How to Raise a Dumb Wolf - Chapter 25

“…Huh?”

Aisha stared at Les in astonishment.

Hearing his own name from General Tina Killott made Les stiffen as well. His heart leaped into a frantic rhythm in an instant.

Before either Les or Aisha could react further, Tina paused and continued.

“That major general was apparently gravely wounded during the war and is now recovering in Beast. He has reportedly been there for several months. If he does not survive, the clan may disappear altogether.”

Tina looked back at Aisha and spoke seriously.

“The wolf who followed you here may be a similarly rare breed. I have no objection if he wishes to live with us, but we may not find any information on how to care for him. Keeping him could be extremely difficult. Would that still be all right? An ordinary little cat would certainly be much easier.”

Aisha paused. The hand gripping the gray wolf’s fur trembled slightly. She did not know how to answer.

Relieved that his identity remained hidden, the allegedly dying Major General Wolf—who was recuperating in Beast and liable to perish if mishandled—looked down at the troubled Aisha.

After a moment’s hesitation, he lowered his head and rubbed his forehead against the top of hers.

I am not that easy to kill. Don’t worry.

Les desperately wanted to tell her so, but for now, he could communicate only as an animal. He looked deeply into Aisha’s eyes and hoped she would understand.

The nudge brought Aisha back to herself. She turned, embraced the gray wolf, and smoothed the fur along his back.

She truly could not bear to let him go.

Tina sighed at the sight of her daughter clinging to the wolf and the animal appearing even gentler and more affectionate than Aisha had described.

“How about this? I’ll take him to the nearest forest outside Vitas. You can visit him whenever you wish. When you go to Wold, they have dedicated roaming areas for large pets, which should make things easier.”

…

And so it was decided.

Aisha’s time with the wolf returned almost completely to what it had been in Philray. The only difference was the greater distance between home and forest.

For Les, this was actually preferable to living in Aisha’s house. Alone in the forest, he could shift freely between human and beast forms instead of pretending to be a true wolf at every moment. He could also contact the Beast Emperor by night, as before.

And although the war had ended, Les still had occasional duties as a major general and a lord. From time to time, he needed to communicate with subordinates or vassals. Doing so out in the forest, away from anyone’s supervision, was plainly far more convenient.

As a career soldier, Les had received wilderness survival training. Forest life was familiar, and he could live comfortably.

Aisha, meanwhile, prepared for the entrance examination on Wold in March.

Honestly, she was intensely nervous. Her parents reassured her that gifted mages passed more easily than ordinary candidates because they were rare and valuable for research. But that did nothing to change Aisha’s weak foundations.

Nearly every other candidate for higher magic studies had graduated from a school specializing in basic mage education and trained for years. Aisha…

Before winter, she had not even known her ability counted as magic.

She had a great deal to learn. With the giant wolf no longer requiring treatment, books replaced medicine in the basket she carried into the forest.

As the date of her departure for Wold approached, Aisha grew increasingly uneasy. Les noticed that she sometimes looked exhausted and fell asleep against him without warning. Aisha always covered it with a smile when he watched in concern, but he could not ignore the dark circles beneath her eyes.

She was probably staying up late to study far too often.

Les’s heart ached for her. In beast form, he could offer little help. He could only make her afternoon naps as comfortable as possible.

In the blink of an eye, one week remained before departure.

That morning, Aisha arrived in the forest at nine with an armful of books. Les was already waiting at their usual place. At the sight of him, Aisha smiled immediately.

“Good morning.”

She approached, embraced him as always, and kissed his neck.

Les’s tail swayed slowly from side to side of its own accord. He liked Aisha’s affection…

Even if he received it only while in wolf form.

In reply, Les lowered his head and rubbed gently against her cheek. The fur tickled. Laughing, Aisha dodged away, then turned and reached for his side. Girl and wolf played for a while. Once satisfied, Aisha straightened and smiled.

“I’ve bought our tickets to Wold. We’ll leave together next week. The sea may be a little rough, but don’t be frightened. Modern ships are very advanced, so the journey should be quick.”

Les watched her seriously. Aisha’s gaze slipped aside, and he knew why.

She was genuinely worried that “he,” as a wolf, would fear traveling by water and was trying to reassure him.

Les was not a true animal. He knew that no matter how advanced the ship, it could not reach Wold from a Ryan port in a single day. If it could, he would never have taken a vast detour and run all the way from Beast.

For an actual large land animal, several days at sea would probably be miserable.

Sensing Aisha’s concern, Les bent and rubbed against her neck.

He did dislike the idea of spending several days aboard ship in beast form.

But if he was with Aisha, it did not matter.

The nuzzling made Aisha giggle. She did not know how much he understood, but the affectionate gesture relieved her worries at once.

With the discussion of the voyage complete, Aisha took out her magic textbook and studied as usual. The giant wolf lay down and docilely let her lean against his back. Turning his head, Les saw her studying a book packed with dense notes. The ink was still fresh.

After a while, Aisha began rubbing her eyes. Noticing the wolf watching her, she smiled.

“I went to sleep a little late last night, but it’s all right. I can still stay… awake…”

She did not finish before her eyes closed and she fell asleep.

Les stiffened at the sight of her sleeping peacefully with her head tilted to one side, then sighed in resignation.

It was already February, but spring had not yet arrived. Aisha’s clothes were warm enough while she was awake, but not for sleeping outdoors. Les adjusted himself in small increments so she could rest more comfortably. He slowly curled around her, wrapping her in his body like an enormous scarf so that as much of her as possible rested against his fur and warmth.

Even in sleep, Aisha seemed to feel the warmth. Half conscious, she lay down and hooked an arm around Les’s neck, burying her face in his fur. Worse, her lips pressed unconsciously against him…

Les went rigid.

A beastfolk man’s animal form might be covered in fur instead of clothing, but that did not mean a young man in the prime of life could remain entirely unmoved when the woman he loved pressed so intimately against him, even through that fur.

Before Les could decide what to do, Salman’s voice sounded directly in his ear.

“Hey! Le—”

The lion general’s cheerful greeting died before he could finish Les’s name.

Since His Majesty had commissioned the mages to develop a spell that allowed callers to see the person they contacted, the new magic had spread rapidly. Everyone enjoyed using it, and Salman was no exception.

Today, however, even the hearty, open, uninhibited lion general had to admit the magic possessed one fatal flaw.

There was no way to know what the person on the other end might be doing before the image appeared.

From Salman’s angle, he could not see that Aisha’s eyes were closed. What he saw was the solemn, restrained General Wolf—whom Salman had guided from junior officer to major general—stuffing a human girl into his fur. The girl practically hung from Les’s body in an indescribably intimate posture.

It looked scarcely different from kissing while undressing. Yet it was broad daylight. The location was plainly outdoors. And his habitually taciturn major general was still in beast form…

On further thought, Les might appear austere, but he was a twenty-year-old young man. The war had just ended, and work was relatively light. Perhaps it was not entirely incomprehensible…

The atmosphere became painfully awkward.

Clearly, visual communication magic should not be used carelessly.

Salman regretted contacting Les outside their usual time. With an expressionless face, he buried his tidal wave of shock. He composed himself and spoke in the steady, knowing tone of a man who had been there himself.

“Forgive the interruption.”

Snap.

The army mage, even more horrified than Salman, lost control and severed the magic. When summoned to contact Major General Wolf, he had never imagined witnessing such a scene. Everything he believed about the major general collapsed at once.

Les: …

Even without seeing Salman’s face, he could imagine the expression.

That day, after being observed in an incriminating scene through one-way magic with no means to call back and explain, Les came to understand exactly what it meant to be utterly unable to explain himself.