5: Sequel: The Platinum Maiden, the Pup, and the Fluffiness

And so, the wedding ended in Tislow, and the time had come for Dale and Latina to decide on what they would do next.

“We borrowed Hagel’s aid on the way here, but do you want to take a relaxed walk back?”

“Yeah.”

The plan was to use their return to Kreuz as an opportunity to take a short trip.

Thanks to not just his work but also his world-spanning journey to eliminate the demon lords, travel was nothing novel for Dale. However, Latina had very few opportunities to leave town in general. Recently she did get to visit the capital and the surrounding towns, so she had technically been out and about, but that was ultimately just thanks to her position as princess, and so she didn’t really get to enjoy it.

Dale couldn’t say for certain just how things would go from here on out.

Surely, Latina wished to keep on working as a waitress at the Ocelot, enjoying the comforting bustle of everyday life. And Dale certainly wanted to grant her that wish. However, there was also no changing the fact that Latina was the princess of the neighboring country of Vassilios. And with this latest trip to the capital, the Labandese lords learned of her existence.

Surely someday, it would be asked of her to take up a fitting position. And when that time came, Dale and Latina’s lives would clearly change.

With that said, though, that wouldn’t happen in a day or two. And so, Dale figured it was fine to take advantage of this brief reprieve for a nice relaxed trip.

When they had traveled together before, Dale had prepared a horse for carrying their luggage, but this time he just carried it all in a large knapsack. Right now that much weight wouldn’t cause Dale any trouble, and as long as that faithful pup Vint was around, he could deal with any sudden instances of combat. And now that Latina was grown, she could use all sorts of magic for both offense and defense.

Thanks to all that, even if the luggage hindered Dale, they should still have all sorts of options for handling matters.

Dale was wearing much the same thing as always, but Latina’s preparations had primarily been taken care of by Granny Wendelgard, so she looked rather different from usual.

The ribbon with soaring wolf fur woven into it was a present she had received in the past, but this time around it was attached to a hat. The big bow was designed to flow down the back of her head, which was adorable but not overly childish. She also had on a tunic tailored in traditional Tislow designs, long pants and boots, making it clear that she was prepared to trek through the mountains. And the pale-hued overcoat she had on was meant more for warding off the sun than the cold. All in all, it was a well coordinated outfit that worked to accentuate her natural cuteness.

Dale couldn’t help but smile with a degree of frustration at the product of his grandmother’s fashion sense. But when Latina turned around with a joyous expression on her face and her long hair swaying, the tone of Dale’s smile became more natural and gentle.

“It’s a bit sad that we couldn’t take our time in Tislow... But if we did, then we wouldn’t be able to in the other towns, which’d be sad, too... It’s kind of a tricky dilemma, isn’t it?”

“With Hagel’s help, we can get back to my home village pretty quickly. And I think it’d be fine to just pop in now and again in the future... After all, there’s family there for you now, too.”

“...Yeah.”

The summer sun shone down on thick, verdant trees, casting tessellated shadows across the forest floor. Dale slowly walked along the path as a refreshing breeze blew on by, and Latina looked at him with a slightly embarrassed looking smile.

On this trip, there was one place that Latina absolutely wanted to visit, no matter what.

“With that said, a number of years have passed since then, so she might have forgotten me...” Latina muttered as they walked the thin forest path. Vint was walking a bit ahead of them, and something seemed to have caught his attention, as he was sniffing at his surroundings.

“That’s true... It’s especially difficult to remember back to when you were an infant...” Dale agreed. It was rare for Dale to say something like that to Latina when he normally doted heavily on the girl, but he decided it was better to say something that would let her down a bit now rather than foolishly getting her hopes up only for her to be seriously disappointed later. In other words, he was still staying true to his usual doting nature.

Before long, the forest opened up.

A small village came into view, made up of little houses with stone walls and roofs the color of trees all huddled close together.

This was where Latina wanted to go, and what had been weighing on her mind: Her second visit to this beastman village.

“I’m sure... that Maya’s gotten bigger, right?”

“It’s been years since then, after all. I suppose she’s probably about the same age that you were back then.”

Dale couldn’t help but give a strained smile at Latina’s statement as he walked into the village. After all, Latina had no room to talk about someone having “gotten bigger,” considering how much she had grown herself since then.

While those thoughts ran through his head, Dale made sure to keep an eye on the pup sniffing all around more than usual, so that he wouldn’t do anything he shouldn’t. Vint was just so on edge and unpredictable right now that Dale sort of wished he could just put a leash on him.

Soon enough, they stood before a familiar small house.

Latina had a bit of a troubled look on her face, so Dale knocked on the door in her place. And when they got a response and the door opened...

Dale froze, completely taken aback.

The fuzzballs... had multiplied.

Joseph was a relative of Dale’s, though a distant one, which meant those kids were related to him, too. That made it pretty awful for him to say it, but as a human, Dale had a hard time telling even the sex of pure beastmen just from looking at them.

There were three beastman children running excitedly around the room. On top of that, all three of them were black-furred. There were some slight differences in size, but it was hard to even tell the differences in their ages.

“Oh, so Maya has two little brothers now, huh? Their faces sure are a lot alike. Is one a bit older than Emma, and the other about her age?”

Dale thought it had to be some sort of special skill that Latina possessed for her to be able to determine all that so quickly. You really couldn’t go underestimating the devil race.

And as Dale stood there looking troubled at having suddenly gained more relatives, the situation only grew more chaotic.

“Pshah!”

“Woof!”

“Krrrr!”

“Ngyaaa!”

Vint and the kids had started trying to intimidate each other.

All of their fur was standing on edge, but that just made the fuzzballs look even fluffier. The oldest, Maya and Vint, were in an intense showdown where neither side would back down, but the younger two looked a bit like they were ready to flee. They just stood behind their big sister, trying the best that they could manage to look intimidating.

Well, I occasionally forget it, but he is a mythical beast. Guess this reaction makes sense...

Dale just watched over the situation unfolding with a distant look in his eyes, but Latina reacted a bit differently than usual.

“Bad Vint!” she scolded, kneeling down and looking him right in the eyes. “You shouldn’t go scaring little kids like that.”

“Mrrr...”

Vint looked clearly displeased at being scolded, but he just sat there and took it rather than trying to argue. But then, he started rubbing his head up against Latina. Then, he glanced back at the black furballs with a self-satisfied look, lording it over them. Even if Dale couldn’t understand canine facial expressions, it was abundantly apparent that he was asserting his own dominance.

“Pshah!”

“Yeah, that’ll get you angry, alright,” Dale quipped, unable to hold himself back after seeing Vint’s attitude.

It was then that a large man sluggishly appeared from behind all that commotion.

“Is that you, Dale? Long time no see.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m just glad to find you doing well, Joseph. We were over this way for the first time in a while, so we stopped in to see you.”

Joseph, the head of the house, was actually more stout than just large, and he also looked older than Dale remembered. Only his thin eyes and the gentle impression they provided remained unchanged.

As he ushered Dale’s group into the house, he continued on, “It sure has been a while... Are you on your way to the village?”

“No, we’re actually on our way back...”

Dale’s eyes wandered a bit as he wondered how he should explain. When the conversation came to a halt as a result, though, Latina took a step forward and smiled.

“I’m glad to see you’re doing will, Mr. Joseph. We were staying in Tislow until a few days ago... And now, we’re on our way back to Kreuz.”

“Huh...? Ah, you’re that little lady from back then, aren’t you? You sure have grown.”

From the cheerful way Joseph was chatting away, it seemed that the story of the Fairy Princess and the Platinum Hero hadn’t made it all the way out here to this rural village in the mountains. Somehow, that made Dale feel relieved. He just couldn’t stand the thought of being treated like the protagonist of an epic by his relative, after all.

Dale then realized how utterly out of the loop Joseph had been, and hesitated as to whether he should inform him of his marriage to Latina. And that was only made worse by the fact that the man had known her when she was a child.

“Maya’s grown a lot, too.”

Latina looked over at the biggest black fuzzball as she said that, only for the puffball of a girl to look back at Latina and then turn away.

Maya’s reaction caused Latina to furrow her brows a bit in disappointment.

“Hey, you all say hello, too.”

“Yup, hewwo.”

“Hello.”

Urged on by their father, the two young boys offered an earnest greeting. They were fittingly adorable for their young age, causing Latina to break out in a smile as she kneeled down and looked at them face to face.

“Hello. Sorry for intruding.”

Dale could see the tension fade from the two toddlers just from Latina smiling at them. Apparently Dale wasn’t the only one to notice, though, as Vint started rubbing his body up against Latina’s again.

“How shameless...”

He was clearly trying to direct his owner’s attention his way in a painfully obvious display.

“Well, it’s fine and all that you stopped by so suddenly, but still... I never imagined you would go and bring a mythical beast along with you...” Joseph said with a look of astonishment, staring at his young children facing off with Vint.

Vint lived in the Ocelot, so he recognized Theo and Emma as “family” that were part of his territory. And so, even if Latina was acting all kind to the siblings, Vint wouldn’t interfere or attack them.

But apparently, Vint understood that he was in a weaker “away” position here at this beastman village. And he was also aware of the fact that Latina had a soft spot for young children.

“Grrrr...”

Rub, rub. Rub, rub.

Vint repeatedly rubbed his head up against Latina.

That was precisely why Vint felt the need to appeal himself to Latina so excessively.

“What’s the matter, Vint?” Latina asked in her usual aloof manner, proving that Vint’s desperate attempts at garnering attention had unfortunately failed to get across.

While all that was going on, the smallest of the fuzzballs sat atop Latina’s lap. It was an act that could be interpreted as sneakily getting a head start, causing a tension to run between Vint and the toddler.

Latina, meanwhile, just happily smiled at the child, noticing nothing of the heightened tension all around her.

Dale, however, turned his gaze away from the powderkeg of a situation, towards the master of the house.

“Ah, right, Joseph. This is from the main house...”

“Hmm? Ooh, I appreciate it.”

Dale pulled a souvenir from back home out of his knapsack and offered it to Joseph, intentionally drawing the man’s attention his way. It was a perfectly reasonable choice, though.

Dale’s expectations hit the mark, as soon afterwards, the fuzzballs all mobbed Latina. In the past, just Maya alone doing that had been enough to knock Latina over. And she may have been an adult this time around, but she was up against greater numbers, including a certain mythical beast pup.

She didn’t have a chance, facing two wild toddlers from the exceptional Tislow lineage as well as the son of the leader of the soaring wolves.

“Huh? Wha...? H-Hold on a...!”

Faced with this sudden onslaught of the fluffy brigade demanding to be pet, Latina at first tried to say something meaningful and get them under control. However, her words soon lost all meaning whatsoever.

“Uwaaaah!” Latina shrieked like a kitten from within the bundle of fuzzballs, and then she was knocked over. It really went exactly like Dale had predicted.

He would feel a bit immature trying to seriously restrain the toddlers and pup, and besides, Latina somehow sounded happy rather than upset as she fell. And so, Dale had no choice left to him but just watch and wait.

“Are you alright?”

“Not real— Wah....! Waaaah!”

Despite the fact that she couldn’t do a thing about these toddlers and this pup, simply raising a pathetic shriek, she was still a demon lord, making her a sort of lower ranking god.

“Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction...” Dale muttered, watching over Latina as she now tumbled over in the opposite direction. He really was at peak deplorability, thinking that she still looked adorable even while being helplessly bowled over.

Ultimately, Latina was saved from the assault by the fuzzy mob by someone who had been watching over the commotion just like Dale.

Maya had been quietly staring as her younger brothers and the pup all swarmed Latina, but now she silently, quickly plunged into the center of the storm.

Then, she struck a daunting pose and glared at her surroundings.

It was only then that Dale finally noticed that Maya was wearing a girlish dress. And yet, she gave off a far greater aura than you would expect of someone her age, to such a degree that the impression from her made it hard to tell if she was a boy or a girl even so.

Did she get that from his grandmother? If so, he got the feeling it’d probably be best to correct that now, while they had the chance...

As those thoughts ran through his head, Dale broke out in a cold sweat.

“Pyah!”

“Pii!”

The two younger brothers wrapped their tails together and stood up straight. That reaction really made it clear the sort of relationship they had with their sister.

Having reined in her brothers as such, Maya then plopped down with a heave-ho.

Naturally, that meant atop Latina’s lap.

Unable to hide her surprise at this overly sudden action, Latina called out, “Um, Maya...?”

“...Turn,” Maya muttered her own sound effect, facing away from Latina as the girl tried to look at her closer. Latina wasn’t discouraged, though, and tried to look from the other side, only for Maya to face away once again.

“Turn!” she said out loud again.

That childish action caused Latina to break out in a wide smile. Her adorable little standoffish act was apparently really tugging at Latina’s heartstrings.

“Maya.”

“Turn!”

“Maya.”

“Turn!”

As Latina happily repeated that over and over, Vint went, “Grr...” with a look of clear dissatisfaction on his face. It was showing so clearly that even Dale picked up on it, even though he normally couldn’t read animal expressions in the least.

And as Maya kept on turning her head, whenever her gaze met with Vint’s, she shot him a supremely self-satisfied look, lording her victory over him.

As Vint growled away, the expression on his face just grew more and more frustrated.

It would seem that this first contest for Latina’s attention had a clear winner.

However, it was hard to imagine this first contest would be the last. And it didn’t seem like with the feel in the air, they could hurry up and get back on the road.

Well, we’re in no hurry, so I guess it’s fine, Dale thought to himself, deciding to ask Joseph about staying for the night. I don’t know if I should feel uneasy or outright scared at the fact that it looks like she’ll have not just a soaring wolf devotee, but beastmen, too...

“Sturdy black furred beastman warriors served by the Fairy Princess’s side, protecting her.” In the future, that would become part of her epic. Or at least, how incredibly easy that was to imagine caused Dale to shudder. It was frightening how reasonable that seemed when looking at the puffballs’ absolute adoration of the girl.

As a demon lord, Dale was Latina’s one and only retainer, but he couldn’t help but feel that she already had more overwhelming combat strength to her name than any warlike demon lord ever would.

After that thought ran through his head, Dale gave a single sigh.

“Maya.”

“Turn!”

It would be nice if when they said farewell this time, it could be with smiles and a promise to meet again. Or at least, that’s what Dale thought as he quietly watched over them and smiled.