by Funa
...
......
I suppose that was the expected reaction...
Oh, well. I’m not really a human, anyway. All right, mode change time!
“I am a friend of Celestine, the goddess of this world. You are Carlos, I presume?”
“L-Lady Goddess! I am not worthy!”
The old horse, Carlos, lowered his head in a hurry.
“I have given my sacred horse, Ed, time to rest and spend time with his family in this world, but he has brought me here to fulfill a personal request. He claims you have been good to him, and asks that I grant your wish... So, as a reward for his hard work, I have decided to grant him his request. Now, what is it you desire?”
Yeah, I’ll go with this setting this time. This should get him to speak openly.
...But were these really horses I was dealing with?
Do horses really have a language that allows them to communicate so comprehensively? Just with a combination of neighs and snorts? They say horses are less intelligent than dogs, and dogs are supposedly as smart as three-year-old humans, putting them lower than cats, but above rabbits, in the intelligence tier list.
Though, I’m sure there are differences between each individual, and it varies by type of intelligence... like numbers, pattern recognition, memory, and comprehension... making it hard to make a sweeping generalization, but...
It was still strange that we could have such advanced communication like this. Celes must have...
No, no, don’t think about it! This is just how it is! Don’t dig too deep into it! Just let the small details slide. In fact, don’t worry about the big details, either.
It was a bit late to start thinking about this, after I had talked with Ed and the others so often.
“Now, tell me. What is your wish...?”
“M-My wish... Th-That is...”
“Yes?”
“The young mistress! My wish is to save her!”
Thought so...
Then, Carlos began explaining.
He was once a riding horse who belonged to a certain noble family. When he was five years old, the noble husband and wife had another child after having their firstborn son.
Ten years later, Carlos was given to this daughter, due to his gentle nature and many years of experience as a riding horse.
Being late in his years, the parents must have figured Carlos wouldn’t run around recklessly. Fifteen years was quite old for a horse, after all. He wasn’t a stud suitable for breeding, and since he didn’t have any offspring of his own, Carlos saw this ten-year-old human girl like he would his own child or granddaughter.
He spent his days peacefully, fulfilling his role as this noble girl’s riding horse, which was likely to be the last duty given to him.
These quiet days continued, as he thought they would until he met his eventual end. That’s what he thought, anyway.
Until, one day...
When the girl was fourteen years old and Carlos was nineteen, the carriage the family was riding in was attacked. Her parents and brother all lost their lives, leaving only the girl, who had stayed at home.
Her grandparents were already deceased, making the girl the sole survivor, with no close family to care for her. Then, her father’s younger brother—in other words, her uncle—came into her house, claimed that his older brother had told him to take care of the girl if something ever happened to him, and demanded her hand in marriage.
The girl said she would do what her father had wanted and thus obeyed. But one day, when the girl and her uncle passed by the stable, two carriage horses said in surprise:
“That’s the guy who was ordering the attackers around...”
Carlos heard as much clearly with his own ears. The girl had explained the details to him after her family had passed away. She had always told him everything, though she was mostly speaking to herself. She didn’t care whether her horse understood her or not.
“Say, Carlos. I don’t like my uncle very much, but if it’s my father’s wish, I will marry him and protect this house. Stay by my side, okay, Carlos? Don’t ever leave me...”
He still remembered the words she had said to him while stroking his hair.
This was a difficult request for a horse, which has a shorter life expectancy than a human, and this was an aged horse, at that. But Carlos wanted to do what he could to make her wish come true. Carlos felt the blood rising to his head. Something burned within him, like all the blood in his entire body was boiling over.
And in contrast, there was a heavy, cold lump deep inside him.
Anger.
Hate.
And again, anger.
When the uncle went to the stable by himself to go out one day, Carlos tried and failed to kick him to death, and unfamiliar humans had taken him away and brought him out here the next day.
He figured the people here were allowing him to live out his final days in peace, out of simple kindness. His life would soon come to an end, and he would depart from this world.
But if there was such a thing as souls and the afterlife... If it was possible to curse a man to death with sheer anger and hate... If such a thing as demons existed in this world...
...I shall become the devil himself, and drag him straight to hell!
Heavy. That was... very heavy. But all I could say was one thing:
“Very well, leave it to me. You shall have your revenge...”
Oh, no. This makes me sound more like a malevolent god than a goddess.
I left Carlos behind as he dexterously bent his legs to prostrate himself, and joined the others.
Then, I reported what had happened to Ed and the horse crew. This was all in horse language, so Francette and the others obviously didn’t understand what I said.
For my report, I told them...
“Vengeance is mine.”
This wasn’t a reference to the title of a famous movie. It actually originated from a passage in the New Testament, which essentially meant, “Humans aren’t the ones who bring retribution to humans. It is my role as God.”
“Okay, everyone, laugh!”
If they were to lower their heads or act meekly here, Francette or Emile might not have noticed anything, but Roland was pretty sharp, so he may have found it suspicious. So, just like earlier, I wanted to make them think I had cracked another joke.
“Breeehehehe!!!” I laughed along with the three horses, excluding Ed’s wife and child.
Roland and Francette gave me a look, but I totally ignored them.
Afterwards, I had the others continue bonding with their horses, and I headed toward the caretaker’s office. I told them I was going to discuss the horses’ care and settle payments, so no one tried to follow me. There was no perceived threat here, and everyone wanted to cherish their time with their horses, so this was to be expected.
That was exactly why I had used an unexciting reason for leaving anyway.
“Please sell me that old horse named Carlos!”
I didn’t know when Carlos would finally be put down if I didn’t do something about it. I decided it would be best for me to buy him, just in case. A nineteen-year-old horse was about eighty in human years. He couldn’t be too expensive.
“He’s a mild-mannered and intelligent horse, but he’s quite advanced in his years.”
“I understand that. I intend for him to spend his days gently interacting with humans, rather than doing any physical labor... For the time he has left, that is...”
The old custodian’s eyes widened a bit as if out of surprise, then he lowered his head.
“...Please, take good care of him.”
He knew I was someone who didn’t mind spending money on my horses, considering I was already paying a higher rate to ensure that Ed was well taken care of. And I was clearly a wealthy customer, seeing as how I was paying for the care of five horses by myself. Being polite to a good customer was just common sense.
But it seemed that wasn’t all. Taking care of an
imals is hard work. Considering how he was still doing this all the way out in the outskirts at his age, he must have held a deep love for horses, or animals in general.
So, when an old horse that could no longer work, one that was just waiting to be put down, could live out its final days happily with a horse-loving, rich customer, there was no way he wouldn’t be happy about that.
He must have had his guard down from that happiness right now. Now was my chance!
“How did Carlos end up here?”
“Oh, you see, he was a riding horse for a noble house for a long time, but once he became old, he tried to harm the new master of the house, and was sent here to be disposed of... But like the other horses of the Viscount Raphael’s house, Carlos has been under my care for many years, and I simply cannot believe such a thing to be true! Carlos is smart, gentle, and loves people... But I could not refuse the orders his owner gave to dispose of him. So, I thought I could at least let him live out his final days in peace...”
He’s tearing up. What a nice person...
Oh, but...
“If he ordered you to dispose of him, won’t you get in trouble for selling him?”
To which he answered, “Ah, but his orders were, ‘Dispose of this horse. The money you get for selling the meat should be enough payment for your trouble.’ Which means that there is no issue with me selling Carlos and receiving payment for the meat. After all, as he said, I am ‘disposing’ of him and getting paid for the ‘meat.’ Whether that ‘meat’ is dead or alive is up to my personal discretion.”
Wow, he’s all smiles right now...
“But wouldn’t it be bad for you if the viscount finds out?”
“...Is that an issue?”
He was more concerned about this old horse than displeasing the viscount’s house! Maybe he empathized with Carlos, being in his later years himself? But I didn’t mind dealing with people like that.
All right, leave it to me!
“...So, will you opt for the additional rates for Carlos as well?”
Oh, right, he’ll be considered my horse now, too.
“Yes, please. I’d like his meals, brushing, and grazing conditions to be the same as the other five horses.”
There, now I’d secured Carlos’s safety. I’d even found out the name of his former owner. The nouns the horses used weren’t much help to me, after all.
Yes, everything was going just as planned...
＊ ＊
“...Even if it costs my life!” recited Emile and Belle together.
“Like I said, your lives are more important to me than a request from a horse I just met!”
No matter how many times I told them not to, these fools always tried to prioritize any little request from me over their own lives. That’s why I had to be extremely cautious about any order or request I gave them...
“How many times do I have to say this?! It would be a huge loss for me if any of you were to die! Can you really call yourselves loyal if you’re willing to just throw away two of my subjects?”
“Urgh...” they groaned, dejectedly.
I’ve been through this routine so many times. When are they going to learn...?
I’d learned that it was impossible for a complete amateur like me to covertly gather intel. As such, I had no choice but to enlist Emile and Belle, and just let the specialists do their work. Leave rice cakes to the rice cake shop, as they say.
Emile and Belle were members of the Eyes of the Goddess, an organization that supported those of my activities that bring salvation to the good of heart. You could say that this specific task would bring salvation to these two in particular, who had been feeling down from me not giving them any work, so whatever.
Francette and Roland could start saying this or that if they found out, and I didn’t want to drag them into my personal matters or things involving the nobility and their betrothed, so I decided to keep them out of it. I had to make sure they didn’t find out...
Layette? Well, she was always with me, so... Haha...
“Anyway, my first order is, ‘No dying.’
“My second order is, ‘I’ll allow some degree of injury, but you are to avoid getting seriously hurt by any means necessary.’
“My third order is, ‘Maintain secrecy.’
“And the fourth is, ‘Gather information.’
“Don’t overextend yourselves. If you sense even a little danger, you must retreat immediately and report what you’ve found up to that point. If you’re caught, or if it seems like you can’t escape, declare that you’re a servant of the Goddess and bring whoever caught you to me. That way, I can get you back, along with the information you’ve obtained, and the enemy will be in my court. If you resist and end up getting killed, I’ll lose all of that. Which outcome do you think would be more beneficial to me?”
“...Us coming back alive...” said the two, in a dull monotone.
There, that should be enough to prevent them from doing anything stupid. It always takes so much effort to deal with them...
“Okay then, focus on the main objectives. I’ll leave the rest to you two.”
I sent Emile and Belle out to gather intel, and now all I had to do was wait.
Oh, but it wasn’t like they were going to infiltrate a noble’s manor or anything like that. That would’ve been a quick way to get them killed.
Their specialty was acting like bystanders who just happened to be present, listening in on conversations, and manipulating conversations as if just making small talk, in order to get the information they wanted. Before, they also used that they were children as a tool for deceiving people, but Emile didn’t have that option now that he was an adult.
Belle, on the other hand, could apparently still pull it off...
I wondered if she looked up at people with her puppy-dog eyes and said something like, “Please, mister!” If I tried that, they’d probably think I was picking a fight, and I’d end up making them angry...
＊ ＊
“...So, that horse, Carlos, was handed over to the pasture about two months ago to be disposed of. It was right after the viscount’s family carriage was attacked by bandits, and the uncle began staying at their house. The viscount’s daughter will turn fifteen, making her an adult, in four months. We still have time.”
I didn’t think Carlos had much time left, so I was right in assuming that it hadn’t been very long since the incident. I was relieved.
The daughter not being of age yet was fortunate, too. Since she wasn’t married due to age rather than a refusal, the uncle probably wouldn’t try to force her into marriage before she turned fifteen. He only had to wait a little longer to get married officially, so it was unlikely that he would do something to cause problems or make her hate him. The people of this world were pretty accepting of that sort of thing, but royalty and titled nobility really valued lineage, so they cared about having a “pure” bride...
This didn’t really apply to mistresses, but when it came to a lawful wife whose child could become the heir, she was expected to be completely celibate... Though I guess that goes without saying. In any case, we still had four months until the daughter’s marriage, so we’d be fine until then.
You could even fix a jet plane in four whole months!
“And they have two riding horses, four carriage horses, and two carriages. It seems they’ve had all of the horses for over two years. In addition, they have three guard dogs, which are also used for hunting foxes. The daughter, who loves animals, has been helping with their care.”
All right, let’s start from there.
＊ ＊
“An animal doctor?”
“Indeed, with the teachings that have been passed down through our family line, I am able to check your animals for any issues of the mind and body, and thus resolve them.”
A suspicious individual had visited the house of Viscount Raphael. Pale skin, chestnut hair, and kindly, drooping blue eyes.
Th
is was, of course, Kaoru.
She had changed the color of her skin, hair, and eyes with a potion, and used adhesive and exceptional makeup skills to force her eyes, which were normally turned up at the corners, to droop down instead.
Kaoru was a 22-year-old working adult in her previous life, so she did know how to use makeup. She preferred not to cake the makeup on, opting instead for a natural look, but she was capable of transforming herself to a degree that could be considered trickery, if she wanted. Especially now that she had things like “cosmetics-type potions that fix skin blemishes”...
Hair and skin colors were one thing, but with the change in her eye shape, no one would ever see this girl and know it was Kaoru.
...Which wasn’t too surprising, considering her entire raison d’être had been changed.
“You look suspicious... Well, just wait here for now. You might end up entertaining the mistress, so I’ll at least announce you. But if this ends up being some sort of scam, you’ll get what’s coming to you...”
With that, one of the guards disappeared into the manor. The other stayed to keep an eye on this suspicious girl.
“Well then, I’ll start checking for issues now.”
“You’d better not be planning on saying nothing was wrong, then charging us anyway,” the young retainer responded mockingly to Kaoru’s comment.
...I say ‘young,’ but he was probably in his late twenties or early thirties.
Other than Kaoru and this retainer, an old man on stable duty, an aging man who seemed to be a butler, and the daughter of Viscount Raphael—rather, the present head of House Raphael, Mariel—were in the stable, bringing the total to five people. The uncle in question wasn’t present.
All right, just as planned! It’s only been about two months since she lost her family. She should still be burdened with sorrow and confusion from the loss, so her retainers won’t miss this chance to cheer her up, considering her love for animals. I knew I wouldn’t be turned away at the gates!
Of course, even if she had been, she would have just come up with another plan.