CH 120

“Then I’ll lend you the horse I was supposed to ride, so please endure with that…”

“Can I ride that one instead?”

“Eh?”

Sophie pointed to a dark brown horse. The horse was well combed and had ideal muscle build, but it had one drawback.

“That one is no good. Storm is a horse with strong legs, but it has a rough temper.”

Storm was a great horse that wouldn’t be weird to be owned by high nobles, but it had a rough temper that made it hard to control, thus it was given to the copper star instead. It was certainly not a horse fit to be ridden by a young girl. Although it obediently let people take care of it, it didn’t let itself be ridden. Some copper students did try to ride it by force, only to be shaken off by it.

“I see… But I think I still want Storm despite that. I think we’re a good match for each other.”

When they heard of its rough temper, unlike Lars, who took a noticeable step back from the horse, Sophie instead walked closer to Storm.

“O-oi… it’s dangerous.”

Aristocrats are troublesome people since they won’t listen to warnings, thought Marcus as he sighed. 

It can’t be helped. I’ll just let her learn how rough its temper is personally.

Marcus was convinced Sophie would understand once she learned of the horse’s rough temper personally.

If Sophie forcefully tried to ride and ended up injured, then Marcus, who saw things progress in silence, would receive capital punishment.

If I knew it would turn out like this, I would have fetched the riding gear instead of Luca. As Marcus had a headache over his failure, Sophie actually didn’t try to ride the horse forcefully.

“Storm, nice to meet you.”

Sophie approached it from the front as she called out to it. She spoke gently and stared at its eyes while keeping a certain distance. Storm was cautious and turned its ears back, but Sophie didn’t force it to move and just kept talking gently to it until its ears gradually turned toward her.

Sophie slowly brought her white fingers closer and Storm moved its face and touched her finger.

“Eh…Seriously?”

“Storm, please let me ride you.”

Storm, who would normally rampage, let its face be touched comfortably with calm eyes.

As Marcus watched with surprise, Luca brought Sophie’s riding gear. However, Luca’s expression changed when he saw Storm.

“Sophie-sama, that horse…”

“Thank you, Luca. Please hand me that.”

Luca didn’t expect Sophie would ride the horse that was known to rampage a lot and desperately tried to persuade Sophie otherwise, but Sophie proceeded to set the riding gear with a familiar movement.

Are you really that Storm? Such was the doubt that arose as Luca and Marcus saw the current state of Storm, while Lars spoke beside them. 

“I guess even a horse is weak to a beautiful woman.”

Lars nodded as he was convinced, but when Sophie asked, “Which horse will you borrow, Lars?” his expression stiffened. Sophie tilted her head as she saw his pale expression.

“Perhaps you can’t ride a horse?”

“…I’m sorry, it’s because I’ve always traveled by carriage instead.”

It wasn’t just Lars. Most gold star students were born in the royal capital, so they didn’t ride horses. Traveling by carriage was an obvious method for them. Some of them might enjoy it as a hobby and entertainment, but having a beautiful carriage had more value to the gold star compared to having a beautiful horse. Sophie had already forgotten about such common sense since both she and her father Edgar normally rode horses.

“I see. Then you can ride with me.”

“Heh?!”

When Sophie casually said that, the eyes of Lars and the people around them widened.

Riding with Sophie would mean Lars would be touching Sophie’s body.

Such an act was only permitted to the fiancé.

“N-no! It’s okay! You don’t have to be concerned about me!”

Besides the fact that the other party was a peculiar woman, Sophie was also the purple star.

The horrifying offer made Lars shake his head so quickly that he could have given himself a concussion.

“L-Luca-dono! Could you please allow me to ride with you?!”

As Lars begged with tears, Luca immediately gave his consent.

“You don’t need to worry about falling off a horse, you know?”

See, Storm is this calm… as Sophie said things that were irrelevant to the actual problem, Marcus replied out of pity.

“That’s not the problem here, ojou-san.”

“Oh my, what do you mean?”

“Men also have to save face.”

Sophie thought for a moment then muttered in a whisper,

“It’s not a problem because it’s a man though…”

After all, men had no boobs. If it was a woman with a bountiful chest like Lilina instead, her chest would touch Sophie when riding, which might cause sudden excitement within Sophie, accidentally causing her to make a mistake while horse riding and cause them both to fall from the horse, but there was no such problem since it was Lars. Even when Lilina rode in front of Sophie last time, her fragrant scent made Sophie excited, but Lars should be okay.

Without knowing the girl who bore the purple star actually had such a thought, Marcus instead mistook Sophie as a young girl who didn’t understand the hearts of men and they proceeded to the mountain exercise soon after.