Weiss And Leopin (12)

The two of them straddled the freshly completed “foot-pedal cart.”

“All right, then, let’s go save Kanoko! Departure!”

They tried to start pedaling gallantly, but a small figure burst out through a nearby bush.

“Waaaaaaaiiiiiiiitーーーーーーーーーーー!!”

The one who blocked their way as though standing in front of the foot-pedal cart was the young apprentice Saint.

Leopin hurriedly pulled the lever and braked.

“Corone!? It’s dangerous to suddenly jump out like that!”

Corone came trotting over, then jumped like a kitten and landed on Leopin’s lap.

“Corone’s going too!”

“Huh? No, you can’t! We’re going somewhere dangerous now…!”

“Corone’s going too! Going! Going! I don’t want to be left behind anymore! I don’t want to stay home!”

Corone clung tightly to Leopin, buried her face in his chest as though to say she would never let go, and shook her head in refusal.

“This is a problem…”

Leopin scratched his head in complete confusion.

Weiss gently placed his hand on Corone’s head.

“Corone-san, we are going to a place called ‘Mother-Forgetting Mountain’ now.”

Corone raised her face, looked at Weiss, and recoiled with a “Hic!”

“Hey, Weiss, you’re scaring her again…”

Without minding Leopin’s warning, Weiss continued speaking to Corone.

“We can take Corone-san with us, but ‘Mother-Forgetting Mountain’ is far away, and we do not know whether we can return today. If you return late at night, will the Holy Mother not scold you?”

Corone nodded back.

“She’ll spank my bottom…! But Corone wants to help Big Sis Kanoko too…!”

“Yes. That is why I want Kanoko-san to help us too. Please stay behind at the chapel, and if we do not return by tomorrow morning, inform the guards.”

“The guards…?”

“Yes. If you say that Weiss the Sage has been kidnapped, they should understand right away. And this is a very important role, and Corone-san is the only one we can entrust it to. …Please, will you do it?”

Until then, Corone had been afraid of Weiss’s eyes.

But perhaps because she was happy to be treated not like a child, but like someone their own age, her face brightened with a glow.

“O… okay! Corone will do it!”

Corone jumped down from the foot-pedal cart with excited snorts, then waved both hands wildly toward the two of them.

“Corone will stay behind properly! If anything happens, I’ll tell the guards! So please, definitely save Big Sis Kanoko! Promise!”

Leopin and Weiss raised their thumbs together.

“Yeah, promise.” “Yes, of course.”

““Then… we’re off!””

The foot-pedal cart started moving again, now without a trace of hesitation.

It dashed out of the park and headed in a straight line toward their destination, “Mother-Forgetting Mountain”…!

Or at least, it should have,

“Ahhh, I shall be laaaaaaaateーーーーーーーーー!!”

but a gentleman came flying out from the park toilet,

…thuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuud!!

and they sent him flying with all their might.

“Fugyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaーーーーーーーーーーーー!?!?”

The gentleman flew through the air, slammed into the ground like an empty can, and rolled.

His expensive-looking tuxedo and the bandages wrapped all around his face were covered in dust.

“Wh… what are you doing, I say!? Wait… You are Weiss-kun and Leopin-kun!?”

At that strange sentence ending, the two boys looked at each other.

“Wh-what should we do…? This person is that person…”

“Leave this to me.”

Weiss asked back, probing him.

“Um, we do not know you, but… why do you know our names?”

“I know everything, I say! You two are problem students in the class I shall be in charge of! Vice Principal Mothers said that both of you are outrageous delinquents, I say!”

The new teacher trembled as though he had sensed the coming of a school war.

“Running wildly around in some strange vehicle first thing in the morning and running over a teacher…! You are an evil pair beyond the rumors, I say…!”

Suddenly, there was a loud crash!

When they looked, a carriage with its wheels removed had toppled over.

The carriage’s decorations were smashed apart, and the coachman who had been dozing off had jumped awake, wondering what had happened.

At that disaster, the new teacher placed both hands on his cheeks and screamed with a contorted face that looked ready to be crushed.

“Gyeeeh!? My carriage has fallen over, I say! Why does it only have two wheels left, I say!?”

The new teacher turned around with a gasp.

The moment he saw the wheels of the foot-pedal cart, he shook violently as though witnessing a heinous crime.

“N-no way, did you two take the wheels from my carriage…!? To set off riding on stolen wheels…!”

Weiss and Leopin spoke rapidly in perfectly coordinated combination.

“We did not steal them!”

“We only borrowed them for a little while!”

“We will return them when we get back!”

“We are in a hurry, so please excuse us!”

“Ahh!? W-wait, I say!? Today is my very first lesson, I say! There, I will thoroughly…! Gyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeーーーーーーーーーーーー!!”

“Do your best, big brothers! Go, go, Big Brother Leopin! Go, go, Big Brother Weiss!”

Shaking off the screams that clung to them and waving back at the cheers… the two boys dashed gallantly out of the city.