“...I want to go home...”
“What are you talking about, Eiji.”
“I’m tired... My feet hurt...”
“What’s the use moping over it?”
Tiamat rolled her eyes, but I couldn’t help that I was tired. We were walking down a highway under the early summer sun, the view never changing. Surely there were plenty of other people who would have been disheartened if they were in my place.
“We’ve barely walked for three hours. Get yourself together.”
“Urf...”
I hobbled along, using a random branch I found as a walking stick. Fancy dress shoes were never meant to be worn for long walks.
“A salesman’s job is mostly legwork.”
“I’m more of an office worker.”
Just a little public worker. The most manual labor I’d done was planting flowers in front of the building. Even during my student days I never spent a day on a sports team.
“Weakling.”
The dragon’s fangs clicked together. Apparently, that was a laugh. The difference between a dragon’s physicality and a human’s aside, I was simply too weak. How were all of those Isekai protagonists so physically active? Some of them who had spent a few years never leaving their room should’ve had less endurance than me, if anything.
“Damn cheat codes.”
“You might want to curse your old age instead. Most of those protagonists are high schoolers, aren’t they? A big difference from a man in his thirties.”
That was harsh. It wasn’t like I turned thirty by choice.
“Any complimentary rides on your back, Tia?”
“Sure. If you can figure out how to stay on it.”
She walked on her hind legs. Her height was similar to mine at 180cm or so. Accounting for her thick and sturdy tail, she would have been over 195cm easily.
“Piggy-back style?”
“Idiot.”
Couldn’t argue with that. I couldn’t hold onto her to begin with. Dangling on her neck by my arms would have been more exhausting than walking.
“Not that I can’t walk on all fours. I don’t think it’ll be all that comfortable, though.”
With that, she put her arms / front legs down on the ground. Since those were shorter than her hind legs, her back sloped down to the front. It seemed terrifying to ride like that.
“Here. Hop on.”
I did. My feet still touched the ground.
“Thought so...”
We were nearly the same height. What was I supposed to do with my legs while riding on the back of someone my own height?
“Bend your legs. We’ll try this out.”
“A-All right.”
As soon as I managed to bend my knees, Tiamat started running. Thud. Thud. Thud.
“Graough!! Ow! Ow! My butt’s going to crack open!”
There was no saddle or anything. The bumps in the road directly shot up to my tailbone. And there was still nothing to grab onto, not even a pair of reins. Bumpy, painful, and scary from the sharp lean forward. It was the worst.
In the end, I decided to walk myself.
“I think I understand why humans almost exclusively ride horses,” I remarked as I rubbed my butt.
“There are many animals faster than the horse, and a good number of those would follow commands. The biggest reason for riding horses has to be their steady galloping form.”
A thoughtful explanation from Tiamat. I recalled a video game where I could ride an ostrich or something, but that seemed limited to the realm of fiction. I suppose horses were the go-to species for humans to ride.
“At the end of the day, I don’t even get a mode of transportation. What is this world coming to?”
“There’s no audience to hear your showboating lamentations. You have two legs your parents gave you. Why not be grateful that you were born with an able body.”
“No cheat codes. No transportation. No items. All I get is a preachy sidekick. My life sucks.”
“I see. You don’t need me, then? This is where we part ways, it seems,” Tiamat declared with a distant tone. What had I done? Our duo was at the brink of destruction. Without a doubt, I was in the wrong.
“I apologize. I didn’t mean that.”
“Remember, Eiji. We are partners. Not a master and his subject.”
“Won’t happen again, Tia.”
“Hm.”
With a light nod, my partner accepted my apology. Japanese people often get themselves in trouble because of what they say. Almost every day, some politician loses their job over saying something they shouldn’t have. While we Japanese are often seen as humble, it seems we get carried away and say too much, too. It appeared I was no exception.
“You reading too many Isekai fantasies was a bigger contributing factor than your genetics, Eiji.”
“You got me there.”
In many Isekai stories, the protagonist is rewarded for no reason, sympathized, respected, loved, and worshiped. I must have considered that to be the norm. I’d mistakenly thought that I could disrespect Tiamat with impunity; of course that wasn’t the case.
We had spent much too short of a time together to form a powerful bond. If this was an average interpersonal relationship, we would have still been in the stone ages. Because she had appeared before me with the role of assisting me in this world, I had gotten it into my head that she would accept anything I did. Even under the most generous assumption in my favor, she was only here because it was her job.
“I was full of myself, I have to say.”
Had I learned nothing during the past 31 years of my life?
“You noticed that fact, and tried to correct the course. That’s good. It’s important to learn from your mistakes, but you shouldn’t keep them around your neck.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
I chuckled at what Tiamat said. I could hear the early summer wind rustle through the grass field.
Even a loving married couple can end up in divorce from the smallest rift in their relationship, whereas Tiamat and I had only just met. We could expect plenty of instances to come in the future when our gears wouldn’t click. That’s exactly why Tiamat told me not to drag it on. When I make a mistake, I just have to learn from it and do better next time. My partner was too good for me.
“Thanks, bro.”
“Now, Eiji. Call me old-fashioned...”
“Why?”
“...but I think that ‘bro’ should only be used man-to-man. Lest you’ve forgotten, I am a female.”
“Grrf...”
And she never forgets to educate me. She’s too good of a partner, indeed.
We had made it out here from the city of Lishua in order to hunt gagd. Apparently, they lived not too far off, but close enough to walk. We had been told that there was a forest beyond the field, which was magibeast territory. Gagd, apparently, were not one of the more dangerous magibeasts. They were also of a rather timid nature, and wouldn’t attack humans on sight. While I didn’t know how I would fare against them, we were told that Tiamat, Miss-S-Rating-All-Around, wouldn’t break a sweat. So, we decided to scope the forest out with just the two of us.
“Mister Garish deceived me...”
I mumbled as I hobbled on. When it takes a whole day on foot, that is not a walkable distance. That’s false advertising.
“A two days’ walk at your pace, Eiji. How many breaks do you need to take?”
“So it’s my fault? It’s all my fault?”
“Not that I would make the effort to understand how you feel. Do you realize that you’re making it harder on yourself every time you stop?”
“What...?”
“That’s why mountain climbers seldom sit to rest. They only set their pack down on a rock or something, and stand still for a short time.”
Once you sit down, it’s hard to get back up. Both physically and mentally, it takes a lot out of you to stand all the way up; that was Tiamat’s explanation.
“I wish you would have told me sooner...”
“Even if I did, you would have sat all the same. It’s something you have to live through to learn.”
She let out a roar of laughter.