At the Northern Fort V1C13

At the Northern Fort V1C13: Female Knight Tina

Tina was the only female knight in this Northern Fort.

To begin with, female knights themselves were scarce, so being assigned to such a remote region may have been inevitable.

However, it wasn’t like Tina had been demoted, as she had voluntarily come to this region of her own accord.

If she was able to endure the harsh living conditions of the northern fort that was surrounded by snow, then she’d probably be able to build her enduring spirit, and would also be able to build confidence as a knight.

In the Knight’s Order, women were taken lightly by the surroundings, but if she completed missions at the northern fort, then things would be different. Everyone would have to recognise her abilities. That was just how harsh the living conditions of this land were.

That is why Tina was about the only oddball who’d come here voluntarily.

The others were generally those who had made trouble in the Capital, or other branches, and were told to “Retrain yourself from the basics!”, before being sent here.

The fort was surrounded by only Mother Nature herself, and in the winter one had to shovel snow every single day, and on top of that, you’d have to endure training with the dreadful [Iron Man Vice Captain]. Thus, the faces of the young knights that were newly assigned here every year always had a grim sense of determination to them.

However, if you were able to overcome multiple winters here, then you’d be able to obtain a physical and mental strength far exceeding that of any half-baked knight.

After Tina finished her morning routine, she quietly exited her room.

While she was female, it was impossible to prepare an entirely separate building for just a single newbie knight. Tina received a single room in the same barracks where the other male knights lived, and stayed there. Normally, there’d be around 2-4 knights to a single room, but she was specially allowed to have a single room to herself.

On top of that, it was a corner room, situated in an impregnable formation, with the room belonging to the [Icy Branch Captain] next door, and the [Iron Man Vice Captain’s] room opposite to it. That Tina had never felt any bodily danger despite living in a barracks filled with men was probably thanks to the Branch Captain and Vice Captain protecting her.

Tina suddenly looked at the door across from her. It was the room of Vice Captain Grail, whom she revered.

Unlike the other knights, Grail had not come here due to a demotion, but to gather up all the stubborn guys here to retrain them. Apparently, he had been entrusted that task by the Head of the Knight’s Order in the Capital, and thus has been working as the Vice Captain here since several years ago. 

Tina believed that there wasn’t a more reliable boss than him. And she wasn’t the only one who thought that, as the other knights were the same. Even as they feared him, everyone respected Grail.

Though it was still quite early in the morning, Tina didn’t sense the presence of anyone sleeping from Grail’s room. It seemed that the rumour that he would get up every day before the sun hadn’t completely risen to train was true. Even on a day like today, where the temperature had suddenly dropped because it was nice and clear. 

Tina breathed out a white breath and shivered.

Figuring that she would go to the dining hall to eat breakfast, Tina locked her door and walked by the room of the [Icy Branch Captain]. The Branch Captain also started his mornings early, though there weren’t any signs of him training outside like the Vice Captain, so she didn’t know what he was doing. Perhaps he was reading a book in his own room.

Speaking of the Branch Captain……Tina had thought that she was the only one to come here voluntarily, but she had recently learned that was incorrect.

While it wasn’t like she had heard from the person himself, apparently the Branch Captain had also volunteered to work at the Northern Fort himself. Though because she wasn’t particularly familiar with the Branch Captain, Tina didn’t know his reason for doing so.

As Tina continued down the hallway quietly, the door of a nearby room suddenly opened from the inside.

The one appearing from inside the room was a blond knight, with facial features that still seemed a bit boyish. His name was Kix, and he was from the same graduating class as Tina——but here, he was two years her senior at living in this fort, and they were acquaintances.

That being said, there were only about 80 knights living at this fort, so everyone was generally acquainted with each other.

“Oh, it’s Tina. Good morning.”

“Good morning, Kix.”

Even as she returned the youth’s greeting, she felt a sense of wrongness at coming across him at such an early time.

“What’s wrong? You wouldn’t be late even if you slept in a bit more. You’re up quite early today.”

While it wasn’t to the same extent as Grail, Tina was an early riser. In about another 30 minutes, the other knights would all wake up at once. Thus, she wanted to finish her morning preparations before all the men with bedheads got up and made the barracks noisy.

In contrast, Kix was supposed to be bad in the mornings……when he heard Tina’s words, he responded while yawning.

“I had the night shift. After eating, I’m heading to bed.”

“Ahh, so that’s why. Your unit was in charge of border patrol last night, right?”

“Right right. It was boring as usual.”

The main mission of the knights at the Northern Fort was border security. That being said, there weren’t any particularly large disputes with the country bordering this region in recent years, and up until now they had never seen any illegal immigrants either.

That was because in between this region and the adjacent country was a mountain range, with the snow spirit Snowlea’s mountain being in the centre of it. As such, crossing the border was difficult.

All of the mountains were incredibly tall and covered in snow all year round, making the chances of accidents occuring and the danger of freezing to death exceedingly high. In the past, there may have been people trying to illegally enter from the neighbouring country, but it was likely that before the fort’s knights found them, they had already lost their lives deep in the mountains. 

The nighttime border patrol was a duty that was so boring that it hurt.

Their other duties included patrolling the surrounding towns. That did not just mean going around and watching over the populace’s lives, but exterminating beasts that came to human habitations out of hunger during the winter, as well as helping to shovel snow.

In addition, patrolling and defending the base of Snowlea’s mountain was one of their most important missions.

A spirit possessing such mighty power was not only enticing for normal humans, but was especially attractive to greedy humans.

Snowlea’s mountain was often visited by the local residents who would come to offer their prayers. However, the number of patrons with wicked thoughts, who came hoping to make the spirit’s power their own, was not few. 

Though, even if such humans tried to climb the mountain, they’d probably run out of strength from the cold before they could ever meet the snow spirit that lived at its summit. Even so, they could not be negligent in managing the mountain’s defense.

The reason being that the snow spirit Snowlea was a greatly appreciated existence that would lend aid to humans and protect this country. As such, they were told by the King to focus their efforts on guarding Snowlea’s mountain rather than border security. 

It was true that if the spirit was stolen by some individual or another country, it would be a huge loss to this country. Especially because there weren’t many spirits like Snowlea who were willing to cooperate with humans. 

For better or for worse, spirits were rather unfeeling. As they normally did not interfere with human matters, Snowlea’s existence was valuable. 

Tina had never seen a spirit before, but according to the rumours, Snowlea was breathtakingly beautiful, like a Queen of Snow. 

Tina was probably not the only one thinking that she’d like to meet such an existence that transcended humanity at least once. All her other knight comrades would often joke around, saying things like how they’d “like to see how much of a beauty the spirit was”. 

“If you’re heading to the dining hall, then let’s go together.”

After Tina said that, Kix responded, “Sure” and nodded casually.

When the two entered the early morning dining hall, there were a sparse number of people inside. For Tina, this was the usual scene, but Kix murmured something like, “Looks like it’ll be easy to get a seat”.

Just as he thought that, his feet suddenly came to a stop as he made a puzzled expression. Knowing that he was surprisingly perceptive, Tina also started to quickly survey the surroundings.

Indeed, something was strange. The gazes of all their companion knights that were eating breakfast inside, were all being drawn in one place.

Even as they carried bread and soup to their mouths, the muscles of their faces were sloppily slackened as they stared at something.

“What’s with that, how gross.”

Kix said unreservedly. Tina also felt the same.

But, once she saw the object of their gazes, she understood.

“Ah! Yesterday’s……Mil-chan!”

In the corner of the dining hall was Vice Captain Grail, who was taking his meal after finishing his early morning training, but a fluffy white furball could be seen at his feet.

Upon drawing closer, you could tell that the furball actually had ears and a tail, and that it was a slightly round fox cub. 

Tina felt warm and comfy. The soothing effect just from seeing that cute creature was tremendous. She couldn’t say that the slack-jawed faces of the other knights in the dining hall were gross anymore.

“Mil? ……ahh, the rumoured fox cub. Rather, why is it inside? And why is it so attached to the Vice Captain?”

Kix was ignorant of yesterday night’s incident. Thus, she explained the details of the matter——that Mil had been attacked by a wild dog, and was brought into the Vice Captain’s room – as he had originally been feeding her – for protection——while approaching Grail and the fox cub.

It appeared that the fox cub had already finished consuming her own meal, and was regretfully licking the empty plate. However, upon noticing Tina and Kix’s approach, she flusteredly hid in the shadow of Grail’s long leg.

“Mil-chan, it’s me~. Don’t you remember that we met yesterday?”

Tina spoke in the gentlest voice she could muster.

Hearing her, the fox cub’s ears twitched, and she timidly poked her face out from behind Grail’s leg.

Seeing the cub’s appearance made Tina feel like she might just have a nosebleed from the cuteness. Surely the others in the dining hall also felt the same.

The sight of the fox cub’s tiny paws nonchalantly stepping on Grail’s boot-clad foot was irresistible. The cub’s attention was focussed this way, so she probably didn’t notice that she was stepping on him.

“You gave her a name?”

Tina’s breathing had gone heavy from being in front of the fox cub, but she suddenly returned to her senses at hearing Grail’s extremely calm voice call out to her.

He had also finished his meal already, and was turned this way.

“G-Good morning, Vice Captain! Sorry for the noise.”

“Good morning, Vice Captain.”

Tina was panicked, but Kix greeted Grail as usual.

“Um! The name……well, it’s just that after seeing that child in the base, I started calling her that in my heart.”

She explained while wiping away a cold sweat. It wasn’t like she was thinking of becoming the fox cub’s namer*.

• *T/N: The term used here is “名付け親” (nazukeoya), which literally means “the person(/parent) to give something its name”, though it is sometimes referred to as “godparent” in translation, as the namer usually assumes such a role in certain parts of Japan.

Kix asked in a mystified manner.

“Why Mil?”

“It’s pretty straightforward, so explaining it is a bit embarrassing, but……she’s white like milk, hence ‘Mil-chan’……”

Tina’s face grew red as she spoke.

“Now that I think of it, I forgot to name her. It’s easy to remember, so isn’t ‘Mil’ fine? Right, Mil?”

Grail readily accepted it, and the fox cub’s tail also wagged in approval. It may have been her imagination, but the cub’s eyes seemed to sparkle, and she looked happy.

“Is it really okay? To use the name I thought of……t-that makes me happy.”

“But Vice Captain, just the other day you didn’t say anything about how you were feeding that fox cub. What’s with you feeding her in secret. How unfair!”

“You didn’t ask, so I simply didn’t answer.”

“Even though that cub’s like the Northern Fort’s idol, you monopolised her. So unfair~. How horrible~”

The good part about Kix was that he was able to interact with anyone without cowering. However, that was also one of his bad parts.

After the Vice Captain threatened him, saying, “Do you really want to go for training just after getting off a night shift?”, he finally shut up. But, he didn’t learn his lesson, as he then called out to the fox cub with a bright voice.

“Come, Mil!”

In contrast to Kix, who approached without any reserve, the fox cub once again hid behind Grail’s leg.

“Jeez. Don’t scare her.”

“Don’t speak with such a loud voice.”

Both Tina and Grail warned Kix at the same time.

“Sorry……but I want to touch her too. She looks like she’d be reallllllly nice to touch.”

Kix made a boyish expression, and stared fixedly at the fox cub while remaining in a crouching position.

The fox cub felt his gaze, and then curled up even more. Tina felt as though she could hear the thumping sound of the cub’s heart from where she was.

“If you want to become friends with Mil-chan, then it’ll take some time. She hasn’t opened up to me yet either.”

After Tina said that in a slightly lonely manner, the fox cub suddenly poked her head out again, and looked at Tina while making small ‘kyun kyun’ cries as though she were trying to say something.

However, she couldn’t tell what those fox cries meant. All she knew was that the fox cub’s crying voice was cute. There was no doubt about that.

Tina and all of them continued to talk for a short while after that, and gradually the number of people in the dining hall increased, causing the fox cub’s tension level to also rise, at which point Grail stood up from his seat.

“It’s about time I take her…….Mil, back to my room. She’s probably still not used to being surrounded by people after all.”

When Grail went to return his cutlery back to the counter, the fox cub flusteredly followed after him. Perhaps because she’d get anxious when she wasn’t close to Grail, the sight of her desperately moving her short legs to keep up was cute.

At the counter, the head chef called out to the fox cub, saying, “Was the food yummy?”. Even as she faltered slightly at his deep voice, the cub responded with a high pitched ‘kyun’. 

“Wow, it’s like she’s really responding.”

“Isn’t it ‘cause she can somewhat tell that she’s being spoken to?”

Tina and Kix uttered their thoughts while watching the scene. The two remained in the dining hall to take breakfast, but after Grail had a short conversation with the head chef while returning his cutlery, he soon left the dining hall.

As he cut through the dining hall to get to the exit from the counter, he drew the attention of the knights, whose numbers had started to increase. Though, unlike Kix, everyone else was well aware of the circumstances, so they simply watched over things silently.

The fox cub had become a great comfort in this Northern Fort that had few modes of entertainment. That is what Tina thought as she observed the slovenly expressions of the men as they were bewitched from watching the fox cub. 

When this land is sealed in snow, usually a somewhat desolate and melancholy atmosphere falls upon it, but this winter is sure to be different.

Just looking at the fox cub chasing after Grail softened everyone’s hearts. That restless figure that moved with all its might made the dining hall’s atmosphere brighter. 

However, even though the fox cub was desperately trying to chase after him, Grail’s pace didn’t slow at all, nor did he try to pick her up. How Grail-like, Tina smiled wryly.

If it were herself, Tina would probably carry the cub in her arms everywhere, but that wouldn’t be good for the fox cub. It was because he knew that they would eventually have to return the cub to nature that Grail did this, and it was both his form of strictness and kindness. 

“By the way, does the Branch Captain know about this?”

As he saw off Grail and the fox cub, Kix spoke.

“Wouldn’t the Branch Captain have already heard about it? Even if he hasn’t yet, it’ll probably be reported to him sometime today.”

“Hmm, I really want to see the reaction of the [Icy Branch Captain] when he sees that fox cub~.”

Kix grinned as he said that.

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Translator Comments:

That was a long chapter……a whole 7 pages! Still, now that Mil’s getting closer to the knights, the story should really start to pick up now. Well, it’ll still be a few chapters before Mama-san comes back~