“Baa baa!”
“That’s right, it’s a goat.”
Fuyuka, who was getting excited about the goat in the pen, was almost about to jump out of mom’s arms.
The day after we visited grandpa’s grave, we arrived at the famous petting farm. As usual, we got here with a hop using the [Gate].
When I told the kids about the zoo we visited during our honeymoon, they got envious, so I thought, why not go again? But I figured it wouldn’t be fun to visit the same zoo again, so I decided to change things up a bit.
Actually, I was just trying to satisfy Fuyuka’s “I want to pet animals” desire as an older brother. The kids didn’t have any objections, so I was glad about that.
The petting farm we arrived at was quite large, and it seemed like there were a lot of animals to interact with.
As soon as we entered, we saw a grazing area, and that’s when Fuyuka got so excited.
In the pen, there were goats, sheep, donkeys, ponies, mini pigs, ducks, and even geese.
Visitors can enter the pen and interact with the animals.
“Oh, look, there’s food for sale over there.”
Elze pointed to a vending machine that had animal feed. You could buy it from a vending machine.
Animal crackers… They can be fed to goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits, birds, and horses. Looks like they’re okay to give to the animals in the grazing area.
When I bought one, a bundle of about ten crackers fell out. That’s quite a lot.
Should I buy two for everyone? Well, that would make it over forty crackers…
At the entrance gate, there was a sign that said, “When holding food, animals may jump at you or headbutt you. Please be cautious with small children, pregnant women, and the elderly.”
When I looked carefully, I noticed that visitors feeding the animals were surrounded by them, and the animals rushed to them in excitement.
Some children from another group looked really scared because of how excited the animals were. Oh, one of them was rescued by their dad, who picked them up.
“Maybe it’s better for the kids to feed them from outside the pen. After the food is gone, they can go inside and pet the animals.”
As Linne suggested, we could feed them from outside the pen. I didn’t think our kids would get overwhelmed by animals like these, but just to be safe.
Those who wanted to go inside could, but for now, the kids would feed the animals from outside. I decided to feed them from outside too.
I cut the paper tape that was holding the crackers together and offered one to a sheep that was right in front of me.
The sheep stretched its neck and began munching on the cracker. Wow, it’s eating it so eagerly...
When I tried to offer another one, a goat suddenly barged in from the side and snatched the cracker right out of my hand. Are they really that hungry?
“Oh, I was trying to feed that one!”
“Wow, they’re really crowding around!”
“They’re so cute. Eat up, eat up.”
The kids seemed to enjoy it, despite being flustered by the animals crowding around for food.
The ones having a harder time were the group that went inside…
“Wait, hold on! Ah, don’t feed that one!”
“Take turns, take turns! Whoa, whoa!”
“Ouch…! Don’t climb on me!”
Elze, Yaé, and Sakura were being overwhelmed by the animals. Ah, their clothes are getting dirty… I’ll have to cast [Clean] later...
The goat over there was standing on its hind legs and climbing onto Sakura’s back. It had a really strong “give me the food” aura.
In the chaos, Sakura dropped the whole bundle of crackers, and the animals swarmed over it.
That gave Sakura a chance to break free, and some of the animals that were around Elze and Yaé moved away.
Sakura’s face showed a mix of disappointment from running out of food and relief from being freed from the animals. She looked a bit awkward.
“Sakura, do you want my share of food?”
“…No, I’ve had enough already.”
Sakura rejected my offer and began petting a nearby sheep.
After the kids finished feeding the animals, they went inside the pen.
Basically, the goats and sheep are calm. If there’s no food, that is.
The ponies are also calm. They are small for horses, though. They’re about my height. Is this one a foal?
“Actually, I think ponies aren’t a breed, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Ponies are just small horses, below a certain height.”
Dad answered my question. Right, so is this pony a different breed from the one over there? The one over there seems really small.
That pony is smaller than me as a child and only about the size of a dog.
“Is that a Falabella? I think it’s the smallest horse in the world… I think it’s fully grown.”
“It’s fully grown like that?”
It’s small in size but fully grown inside… Wait, this feels oddly familiar…
“Baa baa!”
“That’s right, it’s a sheep.”
Fuyuka is happily petting the sheep, showing a joyful smile. Wait, don’t goats and sheep both go “baa baa”?
The sheep’s voice sounds a bit deeper, though.
“Fluffy!”
“It’s so fluffy.”
Steph and Sue are petting the sheep, feeling the softness. There are both white and black ones. Are they different breeds?
The young sheep haven’t grown fully fluffy yet; they look slimmer. They’re cute in their own way.
“It’d look even better if it had a bit more meat on it, don’t you think, mother?”
“Yeah. In a year, it’ll grow up just right. It’s got potential.”
“Ugh…?”
Lu and Arcia were mumbling while petting a mini pig. …Wait, they’re petting it, right? Or are they checking how much meat it has…?
Ah, the pig ran away from them. Sorry, little pig, I didn’t mean it…
The pig that ran away was approached by a duck, which started quacking at it.
“See? I told you to be careful with those two. They gave me a scary look too.”
“Yeah, I shouldn’t have gone near them. I’m sorry.”
…Just kidding.
By the way, there was a movie about a piglet and a duck. The piglet, which was supposed to be made into sausages or ham, ends up living as a shepherd pig instead.
I wonder if the animals here are also talking about us humans like those animals in the movie.
Hmm, everything around here feels so warm and cozy, it makes me think in a fairy-tale way.
After enjoying the grazing animals for a while, we headed to a different area.
"Over there, it looks like there's a Dog and Cat Interaction Hall."
Following Linne’s lead, we walked over to a building where the first floor was for dogs and the second floor was for cats.
Thirty minutes for five hundred yen…
"If we go to both, it will take some time, so how about we split up and go to the one you prefer?"
"That sounds good."
Thanks to Yumina’s suggestion, we unexpectedly split into dog and cat lovers.
Yaé, Yakumo, Hilda, and Frei are dog lovers.
Linne, Kuon, Sakura, and Yoshino are cat lovers.
Elze, Elna, Linze, and Linne are dog lovers.
Lu, Arcia, Yumina, and Kuon are cat lovers.
Sue, Steph, Dad, Mom, and Fuyuka are dog lovers.
Alice is with the cat lovers because Kuon is in that group, and Kuon loves Kohaku, so he’s a cat person. Sakura is also with the cat lovers because of Nyantarou.
Yumina is originally a dog person, but she chose to be with Kuon.
As for me? I feel bad for Kohaku, but I went with the dog side because Fuyuka was going there.
I can almost hear Kohaku’s “What?!”. Sorry, I’m actually a cat person, please forgive me.
We parted from the cat lovers and walked with the dog group, paying the fee to enter.
"Wow! So many dogs!"
Steph, her eyes sparkling, ran towards the dogs walking around inside. Hey, hey, don’t startle them. The Chihuahua over there just ran away.
"There are so many!"
"Mom, that one is so cute!"
Elze and Elna headed towards a puppy Poodle.
There are so many different kinds of dogs. Pomeranians, Chihuahuas, Pugs, Shiba Inu, Border Collies, Dachshunds, Yorkshire Terriers, Golden Retrievers, Toy Poodles, Maltese… and other breeds I don’t even recognize are walking around the area. There are also larger dogs, but they’re probably puppies, given their size.
All the dogs seem calm and familiar with people. They might have chosen dogs with such temperaments.
"Bark, bark!"
Fuyuka, also super excited, petted a Pomeranian that came to her. If Blanca saw this, she’d probably get jealous… I should take a picture.
I also petted a Golden Retriever that came over to me. It’s such a calm dog.
"I’m reminded of the dog we had at my parents' house."
Yaé, while petting a Shiba Inu, casually mentioned this.
"Really? The Koke family had a dog before? What was its name?"
"It was called Ha, as in sword. It passed away when I was eight."
Huh… that's a surprisingly cool name… A fitting name for a swordsmanship family.
Now that I think about it, we don’t see many dogs in Brunhild. According to the norms over there, wolves are dangerous animals, and dogs are mostly wild, so it might be understandable.
Also, cats rule our household. Nyantarou’s cat squad is great for gathering information in the town. We reward cats that bring back useful information with good meals and nice sleeping places. That’s why there are so many cats.
We can’t let them get too out of hand, so any troublemaking or rowdy cats get forcibly removed.
"All of these dogs are so calm."
"Since the kids are touching them, they’re probably dogs that are chosen for their personalities."
All the dogs here seem calm. They don’t jump around or bark excitedly. Maybe they’ve been trained that way.
That said, there are some dogs that wander around, wanting attention, and others that sleep lazily in a corner, showing a variety of personalities.
One of the reasons I don’t like dogs much is their hyperactive energy and their high-energy mode, but these calm dogs aren’t bad at all.
"Hahaha! They’re all good dogs!"
"Uh, is that okay…?"
I looked over and saw that Frei was being overwhelmed by bigger dogs like a Border Collie and a Golden Retriever. I guess animals like her?
Now that I think about it, Hilda and Frei used to help take care of horses in the stables… I’ve heard that knights are closely tied to horses. It’s in the very word “knight”.
In our country, high-ranking officers ride Pegasi or Griffins, but regular knights ride normal horses.
Though, since the country isn’t that large, and we usually use the [Gate] when going to other countries, we don’t have enough horses for every knight. We only need enough to patrol within the country.
Frei’s closeness to animals might be because she’s used to being around them.
After spending the rest of the time enjoying the dogs, we left the building, and soon the cat group came down from the second floor.
"How was it over there?"
"There were so many cats, and they were all so cute!"
"Yeah. They were adorable. I can’t say Nyantarou is that cute. I’m sure of it."
Yoshino spoke happily about her experience, and then Sakura said something pretty blunt. Oh, Nyantarou’s going to cry now…
"I saw some cats I’d never seen before. It was a lot of fun."
"There was a fluffy white cat! It was so cute!"
It looks like Kuon and Alice had fun too. A fluffy white cat… probably a Persian cat. Well, I’m glad the cat group had fun.
We all walked together again, strolling through the farm.
There were so many places where we could see and touch the animals. It was a different kind of fun from a zoo.
"That’s a big horse."
"Percheron… the largest horse in the world."
"Wow!"
Mom, Dad, and Fuyuka were all talking excitedly to a large horse that was tied up by the side of the road.
There was a horse that was bigger than Dad’s height, but our reaction was somewhat understated. Well, we’ve seen horses even bigger than this in the other world...
There are also big horses in Japan, like the Dosanko, but this one is probably bigger than that.
Come to think of it, grandpa used to say that most of the horses ridden by samurai in dramas are Western breeds, and that Japan originally only had a small native breed that stood around 130 cm tall.
I’m guessing they use thoroughbreds for visual appeal, but back in the day, the average height of Japanese men was shorter than it is now, so even a small horse wouldn’t have been that out of place.
I’ve heard that the average height for men in the Sengoku period was about 155 or 156 cm.
Behind the Percheron, there was a riding area, but the kids didn’t seem that interested. Well, they’re used to riding whenever they want…
Beyond that area, we saw a pen full of rabbits. Is this the rabbit area?
The kids and wives’ eyes lit up as they rushed to the rabbits. It’s a big contrast from the horses…
Then again, they do sometimes eat rabbits… Well, I eat chicken too, but I still think chicks are cute. Maybe it’s not so weird after all?
I found out from Dad that rabbits aren’t particularly fond of carrots.
"Oh, that’s a misconception. Rabbits don’t really like carrots more than anything else. The image comes from a famous British children’s book where the rabbit, the main character, ate radishes instead of carrots…"
I’ve seen that book’s rabbit too. The one with the blue jacket. Oh, it wasn’t carrots, it was radishes… I had assumed it was carrots all this time.
"Probably, carrots are high in sugar and calories, so feeding them to rabbits could make them gain weight. It’s fine as a treat, but feeding them like cake every meal isn’t a good idea."
"Ah… yeah, gaining weight isn’t good."
I guess for rabbits, high-calorie foods like carrots might not be ideal.
If they get too fat, it could be bad for their health… Wait, why did the wives stop moving while petting the rabbits?
"They’re probably on a diet all the time..."
"You could eat as many carrots as you want if you were human..."
"How about I make carrot cake when we get home?"
The wives looked at the rabbits with pity, as though they were in the same boat. Hmm, I hope I didn’t say anything unnecessary…
After spending some time playing with the rabbits, we headed to the next area.
Hmm? This area has a water feature inside the pen. What kind of animal is that? It’s facing away from us, so I can’t quite tell, but could it be a wild boar?
The animal noticed us and turned to face us. That’s…
"Uh, that’s…"
"Capybara."
"Yes, that."
I was almost about to say it, but Mom beat me to it. I knew, I knew, but I couldn’t quite remember!
"It’s cute."
"Yeah, it’s cute."
Sakura and Yoshino reached out to the capybara.
Is it cute…? It has a long nose and a rather goofy face, though…
"Capybaras are actually related to rats. In kanji, it’s written as ‘水豚’ (water pig)."
"Rats, huh… There are giant rats in the other world too, but they’re nowhere near as cute as this."
Linne responded with a bit of a strange tone, showing her usual useless trivia knowledge.
Giant rats, huh? Those would be the giant sewer rats in dungeons… Comparing them to a capybara would be unfair. Capybaras are way cleaner.
Yeah, I guess compared to those, capybaras are cute.
After bidding farewell to the capybara, we continued walking through the farm and saw another area where goats and sheep were grazing. Could this be another petting area?
"Looks like only children are here."
"Yeah, you’re right."
Upon closer inspection, it was only kid goats and lambs. Ah, maybe they’re doing a milk-feeding experience? Oh, we can feed them milk from a bottle.
Five hundred yen per bottle… That’s a bit pricey… I guess we’ll skip buying one for everyone… They probably won’t drink that much anyway.
I bought five bottles and decided that the kids could take turns feeding.
"Wait, hold on!"
"Ah! Don’t steal it!"
The animals were as eager as ever. Five bottles of milk were being fought over as they stretched their necks through the fence, trying to get their turn. The sounds of "Baa baa baa baa" were deafening.
It was survival of the fittest. They may not speak, but they sure know how to compete.
The staff explained that this was a limited number of times. Of course, once they’re full, there’s no need to keep going.
Before long, the five bottles were empty, and the goats and lambs seemed satisfied, moving away. Some of them, still hoping for more, reached for the empty bottles.
Looking at the kids still hungry, we all heard a loud growl from somewhere. Everyone’s eyes turned to me.
"...It’s not me, I swear. Why do you always look at me first?"
"No, I mean..."
"Hey…"
Well, that was expected. I turned to Frei, who looked suspicious, but she just shook her head while holding the empty bottle.
"Sorry, that was me. I’m so hungry..."
Alice, who had raised her hand awkwardly, was the one. It’s almost lunchtime, so I’m getting hungry too.
"Looks like there’s a restaurant over there. Should we go check it out?"
Mom pointed to a lodge-like building with a sign that read “牧場のレストラン” (Farm Restaurant). It looked like the perfect farm-style restaurant.
I guess they serve fresh milk and meat dishes here.
I thought the same thing when we were at the aquarium. Eating the meat of animals that are right here just feels a little weird…
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