Vol 3 Prologue (1/2)

Prologue: New Routine

I wake up slowly.

The sun is starting to rise, the regular elves are still sleeping. But I have to wake up early and work.

As I wake up, Lucie who is sleeping in the same futon starts to stir.

Winter has started for real. Powdered snow started to fall last night. The heat retention capabilities of this house are bad, so we are sleeping together. Cuddled and wrapped around a blanked. It traps the heat of two people, so it’s warm.

Actually I just said that as a pretense to sleep together with her.  We can have a lot fun without actually crossing the line.

「Cyril, good morning. You’re already going out?」

「I’m sorry for waking you. I have to go and lecture the firefoxes on the raising of goats and cultivation of turnips. I think today will be the last day 」

Since then, almost every day, I have gone to the firefoxes place and taught them how care for the goats and turnips while making a performance of it.

They already learnt how to do their jobs. The mental side also seem to have stabilized. I thinks is already alright to leave them alone now.

「Is that so? That’s good」

「What’s good?」

「Cyril, recently you’ve been pus.h.i.+ng yourself too hard. Going out early in the morning, after coming back you go directly to do your doctor’s work, after that you do the chief’s job, and when that’s over you go to the workshop and work some more, I’m worried you’re going to collapse soon 」

「Thanks for worrying. But, it’s alright. I’m not doing more than I can handle」

「Is there nothing I can do to help? Even if I can’t teach Kuu-chan and the others, if there’s something I can help with I’ll do it」

「I’ll accept these feelings. But this is the firefoxes job. Elves can’t help. Aside from teaching how, I’m also nothing doing anything」

「Okay, do your best」

「Right, I will. I love you Lucie」

「I love you too」

I lift her hair a little and after kissing her on the forehead I get out of the futon.

「It’s cold!」

I say by reflex.

I miss Lucie and the futon. I stifle the feelings of wanting to go back to bed, and adjust my clothes and get out of the house.

After leaving Elucie, I soon arrived at the warehouse the firefoxes are borrowing.

I want to prepare another kind of housing for them soon.

No matter how much they get along, keeping over fifty people under the same roof for so long is sad. They all need privacy.

But for that I have to know how much houses to build, and where to build them.

If I build the house one by one inside Elucie, we’ll receive antiphaty from the elves. I’ll have to consult Loreu and Kuu and decide later.

Thinkin these things, I knock at the door of the warehouse.

「Cyril-niisama, good morning」

「Good morning. Cyril-niisama」

「Cyril-niisama. Morning」

Doing so, the door opens vigorously and three little firefoxes hug me.

The first one, has blond wavy hair at shoulder length. A lively eleven year old yellow fox girl called Kemin.

The second one, with  straight semi long silver hair, a cool and expressionless twelve year old silver fox girl called Yukino.

The third one, with long black hair tied up behind her, a gentle ten year old black fox girl Kurone.

These girls cling to my left arm, right arm, and torso, and sniff around for smells while wagging their tails.

Ever since I declared my engagement with Kuu, they started to get strangely clingy. They had this feelings of admiration before but always kept a step away because I’m an elf.

But, with getting engaged with Kuu, the person they admired became the husband of their beloved Kuu-neesama, so by extension I became their niisama, so now they fawn on me honestly.

From the beginning, little girls long for a reliable father figure. There’s only me for a figure like that so they ended up fawning on me.

The three of them are different types, but even among the firefoxes who are filled with beauties the three are cute enough to stand out. Amongst all the elves and firefoxes, aside from Kuu and Lucie, there are none more beautiful than them. From what Kuu told me, even among the firefoxes the three are popular and favoured, their strength is also high so they have high expectations of them. It seems they really wanted to send the three with the main group.

But, Kemin wants to be together with Kuu-neesama! And she struggled violently so much that surprised everyone. Yukino, with an unusually strong sixth sense, felt a bad omen from the main group and rejected it. Kurone, to let her mother go with the safer main group, prefered to say with Kemin and Yukino whom she got along with and came here.

Kuu also likes them a lot,

「They are all very good girls, I think of them like my own sisters」

She said.

I also don’t feel bad being hugged by them. It’s good that they’re young. When they’re young like this they aren’t conscious yet of being women so can fawn like this without feelign bad for Kuu and Lucie.

I pat their head strongly, Lucie likes to be patted gently but these girls seem to prefer a little more rough.

「Good morning. Everyone is so lively today as well」

「It’s because Cyril-niisama came today」

「Yukino is also happy you came」

「Cyril-niisama should live here too. Be alway together with Kuro」

With the gentle Kurone’s word, even the grow up firefoxes around looked over with expectation.

「I’m sorry. But I’m the chief of Elucie, and I already have a important person」

「……. Too bad」

The three get despondent.

「Everyone, don’t trouble Cyril-kun too much. Come, let’s get ready to leave」

「「「Okaay」」」

After Kuu said that, the three girls let go of me.

「Well then, let’s go everyone. This time, it will be different, i’ll not give too many directions. I’ll be checking if you guys can do what you learned so far, so pay more attention than usual」

「Cyril-kun, we understand. Everyone is okay with this right?」

The firefoxes all nod to Kuu’s question.

But, Kemin, Yukino, and Kurone are making long faces.

「What’s wrong you three?」

「Eh, hm, Yukino has, something she wants to say」

The yellow Kemin is not lively as usual, so the silver Yukino says.

「Kemin, that’s not fair. …… Cyril-niisama, if Yukino and the others become able to take care of the goats and turnips without help, will you not come anymore?」

「Yukino-chan, is that true? Kuro, still can’t do it alone. Cyril-niisama you have to stay」

The three little firefoxes, seem to be afraid that I would leave.

「The three of you, Cyril is busy. Don’t trouble him too much. Even him coming now is already taking too much of his time 」

「But, Kuro, don’t wanna」

「Yukino also doesn’t. Kuu-neesama also, will be sad if the can’t see Cyril-niisama」

Kuu rebuker them, but their faces didn’t return to normal. Seeing that I wanted to do something for them. So I’ll have to do something a little troublesome.

「There’s no need to worry. It’s true that I won’t come because of the tulips and goats. But, to I’ll come to play with my cute little sisters every day」

「「「Cyril-niisama!」」」

The three hugged me again. What’s this, this warm feeling filling me up, I’m going to want to spoil them even more.

Speaking of which, when I was making the gift for Lucie, a few prototypes were left. I’ll them that as gifts. Compared to the one I gave Lucie the quality is a little lacking, but they should be happy. I’m certain they’ll show me cute smiles.

I’m happy. Is this how older brothers fell?

「Cyril-kun, can I ask you something?」

「Sure, go ahead」

The three girl colorful hairs and tails. While enjoying the girls particular smells I answer.

「Could it be that, Cyril, you like children?」

「Of course, I like children. I want to have some as soon as possible. If they are Lucie’s or Kuu’ children they’ll surely be very cute」

「Hm, if you give an answer like that is probably fine…… Let’s go, for real this time」

Then, I left for the goat’s pen with the firefoxes in tow.

After pa.s.sing through the barbed wire, we walk a little and reach the goat’s pen.

In the firefoxes’ hands, there are wooden buckets.

After opening the door to the goat’s pen, the strong smell of goats comes out.

「Okay, everyone slip up to do your jobs」

Kuu takes command, and they go to each goat and squeezes the teats with her hands and collects the milk in the wooden buckets.

From each goat, they can milk one or two liters.

There are ninety females, everyday, we can’t get about 150 liters of milk.

Because they became used to doing this everyday, in less than a hour, they seem to have finished milking all of them.

「Come now, let’s get the goats out.」

「Okay」

「Yes, Kuu-neesama」

Then, we throw the doors open, and the goats are chased out.  The goats go into the woods in search of food and disappear.

Within the barbed wire area, they should move and feed to their heart’s content.

During that, the firefoxes divided in two groups. The first group is the clean up crew. They gather the food leftovers and excrement, and carry everything in one go to the cesspool. Then they use water to clean the floor. Lastly they refill the water tanks and put the dried up maple leaves on the feed bins.

The second group, is responsible for processing the milk.

I go along with the second group.

「Ah, Cyril-niisama thanks for coming. Yukino is doing her best」

They carry the milk in the wooden buckets and throw it all in a big container. Yukino has been heating it up for a while.

Using a handmade thermometer I made myself, the temperature is kept at 65ºC.  In the thermometer there’s colored water which rises as the temperature increases, very simple.

「Yukino, you have to hang on for a long time, but do your best」

I you don’t drink it after it’s been sterilized, it will hurt your stomach. If we could rise it to 100ºC, it would be over in a minute, but it could cause protein denaturation changing the taste of the milk. To prevent that we have to keep it at 65ºC for about thirty minutes while slowly stirring it.

「Heave ho, heave ho」

You can see sweat forming in Yukino’s face.

She’s been using magic continuously and you need to concentrate to keep the temperature stable. It’s a harder job than it looks.

If the firefoxes weren’t here, I would sacrifice taste and nutritional value by giving up on pasteurization and quickly using high temperature flames to sterilize the milk. To maintain the temperature constant using firewood is too troublesome so I wouldn’t do it.