Chapter 109 - Special Report! Dinner on the Road 5: Preparations for the Road <Franz's Case>
"Honestly, this is just pathetic…"
Franz was being grumbled at by Ritz, who looked down on him from high above with an exasperated expression.
It had been five days since they’d rounded up the drug smugglers. During that time, Franz had been thoroughly drilled by Ritz on how to ride a horse.
At first, Edward, who let Franz ride behind him, had taken on the role. But even for the heroic king skilled in martial arts, being sixty-five years old and spending all day on horseback while instructing a novice like Franz was apparently an unbearable ordeal.
So, after the first three days, he had nonchalantly pushed the task onto Ritz, saying he would look after Anna and Lef, who now had free time, before heading back into town.
And that was why, after a day of rest, Franz was out here on the edge of town alone with Ritz, practicing how to not fall off the back of a horse.
“…”
He had no words in response, just a sullen glare up at the stamina monster that was Ritz. The coronation, being locked in the ship’s hold, the battle with the smugglers… complete with the happening of being attacked by his own allies… and after all that, how was this man still so energetic?
Before starting the horse-riding practice, while Franz had been too sore to even stand up, Ritz had gone for a long ride by himself and just gotten back.
Lately, Franz had become convinced that his body and Ritz’s must be fundamentally different in their very structure.
Ritz seemed to take Franz’s sullen silence as a protest, and he crossed his arms with a light sigh.
“Even a fifteen or sixteen-year-old brat out of military school can ride with more skill than this.”
It was hardly fair to be compared to an aspiring soldier.
“I’m a civilian.”
At the end of the day, he was just the son of a countryside merchant. There was absolutely no reason he should be troubled by an inability to ride a horse.
Still, it was a mystery to Franz how Ritz could handle a horse so skillfully. The man named Ritz was, by any stretch of the imagination, not the refined type to say, ‘Horseback riding is a hobby of mine.’
Perhaps, until he started traveling with Edward and the others, he’d never ridden a horse at all. Maybe he’d struggled terribly at first, just like Franz was now?
Trying to distract from his own incompetence, Franz came up with that thought and looked up at Ritz’s face.
“Could you ride from the beginning?”
When he asked curtly, Ritz tilted his head. Seemingly noticing that Franz had no energy to stand, Ritz nimbly hopped off the horse and tied it to a tree as he answered.
“Yeah, turns out I could.”
“…You’re athletic, then.”
Was it just a matter of natural talent? But what Ritz said after tying up the horse made Franz doubt his own ears.
“Nah, I was just used to riding creatures like that. There were wild elk living in Ciedena Forest, you see.”
“Huh?”
Ciedena Forest and Franz’s hometown of Saradio were quite close, so the wildlife habitats were the same. Franz knew of the elk that lived in that area.
He recalled them being quite large, and on top of that, incredibly violent deer that would leap through forests and over cliffs with ferocious movements…
As he was thinking that, Ritz plopped down next to him with a grunt. For a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties, Ritz sometimes acted like an old man.
But his expression, somehow full of confidence and cheer, was the same as always.
“You see, I look like this, right? When I was in Ciedena, I didn’t have any clan members to hang out with. So, you know, I thought I’d try riding an elk to kill some time.”
“You rode that?”
He couldn’t help but shout, but Ritz just nodded calmly, as if it were nothing.
“Yep. Took a while to tame one, and even longer to actually ride it, but luckily, I had more time than I knew what to do with.”
It was both dumbfounding and… strangely impressive. If he could ride one of those giant elk, a horse must seem like a docile creature in comparison.
“After that, I tried taming a silver-furred wolf, but that was tough. Well, after about five years, I managed to get a few of them to play with me.”
Ritz’s sense of time was far longer than Franz’s. For Franz, five years was a packed period of time, from when he became his master’s apprentice to when he set out on his journey.
But for Ritz, spending five years just to tame a wolf for fun apparently wasn’t a waste at all.
“…It took me five years to be able to use spirits.”
Feeling a vague sense of dissatisfaction, Franz said as much, and Ritz gave a defiant smile.
“Same thing, isn’t it? Using spirits and taming wolves.”
“…”
With nothing to say in return, Franz fell silent. Ritz stood up with a cheerful grin.
“Well, is your break over?”
He hated that smile. Franz was not so oblivious as to miss the hidden message behind it: ‘Alright, I’m gonna work you even harder now, so get ready.’
“How about we rest… a little longer?”
He proposed it as gently as possible, but Ritz, already on his feet, was no longer listening.
“If we dawdle like this, it’ll be night before we know it.”
“…”
This was not an atmosphere that allowed for objections. Besides, if he was a burden on foot, it would be a cruel joke to be a burden even when someone gave him a ride on a horse.
Reluctantly, Franz stood up.
“Nghh…”
The muscles in his thighs were screaming in protest, a throbbing pain. To make matters worse, it extended to his abs. And because he couldn’t match the horse’s swaying rhythm, his rear was covered in bruises.
“Come on, straighten up.”
“<”
Ritz slapped him hard on the back, and he let out a voiceless cry of pain.
The more he struggled to endure the pain, the more his muscles tensed up, making it unbearable. His back muscles… were probably in a bad state too.
At this rate, he’d probably end up with his whole body sore, unable to get out of bed—completely bedridden.
“Bad posture just makes it hurt more, you know.”
Ritz said it with a relaxed smile, but Franz could see a slightly malicious grin playing at the corners of his mouth. Ritz was definitely doing this on purpose.
In fact, Franz was in so much pain he couldn’t even muster the strength to retort that he already knew.
“I’m a beginner, so please go easy on me.”
He grumbled, patting his aching lower back, and Ritz gave a wry smile.
“I think I’m going pretty easy on you, you know? Anna learned from me, and she didn’t end up in a pathetic state with all her muscles aching, did she? She got the hang of it in three days.”
“…Anna isn’t exactly normal, either.”
Those two were monsters of stamina and appetite. When Franz grumbled with a sigh, Ritz shrugged his shoulders in exasperation.
“No point being jealous of Anna, is there? She used to use a donkey for shipping produce from her orchard, so she was used to it. Don’t envy her, Franz, just get used to it.”
“I know.”
“Besides, once you get used to riding behind someone, you’ll have to practice riding by yourself.”
“…I know.”
He was pretty sure Edward had said something to that effect. Two men on one horse was a big burden, so he needed to learn as quickly as possible, but it felt absolutely impossible.
He wanted to tell them to just buy a carriage, but as the one in charge of the wallet this time around, he knew better than anyone that they didn’t have the budget for it.
As he began to stretch with a sigh, Ritz, untying the horse’s reins from the tree, dropped a bombshell.
“And besides, Franz, it’s a problem if a minister of a country can’t ride a horse, you know?”
“<”
“The minister is the top of the military, after all. And more than anything, it just looks bad.”
Franz stared at Ritz, who turned back with a thoroughly amused smile on his face.
“Did you think I didn’t know? Unfortunately for you, I have my own information network.”
“You heard from Greig, didn’t you?”
“Nope, Gerald.”
“…”
Come to think of it, Edward knew too. Just how far was this story going to spread without Franz’s knowledge…?
“They’re apparently not telling Shasta, though. If he found out, you’d get a real earful, you know? ‘How do you propose to uphold the dignity of our nation?!’ something like that.”
Ritz’s imitation of Shasta was frighteningly accurate, and the blood drained from Franz’s face. He had learned over the past few months that getting on Shasta’s bad side would lead to terrible consequences.
For Franz, the person he respected most after his master—and the person he feared most—was actually Shasta. He’d never forget the cold sweat that trickled down his back whenever he processed Ritz’s documents and submitted them to Shasta.
“How much do you know?”
He asked Ritz timidly, and Ritz smiled, patting his shoulder lightly.
“Everyone in the royal family of the Yuresla Kingdom knows.”
So… that meant it was common knowledge among Edward, Gerald, Patricia, and Greig.
“And probably me, Anna, and Lef? Oh, and if Anna knows, you can be sure Joe has heard about it. Come to think of it, Kenny, Altman, and O’Connor don’t seem to know. They’d probably faint if they did. After all, you’re going to be their boss.”
He didn’t want to think about it.
“Well, whatever. You’re going to be my successor’s successor, so don’t do anything too embarrassing, alright?”
“Don’t put pressure on me.”
An image of Ritz’s grand performance flashed in his mind, and he sighed. He never wanted to pull off a stunt like that, nor could he.
In the first place, there was no way he could become a minister. The minister stood above all the commanders of the kingdom’s army.
It was so far beyond his capabilities that Franz felt dizzy.
His specialty was desk work. He couldn’t hold a sword, but he could hold a calculator and a pen. But he wanted no part of being Prime Minister, either. He didn’t want that kind of responsibility.
“Alright, practice resumes.”
“Right.”
He watched with envy as Ritz leaped lightly onto the horse’s back. He thought wistfully that if he had just half of Ritz’s athleticism, this journey would be so much easier.
No, he’d settle for half of Anna’s athleticism and stamina. What he lacked most was stamina.
“What are you spacing out for?”
Ritz prompted him, and he sighed.
“…You’re not going nearly as easy on me as you did with Anna.”
He mumbled it under his breath, but Ritz’s sharp ears caught it, and he frowned.
“You…”
He expected to be told not to complain when he couldn’t even ride a horse properly, but one look at Ritz’s face told him that wasn’t it.
Ritz looked utterly disgusted.
“Do you want me to treat you the same way I treated Anna?”
“Huh?”
He didn’t understand what he meant, and when he asked, Ritz, from atop the horse, slowly asked him another question.
“Do you want me to let you ride in front of me and hold you?”
“That’s…”
The thought was repulsive. It was completely different from just getting a ride behind someone who could handle a horse. Franz was no longer a child. And to be held by Ritz? Absolutely not. He’d rather not.
As Franz hesitated, Ritz’s face grew even more disgusted as he continued, slowly and deliberately.
“Do you want me to pat your head and say, ‘Well done, Franz…’?”
“<”
The words made his skin crawl.
“You… you’re eighteen. Do you really want that? Or… is that some kind of fetish?”
His voice low and his brow deeply furrowed, Ritz stared at him. Franz shook his head frantically.
“N-No, that’s not…”
He was so grossed out he stumbled over his words. Then Ritz delivered the final blow.
“Then how about this, when you do well, do you want to run up to me and cling to me, shouting, ‘Ritz~! I did it~!’?”
“I vehemently refuse!”
It was beyond goosebumps. The thought was so sickening it made him want to vomit. He would rather die than do something like that.
“I’d vehemently refuse, too.”
Ritz stated flatly, then his lips curved into a smile a moment later.
“And besides. If I’m going to teach someone patiently, hand-in-hand, it absolutely has to be a woman, and a shapely one at that. There’s nothing like that rounded softness and the way they cling to you, you know?”
“Ritz…”
The words were so outrageous he had no reply. As soon as Anna wasn't around, Ritz started saying things like this as if it were normal conversation.
He probably kept his mouth shut in front of Anna because he knew if he said anything like that, he’d be bombarded with questions like, ‘What do you mean by that?’
Perhaps noticing Franz’s dumbfounded expression, Ritz let out a soft chuckle. It wasn’t a teasing smile, but the enlightened face of a master.
“You’re a companion, and considering the future, this training is absolutely essential, so I’ll teach you carefully. But listen, if you were a military man your age, I’d kick you into oblivion before teaching you nicely. I’d tell you to cling on even if your body fell apart.”
Franz sighed at Ritz’s firm declaration. It seemed the only path left for him was to endure this special training without getting kicked into oblivion.
In that case, he might as well get a sarcastic jab in.
“You’re awfully nice to Anna, even though she’s not a ‘shapely woman.’”
“Well, of course. She’s going to be an absolute beauty in the future. My eye for these things is sharp, you know?”
Ritz declared it cheerfully.
“So you’re staking your claim now?”
When he said it sarcastically, Ritz’s face turned sad for a brief moment.
Caught off guard by the unexpected expression, Franz watched as Ritz, in the blink of an eye, returned to his usual defiant look.
“Anna’s still a woman. Even if I don’t have any plans for the future, it’s a hell of a lot more fun than dealing with you.”
“…I see.”
He held back the sarcastic remark, ‘You’re a natural-born womanizer, aren’t you.’ If he said that, he had a feeling the upcoming training would become even more grueling.
Still… the expression he’d seen for a fleeting moment bothered him, but it was gone so fast, maybe he’d imagined it.
“Alright, now drill this into your body.”
As he said that, Ritz reached a hand down to Franz from atop the horse. It seemed he had no choice but to get on.
“Please be gentle…”
That was all Franz could manage to say.