Virgin Knight Who Is the Frontier Lord in the Gender Switched World

We are but pawns on the board.

Whether at home, in the market, or in the castle.

Cast aside as unwanted, licking stones and starving day by day.

As it stands, a future no different from roadside refuse is all but certain.

Yet, that person took our withered hands and assured us,

“Do not weep, do not fret, do not rot. You are the gleanings.
If you so desire, you can still show your worth to this world.”

“Follow me with your life on the line. If you think of yourself as a gleaner, then show your dignity through your actions.

Eventually, we will all be dust. If there’s no place for us here, then let’s make our presence known with the explosive sound of gleaners, barefoot and determined.”

“Over the scorching sands, the gravel, the mire, arm in arm we step over those who fall to celebrate life with those who endure.

Tomorrow, let us demonstrate our value again. And at dawn, after surviving, we will sprout in a new land. A life just for us.”

Excerpt from “The March of the Gleaners,” found in a sheepskin scroll stored in a small church’s barn in a certain country.

The minstrel seemed to have come up with another poem.

Atop a cart pulled by a donkey, she relaxed her feet and played her lute.

“A perilous journey. Constant dangers. No guarantee of survival. Yet, as a minstrel, you shall earn the patronage of my thousand-strong troop. You will also earn the right to sing freely in the streets of the town below the castle without having to bribe guards or patrolling knights,” was the promise that determined her companionship.

Indeed, it was a grand gesture, driven by desires only fulfilled by risking death. Her lute resonated more brilliantly than ever.

However, while this draft was successful, uncertainties still mingled about what would happen next.

This Sabine was somewhat apprehensive about the future.

“Am I failing a bit? It’s not like everyone acts as expected,” she muttered.

Of course, the commander riding alongside her heard it.

“Sabine, did you just say something incredibly worrying?”

“It’s nothing, Valiere-sama.”

“How could it be nothing?”

A blunder.

Valiere-sama, looking at me somewhat suspiciously, left me pondering what to do next.

Now that we’ve embarked on this journey, there’s no need to hide anything.

If I am to serve as Valiere-sama’s decoy, it wouldn’t matter how gruesomely I die.

Nor do I plan to control everything and use Valiere-sama merely as a puppet.

The last reins, I’ve decided, should be held by Valiere-sama.

“Valiere-sama. I believe you understand the situation, but—”

“I do. I’ve heard the discussions you’ve had with the bureaucrats. Frankly, I don’t like the way you handle things, Sabine. But everyone has the right to bet their lives, and it’s not like you’ve lied just to deceive good people. I understand that.”

Valiere-sama is not lacking in intelligence.

Educated, with the grace and appearance to calm the hearts of people, and the kindness to think of her subordinates’ happiness, she was deemed mediocre in the palace due to her lack of decisive action, unable to fully utilize her abilities. Now, having accumulated achievements in initial battles and improved relations with Princess Anastasia, she is not to be underestimated.

If there’s anything negative, it’s that Valiere-sama is simply too sweet, like honey. This sweetness does not serve well in the mutual contract of a king and knight.

“Should I succeed, if I can guarantee to pay the gathered women their due, then so be it.”

Valiere-sama would cry her heart out if I were to die, remembering me till her last breath, holding my head in her lap and weeping bitterly.

But someone like Princess Anastasia might merely clap her hands and laugh, saying, “Sabine has died? What a lucky day.”

People might see my true nature as monstrous, but I am aware of it.

“So, Sabine. If something is bothering you, tell me everything.”

Thus, I serve Valiere-sama, with no intention to serve anyone else as my lord. I never intended to make her a puppet.

Let’s have Valiere-sama take the lead from here, as I support her on this journey.

“Then, heed my advice. There are far too many from the Cologne Sect. I’ve indeed promised success bonuses to gather people, but I’ve done nothing towards the Cologne Sect Church. It was only Valiere-sama who personally promised the acolytes travel expenses and a modest reward.”

I voiced my concerns. The Cologne Sect had brought along donkeys and loaded them with their own food, gunpowder, and salt.

“They seem to be trading with sutlers to offset their travel expenses, without intending to ask you for travel funds.”

“In other words, the 30 members from the Cologne Sect have no profit in this. Yet, they are happily accompanying us on our journey.”

The Cologne Sect indeed seems mad.

Being clergy, they might accept poverty and misfortune without any gains, but this time, it’s not about giving bread or coins to others. The lives of 30 clergy are at stake.

“Are they accompanying us with some ulterior motive?”

“Yes. They are definitely hiding something.”

However, we couldn’t refuse.

We are adherents of the Cologne Sect, and if the clergy have some purpose in their actions, it is our position to assist somehow.

Even if we tried to extract their true intentions—

“But most likely, the lower echelons of the Cologne Sect don’t even understand the intent of this mission, and it’s possible even the acolytes from Polydoro’s domain don’t grasp the content.”

The Cologne Sect is not one to be intimidated by threats, and even if they succeeded, it’s unlikely they’d realize anything.

“I’ll try asking them myself.”

But as the leader of this expedition, Valiere-sama had the right to inquire about their purpose. There’s no loss even if there’s no answer.

“Just subtly, if you could ask.”

For now, that was the only symptomatic treatment.

We would just continue moving forward as planned.

“We will do that. Now, we’ve safely exited the electorate of Anhalt. From here on, it’s unfamiliar territory for all of us, and unlike Princess Anastasia, we don’t have a guide arranged by the Empress. We’ll look at rough maps and hire guides city by city. Additionally—”

“We’ll wipe out any notable bandit groups.”

“Are you really going to do that?”

Valiere-sama muttered with reluctance.

It wasn’t because she disliked killing or feared her soldiers dying.

It was not about avoiding such harsh realities.

What my lord disliked, having come into her own after her first battle, was—

“You’ve heard it plenty from Faust, right? Killing bandits doesn’t make us any money.”

It’s because it doesn’t make money.

Really, it doesn’t make money.

Valiere-sama was particularly focused on money, likely because the allowance given to a second princess was strangely low.

“I understand Valiere-sama’s concerns.”

I, Sabine, also know the complaints of my lover Faust, who was reluctantly tasked with bandit eradication during his military service.

He did it because he had to, but killing them didn’t bring in any money at all.

If they had money, they wouldn’t be bandits.

Their equipment was cheap, and even stripping them and selling their clothes didn’t turn a profit.

It was a military duty, and the lord knights acted because of their reciprocal protective contracts with the royal house, which meant they couldn’t demand money from the endangered cities.

He grumbled about this endlessly.

“If it meant that some good men and women were saved, it might feel rewarding as a knight. But hearing about Faust’s youth spent killing bandits—”

Sometimes, the supposedly victimized village was in cahoots with the bandits, attacking traveling merchants.

And why were the bandits attacking? Because disputes over the distribution of stolen money led to killings, and Faust was just called in to clean up the mess.

It’s a common tale.

He felt like he wanted to wipe out the village residents along with the bandits, but as a mere soldier on military duty, Faust had no such authority.

Such unrewarding military burdens were all self-funded, and the royal house wouldn’t even cover the costs unless there were special circumstances extending the military service.

“Our people can’t even till their fields while I’m away,” he would say.

Faust drank heavily and vented to his lord, Valiere-sama.

Though I thought it unwise to grumble about such things to one’s lord, it was fitting enough to let it pass.

“The very thing Faust detests to the core is killing bandits. I personally wouldn’t want to do it either.”

Because it doesn’t make money.

Valiere-sama is kind, and sweet as honey.

If it meant preventing her own people from getting hurt, she’d rather someone else die.

“You’re not hurt, but my men aren’t hurt either, right?”

She understood the ways of the world to that extent.

“Valiere-sama, so basically, as long as it makes money, it’s fine, right?”

“That’s right.”

Sabine had been able to cover the marching expenses, but the roots of Anhalt’s thriftiness hadn’t changed.

Moreover, while the expenses for a hundred-strong personal guard of the second princess might be manageable, moving a thousand-strong brigade from the royal to the imperial city required ten times the funds.

Frankly, it was insufficient.

Valiere-sama spun this reality with her fairy-like, charmingly small lips.

“But I dislike pillaging along the way.”

“If you pillage, I’ll truly be done with you, Sabine.”

“I won’t do it. I’ll negotiate through sutlers.”

Even so, Valiere-sama had told me not to engage in too terrible deeds.

We might make it to the imperial city, but we’d be walking with growling stomachs.

Thus, there was only one thing Sabine could do.

“That’s why we’ll plunder the bandits. That way, no one ends up unhappy.”

“I’ve told you, I hate it because it doesn’t make money. How many times must you make me say it?”

“It will make money.”

Sabine had a methodology.