CH 280

Princess Mia Borrows the Power of a Horse

“Phew! I think that’s the last of them.”

Mia used her big pitchfork to give the clumpy pile of hay one last smack. It bounced back a little, but it was still a nice-looking pile. Since she started getting up early and going straight to Kayou in the morning, almost seven days had passed.

At first, she only planned to come on the first day and then go back to getting a lot of sleep, but something strange kept her coming back. After taking care of Kayou for the first time, riding Kuolan was a lot easier for some reason.

As an experiment, she did the same thing again the next day, taking care of Kayou before going to Kuolan. Again, her horse had—at least relatively—behaved well, and she’d finished the session without getting a mucky makeover.

“What the moons is going on?”

So she put on her detective cap. Then she ate a bunch of sweets. She chewed while thinking, thought while chewing, and chewed while chewing. She finally came to a conclusion!

“Ah, now I understand what’s going on. Basically…”

She turned toward an audience no one could see and opened her eyes in a dramatic way.

“Kayou is the leader of the herd!”

She came to this conclusion because she noticed that Kayou had a stately elegance that Kuolan did not have. In fact, none of the other horses did either. Kayou looked like she was the queen of her kind. It was a real horse among horses. It was proud and had an air of royalty about it.

“That must mean Kuolan is afraid! He’s being good because he knows his boss is nearby. Oho ho, despite his attitude, it’s clear that he’s just a lowly flunky in the moonhare hierarchy.”

The reasoning made sense based on what she knew from her own life. Real bosses didn’t act too bossy very often. Usually, it was the little people who acted like they were big and important.

In the previous timeline, she had seen a lot of nobles who seemed to be high and powerful, but when they saw her, their arrogance disappeared and was replaced by grovelling.

The horses were in exactly the same situation.

“I’m sure I picked up some of Kayou’s scent when I was taking care of her. Then, when I went to Kuolan, he smelled his boss and got scared.”

Everything made perfect sense to her. She could even relate to Kuolan because she felt the same way when she was around Rafina or Sion. There were some things in this world that should never be messed with under any circumstances. This seemed to be a truth of the universe that was true for both people and horses.

If that’s the case…

“I’d be a fool not to take advantage of this!”

Mia decided to use the power of a more powerful being after she realised this. She was going to be a sheep dressed as a wolf—no, a horse!

From then on, she stuck to her schedule to the letter and went to Kayou first thing in the morning. She worked hard to get as much of Kayou’s scent on her as possible. She washed the horse’s body, dried it off, and even started combing its hair with Malong’s help.

“Hmm… There’s something about this hair that seems familiar. It’s so nice.” When she looked at it closely for the first time, she said to herself, “I wonder…”

On the eighth day, Mia went to the stable like she always did.

“Good afternoon, Kayou. How are you?”

Kayou answered her greeting by raising its head quietly.

It was moving slowly. Just about too slow. She made a face.

“Oh? You don’t look quite right… “Hmm, I guess I should ask Malong to look at you later,” she said as she started to clean the stable like she always did.

She was now coming to work in the right clothes. She covered her head with a cloth and wore clothes she didn’t mind getting dirty. With her long-sleeved shirt and rough-looking pants, she worked quickly and well. She looked and felt like an experienced stable cleaner. No, more like a horse specialist with a lot of experience.

At least, that’s how she felt.

“Mm-hm, I don’t know what it is about this kind of work, but it’s kind of nice. It feels good to do too.”

She ate and rode horses a lot. Then she worked a lot and ate a lot. Then she ate a lot and went to bed a lot. You could say that she had reached the top of healthy living.

Of course, you could also say she was living on a knife’s edge, since any zenith was also a precipice, and the slightest drop in exercise would send her plunging down the chasm of F.A.T.

She cleaned the stall anyway, took a step back to look at what she had done, and felt an odd sense of accomplishment. She smiled smugly.

“Well, they say that in Perujin, the king and queen go to the fields with their people to lead the harvest, and it seems that the Rudolvons do the same thing. I finally think I know why. There’s something satisfying about a good day’s sweat for a good day’s work,” she said as she moved on to the next stall, sweat beads sparkling on her brow.

“Hi, Miss Mia.”

“I hope we aren’t in the way, Your Highness.”

Two cute, young voices could be heard at the door.

“My, Bel. And, uh, Rina. What are you both doing here? Oh, are you here for a tour?” Mia asked, remembering the conversation from the other day in the public bath. “I do remember that you said you liked horses.”

“Yes, we were hoping to be shown around,” Citrina said with a sweet smile.

Both girls were wearing their school uniforms, which screamed “tourist” in this case. They were not at all good enough to wear into the stable. Mia gave a cocky hmph and a smile when she saw this.

Well, since I’m the resident expert, I guess I should teach these newbies about horses.

Bel said to Mia as she walked toward Kayou, “Wow, this horse is so beautiful, Miss Mia.”

“Absolutely. The academy has quite a few horses, but that one is probably the most beautiful of them all.”

Not like someone else!

Mia added inwardly.

Stupid Kuolan…

Mia said, “When I’m done cleaning, you can come watch me ride too.”

“Really? Thank you! Hee hee. See, Rina? I said so. Miss Mia is a truly wonderful person. She is a master at rid – Huh?” Bel took a moment to think before continuing in a worried way. “I think something is wrong with this horse, Miss Mia. It looks like… it’s hurt somewhere…”

“…Eh?”

And so, Mia was in a situation she had never been in before.