CH 3.8

“By the way, what does he eat?”

A normal dog would probably eat anything, but a ―― wolf? When I asked what the mysterious Vancoury ate, my husband shrugged. When I asked him what the mysterious Vancoury ate to survive, he shrugged his shoulders.

“You don’t know? It’s hard to imagine them living in the mountains at high altitude and eating meat.”

Right?

There are only a few animals that live in such high mountains.

As my husband said, in the natural world of the weak and the strong, Vancoury is one of the strongest.

The reason why these pups don’t live on the plains is because there’s something about those high elevations.

Specifically, something that they eat.

“Native to the highlands――that doesn’t sound like a lot, does it?

“If anything, they’re probably eating the grass and stuff that grows around there.”

Diego, don’t say that.

Husband is looking at you quite coldly, you know? You’re making a complete fool of yourself.

“Diego, like I said before, they don’t have to live in the highlands. They’ll come to farmlands first.”

After Michel expressed her opinion, Diego held his tongue.

He realized that he had said something stupid.

Think a little before you speak, Diego.

“I talked to the guy at the store, and he said he didn’t eat any of the baby food. He was drinking milk.”

“You mean, he’s just a baby?”

“No, I don’t think so. With fangs this fine, he should be able to eat a fair amount of food by now.”

“I mean, who needs fangs when you’re not a carnivore? Wouldn’t it have flatter teeth if it feeds on grass?”

Indeed.

It’s hard to believe they’re not carnivores when their canine teeth are so well developed.

“….Uh, I have an idea.”

Ragnard interjected.

“Some fruits can grow at high altitudes, or even in cold places. It is covered with a rather hard shell, which is also like a rock. But what’s inside is a rather nutritious grain-like seed――…”

At that moment, everyone except Diego thought of that existence and raised their eyebrows slightly.

“Oh, I see.”

“…That one?”

“That thing I’ve been trying to avoid talking about for a while…”

“Uh? Huh?”

Diego, you seem to be the only one who doesn’t know, but we all thought of it right away.

Well, if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t know…

“Diego, don’t you think you should expand your knowledge and not just focus on numbers?”

“I’m quite knowledgeable, though maybe it’s all just a bunch of useless knowledge.”

Husband, Diego is hurting so badly! Diego…be strong…don’t give up!

Because these three are just insane! Don’t worry, you’re pretty awesome too!

I rooted for Diego as I comforted him inwardly.

I hope that it will be conveyed one day.

“To explain to Diego, who doesn’t get it, it’s one of the most nutritious grains for livestocks, you know? The kind that people can eat, but it’s not half as bad as it sounds.

I feel like I’m going to throw up just thinking about it.

I feel like I’m super awesome for putting up with it for a week. No, it’s not that I feel great, it’s that my tongue was dead, I swear.

My husband turned his eyes on me, so I glared back at him.

I’ll definitely make him eat it next time.

“Er…is it Vakui?”

Yeah-yeah, that!

I don’t even want to hear the name, but that’s the one, Diego.

“That’s something that we can produce now, but in the past, it was only available in some cold territories. It’s so hard nobody ever considered it food before…but it’s everywhere. There are people who eat it.”

Really seriously, I respect our forefathers.

I’m amazed that they were willing to eat it.

“There was a spurious story attached to it that if you eat it, you can move around all day without getting hungry. Then, they came up with an idea. They crossbred it with various plants to make it easier to eat, and that’s what we have.”

“If I may add, Vakui is not a grain, but a seed, though it looks like a grain and is generally treated as a grain for livestock feed.”

“I wonder. Did Vakui get its name from the fact that it is eaten by Vancouries?”

“That’s possible.”

It was called Vakui because Vancouries feed on them…Isn’t that a little too easy?

I mean, didn’t they have a better name for it?

“Just feed him for now and we’ll find out.”

In addition, I want to bathe this pup.

It’s a little dirty…but is that advisable?

“It’s okay to get it wet. It rains and snows in the highlands too.”

That’s true, too.

“But, Risha-sama, you can’t do it by yourself. You’ve injured your hand.”

In the end, we all moved to observe this pup.

Is he a large animal? It seems that I have to make sure he won’t harm the people around me.

Husband said that if he got serious, he would be quite dangerous even at this size.

It doesn’t look like it, though.

He was so cute, seeing him being washed by the maids.

He was, but when I told him not to move, he was at my mercy.

When the dirt was washed, his pure white fur was revealed.

I was told that the original color of Vancouries’ fur was gray, and that this color was rare.

This was probably why nobody considered him as a Vancoury.

By the way, he was gobbling up that livestock feed.

I put some milk next to him, but he ignored it.

Perhaps Vakui is really their staple food.

He was quite starving because he was caged and wasn’t getting any nutritious food.

When I saw him begging for more and more, and eating more than was appropriate for his size, I was worried if he’d be okay.

At any rate, since I knew that he would listen to me, I got permission to let him stay in the room with me.

However, I was asked to keep a collar and leash on him just in case.

I had no choice but to put him on the inorganic collar. At first he tried to take it off, but eventually he got used to it, and then the Vancoury pup curled up and slept below my bed.

Looking at his peaceful sleeping face, I naturally felt sleepy and climbed into bed.

It had been a long time since I had gone out in the daytime, so my sleep was deeper than usual.

Translator Note: I learned at school that it is the pronoun for animals, but let me just use he here. This might change once we know little pup’s gender. (^-^)