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At the Northern Fort V3C3: Female Knight Rekka (1)
The next day, the female knight that Tina-san spoke about arrived at the fort, so the One-Eyed Knight and I headed for Branch Captain-san’s office together to meet her. I might be mistaken for a wild fox otherwise, so it seems that they’re planning on introducing me as a spirit from the start.
“Excuse us.”
“‘Scusy~”
*Badump badump*, *excite excite*. While embracing such slightly anxious emotions, I followed the One-Eyed Knight and entered Branch Captain-san’s room.
When I did so, the female knight was already standing at attention in front of the desk inside, where Branch Captain-san was sitting.
Hearing the door open, she turned around and swallowed a breath down as I entered her line of sight.
“Mil, come here.”
Wearing his icy mask, Branch Captain-san called me with a cool tone of voice. Thus, I looked up at the tall female knight with a curious gaze while making my way further into the room.
And then, after arriving next to the desk that Branch Captain-san was sitting at, I sat down like a good girl. First impressions were important after all.
I wanted to check the scent of the approaching female knight, but I felt that doing so on our first meeting would be a bit rude, so I held back.
“Is that baby fox the aforementioned……child of the snow spirit?”
The female knight asked nervously.
She was a smartly dressed, cool beauty, so it didn’t seem like I needed to be worried about my concerns with her being hot-headed or having a violent temperament from yesterday. She might be more muscular than most women, but she had a slender frame and a tight waist.
However, her strawberry blonde hair wasn’t in a long ponytail like how Tina-san had described, and was instead cut short. It really suited her small face, but if it had originally been so long, it felt like a waste to have cut it all off like this.
Branch Captain-san said this in response to the female knight’s question.
“Indeed. Her name is Milfiria, but those at the fort just call her Mil. Things that you should note are that she may suddenly appear at Grail’s feet when she uses something called a transfer technique, so be careful not to accidentally kick her away. Also, jerky is her favourite food, so she’ll want to eat a lot, but it’ll give her an upset stomach, so even if she begs for it, steel your heart and say no.”
Whenever I begged, Branch Captain-san would grit his teeth painfully. So that was because he was ‘steeling his heart’?
“Additionally, sometimes other spirits will come to this fort to visit Mil. The ones who come often are Kugalg, as well as Hyllis. I will give you a document detailing their features and personalities later. Read it and commit it to memory.”
“Yes.”
Just when in the world was such a document created?
Branch Captain-san then dropped his gaze towards me and introduced the female knight to me.
“Mil, this is Rekka from the Capital’s main branch. She’s from a viscount house. Starting today, she’ll be one of the knights of the Northern Fort.”
“Child of Snow, I am called Rekka Celiade. It is an honour to meet you.”
The female knight—Rekka-san, took a step my way and then kneeled while placing one hand on her chest.
Although she was a woman, my heart thumped as I thought, ‘What a lovely knight’. As expected of the person Tina-san looks up to.
“Wekka……Wekka…Rekka-san!”
I practised saying her name. Pronunciation is hard with a fox’s mouth.
She seemed like a good person and also didn’t look like she hated animals either, so my tail shook with relief.
Then, I approached Rekka-san and, like a student from the countryside interrogating a transfer student from the city, I began rapid-firing questions.
“Rekka-san, what do you like eating? The canteen at the fwort often makes potato dishes. Rekka-san, do you like potatoes? Winter’ll be coming soon, so how about the cold? Will you be okay? What about snow? Do you like snow?”
Rekka-san seened to be a serious person, as she politely answered each and every one of my questions while still kneeling.
“Yes, I don’t have any particular preferences for food, so I’ll eat anything they provide. I do like potatoes. I’ve lived in the Capital all my life, so this will be my first time experiencing winter in this region, but I think I will be okay with the cold. I’ve only seen light snowfall, but I do think it is beautiful.”
Unlike everyone else at the fort who only saw me as a fox cub, Rekka-san recognised me as a spirit, so treated me in a suitably respectful manner. This was a first for me.
“I was worried when it was decided that I would be assigned to the Northern Fort, but I am truly happy from the bottom of my heart to be able to have the rare opportunity to speak with the esteemed child of a spirit like this.”
“Eh? I see……um, that’s great.”
I wasn’t used to being revered, but while it bewildered me, it didn’t feel so bad.
But unfortunately, eventually Rekka-san will probably realise that she doesn’t have to treat me with this much respect. Because a truly noble spirit wouldn’t get itself covered in mud and have to be forced to take a bath.
“How formal.”
Smiling wryly at Rekka-san’s attitude, the One-Eyed Knight cut into the conversation from behind.
“Well, do as you like. There’s no problem with treating her politely.”
Branch Captain-san also spoke in a rather exasperated manner.
Following that, he turned his eyes towards Rekka-san’s short hair and asked about it.
“Incidentally, what happened to your hair? That’s quite the change.”
Branch Captain-san probably knew Rekka-san from before. Like Tina-san, he remembered her from the time when she still had long hair.
Rekka-san stood up and moved from in front of me to the area facing Branch Captain-san. Then, she spoke with a resigned expression.
“I just did it in order to punish myself for being demoted to the Northern Fort.”
Branch Captain-san’s brow lightly furrowed at her depressed voice as he raised an eyebrow.
“You seem to believe that this placement is just a demotion, but I haven’t received such a report. Your superiors at the main branch are eagerly anticipating your return.”
“……I wonder if I will be able to meet those expectations.”
Rekka-san murmured doubtfully. However, in the next instant she returned to her senses and bowed her head towards Branch Captain-san.
“My apologies. I understand well that it is my inexperience that led to this situation, so I’ve accepted this…….transfer, and hope to train myself to be able to meet their expectations.”
“By saying you ‘accept’ it, does that mean that you have no objections to what is reported here either? It says here that you punched one of your fellow knights.”
Branch Captain-san lightly lifted up a paper that was laying on top of his desk as he spoke. There was probably information about Rekka-san written there.
“While we’ve exchanged greetings in the past, we’ve never had missions together so I don’t know you all that well, but I do know that you’re not the type to flare up so easily. Something isn’t adding up here.”
“If you are wondering about the particulars leading to my being sent here, it is as what is written there.”
Rekka-san explained indifferently.
“When I was organising the storehouse, two of my male coworkers tried to lock me inside as a prank, so I got angry and punched them, against my better judgement. Those two seem to have disliked me for a long time, so they often would ‘tease’ me, and I just reached the limits of my patience…….perhaps. I punched them harder than necessary and ended up injuring them. The two of them have apologised to me, and I have also reflected and felt that I also went too far.”
“Thus those two received punishment, and you were also sent here. However, were you truly unable to smoothly deal with those two?”
Branch Captain-san said gently. He did not ask in a condemning manner, but spoke with a guiding tone of voice.
“I do not understand the hardships that come with being a female knight. But, it is because you had true strength that, rather than some half-hearted knights, you were chosen from all the newcomer knights as a target of provocation and sarcasm by a certain group of people. Why is it that this time you were unable to handle them rationally?”
It seemed like Branch Captain-san was concerned whether something awful had happened to Rekka-san outside of what was written in the report.
But Rekka-san simply hung her head silently, thus Branch Captain-san gave up on pressing her and changed the subject.
“Other than that, it seems like there were some other small problems caused by you. There were a lot of simple mistakes made as a result of a lack of concentration. There’s something about these that also don’t seem to add up to me but……”
Like Branch Captain-san, I also gave a doubtful look. An earnest-looking person like Rekka-san didn’t seem like the sort to make such simple mistakes.
However, Rekka-san didn’t try to refute any of the allegations, so perhaps the things written in the report were true.
Branch Captain-san recollected himself and spoke.
“In any case, from today you should put all that behind you and think of this new assignment as a brand new start. Here you shouldn’t be harassed just for being a woman, and if some dispute does occur because of that, then report them to myself or Grail before hitting the other party. Alright?”
“Yes, thank you very much.”
Seeing that Branch Captain-san was done speaking, the One-Eyed Knight turned his gaze down to the large bag lying at Rekka-san’s feet and said.
“Carry your luggage to your room. You know where it is?”
“No.”
“I’ll show you where!”
Concerned for the spiritless Rekka-san, I put forth such a proposal. Lifting up my tail cheerfully, I headed for the door.
“Follow me!”
“So she says. You can follow Mil.”
“Yes.”
As the One-Eyed Knight opened the door while laughing slightly, Rekka-san also gave a tiny smile.