At the Northern Fort V1C5: The One-Eyed Knight
Hearing the rattling sound of a window opening, I twitched and perked up my ears. But I was still sleepy, so my eyelids wouldn’t open.
My half-asleep brain even thought to itself, “This world’s windows don’t open as smoothly as the ones in my previous life”. Was the window frame made of wood?
Rattle, rattle rattle
They should probably oil it a bit.
How noisy, I thought while opening one eye.
The barrack window across from the shed I was sleeping in had the shadow of a person. He was opening the window and staring fixedly in this direction.
——staring, in this direction.
“……!?”
I instantly woke up. Quickly standing up, I stared back at the man. I could tell that the fur along my spine was standing on end from the surprise.
The one on the other side of the window was that One-Eyed Knight…….don’t tell me, that’s his room over there?
The room’s lamp had been lit, and the light from it leaked out from the window and shone on me.
OH MAI GAWD.
Who was it?! Who the heck said that nobody would see me once it grew dark?! He can probably see every bit of me!
The One-Eyed Knight had probably just returned to his room and was relaxing, as he had taken off his jacket and was currently lightly dressed. Umu, as I thought he has pretty nice muscles.
Both me in the shed and him inside the room didn’t move as we watched for the other’s move.
Somehow the atmosphere feels tense. I’m so nervous that sweat’s starting to come out of my paw pads.
And at that moment, the One-Eyed Knight suddenly put his foot on the window frame and lightly landed on the ground outside.
He looked through me with his right eye alone as his boot-clad feet quietly stepped on the snow and he arrived in front of the shed.
Having my sole escape route that was the entrance of the shed being sealed off caused me to fall into a great panic, and his too-close distance also agitated me. There was only one metre between me and the One-Eyed Knight.
Maybe it was because the light from the window was shining from behind him, but the backlight made his face appear gloomy, and that was extremely frightening. I feel bad about saying this, but this guy’s face was scary to begin with.
After a short period of silence, he suddenly reached his hand out, causing me to scream “GYAA!” internally. I reflexively tried to evade that hand by kicking off the ground and flying backwards.
However, this was inside a cramped little shed. As I flew backwards, I loudly crashed into the shovels leaning against the wall behind me. A comic-like sound effect of “CRASH BANG BANG!” was reproduced in reality.
And then, that loud sound sent me spiralling further into panic from surprise. The shovels clattered as they came crashing down and I didn’t know what was what anymore. Which way is up and which way is down? As I floundered about violently, I stepped on my own tail and fell over.
“Oi.”
The hand once again extended towards me. It was about as big as my face, and had small scars and calluses from practicing the sword. Surely this person is very strong.
In comparison, the current me was powerless. Mother can create blizzards and freeze the enemy, but I couldn’t do that myself yet.
What should I do if the One-Eyed Knight tries to kill me? Is this hand going to try and strangle me?
It’s all over if I’m caught.
The moment I thought that, a violent instinct that I didn’t think I had broke out.
Like I’d let myself get caught.
Attack before you get attacked!
Before I realized it, I had bared my fangs and bit the One-Eyed Knight’s hand. A low growl leaked out from my throat.
I thought that he’d retaliate, but he didn’t move or have a single change in facial expression as he allowed me to bite him.
The lack of reaction from my opponent allowed me to slowly regain my calm. I stopped growling and flusteredly let him go. The faint taste of blood spread on my tongue.
My body winced back as the knight slowly stood up, and then he said-
“My bad. I must’ve scared you.”
-and then simply left the shed.
As my escape route reappeared, I quickly ran outside and took a certain distance from him. All four of my legs were tensed so that I could run away at any time as I gazed at the knight.
Though my heart was pounding like crazy, my feelings began to settle down little by little.
What should I do? I bit his hand. I didn’t think that I had such a feral part of me.
It appeared that I had bit a finger on his right hand, as a small amount of blood was coming out of it.
My canine teeth are small and thin. On top of that, I didn’t bite him with too much strength, so as far as I could see, the One-Eyed Knight’s injury was pretty light.
However, I was shocked at the fact that I had hurt someone. My tail and ears drooped down despondently.
When I tried to ask if it hurt, I whined at him, going ‘kyun kyun’.
“What? You’ve suddenly gone all meek.”
Seeing my sudden change in demeanour after I had just been growling at him, the One-Eyed Knight gently smiled while saying that. He did not pay any heed to the state of the finger that had been bit as he walked towards me.
“Kyan!”
Awawa, don’t come this way! -I ran away once more. And then, after putting what felt like a safe amount of distance between me and the knight, I once again stopped and turned around.
When the One-Eyed Knight scowled and approached me, I ran about as much as the distance he had approached by. That repeated several times, and I maintained a reasonable distance from him.
“What’s with that……”
The One-Eyed Knight muttered.
I don’t really get it myself either. I feel bad about biting him, and I want to apologize. But when he comes close, I still feel scared and I get nervous.
It felt like my calm human side and my cowardly fox side were fighting each other in my heart.
My human self judged that this One-Eyed Knight wasn’t a bad person. Although his face is scary, he doesn’t have any malice towards me. He may be trying to put me under his protection, it figured.
But my fox self remained vigilant, and kept saying that “you can’t trust him so easily”. Until I was absolutely sure that it was safe, I should maintain a distance and watch what happens.
As I thought about that while observing his attitude, the knight turned around and returned to his room.
I sat down on the spot and saw him off from behind. Maybe he lost interest in me already. While I’m relieved, I feel a bit lonely.
After he returned to his room from the window, he did not poke his outside for a period of time. He might be treating the bite wound I gave him.
Because I’m a spirit, I don’t think I should have any weird illnesses, but since he probably thinks that I’m a wild animal, he should probably be carefully disinfecting the wound.
If I could speak, I’d apologize and say, “I’m sorry”.
There weren’t any movements after 15 minutes had passed, so I gingerly approached his room. The window was still left open.
While I was waiting to see what he would do as I hid in the shadow of a tree, the One-Eyed Knight brought something on a plate and once again approached the window.
“?”
I grew curious about what was on the plate and extended my neck forward.
And then, the appetizing scent of meat drifted over. On top of the plate were a number of small meatballs. They appeared to be meatballs with sauce on them.
My stomach started to growl. While I should not experience hunger as a spirit, my human side knew that food was likely to be delicious. When I imagined what it would taste like, my stomach suddenly started to feel hungry.
Mother drinks alcohol sometimes, so there shouldn’t be any particular problems if I eat human food, right?
Seduced by the food, I tottered towards the window.
Ahh, that looks yummy.
It smells really good.
I looked at the meatballs that the One-Eyed Knight was carrying, and swallowed back my saliva.
Although Mother said that, “Spirits do not need to eat”, she would occasionally hunt and bring back some mice as a [snack].
However, I still have a human way of thinking. As such, I could not look at the unconscious mice and think, “Wow, that looks delicious!”. I would always say, “I don’t need it” while shaking my head and letting Mother have it.
Since we lived on top of a mountain, the [snacks] that Mother would bring were always wild animals on the verge of death. Because of that, I may have mistakenly thought that I didn’t have any appetite. Ever since I was born in this world, and up until this day, I had never seen the food that humans eat after all.
But now that I had that food right in front of me, I wanted to eat it so bad that I couldn’t help it. My appetite rose up in billows, and a long string of drool dripped from my half-open mouth.
I even forgot my fear towards the One-Eyed Knight, and started wagging my tail while running up to him.
However, the window was positioned higher than my height, and my mouth could not reach the food. Ahh, dammit. Even though it’s so close. I placed my forefeet against the barrack wall, and stood up on my back legs while letting out a heartrending cry.
After seeing my state, the One-Eyed Knight briefly headed into the depths of the room, and carried three wooden crates back from somewhere. As I wondered what he was planning on doing, I took several steps back in retreat.
He leaned the upper half of his body out of the window and dropped the crates outside of it. Using the three boxes, he created a two-step staircase underneath the windowsill.
And then he placed the plate with the meatballs on it on the second step that was closest to the window.
I jumped onto the first crate in high spirits. However, just as I was about to try the food that was before my eyes, I thought, wait a second, and looked up.
Above me was the window, and near it was the One-Eyed Knight looking down at me.
His right eye was a similar grey colour as his hair, and while the person himself was likely not doing it intentionally, he gave off an intimidating air. Because his eye was narrowed, it gave me the feeling that I was being glared at.
Our eyes met at point-blank range and I drew back my body. As my nose sniffed the scent of the food, I very reluctantly got down from the box and distanced myself from him.
I want to eat. But being close to the One-Eyed Knight was scary.
I restlessly walked around the box that had the food placed on it. Because my nose was pointlessly sensitive, I was able to perfectly smell the scent of the juicy meat and savoury sauce.
I’d approach the food, get spooked from the knight’s eyes, and then run away. Approach the food, get spooked from the knight’s eyes, and then run away again.
As I repeated those actions again and again, he made a bitter smile and said this.
“Alright. I’ll go away, so take your time and eat.”
After saying that, he actually disappeared deep into the room, so after observing the situation for about a minute, I quickly jumped onto the wooden crate. While feeling deeply emotional about my first meal since my previous life, I gobbled down the food. Delish~.
The five meatballs that were about a mouthful in size disappeared in the blink of an eye, but being small myself, it was plenty enough to fill my stomach.
I licked the remaining sauce on the plate clean, and then stepped on the second level of crates while making sure not to step on the plate, standing on my back legs to peek through the window.
Inside the modest and undecorated room, the One-Eyed Knight was sitting on the bed and polishing his sword. I was curious about the wound on the hand that I had bitten, so I very attentively observed him.
It appeared that he had washed his hands once, and all I could see were two red dots—–marks left from my canine teeth——only. Though the wound was small, it probably would’ve been better to bandage it at the very least, I thought, growing a little worried.
I cried out in a small voice to inform the knight that I had finished eating.
“You ate it all?”
The One-Eyed Knight put the sword down and got up. And then, as I stepped down to the ground from the box, he stretched out his arm from the window.
“You licked it all clean, huh.”
He took the plate that had not a single speck on it and spoke.
“Where are you planning on sleeping tonight?”
His tone of voice was calm and gentle. That low voice felt good in my ears. Is he worried about me?
As if to answer the knight’s question, I entered the shed with all the shovels scattered inside of it. I thought about it, and there really wasn’t any better place than here.
“I’ll move those shovels away tomorrow.”
Seeing me prop myself down in the gaps between the shovels, he laughed.
“See you.”
He closed the window, and the quiet night returned. However, when I listened carefully, I could hear the sound of a door opening and shutting inside the room, as well as footsteps and the creaking floorboards.
Although it was scary when he approached me, for some reason knowing that the One-Eyed Knight was nearby gave me a peace of mind.
I could sense the presence of the other knights living in the barrack, and it managed to distract me from the loneliness of Mother being gone. In our nest on top of the mountain, there wasn’t even a single hint of animal presence, so it made me feel incredibly isolated, as though I were all alone in the world.
With my memories from my previous life, I was different from a completely wild animal and an aloof spirit.
As expected, being near humans gave me a sense of relief.
I rested my chin on the handle of one of the fallen shovels, and fell into a deep sleep.
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