A few days after Reki-kun’s scolding.
Theo who has Winter Holidays finished his training, but I can see only half of his face. Moreover, it’s pretty far away.
That place is the entrance of Reki-kun room.
Showing only a half of his face and peeking at me from the entrance is our Oniisama.
Being told that he’s hated by his beloved little sister the other day, he has been making the same expression ever since returning from the school.
His behavior is also suspicious. When I face towards him, he starts terribly sweating and escapes. But, after a little while, he peeks out again.
Seeing him like that was very heartwarming, but I got indeed tired of it since he was repeating the same thing last night and today’s morning.
「Say, Lily…… won’t you do something about that suspicious behavior?」
「Umu. It’s rather gloomy」
【Well, that’s true, but. It’s getting irritating, and Reki-kun lets me touch him now too, so I could forgive him now?】
This originated from the fact that Theo could casually touch Reki-kun who didn’t let me touch him.
Even though I have slowly and carefully tried to shorten the distance, Theo simply shattered my efforts.
Thus, leading me to tell him that I hate him repeatedly in the spur of the moment.
Theo’s sorrowful expression at that time slightly pained my heart.
He was making an expression of despair, almost as if his world got wrapped in darkness.
My Oniisama who begged for forgiveness.
He was miserable, but I had no intention of forgiving him at that time.
Because I wanted to slowly and carefully deepen my relationship with Reki-kun.
But, what passes the throat passes.
Those kinds of things disappear somewhere overnight.
I’m not good at sustaining anger anyway. I seldom get angry, even in the spur of the moment.
Therefore, I have already forgiven him, sentimentally.
But, the problem is the right timing to forgive him.
Yeah, since he’s timidly trembling, I can’t quite grasp the timing.
He’s hiding in shadows, and he escapes when I call out to him.
How do I talk to him?
【―― That being the case, I came up with a Capture Theo strategy】
「Un, un. I think that’s good! Theo will get beat down with the strategy Lily came up with!」
「Don’t be too excessively radical. He’s your elder brother after all」
【It will be fine! I have thought it out thoroughly!】
Now then, this time’s strategy is very simple.
If you want to escape, I will have you captured before you can do that, Theodore.
That being the case, I trot over to Obaasama.
「Ara, ara, did something happen, Lily-chan?」
「Baa~ba. Nii~shama wo tsukamaete. Naisho ne?」
(Baa~ba. Please, catch Niisama. Secretly, okay?)
「Fufu…… catch him secretly, is it? I understand. Wait for a little, okay?」
「Ai」
(Hai/Yes)
When I cling to Obaasama and whisper to her in a low voice, she answered with a nonchalant smile.
As expected of my Obaasama. This person who understands me the most immediately responds. Moreover, the reliability is 100%.
Obaasama gently lowers me on the ground.
But, her figure suddenly disappears.
Catch him secretly.
To Obaasama, that’s no different than telling her not to be discovered. It’s synonymous.
And then, Obaasama who should have vanished reappeared again in a blink of an eye with our Oujisama under her arm.
Oujisama was blinking his eyes with surprise, but he started acting suspiciously immediately after finding me standing in front of him.
「U, uuuumm, umm Lilililili, Lily?」
I ignored Theo who was acting suspiciously and flapping his hands in all directions, I took his cheeks in my hands stopping his intense moving and made him look straight into my eyes.
「Nii~ni. Yuushite aeru」
(Nii~ni. Yurushite ageru/Nii~ni. I forgive you)
「…… Eh…… r, realy!?」
「Ai」
(Hai/Yes)
「Aaaaah! Thank you! Thank you! I’m the happiest in the whole world!」
When I said those words while making an eye contact, warmth returned to his cold cheeks, and I got embraced.
Theo’s familiar high tension, squeezing hug was a little bit painful, but well, I will leave it. We are back to normal.
「Fufu…… aren’t you glad you properly made up, Lily-chan, Theo-chan?」
「Yes! Obaasama! I’m the happiest in the world!」
「Ai」
(Hai/Yes)
Obaasama’s nonchalant smile grew bigger than usually, and Theo’s smile was wonderful like petals dancing in the air.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
It’s Theo’s and Ellie’s Winter Holidays.
After their practice is over, it’s time to play with the two and Reki-kun.
Because Reki-kun is not a dog, he won’t give paw. Additionally, he won’t also do other traditional commands.
So then, how do we play?
First, we pat him.
Theo is extremely careful during the patting time, and he keeps on glancing at me repeatedly because of my previous hate statement.
Ellie is not aware of that event, so she gave Theo who was acting suspiciously a poke thanks to which he returned to normal.
I normally pat him as well.
Because I’m patting him normally without any magical power, he’s not receiving any pleasant feeling in particular.
Because Reki-kun seems to finally understand that, he no longer is frightened when I approach him.
Well, even if I approach with compressed magical power, he doesn’t escape even though he feels scared.
Apart from patting him, I also squish his paw pads and mofumofu his tail. I basically enjoy the quality of overwhelming smoothness and fluffiness to its fullest.
I have prohibited myself from using compressed magical power when my siblings are around. Reki-kun gets completely exhausted.
「Lily. I have brought something good today! Here, take this」
「U?」
Saying such, Ellie handed me over some kind of soft spherical object.
It doesn’t have magical power, so I can’t see it, but from holding it in my hands, I can understand that it’s some kind of a ball, almost like a furball.
I wonder if I perhaps throw this and tell Reki-kun to fetch it?
「This you see, you throw it and have Reki-kun bring it back! It was listed in the book called “How to train your dog ~Starting today, you are a breeder too~”」
「Ah~ That book you read yesterday late at night?」
「Un, this is perfect way to play with Reki!」
Ellie apparently found this in a book about training dogs.
But, Reki-kun is a wolf, you see?
Moreover, the pride of the endangered species called Salvarua is extremely high…… well, it was smashed by now, though.
Ellie looks at me with sparkling eyes brimming over with confidence. Theo is the same.
I will have to do this.
Well, but I’m a little girl. I won’t be able to throw the soft, light furball-like ball far anyway.
【Reki-kun. I will throw this, could you fetch it for me?】
Just in case, I request Reki-kun in order not to destroy his completely pulverized pride even more.
Reki-kun understands too. He immediately put forward his right leg and prepared for the battle.
Well, he and I have currently a master-servant relationship of an extremely high mountain and tremendously deep valley.
He became so obedient that he will fetch with his best abilities when I tell him to fetch and starve to death waiting when I tell him to wait.
I might have overdone it, is what I think when I look at him, but well, it’s too late now. I must not mind it.
「Ei」
The furball thrown with the tornado pitching method with raising one leg and twisting waist1 flew, just kidding, with my crumbling, foamy form and the powerless little girl’s power, it probably immediately fell down.
The ball has no magical power so I naturally couldn’t see, but Reki-kun instantly shot out and returned at incredible speed with the ball in his mouth.
I understand his extreme speed as he returned faster than I recovered from losing the balance of my just kidding form.
「Wow…… Reki, that was ama~zing」
「Incredible…… Reki……」
「Yoku rekimachita~」
(Yoku dekimashita~/Well done~)
I stroke the bowing head of Reki-kun who placed the furball in his mouth on the ground in front of me.
I use a little bit of magical power, just enough to make him feel comfortable, and Reki-kun utters a comfortable noise as well.
「Will he also fetch when I throw it?」
「I wonder…… Reki is Lily’s wolf, after all」
「Nee~ne. Naete aete」
(Nee~ne. Nagete agete/Nee~ne. Throw it)
「Is that alright?」
「Ai」
(Hai/Yes)
I have already give Reki-kun instructions to fetch it. Because he promptly put out his right leg in affirmative, there won’t be a problem.
「There!」
Reki-kun runs off with Ellie’s adorable shout.
He returns with terrific speed again, but he didn’t leave the furball in front of Ellie, but in front of me instead.
「Reki, great!」
「Lily, could I try it next?」
When I fumble around for the furball because I can’t see it, Reki-kun pushes it with his nose towards me.
After receiving it, I stroke Reki-kun’s head again and hand the furball to Theo.
「Ai」
(Hai/Here)
「Thank you, Lily! Then, here I go!」
Like this, the way to play with Reki-kun increased by one.
He sufficiently moves during his training, but Reki-kun seemed surprisingly happy fetching the furball over and over again.
That day, Reki-kun was fetching the furball at ultra-high speeds in the wide Reki-kun room until my siblings got exhausted.
1. Reference to Hideo Nomo‘s wind-up – Wiki | Tornado (vid)