89 - Kokumaro
I go to Menhishumi Church once every two days for Teo's sake, but otherwise I still hole up in the residence and live my life. Even so, the grounds of the Fortress Lord's Residence are so spacious that I don't feel confined. It's really not that different from my previous life, except that I've stopped going along with Tabitha and Bart on their supply runs.
...Now that I've learned a bit of writing, I can really kill time with it.
My recent favorites are the writing board and chalk. With these, I can study writing anywhere.
Fortunately, it seems literacy is quite high among the people in the city. Within the residence alone, everyone except me can read and write. Anyone can be my teacher.
Today's playmate was Bart. I had him write characters on the writing board while he tended the back garden, and I played a game of finding the things he'd written out in the garden. The rule was that it had to be something within Bart's field of vision when he received the board.
"...There it ish, a kosumon flower deshu!"
Obviously I couldn't carry the flower itself, so I stood where it was growing and waved at Bart. Seeing me standing by the flower bed waving, Bart smiled a nice smile.
"A trick question. That reads as cosmos."
"Aeh?"
When he said cosmos, I looked around the flower bed, but couldn't find any flower that looked like one. I turned my head to scan the back garden and found a few cosmos blooming beside the service entrance.
"...Over here deshuka?"
It looked like a cosmos, but I wasn't confident they were called cosmos in this world too, so I asked Bart with a questioning tone. This time it seemed I was right. Bart made a big circle with both hands.
...So cosmos is cosmos here too. I'll remember that.
I review the characters I misread as kosumon and make sure I can read them as cosmos. Since I'm learning even while playing, I want to remember it.
"Next ish... the watering can deshuka ne?"
Looking around, I spotted a watering can leaning against the wall of the servants' annex.
"Found it deshu!"
I ran tottering over to the annex and picked up the watering can. When I held it up with both hands so Bart could see, it seemed that was also correct. Bart made a big circle again.
"This is a watering can, watering can..."
I stare intently at the characters written on the board. As I write the same characters several times with chalk to memorize them, I hear a puppy's bark from the annex behind me.
...? Was that my imagination?
I'd never heard of Bart and the others keeping a dog, so even though I felt like I heard barking, I figured it was my imagination and looked back. I thought I heard a puppy's bark, but behind me was only a black stuffed toy placed by the window. There was no sign of a puppy anywhere...
"...Why ish there a puppy desu ka!?"
The object that looked like a black puppy stuffed toy must have realized my gaze was on it. It started yapping in an adorable voice.
"Bart-san, there'sh a puppy mashu!"
I approached the window and peered into the annex. Realizing it had completely caught my attention, the puppy wagged its little tail energetically, alternating between standing and sitting. I was so charmed by the cute puppy's movements that I wanted to see it closer and pressed my forehead against the window, but Bart slipped his hands under my arms and lifted me away from the window.
"You mustn't, young lady!"
"Aeh?"
Hearing the slightly raised tone of Bart's voice, I looked up at him, wondering if I'd made him angry. Come to think of it, the annex was Bart and Tabitha's living space. Maybe it wasn't appropriate for me to peek inside.
"Wash it wrong for me to look inside the annex deshitaka?"
"Well, it's true that a servant's annex is not something a young lady should be looking into, but..."
Bart tilted his head as he said that.
"Aren't you afraid of dogs?"
"Dogs... you mean the puppy inshide desuka?"
"Yes. By Leonardo-sama's order, that puppy has been kept in the annex for a while now, so that you wouldn't be frightened."
It seemed he'd been making such thoughtful arrangements without me knowing. It's true I haven't had very good memories involving dogs lately, but that's that Black Dog's fault, not this puppy's.
"I don't like that Black Dog deshu, but other dogsh are fine deshu yo? Can I hold that puppy deshuka?"
When I made that request to Bart, who looked worried, he thought for a moment and then led me to the annex. As we went around to the annex entrance, the puppy must have known the door would open from our footsteps. It burst out energetically and vanished into the flower bed in an instant.
"...It ran away mashita."
"Yes, it ran awa... ahh!? Tabitha's herbs!"
Bart screamed as the puppy immediately started digging up the soil in the flower bed it had jumped into. He rushed to catch the puppy, but it scurried around on its small legs, evading his hands.
"Young lady, please catch it!"
"Yes deshu!"
As I chased after the puppy that was wreaking havoc on the flower bed, I found myself having more and more fun. Maybe it was because I was moving my body to the fullest. By the time Bart sat down from exhaustion, I couldn't tell anymore whether the puppy or I was playing tag. Whether I was chasing or being chased. We ran round and round the back garden, and I didn't even notice when Leonardo came home.
When I spotted Leonardo coming into the back garden, I regained my composure for a moment. Since I'm being taken care of, I thought I should at least see him off and welcome him home, but I was so absorbed in chasing the puppy that I'd completely forgotten. Feeling a little awkward inside, I stopped, intending to say "welcome home" belatedly, but the words that came out of my mouth were nothing but praise for the puppy's adorableness. It was that adorable a puppy. I even felt that telling Leonardo how adorable this puppy was mattered more than a welcome home greeting.
"...Tina, weren't you afraid of the Black Dog?"
In between my breathless tales about the puppy, Leonardo asked me the same thing Bart had. It seemed he really had been worried that I might have developed a fear of dogs after that incident. I figured I should clear up that misunderstanding quickly, so I earnestly explained the difference between that Black Dog and this puppy, and finally went on and on about how cute the puppy was, pouring out all my love and adoration for it.
"...Do you like that puppy?"
"You don't have to buy it for me deshu yo."
...I knew it. If I said "yes" here, that would be a flag for a ribbon-wearing puppy to show up at the residence the next day! I won't let that happen.
Knowing how Leonardo spoils me, I'm afraid he'd just casually buy a dog on a whim. There was that time I subtly asked Alf to make sure Leonardo wouldn't buy me a stuffed toy, and he ended up bringing back a stuffed bear of monstrous size. I can't underestimate Leonardo's doting nature and the looseness of his purse strings.
I refused out of caution, but apparently this dog that had been kept in the annex was already a puppy prepared for me. I didn't even have the option of saying "please don't buy it." Without even the slightest hint of a preparatory move for getting a pet, only the result was already right in front of me.
...I feel like you shouldn't just get a living creature that easily.
I think it's nothing short of reckless for Leonardo, who's already more than he can handle with just a little sister, to take on a puppy.
...But then again... maybe it's okay?
Leonardo is often away from the residence, but the Fortress Lord's Residence always has people around. If Tabitha or Bart take care of the puppy, keeping an animal at the residence isn't impossible. And most of all, the puppy is cute.
...I'll help out with walks and feeding. It's extra work my big brother made for himself, after all.
Since the puppy was prepared for me, I asked if I could name it. He said I could give it any name I liked, so I stared at the puppy intently.
I don't know if they're called the same thing in this world, but its breed resembled a shiba inu. Short fur and thick legs, and when you look at it from the front, its face looks like it's smiling. It was cute. Most of its body was covered in black fur, but its muzzle, belly, and the tips of its paws were white.
...A black shiba inu was probably like this, I think.
The puppy was as adorable as a stuffed toy, but it had two white dots between its eyebrows. So-called maro eyebrows.
...Black, with maro eyebrows...?
Once I noticed the maro eyebrows, only one name came to mind.
"...Kuro Maro deshu! I want Kokumaro deshu!"
I think it's a pretty thin idea myself. But for a pet's name, something easy to associate is best.
The only problem was that I was the only one who would understand that this name came from the puppy's appearance. Leonardo was completely bewildered.
"Kokumaro, you say?"
...Right. People here wouldn't understand maro eyebrows.
Now I'm in trouble. How should I explain the name Kuro Maro without revealing I'm a reincarnated person?
...Kuro Maro, Kokumaro, kokumaro...?
"Rich and mellow flavor?"
Great, I found a pun. But even so, Leonardo didn't seem fully convinced. I feel like there are people who give pets food-based names because they're 'so cute you could eat them,' but maybe that's not common in this world. It's not actually a food name but a description of taste, but I won't worry about that for now. The point is to cover up the maro eyebrows.
In the end, the puppy named 'Kokumaro' was kept on the first floor of the residence as my pet, as originally planned. Once it grows big enough, it will be taken to the fortress and trained to work as a guard dog. After the training is done, it will apparently return to the residence as my guard. Raising the puppy with me only while it's young is similar to raising a guide dog. I'd heard somewhere that guide dogs are raised in ordinary homes as puppies so they develop affection for humans.
As a side note, it seems that by giving it a taste-description name, Leonardo now thinks of me as an even more 'gluttonous child' than before, but I don't care. When I say I don't care, I don't care. The risk of me becoming a pig from increased souvenir sweets has emerged, but I'm running around with the puppy that much, so I believe I'm burning calories. I want to believe. Please let me believe.
Typos for another day.
The real meaning of Kokumaro is Kuro Maro. Surely she's not the kind of child who would name her pet after a flavor description... I want to believe.
I've fixed the typos I found. I'll skip the update on the 28th.