there, including plenty of boar-type magical beasts as big as a house. That the deep forests there were enough to support the inexhaustible appetite of such creatures also spoke to the blessings of the god.
And since those magical beasts were so plentiful, there were also many other beasts that preyed on them.
Those other beasts, the soaring wolves, stood at the top of the food chain in this land.
“Sad.”
One of these greatest of beasts lay slumped on the ground, muttering in a monotonous tone.
“Sad,” the small beast repeated, clearly dissatisfied.
“What is it?” asked a larger beast with grey fur that resembled that of the small one, pointing his snout towards the cub.
“Latina, not here. Sad.”
“That child of man, is it? That youth had a pleasant smell to her.” The large grey-winged wolf gave a nod and stared off into the distance, his eyes narrowing. “Time has flowed on for quite some time since it was decided that we soaring wolves would live alongside man, but it was still our good fortune to have encountered such a rare child.”
Paying no heed to the majestically spoken words of his father, the cub slowly stood up.
“Daddy.”
“What is it?”
As the cub looked up at his father, the black tip of his tail wagged back and forth.
“Latina’s place, go.”
The father wolf smacked his cub with his tail, sending the child flying through the air. With a single flap of his wings, the cub casually landed back on the ground.
“Daddy?”
“My child, you are still young. You still lack the strength needed to venture into the outside world.”
“No! Go.”
With a quick leap, the cub dodged the next swing of his father’s tail. However, unable to deal with the immediate follow-up, this time the cub was sent flying in the opposite direction.
“Latina’s place, go!”
“You are still too young.”
“Lots of petting, all for me!”
“Do not say such things that make me feel jealous!”
His true feelings unwittingly slipped out.
The fur of both father and cub was standing on end as they faced one another. Fluffy, shed tufts danced through the air between them. Shortly afterwards, they both scratched their necks with their hind legs at the same time. They were in sync, fitting of a father and cub. More puffs of fur floated through the air. For the two of them, just looking at the sight was enough to make them feel itchy.
“Ungh...” the father unthinkingly moaned.
It wasn’t as if he didn’t understand what his cub was saying. He couldn’t help but remember now that this season had come. It had been pure bliss when he was able to enjoy that girl’s miraculous skills. It was a pleasant sensation he had never experienced before, despite having lived far longer than any human.
But even so, he knew it was not acceptable to send his young child off into the domain of man. And since the cub was his child, he couldn’t simply turn a blind eye to him monopolizing that supremely blissful brushing all year round.
He was just a child.
And so, the cub unthinkingly let out that line:
“I’m telling Mommy.”
“How cowardly, to speak of this to your mother!”
The father’s voice broke, and he froze in response to his child’s words. In all times and places, regardless of race, a wife is always able to make her husband go pale.
“If you are willing to say all that, then show me proof that you have truly come of age.”
“Hmm?” The cub tilted his head in response.
This wolf who stood as the strongest of the pack and reigned over them was trying to change the topic because he needed to keep relationships with the females smooth in order to keep the pack unified. He earnestly explained to his cub just how important that was.
“Come of age?”
“We say that one has come of age when they are able to hunt their own prey. Come along; your father will now show you how it is done.”
The father stood up, then calmly started walking while wagging his tail. His cub followed a few steps behind him. The young cub got distracted by all sorts of things along the way. Growing tired of this, his father picked him up by the scruff of his neck halfway there and once more started walking. As he dangled limply and swayed along, held by his neck in his father’s mouth, the cub naturally grew docile. He just kept swaying along, even when his father spread out his wings and flew through the sky.
“Watch carefully,” he said to his cub, whom he set down in a tree, a massive boar magical beast down below them. To them, the issue was whether or not a beast was tasty and how much of a pain it would be to hunt it, as no other animals were dangerous to them. These particular beasts were easy to find, and they made for a fine meal. But in exchange, they possessed a power fitting to their massive size, meaning it wasn’t a matter of whether they were easy to hunt.
The cub could already hunt small animals. Since it served as both play and a means of gaining a snack, the soaring wolf young often passed their time going on such hunts in the mountains near the settlement. But that wasn’t enough to count as a true “hunt” for these beasts at the top of the food chain. It was only when one could hunt down prey that could sate the hunger of the whole pack that they were recognized as a strong male who had come of age.
Having left his cub at the top of the tree, the father wolf gently landed on the ground. He kept the flap of his wings to a minimum, and only made the slightest of sounds. He circled about to be downwind and in a blind spot of his prey.
“Oh wind.” While chanting, he tempered his mana.
Amongst magical beasts, there were some who were able to use magic. Those who came into contact with them explained it as the magical beasts being able to instinctually string together sounds that fulfilled the form of a chant. To such magical beasts, manipulating a chant was no different than a courtship ritual or an intimidation tactic, and they simply knew that if they howled in a certain way, something would happen. Even if they couldn’t understand the specifics, as long as the chant and the affinity were in ali
gnment and they were able to use mana, it was still possible to cast magic.
However, it was a completely different story when it came to mythical beasts. With their high level of intelligence, they were able to manipulate magic while fully understanding the techniques behind it. It was precisely because they were able to use magic according to the situation that they were considered far stronger and more dangerous than normal magical beasts and were feared by others.
“Accompany me, and let my roar resound over the weak. 〈〈Wolf’s roar〉〉”
This specialty magic of wolf-type magical beasts was feared even by adventurers, and it fanned up the innate terror their opponents held towards such carnivores. When one lost their calm and fell into a panic, they made for perfect prey.
It could be resisted with a strong will, but that was difficult to pull off when it came to a surprise attack like this.
The powerful roar shook the very earth and stopped the massive beast that boasted the greatest physical strength in this land dead in its tracks. The father wolf then sunk his fangs into the defenseless creature’s windpipe. Despite the wolf’s strong jaw and razor-sharp fangs, the beast didn’t go down so easily, as it was protected by thick fat under its skin. Despite being unable to move its body as it wished, the massive boar flailed about desperately, trying to force the father wolf off of it. But thanks to his fangs being buried so firmly, he wasn’t shaken off so easily.
As its last desperate act, the boar tried to use the weight of its massive body to flatten its foe, but the father wolf calmly leaped away and dodged the attack with a single flap of his wings. Having put itself into such a disadvantageous stance, the boar-type magical beast was no longer able to fend off the father wolf’s follow-up attack.
“To have come of age means being able to easily carry out a hunt like this. Do you understand, my child?” boasted the wolf, showing off the fruits of his hunt to his cub.
“Hmph,” responded the cub with a sound of dissatisfaction, knowing that his own fangs and claws could never strike a decisive blow against such a massive beast.
The cub kept pouting the whole time he dangled from his father’s jaw on the way back.
By the way, for soaring wolves, when it came to such massive boar-type magical beasts, the real issue was getting the body back to the settlement, rather than difficulty of the hunt, but he didn’t tell that to his cub right then. All the wolves in the settlement would gather and use wind magic to carve up the body and then dig into the delicious meat, which could turn a bit chaotic.
A mere half a year passed after that.
“Got it!” the cub cried out in victory, his tiny limbs straddling the massive trophy of his hunt.
“Wendelgard...”
“What is it?”
The father wolf, leader of the soaring wolves, stared at his friend and old acquaintance, a female human who led the village with which his people had long since had a pact.
They maintained a friendship that had nothing to do with the pact itself. As a human with a sense of values that exceeded that of her kind, she was quite amusing to him. And while the soaring wolves of the settlement had thought of the humans as weak, pathetic beings not worthy of continuing to maintain a pact with, Wendelgard alone had cleared away those doubts. When she was young, she had made half of the male wolves in the settlement tuck their tails between their legs with her fists alone.
Her male human mate who had accompanied her at the time had said, “No, no, Wendelgard is a special case, and normal folks can’t do that,” yet that man was powerful enough to face off against the soaring wolf pack leader and have his strength recognized.
Wendelgard had casually sipped away at the bottle of alcohol she had by her side as she accompanied the wolf to watch over the cub’s attempt at his challenge today.
“That is your doing, is it not?”
“It was amusing, right?”
As she gave a relaxed, hearty laugh, she looked over at the cub’s prey, which had fallen into a pit even larger than the beast itself. He had handled it almost too smoothly.
The cub had used his Wind magic to toss a stone at the boar-type magical beast to attract its attention, then sprung out himself and lured the creature where he wanted. He drew it near until the last possible moment, then fled into the sky with a flap of his wings. In the next instant, the ground beneath the magical beast collapsed. It was cleverly hidden, not unnatural-looking in the least. In all likelihood, magic had been used to carve out a hollow space, leaving a portion of earth on top. It was a trap that used the very weight of the magical beast itself.
The cub had then cut numerous ropes he had set up using Wind magic. Simple arrows made of stakes with sharpened tips rained down into the hole. They easily penetrated the thick skin of the beast, which the cub’s own fangs could never pierce. It was a siege-scale assault.
Finally, with a flutter of his wings, the cub had landed on top of his prey and announced his victory.
Though the father wolf stared with a scornful gaze, Wendelgard didn’t flinch.
“Accurately grasping one’s own power and seeking the aid of those around you is also a form of strength. You should use everything you can. Using that principle to its fullest is most satisfactory, wouldn’t you say?”
“Hmm...”
“This is your loss, as you said he needed to successfully hunt on his own, but you didn’t specify the methods he could use. It’ll be interesting to see how his future unfolds, right?”
“Ugh...”
As the one who had set the conditions, even though he may not have been fully satisfied, he still couldn’t deny the cub’s accomplishment. This was something entirely unprecedented in the long history of soaring wolves.
Well, having such an unusual neighbor was also unprecedented.
“And also,” she started, going for the finishing blow. “When that cub comes back home, he might bring Latina back with him.”
The leader of the soaring wolves absentmindedly started wagging his grey tail.
An awkward silence filled the air as Wendelgard sipped away at her bottle. As the father wolf sat deep in thought, his tail wagged happily away all the while thanks to what he was imagining.
“W-Will she come...?”
“Don’t you think she will? My idiot grandson is always busy, so he doesn’t have the time, but as long as Latina has an escort, she should be plenty capable of doing so.”
“H-Hmm...”
“If she brushes your cub every day, then her skills will surely improve...”
If her godly, blissful skills were to reach even higher heights, just what would that be like?
His tail happily wagged away, indicating the decision he’d already clearly reached.
As Wendelgard watched her friend in amusement, she brought her bottle to her mouth once again.
The soaring wolf cub descended from the tree, which offered the best view of all in the settlement and was popular amongst the cubs. It wasn’t very difficult for him to do it with a few leaps from branch to branch, as he was the most skilled at flying amongst the cubs his age.
He pointed the tip of his nose into the air and started to sniff. He kept at it, sniffing a number of times. His nose centered in on the northwest, the direction Latina herself had once pointed out. Soon, his ears shot straight up.
“There!”
Though it was only faint, being carried on the wind from far away, there was no mistaking that pleasant smell.
“Latina’s place, go!”
He spread his wings out wide and, with the wind surrounding him, he danced through the air. By skillfully using the air currents, he flew a large circle about the settlement and then started off towards his destination.
He arrived in Kreuz and caused something of a disturbance a mere two days later.
Afterword
“I’ve heard some of the ol’ festival music, so I’ll just have a beer and head on home.” Back in the day, I never imagined I’d become such a useless
adult who’d have such pathetic thoughts... Well, for whatever reason, I can’t quite state that definitively.
For most of you, this is probably our first time meeting. I’m CHIROLU, and I’d like to sincerely thank you for picking up this work, the third volume of If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord.
I currently live in a certain part of the Kanto region, but I was born and raised in the Shitamachi area. As I’ve grown up, I’ve come to realize that my common sense may differ from that of the world at large, but Shitamachi was an area that was always holding some festival or event. It was only natural to expect to see festival carts set up for two months straight. I recall having conversations with my friends when we were young, full of statements like, “This week, we’ll go to the festival at our shrine, and then next week, we’ll go to the festival they’re having over at that shrine.”
My memories of living there are too strong, so when I think of festivals, I remember those events happening at the start of summer, but conventionally, it may be more common to think of them as occurring in the fall. When writing this volume, I unthinkingly took it as a given that the festival would be at the start of summer. My editor pointed this out to me, but when I saw how I had written that without even thinking about it, it made me realize just how deeply ingrained such “common sense” could become.
I’ve become accustomed to not just walking about and eating from the stalls, but also taking in the festival music and lively atmosphere while taking a groggy stroll. I’ve come to mistakenly feel like if I don’t go to seasonal events like the Tori-no-Ichi festival, winter will never come. I enter into the start of summer in a similar mental state, so it’s become an unskippable annual event for me to sit down with a pack of takoyaki and a can of chuuhai in one hand. Even if takoyaki’s just made with a bit of red pickled ginger and some flour, I feel like there’s just something to it that you can’t get from a specialty shop. I got ready to argue when I saw a place that claimed to put a full octopus in each one, but when I saw that it was a baby octopus, I burst out laughing and was satisfied. However, I remember feeling disappointed that it was hard to eat.
