At the Northern Fort V1C8

At the Northern Fort V1C8: The Vice Captain Feeds the Fox (2)

After Grail finished his independent morning training, he spent the rest of the morning shut up in the office to do work.

And then, when the time for his midday break came, he put down the papers and pen in his hand and left the room.

The people of this country would eat a large amount of food for each meal, but in exchange, they would only eat one meal in the morning and one in the evening. If they were to eat something else during the day, it would be considered a snack.

The reason why Grail was getting up from his seat at noon wasn’t particularly because he was going to have a meal. He headed in the opposite direction from the dining hall, going down the 3rd floor corridor.

At the end of the hall was a small inlay-type window. When he peeked at the outside from it, he could see the outdoor training grounds below. Today it looked like the 6th Squad was using it during the morning, but now the knights who had been training were now heading inside to take a break.

The 9th Branch that stayed in this fortress was composed of a number of [Squads], and fundamentally, when training or working, a squad would act together as a whole on a schedule. For example, Squads 1 through 4 would be in charge of border security, Squad 5 would patrol the town, while Squad 6 trained.

A while after all the humans had disappeared from the outdoor training ground, a white fox cub pranced in from the edges of the ground.

As expected, she came, Grail smiled. The fox cub fidgeted restlessly while confirming that nobody was around, slowly treading towards the centre of the field bit by bit.

Snow had fallen yet again last night, covering up all traces of the footprints left in the snow up until then. The only footprints on the training ground were those of the 6th Squad who had been on the grounds just now.

After the fox cub glanced around once cautiously, she selected a section of fresh snow and started to run around on top of it. At first she was just running about, but perhaps because she started to have more and more fun, her eyes started to sparkle as she gleefully started digging in the snow.

The moment it seemed as though she had been buried, with only her ears and tail left exposed above the snow, she rolled out of the hole, made a large jump, and once again started diving into the snow face first.

Previously, he sighted her playing alone in the snow like this on the training grounds, so he predicted that she would come again, and it seemed that he spot-on.

Watching her never gets boring, Grail thought to himself.

“Ah! Well, ain’t it the Vice Captain.”

A bright voice resounded in the quiet corridor.

When Grail turned around, he saw his gaudily blond subordinate walking his way. His name was Kix, and he was another one of the young, promising knights. If you left aside his one flaw of being easily carried away, that is.

“What are you doing here?”

Kix was one of Grail’s few subordinates that would speak to him without reserve.

Grail silently jerked his chin towards the outside of the window.

“Hm? ……ohh, it’s a fox!”

Seeing the fox cub frolicking on the training grounds, Kix also frolicked.

“That’s the white fox that’s become a rumour recently, right?”

“Yeah.”

Grail nodded.

In truth, right now Grail was not the only one who knew of the fox cub’s existence.

Several knights had sighted the fox cub running about like this on the training grounds, or loitering about the premises of the fort.

And rumours of her had spread in the blink of an eye during these past four days.

Because snow fell in heaps during the winter, and this northern fort also constantly gave one a feeling of being cooped up, the sudden appearance of such a lovely fox cub warmed the hearts of the knights, soothing them.

Those rough men would become happy just from finding the tiny pawprints left on top of the snow.

However, the other knights hadn’t noticed that Grail had been feeding that fox cub. The only one who knew was the head chef.

Grail didn’t have any particular intention of hiding it, and if he were asked, he’d tell them, but there wasn’t anyone who’d ask him that.

“So you like animals, Vice Captain?”

As he gazed at the fox cub jumping about happily on the snow, Kix spoke.

He continued, while squeezing his lips together in an attempt to hold back his laughter.

“Unexpectedly, you like those kinds of cute animals like the Branch Captain, huh? ……pff, it doesn’t suit you at all~”

Grail turned a cold smile towards his rude subordinate, who burst out laughing, against his better judgement. He circled his arm around Kix’s shoulders firmly and spoke.

“Kix, if you’re free then join me in sword practice. Though I don’t know if I’ll be able to hold back properly…….”

“I’msorrypleaseforgivemeI’msorry.”

***

When evening hit and work had finished, Grail headed to the dining hall. After eating his own portion, he received the fox cub’s portion from the head chef as usual and returned to the barracks.

After entering his room and lighting a lamp, the fox cub who noticed Grail’s return gave a small bark from outside his window. She’s probably getting impatient for dinner.

He opened the window and placed down the meal before temporarily backing away. When Grail watched from up close, it appeared to make the fox cub nervous.

While she ate, Grail took off his overcoat and started to change his clothes. Loosening the laces of his boots, he made preparations to go into the bath.

After a short while, he heard a small cry going, “Kyan!”, signalling that she had finished her meal. As Grail approached the window, the fox cub left behind the empty plate on the wood crate and looked up at him from in front of the shed, a short distance away.

The meal seemed to have met her tastes, as she licked her lips several times over, as though to savour the lingering aftertaste.

It appeared that the fox cub had let her guard down around Grail somewhat, but she still did not fully trust him. The subtle distance between the two of them was proof of that.

While it had been some time since they first met, he couldn’t quite close this distance between them. Grail wanted to try stroking the soft-looking fur of the fox cub, but she would become vigilant whenever he held his hand out.

However, today might just be the day that he would be able to stroke her.

In Grail’s hand was a certain item for closing the distance between the two.——it was jerky that he had received from the head chef.

Chicken tenders were beat until they were thinly stretched out and then baked in the oven. There wasn’t any particular seasoning added to it, but the meaty flavour was nicely concentrated, and it was delicious enough that even humans could probably eat it.

Grail took that jerky in his hand and waved it around to show the fox cub.

After the fox cub went, “Hm?” and tilted her head, she approached Grail to see what he was holding. When she reached the front of the wood crates, she noticed the fragrant scent of jerky and her tail immediately went up.

As always, she hesitated to approach Grail, but she couldn’t help but be interested in the jerky. She restlessly walked around, making loops close to the window, her eyes never leaving the jerky.

“Come on, try it. It’s delicious, you know?”

Grail tore the jerky into small bits, placed it on the palm of his hand, and stretched his arm out the window. Up until now, the fox cub had never eaten directly from his hand. This was Grail’s first serious attempt at doing so.

He wanted her to know that human hands weren’t scary, that they wouldn’t do anything frightening, and that it was okay to relax.

Drawn in by the scent, the fox cub placed her forepaw on the first step of the wood crates. She came unusually close to Grail.

Though she desperately stretched out her neck for a while, she realized that she’d have to get a bit closer to reach the jerky. She got onto the wood crate with timid movements, and raised her body up, placing her forepaws on the second step of the wood crates.

She sniffed the scent of Grail’s large palm that was before her, and then sniffed the jerky. During that time, Grail stopped all movement of his arm, becoming like a statue to avoid surprising the fox cub.

After carefully sniffing the scent for a period of time that made one want to say, “There’s no need to sniff that much”, the fox cub grabbed a shred of jerky with her mouth and swiftly retreated off the crates.

Once she had reached a suitable distance from Grail, she eagerly chewed on her spoils.

The wet nose of the fox cub that momentarily touched his palm. Grail felt deeply moved by that sensation. It wasn’t like he had a nose fetish or anything. He was purely happy at the fact that she accepted the jerky directly from his hand.

When he tore off another piece of jerky, the fox cub approached in a more experienced manner than before.

Her appetite may have won over her wariness against humans. This time, even after taking the jerky in her mouth, the fox cub did not descend from the crates, and instead started to eat right by Grail.

She had never come this close to Grail of her own accord. The power of jerky is amazing, he thought to himself.

In the end, the fox cub ate the rest of the jerky near Grail, and even ate directly from his hand.

Though she had been enticed by the bait, the distance between the two may have shortened a bit.

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