Ch.91[Chapter 91] Interview

“Are you there? Oh no. Did I come too suddenly?”

Someone with a girl’s voice kept knocking outside the door.

Sir Dominic was flustered by the sudden situation, but soon regained his composure and stood up.

Standing in front of the door, Sir Dominic took a deep breath and opened it.

“Knock knock. Are you the- Oh! You are here!”

The face of the girl who had been knocking outside brightened.

Sir Dominic looked at the girl and couldn’t say anything.

Long hair braided in two pigtails, layered with silver and light blue colors like ice.

Skin so white it was almost transparent like a sheet of ice.

Eyes so blue they were chilling—they would have turned onlookers to ice if they weren’t so round and large.

Though she still hadn’t shed her childish appearance, she looked like a girl who could already make many men cry.

However, Sir Dominic wasn’t speechless because of her beauty.

While she did look like a young girl overall…

She was a head taller than Sir Dominic!

“Hello! I’m Alice, the one who sent the letter! If it’s not too presumptuous, could I become your squire?”

And this girl seemed to have no boundaries.

…

“So.”

Sir Dominic looked at Alice, who was sipping cocoa on the living room sofa.

The tall, thin girl whose seated height reached Sir Dominic’s shoulders had come with a backpack larger than herself. Her determination to become a squire seemed genuine, as the bag was filled with lances, axes, two-handed swords, and hammers.

Dressed in a tunic and chain mail that knights of bygone eras might wear, Alice grinned with satisfaction, sniffling as she enjoyed her cocoa.

“You came all this way without a plan just to become a squire?”

“Yes!”

Sir Dominic felt a headache coming on.

According to the letter, this young girl was only 15 years old. Despite being taller than Sir Dominic, she was still just a child.

In Ferallant, her audacity might have been called courage and earned her a position as a squire, but this was Gachaland.

“Didn’t your parents or friends try to stop you?”

“My parents were delighted that I would finally be writing my heroic tale! They always wanted me to become a knight!”

“Like an electrical engineer or telecommunications engineer,” Alice said with a bright smile.

It seemed this young girl and her parents were a bit unfortunate in the head.

No, that’s wrong. Blaming himself for speaking against chivalry, Sir Dominic continued.

“What kind of family do you come from that makes you want to be a knight so badly?”

“Oh, right. This is an interview, isn’t it! I know! I saw it on TV!”

Giggling, the girl began to spill everything, whether true or not.

“My father is a knight from the North, and my mother is a frost giant. Father went to install Wi-Fi at mother’s house, fell in love at first sight, and proposed. Mother had me late in life, but giants are long-lived! Above all, in Gachaland, value equals lifespan, so both will live together for a hundred years!”

From her disorganized speech, Sir Dominic extracted what useful information he could and fell into thought.

Frost giant. Giant.

Sir Dominic had fought giants before.

The battle had been so intense that one knight who fought alongside him fell into psychological distress and would charge at windmills, shouting that they were giants.

Scholars had determined that giants lived about 300 years.

At 15, she was essentially only 3 years old by human Ferallant standards.

Even considering giant coming-of-age rituals, she was undoubtedly very young.

This explained her childlike appearance despite her height, and her awkward speech and behavior.

“At 15, there must be other things you want to do.”

Sir Dominic wondered why this young giant girl had decided to become a knight of all things.

“People talk about value, you see.”

The girl’s answer was unexpected.

Alice fiddled with her mug, now half-empty of cocoa, as she spoke.

“I want to live happily with my mom and dad for a long time. They say I need to have value for that. And the best way is to become a tank. That’s why I want to be a knight.”

Childlike, disjointed words.

But Sir Dominic understood them.

A child’s peculiar, misguided love for their parents.

“They say to become a knight, you have to be a squire first! I asked around, and they said if you work under a knight for more than 5 years, you can become a knight. So I’m going to be a squire!”

Though her lengthy explanation was somewhat irritating, Sir Dominic nodded.

By giant standards, 5 years was a very short time.

300 years. A long-lived race that lived five times longer than humans by Ferallant standards.

For them, 5 years was like 1 year for humans. A somewhat bearable amount of time.

That’s why Alice had sought out Sir Dominic without a plan.

Alice finished the last of her cocoa and let out a satisfied sigh.

But suddenly, Sir Dominic’s silence seemed to make her nervous, and she fidgeted as she spoke.

“I also completed Scout training! Look! I collected all the badges! …Actually, I caught a cold in the middle and couldn’t get the perfect attendance medal, but the instructor made me a special medal out of a bottle cap!”

Alice pulled up her tunic to reveal the chest part of her chain mail.

There appeared a badge with dozens of children’s medals made of bottle caps and plastic.

“I’m diligent and kind! And-“

“So, how much would you like to be paid during your time as a squire?”

Sir Dominic addressed the young girl.

In truth, Sir Dominic had already decided to take this little lady as his squire while she was making her case.

There are different types of squires.

Apprentice squires who formally pledge to become squires and receive training from knights.

And contract squires who perform a squire’s duties through a contract.

Sir Dominic was thinking of the latter.

To become a formal squire, one had to give up everything else.

Money, honor, profession, family, and future.

One had to pledge to devote oneself entirely to knight training, and breaking this oath in Ferallant resulted in having one’s wrist cut off and being banished to the wasteland.

And one had to pass all the harsh training given by the knight, during which many squires died.

And since Sir Dominic was not skilled at teaching others and was ignorant of everything except combat, he might treat a squire even more harshly than other knights.

This young lady was too young to live such a cruel life.

That’s why Sir Dominic proposed a contract squire.

Being paid to do what a squire should do—maintaining and repairing armor, weapons, and horses.

That’s what he meant by asking how much she wanted to be paid.

But the girl seemed to have understood it differently.

Alice’s already large round eyes grew even larger and rounder, and then she tearfully smiled brightly.

“Thank you! I’ll work hard!”

Alice jumped up, placed both hands above her navel, and kept bowing.

There was a near incident where her tall height almost broke the ceiling light, but it passed as just a mishap.

…

“Are you really okay with just that?”

“Yes! It’s enough!”

Alice stamped the squire contract with the condition of receiving 5 giant-sized cotton candies every month.

Sir Dominic, who had checked the price of giant-sized cotton candy on his phone, found it so cheap that he felt uncomfortable about exploiting this new squire.

“So what should I do now?”

Alice, taller than Sir Dominic but still lacking in age and experience, asked enthusiastically.

“Oh! Right! Do you have a mount, Sir? My dad praised me for washing cars well! I can take good care of mounts too!”

Her enthusiasm was almost problematic, but Sir Dominic thought that dampening her spirit would be a bad experience for a new squire, so he nodded and said:

“I have a new mount I just received. I’ve only organized it and haven’t ridden it yet, so let’s go see it together.”

Normally, Sir Dominic used formal speech according to knightly etiquette, but since a squire was in a subordinate position to a knight, Sir Dominic spoke informally as other knights did to their squires.

And perhaps feeling that this was knightly behavior, the girl nodded vigorously with a broad smile.

Her long braided pigtails swung like ropes.

Sir Dominic brought out the steampunk spider tank and steampunk airship he had stored in the warehouse.

The two mounts that emerged through the large warehouse door were quite impressive.

“Wow… what unusual mounts. I thought I’d be taking care of a horse or a rhinoceros.”

Or maybe a dinosaur, Alice thought with childlike imagination as she marveled at the shiny, impressive mounts.

Sir Dominic nodded too.

Shouldn’t a knight have a horse?

A white horse or a black horse, or at least a brown horse with white feet would have been nice.

Sir Dominic thought the mounts before him weren’t very knightly, but he reminded himself that this was Gachaland and convinced himself to accept it.

“Let’s ride them! Don’t you think it’ll be fun?”

The sight of a girl a head taller than Sir Dominic jumping up and down was cute but somewhat disconcerting, but Sir Dominic actually wanted to try these new mounts as well.

“Let’s give it a try then.”

Sir Dominic climbed onto the spider tank first.

As he mounted the spider tank, which was probably twice his height, the view was novel.

Is this how knights in Ferallant felt when riding horses? Sir Dominic wondered.

“Let’s move it!”

Alice urged Sir Dominic with an excited face.

Her already white face was now flushed with joy, like red dye spreading in water.

“Alright.”

Sir Dominic didn’t know how to control this unfamiliar mount, but he soon found a solution.

A manual was placed next to the control panel.

It seemed to be prepared for first-time riders.

As Sir Dominic followed the manual and started the engine, a rough engine sound began to be heard.

“Wow! It’s starting to move!”

Alice was filled with anticipation.

But that anticipation was soon betrayed.

[This mount requires a Class 1 Large Steam Engine license. Please obtain a driver’s license first.]

By an insensitive system message.