At the Northern Fort V3C25

At the Northern Fort V3C25: Drills at the Fort (2)

Woodbaum stood up, and after seeing that Branch Captain-san had left the room, spoke. 

“It must be tough being a knight. While I respect them, if I were a human, I don’t think I could be a knight. I don’t want to fight with anyone after all.”

“Me too.”

Then, I surveyed the desk that I was on once more, realising that there was a basket with a pink ribbon tied to it there. 

It looked to be just the right size for me, and the bottom of the basket had a cotton cloth, decorated with fluttery frills and lace. 

Could this be the same basket that Hyllis was talking about?

Perhaps when he had Hyllis’ basket made, he had one made for me as well. 

I did feel that it was a bit overly decorated, but I don’t hate cute things. There was a basket for my personal use in the One-Eyed Knight’s room in the barracks, with a blanket laid out inside of it. I liked its simplicity, but this basket might be unexpectedly comfortable to sleep in too.

I decided to try going inside of it, and lifted up my right forepaw, bringing it over……over……I couldn’t get over the rim. 

The basket wasn’t all that high, but because my legs were too short, it was impossible for me to enter it one leg at a time.

Thinking that there was no other method except jumping to get inside of it, I took a few steps back.

Calculating in my head that I could use two steps for my approach and jump on the third, I prepared to dash forward

Alright, let’s go. Ready-

One, two, and three!

My timing was perfect. 

However, the instant I thought I would enter it smoothly, the basket that was sitting upon the shiny polished desk slipped on its surface due to my jumping momentum and overturned onto the ground.

“Kyaun!”

With a bang, my body hit the floor. The basket had flipped over when falling down, so right now it was hanging on my head.

“Eh…EHHHH……!? A-Are you okay, Milfiria!”

Woodbaum, who had been watching the whole sequence of events up until its unexpected conclusion, hastily rushed over.

It really hurts. But, this much pain is still tolerable. -I told myself. There was that time when I fell down the long stairs at the castle after all.

This experience will make me stronger!

As Woodbaum approached, I tried standing up with the basket still on my head, rustling as I attempted to walk. My body was completely concealed by it, so from the side it probably looked like the basket was moving on its own like a sentient being.

“Milfiria, wait a bit……here.”

Woodbaum transformed into his humanoid form and took the basket off of me. But, I had just been about to transform into my humanoid form to take the basket off myself, so when Woodbaum removed the basket, he was momentarily surprised by the toddler with fox ears that appeared in front of him.

“Huh? You transformed into your human form.”

“Yup.”

“I saw when we were staying in Tina and Rekka’s room, but now that I think of it, you can already change into the human form. This look is also really cute~!”

Woodbaum hugged me up and then started to squish my cheeks.

“Did you get hurt anywhere earlier? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. Because I’ve fallen down the stairs at the castle before too.”

I started to narrate my heroic saga when-

“Oh, looks like it’s started.”

Woodbaum looked outside the window and said. Not long after, I could hear the war cries of the knights encouraging both their comrades and themselves, as well as the sound of countless footsteps hitting the ground. 

I leaned forward from Woodbaum’s arms, peering through the window, where I could see all the knights fighting below. 

The walls surrounding the fortress had just enough height so that you’d slide off them even if you tried to climb them, so the attacking team that the One-Eyed Knight was leading were creating human footholds to help their comrades surmount the wall. They ran forward, using their comrades as stepping stools to jump to the top of the wall, clamber over it, and drop down to the interior. Even though most of them were rather large-bodied, everyone was pretty agile. 

Kix was particularly athletically inclined, so I feel like he’d be good at it, but he was already inside the fort to begin with as part of the defensive team. He was intercepting the invading knights with his word. 

Perhaps because they were in a position that couldn’t be seen from the window, I couldn’t find the figures of the One-Eyed Knight, Tina-san, or Rekka-san.

“Stop the Vice Cap!”

However, I could hear a voice shouting that, so I vaguely knew which direction the One-Eyed Knight was in. As expected, he was matchless. 

The Branch Captain’s office was quiet, but it was because of the silence that the outside tumult could be heard more clearly. Everyone was part of the Northern Fort and this was just a training drill. But even if I knew that, I could feel the palms of my hands getting wet with sweat.

“Just watching them is making my heart beat fast.”

“M-Me too.”

The two of us cowards hugged each other in the safe Branch Captain office while restlessly passing time.

Eventually, after an unknown period of time had passed, my small hands were soaked with a nervous sweat and I heard Branch Captain-san’s voice coming from the corridor in front of the room.

“That was fast, Grail.”

And then, without a single pause, the sound of blades clashing resounded.

The One-Eyed Knight and Branch Captain-san were fighting. While they should be using dull blades meant for training, I could tell from the sound of the impact that they were fighting seriously. 

I wanted to wait in front of the door, but I was told not to, so I somehow managed to suppress my impatient feelings. 

As the sounds of combat continued in the hallway, it seemed like they were evenly matched. 

Branch Captain-san said that the One-Eyed Knight was his goal, so if you compared the two, I felt like the One-Eyed Knight should be stronger, but perhaps they were a fairly equal match. The screeching of blades continued for a while without respite. 

However, eventually the fight reached its conclusion. 

One of their blades seemed to have broken, as a conspicuously loud metallic sound rang out before a sword seemed to fall to the ground. 

“Such raw strength……”

It was Branch Captain-san’s voice that muttered so with a sigh. In other words—

“One-Eyed Knight!”

As the door quietly opened, the One-Eyed Knight sheathed his sword and walked towards me. My tail quivered in welcome.

“Milfiria, your tail will fall off.”

Woodbaum worried about the violent movements of my tail as he placed me on the ground.

“One-Eyed Knight!”

I transformed into my fox cub form as I ran, jumping into his chest as he crouched down. My face burst into a smile as I crashed into him. 

The One-Eyed Knight also laughed at my warm welcome and said-

“I’ve come to pick you up, Mil.”

-before kissing my forehead.

Ah, that’s…where Branch Captain-san kissed earlier……

The training drill safely ended. I was relieved seeing that none of the knights had been severely injured. Woodbaum said he was going to return to his usual spot under the shade of the trees, so I joined him, riding on his back. 

All of the knights went around the fort, fixing doors that someone had kicked down, restoring parts of the grass that had been turned over, and inspecting areas that needed to be repaired. 

And it was an unpopulated area where we came across Tina-san and Rekka-san, who appeared to be having a dispute over something.

“But, I’m worried……”

“It’s fine, it isn’t an issue at all.”

The fairy sitting on Rekka-san’s shoulder noticed me and came flying, so the two of them suddenly turned towards me. 

“Tina-san, Rekka-san, what’s wrong?”

I peeked out from behind Woodbaum’s neck and asked.

Just what in the world was happening now?

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Translator Comments:

At this rate, all the knights of the Northern Fort will have indirectly kissed each other via Mil, lol.