#71: 8-5 Little Cat Remi’s Great Adventure — An Old Man's Remake Adventure Diary: Enjoying Life in Another World Starting from Auto Camping (WN)

Remi, the tiny cat-eared kid.

Eighteen months old.

And, estimated at over two months as a street child.

These days, I kind of understood how it felt when you picked up a stray kitten and it stayed wary and would not warm up to you.

When I first saw her, her hair was a mess and she was pretty scruffy, but after we properly bathed her and combed her hair, she turned cute the way she was supposed to.

Mari bathed her skillfully, fussing over her with care.

Apparently she used to do that a lot in the past, too.

I was counting on you, Vice-Director (self-appointed).

I was on bath-toy production duty.

Squeaky ducks and frogs that went “squeak-squeak” when you pinched them were essential items for another world.

Little Remi was an adorable tiny kid with silver hair and odd eyes.

Not gold-and-silver eyes, but a blue-and-green combination, and fortunately—unlike real cats—it seemed her hearing was not impaired even with odd eyes.

Apparently real cats often had odd eyes when they were white, but since her hair was silver, maybe that was close to white?

Her ears were upright triangles, and the two sides that did not connect to her head puffed out a bit, giving them a fluffy look.

Since they were big compared to her body, they were extremely cute.

Her tail was thin and long.

Today too, she was so cute that I reflexively reached out to pat her head, and she cleanly dodged with a beautiful sway-back.

Beastfolk toddlers had way too much physical ability.

You were a complete baby just a few months ago, right?

Well, I supposed it was progress that she still could not instantly counter with a cat punch and pull off a boxing or shield-technique deflection parry.

When I asked the other kids, they said there were adults who kicked and punched them when they begged for food, so she had developed an instinctive habit of shaking people off.

If I suddenly stood behind her, she might kick me like some famous assassin.

But she watched me patting other kids’ heads, so she seemed to recognize that I was not an enemy.

I was the guy who gave snacks and meals every day, after all.

That said, the defensive instincts soaked into her young body probably would not vanish so easily.

So I would take it slow.

She would probably change once she started talking.

My older sister’s niece had been insanely shy too, and back when she was about this age, she would freeze up every time she saw my face.

I despaired, thinking, She might never warm up to me for her whole life!—but when she moved to her father’s family home at age three, her personality became more active and she started getting attached even to an old guy like me.

So yeah, I would wait patiently this time too.

Then, one day.

Little Remi suddenly stood up straight.

Huh? What was going on?

She looked like she had some kind of determination in her expression.

Since she came here, I had never seen her make such a serious face.

And she looked like she was about to go outside.

Huh? The little one was leaving?

Did she hate this old man that much?

Shocked, I followed her quietly with my stealth-type skills at full power.

If she left here… what was she going to do?

Her friends were here, too.

I was way too worried.

Ignoring this old man’s worries, she walked briskly along, and where she arrived was—

A children’s basketball hoop.

She lifted a small children’s basketball—made by yours truly—with both hands, and with a little “heave-ho,” she threw it like she meant it.

And she missed spectacularly.

“Go! Whoever controls the rebound—”

No, that was not it.

Little Remi stared at the ball, then glared at the hoop with an air like, “Hmph! I will let you off today,” but instead of throwing the ball again, she tossed it aside and walked away without hesitation.

For someone with such determined vibes, she had no persistence…

Well, she was still this tiny, after all.

But watching her, I felt like I understood.

It did not look like she planned to leave here.

Should I make a basketball hoop for ages zero to one…?

But since there was only one kid that age, even one-on-one would be hard…

And if an older kid played with her, she would just get beaten up one-sidedly…

Next, she headed to the soccer goal.

Well, it was child-size futsal, but still.

It was a cheap-looking one like you often saw on online shops.

It was intentionally made that way so kids would not get hurt if they bumped into it.

Of course, I made it, and it was not sold in this world.

This other world did not even have soccer as a sport.

What little Remi wore on her feet right now was not soccer shoes.

They were children’s shoes made at a workshop in town, prioritizing cuteness over function.

They were also made with modern Japan-made materials, so in this world, nobody could make them unless I supplied the materials.

And her cute little cat-kick cleanly cut the air, and little Remi fell onto her back.

She did not move for a while, so I got worried and appraised her, but it looked like she had no injuries or status ailments.

She kept staring up at the sky for a bit, then suddenly sat up, brushed off the dirt with a pat-pat, and glared back and forth between the goal and the ball like she was staring down a mortal enemy—then she walked away again.

Apparently she had just declared them rivals in her heart.

Then the next place she went was the seesaw.

She sat on it, but since she was alone, it naturally did not move.

And then she ran.

Across the seesaw.

Of course the board tilted down with a clunk on the far side.

Naturally little Remi rolled over, but she got right back up.

Even as she patted off the dirt, she looked extremely satisfied.

…You could arguably call that a kind of seesaw play, I guess.

It was dangerous, and I seriously debated whether to ban that play style.

A bigger beastfolk kid could probably play like that without falling, but it looked like it was still too much for little Remi.

But while the director was still agonizing, she went after her next prey.

The swing set.

She grabbed the chains, forced her way up, and somehow managed to sit on the wildly wobbling swing by herself.

But her feet did not reach the ground to pump and start it moving.

She kicked her legs desperately, but it ended as wasted effort.

She was doing her best, but the swing remained calm and composed.

No good, she was too cute.

She had cameras one through four on her, capturing her from every angle.

Our filming unit was excellent.

I would be able to deliver another wonderful video to Earth.

And then, little Remi jumped.

She scrunched her body up tight and relied almost entirely on the bounce of her butt.

So this was… yeah, that.

She wanted to do the thing where a bigger kid pumped a swing and then, at the end, went “boing” and jumped off with the momentum.

The way she spread both hands downward, bent her knees, and landed was insanely cute.

Her beast ears opened about thirty degrees to each side, and her tail went snap!

It was that kind of cuteness unique to a cat-eared beastfolk little girl.

Well, she basically jumped in place, so she got no distance at all.

Her feet did not even reach the ground yet.

Maybe next time I would install an ultra-tiny swing for toddlers.

Next was the tire athletics set.

She climbed up with a “heave-ho,” kind of like a little caterpillar, and stood on the tire platform.

Then she hopped, hop-hop-hop-hop.

She seemed satisfied after about three round trips.

What a proud, smug face.

And then she challenged the biggest obstacle.

Probably the biggest trial of her life.

After all, it had not been long since she started walking.

The tower she challenged rose far, far above.

Yes—“the slide.”

Little Remi slapped her cheek with her cute little maple-leaf hands, braced herself, renewed her resolve, and challenged the tower.

Yes, I am a conqueror!

Well, nothing like that certain tower game was going to appear on our slide, so it was safe to watch.

Though inside the dungeon right over there, if you were unlucky, there might be something even more dangerous than that.

Only now did I start seriously thinking about what it meant to have a dungeon that could even spawn dragons right next to a kindergarten.

In Japan, even helicopters were probably forbidden from flying over kindergartens for safety.

Well, thinking about it was pointless.

Because that dungeon was exactly why the city of Adros existed.

And unless there was a stampede, monsters did not come out of the dungeon anyway—and we dealt with that recently, too.

Like a trench-type mega-earthquake, it had just released a huge amount of energy, so maybe there would not be a stampede for a while.

And the director here had the title Dragon Slayer T, and the vice-director had been a dungeon resident for ages, so she probably would not struggle at all even against dragons.

If the kids were ever in danger, she would probably wipe out an entire dragon horde by herself.

Just what kind of ridiculous magic was that big-sister even running with?

In the end, it would probably just mean more side dishes for the kindergarten-and-orphanage dinner.

Maybe I would make a tiny indoor slide next.

When I was a kid, we had one in the children’s room and I played with it a lot.

That room was on the second floor, and the stairs were steep, so just reaching that room was dungeon-level difficulty.

The smooth stair boards were slippery—like they were made of some crazy polished cedar—and as a toddler it was terrifying.

Even when going down, I crawled on the stairs and edged down without looking below.

Compared to that, this easy-to-walk labyrinth here was basically a picnic course.

Even if you threw trash away, the floor processed it, and it even had climate control.

Little Remi renewed her resolve and climbed up with all her might.

Go, go.

Well, normally a wobbly one-year-old would not challenge a slide alone.

I mean—if a parent was with them, they would stop them, right?

“Just how much time had passed since I began my ascent? I still cannot see the summit. But I will go—until I reach that peak that almost seems to touch the heavens!”

That was the kind of vibe she had as she climbed with everything she had.

And at last, she made it.

To her, it probably looked like the top of the world.

She looked so unbelievably proud.

Oh no.

She was far too cute.

But there, the final obstacle lay in wait!

Yes.

Once you climbed a slide, you had to slide down.

She surely remembered.

The power of bigger kids sliding down from the front.

I remembered how she got pretty scared watching that, her tail curling round.