The Female Knight Who Was Too Adorable After Finally Getting A Dog Despite Being Single

“Um… Captain.”

It was the usual dead of night after finishing a mission.

I entered the captain’s room where Karen-san was.

My purpose, of course, was only one thing—yes, to do that.

“What is it, Haru? Do you need something?”

“Yes, um, well—I…”

I squirmed as much as possible while looking up at Karen-san’s face. I quickened my breathing slightly and acted as though I could barely contain my excitement from an outside perspective.

—Captain, no, Karen-san! Um… I just can’t hold myself back anymore…

I planned to gradually move closer while saying something like that, and then—

—Captain! I want to do it with you!! (Sword practice.)

I had intended to deliver my usual finishing line, but…

“Haru, I’m sorry. If you have something to ask of me, leave it for another time.”

“—Huh?”

Karen-san’s unexpected response left me completely dumbfounded instead.

Normally, Karen-san would panic at my painstaking performance, but today of all days, she coldly brushed me off.

“Hmm? What’s wrong? You look as though you’ve just been struck speechless.”

“Ah, no… I just thought it was unusual for you to have something to do this late at night, Captain.”

Karen-san normally did nothing but travel between work and home, so it should have been extremely rare for her to have any personal business. Even on her one day off a month, if she got one at all, she basically stayed home drinking alcohol or lazing around all day (I had already researched this in advance).

And yet… she had somewhere to be… this late at night?

“Calling it unusual is rather rude… Even I have various things going on in my life. In any case, I’m going home first, so lock up the room for me, Haru.”

“Ah, y-yes…”

Karen-san tossed me her ring of keys, quickly finished getting ready, and left the workplace in no time at all.

“Hmm… Somewhere to be at this hour, huh?”

Judging from the way she spoke, it was almost certainly unrelated to work.

Then what sort of business could she possibly have outside of work?

I was curious. Very curious. Just what could Karen-san possibly have planned that was important enough to take precedence over our sweet time together?

“Hmm, well, I suppose it can’t be helped. Karen-san must have one or two things she wants to keep secret from other people too… It’s a shame I couldn’t tease her today, but I guess I’ll just go home.”

“Today, I’ll just—go—home—”

That was what I told myself, but my feet were firmly carrying me in the opposite direction from the knight barracks—toward the residential district where Karen-san lived.

Um… that couldn’t be helped either, right?

Karen-san’s home was in a residential district quite close to the royal palace—in other words, an upscale neighborhood.

It was a tower-shaped apartment building only slightly shorter than the royal palace. Karen-san lived in one of the rooms inside.

“Now then…”

Using my stealth skills to follow Karen-san without being noticed, I successfully hid myself behind the garbage collection area, which served as my observation point. It was actually an excellent spot for watching the building’s entrance. Assuming, of course, that you could ignore the smell of food waste.

“Hmm… No one seems to be visiting Karen-san…”

Seeing how hurried Karen-san had been, I had worried, (Could it possibly be… a man!?), but it seemed that concern would prove unfounded. That was a relief.

Then just what had she been in such a hurry about?

What reason could she have had to leave work earlier than usual and rush home—

“Grrrrrr…”

“Whiiine…”

While I was plunging deep into thought, I suddenly heard two cries like that.

“—A dog, right? Though for some reason it has two tails…”

When I looked, I saw a puppy with its entire face buried in a discarded garbage bag, leaving only its tails wagging outside. What was more, it was an extraordinarily rare dog with two tails.

At first I thought it might be a stray, but on closer inspection, its fur was quite clean. It also didn’t have the strong animal smell you would expect.

I also caught a glimpse of a red collar around its neck, so it was probably properly owned by someone. Though judging from the way it was rummaging through garbage, it apparently had not been trained very well yet.

“Hey, you little mutt over there.”

“!”

When I called out, the dog, which had been engrossed in rummaging around, turned toward me.

It faced me with two different expressions—one frightened, and the other threatening—

“Huh? Two… faces?”

That was right. The dog I had thought merely possessed two tails actually had two heads as well. One body, two heads. Each gave a different cry and reacted differently.

“Is this some kind of chimera? But I’ve never heard of our kingdom conducting research like this—”

“Hey! Cerberus, where are you!? If you’re there, answer me!”

Just as the unexpected creature was making me forget my original purpose, I heard someone calling its name. Presumably its owner.

And that voice was—

“Wait, Captain Karen!?”

“Wah, Haru!?”

There stood Karen-san, now out of her armor and dressed in sleepwear. Apparently she had rushed out of her room, because her hair was still completely disheveled.

For some reason, she was also holding beef jerky in both hands. What kind of barbarian was she supposed to be?

“Woof!”

“Yip!”

The moment Cerberus (sex unknown) spotted its owner, it immediately wagged its tails furiously and ran over to Karen-san. Apparently it was overjoyed to reunite with her after nearly three-quarters of a day apart.

“Haha, hey now. That tickles, Cerberus. Honestly, I told you to wait quietly, and yet you slipped out again… You had me worried.”

As both heads licked her cheeks, Karen-san wore an expression blending relief and happiness. The loving gaze she directed toward the dog somehow seemed overflowing with maternal affection.

“Um, Captain… by the way.”

“G-Gulp.”

Oh, it had been a while since I heard someone actually say that out loud. Was this some kind of classic comedy routine?

“That’s probably a type of chimera whose research is prohibited in our kingdom, right? Why are you raising something like that, Captain, and even naming it Cerberus?”

“N-No, well, you see… recently, when I went south on a mission, I found this little one injured on the battlefield…”

“You felt sorry for it and brought it home? Without telling anyone? I don’t think it appeared in your report either.”

I had read every one of Karen-san’s mission reports, and every last word of their contents was perfectly engraved in my memory, but I had no recollection of anything like that being written.

Which meant Karen-san had deliberately omitted it.

“I know it was wrong not to report it. I do know that, but… it was so pitiful… Look at those adorable, innocent eyes. Are you telling me I should have just left such a cute little one there to die?”

“Whiiine…”

Karen-san and Cerberus deliberately turned watery, pleading eyes toward me. I wasn’t even bullying them, yet somehow I felt incredibly guilty.

“Hmm, well, keeping one itself isn’t actually illegal in this kingdom… I think it should be fine as long as it doesn’t cause trouble.”

Besides, I didn’t want to see Karen-san looking depressed either.

“R-Really? Then you don’t object to me keeping Cerberus either?”

“It’s fine. But make sure you consult Madeleine-san about it later. She might know something about creatures like this.”

“Y-Yes… She’ll probably get angry with me… but for Cerberus’s sake, it would be better to have her help.”

It looked like an ordinary dog, but chimeras were often created through various magical means, so there was no harm in hearing the opinion of Madeleine-san, who worked in research.

Besides, I had the feeling it would be impossible to hide something from her anyway.

“Whew… I never imagined Karen-san would start keeping a pet. You said you had something to do, so I honestly thought you might have arranged a date with some other man.”

“A-A date!? Of course not, you idiot! What kind of date do you think anyone could possibly go on this late at night when even the taverns are barely open!?”

“W-Well, that’s true.”

Come to think of it, if she were capable of something like that, she would have gotten married and had children long ago. Because she couldn’t, she had finally resorted to getting a dog instead.

“—By the way, Haru, why are you here? It’s not as though you knew about Cerberus beforehand… Don’t tell me—”

“G-Gulp.”

Karen-san’s gaze sharpened, and now it was my turn to become part of the classic routine.

“Wow, I really wonder why I’m here. The knight barracks are in the complete opposite direction too, hahahahaha. Anyway, I suppose that settles everything, so I’ll be taking my leave now, goodbye! (Whoosh!)”

“Ah!? Stop right there, you bastard! You followed me, didn’t you!? Wait, Haru—!!”

“Grrr—!!”

And so, although the circumstances were just a little different, my late night with Karen-san came to an end in the same way as always.