Mina returned a short while later carrying a small cloth pouch.
Inside were several pairs of knitting needles of different lengths, along with a ball of practice yarn.
There were thin wooden needles, slightly thicker ones, and even safe needles with rounded tips.
“If Lord Haku is going to use them, I think these would be better than anything sharp.”
Mina picked out a pair of small wooden needles and set them down in front of me.
I nudged them lightly with my forepaw.
They were light.
The size was right, too.
They seemed manageable enough to hold with fur-hands.
Elysia looked back and forth between me and the needles, then asked,
“Haku, what are you planning to do with those?”
I looked at Elysia for a moment.
Honestly, I could have shown her right away.
Just like last night, I could channel yokai power into a clump of fur, shape it into a hand, and try picking up the needles.
But I had not properly succeeded yet.
If I showed her too clumsily and the fur-hand collapsed into a limp mess, it would be a little embarrassing.
More than anything, I wanted to show her after it was finished.
Something I had made myself for the first time.
For Elysia.
‘It’s a secret.’
Then, looking at Elysia, I gave a small shake of my head.
I would not tell her now.
Elysia blinked, then seemed to understand.
“You want to leave it as something to look forward to later?”
I nodded.
Mina smiled quietly.
“So Lord Haku has a secret plan now.”
A secret plan.
The words sounded a little grand, but they were not wrong.
Elysia looked slightly disappointed for a moment, but she did not press me further.
“All right. Then show me later.”
I wagged my tail in satisfaction.
But just then, Camilla’s voice came from beyond the open door.
“Sister, what is Haku going to show you?”
I froze.
It seemed Camilla had come to give her morning greeting and overheard the conversation.
She poked her head into the room, and immediately spotted the knitting needles on the floor.
“Knitting needles?”
Camilla’s eyes sparkled.
“Haku is going to knit?”
I shook my head at once.
Not yet.
It was not yet certain that I could do it.
But Camilla already had the look of someone who had departed into a world of imagination.
“Like a little ribbon Haku made, or an ornament for Sister’s sword, or maybe a blanket just for Haku……”
A blanket just for Haku.
At those words, I wavered for a moment.
That might be rather nice.
But I quickly came to my senses and shook my head.
For now, it was a secret.
Camilla pouted in disappointment.
“Show me later too, please.”
I thought for a moment, then nodded.
If I succeeded.
If I succeeded, I would show her.
Mina carefully arranged the knitting needles and the ball of yarn beside the small box.
“If you need anything while you practice, please call me at any time.
And since someone might step on the needles if they are misplaced, it would be best to be sure to put them back in this cloth pouch after use.”
Now that she knew I was no ordinary fox, it seemed she could simply accept the idea of me knitting.
Elysia looked at me and gave a small laugh.
“Then do you want to rest a little until training?”
I nodded.
But I had no intention of resting.
After Elysia, Mina, and Camilla had left the room for a while, I slowly approached the box of fur.
The knitting needles were lying right beside it.
Two small wooden needles.
I placed my forepaws on top of the box and quietly drew up my yokai power.
Very thinly and gently, just like last night.
A silvery-pink aura seeped into the clump of fur.
A moment later, the fur stirred and rose into the air.
Then it split into five parts.
A small fur-hand, still crude and round.
I carefully moved that hand and picked up one knitting needle.
The needle wobbled.
It nearly fell.
I hurriedly adjusted my yokai power with more precision.
‘Slowly. Like fingers.’
I recalled the sensation of hands from my previous life.
The feeling of holding something lightly between thumb and index finger.
If I used too much strength, it would slip, and if I used too little, it would fall.
It was similar to what I had learned when Elysia made decorative cords.
Not gripping too hard.
Not holding too weakly.
Somewhere in between.
The needle settled steadily between the fur-hand’s fingers.
I stayed still, as if holding my breath.
Success.
I had not knitted anything yet, and had only barely managed to lift a single needle.
But to me, it was quite a major success.
I tried to make a second fur-hand, but immediately felt my yokai power waver.
Two hands at once were still difficult.
Just maintaining one required a fair amount of concentration.
I did not get greedy and set the needle down.
The fur-hand slowly dispersed again.
The clump of fur inside the box returned to its original form.
‘That’s enough for today.’
It was still not good enough to show Elysia.
But the possibility was clear.
With just a little more practice, I would be able to hold two needles.
After that would come practicing hooking the yarn, pulling it through, and weaving it together.
It might take longer than I expected.
But that was fine.
This was much more relaxing than training to shoot flames.
Rather than worrying about hurting someone, I was more filled with anticipation that I might be able to make something.
I closed the lid of the box and put the knitting needles back into the cloth pouch, just as Mina had said.
Then I curled up on the blanket as if nothing had happened.
When Elysia returned a short while later, I had my eyes half-closed with a peaceful expression.
Elysia looked back and forth between me and the box.
“Did you already try something?”
I blinked.
Pretending not to know.
Elysia stared at me for a long while, then smiled.
“It really is a secret, then.”
I flicked my tail lightly.
‘Yes.’
It was a secret.
Once I became a little better at it.
I would show her then.
Perhaps I might even be able to make something far more wonderful than Elysia imagined.
No, at the very least, it would probably be cute.
Thinking that, I gave a small yawn.
I had obtained knitting needles.
I could move the clumps of fur too.
Now all that remained was practice.
And for some reason, I had a feeling this little attempt would become quite an important help to me in the future.
From that day on, I began practicing knitting in secret from my family.
Of course, I did not truly hide it perfectly.
There were far too many perceptive people in the Vallerion estate.
Elysia seemed to have noticed that something about my behavior was suspicious,
and Mina would sometimes see that the area around my box of fur had been subtly disturbed, but she merely tidied it up without saying a word.
Whenever I ran into Grayden in the hallway, he looked at me with a strangely meaningful gaze.
But no one questioned me.
Perhaps they realized that I was trying to do something on my own for the first time, and were pretending not to know.
Thanks to that, I was able to practice little by little at night, during nap time, or whenever Elysia happened to step away.
At first, it was truly a mess.
I succeeded in moving the clumps of fur like hands with my yokai power,
but handling two knitting needles at the same time was an entirely different matter.
When I held one needle, the other fell, and when I hooked the yarn, the knot tangled.
If I applied too much strength, my fur yarn was crushed, and if I held too lightly, the needles slipped.
‘This is harder than I thought……’
But I did not give up.
Slowly.
Without rushing.
But precisely.
I remembered what Grandfather Grayden always said during yokai power training.
More important than growing the flame was maintaining it in the shape I wanted.
Those words applied perfectly to knitting as well.
If I poured in too much yokai power, the fur-hand came apart.
On the other hand, if I used too little, it could not properly hold the needles.
In the end, what I needed was delicacy.
Not the strength to shoot out flames, but the concentration to avoid losing even a single strand of yarn.
I practiced a little every day.
Making fur-hands.
Picking up needles.
Hooking yarn.
Pulling.
Undoing.
And knitting it again.
After repeating that steadily, my skill improved with a strange speed.
Perhaps this too was something like the memory of my body.
Or maybe the yokai power itself was well suited to my fur.
I did not know the exact reason, but at some point, the sensation of my hands from my previous life and my yokai power began to connect naturally.
The fur-hands were no longer clumsy lumps.
They were not yet perfect hands, but they had become delicate enough to hold needles and knit yarn.
How many days passed like that?
At last, I completed my first work.
It was a silvery-pink scarf.
A scarf knitted from my fur.
The finished scarf was softer than I had expected.
It was not simply soft.
When touched with the tip of a finger, it felt as fluffy as touching a cloud,
and when lightly spread out, a faint silver and pale pink blended hazily together like moonlight.
Perhaps because a very faint trace of yokai power remained in it, if one brought it close, a strangely warm energy could be felt as well.
Of course, the weather was still too hot to wear it now.
But when it grew cold, there would be nothing better than this.
‘Good.’
I looked at the scarf and wagged my tail in satisfaction.
For a first attempt, it had turned out quite well.
No, to be honest, it was beyond my expectations.
But the problem was that I did not stop there.
Perhaps because I was so pleased at succeeding, I got carried away.
Even after finishing the scarf, my hands did not stop.
No, to be precise, my fur-hands did not stop.
When I looked at the fur yarn left over after making the scarf, it somehow felt like a waste.
So I thought I might as well try making just a little more.
At first, I intended to make something like a small wrist cover.
But as I knitted the yarn, its shape grew larger little by little.
I made the front panels, attached sleeves, and tidied the fastening area.
Then, when I came to my senses, I had even made a set of four-season pajamas.
“……”
I sat blankly for a long while with the finished pajamas in front of me.
‘So this much of my fur had gathered.’
I had thought there was quite a lot of fur that Elysia and Mina had collected whenever they brushed me,
but I never imagined there would be enough to make both a scarf and pajamas.
Of course, they were not made entirely from my fur.
I had mixed in some of the practice yarn and thin lining fabric Mina had prepared.
But most of the soft fur yarn on the outside was my fur.
The pajamas were light and soft.
They were not thick, but the parts that touched the body were warm and comfortable.
Rather than being for the depths of winter, they were clothes that would be nice to wear indoors throughout all four seasons.
They seemed like they would be good for Elysia to wear when reading at night, or when resting after training.
I placed the scarf and pajamas side by side and looked at them.
Now there was only one thing left.
Giving them to Elysia as a gift.
The moment I thought that, I suddenly began to feel nervous.
It was not as though I was taking a swordsmanship exam, yet for some reason my heart was pounding.
‘Will she be happy to receive them?’
No, if it was Elysia, she would definitely be happy.
The problem was what came after.
She would be surprised to learn I had made them in secret, and surprised again when she found out they were made from my fur.
And if she found out I had even made pajamas……
I imagined it for a moment.
Elysia, holding the pajamas with her face flushed.
I immediately folded my ears back.
‘No, is this gift too burdensome?’
The scarf was fine.
A scarf was natural as a gift.
But were pajamas a little too personal?
Still, I had already made them.
And to be honest, they had turned out rather well.
It would be a waste to throw them away.
After worrying for a long while, I finally made up my mind.
I would show them quietly to Elysia alone.
If I took them out in front of the whole family, Camilla would definitely cause a commotion.
Lucius would make some strange joke,
Isolde would smile gently,
and Leopold would assess them with a strangely serious expression,
and that would be far too embarrassing.
So, first, only to Elysia.
I carefully folded the scarf and pajamas.
Then I placed them in a small box.
Before closing the lid, I placed my forepaw on top of the scarf one last time and let a very faint trace of yokai power flow into it.
It was not a strong power.
It was simply the wish that it would protect her warmly.
The thought that I wanted Elysia to be even a little warmer when she was cold.
That was all.
The silvery-pink fur yarn of the scarf glowed softly for a very brief moment.
I nodded in satisfaction.