“Daaah!” Solis could crawl so fast that the panicked maids had to jog to chase after him. He moved his arms and legs skillfully, maneuvering quickly to weave through the narrow paths between pieces of furniture.
“Oh dear, Lord Solis. Let’s get you changed.”
“Buh!”
“Please stop!”
Even today, Solis was cheerfully crawling around the nursery. It seemed that he disliked getting changed. I rolled up my sleeves and joined the rest in the attempt to capture Solis.
“Hmph, it’s far too early for you to evade adults. Mrs. Holly, we’re going to flank him!” I said.
“Yes, leave it to me.”
Mrs. Holly and I approached Solis from opposite directions.
“You can’t escape anymore, Solis.”
“Eh heh heh, Lord Solis. Let’s change your diaper too while we’re at it.”
“Boo!” Solis loudly booed us two immature adults. I felt like we were somehow understanding each other, but at the same time weren’t.
For now, we safely captured Solis thanks to our pincer attack and changed his diaper.
“Phew. Thank you for everything you always do, Mrs. Holly and all you maids.”
“Oh, it was nothing; this is our job. Once you catch Lord Solis, he stays obedient,” Mrs. Holly replied.
“Lord Solis is a relatively easy baby to raise, truly,” said one of the maids with many years of experience, though it could have been pure flattery... “He’s been crying less lately, and he’s usually in a good mood. He always puts us at ease. He also gets along well with Master Pilia.”
Pilia was Mrs. Holly’s third son, an obedient baby who slept easily and was the same age as Solis. He was apparently fairly quiet, and the two of them could be seen crawling side by side.
Mrs. Holly worked together with the maids to look after Solis and her own children. I often had to go out to various places; I could do my job as the margravine thanks to them.
“Are you going out now, Lady Agnes?” Mrs. Holly asked.
“I am. Maintenance on the mountbeast stable in town has finished, so the mountbeasts we’ve been sheltering in our garden will be returned there. I’m going to help out.”
“Oh my, take care.”
Mrs. Holly and the maids saw me off as I left for the garden. Lord Nazel had used his magic to create stables out of plants, where the mountbeasts, including Geni’s parents, could take shelter. There weren’t only wyverns but also plenty of pegasi. Even Geni, who should have been in his own stable, had moved in together with Lord Davier’s wyvern. Ever since the mountbeasts had been brought here, Geni had been spending a lot of time with her. He’d often visited her at the stable in town to begin with, and the two of them were close. It seemed that Lord Davier’s calm wyvern was also opening her heart to Geni.
“Geni... Hmm? Doesn’t his skin seem kind of darker?” Geni’s skin was normally a light pink, but it was dyed a deep, gaudy pink at the moment. “Th-This is...a premonition of love!” I remembered a page about wyverns I’d once read in a field guide. When wyverns courted a mate, their body coloration temporarily became darker. “Oh, Geni. So you like her.”
When I looked closely, Lord Davier’s wyvern was also a slightly darker shade of purple.
“Looks like their love is mutual.” I felt warm inside as I gazed at the two wyverns.
But she will be returning to the mountbeast stable in town today. I felt a little sorry for them since they would be living apart. Can’t they live here together? Wyverns were clever manabeasts.
After being defeated by Lord Nazel, Lord Davier had been sent to Peppel Island, a solitary island where criminals were exiled to. Since leaving the island was forbidden, he hadn’t been able to take his wyvern with him, since they’re capable of flight. Therefore, she’d ended up falling into Sutrena’s custody. Although she’d adapted considerably to her new environment, she probably still had complex feelings about Lord Nazel, so she’d been entrusted to the mountbeast stable in town. However, when I watched her frolicking with Geni, I felt that it might be okay for her to stay with us.
There weren’t any particular problems while she was taking shelter here either.
I approached the purple wyvern.
“Hey, would you like to live here with Geni?”
The wyvern looked at me curiously and replied with a questioning noise.
“If you’d like, I’ll try talking it over with Lord Nazel and the stable staff.”
She replied with another noise.
While we were talking, Geni casually joined the conversation. He clearly wanted to live with her. The purple wyvern went along with him and also slowly moved her head up and down. It seemed that she was saying yes.
“Very well.”
I went to discuss the matter of the wyverns with the staff who’d come to pick up the mountbeasts. As a result, I easily got approval for them to live together. Lord Nazel, who’d come to check up on things, also said it was fine. Apparently, if two wyverns were compatible, there was a good chance of them having a kid. Wyverns were precious in Sutrena, so it was desirable to increase their population.
I immediately went to tell the two of them that they could live together.
“Starting from today, you two can live here together. We can’t have you living in a temporary stable forever, so we’ll expand Geni’s stable so that both of you can live in it.”
The wyverns replied with sounds of excitement. It seemed that I’d somehow managed to get through to them. The two of them happily flapped their wings; the wind pressure was incredible.
A wyvern baby, huh? I’m looking forward to it. What are their eggs like? Judging from how those two got along, perhaps it wouldn’t be long until we got to see their offspring.
And so, our garden gained yet another inhabitant. Incidentally, Dunk looked completely unconcerned and was just single-mindedly eating grass next to the field.