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Translator: Kazumi
Editor: Kabur & Silavin
The group next arrived at the 8th floor.
The reason was that the environment was similar to that of the fifth layer and there were many foxes who they were familiar with.
They wanted to meet these foxes.
“Oh, there are so many foxes!”
It was Riku, Floria’s second son, who reacted the most to these foxes.
He was happy to rush toward the foxes that noticed Kousuke and came close to them.
Of course, the startled foxes all backed away from the approaching Riku.
“Woo! Don’t run away!”
Kousuke advised Riku, who was stomping on the ground in frustration.
“Haha. they’ll be surprised if you approach them all of a sudden, you know? Just crouch down and wait for them to come closer.”
At Kousuke’s words, not only Riku but the other children began to crouch down.
Since there were foxes always with them, they seemed to have no fear of the foxes at all.
Incidentally, the foxes who usually raised the children, were watching from afar in human form and showed no signs of helping.
They did not know if there were rules among the foxes or if there was another meaning to them doing this.
This time, Wanri was with them, but she was just watching as well.
The children remained crouching, and Kousuke was beginning to think that Luka, the smallest of the children, was starting to get bored, when finally one of the foxes approached the children.
Kousuke had noticed that the foxes were curious but was a little weary, but at last, it seemed like they finally decided to approach the children.
“Hyan!”
Kokoro was the first to interact with the foxes.
Kokoro remained still when the fox approached her, but then the fox licked Kokoro’s cheek.
Kokoro yelped at the sudden move, but the fox was not surprised and continued to lick Kokoro’s cheek.
“That tickles!”
Kokoro then started stroking the fox’s neck while the fox was licking her.
Since she was usually with the foxes that were raising them, she had already learned where to stroke the fox’s neck.
Of course, she understood that there were individual differences in the points where they were pleased to be stroked and the points where they disliked.
It seemed that her experience learned since she was a baby had been useful.
Once the precedent was set with the first fox, the rest followed quickly.
The foxes here originally stayed away because even if they were interested in the children, they had to be careful in their approach.
As soon as it was clear that there was no danger, they immediately approached the rest of the children.
Soon, the children’s excited voices could be heard.
While watching them, Kousuke spoke to Wanri, who approached next to him.
“Do you think it will be alright this time?”
“Yes. Everyone seems to be being considerate.”
The reason he brought the children here was to see how the dependents would react to Kousuke’s children.
He wasn’t too worried because the humanized foxes had been happily raising Kousuke’s children, but he still didn’t know how the non-humanized dependents would react.
If they were to enter a floor where dependents live for some reason, Kousuke was now sure that wouldn’t be attacked out of the blue.
“Do they know that they are my children?”
“Of course, by smell and stuff.”
There was no guarantee that they would not be attacked even if they knew the children were related to Kousuke, but from the looks of things, it seemed like it was going to be okay.
With the foxes present playing with children, it would help other foxes who were not around right now to understand that the children were not an enemy.
“At this rate, will the other Floor foxes be okay?”
“If the kids ever go on their own, we’ll be sure to have at least someone escort them.”
“Oh, I see.”
At Wanri’s words, Kousuke nodded as if he too was relieved.
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After giving the kids a quick mooch, they moved on to another Floor.
Next was the Floor where the wolves were.
If Nana was with them there, the wolves would be scared to suddenly approach, so usually they would go there with her to hold down the excited wolves.
But this time, she did not join them.
Perhaps this maneuvering worked, but an incident occurred on the 7th Floor.
“…Oh?!”
Floria, who happened to be standing next to Kousuke, exclaimed in surprise.
Floria’s gaze fell on Riku, who was mooching off a wolf.
It was a funny sight, but Kousuke tilted his head, not understanding why Floria was so impressed.
When he looked around, the other members were also surprised.
“What’s so surprising?”
Seeing the reactions of the foxes, it should have been somewhat expected that the wolves would also be fond of the children.
However, Floria and the others were more surprised than expected.
Moreover, the other children were also playing along with Riku as well, but it seems like everyone only reacted in surprise to Riku.
Floria shook her head from side to side and told Kousuke.
“I guess you didn’t notice after all.”
“? What?”
“The wolves will befriend those that are related to Kousuke to a certain extent, but they will never allow anyone to cross a certain boundary.”
To Floria’s words came Peach adding an explanation.
“To be more specific, they won’t normally lie down and show their belly for us to pet them~”
“What! Really?!”
Kousuke, who usually stroked Nana’s belly, was completely unaware of such a thing.
But when he saw one of the wolves showing its belly to Riku and pampering him, his eyes became suspicious.
“…I didn’t know because they would simply approach me and let me spoil them even while showing their bellies…”
“That’s why I’m surprised. In fact, the other wolves in the litter don’t show their bellies to the others right now, you know?”
With that said, Floria turned her gaze to the other children.
As Floria said, except for the wolf Riku was petting, they let the other kids pet their heads and bodies as they liked, but none of them showed their bellies.
In addition, When Kousuke tried to recall, he had never seen Nana or any of the other wolf dependents showing their bellies to the ladies when they tried to spoil them.
“Looking at it right now, that is indeed strange…”
“Right? That’s why everyone is so surprised.”
At Floria’s words, the surrounding women nodded.
“Riku might have something that allowed him to do it. Well, he’s still a child, so he may soon shift his interest to other things.”
“Have? What?”
“The power of a tamer, of course.”
Collete said, her gaze moving to Riku.
Kousuke, caught by the moment, also turned his gaze to Riku.
“Well, I can’t say for sure just because of that, and as I said, he’s still a child, so I’m sure it hasn’t been firmly established as a power yet.”
“Is that so?”
“If we really want to know, why don’t we ask the God involved?”
“No, I don’t have an answer to that.”
Kousuke frowned when he saw Collete’s teasing expression.
She knew that Kousuke hated the idea of using God’s power to decide people’s futures, so she was teasing him.
Kousuke knew that he was being teased, so he didn’t take it seriously.
“Well, whatever the future holds, Riku is enjoying himself right now, let’s just leave that aside for now.”
Floria concluded as she watched Riku happily mooching on the wolf with narrowed eyes.
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After that, they visited various Floors as per Mia’s request.
In order not to leak to kids what other kind of dependents were there, they only visited Floors with wolves and foxes.
They were thinking that if it was only those two species that they would know, it would not have much of an impact even if the story spread by the children accidentally mentioning them, since they were species that tamers usually aim to tame.
They did not go to the Floors, where there were advanced monsters and possibly anything could happen.
They decided ahead of time that if they ever went to those floors, it would be when the children were a little older.
The children were already quite hyper, perhaps because they had seen so many different environments that they would not normally see.
Perhaps that was the reason why the children, when they returned to the administration floor, immediately went down for a nap.
It was almost evening when they took a nap.
Mia, who had said she wanted to see various floors, fell asleep happily with a big smile on her face, and everyone wondered what kind of dreams she was having.
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