In the eyes of lowly nobles like them, Arielle looked like an innocent girl. They wondered whether a woman like that could accompany a great king like King Ronan?
Even though they had doubts, when Ronan walked with his horse while holding his wife’s horse by the reins, they still bowed respectfully, giving them a way. Arielle greeted everyone that she passed in a friendly manner. Even though she had sincerely shown her kindness, so of those people clearly showed their dislike towards her, and she could feel it.
Arielle grew up in an environnt that always looked at her with a sharp gaze, a look of disdain, as well as a look of judgnt. So she was quite sensitive about her surroundings even though not everyone there looked at her like that.
Arielle tried to stay calm and still greeted anyone who returned her greeting. She couldn’t control soone’s heart. If they had sothing they didn’t like about her, wouldn’t that be their own business? Arielle tried to think positively and see on the bright side.
Ronan then led Arielle to leave the naval base and walk down a path into the forest. The forest was neither as dark nor as dense as the forest on Birwick Mountain. The gap from one tree to another was quite far. There were also footpaths that the people at the naval base used to hunt small animals in the forest.
Ronan told Arielle to straighten up her back even more. He then held the girl’s stomach as well as her back.
"Keep this position. It’s a safe position, so you won’t hurt your spine. The saddle is comfortable and safe, so you don’t have to worry about the movent of the horse."
"I understand."
Ronan tied his own horse first. He would lead Arielle around with him, following her from the side at a slow pace so he could catch up with her by walking.
"You did well," Ronan praised when Arielle managed to maintain her position.
He touched Arielle’s shoulder and felt how tense his wife was. Ronan almost laughed when he didn’t rember that he was chasing soone who had never ridden a horse.
"Don’t be too stiff."
"Um... I’m a little scared."
"Do not be afraid. Look, my hand is holding the reins. I can imdiately help you if sothing happens," said Ronan, assuring his wife that everything would be fine.
Arielle took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, trying to relax her body as Ronan had instructed.
"Yes, do it like that.. Relax and feel every movent of the horse so you can keep up with it. It’s like how you ride every night."
"Ronan!" Arielle quickly reprimanded him for uttering indecent comnts.
"Ahahaha, but that’s true, right? You can do well in bed."
"Sssstt!! Ronan, what if soone hears? It’s impolite to talk about it in a public place like this," answered Arielle with her face flushed red from embarrassnt.
"You don’t need to worry. This place is free from citizens. Even though this forest is outside the high walls of the naval base, it is not allowed for the public because the marine troops use it as a training ground. Now, it is empty because I have asked them to leave."
"Still... it’s a bit embarrassing to talk about sothing like that..."
Ronan just smiled. He managed to make Arielle more relaxed now. The girl responded well to his teasing. Then, they circled the forest slowly and managed to return to the place where Ronan had tied his horse.
"Alright, we will now ride at a higher speed."
Ronan got on his horse and positioned his horse beside Arielle. He taught the girl how to speed up and slow down the horse by giving it a signal through body contact. Then, Arielle moved her right leg to tug at the horse’s side to make it go faster, and just like Ronan had said, the horse was walking faster.
Ronan continued to match Arielle’s unstable speed, and they went back to the forest for the second ti.
***
Practicing horse riding turned out to be quite tiring than Arielle had ever thought. Seeing Aie riding her horse so easily made Arielle think it was easy and not tiring. However, it turned out she was totally wrong.
Not long after, they arrived near a steep cliff directly facing the sea.
After practicing for more than three hours by circling the forest almost ten tis, Arielle then asked Ronan to rest for a while. Ronan got down from his horse and helped his wife down.
Arielle held the handle of the saddle then put her body weight on her left leg so that her right leg could go down first. Ronan helped Arielle by holding his wife’s waist so she didn’t feel too heavy on holding her own body weight.
The two of them left their horses untied, and Ronan used his coat for Arielle to sit on the snow while looking at the vast sea.
"Beautiful, isn’t it?" asked Ronan who caught up to sit on his wife’s side.
Arielle nodded in confirmation. She was really amazed by how wide the sea in front of her was.
"Ronan, I have sothing to say."
"What is it?"
"I had a strange feeling last night. It feels like every ti I look at the sea... sothing there is calling , but I don’t know. I am not sure either. Besides, I didn’t have any connection with the sea even once before, so I thought it was really strange."
Ronan couldn’t give any comnt on that. There was no reason for Arielle to have anything outside of this continent. The girl’s mother was a liberal slave in Nieverdell and happened to catch the king’s eye. To the best of Ronan’s knowledge, King Hugo had absolutely no predecessors from outside of this continent either.
"That’s probably just a hunch, considering it’s your first ti seeing the sea, right?"
Arielle nodded in agreent.
Reviews
All reviews (0)