Chapter 194: Laeva’s pet
「This is unfair!」
With fox ears twitching and a tail puffed up, it seems she’s mad.
「If Sophia-san and Akane-san’s turns hade, shouldn’t the next be Laeva’s?![1]」
Yep, now that Sophia and Akane had gained familiars, sheined that she most definitely wanted a familiar herself.
「But Laeva, aren’t you busy?」
「This and that are different!」
Laeva, who would routinely sell potions she produces by the bulk to the Papeck Company, also has her own study and training so she’s probably the busiest among us. With those being the case, I said that a familiar might be impossible for her, but that seems to have flipped some sort of switch in her. As if she changed into a different person, the usually meek Laeva fiercely insisted on it.
「<em>Haa</em>~ I guess it can’t be helped. Do you already have a monster you’d like to have?」
「<em>Fu fu fu</em>, you’ve done well to ask. Laeva likes cats.」
「Cats? Even though you’re a fox? Wait, that’s not it, it’s a monster, right?」
She doesn’t want to raise a regr cat, right? When I asked her about that once more, apparently arge leopard or tiger would be good.
「Now then, let us be on our way!」
「Wait a minute, Ferryl is Akane’s wolf, but I want to see its condition.」
「Then Laeva will be be waiting in the mansion. I await your hasty return!」
「Ah, yeah, okay, I’ll be back soon.」
Having lost to Laeva’s pressure, I hurriedly went around on Tsubaki to check how skillful the Shadow Wolves and Ferryl are.
At present, a significant amount of rabbit, deer, and boar monsters as well as normal animals live in the Sanctuary. As a result of numerous catch and releases, their numbers have increased quite a bit in the forest and thickets in the north and the grasnds in the east. The squirrel and mouse-type animals and monsters inhabit the forest and thickets in multitudes. Owls and falcons that prey upon them also nest within the forest.
The Shadow Wolves led by Ferryl are making thatrge expanse ofnd the ce they hunt.
「If I’m remembering right, a wolf’s turf is incredibly wide even on Earth, wasn’t it? Still, a few more predators might be necessary.」
Sophia’s Thunder Eagle is also here, but I should consider Laeva’s request to be a godsend as well.
「Takumi, I appreciate your efforts.」
「Quit it Sylph, when you say that, I can’t agree with it somehow. You’re number 1 at bringing trouble.」
「<em>Ho ho ho</em>, the Great Spirits are selfish, you see.」
「Well, even so, having received help from Sylph’s familial spirits, I can’t say that so strongly.」
「Takumi-sama, Wind Spirits are fundamentally free beings.」
「Yeah, you’re right. I know that all too deeply in my heart, Sophia.」
「Hey, how long do you n on chattering? We’re going!」
While Sylph and I were chatting with the monster nest right in front of us, Laeva became impatient and starting tugging at my sleeve.
「Okay! Okay!」
Today’s members are, of course Sophia, the capture specialist Kaede, Laeva, andstly, Sylph. As you might have expected, Akane said that she had no time to go with people to tame their familiars over and over. I don’t think she’s in a position to say that, but as it is pointless to say anything, I gave up on telling off the slovenly-faced, Ferryl-cuddling Akane.
「Ah, it’s in that area.」
Sylph pointed to the location of the monster that her familial spirits had told her.
「Then shall we get going?」
「We’ll catch it quickly, Master.」
We erased our presence and walked to the location of the monster.
Today’s monster nest is a thick forest. We could sense monster presences every which way, but Sophia, Laeva, and I advanced without being detected. As for the stealth-specialist Kaede, she seems like she’d be able to approach the target monster even while humming. She <em>would</em> probably be found out if she really does sing and hum though.
Kaede soundlessly moved between the trees. I relied on the presence to take Laeva and Sophia towards the monster.
「Hmm, well, how about this?」
「<em>Uoo</em>! It’s so cute!」
「……it’s cute?」
When we reached the site, a cocoon-like thing was dangling around before our eyes.
With Kaede’s threads wrapped all around it with only its head exposed. It was hanging on a tree, but even so, the monster growled without concealing its hostility.
「It seems to be a monster called a Serval.」
「Takumi-sama! Laeva has taken a liking to this little one!」
「Okay, then it would be better to intimidate it a bit at the start. We’ll wait until you can tame it so it’s fine even if you don’t rush.」
「I’ll do my best!」
A Serval is arge cat monster with a slim figure meant for speed. It also understood that the cat lover Laeva had a <em>different</em> look in her eyes.
「Since Servals are monsters that make forests their turf, it would be perfect in the Sanctuary, wouldn’t it?」
「That’s right. Ferryl and the wolves marked a vast expanse of the grasnds as their territory, but they only cover the area around the copses.」
After that, although Laeva had a somewhat hard time taming the Serval, she safely made it her familiar.
「Seru-chan[2], <em>fufu</em>, you’re the best!」
「…………so she named it Seru-chan.」
「…………it’s surprising just how she used it without changing a thing.」
「Well, Laeva looks happy so I think it’s fine.」
However.
Although we had intended for the Serval to make the forest its territory, Laeva had it wait by her side constantly. Thanks to that, Kaede has to do the culling until we procure a monster that can be at the top of the forest’s food chain.
***
<strong>Footnotes:</strong>
1. Note: Laeva addresses herself using her name.
2. セルヴァル = Serval, セル = Seru. Technically she just shorted Serval, which is read Serubaru in Japanese, but I wanted to make it a little bit more of a nickname. I also would typically change the name/spelling of things in this novel to differentiate it with Earth’s counterpart, but Seruval sounds weird to me.