Previously
Henrietta proves her value to Duke Kalinin by demonstrating her skill with a crossbow after failing to draw a heavy longbow. Despite her ignorance of military etiquette, the Duke accepts her as a trainee, intrigued by her bluntness and potential as a 'troublemaker.'
The Duke had said a senior clerk would guide her to the barracks.
Instead, the one who escorted Henrietta to her quarters was Billy Temperk, the Duke’s adjutant.
Naturally chatty and exuberant, Billy was already beside himself with excitement that the rumored ex-Countess of Salt had enlisted as a private in the Krakow Division.
“Getting this whole huge barrack to yourself is an incredible privilege, you know.”
The female barracks were originally built for six people.
However, the Krakow Division had not had female soldiers for a long time.
Tasked with fighting monsters, women—relatively weaker than men—simply could not hold out.
In truth, fighting monsters was brutally difficult for men as well.
It was commonplace for recruits who enlisted full of bravado, thinking monsters were mere wild boars, to wet their pants and faint on their very first deployment.
Female noble officers who had graduated from the academy with formal training avoided assignments to the Krakow Division for the exact same reason.
In other units, the same effort would yield far greater accolades, whereas in the Krakow Division, the greatest achievement amounted to little more than having hunted and killed some beast somewhere at some time.
It was harder labor with far less recognition. Double the pay held little appeal for women who were already wealthy.
Even so, the Duke had never torn down the empty female quarters.
It was a right guaranteed to female soldiers by law.
Thanks to that, Henrietta wound up having a six-person barrack all to herself, though she had no inkling of the backstory.
“Yes. It certainly seems spacious.”
“Yeah, use it however you want. And this is your Daily Wear for sleeping and lounging, and this is your Training Uniform. Just put this on when you head out tomorrow morning. Your official uniform will be issued at the administrative building tomorrow. A supply soldier will come fetch you, so go pick it up then. Stuff your clothes and personal things into that locker over there, cram it full, do whatever you like.”
Henrietta felt a bit puzzled.
Billy’s tone bore none of the military protocol the Duke had just taught her.
‘I suppose as long as I’m not in front of the Division Commander, I can just speak normally.’
It was a colossal misunderstanding.
Billy, the Duke’s adjutant, was simply utterly clueless.
In reality, Billy was the Krakow Division’s true troublemaker.
Yet the Duke could never bring himself to get rid of him.
He was a knight of House Krakow who had grown up alongside the Duke since childhood, so Kalinin regarded him like an annoying skin tag that refused to go away.
Perhaps that was why.
The Duke had a rather low bar for what constituted a troublemaker. Any ordinary division commander—no, there was no need to go that far up the chain. To any average senior soldier, Henrietta would have been disqualified the moment she blurted out, ‘I got it, all right?’
“All right. I’ll make myself at home.”
“Uh… sure. Sleep well, see you tomorrow.”
At Trainee Matyas’s breezy response, Billy tilted his head in mild bewilderment, feeling as though something were slightly off, and left the barrack.
Left alone, Henrietta looked around the barrack that would serve as her new home.
The place was, to put it mildly, somewhere between a prison cell and a cheap tavern. It was a classic piece of shoddy construction, built haphazardly without the slightest regard for symmetry, plumb, or level.
Gaps ran between the logs where their thicknesses varied, leaving the walls completely uneven. Without a doubt, the winter wind would whistle right through those cracks.
Not that it looked promising for the summer, either. The single, laughably small window was enough to make one’s chest feel tight just looking at it.
The crowning blow to this total disaster was the building material itself. Even plain brick would have been an upgrade, but they had built it out of whole logs. The vaguely damp-looking log walls seemed to be doing their absolute best just by not sprouting mushrooms.
Still, someone had at least made an effort to clean. Though given the mingled scent of dust and damp mop water, it had clearly been a half-hearted job.
And thanks to that cleaning, the stark desolation of the interior—completely devoid of any ornamentation for aesthetic or emotional comfort—stood out all the more.
No curtains, no carpets, no candlesticks, no porcelain, no washbasin. Nothing.
It felt like a space meant solely for falling unconscious.
Yet Henrietta rather liked the barracks.
For starters, lodging was free. With her circumstances barely a step above a beggar, she was not so out of her mind as to throw a fit over room conditions when it didn’t cost her a copper.
She also appreciated how wide the bed was.
It was so vast that calling it a bunk felt far more accurate than calling it a bed.
The sleeping platform, nothing more than planks laid over beams on the floor, was meant for six people, normally topped with six blankets.
Unaware that this was a six-person quarter, Henrietta naturally assumed it was all for her and marveled at its size.
In front of the platform stood six tall, rectangular iron boxes.
“Is this the locker?”
Clatter.
With no lock on it, she simply pulled the door open.
“Oh, my!”
Henrietta’s eyes flew wide.
The locker was packed to the brim with food.
***
The sky turned crimson.
It was the soldiers’ favorite hour, when the day’s training was done and dinner was finished.
Their only free time of the day before washing up and turning in.
Soldiers usually gathered in small groups to pass the time with idle chatter or casual betting games.
At least, that was how it would normally go.
Forgetting all about their precious downtime, soldiers were beginning to swarm around the fence facing the female barracks.
Every single pair of eyes was glued to the female quarters beyond the fence.
It was not because today’s recruit was a woman.
Nor was it because an enlisted soldier was an aristocrat.
Their focus might have shifted had anyone actually caught a glimpse of her face, but none of the fretting enlisted men gathered there had seen the newbie at all.
What mattered to them was—
“Hey, did you clear out the jellies?”
The jellies.
“Do you think I had time to clear them out?”
“C-Corporal Dudery… what about the candies?”
“I said, do you think I cleared them out, you brainless idiot!”
Faced with the repeated question, the corporal in charge of cleaning the barracks today snapped in a fury.
“That place was empty until this morning! It was still empty at lunchtime! How was I supposed to know someone was moving in? Huh? Did I know? Did you know?”
Cleaning empty barracks was supposed to be a cushy gig.
Since no one was moving in, all you had to do was casually pretend to clean.
Taking advantage of the fact that no one ever set foot inside, the enlisted men had been stashing unauthorized snacks smuggled from outside in those lockers.
Jellies, candies, chocolate bread!
The sweet lubricants that made military service bearable.
With the very lives of those precious darlings in mortal peril, it was no wonder everyone had rushed over in sheer panic.
Yet they couldn't just march right into the quarters, either.
“Corporal, can’t you just head in there, say our gear is inside, and bring it out?”
“Are you out of your mind? Go into the female barracks without the platoon commander’s permission? If that woman screams, I’ll face summary execution on the spot! That’s on a whole different level from smuggling outside food!”
The soldiers dragged their hands through their hair, letting out long, deflated sighs.
That locker was a sweet little indulgence shared strictly among the enlisted ranks.
Now, they sorely regretted not winning over a single platoon commander to their side.
“Let’s just pull the newbie into our circle instead.”
“Make some sense, will you? Didn’t you hear she had a private audience with the Division Commander? Anyone can tell she’s a noble. Would a noble care about smuggled civilian junk like we do?”
At the exchange between the two corporals, the privates clutched their heads in utter despair.
Was this truly the end?
Must they now pour all their efforts into concealing where those illicit snacks came from?!
“Wait… but… doesn't that mean we don’t need to worry about the jellies’ safety?”
“What are you babbling about?”
“You said the recruit’s a noble. A noble wouldn’t eat cheap civilian junk like Mongsil Jelly or Ruljo Candy, right?”
“…Huh?”
“Hey, that’s true.”
“Look at you! You’ve actually got a head on your shoulders!”
Relieved, the senior soldiers praised their junior.
However, the problem remained.
“Alright, assuming the contraband is safe for now, let’s figure out how we’re going to get it back.”
How could they safely recover their beloved jellies, candies, and chocolate bread, all of which must be desperately waiting for their touch?
“Hah! Men, a brilliant idea just struck me. All you have to do is trust me.”
Corporal Dudery puffed out his chest, bragging loudly.
“Ooh! Corporal! I knew we could count on you!”
“What is it? What’s the plan?”
As with everyone, Corporal Dudery had a plan that sounded plausible enough.