Mare Training. Military Horse Training
"Ah… but Sonia. Surely discovered in a dungeon… Ah… so that is how it is… Ah… only now do I understand… Hmm…"
The one the spirit sought would have been a descendant of the family that had held the medal to the very end.
Sonia felt no particular need to conceal the truth, and told her honestly that it had been one of the many spoils a close friend—a D-class adventurer—had obtained while clearing a dungeon.
At those words the spirit looked briefly flustered, then let her shoulders sag as if resigning herself to everything.
"To think it was found as dungeon loot… That means… in the end, they became an adventurer who never returned. Perhaps they simply lost it inside a dungeon, but either way, finding them again would be difficult. Sonia."
Even without knowing the dungeon principles of fantasy worlds that required crossing into other dimensions, the dungeons of this Earth were generated in a very peculiar fashion.
Offer a specific item upon the altar at a dungeon's entrance, and a dungeon would form like instant food; defeat the boss within, and a single-use key would appear with which to open the treasure chest.
Inside those chests, one would often find the keepsakes of other adventurers who had exhausted their strength mid-clear and never made it home.
Perhaps the family that had served the Horse Spirit had fallen, and their descendants—ignorant of the medal's worth—had sold it for a pittance. Or perhaps the last descendant, who had cherished it as a family heirloom, had ended their life as an adventurer and left their belongings behind in a dungeon.
There was no longer any way in this world to learn the exact truth.
"…?"
Whether they were real ears or not, the horse ears sprouting from her brown hair drooped limply.
With a deep, theatrical sigh, the Horse Spirit muttered as if to herself—yet loud enough for Sonia to hear.
"Returning to the spirit realm as I am would not be so bad… but it is most regrettable… How I delighted in watching the children who, though startled and rebellious at first, would eventually grow docile and become my own Military Horses…"
Crunch.
"To think that this body's privilege, passed down through the generations, should simply vanish… Ah, how deeply I regret it… Crunch, crunch."
Having already polished off nearly a whole bag of the carrots she had slyly helped herself to, the spirit shot a sidelong glance at Sonia, the homeowner, and brought another remaining carrot piece to her small mouth.
Sonia was usually rather dense, but when it came to anything that might make money—or abilities that made surviving this harsh world easier, what one wrote as a special fated encounter and called an easy free ride—her animal instincts kicked in.
In this grim age when Academy students were kidnapped on their way home from school, brainwashed, and remodeled into the lowest-rank combatants, there was nothing wrong with growing stronger in Sky City.
Not mere level-ups, but a privilege that could grant special strength. From simple stat boosts to unique effects no one else could replicate—the contents were truly diverse and alluring.
Greed that wanted to swallow this fated opportunity whole, mixed with pure curiosity about an unknown power, Sonia carefully posed a question to the little Horse Spirit who was crunching away on carrots.
"Horse Spirit…? May I… ask what sort of work you did, specifically…?"
"Hoh… So thou art curious after all? Curious, art thou? Since thou hast offered tribute—carrots—with such devotion, I shall specially inform thee. No… wait a moment… Wait just a moment… Hmm…"
At Sonia's question, the spirit instantly wiped away her earlier dejected expression and began scrutinizing her with an entirely different gaze.
It was a cold, sharp look—as if an appraiser were assessing the value of a rare gem unique in all the world.
"Um… excuse me… Spirit…?"
"Ahoy! Did I not say to wait a moment… Just a little more… Just a tiny bit more… Hmm…"
Moments ago she had been dejectedly chewing carrots while lamenting the unknown fate of the descendants; now she had even forgotten to chew, examining Sonia from head to toe.
This was no casual glance like browsing a mannequin in a shop window. It was a tenacious, greedy gaze that seemed determined not to miss a single breath, not even the slightest tremor of muscle from tension.
Sonia's chest, swelling voluptuously with every inhale and exhale; her thighs, floating higher than the table and thus fully visible—firm with a hero's training yet soft with feminine grace.
The spirit's eyes raked over every inch of Sonia's body as if confirming her own property.
"Um… your eyes are a little scary… Spirit…"
"Hark…! Did I not tell thee to stay still, Sonia? All good things lead to good paths—that is why I do this. Stay put and do not move! Let me see… Soft and pliant, yet… thou saidst something like an adventurer, didst thou not? A hero… Quite well-trained flesh… Mmm…! These springy thighs… th-this… this… what fine merchandise!"
Bobbing lightly, the spirit floated through the air, gradually crossing the table toward Sonia.
With her small hands she pinched and tugged at Sonia's soft belly, then mercilessly poked her sides. Especially from Sonia's thighs down to her toes, the spirit's eccentric behavior of measuring angles with her fingers—like a tailor sizing the finest fabric—left the D-class hero unable to keep up, at a complete loss.
"M… merchandise…♡ …Ah… no… I mean… I don't really understand what you mean…"
At that word merchandise—a strange treatment that completely stripped away personhood—an indescribable sweetness bloomed in Sonia's mind.
The spirit's cold appraisal twisted into hot excitement, warming her lower belly.
With the pleasure that surged alongside her shame, two nipples clearly protruded through Sonia's white latex bodysuit, stiffly erect.
Even someone as dense as she was could vaguely guess the spirit's intent in so obsessively fondling only her thighs.
"Ahem… Do not tense up so, Sonia. Mmm… At this level, thou art more than sufficient to receive my special training, passed down through the generations! What sayest thou, Sonia? Wilt thou hear me out?"
Looking satisfied, the spirit cleared her throat and launched into the glorious history of the family that had served her. She proposed to pass on to Sonia the special training that would grant the privilege of a Military Horse.
Still having no grasp of what a Military Horse even was, Sonia was confused. She was a person, not a Military Horse. Even if something like a USB slot had appeared in her navel, she was still properly human for now.
(This is… without a doubt a fated opportunity…?! I absolutely can't let this slip away…! But… the training name is… a little… no, a lot weird… Still, it's a fated opportunity you couldn't buy with money…!)
Naturally, Sonia's heart was already prepared to accept the Military Horse Special Training the Horse Spirit would bestow.
When her time lost in thought stretched longer than expected, the spirit arbitrarily decided that Sonia was seriously deliberating.
"…Rather, I beg of thee! Sonia! To think that the techniques I bestowed as the Horse Spirit, my history, would vanish like this… sob… it pains my heart so…"
The confident attitude of I shall specially teach thee! Be grateful! was nowhere to be found.
The cute Horse Spirit, grieving that the Military Horse privilege passed down through generations would forever disappear from the world, and pleading for her to please learn the technique—her appearance was pitiful beyond measure.
"I beg of thee, Sonia! Wilt thou not grant this piteous spirit's final request—to leave the noble privilege of the Military Horse upon this world?!"
"A final request…? You're disappearing? Couldn't you just pass it on to other people later…? Instead of being a guardian spirit served for generations this time… maybe something like an academy…?"
To the spirit with her adorable donkey ears—far too cute and charming to be served for generations—Sonia suggested perhaps opening something like a Military Horse Training Academy instead of being a guardian spirit.
"Hmph! Sonia. Thou art correct… For us spirits to take form upon this Earth or in Floren from the spirit realm, a medium is required! Now that this body, manifested as the Horse Spirit through this medal, has itself realized the medal has been abandoned so, maintaining my form in the mortal world grows ever more difficult."
Apparently a story that would expand the worldbuilding yet again—the spirit realm—had emerged. The explanation was that a spirit needed a medium to appear in this world.
In the Horse Spirit's case, she had manifested through the horseshoe medal engraved with a [U] mark, but the moment she recognized that the medal had been abandoned by the descendants, she was fated to lose her power and return to the spirit realm. She was not dying, so not to worry—the spirit was actually the one consoling Sonia.
(…Huh? This is totally the Magical Girl contract pattern…?)
Sonia briefly entertained the absurd notion that the mascots of cute Magical Girls or transforming heroines might actually be beings who crossed over from such a spirit realm.
Of course, there were no Magical Girls around, so she soon dismissed it.
"So I beg of thee, Sonia! Wilt thou not please receive the training as a Military Horse? The Military Horse privilege… thou shalt not lose out in the least!"
"Th… the privilege as a gift is truly appreciated, Spirit…! But what exactly is a Military Horse?"
"…? A Military Horse is a Military Horse, is it not? Thou need not live as a Military Horse per se—I shall personally teach thee the Military Horse privilege at the very least, Sonia!"