"「Luminous Ball」."

Carefully kneading the light around Ruru’s tail, the area around it was beginning to distort spatially. Ruru looks at what I’m doing curiously. 

When I had finally finished it, Ruru’s tail seem to have completely disappeared. 

“M-Master… Ruru’s tail, is…” The wolf-girl looks at me while frantically patting her butt.

I chuckled heartily and ruffled her hair with a smile.

“Don’t worry, I just made it invisible with light.”

“L...ight?” Ruru tilts her head.

“Try feeling it with your hands, your tail is still…”

Suddenly I felt her tail coiling around one of my legs. Immediately, her facial expression softens.

“...Mm, Ruru feels it.”

...Hm, the illusion isn’t as perfect as I’d hoped.

If Ruru’s tail move even in the slightest, the illusion using reflective light would be altered and you would see notice the irregularity at the stem of her tail. I couldn’t hide it perfectly, but no one would actually find out when it hidden under her clothes.

I weaved the light and hid her wolf-ears similarly. “Nn… M-Master, t-tickles…” Ruru giggles with her eyes closed. 

“I’m almost done.”

One ear, and then the second. When I was finished, they were no longer visible to the eye.

“M-Master… i-is Ruru… pretty?”

Taking a look at Ruru before me, I couldn’t help but fall into a trance at her beauty.

As they say, clothes really changes a person.

Wearing her new clothes I’d picked up earlier this morning; a lacy-white headdress stitched with floral patterns utop her head, and a peacock green, frilly one-piece with a generous opening that flaunted her cleavage. As Ruru tilts her head to the side demurely with that kind of appearance, it tugs at my heartstrings.

Ruru’s snow blue hair flows down to her waist, complementing her new outfit perfectly. 

It had only been around three weeks since I’d adopted this girl, yet her body was becoming increasingly captivating… I wonder if beast-kins mature faster compared to humans, or was it something that happens under cold weather? Ruru used to be part of a Snow Wolf tribe after all. Maybe her physiology works differently from normal people.

As I thought of these things, I realized that I didn't really know much about Ruru's past. She had never shared it with me, but would she tell me if I asked?

Would she feel comfortable talking about it? 

“Master…?”

“M-Mn… I was just thinking… how Ruru have become so pretty…”

“Uu-uu…” Ruru hid her face low, grabbing the hems of her dress shyly.

A-Adorable…!!! My heart squeezed tightly seeing a fresh side of Ruru.

I enjoyed the closeness and familiarity of her appearance as a wolf-girl. But as a human, Ruru’s reserved, demure countenance seemed to bring out her feminine appeal even more.

It was hard deciding which side of her I liked the most.

“...Well then,”

I held out my hand, and Ruru took it with a smile.

“Are you ready?”

“...Un!”

With a deep exhale, I brought Ruru beside me… and opened the door that leads to the outside.

“The outside…”

Ruru hands tremble, and I squeezed her palm resolutely.

“Don’t be afraid.”

She looks at me with her bright blue eyes.

“Let’s enjoy ourselves today.”

Her complexion turned brighter.

“Um!”

The azure was bright outside in the morning.

As Ruru holds my hand down the stairs, she suddenly looks up above and holds out her palm.

“Look, Master…! Snow!”

“Ah… you’re right.” 

Was this the effects of the impending Moonhalo? The weather had turned colder overnight.

Well, I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’m wearing warmer clothes, and Ruru herself didn’t look fazed in the slightest, probably because her body was conditioned to the cold as a half Snow Wolf.

Crystalline snow fell and danced in the sky, a ballet conducted by the gentle winter wind. As Ruru watched her eyes grew that tiny bit wider, almost as if she was reminiscing about something in the past.

Did snow mean something to her? ...I...

“Ruru.”

The girl turns to me, and pecks me on the cheek almost as if to keep me from worry.

“Come, let’s go… Master.” Ruru smiles at me affectionately.

"A...Ah, wait up!"

As I took her hand and headed into the streets, I couldn’t help but feel that the Ruru today… was just a little bit different than usual.