The Legendary Tamer Returns Again

Just after I entered the forest, I spotted a herd of horses in the distance.

There hadn’t been any horses here during the Seven Days of Flame, so these were probably wild horses that had only now returned to the forest.

Taking full advantage of the opportunity, I cranked my Charm stat way up and called the herd of horses over.

Without even needing to go through the trouble of catching them, I successfully used Taming, and I even got the leader—a black horse—to let me ride it.

Before heading back to where my classmates’ carriage was, I made sure not to forget to lower only my Charm stat properly back to normal.

When I came dashing in, leading the herd of horses behind me, everyone erupted into an uproar.

“W-Why are you riding a horse!? Wasn’t that guy supposed to be running!?”

“And that horse doesn’t even have reins on it!? Does that mean he actually caught a wild horse!?”

“As expected of you, Leopin-kun! To think you’d become friends with the horsies!”

“To think riding was child’s play for you too! Splendid, Master!”

“Amazing…! Just as I thought, Leopin-kun really is the legendary Tamer…!”

Bathed in my classmates’ shocked and envious stares, I led the horses forward and boldly took position at the head of the carriage.

The teachers assigned to monitor us were leaning back so far in shock that they looked like they might fall off their horses at any moment.

“Bviiiiiinngh!? Y-you wretch!? Why are you riding a horse!?”

“But this isn’t against the rules, right? The principal said it was okay to catch some wild animal around here and ride it!”

“Guh… ggggh! T-that was just a figure of speech, or something…! More importantly, how did you manage to catch a horse in such a short timeeeeeeeeee!?”

Kakerukun clawed at his head like he were trapped in a nightmare.

Sir-sensei pulled out the whip hanging at his waist and started lashing it around wildly, looking like he’d completely snapped.

“Bviiiiiiin! If it’s come to this, I’ll make the carriage run at full speed! If you don’t have reins, then all I have to do is yank you off easily! I’ll smash you into the ground and drag you around at top speed!!”

It was the sort of thinking and the sort of thing no teacher should ever be saying.

Sir-sensei cracked the reins and spurred the horse forward, then began whipping the carriage horses that were running slowly in a line.

“Hey! Quit dawdling along! Full speed ahead!”

The carriage horses, struck hard by the whip, neighed and bolted forward in a near panic.

Not wanting to be left behind by the moving carriage, I increased my horse’s speed as well.

The carriage was moving quite fast, but there was no way the horses pulling it could outrun the wild thoroughbred I was riding.

The carriage horses were exhausted almost immediately.

Even so, Sir-sensei kept shouting and never stopped whipping the horses.

At last the horses went wild, the carriage shook violently, and the students riding in it were swallowed up in screams.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!?!?”

Unable to just watch any longer, I gave an order to one of the horses I had tamed.

The horse that received the command caught up to the horse the teachers were riding and then leaped in from the side.

Like an obstacle-course racer vaulting over a hurdle, it jumped over the horse and used its flying forelegs to knock aside the tyrannical riders.

…Pakkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!

“B… buhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!?!?”

With a pig-like scream, Sir-sensei went flying.

Kakerukun and the vice principal were sent flying too, as if they’d been dragged right into it.

Unfortunately, where the trio flew off to was a cliff, and they went plummeting straight down.

To make matters worse, Kakerukun was the one who ended up falling on the bottom.

The bottom of the cliff was rocky, and the instant Kakerukun slammed into it, there came a sickening crack!

“Gyain!?”

Along with a scream like a dog getting run over, an effect like scattering stacks of banknotes burst into the air.

“That was probably his money going down instead of his HP. If that much cash is flying everywhere, then he must’ve taken some pretty serious damage…”

And to make things even worse, the vice principal came raining down right on top of Kakerukun.

With a heavy thud!, the large woman landed on him, and a scream like a cat getting run over rang out.

“Fun-gyaaah!?”

And then, as if to deliver the finishing blow, Sir-sensei’s gigantic backside pressed down on Kakerukun’s face.

There was a sickening goshah! crushing sound, and Kakerukun’s neck bent in a very unnatural direction.

For an ordinary person, I thought any one of those would have been an instant-kill class triple hit.

But Kakerukun was perfectly fine.

On that point, he really did live up to being called the Man of Ten Billion.

Thanks to Kakerukun acting as a cushion, the vice principal and Sir-sensei apparently got away without a scratch as well.

That should have been something to be happy about, and yet Kakerukun was bawling his eyes out.

“U-uwahhhhhhhhn! T-that just cost me two hundred million! I spewed out two hundred million! W-what are you going to do about this, Sir-sensei!? I was supposed to win this game for sure, but then you went and did something unnecessary! Unnecessary!”

“B-Bviiiiiin!? Are you trying to blame Sir for this!? This happened because the principal added that rule saying wild animals were allowed to be ridden!”

Without sparing even a thought for each other’s wellbeing, the teachers immediately started turning on one another.

Meanwhile, the carriages up on the cliff kept moving forward at their original slow pace as though nothing had happened.

There was no coachman on the carriage, but apparently the destination had already been taught to the horses, because they kept going without stopping.

I thought about untying the rope at my waist and tossing it down to the teachers below the cliff, but I decided not to, because I felt like they’d probably make some ridiculous claim that removing the rope meant I lost.

Instead, I called down to the three of them.

“Teacheeeers! The horse won’t stop, so I’m heading on ahead too! Please do your best and crawl your way back up on your own! I’ll be waiting at the lake!”

Without waiting for a reply from the teachers, I quickly urged my horse onward.

“W-wait! Leopin-kun! Right, let’s play a new game! It’s the Kakerukun Rescue Game! If you save me, I’ll give you a special bonus of 500 Ender! Okay!? Please!?”

“B-Bviiin!? W-wait! Leaving your superior officer behind would get you court-martialed on a battlefield! Wait, you little brattttttt!!”

Angry shouts chased after me from behind, but I didn’t care anymore.

From there on, the road to the lake was truly pleasant and comfortable, all the more so because it was a sunny day.

Under the sunlight filtering through the trees, I was positively sparkling.