I wake up.
“Hah, hah, huff, huff.”
A puppy is lying next to me.
I spend my days like this.
Whenever the puppy is found by someone, it gets carried off to another room, but when I wake up, it’s always back in my bed.
It’s a mysterious puppy.
At first, I thought my older brother or sister brought it, but when they both saw it, they were surprised and said,
“Oh, Leonardo is in Luria’s bed!”
“Did Mother put it there?”
So it’s probably not them.
I wondered if Mother was the one putting the puppy in my bed, but when she comes to nurse me, she always looks surprised,
“Oh, Leonardo. When did you get here?”
So it’s not her either.
“Luria, you’re so cute today.”
“Dau~.”
Mother is beautiful today as well.
She smells nice, and her milk is delicious.
While Mother is here, the puppy can stay with us.
The puppy seems to understand this, as it gets really happy when Mother arrives.
The puppy is very attached to Mother. It looks so happy, cuddling up to her.
The puppy is also attached to my older siblings.
One time, my brother was in my room playing chase with the puppy and got scolded by the nursemaid.
It seems my brother and sister like taking the puppy on walks.
They often take it to the garden.
I too wish to grow up quickly so I can walk around the garden.
…
One day, I was playing with the puppy as usual, throwing spirits.
“Spirit throwing” is a game where you catch the floating spirits with your hands and throw them to the puppy.
Of course, spirits aren’t physical, so you can’t normally catch them.
But by covering your hands with magic power, you can catch and throw them.
It’s a game I played a lot in my past life.
When I threw a spirit, the puppy gently caught it with its mouth and brought it back to me.
It seems that, being a special puppy, it can see and bite spirits, unlike normal dogs.
This was a simple but fun game, repeating again and again.
The spirits in my past life were very happy whenever I threw them.
For the young, mindless spirits, being thrown was a good stimulation, I was told.
That stimulation positively affected their development and made them develop a sense of self earlier, according to the Spirit King, Loa.
While I was enjoying spirit throwing…
Crash!
I heard the sound of a window breaking. It was surprisingly quiet, considering the window broke.
Through the broken window, two men dressed in black entered.
“What, who are you? How rude!”
The nursemaid, who had been reading a book at a distance, panicked.
It seems she doesn’t know them. So they must be suspicious people.
I’m scared.
But since I’m a baby who can’t even roll over, I can’t escape.
“Someone! A villain has—!”
The nursemaid tried to call for help, but she was struck hard and fell to the floor.
The suspicious men walked straight towards me.
Kidnapping?
My father is a noble, so I guess as a child, I might be worth kidnapping.
While calmly thinking this in the back of my mind, I screamed in fear.
“Daaaau!”
But, as I’m a baby, it didn’t feel like my scream was effective.
“Fugyaaahhh!”
So, I cried as loud as I could.
But the suspicious men—no, the thugs—didn’t hesitate and kept advancing.
“Garururururu.”
The puppy, noticing the thugs, was trying its best to bark threateningly, but since it’s just a puppy, it’s not scary.
“Annoying dog.”
The thug muttered with irritation and reached out towards the puppy.
It was probably going to grab it and throw it, or even kill it.
“Fugyaaahhh (run away).”
“Gauuu, gauu, gauu, gauuuugh!”
The puppy, shaking its small body, let out a loud bark and jumped at the thug.
“Annoying!”
With a trained movement, the thug drew a knife and tried to kill the puppy.
But the puppy dodged the knife with incredible agility and bit the thug on the face, through the mask.
The knife grazed the puppy, and its fur turned red with blood, but it didn’t back down.
“Fugyaaahhh daaahhh! (Someone help!)”
Surely, someone will notice this commotion and come to help.
I believed that and cried with all my might.
“Gyah! Let go of me!”
“Garururururu!”
The thug tried to pry the puppy off, but the puppy clung on.
It dug its claws into the thug’s face, sinking its teeth into the thug’s skin.
“You damn dog!”
One of the men raised his hand toward the puppy.
The spiritless, young spirits gathered around his hand.
A fire spell is cast!
“Da! (No!)”
The spirits that were about to gather in the thug’s hand dispersed into mist.
“Hurry up! Burn this damn dog to death!”
“W-what? The magic won’t activate!”
“What? What nonsense is this! Then just stab it with the knife!”
For some reason, it seemed the thugs couldn’t use magic.
The thug bitten by the puppy was screaming.
The other thug pulled out a knife and tried to stab the puppy.
“Da-daaah! (Stop!)”
Thinking the puppy might be killed, I almost unconsciously screamed.
I wished with all my heart to stop it.
—Bang!
The next moment, a loud noise rang out, and the thug who had been about to stab the puppy was blown into the wall.
“Eh?”
The thug, whose face was being clung to by the puppy, froze in shock.
I was also surprised.
At almost the same time, with another loud sound, the door opened.
“What, what…”
The thug’s lower body froze.
“You are not allowed to touch my daughter.”
It was my father who opened the door.
Father was apparently a skilled mage. His magical power flowed beautifully.
The thugs, one frozen from the waist down and the other blown against the wall, were easily captured by my father’s subordinates.
Once the thugs were restrained, the puppy immediately ran over to me and climbed up onto my bed.
“Da-uu (someone’s injured!)”
I stopped crying and called out for help for the nursemaid.
I thought that if I kept crying, everyone would gather around me, and the nursemaid’s treatment would be delayed.
“Luria, are you alright? Are you hurt?”
However, Father came straight to me.
“Da-u (I’m fine!)”
I made sure to strongly convey that I was unharmed.
Meanwhile, the nursemaid was being taken care of by the subordinates.
They had already started arranging for a healer, so she would be alright.
“Kyuu~n.”
The puppy came sniffing around my bed, smelling me as I lay there.
“Da-u… Da-u? (Are you okay?)”
“Kuu~n.”
The puppy licked my cheek.
Its cute, fluffy fur was stained with red.
“Da-u… (I hope the puppy’s injury heals quickly.)”
I wished with all my heart.
“Da-u… (I hope the nursemaid’s injury heals quickly.)”
“I’m sorry you had to go through this. It’s alright now.”
When Father gently patted me, I felt at ease and soon fell asleep.
◇◇◇◇
Just a little before Luria fell asleep.
Father Graf felt a faint trace of healing magic from Luria for a moment.
It must have been his imagination. He thought so and then asked his subordinates.
“What’s the nursemaid’s condition?”
“Thank you. I’m alright. The pain is completely gone now.”
Graf was surprised that the nursemaid, who had been unconscious, answered so clearly.
Not only that, but the nursemaid, who had been cared for by the subordinates, was trying to stand up.
“You mustn’t move. You’ve hit your head.”
“No, really…”
There’s no way she could be fine. Blood was flowing from her head, and a bloodstained blunt weapon was lying nearby.
“Thank you for protecting Luria. I, Graf, will never forget your loyalty.”
“Your words are too kind…”
A healer, who had arrived, spoke up.
“There’s no injury…?”
“That can’t be…”
“However, Your Highness, there are truly no injuries or wounds anywhere.”
“What about internal injuries to the brain?”
“Of course, we’ve checked that as well. Although there is blood, it’s from the splatter.”
“I see. If there’s no injury, that’s a relief.”
That couldn’t be true. Yet, the nursemaid was completely unharmed.
Afterward, the healer checked Luria and the puppy, confirming that they were both completely unharmed.
“Thank you. I’m glad there are no injuries.”
Graf felt a sense of relief, but at the same time, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something inexplicable had happened.
