Episode 33
Returning after a light stroll around the course on horseback, Melliot welcomed me holding a towel and ice water.
“You’ve worked hard. Even with a light stroll, it was very hot, wasn’t it?”
“Ah, it wasn’t that hot. Because wind blew as we walked…”
“Is that so? Seeing your face so red, I thought you were hot.”
“C-Come to think of it, I think I’m hot.”
I hastily wiped my face with the towel.
“Right? Because in the West, hot winds blow a lot from the south, you see. Young Lord Aidan as well as Cynthia, both of your faces have flushed red hot. By all means, I should bring more ice!”
Aidan turned red, too?
Wiping away my sweat with the towel, I stole a glance at him. As if the splint fixed in place was cumbersome, Aidan was awkwardly wiping sweat from the back of his neck with his left hand.
Wrapped up so tightly like that, it was no wonder he was hot.
“Is it very uncomfortable?”
“No, well. Something like this is nothing…”
With Aidan’s pride, there was no way he would tell me that he was uncomfortable wiping sweat because he couldn’t handle a single towel properly.
Because I knew that far too well, I moved my hands first.
Though because Aidan was much taller than me, I had to stand on tiptoe.
“…”
Startled at first, Aidan—who stopped mid-sentence—bent his upper body with a sullen expression, so I was able to wipe it easily.
But bending down like this, Aidan’s face is far too close?
The good scent I had smelled back then at Aidan’s villa wafts through the wind, stimulating my nose. Brow furrowing as if his hair—which had grown quite a bit before I realized—was tickling his eyes, he frowned. Was it because I saw that right in front of my nose? Without realizing it, stopping midway through wiping the back of his neck with the towel, I brushed his bangs with my hand.
“…”
Ah, our eyes met.
Inside clear green pupils, I see a startled-looking me.
Right as I was about to withdraw my hand, Aidan avoided his gaze first.
“S-Sorry. Because you looked uncomfortable.”
“No, well. It certainly gets in the way.”
Straightening his bent upper body, Aidan touched his bangs with his hand.
“I should cut it soon, indeed.”
The fingertips touching his bangs once more looked redder than earlier.
“I brought more ice!”
Melliot came running waddling while holding a bucket.
“Huh? You two must have been really hot! Your faces turned redder than earlier. If you get heatstroke like this, it’ll be a big problem!”
Melliot quickly held out ice water. I wasn’t particularly thirsty, but out of consideration for Melliot’s sincerity, I drank the water down just as it was.
When I emptied the glass completely, Aidan too finished drinking and set down his empty cup.
Unlike earlier, his fingertips holding the glass were not red.
By all means, it seemed I had misseen earlier because of his hair color.
“Having rested sufficiently, let’s practice again.”
“Already?”
“Have you forgotten that there are a mere two weeks remaining until the contest? How long do you plan to rest over taking a single stroll?”
“Y-Yes! We should do it, practice.”
Because what Aidan was saying was words that were right in every single detail, I climbed back up atop Star.
“Now, now a bit faster than earlier. Let’s try strolling like a brisk walk.”
“A-Alright.”
Still, even with an uncomfortable shoulder, him helping like this made me grateful, too. Holding reins with one hand must be quite difficult, after all.
I stole a glance at Aidan.
If I had learned horsemanship from Dad when I was young, would it have felt like this? Would it have felt this sturdy, reliable, and made me feel sorry because I couldn’t do well, like this?
“What are you doing, not looking ahead?”
“Ah, yes!”
I was looking at Aidan with my upper body completely turned, wasn’t I?
Right at the moment I hastily turned my upper body, thinking oh no,
Star suddenly began shaking its body wildly.
“Eeeek!”
“It’s fine.”
Embracing my waist with his left arm, Aidan gripped the reins with difficulty using his fixed right hand.
“Are you both fine?!”
Melliot shouted as she ran with all her might.
“I-I’m fine.”
“It’s not fine.”
Aidan spoke with a stern face.
“What are you doing selling your mind elsewhere while riding a horse? If I weren’t here, you would have fallen off the horse, too.”
“I am sorry…”
“Young Lord’s words are right. A horse is a far more sensitive animal than expected, you see.”
“By the way, why did it shake its body all of a sudden like this?”
“That, by all means.”
Examining Star’s condition, Melliot opened her mouth.
“Miss Cynthia, while straightening your body, strength went into your hands and legs without realizing it, didn’t it?”
“Uh…”
Was it like that?
I opened my palms and examined them. Clear reins marks that hadn’t been there right before riding the horse earlier came into view.
“C-Come to think of it, when turning my body, as I tried to keep my balance, I think I put strength between my thighs and pulled the reins, too.”
I carefully folded and unfolded my fingers. Having become conscious of it, my palms throbbed numbly.
“Star is a horse familiar with this place. If you pull the reins all of a sudden, it will get confused as to whether to stop or change direction. Furthermore, if you squeeze its torso with your thighs, a horse understands that as ‘Run.’ Because the command conveyed to the body and the command conveyed to the mouth were different, it must have been bewildered.”
“Aah…”
A horse too has a way of communicating, yet knowing nothing, I had merely mounted and run blindly.
If it was as Melliot said, I had done quite a mean thing to Star.
Just like a team leader telling you to do starting from ‘a’, and a department head telling you to do starting from ‘z’.
“What do you want to do; do you want to finish the course we were circling, since we’re at it?”
“No.”
I answered as I dismounted.
“By all means, I don’t think it’s time to learn horsemanship.”
I think I thought of it far too easily.
“What? What kind of talk is that? With less than two weeks remaining, if not horsemanship, what are you going to learn?”
“Starting from the horse.”
Leaving Aidan looking at me asking what kind of foolish talk that was, I grabbed Melliot’s hand.
“Melliot!”
“Pardon?”
“Please help me out!”
***
“Uh, so… you’re saying sleep here?”
The stable was partitioned into one stall per horse. Fitting for a sensitive horse, Star used the innermost place, and Melliot unfolded a blanket right in the spot next to it.
“Yes. First, to get close to Star, it is important to be together for as long a time as you can. It lets it feel that even if you stay beside it continuously, you won’t attack it, and that it is safe.”
Listening to it, it felt like it made sense in its own right.
“Alright.”
“Will you really be fine? How can a person sleep here?”
Holding his nose tightly shut, Aidan muttered.
“It’s pleasant to this extent, what else.”
“That’s right! It’s a place I clean hard every day for the horses, you know. And our stable is the newest construction in this village.”
“What did you say Star likes earlier?”
“Its favorite snack is apples.”
When Melliot held out an apple, Star was seen wagging its tail, liking it.
“See that? When its ears become like this, it means it likes it right now.”
Even after that, Melliot explained several important things regarding the reactions Star made.
“A horse originally doesn’t trust a stranger easily. When a person it cannot trust tries to handle its body as they please, how annoying would that be? Even more so if that person’s skill is terrible.”
“Skill is… terrible… Ha-ha.”
Did it act meekly with Aidan because his skill was fine at least?
“So today, don’t do anything and just try staying beside it. Don’t try to give snacks or attempt brushing.”
“You’re saying do nothing?”
“Yes. Since you’re staying beside it anyway, try that first.”
I had no choice but to nod my head for now.
Melliot having returned, lying in the stall next to Star, I blinked my eyes blankly.
So, you’re really telling me to just stay like this, right? Turning my body to the side, Star’s ears were seen flattening backward.
“Because Melliot said that even if it can’t hear in its ears, flattening its ears backward is a habit of guarding its surroundings…”
It seems staying together with me is still awkward for it.
Yeah, how could it improve in just a few hours?
If it were going to be like that, every person in this world would have become an extraordinary master rider.
“Star, let’s try getting close, even if slowly.”
Although it won’t even be able to hear my words, Star was turning its body away from me completely.
Somehow, it felt like the path ahead would be extremely rough.
