When the foal closed his eyes, visibly pleased by the action, the rest of the party let out a sigh of relief.
Then, suddenly, Lenis grabbed the scarf hanging around Amy’s shoulders and pulled it off.
Amy made a noise of surprise. Marvin tried to recover the cloth, but the foal trotted away from the fence and folded his back legs, sitting on the ground with the scarf still in his mouth.
“Are you okay?!” Alyssa asked Amy. “Oh no, your scarf!”
“It’s all right, Alyssa,” Amy hastily reassured her before calling out, “You can’t eat that, okay, Lenis?”
Scott made a coughing noise, choking down the laugh that had threatened to erupt at Amy’s unusual priorities. Despite his best efforts, he just couldn’t maintain his guard-like stoicism around Amy.
Before Marvin and Alyssa could work up into a panic, Lenis gently folded his front legs, trapping the scarf underneath his body, proudly laid down, and closed his eyes.
One of the caretakers started making his way over to retrieve the scarf.
“Wait! Don’t go!” Amy called him to a halt.
The caretaker stopped and the entire party stood there, watching the foal. Before long, they could hear the sounds of his even, deep, relaxed breathing.
“What on earth…?”
“Did Lenis…fall asleep?”
Marvin stared at Amy in mute amazement. Meanwhile, she avoided his gaze and covered her cheeks with her hands in embarrassment.
“Oh no! If he can sleep this soundly, there’s no way he was sleep deprived! I’m sorry for assuming, Marvin. I was totally wrong!”
“Far from it, Lady Amy! You weren’t wrong at all!”
“What? But he’s…”
Amy turned bright red and continued to apologize for making incorrect assumptions, but Marvin kept shaking his head.
“Lenis was always restless, even in front of the caretakers. Frankly, I never expected that he would relax in front of you like this after only your first meeting.”
“Really?” asked Amy.
“The Lenis I know would have run away, but he would never have laid down in front of us.”
Lenis slept on the other side of the fence dividing them. Amy’s scarf was spread out like a pillow underneath him.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the defenseless foal, his eyes soundly shut and his entire body utterly relaxed.
“It’s certainly not hurting, at any rate. I’ll try out the new stable bedding, too, and see how it goes.”
“…If you say so,” Amy said, still dubious.
Amy then left the stables, leaving the sleeping Lenis in the caretakers’ hands.
After that, Amy visited with other animals, had her usual teatime with the workers to catch up on the latest information, and then enjoyed riding around on Fente.
She tried to check in on Lenis during that time, but although he woke up several times, he seemed to always go back to sleep. Amy wasn’t sure if his sleep deprivation was resolved or if he was just snoozing, but his caretakers looked very pleased, so she thought he would probably be just fine.
✦ ✦ ✦
🐾🐱🐾
THE sun was just setting as they started preparing the carriage to take Amy home. Having not been to the riding grounds for quite some time, Amy had been enjoying herself so much that she’d stayed later than she had planned.
Although she was returning with a maid and a guard, Marvin was deeply apologetic for letting a young lady stay until such a late hour.
“I shouldn’t have held you up.”
“I had fun! Plus, look—I borrowed this today,” Amy insisted, patting the pocket inside her dress.
“Oh, right! The special machine Director Northland made.”
Amy, like her father Joshua, often lost track of time. Inside her pocket was a special magical communication device Joshua had made for his family’s private use.
It was slightly different from the devices the royal palace employees carried around—this one included a GPS-like location-tracking functionality. Moreover, if the machine sensed any abnormal movements, it would immediately send word to her father.
The world they lived in was generally peaceful, and their kingdom wasn’t particularly unsafe, but because Amy was an aristocrat and connected with the royal family, there was always a possibility she could be targeted.
If anything were to happen, gathering manpower and launching a search would inevitably take time.
Joshua had made it entirely for personal use, so, ignoring any aspect of profitability, he had used a magical stone with an incredibly high grade of purity. The sheer cost of the tool alone was enough to make Amy a little wary about being responsible for it.
Although she was nervous carrying it around, it was certainly easier than traveling with more guards in tow, so she’d slip it into her pocket whenever she went out.
Incidentally, she had already used the tool to tell her father that she would be coming home late.
He’d told her to be careful coming home. It sounded like he was working late again today. Amy grinned to herself as she imagined the unimpressed expression her mother would make when she found out.
“I think I’ll be able to come again after the tournament.”
“All right. I am very sorry about your scarf, Lady Amy.”
“It’s really okay, Marvin! I’ve told you a thousand times not to worry about it.”
“I appreciate your kindness, milady… And you can leave Lenis to me. Like always, if anything happens, I’ll send you a letter.”
“Yes, please do! Then I suppose I’ll… Huh?”
In the middle of her farewell to Marvin and the other caretakers, just as she leaned onto Scott’s hand to get into the carriage, she heard noises of surprise from the workers across the road.
Their attention was directed at the end of the road that led to the riding grounds.
Someone was racing a dark horse down the road, heading right for Amy, but under the darkening sky, she could neither tell the exact color of the horse nor the face of the person gripping the reigns.
“Lady Amy, get behind me!” Scott yelled at once, readying himself in a defensive stance.
“Don’t worry, we’ll protect you!” said Alyssa, following suit.
Judging from the workers’ surprise, it didn’t seem to be someone they were expecting. The rider seemed to be skilled on horseback, and the distance between them was rapidly shrinking with every blink of her eye. The visitor was nearly upon them.
Although they were on the outskirts of the grounds, they were still within the royal palace. There were gatekeepers and men stationed on patrol throughout the grounds. It was hard to imagine someone nefarious could have broken through all those guards…
Then…who is it?
To calm the uneasiness welling up inside her from the tense atmosphere, Amy unconsciously clutched the locket hidden under her dress.
The same moment that Amy finally perceived the horse rider, Marvin called out in a surprised voice tinged with relief.
“Ventus?! And Your Highness!”
But he wrote that he wouldn’t be able to make it back today…!
“Ed…?” Amy asked weakly as he pulled up right beside them.
“Thank goodness! I made it!” Edward managed to say between gulps of air.
He looked exhausted and his hair was disheveled, but it was Edward, in the flesh.
Edward stopped Ventus and slid off. Marvin came rushing up to him. Edward gave Marvin the bridle and asked him to look after Ventus. Then his attention returned to Amy.
He walked decisively up to her.
Scott and Alyssa stepped aside and bowed, but Amy just stood there frozen in shock, eyes wide and blinking rapidly.
B-But the letter…and everyone said…
“You—you weren’t supposed to come back today.”
“You’re right. That was the plan, but I really wanted to see you, so I rushed home.”
Edward took Amy’s hand in his own, gently squeezed it, and held it up, just as he had so many times before. His eyes sparkled happily.
“Ventus made great time. I guess he wanted to get home today just as much as I did.”
“R-Right…”
“Am I bothering you, Amy?”
“Wha— N-No! I’m just surprised!”
She had been told she wouldn’t be able to see him.
But the person she was disappointed she couldn’t see…the person she wanted to see…was standing right in front of her.
As this reality finally clicked in her mind, Amy felt heat rise to her face. The hand Edward still held grew just as hot.
If the sun had been any higher, the whole party would have been able to see her blushing as clear as day.
Amy grew flustered, as she couldn’t hide her reddening cheeks with her hand occupied. Noticing this, Edward’s smile stretched across his face.
“Do you think you could say some nice things to Ventus later? He worked really hard to get me here on time.”
“O-Of course I can! I-I, uh… Ed, I…”
“Hm? What’s that?”
Hand! I want you to let go of my hand, but the words are so hard to say when you’re smiling at me like that!
“It’s, uh… It’s just…”
“Yes?”
“…Welcome back.”
In the end, the only thing she could say was a standard greeting.
But Ed seemed to get even happier at this—and a smile slipped through Amy’s lips back at him.
“I’m glad I was able to see you today, too,” she confessed.
They say that yawning is infectious, but is happiness too? Amy vaguely wondered through the fog in her mind as the sun set over the riding grounds.