How to Raise a Dumb Wolf - Chapter 73

The moment Tina finished speaking, Aisha froze. Then discomfort prickled over her entire body. Behind her, Les’s gaze grew even more piercing; she could feel it without turning around.

“N-no, that’s all right…”

Aisha could not bring herself to look Tina in the eye. Her gaze darted away of its own accord.

“I’ve been an adult for ages. I—I don’t need to cling to him every single day…”

She tried hard to keep her tone calm and ordinary, as though the suggestion had not made her think anything strange at all. Inside, however, she was already in a panic.

H-had she really depended on Les that much before?! Had she truly reached the point where even a brief separation required kisses and cuddles?! Her mother had noticed. She had even stopped to wait for her…

Aisha felt close to tears. She could not decide whether to be moved by her mother’s unexpected thoughtfulness or dig a hole and bury herself in it from shame over everything she had done to Major General Wolf. She desperately searched her memories for proof that perhaps she had not been quite so attached to the wolf after all. Yet after turning the matter over and over in her mind, she discovered…

She really had clung to the giant wolf constantly.

When she recalled all the things she had done to Major General Wolf over the past year, Aisha could not even summon the courage to glance back at Les. Tina, meanwhile, continued to ask with concern, “Are you sure? You really did spend every day with this wolf before.”

“I’m sure! There’s no need!”

Aisha shook her head vigorously to make her answer more convincing.

Tina gave her strangely behaving daughter an odd look, then glanced at the rather forlorn giant wolf behind her. She could not help reminding Aisha, “If you keep an animal, you shouldn’t grow impatient with it. Animals usually have shorter lives than we do. You never know when one might leave you.”

Aisha fell silent.

“…I understand, Mother,” she said distractedly.

“Good.” Tina’s smile returned. “Shall we go upstairs, then?”

“All right.”

Tina turned and started up the stairs. Aisha took a few steps after her, hesitated, then looked back after all. With extreme awkwardness and great care to avoid every sensitive part of him, she gave Les a stiff little hug. Before he could recover from the surprise, she had already raced upstairs.

Tina seemed to notice the small gesture. She waited on the stairs for a few seconds, and once Aisha caught up, the two of them continued together to the second-floor corridor.

Les remained below, staring after Aisha in a daze.

The fleeting softness of her embrace—so familiar and so dearly missed—seemed to linger around his neck. It had been far too long since her gentle fragrance had come so close. He knew he should not hope for too much now, and from a human perspective, Aisha’s gesture had been nothing more than a commonplace act of courtesy. Even so… it left him content.

Unable to help himself, Les wagged his tail as he watched her disappear. Then he waited in silence for Aisha and Tina to finish their conversation—and for the fate that would follow.

…

By then, Aisha had followed Tina into the family study. Mrs. Maxon, the household steward, came in close behind them with tea and refreshments. After greeting Tina, she nodded to Aisha as well. Aisha hastily returned the greeting with proper courtesy before turning back to her mother.

Tina looked delighted as she studied Aisha from head to toe, as though searching for every change the past half year might have left on her. After a moment, she asked, “So, how have things been in Wold? Have you been happy?”

“Yes, very happy.”

Aisha quickly answered with a smile. She wanted to resolve the matter of Les as soon as possible, so after the briefest pause, she opened her mouth to test the waters. Before she could speak, however, Tina’s expression sharpened. Her face became serious, and she regarded Aisha with earnest concern.

“Then… what about Eric? Has he made things difficult for you again?”

“Oh, no.”

Aisha shook her head at once. In every letter she had sent home since enrolling, she had taken special care to emphasize that her studies were going well and that her relationships with Eric and her classmates were steadily improving. Even so, worry occasionally crept into Tina’s replies. She seemed afraid that Aisha might only be putting on a brave face.

Aisha hesitated. To keep her mother from imagining the worst, she described her recent circumstances in detail, including the magical exchange in Micks. As she spoke, she grew genuinely cheerful. She became so excited that she wanted to demonstrate several new healing spells she had learned, only to wave her wand around for a while before realizing that neither she nor Tina had anything that needed healing. Deflated, she sat down again.

Tina watched her closely throughout. Only after confirming that Aisha truly looked healthy and energetic did she relax and smile.

“Then I can stop worrying. You know Eric has a peculiar temper, and he’s always been as willful as a child. He isn’t a bad person, but even when we were students, he was forever causing trouble for everyone around him… Of course, when that man applies himself, he can be a decent teacher. If he does anything else that troubles you, write to me as soon as you can. Your father and I will both help you.”

Meeting the grave concern in Tina’s hazel eyes, Aisha felt herself relax. She smiled, nodded, and was filled with happiness.

Mother and daughter shared a smile. Then Aisha remembered what she had come to ask and said in a slight rush, “Oh, Mother, there’s one more thing I want to ask you.”

“Hm?”

Tina had thought their conversation was drawing to a close and had just lifted her teacup for a sip. But talking with Aisha was a pleasure under any circumstances, so she certainly did not mind answering a few more questions. She raised her eyes and asked patiently, “What is it?”

“It’s…”

Now that the moment had arrived, the question Aisha had considered for so long became unexpectedly difficult to voice. Her unease forced her to weigh every word again at frantic speed.

She did not intend to reveal Major General Wolf’s identity. She only wanted to ask a few indirect questions, which meant she had to be exceptionally careful. Tina was a veteran general who had spent years on the battlefield. Her instincts might be sharper than an ordinary person’s, and Aisha had no confidence in her ability to conceal anything through her expression.

Steadying herself, Aisha tried to sound natural. “Mother… if someone wanted to obtain military intelligence from you, do you think it would be possible for them to start with… me?”

The instant she finished, Tina’s expression changed. She slapped the table and shot to her feet.

“Do you think there’s someone suspicious around you? Has anyone been following you recently? When did it start? How long has it continued? Did this person appear in Wold, or in Micks? Is it someone you know? What race? What identity? What age and sex? Why do you think something is wrong?”

Her warm, cheerful, almost carefree mother had abruptly become deadly serious. Aisha flinched and clasped her hands together. Faced with that barrage of questions, she did not know where to begin, and she was afraid that saying too much would allow Tina to identify Les at once. Her heart hammered. Only after sorting through her thoughts did she manage to answer nervously, “I suppose… I feel as though someone has been following me.”

Aisha pressed her lips together. Come to think of it, Major General Wolf really had followed her for a very long time. Wherever she went, he went too.

Recalling Tina’s questions, Aisha selected the least revealing ones and continued. “He’s… someone I know. A beastfolk man from Beast. He’s a professional soldier who has already graduated, and he should be in his early twenties. We met in Wold, but… it seems he had already been appearing near me quite often before that. He has never deliberately asked about you or anything military, but… well… this has been going on for almost a year.”

“Wait—a year?”

Tina had been listening intently. She had even found paper and pen to take notes, making Aisha more nervous by the second. Yet at the length of time Aisha named, her pen suddenly stopped. Her expression turned into a peculiar mixture of exasperation and amusement.

“Yes.”

Aisha nodded. She did not know whether she had said something wrong, or whether Tina had detected a flaw in the details she had blurred, so she could only look at her mother with a guilty, bewildered expression.

“I-is something wrong?”

Strictly speaking, she had not lied. She had merely obscured the facts.

Tina set down her pen and looked at her while suppressing a laugh. She seemed uncertain how to begin. After a long silence, she reached across and pinched Aisha’s cheek.

“…You little fool.”

“Huh?”

Aisha blinked while her cheek was being pinched.

Tina thought for a moment, then asked, unable to hide her amusement, “This beastfolk man you mentioned—if he’s a soldier, he must be in excellent physical condition, right?”

Aisha blushed and nodded.

Les had offered to carry her all the way from Micks to Ryan. Even before that, lifting her or carrying her had always seemed effortless for him, and there were countless signs in daily life that he was extraordinarily fit. Perhaps that was only to be expected of a soldier.

For some reason, Aisha’s face grew hotter and hotter.

“Mm… how should I put this?”

Tina propped her cheek on one hand and studied the daughter who so closely resembled her. Aisha looked much like Tina had in her youth, though she was even more beautiful—and apparently even slower on the uptake than Tina had been.

The thought made Tina want to pinch her cheek all over again. She pursed her lips before continuing with a smile.

“Here’s how it is, Aisha. I have agreements with the Federation that define a great many rights and obligations. One of them is a confidentiality agreement. You may have noticed that unless information is already public, I’ve almost never discussed military matters with you. Every country has agreements like this, and everyone understands them. Simply getting close to you would not yield any useful intelligence. Besides, you’ve spent the entire past year studying abroad, which makes it even harder for you to hear anything valuable.

“Of course, there are always arrogant fools who disclose such things to their families—or even lovers and prostitutes—when they’re drunk or not thinking clearly. But I’m famously discreet, and I hardly ever drink. So, from where you stand, there is only one way someone could use you to get information from me…”

At that point, Tina’s expression grew much more solemn. The smile vanished from her face.

“You truly should be wary of strong men who appear around you for no reason, unusually large groups, or even women stronger than you. Kidnapping you to threaten me would plainly be the most efficient method. That is why I kept you hidden in Philray all those years… I’m sorry.”

Tina’s face had already paled merely from speaking of it. Aisha stared at her, then asked softly, “…It’s all right, Mother. Do you mean… like what the darkfolk did before?”

“…Yes. Like the darkfolk.”

Tina nodded with difficulty, though she soon forced herself to smile.

“Of course, you no longer need to worry quite so much. Things are finally peaceful. I can’t say the world is entirely calm, but at least the danger to you is much smaller. You can study freely in Wold, though you should still be careful with your identity when necessary. That’s why I’m always so happy when you tell me your magic has improved. It means you have more ways to protect yourself than before, which reassures both your father and me… Ah, I’m sorry. I seem to have wandered away from the subject. Let’s go back to that beastfolk man you mentioned.”

Tina smiled and teasingly reached over to pinch Aisha’s cheek again.

“If his goal were to kidnap you, no one would waste nearly a year hovering around you. Especially not a beastfolk soldier from a nation currently on relatively friendly terms with us—a strong one who sounds perfectly capable of wrapping you up and carrying you away whenever he pleased. That man is courting you, darling. My precious girl, you truly are adorable…”

At the sight of Aisha’s cheeks suddenly turning even redder while confusion filled her eyes, Tina laughed until her own eyes curved into crescents. After a few seconds, she added, “Still, if he has spent an entire year at it without making you realize what he was doing, he must be rather foolish himself. Hahaha…”