1. Heading to the Academy

1. Heading to the Academy

Dying was more comfortable than I thought.

A warm and cozy feeling, like being in a cradle, enveloped me, and my body’s sensations gradually faded. The pain stopped.

Then, sleepiness washed over me, my eyelids fluttered shut, and I heard a muffled heartbeat, as if I were underwater… and then it ended.

That was all there was to it.

Compared to the grand name of death, it was a surprisingly simple and light affair. So simple, in fact, that I wondered if it was okay for it to be so easy.

“Get up, Skadi!”

And now, I was witnessing that death for the second time.

In a harsh land where even the ground froze, a land of merciless winter abandoned by the sun. I had become Skadi von Lyra, the daughter of Vidar von Lyra, the Northern Grand Duke who ruled that land.

“Do you think the monsters will wait for you to recover?!”

“No.”

“Then get up!”

I quickly got to my feet. I raised my sword. The blade, as white as the hair cascading down my back, pointed at the man who was my father.

“Come on, Skadi! Show me your claws!”

I let out a battle cry. I swung my sword with all my might. The blade advanced, and the blade also approached. In the countless fragments of infinite time that stretched out, all I could hear was the sound of the cold blizzard.

Our swords clashed.

… I opened my eyes the next day.

“…”

“Are you okay, big sis?”

“Yeah.”

I died. Or rather, I had died.

But I was reborn. In a completely different world, in a completely different body. I had become a little girl with wolf ears and a tail.

Hmm.

I wish I had been born into a family that fought a little less.

Ever since I opened my eyes and held a sword, my body had never been intact. My father in my second life always trained me by pushing me to my limits.

My mother tried her best to comfort me, but she was naturally frail and had been bedridden for years, so I couldn’t even rely on her. As a result, I naturally had to stand on my own without anyone’s help.

If I hadn’t had memories of my past life, I might have given up and run away.

Sigh, just as I was about to get up, a sharp pain engulfed my body. Because of that, I couldn’t achieve my goal of getting up and had to collapse back onto the bed.

The black-haired wolf girl next to me… my sister, Freya, worried about me.

A faint green light flowed from the staff in my sister’s hand. The light slowly approached me and then gently enveloped me.

Warmth, the magic of life, seeped into me, and the sharp pain gradually subsided.

“Thanks, Freya.”

“It’s nothing!”

My cute sister, smiling brightly.

To me, who was an only child in my past life, the existence of a sister like this was unfamiliar yet precious. I stroked my sister’s hair.

My sister’s wolf ears twitched. Her black tail wagged vigorously.

Always so fluffy. My sister. Well, I’m similar.

My sister, who is one year younger than me, was also undergoing strenuous training comparable to mine every day. Despite that, her thoughtfulness, always thinking of me first, was truly lovely.

My mother was very ill, and my father was always strict. Taking care of my younger sister was always my responsibility. Since I had taken over most of what my mother would have done, my sister and I had a bond that was not just close, but extremely so.

Sometimes I felt like my sister was clinging to me a bit too much, but even so, I couldn’t let her lose me, her support system, in this harsh place, so I had no choice but to indulge her childishness.

“I should probably go wash up.”

I had been unconscious for a whole day. Without a doubt, my body would be dirty. I sniffed my clothes and caught the strong smell of sweat. The smell made me frown involuntarily.

Just as I was about to get out of bed, my sister suddenly clung to me.

“Let’s wash together!”

“Huh? But you’re how old…?”

“Big sis, it’s normal for sisters to wash together. It’s common sense, common sense!”

“… Is that so?”

Ever since I was reincarnated into this world, I had often been told that I lacked common sense.

It was natural. I already had the common sense from my past life in my head, so how could I possibly incorporate completely new common sense?

Moreover, from the moment I could move my body a little, I had been fighting under the guise of training all day, and when I had some free time, I was constantly taking care of my sister, so it was only natural that I lacked common sense.

And if it were just general common sense, fine, but there was no way I would know about common sense unique to women. I was originally a man.

But my sister, unlike me, was born female and a resident of this world, so she often helped me learn common sense. Yes, for example, ‘girls play by touching each other’s bodies.’

I was so surprised when I first learned that common sense.

Perhaps it was because this was another world, but the level of common sense was on another dimension. If it weren’t for my sister, I might have been teased by others for lacking common sense long ago.

I naturally massaged my sister’s ears and said.

“Okay. Then, let’s wash together.”

“Yeah!”

As if she had been waiting for these words, my sister clung to me. Her fluffy black tail wrapped around me, and then she grabbed my white tail.

‘Beastmen intertwining their tails is a sign of affection,’ wasn’t that what they said?

Remembering the common sense, I proactively moved my tail and intertwined it over my sister’s tail. White and black crossed and overlapped, and as I tightened my grip on her tail, for some reason, my sister blushed.

“Freya? What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing! Uh, let’s go quickly!”

My sister ran towards the bath, covering her face with her hands.

Why is she acting like that?

My tail, suddenly freed as my sister ran ahead. But for some reason, I felt quite empty.

A sign of affection.

Hmm.

I should do it often from now on.

“Freya, let’s go together.”

I followed my sister towards the bath.

——

Inside the bath, which was filled with warmth, unlike the cold exterior. Water boiled and flowed from a magical artifact located in the center of the circular bath.

“… But where did all the retainers go?”

“Uh, uh?!”

Submerged in the hot water, I voiced a thought that suddenly occurred to me.

This was the Northern Grand Duke’s mansion. The mansion where the sole ruler of this land, not anyone else, lived. Yet, strangely, not a single retainer had shown their face to me, the Grand Duke’s daughter, today.

At least one maid should have come to check on my condition. Yes, to put it metaphorically, it was as if someone had cleared out the retainers beforehand…

“M-maybe they were just busy today?”

“Still, shouldn’t I have run into at least one person on the way?”

“This time, you were just a little unlucky!”

“Hmm… Is that so?”

It was a plausible explanation. It could simply be that I happened to come out at a time when there were no retainers around.

I don’t know why my sister is stuttering so much.

I leaned back against the backrest and relieved the accumulated fatigue. As the heat enveloped me, my body quickly became drowsy.

When I glanced down, I saw my not-large, but indeed budding chest. Meanwhile, behind my head, I felt my long hair tied up so it wouldn’t touch the water.

Is that all? Two perky wolf ears were attached to the top of my head, and instead of a vestigial tailbone, a truly swaying wolf tail was attached to my tailbone.

I looked up at the sky and sighed.

“… Sigh.”

It was difficult to get used to. Changing bodies. Even though a considerable amount of time had passed since my reincarnation, I still felt a sense of incongruity whenever I looked at my body.

But I would have to adapt.

After all, I had been given a second life. I was someone who should have died, the ‘me’ that should have ended, but here I was, alive.

Even if my body changed, my gender changed, my world changed, and my life changed, if I could continue living once more, it was worth enduring… Most people would probably think so.

Considering that, this level of incongruity might not be a big problem. Perhaps even contemplating such things was a luxury for someone whose life was hanging by a thread.

“Big sis!”

“Yes?”

After a few minutes lost in thought, my sister waded through the water and sat beside me. Ripples spread across the water’s surface along the path my sister had taken.

“What’s up?”

“Big sis, won’t we wash each other?”

Wash each other?

Hmm. Is this also normal common sense? I have no way of knowing, and sometimes I find myself in a difficult situation like this.

However, seeing that my sister brought it up so openly, this must also be a common thing among sisters. Of course, we play by touching each other’s bodies, so washing each other is nothing.

“Okay. Come here.”

“Yeah!”

I washed my sister’s body with all my heart. My sister’s tail was so swishy that it kept hitting my face, which was inconvenient.

When I came to my senses, our positions had somehow been swapped. My sister’s determined look as she promised to wash me well made me smile, and then her hand touched my body.

“… Hmm.”

It tickles.

It feels like she’s touching me a lot, too.

She’s probably just not used to washing others. Not being good at something isn’t a crime, so I decided to be generous and understand.

“… Ugh.”

My sister’s hand reached my tail. Her hand gently gripped my tail, stroked it like silk, then moved up again to tickle the tip. Then, she slid her fingers through the fur and down.

My sister’s hand, which had been stroking my tail, eventually reached the base of my tail. The sensitive spot where the pelvis and tail connected was being thoroughly massaged. My body tingled for some reason.

“F-Freya?”

“Yes?”

“Do you always wash tails like this…?”

In my flustered state, I called out to my sister, but she answered as if asking the obvious.

“Of course! You have to wash your tail cleanly!”

“R-right.”

If that’s the case, then that’s how it is.

… The above is what happened in the year I turned 14 and my sister turned 13.

——

“Skadi.”

“Yes.”

“You’re twenty now, so you must know.”

“…?”

On the day I became an adult in this world. My father called me and said.

But what am I supposed to know? As I looked at my father, capturing that thought in my eyes, my father slapped his forehead and sighed.

“The Academy, I’m talking about the Academy!”

“Ah.”

“Go and meet many people. And train yourself. To the point where you can call yourself the protector of the North. And learn some common sense while you’re at it.”

“Common sense?”

Is the common sense I’m learning from my sister not enough? I thought I had learned a lot. I rested my chin on my hand and hummed.

Seeing me like that, my father sighed again.

“Sigh… You have talent in martial arts, but your head is like this.”

“…”

“You’ll be leaving tomorrow, so prepare anything you need in advance.”

With that, I left my father’s study. As usual, my sister clung to me, and our tails naturally intertwined.

“Big sis!”

“Yes, Freya. What is it?”

“Hehe, I just wanted to see you.”

I let out a small, wry laugh. We had only been apart for a few minutes, and she said that.

As I walked like that for a moment, I decided to tell my sister what my father had said.

“Freya.”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to the academy tomorrow.”

My sister’s expression turned shocked.