“I’ll teach you. When shall we start?”
Her unexpectedly ready acceptance left me dazed for a moment.
It was something I felt even in ordinary times, but the First Princess sometimes had this absurdly decisive way of acting.
Like when she barged into the gym, swinging a sword and going wild, or when she broke down my door and stormed in.
“Thank you, Your Highness. I would be glad to, but… you were in the middle of training. Will it be all right?”
“I was just about to finish. This is perfect timing. I could use some fresh air to cool off.”
She tossed her wooden sword onto the floor and roughly wiped the sweat from her face and neck with a towel.
Then, with only a single outer garment thrown on, she started walking ahead as if to say we should go right away.
I hurriedly scurried after her.
The place I arrived at after following the Princess was the imperial stables, where I had been bestowed a fine horse yesterday.
“Oh, Your Highness Ian! Did you get back safely yesterday? Your thighs must have been terribly sore. How is the muscle pain?”
Count Gross, who had been going about his work in front of the stables, approached and greeted me warmly.
But the moment his gaze reached Princess Victoria standing behind me, the count’s hearty laughter came to an abrupt stop.
“…Your Highness, the First Princess. You have come.”
“It’s been a while, Count. Prepare horses for Ian and me.”
“Yes, understood.”
After the brief greeting, the two passed each other without another word and disappeared.
I noticed at once the subtly chilly current flowing between them.
To the point that it was hard to believe this was the same count who had joked freely with me and laughed loudly, Count Gross could not hide how awkward and uncomfortable he was in front of Victoria.
Count Gross was macho incarnate.
If you were macho, he treated you well; if you acted like a fucking sissy, he didn’t.
But among the people I knew, the most macho was the First Princess, who was capable of leading three hundred cavalry straight into five thousand infantry and taking the commander’s head, so I couldn’t understand why Count Gross was acting like this.
It seemed there was some complicated story tangled up in the past.
‘Is it related to Chloe?’
But I had no particular reason to pry into someone else’s circumstances—I decided to simply keep my mouth shut.
After all, the thing I’d seen and learned the most while living as a hostage was that if you kept your mouth shut, you could at least get by.
A little later, the attendants led out Marengo and another enormous horse.
“Neighhh!”
“Hello, Marengo. It’s been a day.”
When Marengo spotted me, he came over as if delighted, snorting and rubbing his cheek against mine.
Watching that affectionate scene, Victoria muttered with slightly surprised eyes.
“…It’s true. You completely tamed that terribly picky, foul-tempered fellow in a single night. Well done, Ian.”
“Prrr.”
“…You are foul-tempered, Marengo. Don’t pretend to be good.”
“Pfft.”
Perhaps she was already acquainted with Marengo, because the Princess teased my magnificent golden horse without hesitation, and Marengo did not act particularly aggressive toward her either.
The slight lift of my shoulders from the praise lasted only a moment before my gaze turned to the enormous horse standing beside Victoria.
It was a muscular black horse, with a body as huge as Marengo’s and fur as black as pitch.
“Grrrrr!”
The black horse spotted the unfamiliar me, stamped its foreleg, and blew out a threatening snort as if it might charge at any second.
“Ambessa, calm down. He is my guest.”
When Victoria patted the black horse’s neck in a calm voice, the beast obediently whickered as if nothing had happened and entrusted its head to the Princess’s touch.
“This one is called Ambessa. Aside from Amber, she is my only friend in this imperial palace to whom I can truly open my heart.”
“A fine name. Ambessa…”
‘…ADC spotted?’
Driving away the Noxian grandmother invading my mind, I tried hard to hold back my laughter.
“…Judging from the sound of the name, she seems to be a mare. Am I right?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t warhorses or cavalry mounts usually use large and powerful males? I assumed Your Highness the First Princess’s beloved horse would naturally be a stallion.”
At my innocent question, Victoria let out a faint chuckle.
“Warhorses that have to form ranks and move in perfect order are nine times out of ten mares. When rutting season comes, the males go mad from the smell of blood and mares, and there’s no controlling them.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“In terms of physical ability alone, of course stallions are better than mares, but what matters more in a good warhorse is composure. Once physical ability passes a certain level, it doesn’t mean much. Racehorses, which need to run even a little faster over a short period, naturally use stallions, but for warhorses, mares are far superior.”
“Oh…”
“Emperor Ujarat once said this: if stallions become warhorses, that country is already showing signs of ruin.”
‘This Ujarat person really left behind a lot of sayings. Well, he was the founding emperor of the empire, so…’
Just then, Marengo, whom I had been stroking, began to sidle toward Ambessa.
A golden famous steed and a pitch-black black horse.
The two enormous beasts pressed their noses together and breathed roughly, glaring at each other in a tense contest of wills.
At the tension that made it seem as if they might kick out and fight at any moment, I grew nervous, and at the same time, one stupid thought occurred to me.
‘This looks like Western porn.’
But a moment later, the two lightly bumped their foreheads together once, then returned to their respective owners’ sides and stood calmly as if nothing had happened.
“…Huh? They’re not fighting?”
“Haha, those two don’t fight, Your Highness.”
Count Gross, who had been standing silently behind us, finally opened his mouth.
“Marengo and Ambessa have been childhood friends who grew up together in this stable ever since they were very young foals. They are not sisters, but they were raised like sisters.”
“Ah, I see.”
“I’m glad Marengo has an owner now. As for Ambessa… well, since Her Highness the Princess took her away properly, well…”
Count Gross still seemed somewhat uncomfortable in the way he treated the Princess, and though it bothered me, I did not show it and simply nodded toward Victoria.
“I’m ready.”
“Then shall we head out, Ian?”
#
The vast grasslands on the outskirts of the imperial palace.
Now that November had arrived and winter stood at the threshold, the grasslands had lost their fresh green color and were being dyed here and there in lonely shades of brown.
“Now then, for now, follow me, Ian. Just ride without speaking.”
“Pardon? I thought you said you would teach me…”
“When it comes to learning the feel of keeping your balance on horseback, cutting through the wind once is better than a hundred words. Follow me!”
Without even hearing my answer, Victoria kicked Ambessa’s belly and shot forward like a bullet.
Marengo, too, seemed to have his competitive spirit ignited, and before I could even pull on the reins, he smoothly began chasing right after her.
Clatter, clatter, clatter!
And so, without any conversation, we simply raced madly for over an hour, facing the cold wind at the beginning of winter.
The two horses were truly fast, and Victoria and I rode for so long that the splendid spires of the capital spread across our view looked as small as ants.
Only when my whole body was soaked in sweat and my thighs ached as if they were about to burst did Victoria raise a hand and slow down.
“…Let’s stop around here. We should rest for a bit.”
At her words, I let out a sigh of relief inwardly and pulled on Marengo’s reins.
We dismounted in the middle of a quiet grassy field with few people around.
While Marengo and Ambessa peacefully grazed on the grass, I flopped down on the lawn and gasped for breath.
“Haa, haa… Wow, this is exhausting…”
“Artur may have made you exercise diligently, but you’re still lacking. Work harder.”
Victoria plopped down beside me and opened the leather water pouch Count Gross had packed on the saddle, then held it out to me.
“Drink.”
“Thank you.”
Only when the cool water ran down my throat did I feel like I could live again.
I handed the water pouch back to her and massaged my thighs.
The muscle pain felt twice as bad as yesterday.
“…Haa, now that I’ve cooled down a bit. Shall we get back on the horses, Your Highness? This time, perhaps you could actually teach me the riding posture…”
Just as I was raising myself up and beginning to speak.
“Ian.”
Victoria, who was stopping up the water pouch, cut me off abruptly.
A chill ran down my spine instinctively.
“…Your Highness.”
“I had been waiting for a day when I could catch you and speak with you like this, and then you came to find me. I thought it was a heaven-sent opportunity. There are far too many ears listening within the imperial palace.”
It was not her usual indifferent voice.
With a voice that seemed laden with every sort of emotion and then forcibly pressed down, Victoria asked me.
“I heard everything that revolting noble bastard said at the social gathering. He said you were a fake prince.”
“……!”
“Ordinarily, this is something I should inform Imperial Father of first, but because it is you, I do not want to. What in the world happened? Explain it to me.”
My vision went dark.
The thing I had feared most since coming to the empire had happened.