Ride Your Steed, Knightly (7)

"Help me already!!"

"This is part of your private lessons too. Hold on!"

"You fucking bastard!!"

Cursing up a storm, Knightly wrung every muscle in her body, desperate not to fall. But the horse bucked with a strength no ordinary beast should have possessed, and she found herself seriously wondering whether the thing was some kind of hybrid with a monster.

No matter how many times it shook and heaved, Knightly refused to come off — until at last the horse suddenly bolted forward at a full gallop.

"Ghk—?!"

It ran at a speed so absurd a gale tore past her, and Knightly's breath caught in her throat.

As a member of a noble house, she had been riding since she was very small. She had started on ponies and worked her way up through horses nearly the size of a legion's war mounts, covering the full range. Her athletic talent was exceptional; she had even taken prizes at youth riding competitions hosted by the Noble Council on more than one occasion.

And even so, the speed of this horse was something she could scarcely believe a mere animal was capable of producing. On top of that, there was no saddle or tack of any kind — the only thing she could cling to was a single rope looped around the horse's neck. Holding on to a rampaging wild stallion with nothing but a rope was, for an Academy student, a feat that was never meant to be possible in the first place.

By the time the scenery whipping past had begun to blur, Knightly knew with certainty that she was about to fall. The feeling had long since gone from the hands gripping the rope, and a vicious pain burned through every muscle in her body — especially between her legs.

I really can't hold on anymore...

Just as she was about to slip sideways, something seized her by the nape of the neck with tremendous force and flung her back onto the horse's back.

"Hold on, Knightly!"

She glanced to the side and found Dian riding another wild horse, keeping tight alongside her.

"You fall, you die!"

"You never should have thrown me into this situation in the first place!! I can't hold on anymore!"

"You can do this! You made it through the night infiltration, didn't you?"

"I'm going to fall!! Catch me!"

Knightly tried to throw herself off, and Dian stretched out a foot and shoved her back onto the horse.

"See it through to the end! If you give up here, you won't be able to do anything from now on!"

"I can't! I said I can't!"

"Hold on! If you quit here, your private lessons are over as of today!"

"You piece of—!"

Cursing, Knightly clung to the horse with everything she had.

"Keep your eyes centered and pull the rope! Lean your ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠upper body back — like you mean to snap the bastard's neck!"

"Nngh...!"

Instead of shouting How the hell am I supposed to do that?!, Knightly wrung out what strength she had left and pulled. The horse, its neck cinched by the lasso, seemed to ease off the pace just a little.

"Good. Now pull harder with your left hand! Keep going like this and you'll smash into that rock!"

Looking ahead, she saw a boulder the size of a house jutting from the ground. Knightly clenched her teeth and hauled with her left hand. A burning pain seared her palm as the horse veered dramatically aside.

"Well done, Knightly. Now keep rocking him left and right!"

Following Dian's instructions, she wound the rope around her wrists and began pulling alternately with both arms. The horse, which had resisted fiercely at first, gradually began to zigzag left and right according to her will.

"You're doing great, Knightly. Just keep going like that."

"When I get down from here alive... I swear I will have my revenge!"

"That's the spirit. The thing that gets you through adversity isn't hope — it's hatred!"

"That's insane bullshit!"

How long they went on like that, she couldn't say. At last the lead stallion's speed dropped off sharply. Slowing to little more than a walk, the horse kicked its hind legs a few times, then snorted and began to clip-clop slowly in a circle.

"That's enough, Knightly."

Dian jumped down from the horse he'd been riding and took the rope from her hands.

"Bleeegh!"

Knightly tumbled off, dropped onto all fours, and violently threw up bile.

"Well done. You did it."

"Urgh..."

Dian praised her, but she didn't even have the strength to answer — just kept dry-heaving.

Damn it, this goddamn professor... ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this lunatic of a professor... I almost died...!

But she was too exhausted to get the words out.

"Congratulations, Knightly!"

Orendi came running over and clapped her on the back.

"Congratulations, Knightly..."

Anna, arriving a beat later, gave Knightly's head a light pat — then went straight to the horse.

"Congratulations, Knightly."

Those were Dian's last words as he handed the horse over to Anna. Knightly passed out on the spot.

"Knightly subdued the lead stallion, Professor Anna!!"

The moment he saw the lead horse come to a stop, Orendi started shouting at the top of his lungs, bouncing up and down as if he were about to foam at the mouth.

"She climbed onto that crazy horse's back and held on all the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠way to the end!"

"Yeah..."

Unlike the excited Orendi, Anna scratched her head with a gloomy expression and muttered.

"It's weird... This shouldn't have been over this fast..."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it logically... A horse that big... There's no way it should get tired this quickly just because an Academy girl climbed on its back... Even a pony wouldn't go down like that..."

"Hmm, is that so? Maybe Knightly weighs more than she looks. Come on, hurry!"

Brushing off Anna's suspicions, Orendi ran toward Knightly and Dian, calling out cheerfully. Following behind him, Anna turned the situation over in her mind.

The original plan had been for Anna to blink onto the horse's back with a short-range teleport, while Professor Dian looped a lasso around it and wore it down. This wasn't just any horse — it was a Brun Plateau wild stallion, and the lead stallion at that. Even two professors would have been cutting it close.

But Professor Dian had suddenly, without any prior discussion, thrown Knightly — an Academy student — in instead of Anna. Anyone could see it was extremely dangerous, yet he had been completely unfazed. He hadn't even thrown a lasso. He had simply left Knightly to hold on by herself. Then, when the horse bolted, he had casually hopped onto another wild horse and given chase.

At that rate Knightly would have had to hang on for over an hour, so Anna had been about to step in — but astonishingly, the lead stallion surrendered in less than ten minutes. Before they started, Dian had boldly declared it would be over in ten minutes. And that prediction had landed exactly on the mark.

But that was something even Anna, the specialist, could never have predicted. It simply shouldn't have been possible.

Everything about this is full of questions. Putting a student in instead of the combat horsemanship specialist. Saying it would be over in ten minutes. Handling an unbroken wild horse as if it were nothing.

You couldn't pull off a plan this absurdly reckless and still look that relaxed unless you'd already seen the future and known that no one would get hurt. A conjecture so wild she could barely believe it herself crossed Professor Anna's mind.

Don't tell me... Professor Dian has the power to see the future...?

After giving the seated Knightly a light pat on the head, Anna witnessed something strange just as Dian was about to hand over the rope.

"There, there. Good boy."

The moment he had finished praising Knightly, Dian was stroking the horse's mane. Amazingly, the horse was leaning into his touch, nuzzling its cheek against his face.

"Finally remembering, are you? That's right. It's me."

Dian kept speaking to the horse in a gentle expression and tone.

What... what is he saying to that horse...

"You've grown up so well, leading a whole herd. I'm proud of you."

What on earth is that supposed to mean...?

"Chief Professor... did you... already know this horse from before...?"

"Hm? No?"

Dian answered Anna's question with a look that said he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Just now you clearly asked if it remembered..."

"What are you talking about? I didn't say a word."

"I-I see..."

She had asked twice, and he had still come back with that. Timid as she was, Anna couldn't press any further. She just scratched her head.

This is really weird...

Knightly slowly opened her eyes.

An unfamiliar ceiling — no, a somewhat familiar one. At the scratching of a pen beside her, she turned her head and found Priestess Maya writing in a Patient Log.

Passed out and got hauled to the infirmary again, did I...

She tried to sit up, but an enormous pain swept through her entire body. She groaned and sank back down.

It feels like I've been beaten over every inch of me with a club. The muscles in my groin hurt especially badly.

Of course they did. She had clung to the back of a powerful wild stallion with no saddle at all. There was no way she would have come through it unscathed.

Glancing at Priestess Maya, Knightly carefully spread her legs a little and began massaging and rubbing the inner muscles of her thighs.

The second private lesson. The first had been forcing her through a place that was practically a cliff in the dead of night. This time, she had been made to tame a wild horse with no safety measures whatsoever. By any reasonable standard, this was not a level of instruction a normal Academy student could handle.

Dian is a lunatic of a professor. He's lost his mind. I don't think there's any deep meaning behind pushing it this far.

That man just didn't like that I unilaterally pressured the Principal into giving me private lessons. So he's assigning me impossible tasks to make me drop out on my own.

That man really is...

No. Wait.

Come to think of it... I completed both private lessons, didn't I? I overcame the death-defying night infiltration, and I brought that notoriously vicious Brun Plateau wild stallion to heel.

Back during our first consultation, Professor Dian said something. That he was curious how far I could grow.

Then... did Professor Dian deliberately create situations that sat right on the razor's edge of my abilities? So that if I just held on a little longer, I could push past them... raising the ceiling bit by bit...?

Fine. I'll let you fool me one more time, Professor Dian. Because now I'm curious too — how far I can actually go.

"Still, it's a little disappointing..."

If Professor Dian had told her exactly what they would be doing beforehand, she would have prepared a bit more. Changed into riding pants and boots, for instance.

What kind of man thinks it's a good idea to put an Academy girl in a skirt on a horse with no gear whatsoever?!

A fresh surge of anger boiled up, and Knightly's hands moved faster as she worked the muscles of her groin — then she groaned at the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pain.

Observing all of this, Priestess Maya calmly continued writing in the Patient Log.