There’s Something Special About Her - Chapter 46

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 46.
“God, I’m dying of sleepiness.”
I rubbed the corners of my eyes with another yawn—who knows how many by now.
The harsh morning sun was merciless on eyes already exhausted from the night shift.
My stomach still felt stuffed with Yanick’s roast from hours before.
My mind was already sprawled out on a bunk in The Nest’s dormitory, but my body remained standing guard at the outer wall checkpoint.
“Tell me about it. And of all times, an extension shift.”
Jake, who’d been dozing off while standing, snapped his eyes open at my muttering and groaned.
Unlike Hubert and Bono, who had seniority to dodge such things, he was stuck with an extension like me.
The usual crowd lined up to enter Nox Fortress cast pitiful glances at the two of us, looking every bit like we’d pulled an all-nighter.
I waved at the merchant’s cart ahead—which wasn’t moving despite the gap opening up—and asked Jake, “So why are we doing an extension shift anyway? Seems like a quiet day.”
“Why are we doing an extension shift anyway? Seems like a quiet day.”
Jake was the only person with enough decency to actually explain the reason to a junior like me, bottom of the food chain.
“What was it again? I definitely heard something.”
Jake scratched his head and let out a yawn that split his face, speaking slowly.
“Oh, right. Today’s the last day for new Trainees to report to the Training Institute.”
“The Training Institute?”
“Yeah. Annual event, happens every year.”
The Training Institute is Nox’s unique system for acquiring new recruits.
Once a year, it accepts Trainees, puts them through a set period of training, then assigns them to appropriate units based on their individual talents and abilities.
Even becoming a Trainee isn’t easy.
You have to pass a qualification examination.
The exam evaluates Physical Strength, Combat Technique, and knowledge related to Nox.
In short, they assess comprehensively whether you’re physically strong and mentally sharp.
Unless you have a special skill that can substitute for combat ability—like something the Medical Division or Workshop offers—everyone without exception gets tested on Physical Strength and Combat Technique.
The same applies to those hoping to work in departments like Finance or Foreign Affairs, where day-to-day work has nothing to do with physical labor.
What’s even more disheartening is that Nox’s quota of Trainees is never fixed year to year.
If applicants are in good form, they might hire dozens at once. If the standards are pathetic, they might only take one or two.
So among people wanting to become a Nox Trainee, many invest years of effort.
“Come to think of it, is this your first time watching the Trainees arrive?”
“First time what?”
“Seeing the Trainees.”
“Yeah, it is.”
I’d arrived at Nox the day after last year’s Trainees had all finished their intake.
The chaos had been intentional enough that I’d been able to slip into the Action Squad half-haphazardly.
“But why did they delay the intake so much this year?”
“Why else? There were so many applicants.”
“That many?”
“Yeah. This time, apparently there are a lot of Trainees coming from outside too.”
“That’s…”
Perfect opportunity to slip a spy in, wouldn’t it?
The habitual thought brought a spike of irritation with it.
Other years they took in plenty of external Trainees too, didn’t they?
Although come to think of it, most years Nox tended to select from vassal families or people with clear origins from within the Nox Dukedom.
That was why I’d ultimately failed in my attempt to slip a Wickes spy into the Training Institute back then.
‘Anyway, it’s not my concern anymore.’
Just then, a man approached the checkpoint.
He was noticeable in several ways.
‘What’s with that size?’
The man was so enormous that even merchants, accustomed to Nox’s generally well-built people, gasped and stepped aside to let him pass.
He had some meat on him, but he wasn’t bloated—not by a long shot.
A person with truly massive frame and bone structure, I’d say.
If Killian Nox counted a dragon among his ancestors, maybe this man counted a giant.
I was lost in thought when Jake poked my ribs.
I turned to find his face already drooping with sleep.
“L-Rookie.”
“Y-Yes, sir. I’ve got it.”
I sighed and stepped in front of the man.
“We’ll need to do a security check. Please show your Identity Card.”
Honestly, I’d expected him to snap at me right away.
To yell that some shrimp was blocking his way, and what was I going to do about it?
But the man just looked down at me with a blank expression, then unexpectedly held out his Identity Card without complaint.
“H-Here it is.”
Huh?
His speech stumbled oddly, so I looked closer—and his hands were trembling as he held the card.
‘What’s going on? Is he a junkie?’
Nasty bastards, eccentric weirdos, complete lunatics—I had confidence dealing with any type.
But addicts made my skin crawl.
The Identity Card I took felt authentic.
As the saying goes, a man who’s eaten meat knows meat.
Having forged and used dozens of fake Identity Cards, I was confident in my ability to tell real from counterfeit.
“Hanno Becker, sir?”
“…Yes.”
“What brings you to Nox today?”
“I… I’ve come to enroll in the Training Institute.”
“The Training Institute?”
Was this man the reason I ended up on the extension shift this morning?
I just glanced up at the mention of “Training Institute,” but Hanno Becker’s broad shoulders twitched.
Our eyes met in the process.
‘An earthquake—an actual earthquake.’
Ordinary brown eyes were transparently betraying his anxiety.
Looking again, it wasn’t a blank expression at all—it was frozen with tension.
His hands trembled hard enough to match it.
Despite that massive frame, he seemed terribly timid. I shifted my gaze back to the Identity Card.
“…Twenty years old?”
“Y-Yes, that’s correct. I just turned twenty this year, y-yes.”
A frame like that built in twenty years?
As I tasted an inexplicable sense of defeat, Jake slid a clipboard with a sheet of paper inserted over to me.
It was the security checkpoint form listing the personal information of today’s incoming Trainees.
‘He really is twenty.’
The Nox paperwork bore the same numbers as his Identity Card.
“And your address would be?”
“It’s B-Becker’s Bakery, on the outskirts of Astheim in the southern Nox Dukedom.”
“…Confirmed. Trainees must undergo luggage inspection. Please come with me for a moment.”
I couldn’t very well open someone’s bag in the middle of the street, so I brought him into the checkpoint.
But there was something I hadn’t anticipated.
Crash-bang-thud!
“I-I’m so sorry!”
The checkpoint was far too cramped and cluttered with odds and ends to accommodate Hanno Becker’s massive frame.
The moment he stepped in, he knocked over a water bucket from the table, and while reaching for it in a panic, he toppled a chair as well.
“It’ll be quick. Just wait a moment.”
“Yes…”
Hanno Becker hunched his shoulders and curled his body as small as he could, but a frame that broad doesn’t shrink to ordinary human proportions just because he tries.
I swallowed a quiet sigh and lifted the luggage bag he’d set down.
“Oh, I can carry it! M-Must be heavy for you.”
“It’s fine.”
It was definitely solid, but not unmanageable.
When I lifted the luggage bag easily and set it on the table, Hanno Becker opened his mouth wide and murmured.
“So this is Nox…”
The rectangular bag with handles was massive enough to hold a person comfortably.
But from its worn and tattered appearance, it seemed his household wasn’t particularly well-off.
Especially the lock mechanism, which was so rusted it looked ready to fall apart any moment.
“I’ll check the contents now.”
“Y-Yes, f-feel free to look.”
For a baker’s son, he spoke with the politeness one might use toward a customer wanting to inspect the goods.
The contents were sparse.
A few clothes sized for his enormous frame, simple writing materials, a spare pair of shoes—ordinary everyday items.
The only notable things were a bundle of new letter paper and envelopes, and a toy worn smooth by a child’s fingers.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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