Princess Knight 8

 8 - Princess knight and instant ball

Late afternoon after dinner, in the camper.

Three people and a dog sitting around a kotatsu. If you cut out just that part, it looks like a wonderful scene of an ideal family: a young couple, their daughter, and their dog.

In the midst of all this, Sophia is dozing off in the sunshine coming in through the window.

Meanwhile, Mimi, who was far from sleepy, talked to Naoto while rubbing the paw of a sleeping puppy with her chin on the tatami.

“Are you going to sleep with sister too, big brother?”

“No, no, I don't know about her, but I'm more of a retirement kind of guy.”

“Re-tire?”

Mimi tilted her head to the side and looked up at Naoto.

“You're going to a place called Re-tire?”

“Retirement is not a place… it's a way of life.”

Naoto said and pointed at Sophia.

Sophia was dozing in the sunlit six-tatami room, lightly touching her sushi-lettered teacup.

It was a laid-back scene from Naoto's dream life.

“Isn't it nice and relaxing like this?”

“Yup!”

“All I needed was a cat on her lap and I'd be great.”

“Kuuun”

The sleeping puppy looked up and appealed to him with a sad face.

Why not a dog? He looked as if he was disappointed.

“haha, come here doggie”

“Woof!”

When called, he picked up the puppy that had come to him and placed only the upper half of his body on his lap.

A Shiba Inu-like puppy looking up at you with its paws in your lap and its lower jaw attached to your body.

“Yeah, dogs are unbeatable.”

“Unbeatable.”

Mimi happily repeats Naoto's lines.

Suddenly, the girl looked at Sophia and noticed something and shouted.

“Ah”

“What’s wrong?”

“Big sister's drooling.”

“Hmm?”

At Mimi's words, Naoto looked at Sophia.

Sophia was snoozing with her head bobbing and wobbling. It wasn't as exaggerated as Mimi had pointed out, but there was definitely a bit of drool coming out of the corner of her mouth.

“Well, it's warm in here.”

It's a little chilly outside, but inside the camper, the control panel says the room temperature is 23 degrees Celsius and the humidity is 50%. It's the most comfortable environment for a living room, and the sun is shining through the windows.

Naoto thought that if he took a nap there, he would probably drool a little too.

“Hey, big brother, do you have anything to wipe?”

“Here”

Naoto, who had been preparing before being asked, pulled out a hand towel from the ceiling closet and handed it to Mimi.

"Thank you!"

“Gently wipe her off. You don't want to wake her up when she's sleeping comfortably.”

"Yup!"

Mimi nodded loudly and shuffled over to Sophia's side.

Then, using a hand towel, she wiped the edge of her mouth.

"Hmm..."

Sophia twists herself, but there is no sign of waking up.

Mimi wiped more.

As Naoto was thinking that it would be better to wipe it normally, suddenly, Sophia started to grimace with her eyelids closed.

“Fufu…”

“Big sister is laughing, isn’t she?”

“I think she's having a good dream.”

“Awesome~”

“You can't talk in your sleep like that... even though it suits you.”

“So…many dogs… 101 of them…”

Sophia even started talking in her sleep, which makes the scene imaginable.

“101 doggies.”

Mimi said as she came back and returned the towel.

“That sounds like fun.”

“Yeah!”

“…101 …orange boxes”

“…That sounds like fun.”

Naoto smiled slightly and imagined a scene where all 101 puppies were in a tangerine box.

In his imagination, he pictured a scene where not only dogs but even Mimi appeared, petting and fondling each of them as they went around.

When a dog cries, she runs up to it and fluffs it up. When a different dog yelps at a distance, she runs up to it again and fluffs it up. And then another dog.

Naoto imagined such a scene.

“...could be a bit of a swoon, depending on who you ask.”

“Sw-oon?”

The Mimi of the real world tilts her head and adorably asks back.

“Swoon. It means--it's warm, it's fun, it's a lot of fun, and it's fun to have a 101 dogs.”

“Yeah, it's a lot of fun!”

Mimi nodded broadly and turned to the puppy.

“Doggie. What should I do to make more of you?”

She asked in a way that sounded like, “Where do babies come from?”

“Woof! Woof!”

“I see. I see.”

She nodded her head and looked up at Naoto.

“Hey, big brother, do you have a ball?”

“A ball?”

“Yeah, doggy says he loves balls.”

“Oh, so it’s not about increasing.”

Naoto thought they had been talking about it, but the relaxed nature of Mimi and the puppy made him smile.

The puppy talks about loving the ball, and he doesn't have to ask back what he wants to do with it.

Naoto smiled and thought for a moment, "A ball..."

“Hold on a second.”

“Yeah!”

Naoto squeezed the hand towel that Mimi had just used to wipe off the drool and rolled it up. Then he took a piece of packing twine from the storeroom and used it to tie it tightly.

The instant ball was ready.

“I don't have a proper one, but it'll do.”

“Woof!”

“Throw it fast, he said.”

“Hahaha. Even I could see that one.”

Mimi translates for the puppy, whose innocent eyes sparkle.

Smiling back at the one and the other, Naoto stood up and opened the back porch.

Sitting on the edge, watching the puppy with its tails swinging wildly.

“Let's go, doggie… fetch!”

Naoto sat on the edge and threw the towel-ball.

“Woof!”

“Yay!”

Chasing the flying ball, the eager puppy started to run, and at the same time, Mimi ran with him, overjoyed.

“Oh-”

The puppy and Mimi, together, chase after the ball. Naoto's eyes lowered as he watched the scene.

Eventually, the puppy returned with a towel-ball in its mouth, and Mimi followed behind him with a smile on her face.

“I'm losing. One more time, big brother.”

“All right… fetch!”

The ball was received and thrown again. In the same way, one person and one animal chased after it.

This time, Mimi took the ball, came back and offered it to Naoto with a big smile on her face.

“I won.”

“That's good. You want to go again?”

“Yup!”

“Woof!”

Naoto sat on the edge and kept throwing the ball.

Sometimes it was caught by the puppy, sometimes by Mimi.

The scene was too tranquil to be described as a back-and-forth battle.

They picked up the ball, he took it and threw it again.

In the late afternoon after lunch, Naoto got together with the girl and the puppy and played with them.

“Yippee!”

The ball was thrown hard, but instead of dropping to the ground, it was caught in midair by a head-sliding Mimi.

With that momentum, she slid to the ground with a thud.

“Caught it!”

Mimi held the ball up high in her hand, and the puppy jumped on it.

“Kyahaha, it’s not good doogie, its mine.”

“Woof! Woof! ♪”

“Ogogo! ♪”

One and another were rolling around on the ground, jostling each other.

After a while, Mimi stood up and said, "Here doggie!” and handed the ball to the puppy, and came back to the edge with it.

"It was fun"

“Woof!”

“I see. You know, big brother, the doggy is hungry.”

“Ahahah, I bet it’s you who’s hungry.”

“Yeah! I'm hungry too.”

“Then I'll prepare a snack for you, and you can wait quietly in the kotatsu.”

“Yup!”

“Woof!”

The two of them and one animal climbed up from the porch and went back into the room.

“Ah-”

Suddenly, Naoto chuckled and turned to Mimi.

“What happened today? Don't tell your sister.”

He put his index finger to his lips.

“Don't tell, why?”

“Because I pity her.”

With a bitter smile, he looked at the kotatsu in the six-mat Japanese-style room.

The puppy was playing happily in the afternoon.

Sophia, who had been taken by the sunny weather, did not wake up until the end of the day.

Ignorance is bliss, Naoto thought.


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