I was going to get Prince Wald back to Tiuccia no matter how long it took. But even though I knew it would take a while, I had never planned on buying any horses.
Riding horses would be far swifter than walking. Since teleportation portals and stagecoaches were both out of the cards for us, the idea of traveling on horseback was incredibly appealing. We could even purchase a carriage or wagon and hitch horses to it.
With a carriage, we could nap as we sped through the countryside like traveling merchants. Instead of having to rough it in the wilderness whenever we made camp, we’d have a roof over our heads at night.
I had to admit, there was a certain level of idyllic fantasy in all that. I could be the coachman for a horse-drawn wagon, comfortably seated in the driver’s box as I handled the reins of the two horses. The prince might peek out from the rear of the covered wagon and watch the scenery as it streamed by. That’d be nice.
We’d travel from village to village, selling wares from the back of our prairie schooner...
Oh, wait. Now that I think about it, I don’t actually have any mercantile skills learned.
But the idea of saddling up two horses with our stuff and galloping away was tempting too. Shrouded by heavy, wind-breaking cloaks with swords and shields fastened to our backs, we’d tear through the land like mercenaries or knights on a journey.
Yeah, that was something a simple farmer couldn’t consider ever doing. Your average peasant wouldn’t travel by horse. Horses were essentially beasts of burden, meant to pull carts loaded with crops or plow fields.
I had never learned the horseback riding skill back in Golden Dawn, and for the majority of my life in this world, I had lived as a peasant in a mountain range. I hadn’t had the opportunity to interact with horses—at least, not until I’d obtained the horseback riding skill through my training at Tachyrinn. That’d been when I had first learned to ride a horse.
But I still hadn’t actually wanted to travel by horse.
My reasoning was that my primary method of escaping in an emergency was through Jump. If things came down to the wire, I’d have to abandon the animal on the spot. And most situations that would necessitate the use of Jump were dangerous—many of them even fatal.
I’d never want to do that to another living creature. If I were to take an animal into my care, I wanted to be responsible for it until the very end. I just couldn’t see them as tools.
So that was why I had decided from the onset of our journey not to use horses as a means of travel. I had sworn I wouldn’t...in the beginning.
But for some reason, Kariya of Gaelius was now looking after one prince and eighteen horses.
Currently, Prince Wald was doing his best to magically fill a wooden trough I’d fetched from my storage with water. We had three such troughs lined up in a row, and the horses were eagerly drinking from them.
Not a single horse was still sporting the bedraggled coats they’d had just a short while ago. I had mixed an extravagant number of HP potions into the water, and even the horses that’d been the worst off had made dramatic recoveries. They were all the perfect picture of health.
After the prince and I had left the border guard station, we had planned on leaving the horses once we’d led them into the wilderness.
And we did. But they all came back to us.
It was only a matter of course for these horses—they had never been wild animals from the start. They had all been raised under man’s hand. There was no guarantee they’d survive on their own in the wild either, not when they were accustomed to humans ensuring that their needs had been met their whole lives.
The herd had trailed after the prince and me once we had set out from the guard station. Although they had understood we had granted them freedom, all they’d been able to do was huddle together helplessly as they followed behind us at a distance.
When I had seen lupine monsters dash out from forest brush to attack them, I had finally accepted my defeat. I’d hurled fireballs at the wolves to drive them away. The horses approached us after that.
The moment I had felt their happiness and gratitude resonating with me, I’d turned to look at Prince Wald.
He’d looked at me, then back at the horses. “Could you let them come with us, Kariya?” he’d asked me. “Abandoning them here in these wastelands would break my heart.”
The prince was such a sweet, pure angel!
“I’ll help take care of them,” he’d continued. “I know we can’t keep them forever, of course, but...could you at least keep an eye on them until we next reach a town where we might leave them with a horse trader?”
And with that, my boss permitted me to keep horses.
To be clear, however, all I did was protect them from monster attacks during the day. During the night, I would erect the camp’s barrier in a way that would keep the horses safe as well.
That, and I’d scrub them down one by one since they were all so dirty, feed them potions and dewormers, and check the condition of their horseshoes even though I was no good with metals... Wait, huh?
Well, basically, I was only doing what I could.
Now that they’d finished drinking some water, the horses started munching on grass underfoot. I always made sure to expand the range of the protective barrier to give them plenty of space to graze.
But the barrier itself only prevented invasion from external threats—it was easy enough to pass through it from the inside. I’d only had to tell the horses not to leave the barrier once, though; they’d stayed inside it since. Horses were such intelligent animals.
I looked at the horse that was approaching me—it was the white one. “Hm? Did you finish your water?” I asked as I continued setting up the barrier.
The white mare, who seemed to have been the leader of the horses, had gotten attached to me for some reason. Maybe she realized that, by feeding her those potions, I had saved her life. She bumped my shoulder as if looking for some tender, loving attention, so I stroked the bridge of her nose.
“You should give her a name already,” said the prince, rounding around the mare from behind.
I smiled awkwardly at the comment. “We’ll have to part with her eventually. If I give her a name, I’ll only get attached...”
“From how I see things, you’re already plenty attached.”
“Even more attached, Wal,” I said. “Things would only be worse if I started calling her by a nickname. That’s why I usually try to hold back. Nicknames should only be used with someone really special, if you ask me...”
The prince looked away. A slight blush dusted his cheeks.
Oh.
Shit, what have I done?
I’d been calling him by a nickname, rather than his actual name. I hadn’t been trying to make a pass at him or anything.
That hadn’t been my intention at all with the comment I’d just made, but maybe he’d taken it that way. Seriously, I really hadn’t been making passes at him! I was well aware that it’d be outrageous for a peasant like me to do that.
Sorry. I might’ve gotten a little too big for my britches...
But while I was dealing with my steady stream of internal, panic-induced sweat, His Royal Highness the Prince didn’t seem to take note. Then, without saying anything further, he went back to the main area of our campsite. I breathed a deep sigh as I watched him retreat.
As I stroked the white mare’s neck, I felt the tension leave my shoulders.
“Man... That was weirdly nerve-racking. Prince Wald is really nice—maybe I’ve been getting too used to it.”
He’d probably noticed, but I bet he was pretending he hadn’t out of kindness. Were Liese, the Head of Ladies here, I’m sure she would’ve given me the lecture of a lifetime.
To be honest, I admit I did feel something akin to affection for the prince filling my heart. I knew I had strong feelings for him, at least. And this was a world where same-sex relationships were commonplace.
I still didn’t plan on being physically intimate with him, but I clearly needed to give everything more thought.
“I haven’t given you a name, but it’s not because I don’t like you,” I said to the mare as I continued stroking her mane.
She gazed at me with her big, gentle eyes as if to say, “I know.”