CH 277

Good News! Malong’s Respect for Mia Reaches New Heights

“We of the Equestrian Kingdom are connected to our horses. We travel together through life and over land. Horses free us from all ties and chains and let us ride forever into the great beyond, but they also keep us on the ground. Wherever we go, our horses keep us connected to the earth. Our soul is the horse. We must always treat them with the utmost respect because of this.”

These were the words that Malong got from his grandfather, who was the leader of their clan and whose teachings were deeply ingrained in him. The Central Orthodox Church had a large area of religious influence, and the Equestrian Kingdom was right in the middle of it. So, like everyone in the surrounding countries, his people also believed that the Holy Deity was the only true God and the only one who made the world.

This also meant they didn’t worship horses as gods.

But they had a different view of the creatures than their neighbours, which made their whole set of beliefs a little bit different. The people of the Equestrian Kingdom saw God in horses, just like the Lulu of the Tearmoon Empire saw God in the trees of their forest.

To them, horses were the most powerful thing God had given them. The creatures were both priceless treasures and the spiritual link that linked them to the person who made them. When preachers from the Central Orthodox Church read Bible verses about God’s greatest gift, the people of the Equestrian Kingdom thought they were talking about horses.

It was clear that they loved their horses more than anyone else, and Malong was no different. He had been taught to love horses since he was a child.

So, when he heard one of the academy’s noble girls complaining that “horses are so dirty” and “it’s ridiculous that they let those stinky animals roam around the academy,” he couldn’t find it in himself to forgive her.

When he first started at Saint-Noel, his anger got him into fight after fight, which made it hard for him to get along with his classmates. Slowly, though, he realised that the girl’s opinion was so common in this academy and the rest of the nations that it could be called “common sense.”

People in the Equestrian Kingdom had horses with them from the time they were born. They treated horses like family and spent their whole lives with them.

In other kingdoms, horses were just animals or were sometimes used as weapons. Men who rode their horses into battle might grow fond of the animal that protected them from swords and arrows. For merchants and farmers, horses were a good way to get work done, and they probably took good care of them. The daughters of nobles, on the other hand, thought horses were just smelly animals.

Yes, these girls were often enchanted by young foals, but they loved them in the same way they loved a beautiful vase or a neighbor’s pet: from afar.

For them, the perfect object of affection should be sterile and free of bad smells and other physical flaws. A picture, perhaps. Or something stuffed.

It’s pretty to look at and fun to play with, but it doesn’t need to eat or sleep. As long as something lived, it had to eat and go to the bathroom. No matter how clean it was, it would smell. That’s what it was like to be alive.

Still, these people were so closed-minded that they couldn’t even accept nature, which is full of the sights and smells that make life worth living.

Before he realised it, he had already started to stay away from people like that. Mia’s first visit to the horsemanship club had, of course, thrown him for a loop. At first, he was afraid of her because he thought she might hurt the horses.

Once, a noble girl stepped in some horse dung and got so angry that she screamed at him and demanded that all the horses at the academy be killed. He had, of course, laughed off her hysteria, but it had not been a good time. He was worried that he might have to deal with the same stupidity again.

Then what happened happened, and it wasn’t even Mia’s fault.

She didn’t step in horse dung because she wasn’t paying attention; she was just going about her own business. It was the horse that had clopped over and sneezed hard, covering her in snot and ruining her clothes.

Even though she had suffered more, Mia didn’t yell or scream. She had smiled.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not a big deal,” she said, brushing off the incident as if it were just a stray hair on her shoulder.

It was surprising enough that she was willing to forgive the horse, but she went even further. She didn’t let the slimy insult stop her from wanting to try riding. She even joined the horsemanship club.

Since then, she had worked hard and honestly to improve her riding skills, which made him secretly proud. Recently, as he watched her practise routine get more and more serious, he had more respect for her.

This girl is pretty special…

She and Kuolan did the sneeze-and-scream routine so often that it was almost funny, but it never stopped her from getting on the horse. Time and again she would suffer a snotty fate, but again and again she would get up to ride the horse.

Besides that…

She seems to be trying to read the horse and match his rhythm more and more lately.

She didn’t get angry or feel bad that Kuolan didn’t listen to her. She didn’t moan about the problem; instead, she faced it head-on and tried to solve it. What he liked most about her was that she was honest about how she felt about horses.

It made him feel a tender affection for her that he usually only had for his younger sisters back home. This affection now showed up in everything he did with her.

Mia didn’t stop there. She kept asking more questions, and she even asked if she could help take care of the horses.

I swear, it’s almost as if she likes to surprise me or gets a kick out of it or something. This girl…

Normal noble girls wouldn’t go near a horse stall even if it was attached to their house. They would say that it smelled bad. And icky. And a lot of other words that sound bad.

As the princess of a powerful empire, Mia should be even more particular about cleanliness than them. Still, she asked if she could help take care of the horse because she knew it was hard for horses to give birth.

He saw how her eyes were filled with tender concern as she asked Kayou. She was, of course, a total novice. There was no question that she wouldn’t help much, if at all.

But what mattered was the thought, and it was a thought that went right to his heart and made him feel very happy.

“Okay… Why not? Sure. Then, let’s have you help. Don’t worry about it though. Do whatever you can.”

In Malong’s heart stirred a fullness of thanks and respect.

Meanwhile, Mia…

Oho ho! Target was pleased! Mission accomplished.

Also stirred, but in her case, it was her mind that was stirred by self-interest and calculation.

So, Mia was given the job of taking care of Kayou.