It had been around thirty minutes since the wagon stopped. Mr. Chotos was still underneath it, doing his best.
Up until this point, the grandpa had been feeding his horses some grass and carefully checking for any problems with their legs and horseshoes. Now he was resting, leaning against the side of the wagon and dozing off.
As for me, I had received a notification of noninclusion from Mr. Chotos, so I was paired with the bored little lady. As a knight, it was an honor.
The two of us chatted as we sat on the grass like it was a plush carpet, and we played around by throwing leaves at each other. Meanwhile, Gol sat next to us and quietly watched. However, when Teru shyly fidgeted and leaned in to whisper a secret in my ear, Gol suddenly came between us and snatched Teru away. Well, this always happened. Teru and I were used to her abductions.
Gol probably loved small children so much that when watching one move as cutely as Teru did, her maternal instincts exploded beyond the point of endurance. She just wanted to monopolize tiny Teru. My partner really does love kids.
This is a bit of a digression, but the secret Little Girl-senpai was shyly trying to share was about how she had wet her bed last month.
“Welp, I’ve been freed once again.” Having been relieved of my job of babysitting knight, I casually took in our surroundings…which was when I noticed they were being swallowed up by a white haze. “Wha…? Mist?”
I hadn’t ever seen mist in this world. We were in the depths of a forest where the sun couldn’t reach, though, so it wasn’t all that strange. When I looked again, everything around us was enveloped by a milk-white curtain so thick that I could barely make out the outline of the trees.
Honestly, it felt ominous, like the kind of setting where a ghost might appear. Still, this was a world with weird monkeys covered in stones, an immortal dinosaur, and a crazy arsonist horse. I couldn’t be surprised by something like a ghost.
I’m sorry; I lied. If a ghost really did appear, my rational mind would give up trying to understand the situation and begin to display a beautiful scene of the Alps backed by classical music.
As I sat on the grass trying to master my agitation, I suddenly felt a soft white embrace. It was Gol. What’s up, partner? Do you want to play? I’m sorry, I’m a bit busy developing a scientific thesis on the existence of ghosts in this world—
Ah. There was nothing to do. I was about to be buried face-deep in the soft valley of Gol’s chest.
At that moment, a blinding scarlet light flooded the meadow and I squinted.
Immediately after, an enormous ball of blazing fire crashed into Gol’s back.