We're On a Trip - 3
As the home of the continent’s greatest breadbasket, most of the Cenes Duchy was nothing but open plain. People even claimed its grasslands outstripped those of any minor kingdom—and the frightening part was that it probably wasn’t an exaggeration.
Vast fields, an unbroken horizon, grass that glowed a soft green: Cenes was as fine a place for a horse to run as anywhere in the North.
"Guests! How do you like it? They say the plains of Cenes are one of the Empire’s true treasures!"
The environment was almost too perfect, which was its own sort of problem.
"It’s wonderful. It really does feel like a treasure."
"I’m glad it pleases you!"
The centaur let out a booming laugh at Luise’s answer from the front seat. His thoroughly professional cheer even drew a small smile from her.
A centaur who could carry three full-grown adults without so much as a hitch in his stride. Most demi-humans never dreamed of leaving the Elf Sanctuary, so anyone active outside it was already an oddity—and one working as a driver was rarer still.
"People shy away from traveling at night, but night has a charm all its own! There’s a special kind of thrill in racing alone beneath a sky full of stars!"
Watching the centaur chatter without pause while he carried them, Karl decided the fellow had found his true calling. He loved to run, loved to talk, and got paid to do both at once. What more could anyone want?
"Unfortunately, we’re the ones who handle horses. Looking up at the sky while riding at night would be a little dangerous."
"Oh no! I hadn’t thought of that! By way of apology, if you ever come at night I’ll take you for free!"
This time Irina, whose hobby was riding, answered with a faint smile. The centaur heaved a sigh of genuine regret—though the free service offered in the same breath made Karl wonder if the fellow simply knew how to do business.
"Ah, guests! If you don’t mind, shall we go to the sea? For a little extra, I can take you all the way there!"
Oh?
That caught Karl’s interest. Santoria was a fair distance from the coast. He would really take them that far?
"We’d like that, but won’t it be hard on you to run all the way to the sea?"
"No trouble at all! We’ll just use a teleportation circle!"
The breezy certainty of the answer drew a wry laugh from Karl. Of course. This wasn’t some backwater; it was a duchy and a tourist destination. Naturally there would be teleportation circles.
"A magic circle? Isn’t the fee for those rather expensive?"
Luise spoke up, worried at the mention of magic circles, but the centaur only shook his head with another hearty laugh.
"That’s fine too! His Grace has contracts with centaurs like me, so while we’re carrying guests we can use them cheaply!"
Karl hadn’t particularly wanted that level of detail, but it was interesting information all the same. A contract between the duke and the demi-humans. Even the lord charged with managing the Elf Sanctuary would not have come up with the idea lightly—yet the Wise Duke had done it as if it were nothing. Genius and madman really were separated by a single sheet of paper.
If she’d just stop drinking, she’d be perfect.
No matter how he looked at it, the Wise Duke was clearly operating under a permanent debuff. A sober Wise Duke would be a genius even the gods couldn’t handle…
So they ended up headed for a beach that hadn’t been on the itinerary at all. Karl had no real complaints—they hadn’t had a firm destination anyway, and riding a centaur meant the teleport fee was cheaper than usual.
"Ugh… I’ll never get used to walking on sand…"
Upon arrival, the centaur—who had worn a smile the entire trip—finally grimaced. Even from the saddle it was plain how hard he was working just to move, so Karl understood. Carrying passengers while your hooves kept sinking would be miserable.
"Ah! That warship is one of the aerial vessels Apels once operated!"
Yet he was smiling again almost at once and slipping back into guide mode. The Golden Duke of the centaur world, if there ever was one.
"I believe its official name was the Glory of Apels! Doesn’t it look funny, seeing that ‘glory’ stuck in the ground?"
"It is rather amusing, yes."
Karl nodded; the remark landed. On this continent, naming a ship after a monarch or a nation was an unspoken taboo. Slap an emperor’s name on a vessel and watch it sink, and everyone ends up embarrassed.
Apels, however, had boldly attached not even an emperor’s name but the name of the country itself—and the grandiose word “glory” for good measure. The result was glory driven into the dirt. In a way, they might have prophesied their own future.
"Thank you for the explanation. Walking in sand looks exhausting, though. Would you like to rest a while?"
After surveying what had once been the Glory of Apels, Karl offered the centaur a break as the creature slogged through the sand. A warm, detailed guide was convenient, but today was supposed to be a date for the three of them. Spending the whole outing with an outsider would be a little awkward.
"I appreciate the thought! But as someone who’s been paid, I must give my guests the best treatment—"
Karl pressed a few silver coins into his hand.
"Have a wonderful time! I’ll be nearby, so just find me when you’re ready to leave!"
Watching the centaur’s tail flick as he hurried off the beach was almost entertaining at this point.
"What a fun person."
"Right? I wonder if other centaurs are like that too."
Luise and Irina seemed to share the sentiment, both smiling faintly.
Probably not every centaur was like that. If the whole race had been that friendly, they would likely have gone extinct during the Apels era. More than a few peoples had been warm toward humans and paid for it. A sad thought.
"You’ve worked hard carrying the three of us. From here on, let’s just be among ourselves."
Of course, this was no time to worry over a race that was still alive and well. Enjoying their private time together mattered more.
Getting down from the saddle had been a real disappointment. It had been a precious chance to cling to Karl completely legally—from behind, no less.
Still, they couldn’t keep working a centaur who had already run all over with three adults on his back, so Irina climbed down quietly. And once the centaur made himself scarce, only she, Karl, and Luise would be left. A cozy little threesome of time.
Even better, actually.
Besides, thinking it over carefully, she had never really had a nice time with Karl at the sea. They had gone to the Boyar Duchy on last year’s school trip, but back then, at the beach—
"Hwaaaaaaang! Hic… huuuu… hwaaaang!"
She shook her head hard against the awful memory. Unforgettable, yes—but not a good one. Absolutely not.
The memory of a noble lady, a proper person, breaking down in tears and making a scene in front of a man. And worse, below the waist… a thoroughly mortifying memory. The only recollection she and Karl shared of the sea was that one.
I have to bury it.
Something like a sense of mission rose in her. If she could not cover that shameful, ugly memory with a happier one, she would never be able to come to the ocean again.
Of course, simply being at the beach with Karl on a date was already half the victory. Now if they walked the sand, dipped their feet in the water, and tried some of the food sold nearby, she could say goodbye to the trauma forever.
It would have been nice if I’d brought a swimsuit, though.
Greed lifted its head for a moment; she firmly pushed it back down.
Want too much at once and everything goes sideways. The swimsuit could wait for next time. There would be plenty of summers to spend with Karl.
"Ah, he’s back."
At Luise’s voice—she had been staring blankly toward the shops—Irina turned and saw Karl approaching with drinks in hand.
Huh…?
The moment she saw what he was carrying, she froze solid.
Working with lunatics must have finally driven me insane. A proper human being ought to keep at least a shred of tact and common sense.
"Look, I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just wondering what to buy and ended up picking something that matched your hair color…"
Irina held the drink I had given her, eyes lowered in silence. In front of her I poured out every excuse I could muster.
"……."
Sadly, none of it worked. The shock must have been severe; Irina had entered a state of total silence and showed no reaction to any excuse whatsoever.
You absolute idiot.
Self-loathing hit hard. I had come back with the drinks to find her frozen, and only then realized: handing Irina lemonade was a catastrophic move.
Just giving someone a drink would have been fine. But the fact that we were at the beach, and that the person handing it over was the same man who had witnessed her most humiliating moment, meant the blow she took was beyond imagination. Even if she thought I was teasing her, I had no defense.
What do I do?
I had already peeled her away from Luise on the pretext that Irina seemed motion-sick, but if we stayed apart too long Luise would start to wonder. We needed to get back as soon as possible.
But how, in this situation, were we supposed to go back quickly…?
"Karl."
"Yeah. I’m listening."
Thankfully, Irina broke her silence.
"I’m fine. Lemonade is delicious, after all."
The empty look in her eyes as she said it told me everything. She had wiped last year’s incident clean out of her head. More precisely, she was trying her hardest to pretend it had never happened.
Cornered by utter humiliation and despair, Irina had finally taken refuge in denial.
"…Yeah. It is good."
All I could offer was that vague reply. Any further apology or excuse would only hammer the memory of last year deeper into her. Then we would move past silence straight into tears.
I’m sorry.
No matter how many times I thought about it, this was peak trolling. From Irina’s side, at a sensitive age, she had shown the man she loved a state she would never let even family see. And instead of helping her forget that shame, I had dragged the memory right back up. Even a bastard dog would have more class.
"Lu—Luise will be waiting. We should hurry ba—?"
So, by way of apology, I scooped Irina up into my arms. If I had prodded a shameful memory, I had to offset it with a good one.
"We’ll just tell Luise we’re staying like this until the motion sickness settles."
At that, Irina nodded blankly.
Truthfully, this had also happened right after her mortifying episode last time, so it might be traumatic too—but we were lovers now. Surely it had turned into a good memory?
I wanted to believe that.