A Failed Knight Who Went to the Academy To Get Married

034 A Walk for the Dog

“Be careful, he sometimes eats people.”

“What?! He eats people?!”

The priest laughed heartily and said,

“As long as you know Maria’s ‘magic words,’ there should be no problem.”

“Ah, yes…”

“Maria must have told you, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

“To think you’d reveal that word to her, one you haven’t even taught to the sisters, you must have really caught her fancy.”

“Ha ha ha…”

“Well, I have pressing matters to attend to, so I’ll take my leave.”

The priestess turned away, leaving Train behind,

And Train, left alone, sighed as he looked at the dog barking furiously at him.

“What now?”

Escaping from here wouldn’t be too difficult.

But even if I run, there’s nowhere to go.

If this is truly the Yumano Holy Kingdom, walking back is out of the question.

Train murmured as he took out a soul stone from his pocket.

“I need to return within 24 hours.”

Then, Hwaran spoke to Train.

‘Couldn’t you somehow use a high-speed movement spell?’

“Oh! That’s a brilliant idea. I guess I would need about a hundred bottles of magic potion?”

‘You could try to muster it up with a fighting spirit.’

“Are you kidding me?”

At that moment, a blue bird flew from afar and perched on Train’s shoulder.

Then it chirped softly in Cat’s voice.

“Hey, master. You can use the messenger bird spell now, right? If you’re alive, respond immediately.”

And then it hit him.

He had been so out of it that he had forgotten,

but now Train could also contact Cat and Muscle.

However, due to the massive amount of magic he had used earlier, he could only do it about five times.

Moreover, since he was still inexperienced, the success rate was only about 30%.

“Damn, if I fail even once, I might as well be dead.”

…In the end, Train managed to focus with a miraculous concentration and succeeded on his first try.

He summarized his current situation briefly and sent the bird off, and not long after, a reply came back.

“We’re on our way there too, so get ready to join us en route.”

The instruction was simple.

As he feeds Pochi, they become friends.

Once he begins to trust Train, he escapes on his back.

And then they join up in a town called Paulo.

By the way, the magic word to tame Pochi is ‘our adorable little Pochi’.

…There are so many things I want to question,

but there’s one thing I must ask Cat.

“How on earth do you know that magic word?!”

But I couldn’t waste magic power needlessly, so I didn’t contact her.

Well, seeing that they’re coming, it seems they’re safe for now.

Maria must have been taken hostage or decided to cooperate.

Resigned, Train found the feed sack laid out in the yard.

He then cautiously approached the huge bowl of food placed before Pochi.

“Now, our adorable little Pochi, shall we eat?”

Hearing those words, the dog that had been barking ferociously instantly quieted down.

Train sighed with relief and was about to pour the feed into the bowl when,

Suddenly, Pochi barked again and lunged at Train.

“Sa, save me! I don’t taste good!”

Fortunately, he wasn’t eaten.

It was just that Pochi’s massive tongue had slobbered all over him.

***

Meanwhile, Maria was holding the reins of the pterosaur, humming a tune.

“Hmm~ Hmm~ Indeed, I’m in a good mood~”

Behind her were Cat, Yuril, Shia, and Seiment, seated in that order.

Prince Shiran’s body was tied up with ropes by Cat, like a backpack on her back.

Cat glared at Maria’s back and muttered.

“That guy’s totally unreasonable, isn’t he?”

Earlier, there had been a brief squabble over who would drive the pterosaur between Cat and Maria,

but it ended up being settled by rock-paper-scissors.

Taming a pterosaur wasn’t easy, so it was thought she’d give up soon…

“Right, good boy! Fly high with your magnificent wings!”

He stroked the neck of the pterosaur with the ease of a veteran.

Cat, resigned, turned back and whispered to Yuril.

“Can we really trust that guy?”

“We don’t have another choice. We don’t even know the way.”

“But to trust an enemy and head into enemy territory, that’s madness.”

Then Sia interjected from behind.

“We’ve requested support from Father, so it should work out somehow.”

Earlier, Sia had asked Colonel Tanjet to deliver a letter to the palace.

Secured so that only King Siandar could read it,

She briefly explained the current situation.

…Along with a hint that Colonel Tanjet might be a spy from the Yumano Holy State.

Nevertheless, Cat, still full of complaints, grumbled to Yuril.

“And there’s another big problem now.”

“What is it?”

“That guy Maria, he’s in a hurry to go back to feed Pochi, isn’t he?”

“I did say that, didn’t I?”

“But wasn’t it Train who was supposed to feed the pooch?”

“Ah…”

“Then it wouldn’t be strange if that Maria brat betrayed us at any moment, right?”

At that, Maria snapped from the front.

“I am not such a despicable person!”

“So you expect us to trust you in this situation?”

“The mission is already reported as a failure, so it’s break time now!”

“If you’re going to make excuses, at least make them convincing!”

“If I wanted to, I could wipe out everyone here right now, you know?”

“Then go ahead and try!”

That’s when Seiment interjected from behind.

“Cat! Tack! Calm down the excitement!”

“Tack?…”

Cat let out a big sigh and then asked Maria.

“What will you do after joining Train?”

“I’m going home with Pochi, and you all will go home with Prince Shiran. That’s the end of it, right?”

“If I sense even a hint of betrayal, I’ll tell Train to kill your Pochi.”

“If you do something like that, I’ll kill all of you!”

“Go ahead and try!”

The childish and noisy quarrel between the two continued for a while.

***

Meanwhile, it was just as noisy on Train’s side.

They had originally planned to leave the village quietly on Pochi, but,

“Bark bark bark bark bark!”

“Argh! Hold on, Pochi, calm down!”

“Bark bark bark!”

Whatever was so exciting, Pochi was wagging its tail wildly and running in all directions.

With its massive body bouncing around, it was bound to catch the eye whether one liked it or not.

Eventually, the sight of Train riding on Pochi became known to the entire village, and

Finally, the priest from earlier came running in a hurry and stopped Train.

“Excuse me! The villagers are scared, please calm them down!”

“Yes! I’m sorry!”

Train eventually gently stroked Pochi’s head as much as possible while overusing the magic words.

“Good boy, our adorable little Pochi? Now, since you’re adorable, you need to calm down, okay?”

Only then did Pochi stop in his tracks,

Still panting as if ready to run at any moment, wildly wagging his tail.

As Train sighed, the priest said with a kind smile,

“It seems you’ve already tamed Pochi.”

“Where do you see that?”

“Pochi thinks of everyone but Sister Maria as an enemy.”

“Is that so…”

“By the way, how did you come to know Sister Maria?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Train paused for a moment before answering.

“She just popped up out of nowhere and kidnapped me.”

“Ha ha ha. That’s so like her.”

The priestess laughed once, then soon her expression turned a bit sad as she spoke.

“If you get the chance, I hope you’ll become friends with her.”

“Huh? Oh, yes.”

“She may be carrying out somewhat aggressive tasks due to orders from above, but at her core, she’s a good girl.”

“Ha ha ha.”

“Even if you and Mr. Train are enemies now, perhaps one day you can be friends?”

…At those words, Train’s expression instantly hardened.

“How did you know?”

“The sisters of high standing possess relics that can see through perception inhibition.”

“……”

“So please, be careful not to get caught.”

Train casually reached out his hand towards Hwaran and asked,

“Do you intend to do me no harm?”

To which the priestess turned around defenselessly and said,

“We, the followers of Yumano, are also human. Not everyone agrees with the genocide of other species.”

With those words, the priest left his seat.

Train glared at the priest’s back for a while,

then, belatedly relaxing a bit, he patted Pochi’s head.

“It seems this country has its own set of complicated issues.”

“Woof woof woof!”

“Then we should hurry on- Wait, hold on! Don’t get too carried away!”

…Pochi did romp around wildly, but eventually headed in the direction Train wanted.

Leaving the village behind, and the main roads.

Leaping over cliffs, jumping over rivers.

Crossing forests, fields, monsters, and bandits.

Finally, they dashed down a steep downhill at full speed.

By half a day, they had managed to cover at least a few hundred kilometers,

and Train was half-dead.

“You… really… when do you ever get tired…”

“Bark bark bark!”

“I’m really sorry, but let’s take a short break.”

Finally arriving at the swamp, Train tumbled off Pochi’s back.

It wasn’t exactly a great place to rest and time was of the essence, but…

It was truly too much.

Continuing like this, it felt like his waist would break.

“At least my back isn’t hurting, which is a relief.”

Even amidst this, Pochi was gleefully chasing after the insects around them.

Train watched Pochi blankly for a moment,

then soon looked up at the already pitch-black night sky and muttered,

“But where in the world are we?”

He had run straight in the direction the messenger bird had come from, following Cat’s advice,

but he couldn’t even discern which country this was.

“There were no checkpoints, so it must still be the Yumano Holy Kingdom, I guess.”

It was then.

From somewhere, an unfamiliar voice was heard.

“Please save me…”

At that voice, Train sprang up.

“What, what’s going on?”

“Please, save me…”

Looking towards the direction of the voice,

a battered woman lay collapsed on the floor.

“Are you okay?!”

Train tried to rush to the woman.

But for some reason, Pochi suddenly grabbed Train’s sleeve.

“Ouch! What’s the matter all of a sudden?”

Pochi growled towards the woman, not letting go of Train’s hand.

Only then did Train sense something was off.

“Excuse me, who are you?”

“Save me, please…”

“Are you human?”

“Please save me… save me…”

The woman repeated the same plea as she slowly approached Train.

Realizing the woman’s true nature, Train recoiled in horror and reached for Hwaran.

“What in the world is that!”

To which Hwaran replied,

‘It’s a monster.’

“You can see that!”

A monster resembling a giant maw.

Bait shaped like a human woman attached to its head.

Had Pochi not intervened, Train might have been devoured.

“Damn it, why now of all times…”

It wasn’t just one monster.

Looking closely, an enormous number of all kinds of monsters were closing in.

‘It seems the Soul Stone is attracting the monsters nearby.’

“Haha, it’s mountains beyond mountains.”

‘I recommend you throw away the Soul Stone and run.’

“Are you crazy?”

Traine leaped onto the back of Pochi.

“Let’s escape!”

Pochi barked loudly and tried to run with all his might.

But soon, his feet got stuck in the swamp, and he tumbled over.