Episode 32
“Are you alright?”
When I ran over, Aidan was already trying to raise his body.
“I’m fine—ugh.”
Though he spoke like that, he did not look fine at a glance. His right arm was hanging limp. Other than that, there were minor bruises here and there as well.
Having gone and calmed the startled horse, Melliot’s face was pale white.
“I-I’ll go fetch a doctor right away!”
“It’s not to that extent.”
“It is to that extent!”
Bruises were bruises, but that arm was by no means a light injury. Until the doctor arrived, I stanching the blood on his knee using a handkerchief.
This situation was a bit familiar. Back then, Aidan had protected me and injured the back of his hand, hadn’t he? It was upsetting that only Aidan kept getting injured, during the Aclo incident as well as now. Rather, if I got injured, my mind would be at ease, though.
Still, unlike last time, the blood was stanched quickly. The scraped wound ended at the level of applying disinfectant, but his shoulder was expectedly not a simple situation.
“It is a shoulder dislocation.”
Straightening his slipping glasses, the doctor Melliot brought pulled out bandages from his house call bag.
“It is important not to move it for at least three weeks.”
“However!”
“Are you preparing for an equestrian contest?”
Fixing the shoulder in place, the doctor lightly shook his head.
“With this shoulder, it is absolutely pushing it. Riding a horse would be fine, but sprinting at full speed or jumping over obstacles is dangerous. You cannot ride holding the reins with one hand, can you?”
“That’s right. If the rider is unstable, the horse gets anxious and cannot run.”
Melliot clenched her fists tightly.
“I should go to the Equestrian Association and say we’ll change the participant roster.”
“That would be good. Because riding a horse would be difficult for both of you.”
If it were Aidan, he would find a skilled rider to replace him somehow.
However.
“I am sorry, but unless it is a team member already registered, replacement is impossible.”
“No, why?”
“The rider is injured, so what are we supposed to do!”
Although Melliot and I argued enthusiastically, the Equestrian Association was resolute.
“The year before last, ahead of the finals, there was a team that brought in a famous equestrian athlete with money. From then on, replacement for any reason other than registered team members came to be prohibited. After registration, only the registered three can participate. Injuries are no exception, either.”
Those words meant that, in the end, one of either Melliot or me had to act as the rider.
“…What do we do?”
The time remaining until the equestrian contest was a mere two weeks.
“Melliot, can you do horsemanship?”
“It’s possible, but I’m not skilled. And if it’s not me, who takes care of horse maintenance?”
Then again. That was so as well.
“Forget it, I just have to ride.”
“Don’t speak nonsensical talk.”
“That’s right! Doing that, you might end up unable to use your right arm forever.”
Speaking adamantly, Melliot looked at me.
“Since it’s become like this, there’s no one other than Miss Cynthia and me. What shall we do?”
Reading the room, Melliot whispered softly in my ear.
“It would be better for Young Lord to do assistant duties, right? I can’t bring myself to tell Young Lord to take care of horse meals and brush its coat.”
I pondered for a moment. Do I act as rider, or do I care for the horse? If asked which of the two is better, naturally…
“Then does Melliot want to act as rider? I’ll care for the horse.”
“Will you be fine?”
Melliot asked worryingly, but I thought that would be better than acting as rider.
“Yes, because feeding fodder will still be easier, after all.”
However, I didn’t know I would regret it immediately.
Neigh—
A horse was a more sensitive animal than expected.
The horse we drew as we registered for the equestrian contest was a large black horse bearing the name ‘Star’, and as fast as its feet were, its sensitivity and prickliness were number one, too.
Star did not welcome my approach when we weren’t even close. Particularly when I brushed its coat and brushed hard at a tangled part, I bought its deep hatred completely.
With Melliot’s help, I barely fed it fodder, but that was all. Even just bringing a brush, it snapped its teeth and raised its upper body, threatening me. Saddling it was even more impossible.
Of course, whenever that happened, Melliot skillfully calmed Star down. Wonderfully, if Melliot told it to calm down, even while throwing a wild fit frantically, Star acted meekly.
“As expected, I think it’s better that I just act as the horse caretaker.”
Petting Star, Melliot spoke.
“Actually, Star can’t hear in its ears due to an accident a few years ago. At least because its feet were fast, it wasn’t put down, but… Because it suddenly couldn’t hear in its ears, its personality became very sensitive.”
“Phew, alright.”
A sigh came out naturally.
“I’ll act as the rider.”
***
“Cynthia, you have to straighten your waist more.”
“If you hold the reins that tight, Star feels stuffy!”
Right now, I was perched precariously atop Star.
Because horsemanship was my first time doing it since the first-year liberal arts course at the academy, it was something I was trying after a truly long while.
“B-But I’m scared! And Young Lord, go inside and recuperate!”
Was it because it was after far too long a while?
Or unlike back then, was it because Star was a racehorse and larger? Although I somehow climbed up atop the saddle, it felt far too distant from the ground, so I was terrified.
“Eeeek!”
“Looking at the ground makes it scarier!”
“However!”
When told not to look, a person tends to look more, you know.
I opened my tightly closed eyes slightly. Perhaps because it was far too high, at the feeling of my feet floating in midair, I squeezed my eyes shut tight again.
What do I do? I can’t even open my eyes.
Seeing me crouching my body while clutching the reins tightly, the two let out a sigh at the same time.
“A horse knows how to read a person’s emotions. If Miss Cynthia gets scared like that, the horse gets scared, too.”
“However, I’m scared, you see.”
I wanted to do well too, but my body wouldn’t work as intended.
My voice was now almost bordering on a sob.
Because of Aidan looking at such a me disdainfully, I crouched my body even more for no reason.
At this rate, far from winning the equestrian contest, I won’t even be able to depart from the starting line. That really shouldn’t happen.
Should I just tell Melliot to act as rider and I act as horse caretaker? No, but getting kicked by a horse’s hind legs is scary to me too.
“Haa, it can’t be helped, then.”
Instead of his unmovable right arm, Aidan tousled his hair with his left arm. He had an expression of being very angry.
“I shall teach you.”
“Pardon?”
To begin with, how are you going to teach with that arm?
Failing to understand the meaning of his words, I looked at Aidan blankly. Approaching the side of the horse, he lightly climbed up behind me.
“H-Huh?”
“What.”
“W-Why are you climbing up all of a sudden?”
“First, you have to start by adapting to the horse, don’t you? If you’re scared of the horse, you should start by getting close.”
“S-Still.”
Sitting pressed this close atop a horse was my first time except for the one single time my dad gave me a ride on a horse when I was young.
“If left alone, you’ll just keep getting scared, won’t you? You know there isn’t much time left until the equestrian contest, right?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Don’t tense up your body like that.”
Reaching out with his left hand, Aidan grabbed the horse’s reins.
“First, let’s try taking a light stroll.”
And the horse began walking slowly.
As my body bounced up and down, it was difficult to keep my balance.
“It’s dangerous.”
As I tottered, Aidan quickly supported me with his bandage-wrapped arm. Because it was an injured arm, the sound of Aidan groaning behind me was heard.
“A-Are you alright?”
“I’m fine to this extent.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. When you’re not accustomed to it, it would be stranger if you weren’t scared.”
“Even so…”
Aidan answered blunty.
“If you’re truly sorry, try sitting up straight. Don’t bend your waist like that; straighten it. Good, next, put strength into both thighs.”
Unlike the posture for ladies, strength naturally went into my thighs. Before long, after taking a slow stroll around one lap of the course, my waist hurt, and my thighs throbbed painfully as if cramping.
“How is it, are you a bit accustomed to it now?”
“A-A little bit.”
“Good, then let’s try it once more.”
Aidan set the horse in motion again. Aidan’s embrace wrapping around me from behind was sturdy and reliable like my dad in the past.
Star began walking across the wide grassland again. It was a speed a bit faster than earlier. Reliability was reliability, and fear was fear.
“Slowly, slowly!”
“Even now, we’re going sufficiently slowly, though; don’t you know?”
No, I don’t know at all.
Still, I couldn’t bring myself to answer like that. What was fortunate at least was that Aidan was behind me rather than in front of me, so my face wasn’t visible.
If he saw my face right now, my expression would have been revealed as it was again, after all.
