Chapter 61
A sunny sky.
A lush green meadow, brimming with life after drinking in the dew all night.
-Trickle, trickle….
A clear river flowing alongside the main road.
-Chirp, chirp!
Even the cheerful chirping of birds.
It was a truly wonderful day for traveling, I thought.
“Whinny!”
If only that damn colt weren't here.
“Kyaaaah―! Let's just kill it―!”
“Please, please hold back! Ren!”
“…Master. Let's just kill it and move on. It doesn't matter as long as no one sees us, does it?”
“Lucy, not you too… Please, I'm begging you, calm down….”
So, how did this happen…?
* *
A few days after leaving home with Frederica seeing us off,
Just as the provisions we'd prepared were beginning to run low,
we heard from a passing peddler that a fairly large village lay ahead.
We visited the village to resupply,
and it was while Huey, who had stopped by the Adventurers' Guild as usual, was gathering information related to the otherworld.
“…A unicorn?”
“Yes.”
This was what the receptionist told Huey, sighing with a deeply worried expression throughout their conversation.
A unicorn.
Said to carry only pure maidens on its back,
and to attack viciously if an impure person or a man approached.
In short, a colt obsessed with maidens.
“It’s been showing up every so often at the river crossing lately, and it’s becoming a real nuisance.”
“Oh dear….”
Apparently, it was a headache because it blocked people trying to cross the bridge and rampaged.
This time, at least, I could understand the receptionist's feelings, so I was quietly nodding when…
“Um… Ren?”
“Huh?”
“What is it about unicorns that makes everyone react that way…?”
I mean, couldn't we just subjugate it and be done with it?
Lucy asked, tilting her head toward me.
…Right. It would be great if we could just subjugate it.
But here's the thing.
“If you mess with it, Arcadia will come after you.”
Because it was a species so rare it was called a magical beast.
The problem was that the priests of Arcadia—especially those of the Temple of Order, the most prickly people in the world—would foam at the mouth and make a huge fuss.
They'd go on about upsetting the balance or whatever.
“If you mess with an endangered species like a unicorn, you’ll at least have to room with those foul-tempered priests and listen to their sermons for several days—and you’ll have to pay a fine, too.”
The fine was such an outrageous sum that even catching unicorns, processing them down to the last bit, and selling them on the black market wouldn't earn enough to pay it.
For all that they were called magical beasts, they were really closer to huge pests than anything else.
“That’s a very firsthand explanation.”
“…No comment.”
The fine was bad enough, but they always brought along a priest who had no power whatsoever yet was good with words, and made him sermonize at us.
Even I had no desire to go through that again.
“If you provoke it just because it rubs you the wrong way, only the person who provoked it gets hurt. So it’s a real headache when it blocks the road like this.”
“I see.”
“Well, as long as it doesn’t show up while we’re passing through.”
It wasn't called a magical beast for nothing.
Surely it wouldn't show up.
“You know, saying things like that….”
“Huh? Why?”
“…Never mind.”
For some reason, Lucy was looking at me strangely. Anyway.
“Are you finished?”
“Yeah. Nothing much to show for it today, either.”
“Information about the otherworld can hardly be that common, can it?”
“Haha. True enough.”
After finishing our information gathering, we left the village with Huey leading the way.
“Neigh!!”
“…I knew it.”
Not long afterward,
we found a bridge over the river blocking our path.
Sitting on the bridge so that no one could pass,
we came face-to-face with a white, horned horse staring at us with an unpleasant-looking face.
A long, spiraling golden horn jutting from its snow-white mane.
A murky black gaze, dripping with desire, beneath a sly-looking muzzle.
…….
“How is that supposed to be a unicorn?”
It was just a horned colt.
“Neigh―!!”
Maybe it understood me, because the uni—horse colt rose to its feet and snorted angrily.
…It does seem to be a unicorn, at least.
…I hate to admit it, but it is a unicorn.
Huey and Lucy spoke weakly, averting their wavering gazes from the horse before them.
See? It wasn't just me who saw it that way.
Calling it something wearing a unicorn's hide would be more accurate.
“Snort!”
Anyway, the unicorn-like colt began snorting as it stared at us with hostile eyes.
“What do you want to do?”
From the look of it, it clearly had no intention of moving aside.
I asked Huey and Lucy as I spread my wings.
“Should we fly over?”
Why waste time getting into a pointless argument with that thing?
-Flap!
It was at that very moment, as I flapped my wings.
-Flash!
“Peep!?”
Its horn suddenly began to glow, and a white light shot out.
I hurriedly ducked to avoid it, but—
“Neigh!”
At the sight of the colt looking at me with a triumphant grin,
I felt extremely irritated.
“Grit.”
As I was grinding my teeth,
Huey and Lucy quietly approached and each grabbed one of my wings.
“―Peep!?”
“You have to hold back. If we mess with that thing, we’ll end up penniless.”
“…It looks like flying over is going to be difficult.”
I was about to shout and ask what they thought they were doing,
but Huey was looking at me with such pleading eyes, as if begging me not to leave us penniless, that—
“Ah, ugh. F-fine, so just let go of me already!”
I hurriedly shook the wing Huey was holding.
“Absolutely no violence.”
“Exactly. The village is close, so we’ll be caught in no time.”
“I said I get it―!”
I finally pried Huey's hand off and did my best to cool my body, which was heating up of its own accord.
Then, after glaring at the colt before me once more, I pondered for a moment.
“…I’ll go try it first.”
Huey stepped forward with a determined look.
And so.
It was just as Huey tried to pass through the small space beside the unicorn.
“Snort!”
The unicorn glared at Huey as if it found him extremely unpleasant.
-Tap.
It quietly raised a foreleg and shoved Huey.
“Huh…? Whoaaaah!!”
-Splash!
Huey fell into the river in an undignified fashion.
…….
Fortunately, the river wasn't very deep, and after floundering for a moment, Huey got to his feet.
He locked eyes with the unicorn, which was looking down at him from the bridge and laughing.
He quietly reached for the hilt of the sword at his waist,
“You told me to hold back, but look at you reaching for your sword.”
“Pfft.”
Apparently hearing me mutter that to Lucy,
Huey headed toward the opposite bank with an awkward expression and his shoulders drooping.
However.
-Flash!
“Whoa!”
A white beam shot toward Huey, as if asking how he dared cross the river without permission.
“…Damn it.”
In the end, Huey gave up and returned to where we were.
And then.
“Then let me try.”
Unicorns liked pure maidens, after all.
Saying that she ought to be fine, Lucy approached the unicorn with confident strides.
-Glance.
The unicorn glanced at Lucy.
Unlike with Huey, this time it looked Lucy over with a calm expression.
“Snort.”
When its gaze reached Lucy's chest,
it raised one corner of its mouth and made a mocking sound.
-Tap.
It raised a foreleg and shoved Lucy.
-Splash!
In the end, Lucy fell into the water just like Huey.
“Kph, khff.”
“If you laugh like that and something happens to you, don't blame me.”
Huey watched the scene, biting his lip hard and bouncing his shoulders.
-Crack….
Immediately afterward, at the eerie sound coming from Lucy's hands as she silently returned with her head bowed and wrung out the hem of her skirt,
Huey turned his back, knelt down, and began banging his head against the ground, doing everything he could to stop laughing.
…Then I guess it’s my turn.
In the past, I could have driven off a colt like that with no more than a touch on my sword.
I sighed at how pathetic my situation had become and approached the unicorn.
“Neigh?”
The creature began looking at me with a strangely ambiguous expression.
“Sniff, sniff.”
Soon, the unicorn brought its muzzle up to me and began sniffing.
…What on earth are you sniffing?
It was nice that, unlike with Huey and Lucy, it didn't shove me away.
But now it began circling me, sniffing every part of me.
And then….
“Snnnniff….”
“You little…!”
The creature suddenly buried its nose in my crotch and inhaled deeply.
I was so dumbfounded that I raised my leg to stomp on the top of its head, but—
-Tap.
The unicorn's foreleg lightly knocked my raised leg aside.
“…Huh?”
Losing my balance, I slowly began falling beneath the bridge.
As the scenery drifted past in slow motion, I finally saw it.
Like a tragic heroine betrayed by someone she trusted, even shedding tears,
the face of that damned colt staring at me with utter contempt.
-Splash!
I fell into the water without even thinking to spread my wings and fly.
-Fwoosh.
“Grit.”
Grinding my teeth, I returned to where Huey and Lucy were and set my wings ablaze.
“Neigh!”
I shouted as I glared at the colt snorting at us as if we were laughable.
“Kyaaaah―! Let's just kill it―!”
And so, we return to where we started.
-Clatter.
“Let's kill it. Yes. Let's kill it. That thing isn't a unicorn.”
Alongside Lucy, who spoke with a murderous expression as she tightened the chains fastened around her coffin.
-Fwoosh!
“Yeah. It's just a horned horse. Let's kill it. Something like that never existed in this world to begin with.”
I spoke as I gathered fiercely blazing flames before my chest.
“Calm down! Please, calm down! More importantly, you said you were a man, Ren, so why are you reacting to something like that!?”
As we prepared to kill the unicorn,
Huey was desperately trying to stop us.
“Oh my? You’re back again?”
A voice suddenly came from the other side of the bridge.
At the woman's voice, overflowing with welcome, I looked toward the other side of the bridge.
“Neigh!”
“Aww! Stop acting spoiled again!”
I saw the damn colt hopping about happily and approaching a woman who looked like an adventurer, rubbing its cheek against hers.
Soon, the horned colt passed us, following the woman with a blissful grin.
“…Let's go.”
Huey was the first to come to his senses and patted Lucy's and my shoulders as he said that, but
…….
…….
Overcome by inexplicable anger and emptiness,
Lucy and I could only stare blankly in the direction the horned colt had disappeared.
The horned colt disappeared in that direction, and Lucy and I could only stare blankly at it.